After Being Parasitized by a Monster 24

Chapter 24: Have you been watching something strange behind my back?

Security Department Building.

In the security monitoring room, the staff member who was taking over the shift sat down with a cup of hot coffee, yawning. He tapped on the keys, routinely reviewing the surveillance records first.

When he scrolled to the video of a certain refrigerated morgue, he was startled and suddenly sat up straight, waking up from his drowsiness.

He quickly scrolled back, rubbed his eyes hard, looked again, wasn’t sure, and looked again.

Finally, he grabbed the phone and dialed.

“Team Leader Yan! The body you sent over yesterday is gone.”

“…” The other side replied after a second’s delay, “What?”

As if suspecting that the monitoring administrator here was not awake, he couldn’t help but ask a stupid question.

The monitoring staff repeated, “It’s gone!”

She stared at the video, moved the mouse, zoomed in again and again, and located a corner.

In the picture, the body that was originally lying flat on the dissecting table suddenly moved.

Like a resurrected corpse in a horror movie, it eerily stretched out a pale hand, unzipped the body bag itself, slowly sat up, and then got off the table.

Perhaps because the muscle cells had died and atrophied, its limbs were stiff. It climbed onto the windowsill in an uncoordinated posture and, suicidally, flipped out.

It was a thirteen-story building belonging to the biological experimental area, and below was a solid concrete ground.

The black and white surveillance footage was like a silent film, but it was as if one could hear the thud of a heavy object falling to the ground—thump!

This body, which had long been determined to be dead, disappeared into the invisible night.

…

Huang Chengcheng was attacked on the morning of that day. She had not been targeted by the hydra before, and after that, she was under the strict monitoring and protection of the Security Department… so it was only possible that the hydra had taken advantage of her injury to collect relevant information.

But could a mutated creature simulate a human body so perfectly?

What was the logic behind this?

Cheng Ming began to doubt her own knowledge base. For the past few days, she had been staying up late to check for omissions and fill in the gaps in the database. She had also sent a message to Qu Ying, asking her if she had the ability to change her face… She had no awareness that she was accidentally treating a person as an experimental observation object.

Unfortunately, she had not yet received a reply.

She felt that in terms of changing body shape, mollusks were at least much more reliable than cnidarians.

But even if the appearance could be disguised, and even the body proportions were replicated one-to-one… did this really conform to biological principles?

And why did it find her, but not harm her at all?

Cheng Ming sat at her workstation, flipping through the detailed descriptions of cnidarians and the latest research reports in the electronic library. The more she read, the more she couldn’t understand.

“I thought you would contact the Security Department,” Xiao Ming said.

The break room was sealed and quiet, and its voice was very sudden.

Her thoughts were interrupted. She looked up with a blank expression, “Are you tired of living?”

If this news were to be exposed, and the Security Department were to collect the physiological data of all members, who could guarantee that it would not be found out.

Moreover, it hadn’t attacked her on the night it had the best chance. It was clear that the monster’s malice towards her was not high. Therefore, although she was vigilant, it was not that urgent. After the feelings of horror and fear faded, what was left was more confusion.

“Just a little thought.” In a hidden corner that the human eye could not see, this parasite was active in her cranial nerves, her muscle meridians, her internal organs, or her fingertips, carefully observing her every move and choice—

“Cheng Ming, what kind of person are you?”

It asked such a question.

It was solemn, and full of incongruity and strangeness.

“What do you mean?” Cheng Ming paused.

“You’re a little strange… You won’t let me harm others, you won’t let me parasitize ‘Huang Chengcheng.’ It seems that your underlying nature is kind. Now there’s a monster with a human appearance, it might be able to move freely here, it might destroy the research institute, it might harm your own kind… Reporting it to the Security Department is the best solution, but you didn’t.”

Cheng Ming’s brow furrowed tightly.

“What are you trying to say?” A trace of inexplicable annoyance rose in her heart. She sneered, “You’re also very strange. The way you say that, it’s as if you have humanity.”

“Just curious,” Xiao Ming said.

It often used her eyes to observe the outside world, but now it had retracted its gaze and was looking inward, examining the body it inhabited, and the owner of this body.

The room was so quiet that only breathing could be heard.

There was a standing makeup mirror on the table, and Cheng Ming saw her own eyes.

A rich, deep black, the color given by the iris, like a lake with lush water plants, clear and transparent on the surface, but with unknown creatures hidden below. Another pair of eyes completely overlapped, quietly watching her.

“Then what kind of person do you think I am?” she calmed down, her voice lowered, with a strange lightness.

“You are very good at pretending.” Obviously, the Fish-Fungus did not know what tact was. “Actually, you don’t care if they live or die. You just want to be the person Cheng Ran wants you to be—correction, you just want to be the person you think Cheng Ran wants you to be.”

Each word was more piercing than the last.

Humans needed to be tactful, but it didn’t. It didn’t even have a reason to provoke Cheng Ming, it was just stating the facts it had thought of. And so this truth was even sharper than a blade.

But the pain it caused might not have anything to do with a blade.

It was just that there was a wound there, which had been stitched up and covered up. She had gotten used to ignoring it, and gradually, even she thought it was perfect. Until it was torn open, bloody, and laid bare under the bright white light, revealing countless messes.

The first one to tear her open so clearly was this parasite.

“Saying all this, are you trying to prove that you’re very good at thinking? Do you need me to praise you?”

Cheng Ming did indeed show signs of anger and embarrassment. The curves of her facial features became faint, and her eyes were cold and expressionless. She returned the sarcasm from last time.

They looked at each other through the reflection. After a long time, the person in the mirror slowly became a stranger.

The silver plane seemed to have turned into a passage. A menacing monster would tear open the skin, dissect the heart and liver, and crawl out from inside.

And that monster, who knew if it was the parasite, or herself.

After a long time, Xiao Ming spoke again, “Your expression is very scary right now, you know?”

“Heh,” Cheng Ming laughed. “You know me so well, do you know what I’m thinking right now?”

“You want to kill me… at least you want to hit me,” it said bluntly. “Anyway, you wanted to from the beginning.”

Cheng Ming leaned back, the curve of her lips becoming shallower.

“You’re right. But it’s nothing. Humans are living beings, and a population of living beings always needs selfish genes,” she admitted its analysis. “So education, discipline, and laws all exist for this reason.”

“These things don’t exist in nature.”

“Yes, but you now live by depending on humans, and I live by depending on human society,” Cheng Ming said without blinking. “Does demeaning me give you pleasure?”

She was angry at first, but now she found it interesting. A parasite that only urged her to find food when it was hungry had suddenly started to think, to ponder these complex issues like a human.

While she was being influenced by it, she was also influencing it.

Xiao Ming explained, “I am expressing my happiness.”

“What are you happy about?”

“I’m happy that you’re like me,” it said so easily, as natural as friends talking about the weather. “I’m happy that only I know that you’re like me.”

Strip away those external, hypocritical things, and we are no different.

And there will be no third party who understands what you and I have in common.

I am overjoyed by this.

This was its thought.

Abrupt, pure, and unreserved. It thought of it, so it said it.

“…” Cheng Ming subconsciously opened her mouth.

It seemed that she wanted to deny something, or question something, but in the end, she slowly pursed her lips.

A moment of silence.

In the ten-square-meter space, a strange and subtle atmosphere seemed to be flowing silently, like the stickiness and humidity of the rainy season, quietly infiltrating every inch of the air.

A few seconds later, she carefully chose her words and asked, “Have you been watching something strange behind my back?”

Xiao Ming asked back, “Why do you say that?”

Cheng Ming’s comment on this was, “It sounds a little disgusting.”

It was too abnormal. She got goosebumps all over her arms.

Xiao Ming: “…”

…

At 8:30 in the evening, she finally finished the remaining work.

Cheng Ming packed up and was about to get off work when Jiang Dexin suddenly visited.

A knock on the door startled her.

Looking at the teacher who pushed the door open, Cheng Ming’s face was full of surprise.

It wasn’t because of anything else… she had just sent the file over. Was she already being asked to redo it?

“As expected, you haven’t left yet.” Jiang Dexin put on a stern and critical expression and patted her on the shoulder. “Xiao Cheng, don’t work too hard. Get off work when it’s time, and rest when it’s time.”

“Huh?” Cheng Ming was stunned.

After she reacted, she was at a loss for whether to laugh or cry.

She could be caught for working overtime for two more nights?

Teacher Jiang was disappointed that she was not living up to her expectations. “Don’t you remember that the last time you had a fungal infection was because you stayed up until two or three in the morning? Lack of sleep leads to poor immunity. In our line of work, our bodies are our capital!”

“I know,” Cheng Ming obediently admitted her mistake, as if she were back in her student days, with no choice but to nod. The only difference was that now she would stubbornly defend herself, “It wasn’t that late, at most twelve o’clock…”

“The surveillance cameras caught you! The people at the security station thought a thief had broken in and called me to verify. It turned out to be you.” Jiang Dexin was amused by her stubbornness and patted her with more force. “The level three alert has not been lifted yet. You’re too bold. At least think about whether it’s safe.”

Hearing the word “surveillance,” Cheng Ming’s heart skipped a beat, and she was stunned. She had indeed gone down to the second basement level to feed Xiao Ming during this period, and she didn’t know where she had been careless.

Her mind wandered, and she continued to nod absentmindedly.

After nagging for nearly ten minutes, Jiang Dexin finally let her go.

Watching Cheng Ming go downstairs, her head lowered, not knowing what she was thinking, Jiang Dexin sighed with worry, shook her head, and took the elevator up on the other side.

Stepping into the elevator car, her expression became a little more solemn, and she made a phone call.

“Hello, I request to delete the surveillance footage of the 114th floor from one to three in the morning this week.”

The elevators in the research institute were all equipped with signal enhancement devices, which did not affect communication.

“Hello, may I ask for the command authority?”

“Is the authority of a research group leader not enough?” Jiang Dexin asked back with a smile, her tone gentle.

“Sorry, Group Leader Jiang,” the staff member on the other end said with difficulty. “This…”

“Then in the name of the 299th floor.”

After hanging up the phone, staring at the gray and white phone screen, this veteran researcher who had been working at the biological research institute for more than twenty years couldn’t help but sigh again.

She remembered what that lady had said, “don’t be too strict,” and “don’t spoil her either”… this balance was really hard to grasp.

And it wasn’t the first or second time that the other party had given contradictory instructions.

It seemed that she valued Cheng Ming very much and intended to cultivate her, but she also seemed to be very wary of her.

Cheng Ming’s original intention was to join the animal group, and Jiang Dexin also understood why—Cheng Ran had been the head of the animal research team. She had always been obsessed with the accident five years ago and could not accept that her parents had just vanished into thin air.

Jiang Dexin had been moved. On the one hand, she was considering her old friendship and wanted to help Cheng Ran look after Cheng Ming. On the other hand, she really wanted to cultivate a suitable successor.

But before she could take any action, the 299th floor had given instructions first.

She was told to recruit Cheng Ming into the mycology group and keep her under her own watch.

“Don’t be too restrictive,” so Jiang Dexin had turned a blind eye to Cheng Ming’s many small actions. When she discovered that she occasionally snuck into the research institute building late at night, she also took the initiative to clean up after her, helping her destroy the surveillance footage that had been accidentally recorded, although she didn’t know what this girl was trying to do.

The lower floors were not difficult.

It was just that this time it involved the floors above a hundred, which required higher authority.

What she didn’t quite understand was the last sentence—”If it affects the progress of the experiment, you don’t have to protect her.”

What was the situation? How could a research assistant affect the progress of an experiment?

The elevator was about to reach its destination. After thinking for a moment, she still dialed the number at the top of her contact list.

The long busy tone rang several times, and the elevator door had already opened.

She raised her hand and pressed the close button, standing in this re-sealed metal space until the call was connected.

“Ms. Chu,” Jiang Dexin’s words were very polite. “There’s a command that needs your authority to be approved.”

“What did she do again?”

As if she had expected it, the voice from the other end of the phone was elegant and intellectual, with a unique charm that had been precipitated by time, and her tone was light.

Jiang Dexin’s expression showed some helplessness, and she said concisely, “She entered the incubation room outside of working hours.”

…

After leaving the building, Cheng Ming walked towards the station.

The deterrent effect of the level three alert was still strong. There were basically no people along the way, only a few scattered transport vehicles were still busy.

The color of the streetlights had also changed. She glanced at them a few times. They were fitted with special filters to change the light waves. In order to make the transparent creatures have nowhere to hide and to end this turmoil as soon as possible, the Security Department had really put in a lot of effort.

After the heavy snow, the weather turned cold, and the mild coast finally had the chill of winter.

She put her hands in her pockets and thought as she walked.

Jiang Dexin’s words still echoed in her ears. The cold night wind blew, and her mind gradually cleared.

No.

Impossible…

How could she have been caught on surveillance at two or three in the morning?

Even on the night she had snuck down to the storage room, she had left before one o’clock.

Wisps of wind seeped from the gaps between the tall buildings, and the night seemed even colder. The warmth of the mycelia was clearly not enough, and the cold air drilled into her head through her skin.

She was supposed to get on the bus, but she suddenly froze in place.

Xiao Ming was urging her in her mind, but her ear canals were as if they were blocked by water, and the central nervous system that processed external stimuli was also frozen. She couldn’t receive any other information for a while.

So, the real situation was that at that time, someone else was in the research institute.

And that person—or rather, that “thing” that she didn’t even know if it was a person, looked like her?