Chapter 150 - 150 - The Past And The Cure

Loud siren echoed in his head, bringing about a painful headache. He snapped his heavy lids open. They seemed heavy and were closing on its own.

Fan Xui took all his effort just to open them wide. 

Something tight constricted his face and was not allowing him to breathe properly.

Fan Xui looked down over his nose to see a gas mask.

'Oxygen mask..it is not of help,' he swiftly shook his head, loosening the straps a bit. Then he just turned his head and rubbed his face on the pillow until the mask fell sideways.

Only after which did he vigilantly look around.

The room was intricately decorated with beautiful paintings and few vases. There was a waiting room for the patient's family attached to the entryway.

But none of that beauty could mask the smell of the hospital.

Fan Xui groaned loudly. 'A VIP room during an apocalypse. Seriously, it must be that Qian's idea.'

It was reasonable he suspected his friend. That man child made him drove around a Porche during an apocalypse. To be honest, that car was never that comfortable to drive on the jammed road.

'God, I need to have a talk with that man child,'

The loud siren disrupted his thoughts.

'ah... stop that....someone stop that sound....' Fan Xui groaned loudly. 'Zombies will come..... just stop it.'

Even though they were n the settlement, it was risky. A loud sound like this can attract a zombie hoard.

A few thousands? they can handle, but the settlement walls and even the military would not be able to take out a few hundred thousand zombies.

'Darn it... I have to get up and deal with it. Didn't I order all the fire alarms to be disabled? Who the fuck....' he moved his arms, but they don't seem to listen to his command.

'I can barely move my fingers...why?'

That annoying siren was not of help. It made his headache even worse than it was before. 

'Goodness, someone stop that sound. Qian! go to it,'

Suddenly he remembered the reality.

Qian was no more....

He saw his dear friend being burned to death right in front of his eyes. Even if he closed his eyes, he could not get that petrifying sight out of his head or the sight of his skin being burned away.

'Shit.... Qian is dead..... How did I survive? I was too close to the flames,'

Back then, even his body was in flames. He froze the entire room, and their bodies but that girl's flames were too powerful.

'Blue... they were blue... even my powerful ice attack could not cull it,' he silently gritted his teeth. 'if only.... if only I was powerful... if only I was careful....'

Fan Xui growled loudly. 'It's all because of that girl.....'

He could remember the day vividly in his memory.

****That day before Qian finally found the cure, there had been rumours going around in the campus about it. At first, he did not believe it.

He ran to Qian's lab to confirm it. And to his surprise, there was a cure being synthesised right in front of his eyes.

"It will take fifteen minutes.. Fifteen minutes and we can save the entire humanity..." Qian said while crying hideously. "It is my payback to this world for all my sins. If only we scientists were not researching about that virus... if only..."

"shh..." Fan patted his trembling back. "It was your fault completely."

But that was all in the past. With that cure, they can solve all their issues. They can finally kill the undead once and for all. As for the rest of the humans, they will turn back to normal human with no abilities. It was the price to pay for the cure.

Qian Wen chuckled softly, wiping his tear-stained cheeks. "Has anyone told you? You are so bad at consoling someone,"

"Been told that a lot," Fan Xui sat on the nearby chair. "Must be my temperament. I can't change it."

"You have to if you want to find a lover," his friend swiftly walked close and sat opposite him. "I head from a little birdie that you have your eyes set on someone.... this person was named Zou Yue...."

He sighed loudly. "I-I just looked into him. This person has been stalking me for a while." he looked down at his polished shoe on a sad note.

He did miss his stalker, who always followed him around like a puppy. It had been a few weeks since he last saw him hanging out on top of a building.

That young lad observed him; Fan Xui did his own share as well. The young man had nothing but scraps to eat, yet still there was a small smile always on his face.

His small posture made him seem cuter than expected. Even that gruesome scar on his face could not take the beauty away from his shimmering eyes.

"I dealt with him..."

He had left a few packets of freshly baked bread in the same spot he would sit and watch his window. But that person never came back to claim them. It was as if he just disappeared from this world.

"After all, it was normal for a person to disappear into this world we live in," he mumbled ever so softly.

A few beakers and test tubes shattered behind them.

"Hey what have I told you? Those are precious samples!" Qian rushed to check the damage. Thankfully, the recent test subjects were all safe in the testing beakers.

He walked close as well, to check on the ruckus. The glass shards crunched under his shoes.

"Wait, don't step on glass. Tia clean it up," Qian pointed to a young woman with straight black hair and dressed in white scrubs with her head low. "I'm talking to you. Clean this up,"

The young women looked up at them with her glowing blue eyes. "It's.. you..." she said, gritting her teeth.

He frowned slightly. "Who is this?" he looked at her peculiarly. Those eyes were not normal. They held deep grudge and resettlement in them.

"My new assistant. The last one was gobbled up by a blood sucking oak. I mean, I warned him not to get too close to it, but the man just had to do it." Qian pointed to the blood dripping branch that was contained in a huge glass beaker. "I still can't fathom how this small thing was able to just swallow him..."

His friend kept ranting on and on

Fan Xui still had his eyes on the girl who was silently standing there. Her hands were clenched in a fist and her posture seemed so defensive. 'Qian really has a way to attract troublesome people..... I'll tell him to fire her in private,'

He walked close to him and patted his back. "You were telling me about the cure?"

"Yes, yes... come here," the young man child excitedly hopped over to the nearby testing table and gingerly held up a cage. "this.. This is the reason we are able to achieve it."

Fan Xui took a deeper look. The little thing inside was so fast that he could not get a good look. He could make out grey fur and black beady eyes. "Hamster?"

"No, a rat! This is our subject zero! Our initial testing subject! Can you believe it! This rat is what started it all! This rat..." Qian swooned and leaned on the table. "Fan, I don't know if you will ever understand. This rat is almost twenty years old. This little thing can not only manipulate time... but it also carries the cure....."

"Twenty years?"

"Yes, twenty years. This little rat..." he laughed like a maniac. "Every time this rat got old, it reversed the time and got young. When we were initially testing it, we did not realise it because the intelligent bugger always only reminded his body a few days! This bugger is so intelligent."

Fan Xui just looked into the cage at the peculiar creature. It stopped running around right in front of him. Its cute paws tightly clenched the bars, hissing loudly at his face. "screech! Screech....."

He could not believe it, but... the rat was actually tearing up. It was crying.

"Is this normal?"

Qian Wen instantly searched the counter and took out a cotton swab. "Rats cry... but this bugger's tears..." he put it inside and wiped the little rat's face. "It is our cure. Who knew right?"

His friend seemed ecstatic to get more sample. He placed the little crying rat on the counter and went to research the new cotton swab.

Fan Xui stood I front of the rat. Somehow he could feel an incomprehensible amount of grief just seeping out of this small creature. He half squatted down at the table's lever and looked into its beady black eyes. "Who made you cry? Is it because you are in a cage? Is it that because of that bad researcher?"

The rat shook its head.

"You can understand me?"

The rat nodded.

"Then why are you crying?"

"Stop it Fan. Its tears are useful," Qian shouted for the other side.

"We still need to check up on your test subject's psychological state," Fan Xui sighed looked at Qian's busy back. "What makes a rat cry in agony?"

The little rat gestured to the small notepad nearby.

"You want this?" he handed it to it.

The clever little rat dipped its small fist into the water bowl and placed its paws on the paper. 

His curiosity was peaked. "Are you writing?"

"No, it just likes to play in water..." Qian answered him.

Continuously, it kept placing its paws and gestured for him to take it.

Fan Xui took it. To his surprise, there were words on it.

It just read Baba.

"Baba? Is that someone you know? your father,"

The rat nodded vigorously. It kept anxiously looking at him, expecting something.

"It's nice that you have a father.."

The rat exaggeratedly sighed and squatted down on its chubby ass. It pointed to him and then at his mouth.

"My mouth?.... um talking?"

The rat excitedly stood up, shaking its tail.

"Is your baba the one you talk to? Do you miss him?"

The rat nodded and started to cry even loudly. His cute little nose twitched so much that even snot rolled down.

"I miss him too…." Fan whispered thinking about his stalker.

"Wow, now you are talking about your love troubles with a rat. Sweet man, very sweet.." Qian shouted.

"I told you I dealt with it,"

The glass beakers shattered once again.

"Tia! I told you to be careful of the samples. Goodness sake, go to the secondary lab. I'll clean it myself!"

*****