He had almost been fooled by that smile.
You Chumu really had a face that was too beautiful… cool pale skin, peach blossom eyes, a high nose bridge, thin lips with a slight upward curve.
Even his sharp, narrow chin only added a sense of fragility, making him even more pitiable.
Xu Chi couldn’t speak. He was almost frozen in place, his heart pounding so hard it felt like it would burst out of his chest. As someone from an upper-class family with a happy home and friendly classmates and colleagues, he had never been this afraid of anyone.
Then the boy stepped toward him and said:
“Brother, let me help you.”
He reached out his hand.
Xu Chi looked at his cool, pale hand. The thought in his mind was to run, but the door was on the boy’s side, and behind him was a wall.
He had no way to escape.
Even the boy’s words seemed to carry a strange magic, tempting him to take that hand and obey the command!
Xu Chi held it back with great effort.
Let him take You Chumu’s hand? How dare he! The You Chumu in the manga was not this kind at all!
Brush him off? He didn’t dare either.
Controlling his trembling as much as he could, Xu Chi slowly moved back a millimeter and got up on his own.
“Thanks, no need.”
He was 23 years old. The body he had transmigrated into was the same age and had the same name as him. He was thinking about the chances of fighting the great villain and winning.
After thinking it over, the chance was zero. Although the boy’s build was not as tall as his, as an experimental subject, his strength and reaction speed were a hundred times those of an ordinary person.
In other words, as an ordinary 23-year-old, his strength and reaction speed were less than one-eightieth of the boy’s.
And not to be fooled by You Chumu’s current thin, obedient appearance: as an experimental subject, You Chumu developed extremely fast. In just a few months, he would be much taller and stronger than Xu Chi.
What a joke.
His mind was still a mess when he saw the boy’s smile suddenly freeze, vanish completely, and reveal a confused expression as he stared at his own hand…
Terrified, Xu Chi immediately sensed something was wrong, and his mind cleared.
Then he heard the boy ask:
“Brother, why did you refuse me? Are my hands dirty?”
That one sentence made Xu Chi’s heart skip a beat. He wanted nothing more than to immediately dart past the boy and rush out the door.
But he didn’t. He tugged at the towel wrapped around his lower body, his upper body bare, and used his high-IQ brain to answer:
“No, you’re too thin. If you helped me, I’d be afraid I’d pull you down. I can get up myself.”
Seeing the boy stare at him without blinking, he added:
“By the way, do you still feel uncomfortable anywhere? I met you in the alley and saw that you had fainted, so I brought you home. This is my place, on the ninth floor. There’s no elevator, so I carried you up the stairs. It wasn’t tiring, though; you’re pretty light. My legs are just a little sore now. Oh, right, I treated your wound, cleaned you up, and changed you into clean clothes. They fit you pretty well.”
Perfect.
Xu Chi deliberately made his goodwill very clear. After working so hard to save him, even if the boy turned on him, it wouldn’t happen so quickly.
Sure enough, the boy blinked, looked dazed for a moment, and then broke into an extremely bright smile, all the malice in his eyes disappearing without a trace:
“So it was brother who saved me!”
“Yes, yes,” Xu Chi replied happily.
Then the boy touched the back of his head and his cheek, and said in a clear voice, “My head doesn’t hurt, but my face hurts a little. Brother, do you know who hit me?”
“…”
Xu Chi wanted to run again. In the boy’s clear, straightforward eyes, he felt as if his crimes had nowhere to hide.
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
The boy smiled. “That’s true. It couldn’t have been brother, or else why would brother have brought me home?”
Xu Chi’s scalp tingled as he nodded. “Yes, yes.”
After all, the blow to the head wasn’t from him, and the bruise on the face was to wake him up. He hadn’t done anything wrong.
A cold wind blew in, and Xu Chi, who wasn’t wearing any clothes, shivered. He hunched his shoulders and pointed to the window behind the boy.
“I’ll close the window and change clothes?”
The boy was blocking him, and he didn’t dare push him away.
“Okay, brother.”
You Chumu stepped aside.
Xu Chi was surprised by how cooperative he was. He paused for two seconds before stepping past him, and right up until the window was shut, his heart pounded hard.
All kinds of terrifying, bloody fantasies flashed through his mind… like the boy suddenly grabbing him, strangling his neck from behind, or stabbing him.
Terrified, he quickly shut the window. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the boy standing still the whole time, as if watching him. That gaze made his back go cold.
He took clothes from the cabinet and didn’t even go back to the bathroom. He changed while trying to cover himself as much as possible.
When he turned around, he met the boy’s blatant stare, and both of them fell silent.
The boy stared at him, then suddenly laughed. “Brother, do you know my name? I forgot.”
Xu Chi thought he had misheard. He was shocked. Amnesia?? This wasn’t in the original story at all.
Could he be faking it?!
He swallowed his dry throat. “I don’t know either… If you don’t remember your name, do you remember anything else? Like… where you live?”
The boy put on a thoughtful expression, then grinned. “Forgotten.”
Even though he smiled innocently and harmlessly, Xu Chi still got goosebumps.
If he was faking amnesia, there was no reason for it. Why would he lie to him?
Then could it be real?
You Chumu had amnesia? You Chumu didn’t remember what had happened before? Didn’t remember that he came from the lab?
If it was true… then would You Chumu stop killing people?
That didn’t seem right either. Even if he really had amnesia, who knew when he would remember. And if he did remember, he might just kill him then…
In any case, he had to find a way to get rid of You Chumu.
He couldn’t wait another moment.
“I’ll take you to the management office. They might be able to find your parents.”
The management office here was roughly equivalent to the police station in his city, though its internal rules and systems were, of course, far inferior to those of his city and country.
As an experimental subject, You Chumu naturally had no father or mother, and no identity to trace. But as long as You Chumu was taken to the management office, the police would be responsible for him, and he would stay there until they found out who he was.
In short, as long as You Chumu wasn’t with him, that would do.
Saying that, Xu Chi put on a jacket. It was still raining outside, cold and damp, and easy to catch a chill. Looking at the boy’s thin body in short sleeves, his sympathy kicked in, and he also grabbed a jacket for him.
“Put this on.”
Recalling the vicious villain who appeared in the manga, he suddenly realized what he was doing and thought to himself… I am way too kind! There’s no way I’ll get killed!
You Chumu blinked. Under the light, his warm blue eyes looked so innocent and harmless. His cool pale fingers took the jacket. First he looked at Xu Chi for a couple of seconds, then turned to the window blown open by the wind, then at the clock on the wall, and said with a smile:
“Brother, it’s raining outside, and it’s already midnight. Are you sending me away now?… I’m hungry.”
!!!
Even though You Chumu was smiling, those watery peach blossom eyes looked so pitiful.
Xu Chi pressed a hand to his chest and fought back with all his might. He knew that You Chumu had used this face to deceive too many people.
Ten minutes later, Xu Chi, wearing an apron, cracked another egg into the pot.
The pot was boiling with noodles, steam rising from it, and the smell of noodles and eggs filled the small kitchen.
You Chumu stood beside him, staring intently at the noodles he was cooking.
“Brother, what is this? It smells so good.”
Xu Chi was stunned by the question. “These are noodles.”
“What are noodles?”
“Food…”
“And this?”
“These are eggs…”
Xu Chi finally understood why You Chumu didn’t even know this. It was because You Chumu had always been in the lab. No one had taught him, and the people in the lab didn’t treat him like a human at all. They simply tortured him for experiments.
He only ate bagged liquid meals, food that didn’t even look like food. More often than not, they directly injected nutrient solution into him. As for what he ate, there was no need to even mention it.
For the people at the research institute, as long as You Chumu didn’t die, that was good enough.