“He said, ‘No matter what I said last night, please forget it. We are both adults, after all.’” Bai Sheng was laughing so hard he had collapsed on the sofa, his whole body trembling. “You really can’t judge a man by his looks, Supervisor Shen. I never expected you to be this open-minded. Ha ha ha ha ha—”
Shen Zhuo sat at the other end of the sofa, one hand pressed to his temple, silent.
Chen Miao was trembling with fear, wishing he could throw himself at Shen Zhuo’s legs and howl, “Senior, I didn’t see anything just now. Senior, please spare my miserable life. I’m your direct junior, only seven years behind you! Seven years, and I’m the only seedling in the line! Back then, at the old dean’s sickbed, you promised you’d take care of me!”
Bai Sheng asked curiously, “You’re only two years apart. How are you seven years apart in school?”
Chen Miao choked out, “Is it my fault I dragged it out until I was exactly eighteen before taking the college entrance exam?”
Bai Sheng: “...”
Shen Zhuo finally raised his head and asked hoarsely, “Why did you send me here?”
Bai Sheng had at least seven or eight residences in Shenhai City. This one was a finely decorated flat; judging from the floor space, the entire floor had probably been opened up. The Supervisors stood silently outside the door, not daring to make a sound, wishing with all their hearts they could become transparent.
“Senior, you forgot.” Chen Miao’s voice was full of tears. “Article 8.11 of the Supervisor’s Work Manual, universal clause: when a jurisdiction’s Supervisor is confirmed to have lost capacity to act, the entire jurisdiction’s security level automatically drops by one tier. However, if an S-Class evolutionist is present within the jurisdiction, then within five hundred meters of that S-Class, the security level remains unchanged...”
Shen Zhuo fell silent.
“So Shenhai City’s security level has already dropped. We either had to deliver you to Brother Bai, or we could only send you to the central district.” Chen Miao sniffed emotionally. “Although Chief Yue usually takes very good care of me, you are my own Senior. How could I not know which one is the real thigh to cling to? Of course I had to pack you up and deliver you to Brother Bai!”
...
Truly worthy of being the direct junior seven years down the line.
Very close indeed.
After a long, wordless silence, Shen Zhuo finally asked, “How did he go from Mr. Bai to Brother Bai overnight?”
Chen Miao immediately perked up. He took out his phone and opened the photo album.
“That’s a long story. After Liu Sanji was rescued by his accomplices, we worked overnight to test and analyze the severed corpse remains on the elevated bridge. The current speculation is that Liu Sanji very likely completed a second evolution, but how he broke through the genetic limit remains unknown. All we know is that after evolution, his class may have reached Class A. Now he can use some kind of ability virus to control corpses...”
Chen Miao held up the phone. A video was playing on the screen.
“Hello, everyone.” The background was a swaying ambulance compartment. Bai Sheng faced the camera and waved with a radiant, spring-breeze smile. If one ignored the shocking expanse of bloodstains all over him, that handsome face with its built-in glow effect could have gone straight onto the cover of a fashion magazine. “We have just completed a full-body blood purification for Shenhai City’s Supervisor Shen at the hospital, but the process of washing out the residual virus can be a little stimulating, so Supervisor Shen is currently very agitated...”
The camera turned.
On the stretcher, Shen Zhuo suddenly sat up. The bandages around his waist and abdomen were stained red with blood, and he was struggling unconsciously from the intense pain. Five or six people threw themselves on him at once to hold him down.
Bai Sheng braced one strong elbow against Shen Zhuo’s throat and easily pressed him back onto the stretcher. “Speaking of which, I’ve discovered that Supervisor Shen reacts very intensely every time he sees me. Although he doesn’t say it out loud, I can feel that joyful little heart of his...”
“Mr. Bai! Mr. Bai! Brother Bai!!” Chen Miao crouched beside the stretcher, drenched in sweat. “Are we really not sending the Supervisor back to the ICU?! Are you sure we don’t need two more restraints?!”
Bai Sheng said, “How uncomfortable would the ICU be? The beds are so cramped. Besides, we’re not outsiders. What do we need restraints for? When I’m here, why would we need restraints? Once we get back, I’ll personally sleep in the same bed as your Supervisor...”
The camera turned again. A brightly lit bedroom.
“Careful, careful, careful...”
“Gentle! Gentler!”
“Hey—there!”
A group of people hurriedly settled Shen Zhuo onto the wide bed. In the chaos, they may have tugged at the wound that was rapidly healing; Shen Zhuo suddenly sat up and was hastily pressed back down by everyone.
“Brother Bai, you’re my own brother, you really can’t let us stay at your place?” Chen Miao turned back, on the verge of tears. “Look, it’s just you here. What if the other side circles back later...”
“Exactly,” Bai Sheng answered kindly, holding the phone. “If the other side circles back, I won’t have to protect an entire hospital. I’ll only have to protect you.”
Chen Miao was struck by sudden enlightenment and could not say a word.
“Go on, go on.” Bai Sheng waved the Supervisors away while filming Shen Zhuo from every angle with great interest. “Go back to the crime scene, seal the road section, disinfect and eliminate the virus, and try to find clues about Liu Sanji’s accomplices. When you come over tomorrow morning, I want to know three things. First, why exactly did Liu Sanji want to abduct your Supervisor Shen? Second, how did he achieve a second evolution? Third—”
Everyone scrambled to write it down. Chen Miao asked attentively, “Third what, Brother Bai?”
Bai Sheng rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
“Third, with your Supervisor Shen’s build being this thin, how does he have back dimples? It’s unscientific...”
The video cut off abruptly because Shen Zhuo pressed the phone down.
The surroundings went quiet. Everyone’s eyes wandered.
“Keep watching.” Bai Sheng could not help laughing. “There’s more below. Like how you sat up every ten minutes to torment me, how I worked so hard to take care of you for three days, and how Chen Miao came downstairs to my place every single day, tearfully gazing up at my window like a tragic little white flower...”
Chen Miao corrected him in a tiny voice, “I wasn’t tearful...”
Then Shen Zhuo glanced at him, and he immediately muted himself.
After a long silence, Shen Zhuo finally exhaled soundlessly and waved a hand.
Chen Miao, as if granted amnesty, immediately fled with everyone else.
“If you hadn’t helped that night, the final outcome might have been unpredictable, and my driver might have lost his life.” After a moment of silence, Shen Zhuo finally said, “Thank you very much, Mr. Bai.”
Bai Sheng had both long legs crossed on the coffee table, arms folded as he lounged against the other end of the sofa. He smiled. “That really wasn’t easy. This seems to be the third time I’ve heard you thank me, right? Though this is the only time that sounds even a little sincere...”
Shen Zhuo said, “But I still hope you will leave Shenhai City.”
“...”
Bai Sheng raised his brows high. Only after a long while did he ask, “Why?”
Shen Zhuo’s face was especially pale from blood loss, and the lines of his profile looked quiet and elegant. But everyone knew that beneath that refined exterior was a heart as cold and hard as iron. His slender, black-gloved fingers interlaced. After pondering for a moment, he said, “You know Fu Chen, don’t you?”
Bai Sheng’s surprise looked completely genuine. “Who?”
Then he seemed to react. “Oh, Fu Chen. I heard of him when I was abroad. Didn’t he supposedly pass away in an accident?”
Shen Zhuo glanced at Bai Sheng but did not expose him. “When Fu Chen was alive, he was once my friend.”
Before the words had even finished, Bai Sheng laughed.
“What?”
“Nothing.” Bai Sheng tried to hold it in, but failed. He teased, “I just didn’t expect someone like Supervisor Shen to have friends...”
Shen Zhuo said blandly, “If I wished it, most people in this world would fight to become my friend. Is that strange?”
Bai Sheng froze for a moment. Then he was sincerely convinced and had nothing to say. After a beat, he laughed. “Not strange. If the person is you, Supervisor Shen, then it really isn’t strange at all... So why are you so intent on making me leave Shenhai?”
Shen Zhuo sat at the other end of the sofa, only a short distance from Bai Sheng, and looked steadily at him.
“Because I understand you people.”
“There are fewer than twenty S-Class mutants in the entire world. The number is too small, and even among evolutionists, they are quite mysterious. That means I may be the ordinary human who understands you best in this world. I know you S-Class possess certain extremely special and inexplicable abilities. Among them, there is one that has perplexed me to this day.”
“Biological pheromones.”
The smile vanished from Bai Sheng’s eyes.
“I first analyzed this S-Class-exclusive pheromone from Fu Chen. It transmits a biological message: come submit to me, come obey me. It can strongly affect every evolutionist across an entire region. Even Class A evolutionists have difficulty escaping its influence. That was why all evolutionists in the central district were fanatically loyal to Fu Chen back then. Around every S-Class mutant, many lower-class members of the same kind attach themselves. The strong provide protection, the weak offer loyalty, forming a new social order similar to a wolf pack.”
“Because of this pheromone, there are almost no two S-Class who can live in the same city. Unless they form a spousal relationship, they are destined to lose their rationality and kill each other, just as one jungle cannot have two kings at the same time.”
Shen Zhuo paused, then slowly said, “More seriously, I discovered that this pheromone can even affect the self-will of ordinary humans... through certain acts.”
Bai Sheng lifted his eyes to look at him. For several full seconds, he neither spoke nor moved. A moment later, he suddenly gave a frivolous laugh. “What, you were affected?”
Shen Zhuo said coldly, “There is no one in this world capable of influencing my will.”
Bai Sheng’s brow lifted subtly. Inwardly, he understood.
So Fu Chen had been a herbivore after all.
“Mr. Bai.” Shen Zhuo leaned forward and stared into Bai Sheng’s eyes. “Shenhai City is home to twenty-one thousand evolutionists. It is the largest evolutionist settlement in the world. My duty is to ensure its peace and stability. Right now, you look very much like an enthusiastic citizen who enjoys helping others, but I cannot stake everything on your self-control. If one day you wake up on a whim and suddenly decide you want to become Shenhai’s uncrowned king, then a bloody battle between us will be inevitable.”
He reached out and pressed his hand to Bai Sheng’s arm.
It was an extremely gentle gesture, one that made refusal almost impossible. Almost no one could refuse the gaze of those eyes.
“I don’t want you to become my enemy, Mr. Bai.”
“Leave Shenhai. At least then, we can still be friends.”
Bai Sheng stared motionlessly at Shen Zhuo, his sharp eyes narrowing slightly.
Neither of them spoke or moved. In the vast space, there was no sound except their breathing.
After a long while, Bai Sheng smiled faintly. He reached out and held the back of Shen Zhuo’s hand, his eyes glittering with maidenly shyness.
“But Supervisor, if I stay in Shenhai, maybe I’ll have a chance to develop a relationship with you that goes beyond friendship. How could I bear to leave?”
“..................”
They looked at each other for five seconds. Expressionless, Shen Zhuo yanked his hand back.
Knock knock knock.
The instant the two of them sat back at opposite ends of the sofa, the door was immediately knocked several times. Then Chen Miao cautiously poked his head in.
“S-Senior. Brother Bai.”
The timing was far too precise. This man had clearly learned from the earlier lesson and had stuck his ear to the door to listen for quite a while. It was impressive that he could still force out such an innocent look of barely maintained composure.
“A brief message just came from the International Supervision General Administration. There’s a reply to that request for assistance you sent earlier. Would you like to see it?”
“Yo-ho!” Bai Sheng immediately became interested, as if he had not just been possessed by an Oscar-winning actress. “Assistance with what? Is it a clue about the ambush?”
The irresistible effect of S-Class pheromones was evidently confirmed by Chen Miao’s eager attitude. “Yes, yes. Mainly about Liu Sanji’s two accomplices, that spatial ability user and that green-haired vine woman...”
Shen Zhuo pressed a hand to his forehead. “Bring it to me.”
Unexpectedly, Chen Miao took a tablet out of his briefcase. “Uh, Senior, what the director-general sent isn’t a fax. It’s a virtual meeting communication key.”
Something this minor required a meeting?
Shen Zhuo frowned slightly, but said nothing. He only instructed Bai Sheng, “Don’t leave.” Then he took the tablet and opened the new email. His iris silently unlocked it. The screen suddenly projected countless rays of faint light, crisscrossing in midair to form a clear three-dimensional hologram.
Chen Miao quickly withdrew from the living room.
The next moment, Bai Sheng discovered that he was no longer sitting on his own sofa. Before him was the corridor of a classical European building.
It should have been the building of some foreign office. It was extremely broad and grand. The high glass windows were topped with stained glass decorated with religious patterns, and at the end of the corridor stood a closed office door.
The whole scene was as realistic as dynamic modeling. Aside from the two of them being physical bodies, the surrounding walls, floor tiles, ceiling—everything in view—was covered in the faint glow projected by virtual-reality sensor technology.
Bai Sheng looked around. “This is...”
Shen Zhuo signaled for him to be silent. “International Supervision General Administration. Basel, Switzerland.”
He went forward and knocked on the door. After only two taps, a very steady voice came from inside in German.
“Come in.”
The heavy brass door opened without a sound.
Behind it was an extraordinarily spacious office. A tall figure in a suit and leather shoes stood before the blinds. Hearing them, he turned back. He was a Nordic man in his thirties with a full head of silver hair. His features were very hard and striking, and there was a smile in his ice-blue eyes.
“Supervisor Shen.”
Shen Zhuo stopped and gave a brief introduction. “Director-General Nielsen.”
The director-general of the International Supervision General Administration, the world’s top-ranked Supervisor, “Odin’s Wolf”—Fritsch Nielsen.
“No need for introductions.” Nielsen strode forward quickly, carrying a graceful and extremely polite smile. When he spoke, he switched into fluent English. “The customs records of every S-Class evolutionist in the world are filed with me. The one currently in Shenhai at this time can only be Mr. Bai.”
The two men clasped hands firmly, both wearing expressions of utmost friendliness.
From the corner of his eye, Bai Sheng glanced down and saw that on the back of this Nordic man’s left hand, his ability class was branded with perfect clarity—
S.