Little Mushroom

"Didn\'t you sleep last night?" The colonel\'s voice was cold enough to freeze.

An Zhe was still dazed. He rubbed his eyes and sobered himself before getting out of the car. As a result, he was so sleepy that he didn\'t stand firmly and he fell forward toward Lu Feng. A pair of powerful arms held him. An Zhe finally stood firmly and didn\'t fall, but he became really awake.

The interior of the Lighthouse was as quiet and busy as ever. As they walked down the corridor on the first floor, four soldiers carrying two corpses covered in white cloth passed by. Seraing followed them with a slightly pale face. Once he saw Lu Feng, he briefly explained, "There was an experimental accident and they were exposed."

Lu Feng slightly nodded and took An Zhe to the elevator to go to the 10th floor.

Dr Ji stood in the middle of the 10th floor\'s corridor. "You came."

Lu Feng asked, "What\'s the matter?"

"I want to borrow your little cutie for something." The doctor turned to An Zhe. "Come with me."

An Zhe didn\'t know how he had become Lu Feng\'s but he followed. The doctor took him to the familiar laboratory where Sinan was locked up. Through the transparent glass wall, An Zhe could see Sinan.

However, it wasn\'t Sinan. An Zhe pressed himself to the glass wall. Inside was a black insect.

It was a bit bigger than Sinan\'s original size and was half the size of an adult. There were two black compound eyes on top of the skull, a dark silver colour flowing in them. Between the two compound eyes stretched out a pair of antennae while long translucent wings dragged behind it. Its abdomen was slender and covered with dark grey hair. The same hair also covered the limbs.

It was like a bee.

At this moment, it was flying around this transparent prison, its body constantly hitting the glass wall. It seemed to want to escape but its chest, abdomen and limbs were constantly shaking like it was bearing great pain.

"Its condition is abnormal. The brain waves are very different from the previous records in the database. I suspect that it still retains some human consciousness and this is fighting against the instincts of the heterogeneous species. I can\'t communicate with it effectively so I would like to invite you to try."

In this way, An Zhe stood in front of the communicator.

"Sinan," he called out. Sinan\'s wings fluttered but he seemed to hear nothing and continued flying around the space. However, An Zhe was sure there was a moment when the eyes glanced at him.

"Sinan," he asked. "Do you remember Lily?"

The rustling sound briefly stopped and moments later, the grey bee hit the glass wall even more violently. He gazed at Sinan and gently wondered, "Do you have anything to say to her."

Sinan\'s wings trembled wildly but he had lost his human voice organs. He could only present his thoughts to the doctor through irregular troughs and crests on his brain waves.

Dr Ji said, "The brain waves have changed. He understands. Who is Lily?"

An Zhe\'s eyes were slightly dazed. His conversation with Lily was a secret that no one knew but now there was other way.

An hour later, the door of the lab opened. An Zhe turned around. The first thing that caught his eye was a white dress.

"Mrs Lu?" Dr Ji\'s voice was slightly surprised. "Why are you here?"

An Zhe raised his head and saw a woman with the gentle posture of a lady at the door. She had long black hair, loosely twisted up behind her head. She wore a light blue mask and only a pair of gentle black eyes could be seen. Her body was slightly plump and this made her look kinder. The girl she was holding with her right hand was Lily. There were also two Eden staff members to the left and right.

"The distortion rate in the Garden of Eden has increased in the past three months. I have to submit a report to the Lighthouse and ask them to make a final decision. I also received the Lighthouse\'s application for Lily to assist in a certain job and came here."

Dr Ji said, "I troubled you."

"This is an unusual outing." Mrs Lu handed Lily over to Dr Ji. "Please treat her kindly."

"Please rest assured."

The transfer was over and Mrs Lu slowly turned her head. On the other side of the room was Lu Feng. He had been watching her since the laboratory door was opened.

"You\'re here too," she stated.

Lu Feng\'s eyes slightly drooped as he said, "Mother."

"It seems to be an important study." Mrs Lu looked at him.

At this moment, one was at the door to the room and the other was in the corner of the room. They were diagonal to each other as their eyes met. Mrs Lu looked gentle while Lu Feng\'s eyes were calm.

An Zhe witnessed this scene and his intuition told him that there were unknown undercurrents in this gaze, but he couldn\'t understand.

10 seconds later, Mrs Lu opened her mouth. "I should go."

The two staff members with her turned around and they protected her. The footsteps went away and Dr Ji closed the door.

"This year is the 35th year that Mrs Lu has worked for the Garden of Eden." His eyes seemed to be stunned. "She is really a great woman. Why didn\'t you say a few more words to her?"

Lu Feng stared at the closed silver door. "We haven\'t seen each other in a long time."

"That is why you should speak to her even more. Did your work in the Trial Court make you cold-blooded and ruthless?" Dr Ji wondered. "Remember when I helped you mess up the monitoring on the 20th floor when you were a child so you can run to see her. The sugar that Mrs Lu gave me was delicious."

"Dr Ji, speaking less isn\'t bad for you."

Dr Ji shrugged. Three seconds later, he suddenly said, "I did it seamlessly at the time. Do you think that the monitoring has been repaired after so many years?"

Lu Feng glanced at Lily and then An Zhe. "It doesn\'t seem to be."

Lily was already pressed against the glass wall. Her eyes were staring at the bee-shaped heterogenous species behind the glass. There was the joy of seeing something new in her always apathetic eyes. "Is this a bee?"

The grey bee leaned against the glass wall. In contrast to her, its movements finally became briefly stationary yet a moment later, it convulsed painfully.

"It looks to be in pain." Lily glanced at An Zhe, apparently recognizing him. "Did you want me to come and see the bee?"

An Zhe\'s voice was low. "It is Sinan."

Lily was stunned. Just when An Zhe thought she was going to show sadness, she suddenly laughed.

"Sinan." She crossed to the glass wall and told the grey bee, "You\'re going to fly."

She had no fear in her eyes. She had never seen a monster kill or warned to stay away from heterogeneous species. A bee was no different from a human in the eyes of the child. She wasn\'t even surprised that Sinan had become a bee. Presumably it was because in the eyes of a child, the world was always so unpredictable.

"It is messy again." Dr Ji watched the instrument. "Just three seconds ago, its brain waves were very close to human."

Dr Ji patted Lily on the shoulder. "Lily, help us with a request."

"What is it?\'

"Sinan\'s consciousness is fighting the bee\'s consciousness. Perhaps you can help him wake up. Can you keep talking to him?"

"Yes," Lily nodded. "Can you turn me into a bee?"

"If you also become a bee then Eden will shoot me. It would be better if you could communicate with him. We need to know how he was infected. The source of the infection must be in Eden but nothing has been found so far. Only by finding it as soon as possible can we ensure the safety of the main city."

"Okay." Lily put her hand on the glass wall. "Will you pay me?"

Dr Ji asked, "What do you want?"

"I don\'t want to be on the 20th floor." Lily placed her cheek against the glass.

"I\'m sorry, that is beyond my ability."

"Well, I guessed." Lily looked back at the grey bee. "I\'ll try."

She did work hard all afternoon but Sinan\'s condition was either good or bad. He only gave normal feedback a few times but according to Dr Ji, this situation was much better than before. He decided to continue to invite Lily tomorrow.

The doctor was busy with other research tasks and Lily didn\'t like to communicate with other people so in the next few days, An Zhe would also accompany Lily and Sinan at the Lighthouse.

At seven in the evening, Lily\'s physical strength and energy as a child had run out and she was sent back to Eden. An Zhe could also get off work. He had fallen asleep in the car at noon and was almost killed by Lu Feng. This time, he learned his lesson and spent the whole journey awake.

Similarly, he faced the door to his place in an awake manner. It was a closed door.

One second, two seconds, three seconds.

Then Lu Feng\'s amused voice rang out behind him. "Why aren\'t you going in?"

An Zhe took a deep breath. Going into the pipe last night was one of the two wrong decisions he had ever made in his life. The other was to go to the windy wilderness on the night of February 14th.

He regretted it.

The colonel naturally understood his predicament and told him, " The main city\'s office takes three days to replace an ID card. You have to find a place to stay until then."

With then, he calmly swiped the card at his door and walked in.

On the other side of the door, An Zhe stared at him, frowning slightly while biting his lower lip gently. It seemed like he was thinking about something.

Lu Feng didn\'t speak and just watched him. Time went by quietly.

Then An Zhe turned and pressed the elevator button. "Then I\'ll go find Seraing."