He Yuan dropped Xiao Yu on his feet and patted the boy's head. "How have you been Yu?"
Xiao Yu looked up at He Yuan before bursting into tears. "Squad leader Ling~"
He Yuan just patted the boy's head once more for lack of anything better to do.
After bawling his eyes out, Xiao Yu's eyes suddenly widened and he pointed at He Yuan. "Wait. Squad leader Ling! You-you..." He was speechless. He didn't see wrong all those months ago right? Squad leader Ling had actually been infected, so why did he look okay? Why was he speaking?
He Yuan only smiled and looked to the direction he'd found his system standing. No one was there. He looked further and realized 888 was walking away and his brows furrowed. He had a feeling something was wrong.
He turned his attention back to Xiao Yu, who was still speaking.
Xiao Yu looked around in confusion. "I didn't see wrong right? You were really... How? Was there a mistake somewhere?" His eyes narrowed and he leaned closer to He Yuan to whisper, "There was a mistake wasn't there? You weren't really infected. It was a setup so we would be forced to kill you!
-It was that Lu Ming wasn't it? He was the one after your life."
"Mr. Du, are you coming?" A voice said and Xiao Yu kept quiet.
"Sure." He Yuan directed at the owner of the voice before turning back to Xiao Yu with a helpless smile. "I'll see you later."
Xiao Yu nodded firmly with a bright smile. "Okay, squad leader Ling!"
He Yuan smiled and walked over to the voice owner. It was Feng Huang. He had brought the scientist along with him to the military base. This meeting had been He Yuan's idea.
Two months ago, when he received the test results from Feng Huang, he'd made copies of the results and sent it out to bases all over the country via telegram.
With the loss of smartphone connections, the surviving humans had reverted back to this form of communication to keep in touch with each other all over the world.
The test result was actually a good excuse for He Yuan to return to the military base.
After sending out the results, he'd called for a meeting and had chosen the military base as the location. The base leader of the military base did not disagree so the location was decided.
The leaders of the other bases were also good with this. They had no idea who He Yuan was so they couldn't trust him but a lot of them had had dealings with the base leader of the military base and were willing to trust him.
For He Yuan, this was also a form of safety precaution. With the leaders of all the bases in the country present, the need for dominance would make most of them counter each other and all of them would have to rethink their actions before harming him because most bases wanted to be better than others and what better way to achieve that than being the base that discovered the vaccine?
The search for the vaccine for the infection was still in full swing so when presented with someone that happened to have the key in his blood, the leaders would be extra cautious and would prohibit the each other from acting rashly.
He made sure to keep his identity a secret before he arrived here so Du Jian and Lu Ming were sure to get a pleasant surprise.
He Yuan, Feng Huang and the various leaders of different bases with their own scientists were led to a large meeting hall located in the centre of the base. He Yuan clenched his fists to contain his anger at Du Jian and Lu Ming. Now was not the time.
In the hall was the leader of the military base with various higher ups present -Du Jian and Lu Ming were also part of the lot.
"...was part of the GHGD project so I am most familiar with the toxins. A person suddenly becoming the key to the vaccine is a complete sham. An experiment most likely carried out by a low budget wannabe scientist.
-With the state of the world, educational achievements mean nothing anymore so random people would pop up pretending to be what they're not and causing trouble everywhere." Du Jian was saying to the base leader.
The gray haired man sighed and rubbed his face. "I understand what you mean Dr. Du. Trust me, I do and I tried explaining this to the others but they weren't willing to let a 'chance' slip by."
Du Jian scoffed. "We'll see what the imposter has to offer then. This better not be a complete waste of my precious time. There are life altering discoveries to be made in my lab after all."
Lu Ming listened closely to Du Jian's words and frowned slightly. He also thought the sudden appearance of a vaccine prospect was ridiculous. If anything, Du Jian was supposed to be the one to discover it. Even he, Lu Ming would've had a higher chance than this no-name scientist.
As soon as the group stepped in the hall, with He Yuan and Feng Huang at the rear, Du Jian's and Lu Ming's eyes turned wide as saucers. Even the base leader of the military base was a little shell shocked.
It was impossible. He Yuan was supposed to be a zombie. Lu Ming was the most shocked. After all, he was the one who was present and had personally witnessed He Yuan's instant reaction to the toxin.
"You-you're supposed to be a z-zomb.." Lu Ming trailed off as he pointed a shaky finger at He Yuan, causing everyone present to shift about uneasily.
He Yuan shrugged with a bored look. "I am."
This made everyone in the room to be on high alert and activate their abilities, ready to reduce He Yuan to ashes if he so much as breathed the wrong way. There were also very surprised and confused. Zombies were supposed to be incapable of speaking.
He Yuan scoffed in his mind. He had been with these people for over thirty minutes. If he wanted to sneak attack them, he would've done that a while ago.
Feng Huang saw the reactions of everyone and sighed before coming to stand in front of He Yuan. "It would be best if we were all civil. Did any of you not read the reports? Were you expecting me to come without the 'zombie' that was tested to be the key to producing a vaccine?"
A couple of leaders relaxed a bit at that whilst Du Jian's face twisted unto an ugly sneer. "It's impossible. He can't be the key."
He Yuan raised a brow at Du Jian. "Why can't I be the key? You're most probably dismayed by what this discovery means. You wouldn't have people fawning over you anymore because with me here, you and all your years of 'research' will become practically useless."
Du Jian's nostrils flared in anger. Du Ling couldn't be the key. Anybody but Du Ling! "You-"
"Hush." He Yuan cut him off. "A quick experiment would be enough to verify whether Feng Huang was telling the truth in the reports or not, why don't we proceed hm?"
The scientists from the bases all nodded eagerly. If the reports were true then this would be amazing for the survival of humanity. They were all excited to get their hands on He Yuan's blood and body samples.
For the next hour, the scientists all collected samples from He Yuan. He Yuan only let one person -chosen by the rest of course- to handle the sample collection. He didn't want that vermin Du Jian anywhere within five feet of him.
At the end of the process, He Yuan and Feng Huang were allocated a resting space, that was far away from everyone else and well guarded in case of any mishap.
"I'll lead him there," Lu Ming volunteered.
"No." He Yuan said with a sharp glare.
The base leader of the military base looked between the both of them and sighed. "Well Lu Ming is the leader of the best squad in this base. I would feel assured if he handled this case."
Lu Ming's lips arched and He Yuan reverted to his bored frown and followed after Lu Ming with Feng Huang by his side.
When they got close enough to the end of the base, Lu Ming turned around to face He Yuan whilst fiddling with his fingers. He'd given it a lot of thought. Du Ling was a simple minded man so there was no way he would've figured out that him and Du Jian were responsible for the incident that ended up with him infected.
With the current state of things, Lu Ming already knew that Du Ling might end up becoming someone important due to his stroke of fortune. Du Jian was slowly turning away from him with Ren's presence.
If he managed to get Du Ling back then he wouldn't necessarily suffer a loss. He wasn't even going to wait until the results came out to make his move.
Du Ling might be simple minded but he his guts wasn't so large. He wouldn't come into a base full of so many strong people with abilities and tell such an absurd lie.
That Feng Huang man by Du Ling's side was still human and Du Ling was even capable of talking. The test results were most probably true.
Lu Ming looked at He Yuan with teary eyes. "Du Ling.. You wouldn't blame me right? That time, you had been infected and I was only following the base rules. I didn't want to hurt you but I had no choice.
-No matter what, we once dated for three years and feelings aren't that easy to get rid off, you know."
Feng Huang looked from He Yuan to Lu Ming and made himself scarce and He Yuan just stared at Lu Ming without a change in his expression. He didn't even have it in him to be surprised.