Chapter 32: Beyond Cure?

For nearly four years of college, starting from a good impression at first sight and an unforgettable second meeting with Shen Ai, how many days and nights of endless longing…

‘Because the dark night has passed…’ The singing was still going on, the song not yet finished.

Chen Fengshi gritted his teeth secretly, his fists clenching involuntarily. If Little An helped clear his name of the giant black pot flying all over the academy right now, his great love-chasing plan could return to its original route. Conversely, if the problem of the black pot could not be solved, then he and Shen Ai would be equivalent to a permanent farewell.

Given Shen Ai’s principled nature, it was impossible for her to have any dealings with the current him, not even as friends.

Chen Fengshi took a deep breath, he had made a decision!

Just as he was about to speak, Little An suddenly opened her mouth and said: “The black pot cannot be washed clean, and for safety you cannot return to school. What year are you in? If you’re about to graduate, just say you have a work internship; if you haven’t graduated yet, then drop out.”

The words Chen Fengshi was about to spit out were forcefully swallowed back. With a face full of disbelief, he asked in reply: “Are you kidding me? Are you messing with me? This joke has gone too far!”

“The repair rate of the Fungal Demon Parasite’s False Memory is not one hundred percent, but about eighty percent, and the failed repairs will play a role in strengthening the memory. With this kind of thing happening, no matter how successful the repair is, the storm has already started. In the ears of the Fungal Demon scouts, an abnormal character like you will inevitably become a second-stage investigation target—still staying in school, still contacting people you know, are you afraid it’s not easy enough for the Fungal Demon Parasites to find you?” Little An suddenly started the car.

Chen Fengshi sat in silence, the usual sparkle suddenly gone from his eyes, these words were simply despairing… yes, despair…

The car sped through the dark night, Little An did not say anything more, perhaps the speech she just made was already too long and too much.

Chen Fengshi also did not speak, the road ahead of the car windshield constantly approached, continuously flashing by from both sides.

The late-night streets were so quiet, the silent road allowing the car to speed along.

And at this time, the music in the car changed to ‘There is a Kind of Love Called Letting Go’. Chen Fengshi very depressingly skipped to the next song, but, it was unexpectedly ‘Single Love Song’!

“…Did you specially preset this playlist for me?” Chen Fengshi really wanted to punch and smash it, and he indeed could smash it with one punch now, but—considering the unknown price of this car, he lacked the confidence to pay for it… this thought made his heart silently weep, without money you can’t be willful, so tragic!

The car stopped on the emergency lane by the roadside, Little An turned on the hazard lights, looked at him and reached out her hand saying: “Hand it over.”

“…” Chen Fengshi said nothing and directly handed over the Fungal Demon Primordial Body.

He didn’t say he wouldn’t give it, even though the matter with Shen Ai was already hopeless; Little An also didn’t tell him to beg, silently peeling off the tin foil. As red mist surged out from her body and skin, her palms were also covered by red mist, and that Protoplast, originally as small as dust, suddenly spewed out rich red mist from within, spinning faster and faster, suspended between Little An’s slowly separating palms, which were held in front of her as if cradling something.

More and more red mist surged out of Little An’s body, the thickness rapidly expanding from the initial one centimeter to five centimeters, ten centimeters…

He suddenly realized that Little An driving the car onto the highway and stopping in this position was for safety considerations.

For a moment, in Chen Fengshi’s eyes, the area inside and outside the car was entirely filled with red mist, and the center of the red mist was Little An. She lightly closed her eyes, and the red mist around the Fungal Demon Primordial Body between her palms suddenly extended out one fine red mist thread after another.

This scene made Chen Fengshi feel very uncomfortable in his heart, always feeling as if Little An and the Fungal Demon Primordial Body had merged, as if they were the same. Especially Little An, situated in the red mist, was herself wearing a black outfit, the combination of black clothes and red mist, on top of being on this pitch-black and silent highway, driving a black car, made this scene even more full of evil aura, running completely counter to the greatness and holiness of light.

He even couldn’t help but flash a thought: ‘Is Little An, fundamentally, a Fungal Demon Main Body?’

Fine red mist threads extended out of the car, and then in Chen Fengshi’s eyes, those red mist threads extended out into the night sky in one direction at an astonishing speed!

What exactly were these red threads? What was the principle?

Chen Fengshi didn’t know, but he felt Little An definitely knew, it was just that, even if she knew she wouldn’t say it, right.

And right now, the direction those red mist threads were extending towards was—

‘The direction of Xuancheng University?’ Chen Fengshi was only then able to confirm that Little An’s cleanup work had already begun. But this scene was really very similar to when a Parasite connected to the Fungal Demon, just that the red mist threads were much finer.

Right at this time, Chen Fengshi received many photos sent by Skinny, so many that he could only temporarily mute his phone. The messages finally stopped, and Chen Fengshi was able to scroll back up to look at the photos.

“What is this! Over sixty photos?” Chen Fengshi finally scrolled back to the very top, so he could clearly see the photos. As for why be so redundant? Probably OCD—it would feel all kinds of uncomfortable not to scroll back to the first message and look down.

The person in the photo, he didn’t know, the second one he still didn’t know, the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth… after looking through all sixty-six photos, there were only six familiar faces.

But, whether he knew them or not was not the key at all.

Because the people in these photos, every single one of them was as skinny as skeletons, or simply skeletons wrapped in skin!

After the photos were sent, Skinny followed up with a text message saying that these were photos compiled from the school forum, which was what he had mentioned before, that many people got a strange disease and became skinny as ghosts overnight.

There was also a voice message following that, Chen Fengshi clicked it open, and heard Skinny unable to hold back his laughter as he said: ‘Aren’t the last two a couple? I heard they were doing the thing they love to do at the time, and as they were doing it, the woman saw the man getting thinner bit by bit, so she reminded him, but the man didn’t want to stop, and just casually brushed it off saying you definitely look a size thinner when sweating. As a result, before they even finished, the woman said something wasn’t right, he had lost a lot of weight, and she felt she had no strength, and her chest seemed to have disappeared. The man impatiently opened his eyes, and was so scared he instantly went limp, his perfectly fine girlfriend suddenly turning into a skin-wrapped skeleton!’

‘You can still laugh at such a dirty and tragic thing?’

Skinny sent a message back scolding: ‘I don’t believe you didn’t laugh! It’s tragic, but it’s really hilarious!’

Chen Fengshi didn’t laugh, he really didn’t laugh, he couldn’t laugh… His intuition told him that it definitely had something to do with the battle that night.

‘Just assume I laughed, is there any other news?’ Chen Fengshi didn’t want to explain, if it were in the past, he couldn’t say for sure whether he would laugh or not. Because it is from the standpoint of it having nothing to do with oneself that one can feel the humor.

‘I heard Sister Yao told that group of tall, rich, and handsome guys at school that you are her man, and no matter whether you break up or not, looking for trouble with you is just not giving her face. I don’t know if it’s true or not, could it be that you sacrificed your looks at night and kept Sister Yao happy?’

Skinny talking such nonsense wouldn’t normally be anything, but, he who always loved using text messages, suddenly used voice, and his tone was especially lewd!

Exactly at this moment Little An opened her eyes and looked over, in that gaze, it was as if she was saying: I didn’t expect Chen Fengshi to be so bottomless.

Chen Fengshi annoyedly sent a message back: ‘Am I that kind of person? Relying on my full body of righteous aura, kind heart, and handsome elegance, Sister Yao definitely realized the matter of the illusory memory, felt guilty in her heart, and so did something to make up for her uneasy conscience. Besides, hasn’t it been confirmed yet? Alright, alright, enough said, tomorrow night call Big Guy and his couple to Xuanxuan Hotel in Yitian District for dinner, six o’clock sharp, no need to guess, of course it’s because I struck it rich, details tomorrow.’

‘Hit the nail on the head! You sold yourself! Sister Yao even gave you a reward, didn’t she? Tell me, how much! Help introduce me, I’m willing too! I’m still a virgin, even if my skills aren’t good, Sister Yao can still give a big red packet, right?’

Chen Fengshi didn’t want to continue ruining his image, and directly sent a message: ‘You have been blocked, the other party cannot receive your messages.’

Skinny very unhappily sent over one word: Get lost!

Chen Fengshi pretended to be composed and turned off the screen, sighing: “Sigh! Careless in making friends!” Then he pretended to have just discovered that Little An had already opened her eyes, and with a face full of expectation asked: “Are you done?”

“The good news is: only six people’s illusory memories cannot be restored.” Little An’s words directly made the overthinking Chen Fengshi unable to feel happy. He made full mental preparation for the worst and asked: “Then, what is the bad news?”

Little An opened the car window, shook her head of long curly hair, wiped off the fine layer of sweat seeping from her forehead, breathed in the fresh air from outside the window, and felt extremely refreshed. She glanced at Chen Fengshi, who was clearly suppressing his anxious emotions, and said in a still very indifferent tone: “The bad news is that among these six people, there is Sister Yao, and also her younger sister Little Yao…”

Little An stopped here, seeing that Chen Fengshi’s expression finally revealed a nervousness he couldn’t hide, and then spat out the worst part of the bad news as he wished: “…That’s right, just as you worried, Shen Ai’s best friend Jiang Yuan is also on the list of failed cleansings.”

“Damn it!” Chen Fengshi angrily hammered the dashboard, the moment his fist fell he suddenly remembered that he didn’t know how much he would have to pay if he smashed it! He hurriedly retracted his strength, but even so, the fall still shook the dashboard, accompanied by a tremor as if the whole car had shaken.

Little An silently looked at the dashboard, and then at Chen Fengshi’s raised hand, and his nervous face as he uneasily touched the dashboard to check for damage.

“It’s fine, it’s fine, if there is any problem, I will definitely bear the repair costs!” Chen Fengshi even lacked confidence saying this, the dashboard man, who knew what problems could arise?

“This car is my friend’s.” Little An leaned over and lowered her head, checking under the dashboard to see if there was any damage. As a result, the paleness of her chest was inevitably somewhat faintly visible, and although the range was small, it was enough to make Chen Fengshi, who practiced the virgin arts, unnaturally avert his gaze.

After a moment, Little An didn’t find any damaged areas either, and sat up straight with a sigh of relief; this Mustang was her best friend’s beloved.

Chen Fengshi suddenly thought of the old lady holding a child he had just seen, and couldn’t help but say: “You specially drove your friend’s car to see that old lady?”

“My best friend insisted on switching cars with me, we’ve been switched for four months, I didn’t think much of it at the time, and unintentionally it turned into using her as a buffer zone, thinking about it, it’s quite fitting.”