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Chapter 79: Misconceptions

Countered by Shu Jun, Xia Yufeng was initially angry. However, the scene of a living person changing form became overly stimulating that his anger couldn’t hold on for long.

Is it a mutant beast? Is it an illusion? Everything in front of his eyes seeped into his nerves, but his brain couldn’t comprehend it.

The elites he brought along were all knocked unconscious by Shu Jun’s erosion vine, and they didn’t even make a sound. Shu Jun’s wing-like structure behind him suddenly spread open, wrapping forward, and the sharp bone tips on the edges were aimed directly at Xia Yufeng’s throat.

Everything was planned, Xia Yufeng thought dazedly. No wonder he found the informant from the Fourth Family so easily and left the city smoothly. He should have anticipated that, as cunning as Zhu Yanchen was, he wouldn’t let him easily discover where his partner was.

Unless he had complete confidence in his partner’s strength.

Zhu Yanchen had gone mad. This wasn’t even a problem of collaborating with synthetics. No matter how he looked at the thing in front of him, it had nothing to do with synthetics. Zhu Yanchen was even more ruthless than Zhu Sheng—he must have deliberately revealed his flaws to completely regain the position of Marshal while letting him fall into a trap and having him disappear cleanly.

He didn’t even mind sacrificing a few innocent elite soldiers.

A sense of oppression and fear choked Xia Yufeng’s throat, and he could only let out a hoarse and frightened cry.

“Why are you not speaking?” Shu Jun approached again; his vertical pupils glowing in the dim environment, looking particularly terrifying. “Weren’t you quite talkative just now?”

“Well… You’re going to kill me anyway…” Xia Yufeng suddenly felt a sense of sorrow.

“You’re so negative.” Shu Jun lifted the corners of his mouth.

“What do you want me to say? My perspective?” This indifferent smile provoked Xia Yufeng once again. “My perspective is that I’m not wrong!”

“I was destined to be a servant of the Zhu family since I was born. Nowadays, who isn’t just trying to make a living? Zhu Yanchen’s original research was already against the rules. If he were discovered, I would definitely be punished too! What’s wrong with me reporting it? If you want to talk about the player system, fine. Let’s talk about it. Zhu Yanchen doesn’t know the hardships of the world. There are currently only thirty thousand synthetics in total. The purification progress is slow. The settlement policies haven’t kept up, and there are tens of millions of people in the city waiting for land to survive! He abandoned the productivity project and went to research the Erosion Swamp? Sympathizing with synthetics?”

Xia Yufeng raised his voice and his tone became shriller.

“Did he ever sympathize with the patients who were invaded by erosion in the hospital? Did he sympathize with the abandoned residents of the settlements? Things always have priorities, and he simply doesn’t know what’s good for him!”

“I know, I’m a small-minded person. I can’t do great things, and I don’t care about fairness. I just want to live a peaceful life and let my parents live well. But now? The patriarch of the Zhu family is using me as a substitute, and the son of the Zhu family is treating me like garbage and throwing me to you. Do they see me as a human? Why can’t I stand up for myself?”

Shu Jun looked at Xia Yufeng expressionlessly and slowly raised his hand.

Xia Yufeng quickly closed his eyes, curled his neck, and waited for death to come—it took him a lot of effort not to wet his pants.

But the expected pain didn’t come for a long time. Xia Yufeng cautiously opened one eye and found that Shu Jun took out a small notebook from his pocket and was earnestly writing something, resembling a gossip reporter during an interview.

Xia Yufeng: “…” This doesn’t seem right.

“Hmm, this should represent the thoughts of many citizens.” Shu Jun swiftly finished writing a page, biting the tip of his pen. This action, accompanied by his terrifying and eerie wings and the deformed tail-like structure, appeared particularly discordant. “Why are you stunned? Continue, continue.”

Xia Yufeng: “…No, continue what?”

“Continue with the momentum you had just now? Also, say more bad things about Zhu Yanchen.”

With a burst of determination followed by a decline, Xia Yufeng struggled to muster some courage, but now he couldn’t find the same resentment as before. He could only stand there awkwardly.

No, what’s going on? Are they a bickering couple? Even if they are arguing, it’s too childish to say bad things about someone.

“If… If you’re going to kill me, just do it! Stop with all the nonsense!”

“In that case, I’ll make my move—”

Xia Yufeng quickly closed his eyes again, his neck tensing even more than half a minute ago. He waited for a while, but there was no movement. Xia Yufeng opened his eyes again—Shu Jun had a serious expression, trying his best to hold back a laugh.

Damn demon!

Xia Yufeng almost burst into tears, but he held back, showing his strength.

“I won’t tease you anymore.” Shu Jun suppressed his smile and put the notebook and pen back in his pocket. “Since you don’t want to cooperate, I’ll correct your misconceptions.”

At this point, Xia Yufeng couldn’t figure out how the other party would refute him. He had been sitting on the cold bench in a border stronghold for so many years that these thoughts had seeped into his bones. Moreover, the other party wasn’t even human, so at least their standpoint was questionable.

However, Shu Jun didn’t lecture him with any profound truths.

He took a deep breath, and his vertical pupils contracted. The barren land not far away began to tremble, and a pitch-black erosion substance crawled up from the ground, gathering together. It seemed to form a huge Erosion Swamp. But it didn’t end there. The erosion substance continued to twist and deform, entwining into bizarre catapults, hurling several large rocks.

The wreckage of the purifiers was accurately hit, causing splashes of muddy water. Shu Jun clearly held back his strength—if those rocks had hit harder, the fragments of the purifier would have been scattered everywhere, and the guards’ lives would have been in danger.

The sky had become even darker at some point, with a cold wind swirling in place. The assembled catapults in the distance automatically disintegrated, and the Erosion Swamp crawled closer. It didn’t slowly devour like a normal Erosion Swamp but instantly sprouted black spikes taller than a person, all standing haphazardly. Those sharp black spikes intentionally avoided the people present, but judging from their sharpness, they were capable of piercing through anyone.

Xia Yufeng slowly turned his gaze and looked at the spike closest to him—it wasn’t just a simple spike. When he got closer, he realized that they were actually sharp black fingers with pointed nails, dry as corpses.

“If I were to act now, even if I couldn’t kill all the humans in the distant cities, wiping out 90% of Y City’s population wouldn’t be a problem. And that’s just considering me alone… Just like you said, we have 30,000 people.”

Shu Jun approached, and the bone tips on his wings scratched Xia Yufeng’s neck, causing dark red droplets of blood to slowly seep out.

“Guess why I haven’t made a move yet? Do you really believe that a human official can come and negotiate terms so casually?”

Xia Yufeng gulped down his saliva.

Could it be that this seduction tactic wasn’t orchestrated by a synthetic human but by Zhu Yanchen? This could be considered “feeding oneself to the swamp”.

“How difficult it is for you or how much the people in the settlements suffer, I don’t care. Regardless of how noble the humans’ reasons may be, we don’t have an obligation to understand them—since the harm is man-made, someone must pay the price.”

Those gray-white eyes were extremely cold.

“If it weren’t for the ‘research on the Erosion Swamp’ and the sympathy for synthetic humans that you mentioned about Zhu Yanchen, you would already be finished.”

Xia Yufeng gasped for breath. “S-So, are you cooperating now? What is there to cooperate on? Are you expecting Zhu Yanchen to cure you…?” This seemed too unreliable.

“The reason for cooperation is simple: There is an Erosion Swamp that is several times stronger than me watching us now. It is just waiting for the synthetics and humans to perish together so that it can take advantage. I really don’t want to do something that harms ourselves and benefits others.”

Shu Jun’s tone was equally cold.

“So, if Zhu Yanchen can become the leader and handle the matter of synthetic humans properly, then we can talk about this. Don’t you want to stay alive? He is your only chance for survival, so you better cooperate with all his actions.”

With that, Shu Jun let go of Xia Yufeng. Originally, Xia Yufeng was already breathless under the other party’s pressure, and now he sat down in the mud.

“I’ll tell you—I’ll tell you anything you want to hear.”

Shu Jun stared at him for a while, then took out the small notebook again with a serious expression. Finally, the surrounding air began to flow. “Hmm. Zhu Yanchen’s reputation, the current situation in the city, the habits of news transmission, one by one.”

Xia Yufeng took two deep breaths and began to explain everything in detail.

Y City.

“Xia Yufeng should be close to the settlement by now.” Xia Liang took a sip of tea. “How pitiful.”

“The next step is a critical moment, and I can’t leave any flaws around him. He has always disliked me and wouldn’t listen to what I have to say. Shu Jun’s persuasive ability is stronger.” Zhu Yanchen sat in front of his desk, reading the documents in his hands.

“A critical moment? I don’t see it. Those people from the Xia family were nagging at me today, telling me to come here and ‘repair the relationship’ with you.” Xia Liang twirled her hair ends. “Since the synthetic humans have all fled and ‘Dong Lao’ has nothing to do, I can only come here to kill time. Don’t worry, I don’t intend to ruin your relationship with Shu Jun.”

Zhu Yanchen looked at Xia Liang in silence.

“What? Are the two of you allowed to have a lovey-dovey time underground, but others are forbidden to speak about it?” Xia Liang rolled her eyes.

“Ai Xiaoxiao,” Zhu Yanchen said in a low voice.

“Don’t blame her. Encountering such earth-shattering news, Dr. Ai also had no one to confide in. In the end, she still doesn’t know who I am.” Xia Liang took another sip of tea and picked up a piece of pastry. “Go ahead and do your work. Once this period is over, I can return to the Xia family and report my progress.”

“Didn’t Zhu Sheng ask you to lead the troops?”

Xia Liang’s hand, holding the pastry, froze in mid-air. “Hmm, not just me—Zhu Sheng recently recalled the troops from the border outposts, and all the important positions are on high alert. Everyone is prepared to retreat at any time. I suspect he wants to implement a turtling tactic. What exactly did you do two days ago?”

“Shu Jun partially turned into an Erosion Swamp in front of him.”

“Wait a minute?! This isn’t what we agreed upon…”

“The operational strategy needs to be adjusted.” Zhu Yanchen withdrew his gaze, glanced at the screen in front of him, and then lowered his head to look at the documents. “Shu Jun proposed a new approach that is more reasonable than our previous ideas.”

It was different from the formal discussions Zhu Yanchen was accustomed to. This approach was suggested by Shu Jun while sitting on his lap, blowing air into his ear. Although the occasion proposed by the other party was quite ambiguous, the approach itself was clever and daring—it was quite good.

Unfortunately, being caressed by the erosion substance and having the other person’s legs hooked around his waist, Zhu Yanchen had to exert a lot of effort to focus. He suspected that this was one of Captain Shu’s newly developed pranks.

“Be careful not to be dazzled by love.” Xia Liang seemed to sense Zhu Yanchen’s momentary distraction and muttered softly.

“I won’t tolerate him in matters of such magnitude.” Zhu Yanchen obviously heard her. “As a Marshal, my primary duty is still to protect the people.”

“Okay, okay. What should we do now?”

“Maintain the situation, reinforce the military firepower, and buy time.” Marshal Zhu adjusted his gloves and lowered his eyes. “Wait for the right moment.”

“What is the right moment?”

“The moment when Sigma is lured here.”

“…Speaking of that, I’ve been concerned about it for a while.” Xia Liang cleared her throat. “Never mind how to deceive Sigma, how do you plan to convince the synthetic humans to deal with Sigma?”

“I don’t intend to convince them to deal with Sigma.”

“What are you saying?!”

“My thoughts haven’t changed. As long as the synthetics don’t cause trouble, it’s already being tolerant. It’s up to the humans themselves to fight this battle.”

Zhu Yanchen picked up the photo of fireworks on the table.

“This war is nearly two hundred years late.”

Xia Liang held onto the pastry, not eating or letting go. She finally realized that, in a certain sense, her boss was a complete madman.

A perfectly timed call released her from the situation.

“Marshal, there’s a strange person outside the command center gate, shouting to see you. He says the bird-repelling device you ordered is almost ready and wants you to come down and take a look.”

“I’ll go now. Xia Liang, I won’t be back for a while. You can go home.”

“Tsk.” Miss Xia quickly finished the pastry and drank the tea. “Understood, understood. You go ahead. I’ll lock the door.”

“Okay.”

Zhu Yanchen put on his coat and walked quickly towards the exit of the building. As he crossed the empty hallway, someone was walking back slowly and brushed past him.

“Yes.” Yi Ning just glanced at Zhu Yanchen lightly and then turned his head away, continuing his phone call. “One Eye, Gray Claw, and Smoke. These are the recruitment records of only three individuals… Hmm, I see. Send me the coordinates of the settlement later.”

Noticing Zhu Yanchen slowing down his pace, Yi Ning turned his head again and nodded perfunctorily at him.

Zhu Yanchen also gave a cold nod in return. Both of them quickened their steps simultaneously, walking away from each other, disappearing into the darkness at either end of the corridor.

The author has something to say:

Today, I, like Xia Yufeng, have become a little brother (.

——

Shu Ge in A’Yan’s eyes: A straightforward (?) and adorable boyfriend.

Shu Ge in the eyes of others: What the hell is this guy?