“Unknown? Are you sure this is right?”
“Yes. I tested it three times, and all the reports were the same. I can only confirm that it is some kind of animal’s blood, but we don’t have any matches for it in the lab.”
“Could it be an unknown creature?” the student continued.
Professor Ma looked down and pondered for a moment: “Lu Xu, could you stay for longer? Do another analysis, record the creature’s blood in detail, and we’ll send it to the biology department for further analysis tomorrow morning.”
Humans inherently fear the unknown, but for an obsessed scholar, the unknown means something more to discover.
If it really is an unknown creature, it’s best to cooperate with the biology department, Professor Ma thought.
He doesn’t believe in gatekeeping research, especially in terms of science. Having other professionals help him out would be tremendous for him.
“I’ll do it right away,” Lu Xu responded, and he left.
As soon as he left, the professor was once again engrossed in the writings on the bamboo scrolls, as if it were a siren beckoning him to come closer.
And before his eyes, the research on ancient ethnic minorities seemed to come alive.
Night time.
Lu Xu extracted the blood from the ink and placed the sample carefully under a microscope. Through the lenses, a dark, black colour came into view.
The blood seemed to squirm.
He froze for a moment, thinking that he was too tired. Rubbing his eyes, he leaned over at the microscope over and over again, not believing his own eyes.
“Is the equipment malfunctioning? That can’t be…”
He felt his hand prick.
“What the…”
He hurriedly took off his gloves and saw that the skin on his finger was swollen and red like an insect had bit into it.
After confirming that there was no broken skin, he couldn’t help but mumble aloud.
“Tsk, damn bugs… I told them not to eat in the lab, and none of them listened!”
Later at night, in the University’s postgraduate dorms.
The cool night breeze blew in the dark sky, and a crescent moon revealed itself beyond the gloomy clouds.
Lu Xu tossed and turned in his sleep, and sweat painted his back and forehead. He muttered something strange in his sleep, and it was obvious he was having a nightmare.
In his dreamscape, he dreamt of a village surrounded by mountains and dense forests. In the dead of night, the village was completely shrouded in darkness, and the door of someone’s hut creaked open.
An old man stumbled towards him in the darkness.
Lu Xu froze and dashed forward to help the old man up, but the old man could only stare into his eyes in horror.
“Y-you have to run,” the old man with crazed eyes said. “They know you’re here… You need to leave now!”
The old man’s words seemed to stun him, and he could feel his consciousness fade in and out.
His voice didn’t seem human; it was an otherworldly form of fear that accompanied the old man’s words.
The old man’s face started to morph, and his features became exaggerated and distorted, and his bony claws firmly grasped onto Lu Xu’s shoulders.
“H-hey, let go!” Lu Xu pushed, but the old man’s grip was like iron, and his claws dug into his shoulder blades.
At this moment, a sigh could be heard.
Immediately afterwards, one door after another was forced open, and the sounds of footsteps upon footsteps resounded in the streets.
But there wasn’t anyone—only scarlet lanterns that bobbed up and down.
The lanterns beckoned Lu Xu, but he couldn’t breathe. He could feel them approaching; he knew they were dangerous, and he knew…
He knew that they wanted him to remain forever.
“Lu Xu! Bud, wake up!”
Lu Xu woke up in a puddle of sweat, feeling that his roommate on the lower bunk bed was kicking the upper bunk.
Gripping his pounding chest, the dregs of the nightmare left him, taking the memories of the dream away with them.
“Lu Xu! You up? Wet dream?” His roommate teased him, peering upward.
“Shut up…” Lu Xu muttered with a manic expression. Seeing his expression, his roommate wisely closed his mouth, and they were silent once again.
In the darkness, a scarlet light flickered under the skin of Lu Xu’s fingers, and it crawled upwards along his arm.
It was rare that nothing strange happened to Lu Yibei for the past two days, and he was in a fantastic mood. After class, he carried his strangely heavy guitar bag and hummed as he left his final class for the day.
He smiled as he checked the notification on his phone and stopped by the security department right by the gate.
“Excuse me, I’m collecting a package for Lu Yibei.”
Glancing at the shelves behind him, the security guard sighed and pointed backwards with his thumb, saying, “Come in and take a look for yourself.”
He then returned his attention to his phone.
Lu Yibei passed by his side, and he could see that he was also playing [Love and Magical Girl].
“You play this too?”
“To kill time.”
“Who is your favourite character?”
“Of course, it’s Bai Xiaohua!”
“Good taste! What faction are you in now?”
The security guard was visibly excited. “I’m in…”
“Wait, both of us, at the same time…”
“Mi Qiu Bichi!”, “Xingxing Xiaosan!”
“Oh.”
It seems that there were fewer things in common between the two of them.
After collecting his parcel, he wasn’t in a hurry to open it. He didn’t want that damned Zigu to know that he was still at the university.
Looking at the various materials in the box, he couldn’t help but rub his hands excitedly.
“Finally, I can start making the Charm of Spring Winds!”
