Chapter 62

Before Lin Tantan and the others found that hole, more precisely, before nightfall, Ye Xiao had already combed the spot where they'd run into the mutated plant rhizome earlier that afternoon. Earth-ability users had dug the place through and through, but found nothing except a few fine roots.
There wasn't even a tunnel where such a thick rhizome should have bored through.
It was as if the thing had appeared out of nowhere and vanished the same way.
Ye Xiao squatted in a huge pit five or six meters deep, studying it for a long time. Then he pinched up some soil: most of it was compact, but this spot was loose and damp, the granules finer.
The difference was subtle, easy to miss unless you looked closely.
There was also a somewhat sticky substance in the soil; he couldn't identify it.
Ye Xiao frowned and kept digging along that peculiar seam, using his ability, he tunneled several meters and opened up a passage.
Aboveground, Zhang, who had been ordered by Lu Jianping to accompany Ye Xiao, gaped. "Captain Ye, this is..."
"This is the trail it left. After moving, it refilled the tunnel with fresh soil."
Those above looked unsettled. "It can... it can hide its tracks?"
"Yeah. It seems to be a rather clever little creature."
"Little... little creature?" The men above were speechless, this was terrifying, wasn't it?
Ye Xiao said, "Get me a few earth ability users here."
"Right away!"
They worked until dark. Ye Xiao and several earth-ability users dug out a long, thick tunnel stretching dozens of meters. It was painstaking work, one wrong move and they'd lose the correct bearing, but the earth users' innate sensitivity to soil composition helped Ye Xiao a great deal.
But the two tunnels they unearthed didn't head toward the mountain; they went in the opposite direction.
Ye Xiao stared in that direction for a long time, his frown growing deeper and deeper.
When Lu Jianping heard there had been a discovery, he hurried over and asked Ye Xiao down in the pit, "Found anything?"
Ye Xiao brushed the mud from his hands, sprang up lightly and vaulted to the surface with a few quick pushes. "Not yet," he said. "But based on what we've found so far, it doesn't look good. I originally thought it was some kind of plant rhizome, that by examining the plants above ground we could pinpoint it."
Lu Jianping said, "We tried that. I had everyone within a kilometer uproot every plant, nothing abnormal. We even searched the mountain and found nothing." He rubbed his head; this strange thing that had appeared out of nowhere gave him a major headache. He suspected the danger might be coming from the mountain, and was torn over whether to evacuate the foot of the hill.
But it wasn't just his family to move, it would mean relocating all the key departments. That would be an enormous undertaking, and with so many people, where would they all go? The base wasn't that big.
Ye Xiao listened and said, "There are two possibilities. One: it's not a plant at all but an underground reptile that just looks like a plant rhizome."
Lu Jianping's brows tightened; the others around him looked grim. An underground reptile? That sounded even worse.
Someone's radio went off. They answered, listened a moment, then hurriedly told Lu Jianping: "Chief, the academy's results are in. The dissection concluded it's a plant, typical plant cell structures."
"What kind of plant?" Lu Jianping asked.
"Uh, can't say for sure yet. They say its traits are odd and they're running chromosomal mapping comparisons."
Lu Jianping cursed inwardly at the incompetent lot. The two pieces Lin Tantan had hacked off were snatched by the academy researchers at once, and the roots unearthed later were taken too. With so much material, they still spent hours before telling him, "Yes, it's a plant." What kind? No clue.
Its characteristics? Its weaknesses? They knew nothing!
How many resources had been drained day after day, and for what? A bunch of good-for-nothings!
Lu Jianping thought about cutting the academy's funding in half. Ye Xiao continued, "If it's definitely a plant, then there's the second possibility: it has no above-ground parts, lives entirely underground, and can move freely, very likely unconfined."
Lu Jianping went pale. After all this, it still came down to "moves freely", a phrase that was hard to stomach.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Can't be completely certain. There hasn't been a second incident of it attacking people, right?"
"No. This afternoon was the first case. It had never shown up before, and there've been no signs since."
If not for the car crushed into a twisted lump of scrap, they'd almost be ready to believe the thing had never appeared at all.
Did they have to wait until it struck again before they could respond? The problem was, the base was so vast, who knew where it might be hiding or when it would strike next?
Suddenly Lu Jianping said, "Ye Xiao, could it be that your people particularly attract that thing?" The road was wide and vehicles came and went all the time, no accidents usually, yet something always happened when their vehicle passed.
Ye Xiao's expression didn't change, but his eyes flickered ever so slightly.
"In any case, we can't draw conclusions for now. Step up the defenses."
Lu Jianping sighed. "We have no choice."
Ye Xiao then brought up the matter of the four hundred tons of grain.
Four hundred tons wasn't an enormous amount, but when Lu Jianping heard he intended to donate it to the base, his face softened and he patted Ye Xiao on the shoulder. "That's considerate," he said.
"What if this batch of grain is distributed, in the base's name, to flu patients?" Ye Xiao suggested. Lu Jianping glanced at him; he thought Ye Xiao was surprisingly solicitous of the flu patients. Still, he'd heard from many recovered patients that those who survived the flu had indeed become physically stronger, and a few had developed special abilities.
The academy couldn't produce a clear theory yet, but most agreed: the rain had contained some energy that accelerated species evolution. Zombies, animals, and plants alike had evolved rapidly after being soaked.
Like the ravenous horde of zombies that had besieged the base for weeks, like the wild grass that sprouted like it had been dosed with hormones, and like that unknown crawling thing underground.
Humans seemed insensitive to the energy; before any benefits appeared, they typically suffered a severe illness.
With some species gaining and humans losing, the future looked grim.
The more Lu Jianping thought about it, the worse he felt, which made him all the more eager for the flu patients to recover, as if he'd like them to snap back to health one by one and turn into superhumans.
Four hundred tons wouldn't be enough if handed out to other groups, but given to the patients, it at least made a spectacle, and done in the base's name, it would consolidate his reputation as chief. He nodded without hesitation; Ye Xiao also seemed more agreeable to him now.
Ye Xiao then told him about his plan to recruit some people. If he was going to make moves on someone else's turf, he ought to give them a heads-up.
Lu Jianping raised an eyebrow. "You're planning to stay here?"
Ye Xiao: "I'm not leaving for now. Li Qun and I may have had some friction; building manpower is also for my own protection."
Lu Jianping was, of course, aware of the afternoon clash between Li Qun's men and Ye Xiao. He knew exactly how that grain had been obtained. He welcomed the rift between Ye and Li's faction, so he gladly agreed to let Ye Xiao build up his own force.
"Come to think of it, there's a plot of land to the east, it's just lying fallow. If you want it, take it," Lu Jianping said suddenly.
"The one by the parking area?"
"That's the one."
Ye Xiao remembered that plot, low-lying, with poor drainage, not a good place, but it was large. If he wanted to build his own people, he first needed territory, and right now carving out a parcel inside the Ning City base wasn't easy.
That land could be made useful with some work, and it wasn't far from the villa district.
He offered a quick thanks, then went to the parking lot to hand over the grain. Such a small task Lu Jianping wouldn't handle personally, but to show respect for Ye Xiao he had a capable man take a squad to oversee it.
The vehicles pulled away, and Lu Jianping said, "Go back. Don't expect a good night's sleep until we find that thing."
One of his subordinates asked, "Commander, why agree to let Ye Xiao build his power? It's better to keep someone like him under our control."
Lu Jianping said coolly, "I'd like to, but do you think he'd be willing to be my blade?"
The subordinate fell silent.
Lu Jianping went on, "After a few meetings, this young man actually suits me. He's stubborn, but at least he's low-maintenance, won't cause trouble and can be of some use. Rather than letting him walk away, better to let him grow. Then who'll be anxious first, me or Li Qun?" He scoffed. "That idiot, refused to admit his short-sightedness, made a scene over a few hundred tons of grain to embarrass Ye Xiao. Has the rain washed his brains out?"
Lu Jianping looked north. "That Min Yande is a strange one too. I hear in the capital he's been recruiting, buying horses, running about, tossing supplies villa by villa to buy powerful ability-users, yet he pushes out a real weapon. What was he thinking? Ye Xiao is clearly his direct subordinate, a natural ally."
The subordinate thought for a moment. "Who could've known Ye Xiao's ability was so strong."
Lu Jianping thought to himself, indeed, who'd expect a wind-type ability-user to be so powerful? Just hearing about the parking lot incident was shocking.
"Find a chance to pit you against him."
The subordinate was speechless for a moment.
"What, no confidence?" Lu Jianping laughed, then dropped the subject.
At the same time, the other military bigwig at the base, Li Qun, received the news. His face went stone-cold: "Ye Xiao gave those supplies to Lu Jianping!"
Li Qun and Lu Jianping were about the same age. The latter had a square, severe face; Li Qun was a handsome middle-aged man with a scholarly air, but with his face like this the elegance vanished, leaving only gloom.
Someone nearby tried to calm him, "It's only a few hundred tons of grain."
"Is this about a few hundred tons of grain?" Li Qun snapped. This was about attitude, about stance, about face! They took his men's supplies and handed them to his rival! They even beat his men in public over it!
"I don't care about the stuff itself, but this is an insult to me!"
Others thought: if you don't care about it, why touch it? If he hadn't reacted and had let you take the supplies he'd brought all the way from Congyang City, that would have been the real humiliation. If you don't want to be humiliated, you have to humiliate them back.
Li Qun felt a malicious fire he couldn't vent; he wanted to teach Ye Xiao a lesson, but thinking about Ye Xiao's ability made it tricky. Unless he could kill him outright, it would be an endless headache.
A loyal toady quickly said, "Commander, don't be angry. Ye Xiao will leave sooner or later, why pay him any mind? We're not without backing in the capital. Send a telegram and he'll have trouble from now on."
Li Qun agreed. His real enemy was Lu Jianping; his primary task was to seize control of the base and its influence. Why squabble with a minor figure? He said coldly, "He'd better leave soon, or I'll make him regret it."
He put the matter aside and went back to plotting with his advisers how to unseat Lu Jianping. But within minutes another message arrived, from Li Qun's mole inside Lu Jianping's circle. Ye Xiao wasn't planning to return to the capital; he intended to expand his own power, and Lu Jianping was wholeheartedly backing him. The two were in high spirits during their talks.
Li Qun: "……"
The others all stared at Li Qun as if waiting for him to say how he'd make them pay. Li Qun felt his face sting.
By the time Ye Xiao finished everything and returned to the villa it was late. He glanced at his modified walkie-talkie, no calls, no messages. Bai Cheng hadn't even asked how things went; nor did anyone else show any sign of concern.
Don't they worry about him at all?
After all, he had gone looking for mutated plants, he could have run into danger at any moment.
The car drove into the courtyard. Ye Xiao took one last glance at the walkie; the screen was still blank.
Fine, he accepted it. He got out, straightened his clothes, preparing to receive her cheerful "You're back!"
But there was no one. The living room was empty; the lights were on, and faint voices drifted in from outside.
Ye Xiao raised an eyebrow and went back into the yard. The voices were clearer now, coming from outside the wall, and the place sounded lively.
"Did you find it? Did you find it?"
"Oh no, it ran away again!"
"Maybe send a mutated rat in to check? Ugh, they're too big. A hamster, that hamster should squeeze through."
"Squeak squeak squeak…"
Ye Xiao traced the sounds, grabbed the two-meter-high wall, and easily vaulted over. He saw a ring of heads and people holding all sorts of tools. Near the base of the wall the ground had been dug into pit after pit, it looked like a scene for disposing of bodies.
"Whoa!" Mei Baisheng cried. "Boss, can you not scare people like that?"
Ye Xiao held up a hand to shield the flashlight. "What are you all doing?"
The group exchanged looks, oops, they'd forgotten to tell him about such a big thing.
A moment later Ye Xiao knew the whole story. He looked at the grisly scene on the ground by the base of the wall. He should have felt heavy, his worst fear had come true, but he simply couldn't force himself to be serious.
"So you all just stood here poking, prodding and digging, playing chase with that thing for over an hour?" Ye Xiao found it unbelievable. What kind of people were these?
"I was just looking." Xu Qin was the first to distance herself.
Bai Cheng said, "I was just looking too."
Zhong Xiong laughed, "Just came for the spectacle."
Jiang Xiaotian raised his hand, "I only provided technical support."
"Nonsense, you were having the time of your life shoveling with that big spade!" Mei Baisheng immediately called him out.
Xu Li glanced around and said nothing, he had taken part. Cheng Qinan had also provided technical support, if only in an intangible way. And finally Lin Tantan rubbed her nose, yes, she had been the main mover.
"Ahem," she said, "mainly I wanted to find out what it actually was."
It started over an hour earlier: they heard the mutant rats squeaking, went out and found a hole. From its size, the rats' terrified reaction, and Cheng Qinan's premonition, they guessed one of those mutant plants they'd seen during the day had come calling.
They were, of course, alarmed and on high alert. They waited in full readiness for a long time with nothing happening. Not long after they broke up, the mutant rats began squeaking again; when they looked, a second hole had suddenly appeared beside the first.
That made things interesting. After a quick discussion they installed a camera on the wall, then pretended to search and find nothing before leaving, actually to watch the monitor.
After more than ten minutes, something pushed up the soil beside the second hole and a bit of something poked out.
The night camera couldn't capture details, just a grayish-white thing, pointed at the tip, which quickly thickened into a stout length, wriggling and twisting as if trying to climb the wall.
It was, surprisingly, pretty scary, mainly because it was creepy, immediately evoking images of snakes. Lin Tantan got goosebumps; the men weren't as rattled, they were just worried it might be a highly dangerous creature.
The mutant rats detected something and squeaked again, and the group watched the thing suddenly, as if startled, shoot back into the earth.
They all fell silent.
Suddenly they found it kind of cute.
Ahem, such a thought was wrong, but their curiosity only grew. They began staking out the place: partly to test the thing's strength, partly hoping to catch it.
It turned out to be hard to catch. At the slightest disturbance it withdrew with lightning speed. Lin Tantan's straps and Mei Baisheng's ability couldn't hold it, because it hadn't shown any hostility, they didn't want to be the aggressors, and the whole thing ended up like a game of whack-a-mole or digging for worms.
Time passed like that.
At first they thought of notifying Ye Xiao, but before they knew it they had forgotten.
They'd simply forgotten...
Ye Xiao was speechless.
He didn't say anything. These weren't reckless people, and with Cheng Qinan's keen sense for danger, if they treated it like a game it meant they truly didn't think the thing was dangerous.
Ye Xiao was actually rather curious to meet the thing himself.
Unfortunately, after a long wait it didn't reappear, and the group left disappointed. "Go to sleep," someone said. "It probably won't show up again tonight."
After washing up, Lin Tantan lay in bed still thinking. The thing was likely the same as the one they'd seen during the day, which raised a question: in the late stages of the apocalypse a few mutant plants developed the ability to move on their own, but this was far too early for something like that to appear.
And why was it poking its head around like that?
Was there something in this villa that attracted it?
She turned the idea over and over and was nearly asleep when a faint sound roused her and she opened her eyes.
It was the first night of the lunar month, there was no moonlight at all and it was very dark outside. She carefully got out of bed without turning on the light, went to the balcony glass door, lifted the curtain, quietly slid the door open and stepped onto the balcony. On the opposite wall she could just make out a strip of something poking out as if scouting, then slipping back down.
She wasn't surprised, this thing wouldn't give up so easily.
She waited patiently. After a while she heard a noise from below. Looking down, Lin Tantan saw, well, something had come out of the soil by the first-floor wall and was beginning to climb up it.
She watched silently, planning how to respond, when she sensed someone and turned to see Ye Xiao had silently come over from the neighboring balcony. He looked down too, then braced himself on the railing between the two balconies and swung over.
Lin Tantan instinctively took a step back; he put one hand on her shoulder and raised a finger to his lips to signal silence, then led her back inside.
They entered Lin Tantan's room.
Once inside, Lin Tantan whispered, "What are you doing here?"
"I figured the thing might come back, I haven't slept." He kept his voice low and was close enough that his breath brushed her cheek. Lin Tantan felt uncomfortable all over and forced herself not to step back. He added, "Turns out, it's come looking for you."
Lin Tantan jumped. "How did you guess that?"
"You severed two of its stems, who else would it be looking for?"
Lin Tantan glared. Was he teasing? She was about to be hunted, and he was joking!
The room was very dark. Even though Ye Xiao had adjusted to the dark, he couldn't clearly see her expression; still, her subtle movements let him picture her look. He chuckled softly, "I'm joking. It's so timid, it doesn't look like something that came to get revenge."
Listening to the sound of something climbing up outside, Lin Tantan asked, "What's it here for?"
"I found a sticky secretion in the soil where it showed up, and there was the same stuff in the dirt by the base of the wall. If it didn't secrete it itself... didn't you say that after cutting it, the hard outer layer was full of slime?"
"You mean it's hurt and hasn't healed, it's come looking for a doctor?" Lin Tantan said, and that was pretty much what she'd been thinking.
"We'll find out soon." Ye Xiao pulled her back. "Stay away from it, it's very, " Before he could finish the word "alert," he suddenly caught his foot on the bed and dropped down into a sitting position. Lin Tantan was pulled down with him; her knee slammed into his, and she nearly fell on top of him, saved only by a quick reflex that let her brace herself on his shoulder.
Even so, the two of them were far too close.
Ye Xiao, uncharacteristically clumsy, froze for a moment. Lin Tantan hurriedly straightened up. "Ah, I moved the bed closer to the balcony."
In Ye Xiao's room the bed was at least three meters from the balcony, and Lin Tantan's room was even larger; he had assumed the bed would be far away too, he hadn't expected it to be only a couple of steps...
Ye Xiao looked embarrassed. "Is your leg okay?"
At his prompting, Lin Tantan suddenly felt the bone of her knee burning with pain, as if she'd struck it on a rock. She grimaced. Is this person's kneecap made of iron?
She was about to speak when they heard something tapping against the glass door.