For over a month, Yun Huacen had shut out the world, dedicating himself entirely to his research. Just as he had finally succeeded in preparing the potion and returned to the first floor, he discovered that uninvited guests had arrived at the villa, and not just one, but a whole group. A sense of crisis instantly washed over him.
Yun Huacen stopped Sun Qi from speaking, pulling her away from the window and asking in a low voice, “What’s going on with these people outside?”
“I don’t know,” Sun Qi whispered in reply. “They climbed over the wall to get in. Once inside, they tried to force their way in but didn’t succeed.”
“What about the cat?”
Sun Qi was momentarily taken aback by the question before answering, “I haven’t seen Little Black for several days now.”
Yun Huacen didn’t ask further. Instead, he opened his phone to check the surveillance footage. “When did they come in?”
Sun Qi glanced up at the clock on the wall and said, “Around four-thirty.”
Yun Huacen pulled up the surveillance footage from 4:30 and saw that the intruders were already in the yard. He then rewound the footage by ten minutes and found that they had arrived near the villa at 4:20. First, they circled the villa and noticed the surveillance cameras on the walls. Then, they tried to communicate with anyone inside via the video intercom. After multiple attempts with no response, they scaled the wall and entered the villa.
Once inside, they seemed excited, wandering around the yard before finally stopping by the flower bed. There, they discovered the well-tended roses and concluded that someone must be living in the villa. Their excitement visibly faded as they exchanged glances and decided to break in. However, they hadn’t expected the glass to be so deceptively sturdy, despite hacking at it with knives, smashing it with stones, and even shooting at it, they couldn’t leave a single mark. Even so, they showed no intention of leaving. Instead, their determination to occupy the place grew stronger. They gathered together, brainstorming ways to break into the villa.
Yun Huacen activated the security system’s search mode and found the last recorded image of the cat. It had left the day before, seemingly lured away by something, and had been gone for a full day and night. There were eight people in the yard, five men and three women. Judging by their agile movements and the tools they carried, they didn’t seem like ordinary people; otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to scale the ten-meter-high wall.
Yun Huacen turned to the children and said, “Qiqi, take them to hide in the basement. Don’t come out until I call for you.”
“Okay.” Sun Qi replied, leading the children toward the basement.
Shao Lan lingered behind, looking worriedly at Yun Huacen. “What about you, Uncle? They’re bad people. You might be in danger.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine,” Yun Huacen reassured her with a smile before adding, “Oh, and bring some food for Yue Zirui. Leave it by the door of the lab, but don’t make contact with him. Understood?”
“Understood.”
Sun Qi headed to the kitchen and brought out two steamed buns. Looking at Yun Huacen, she said, “Uncle, you haven’t eaten in two days either. There are steamed buns in the kitchen, as well as some porridge from lunch. Remember to heat them up and eat.”
“Alright.”
Yun Huacen watched as they entered the basement before closing the basement passage. Then, using his phone, he opened the doors to the laboratory, including the one to Yue Zirui’s room.
Yue Zirui was lying in bed reading when he suddenly heard the sound of a lock turning. Curious, he got up and walked over, tentatively twisting the doorknob. To his surprise, the door opened. He stepped out of the single room and wandered around the lab. When he reached the entrance, he found that the main door was also open. On the table by the door were two steamed buns. As he walked over to pick them up, someone called out to him.
“Brother Rui.”
Yue Zirui turned around and saw all his companions from the orphanage gathered there, except for Yun Huacen. Puzzled, he asked, “What are you all doing here?”
“Uncle asked us to come down,” Shao Lan tried to answer but was stopped by Sun Qi. “Uncle said you haven’t eaten in two days, so he asked us to bring you some food.”
“Just two steamed buns, and you all had to come down?” Yue Zirui wasn’t foolish and immediately saw through Sun Qi’s clumsy lie. “Did something happen? Where is he?”
Shao Lan said worriedly, “Brother Rui, there are a lot of bad people at the villa.”
Seeing this, Yun Huacen connected to the video intercom at the lab entrance and said, “This has nothing to do with you. Go back inside quickly, and don’t infect them.”
Yue Zirui looked at Yun Huacen on the screen and asked, “So what they said is true?”
“I’ll handle this. Go back to the lab now.”
“How are you going to handle it? By taking on a whole group alone?”
“Have you forgotten my ability?” Yun Huacen commanded impatiently, “Go back to the lab right now, immediately!”
Yue Zirui wanted to say more, but his body moved uncontrollably. He walked straight into the lab and watched as the door slowly closed behind him. Frustrated, he shouted, “Yun Huacen, if you have the guts, don’t use your powers on me!”
Unfortunately, the lab was specially soundproofed, so even if he shouted himself hoarse, no one would hear him.
Yun Huacen monitored the movements of the people outside through a hidden camera. Suddenly, he thought of Potato and called out, “Potato, where are you? Come here quickly.”
Potato, who had been lying by the glass window, reluctantly shifted its gaze and hopped over to Yun Huacen.
“Do you want to go find Cabbage?”
Upon hearing this, Potato’s sprouts instantly perked up, and it nodded eagerly.
“See those people outside?”
Potato nodded again.
“They’re standing right next to Cabbage. They might be planning something.”
Potato bounced up and down a couple of times, showing its anger.
“I’ll let you out now, but you have to drive those people away.”
Potato’s sprouts stretched out and patted its round body.
Satisfied, Yun Huacen nodded and stood up. “Then come with me.”
Yun Huacen went to the kitchen and gently opened the window, signaling for Potato to go out. Potato’s sprouts stretched out, grabbed the window frame, then suddenly retracted, pulling its body out. After landing on the ground, its sprouts returned to their original state.
Yun Huacen found a stand for his phone and placed it there. While keeping an eye on the situation outside, he began to busy himself, first turning on the induction cooker to heat the porridge in the pot, then opening the oven to warm up two steamed buns.
The people in the yard were discussing how to get inside the villa, completely unaware that a potato was slowly approaching. Even if they had noticed, they wouldn’t have paid any attention to a sprouting potato.
“Aside from the load-bearing walls, this entire villa is made of glass, specialized glass at that. We’ve already tested it, and with the tools we have now, there’s no way we can break through.”
“There’s a car in the garage. If all else fails, we can just crash in.”
“Are you out of your mind? The whole reason we want to get into this villa is because it’s sturdy enough to keep zombies out. If you smash it up with a car, what’s the point of even being here?”
“This won’t work, that won’t work, so what do you suggest we do?”
“Actually, we don’t need to go to all that trouble. We can just wait here until he runs out of food. If he doesn’t want to starve to death, he’ll have to come out eventually.”
“And how long are we supposed to wait? That’s a terrible idea!”
…
While they were arguing, Potato had already quietly slipped past them and rolled into the flowerbed, reuniting with Cabbage. Potato’s tender sprouts stretched out and wrapped around Cabbage, while Cabbage extended its two outer leaves to embrace Potato. They snuggled affectionately in the flowerbed. Nearby, the rose moved, its slightly unfurled petals closing up to form a bud, performing a very human-like gesture of “can’t bear to watch.”
A long-haired woman with a charming appearance in the crowd spoke up, “Even in times like these, the roses here are still so well cared for. The owner must really love them.”
Everyone paused and turned to look at her.
Seeing this, the woman continued, “What do you think would happen if we destroyed the flowerbed? Would it break his heart?”
“Lin Na makes a good point,” someone immediately chimed in from the crowd. It was a slightly greasy-looking young man in his twenties, and judging by the way he looked at Lin Na, he probably had feelings for her. “We could give it a try. It might actually work.”
Guo Xiaoting curled her lip and said, “These things are all show and no substance. In the past, this trick might have worked, but what times are these now? Society has collapsed, zombies are everywhere. What people need is food and weapons. Who would risk their life for these things?”
“You just don’t get it,” the greasy man, Shen Hui, couldn’t help but retort, seeing the woman he liked being questioned. “Some people treat these things like treasures, even going bankrupt for them.”
“Alright, stop arguing,” the oldest man in the crowd spoke up. “We won’t know if it works until we try.”
“Listen up, whoever’s inside! If you want to keep these flowers, open the door and let us in. We promise we won’t hurt you. We’ll even protect you and provide you with food. If you don’t come out, this beautiful flowerbed won’t survive.”
They waited for a while, but there was still no response. Yao Shan stepped forward and reached out to grab the nearest rose. But before his hand could touch the flower, his ankle suddenly tightened. He instinctively looked down and found it wrapped in a rose stem. Before he could react, the stem suddenly yanked hard, flipping him over and slamming him to the ground with a thud.
“Has the rose turned into a monster too?” Yun Huacen stared in amazement at his phone screen.
Yao Shan’s companions were stunned for a moment before pulling out a pistol and firing wildly into the flowerbed. They nearly hit Potato and Cabbage, who were snuggling together, before remembering the task Yun Huacen had given them. Potato’s tender sprouts suddenly shot out, followed by a low roar, and countless sharp thorns flew toward the crowd.
“Rainstorm of Pear Blossom Needles!”
Yun Huacen watched in stunned silence, especially when he saw the miserable state of the people. He instinctively swallowed hard. That was close, if it weren’t for the cat keeping things under control back then, he would have been the one turned into a pincushion.
“Ah! What is this?” Wails of pain erupted from the crowd.
Before they could even grasp the situation, countless rose vines coiled toward them like an octopus with innumerable tentacles. Once entangled, the vines tightened relentlessly, as if determined to dig into their flesh.
“Monsters! These flowers are alive!” someone in the crowd shouted.
“Run! Get out of here!” Those who weren’t ensnared turned and fled, but before they could get far, darkness suddenly engulfed their vision. In the next moment, their bodies were whipped into a spinning motion, like tops set into a violent whirl.