Chapter 116: Zerg Invasion 10
In biology, a culture medium refers to a nutritional substrate, composed of different nutrients, prepared to allow organisms to grow and reproduce. It is equivalent to providing food and a living environment for biological growth.
The ‘culture medium’ these two people were talking about was clearly not a thing, but a person.
They were talking about her!
Chu Yian didn’t know what these two were up to. She hid behind a tall foam mat, her heart starting to pound.
“What an excellent culture medium,” one of them said. “I noticed her first thing this morning.”
Her voice was normal, youthful and vibrant. “Those black and white sneakers are so pretty. I really like her legs.”
Chu Yian instinctively looked down and saw that the sneakers she was wearing were indeed black and white.
“Found you!”
Two girls stood on either side of her, their delicate faces inexplicably puffing up, as if worms were squirming beneath their skin.
They moved closer to Chu Yian, and the bulges on their faces grew more numerous.
Just as they were about to reach out and grab Chu Yian, she kicked over the mattress in front of her, stepped onto the foam mat, and rushed out of the room.
When she ran out again, four or five more people suddenly appeared around her. They stood scattered along the roadside, initially quiet, but upon seeing Chu Yian, they all began to walk towards her.
An inexplicable sense of danger swept over her.
She started to sprint, shaking off the students standing by the roadside. Her running figure was being watched by dozens of eyes from inside the dark dormitory building…
Before this, she had searched for many hiding spots.
The warehouse under the Sports Ground stands was not an option; her current target was the small classroom in the Fourth Laboratory Building.
This was a place Zhou Chen had entrusted to her after she joined the research group. The space was enclosed, and if she locked the door from the inside, no one could get in without a key.
She ran faster and faster, constantly shaking off the people behind her, only for new ones to appear.
Chu Yian was already a little out of breath, but the Fourth Laboratory Building was already in sight.
The building stood in the darkness, all lights off except for a dim one in the ground floor lobby. It looked like a giant beast with an open mouth, about to devour a lost soul, rather than a sanctuary.
Go in?
Chu Yian’s running steps paused for a moment, but upon seeing the strangers chasing her from behind, she steeled herself and rushed inside. Her stamina was almost exhausted; it would be impossible to keep running through the latter half of the night.
She burst into the Fourth Laboratory Building and saw that the elevator light was still on.
The research group’s small classroom was on the sixteenth floor. Just as she was about to press the elevator button, a figure suddenly lunged at her. It was another young girl, whose skin was now writhing beneath the surface, making her face look grotesque.
Damn it!
Chu Yian cursed inwardly, then turned and bolted for the stairs.
In the dark stairwell, only the slapping sound of footsteps could be heard. The people behind her were not particularly fast, but they maintained their pace as if they never tired. Chu Yian, however, was reaching her limit; her speed was getting slower and slower, and there were still ten full floors of stairs left!
These people were getting closer and closer.
Chu Yian listened to the footsteps behind her, which brought an immense sense of pressure.
Throughout the entire building, besides the footsteps, there was only the sound of her panting.
Chu Yian held her breath, using all her strength to lunge forward, but she felt someone’s fingernails already scraping her clothes, and then someone grabbed her arm!
The person’s strength was immense, like an iron clamp welded to her arm, impossible to break free from.
Chu Yian struggled with her whole body, her treasure box already in hand, ready to smash it at the person. In the process, her phone’s flashlight shone on the person’s head, and she suddenly realized, “Teacher Lu?!”
It was indeed Lu Qingyuan, who had just finished his experiment and was preparing to go back.
He looked at the group of people, a slight frown on his icy face. “It’s so late, what are you all doing?”
Chu Yian glanced at the people who had already caught up behind them, then directly pushed Lu Qingyuan to the current floor. “Run, they’ve gone crazy!”
Now, one person escaping had turned into two people escaping.
Lu Qingyuan didn’t know what had happened, but he reacted quickly, pulling her into his office and slamming the door shut.
The people outside pounded on the door, making loud thumping noises.
There was also the grating sound of fingernails scratching the door.
The sounds finally disappeared after about ten minutes. Lu Qingyuan looked at her. “What exactly is going on with that group of people outside?”
“It might be parasites.”
Chu Yian sat on the nearby sofa, panting heavily, and then recounted her experiences of the past few days.
“Student, are you telling a story?”
Things like worm-like movements in the eyes, roommates suddenly going crazy at night, and strange sensations appearing on her hands?
Lu Qingyuan, of course, didn’t find it credible; he just thought it was absurd.
“Do you think I’d believe that?”
“If you’re just bringing people here to play a prank and trick me, you’ll receive a warning and a demerit tomorrow.”
“No, I’m telling the truth! Why would I run all the way from the female dorms to here in the middle of the night just to mess with you? Am I that bored? And who knew you’d still be in the laboratory building at three in the morning?”
Chu Yian looked at Lu Qingyuan’s pedantic demeanor and instantly felt incredibly wronged.
Fortunately, Lu Qingyuan was willing to listen.
He had been working in the laboratory tonight, and no one knew about it except him.
“You mean to say that there’s a parasite in the school that can infest humans, and those people who were chasing you earlier are some of them?”
But that was too far-fetched.
“Yes, yes, yes.”
Chu Yian nodded repeatedly at this point. “Teacher Lu, you specialize in biology. Are there such worms in nature?”
Parasites that infest a host and control its behavior?
Yes.
For example, horsehair worms can control the body of a praying mantis, causing it to drown itself in a river once it matures; Dicrocoelium dendriticum can parasitize snails, thereby manipulating their behavior; and there’s the Guinea worm, a regional parasite that can infest humans, making them constantly thirsty and causing them to drink water continuously…
Chu Yian finished speaking, and after a while, she saw Lu Qingyuan deep in thought.
“Teacher Lu?”
“Teacher Lu!”
She shouted at him, and Lu Qingyuan’s cold eyes looked at her, causing Chu Yian to instantly make a zipping-her-mouth gesture.
He sat back down at his desk, reopening the computer he had just shut down. “You just said that the first sign of this anomaly was someone eating food from the Cafeteria and then experiencing severe vomiting?”
“Yes, yes, yes, exactly!”
Chu Yian nodded repeatedly.
Upon receiving a confirmed answer, Lu Qingyuan opened domestic and international literature search engines to look for information, and at the same time, called his superior.
“Oh, Little Lu, why are you calling me so late?”
A tired middle-aged man’s voice came from the phone. “Don’t you sleep at night?”
“Was there a food poisoning incident in the Cafeteria a few days ago?”
Lu Qingyuan didn’t waste words with him, asking directly and concisely.
“Yes, a few students had severe vomiting, but they’ve all been sent to the Hospital, haven’t they? They’re recovering well at the Hospital and are scheduled to be brought back tomorrow. Why are you suddenly asking about this?”
“I want to know if these students had examinations.”
“They did, and everything was normal.”
“What kind of examinations did they have?”
“Oh, why do you have so many questions?”
The person on the other end was annoyed by his questions and let out a heavy yawn. “The principal has already visited them personally, and everything has been taken care of. Why are you bothering so much? If you want to know, call during working hours. I’m going to sleep, you should go to sleep early too.”
With that, the other person hung up.
The person on the other end was still too polite.
Chu Yian felt that if it were her receiving a call from a colleague or superior at three in the morning, asking endless questions, she would definitely curse them out over the phone first.
Make them cry, then resign.
Chu Yian strongly imagined herself in that situation, even having the curses ready in her mind.
Lu Qingyuan suddenly looked up, meeting Chu Yian’s gaze.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, nothing.”
Chu Yian quickly averted her gaze and shook her head repeatedly.
She looked around Lu Qingyuan’s office.
The office was spacious and well-sealed; nothing could get in once the windows were closed. The sofa was soft, definitely comfortable enough to sleep on—a perfect temporary dwelling in Chu Yian’s mind.
“Teacher Lu.”
She called out to him.
“Hmm?”
Lu Qingyuan’s gaze shifted from the documents, only to see Chu Yian lying straight down on his sofa. “Thanks!”
Lu Qingyuan:… Logically, as a teacher, he should have immediately kicked her out, but for some unknown reason, he let her stay the night.
Until the next morning, at six o’clock. Lu Qingyuan walked up to her, nudging the sofa with his leg to wake Chu Yian.
“Teacher Lu?”
Chu Yian, just woken up, was still a bit hazy. She squinted at him.
“Get up, scram.”
At this moment, Teacher Lu was unbelievably cold.
“Mhm, mhm, okay.”
Chu Yian nodded and got up, while in her mind, she was already planning to continue crashing at Teacher Lu’s place tonight.
“The earliest staff members have already started work. If you don’t hurry, and a third person sees you walking out of my office… you’re dead.”
