After Being Parasitized by a Monster 19

Chapter 19: “Then take it off.”

“No.” Xiao Ming’s reply was concise.

An unsurprising response.

Unable to figure it out, Cheng Ming finally let herself off the hook and placed the notebook on her bedside table.

The research institute didn’t resume normal work until two days later.

She didn’t know how much damage the Defense Center had suffered.

She was responsible for her own area and only knew that two tanks of algaefungus had died due to over-propagation because they weren’t divided in time.

Not to mention the other research groups. Any that involved living organisms were mostly inseparable from human care. Just three days of absence meant that the next ten days, half a month, or even longer would be spent cleaning up the mess and replenishing the losses.

After a few days of being busy, a new task was assigned.

She took the elevator to the 126th floor, unlocking a new area.

Cheng Ming passed through the corridor’s access control and walked to the large instrument laboratory at the end, pushing the door open—

“Teacher Jiang.”

Jiang Dexin was standing in front of the electron microscope’s control panel, her hair tied up, wearing a white lab coat, a professional yet beautiful appearance. She took off her glasses when she saw her. “Xiao Cheng, come here.”

The image capturing process mainly relied on visual observation and judgment, which was quite straining on the eyes.

“The proliferation rate of the Wave-Born Floating Flower Algaefungus is getting faster and faster. I plan to re-sequence it at different growth stages to see the mutation situation, and also take images of its surface and interior to compare with the past. The task is a bit heavy, you can just be responsible for a part of it.”

It was probably due to confidentiality measures. Cheng Ming didn’t have much contact with her current colleagues, unlike when she was in the lower-level laboratories. Any tasks were directly assigned by the research group leader, Jiang Dexin.

Hearing the word “sequencing,” Cheng Ming’s heart stirred.

She actually wanted to know what kind of creature the parasite on her was. As long as she could extract its DNA, do a sequence comparison, and construct a phylogenetic tree, she could always get some results. No matter how big the mutation, she could find the organism most closely related to it.

But the key instruments in the research institute were strictly controlled, and their use was always recorded. It was difficult for her to deceive everyone.

Unless she had higher authority, could be independently responsible for projects, and manage the laboratory.

She had to take it one step at a time.

Putting aside these temporarily unattainable thoughts, Cheng Ming focused on the task at hand, communicated the details with Jiang Dexin, and then spent the next half a month immersed in it.

During the day, she was busy running between two places at the research institute. Sometimes, when there was too much work to finish, she would bring the data back to her apartment and process the images on her bed at night.

The weather was getting cold, and sometimes she really wanted to be lazy.

After working until past one in the morning, she packed the last image of the day into the organized folder, snapped the lid of her laptop shut, rolled over, and buried herself under the covers.

Xiao Ming suddenly spoke, “You haven’t showered yet.”

“I know,” Cheng Ming said resentfully.

The point was not about bathing and cleaning, but that the Fish-Fungus inside her liked a humid environment, and her skin was also extremely thirsty. After every shower, there was a whole bunch of moisturizing and hydrating measures to take.

She crawled out of bed in a mess, resignedly taking off her clothes as she walked towards the bathroom.

Although it was winter, this place was in the south, and the coastal temperature was generally higher. She was still wearing a thin shirt underneath.

As she was listlessly unbuttoning her shirt, she belatedly felt a pain in her chest. She touched it and looked in the mirror she was passing by. It turned out that she had been lying on her stomach for too long, and the necklace had left an imprint on her chest.

Lifting the heavy pendant, Cheng Ming suddenly froze, staring at the small patch of varying shades of marks on her smooth, paper-like skin, as if she had been struck by lightning.

Her eyes widened, her breathing quickened, and she called out in a hoarse voice, “Xiao Ming!”

“What’s wrong?” Her parasitic roommate was used to disappearing when she showered, but hearing her trembling voice, it immediately responded, not understanding what had happened.

Without time to button her shirt back up, Cheng Ming turned and rushed out of the bathroom, rummaging through her things for any available pigment.

However, she was not Cheng Ran. She didn’t have the habit of doodling to pass the time when she was stressed, nor had she moved her mother’s things to the staff apartment.

In the end, she could only grab the pen and paper she used for her records, forcefully break the pen barrel, and the ink spilled all over the floor, forming a shallow puddle on the tiles. She pulled off the pendant, and with a trembling hand, she rolled the seashell in the ink, then pressed it onto the title page of her draft book.

The surface of the seashell was uneven, and the slightly curved lines were imprinted, gradually forming a complete pattern.

She tore off the page, flipped it over to the symbol she had pondered over countless times, and her red eyes darted back and forth between the two. Her breathing was as heavy as if she were suffering from severe pulmonary failure, and could die from lack of oxygen at any moment.

Although the only difference between the two images was that one was hand-drawn and the other was a copy, she still couldn’t be sure.

She grabbed her phone, opened the encrypted document, and found the blurry picture she had taken at the time, comparing them side by side. Apart from the color, the curvature, the spacing of the stripes, the length and size… there was not the slightest discrepancy.

The pendant she had worn for many years, the imprint it left, was exactly the same as the symbol Qu Ying had shown her, which was said to be the logo of a monster organization.

Cheng Ming leaned over the bed, her cold hands tightly clutching the seashell, staring motionlessly at the black and white imprint, as if she were facing a mysterious magic circle that summoned demons, her soul drained.

The necklace was made by Cheng Ran. The seashell had been re-polished and processed. She had personally brought it back and hung it around her neck.

She thought of that birthday night again, the night that had divided her life into two halves. But her mother’s face was blurred, her expression was blurred, her words were blurred, everything was blurred… The memory had become so strange and unreal, like a giant beast lurking in the darkness. If she got close, it would swallow her whole.

She breathed long and heavily, and murmured, “Xiao Ming, did you see that?”

The red seashell symbolized a monster organization. Cheng Ran had discovered the Wave-Born Floating Flower Algaefungus. The algaefungus could promote the fusion of humans and monsters. Cheng Ran had recommended Qu Ying to join the Security Department. The Security Department had a secret department that created monsters to resist the invasion of mutated creatures… All the facts were intricate and complex, like beads on a string, connected and spreading, forming a long, clueless chain.

Why did Cheng Ran give her this seashell? Why did she take her away from home? What accident had happened that night, or was it an accident, or, or…

Or what? What was Cheng Ran’s identity? What role did she play between humans and monsters? And what role had she herself unwittingly played in it?

Xiao Ming, was Xiao Ming related to this? What was it, and how did it come to be…

Countless questions, endless mysteries, like a bottomless vortex, fiercely, fiercely dragged her down, down to the lightless deep sea, the boundless abyss.

“Cheng Ming!”

Until a voice suddenly sounded, like a bubble rolling up and carrying her, Cheng Ming was jolted awake, drenched in sweat, from the hazy seabed.

She heard another voice in her body ask, “Is it possible that it has nothing to do with Cheng Ran, and that there was a problem with the process of making this necklace?”

Her symbiotic partner was helping her analyze the situation.

Cheng Ming raised her other hand and pressed her forehead, breathing deeply and closing her eyes forcefully, unable to deceive herself.

“But I’m sure I’ve seen this pattern before, in one of her manuscripts, a painting, or something else… I can’t remember clearly,” she said in confusion, holding her head.

So she had found it familiar at first glance, and only now did she remember that it was because of Cheng Ran.

The Cheng Ran in her memory was passionate about her biological career, but also had her own interests and hobbies. She would doodle, decorate, and weave the colors of life. She was both a scientist and an artist.

Her mother had formed all her initial impressions of women: wisdom and acuity, rationality and sensibility, firmness and composure, countless beautiful qualities.

This was her mother.

Her closest family, her most familiar stranger.

“Memories can be deceiving. The truth can’t be pieced together from just a few fragments,” Xiao Ming said.

Its flat and clear voice seemed to lack some human empathy, but it had a strange calming and soothing effect.

Why has it suddenly become so cultured… Cheng Ming wanted to laugh, but couldn’t.

The mycelia even wrapped around her wrist, slowly extending into her palm along the faint blue veins on her skin, reminding her to let go. It was a little itchy. Cheng Ming obediently let go of the pendant, and the seashell slid onto her lap. She sat weakly by the side of the bed. She had been gripping it so tightly that the red marks on her pale palm looked like they were about to bleed.

She raised her hand to cover her eyes. Her fingertips were still trembling, but she was gradually calming down. She said in a low voice, “You’re right.”

At the very least, she still needed solid evidence. At the very least, there were still too many secrets for her to uncover.

“Perhaps, Mom secretly took on some missions from the Defense Center and was researching this organization?” she murmured to herself. “But, why did she give this to me, and…”

And, on the night she gave her this seashell, she had acted in such an incomprehensible way, and after that, she and Cheng Jin had both disappeared from her life.

“Your analysis is very reasonable,” Xiao Ming said calmly. “But I think the most important thing for you to do right now is to get dressed.”

Cheng Ming was stunned.

Her tangled thoughts were interrupted. She took a moment to look at her current appearance and, as expected, saw the wide-open collar of her shirt and her completely exposed thighs, pale and bright, fully visible under the light. The cold air from the floor seeped into her skin, bit by bit.

She belatedly curled up her legs from the cold and pulled the bedsheet over to wrap herself up tightly.

The body was hers, so it should be the uninvited guest that felt uncomfortable. But the other party had no such self-awareness, and her cheeks flushed, feeling inexplicably embarrassed.

Not to mention that this Fish-Fungus was not human. If they were to be technical, they should be considered the same sex.

But, although she was unwilling to admit it, since they had laid their cards on the table and had a deeper understanding of each other, it seemed to have truly become a friend who could accompany her. And she couldn’t be careless about her image in front of a friend.

“I don’t think that’s right.” Blood rushed to her head, and Cheng Ming’s chest heaved. She gritted her teeth and objected, “It should be you who should restrain yourself from looking, not always forcing me to be fully dressed.”

“…” Xiao Ming was silent for a long time. “Alright, I respect your right to be naked. Then take it off.”

It seemed to have made a great determination, so much so that its tone sounded a bit like it was facing death.

Cheng Ming: “…”