Chapter 429: Fear After the Fact
Su Tao cried out in her heart, Oh my God.
When a mutant zombie is discovered, it should be announced immediately!
That way, she would have had time to prevent more innocent deaths.
She hadn’t expected the Xiao family to cover it up to protect their reputation, leading to such a massive casualty!
Wen Man shuddered at the thought. “If I hadn’t rushed back to check on Chili, I might have been caught in it too.”
“What about Zhiyu? Is she okay?” Su Tao asked anxiously.
Wen Man shook her head. “She’s fine. She was the first to run away. She only showed up briefly at the wedding, didn’t even leave a wedding gift, and took off right after. She’s in Changjing now, just enjoying herself.”
Su Tao quickly followed up. “Where is that mutant zombie now?”
“I really don’t know,” Wen Man replied helplessly.
Su Tao immediately called Minister Xu in Changjing to ask for information.
Minister Xu, clearly overwhelmed, answered, “I was just about to call you. I sent you an email with six locations where traces of mutant zombies have been found. I can only provide rough areas—you’ll have to pinpoint the exact spots yourself.”
When Su Tao opened the email, her head spun.
The areas were huge!
But with lives at stake, there was no time to hesitate. She chose small sections within those regions to monitor and constructed teleportation gates, tirelessly traveling back and forth to search personally.
Her hard work paid off. After a week of relentless pursuit, she managed to track down and capture four mutant zombies.
Shen Wencheng, the lead researcher, went from being thrilled at receiving the captured zombies to becoming numb.
If Su Tao told him she had caught all the mutant zombies in existence, he would have believed her.
The hunt continued for another week. In the shadows, the Siren—an intelligent mutant—began noticing a pattern. It kidnapped a high-ranking official from Changjing and extracted the truth from him.
“It’s… it’s just a guess—I have no concrete evidence!” the official stammered, desperate to save his life. “Maybe it’s just your virus mutating uncontrollably.”
The Siren sneered. Without another word, it thrust its hand through his chest, ripped out his blood-soaked lungs, and devoured them.
“Very well—Taoyang.”
*
Exhausted from the endless chase, Su Tao decided to check on Shen Wencheng’s research progress.
They needed a solution. Capturing the mutant zombies without a way to kill them was just postponing disaster.
When she arrived at the research base, she found chaos.
Shen Wencheng was straddling a man, punching him mercilessly.
Everyone was too shocked to intervene. No one had ever seen the gentle, bookish Mr. Shen lose control like this.
Eventually, two of Su Tao’s bodyguards dragged him off.
Eyes bloodshot and trembling with rage, Shen Wencheng shouted, “Lin Xing! I’ll kill you! How dare you steal the sample data! Do you know how much we’ve risked? If you damaged it, how will you face the people of Changjing? How will you face humanity?!”
The man on the floor—Lin Xing—tried to crawl away. Face flushed with shame, he stammered, “Y-you’re slandering me!”
But Shen Wencheng wasn’t done. He broke free and lunged at Lin Xing again.
Su Tao’s gaze swept over the crowd, and everyone froze, not daring to intervene. Lin Xing was left to take another beating until he passed out.
Even after the fight, Shen Wencheng collapsed onto the floor, sobbing uncontrollably.
“You stole my research credit before—I let it go because I don’t care about fame. But this—” He pounded the floor with his fists. “We are this close to success! Every delay costs countless lives! How could you—how dare you!”
His cries echoed through the room, and his subordinates wept alongside him.
A senior scientist from Changjing, Dr. Kong, was so furious that his beard trembled. Pointing at the unconscious Lin Xing, he spat, “You… you beast!” before coughing up blood from sheer anger.
The room descended into chaos.
Taking a deep breath, Su Tao ordered her bodyguards, “Wake him up.”
Without hesitation, they doused Lin Xing with cold water until he sputtered back to consciousness—only to be kicked into unconsciousness again.
“Throw him out,” Su Tao said coldly. “If anyone else dares to pull a stunt like this, they will be executed on the spot.”
The bodyguards dragged Lin Xing far from Taoyang, leaving him in the wilderness where roaming zombies would make quick work of him.
The incident shook Shen Wencheng to his core. For days, he was haunted by nightmares of losing the research data, forcing him to sleep in the lab just to feel secure.
Su Tao herself was so furious that when Dr. Sun—a senior figure from Changjing—came to apologize, she didn’t bother hiding her anger.
With a heavy heart, Dr. Sun lowered his head and admitted their failure in overseeing personnel.
Su Tao, still simmering with frustration, said bluntly, “First it was Dang Weiran, now it’s Lin Xing. Is Changjing sending us resources or saboteurs?”
When Dr. Sun attempted to apologize again, she softened—just a little.
“I’m not blaming you personally,” she sighed. “But can you understand our frustration? We are so close to success—so close to a breakthrough that could destroy the mutant zombies en masse. How could I not be angry? How could I not be afraid?”
When Dr. Sun returned to Changjing, he immediately called the highest authorities and unleashed his fury. Even the President himself was alarmed.
Heads rolled. Several research institute leaders were dismissed, and the President personally awarded Shen Wencheng the title of “Academician,” recognizing his rightful contribution. He also compensated him with five million federal credits.
But when Shen Wencheng received the news, he simply muttered, “Oh,” and buried himself back in his work.
No time to look back. No time to stop.
