He used an affirmative tone.
It wasn't "Is Gu Man dead?"
But rather, "How did Gu Man die?"
Gu Man's uncle was different from what they had imagined. Before them stood an amiable, white-haired old man with a genial smile on his face.
His gaze immediately locked onto Zhou Yu'an.
He asked,
"How did Gu Man die?"
Zhou Yu'an froze.
For a moment, he didn't know how to answer.
Commander Gu smiled again.
"I've heard your father talk about you. You're a good kid."
"Very responsible."
"If Gu Man were alive, she would have come here with you. But she's gone, which means she must have died on the way."
"Don't be afraid. Tell me, how did she die?"
Zhou Yu'an pursed his lips.
Facing the old man's seemingly gentle but implicitly intimidating gaze,
he answered without changing his expression,
"She was bitten and infected when the zombies besieged the city."
Hearing this, Commander Gu tapped his fingertips on the desk, seemingly pondering something.
He then looked at Yan Qingdu.
"Yan Qingdu, a young and promising researcher. Old Zhou mentioned you to me as well."
"The Jiang City Hospital you were at should have hidden a red potion. You didn't use it on Gu Man?"
Yan Qingdu feigned confusion and shook his head.
"She had already been bitten by a zombie. Would injecting the potion still be of any use?"
"Besides, that potion was accidentally broken on the way..."
Commander Gu smiled.
However, his smile concealed something unknown.
He turned his head to look at Chu Liuyue and Li Xichen.
He pointed at them.
And said in an amiable tone,
"Secretary Liu just said that you are Yan Qingdu's girlfriend and younger brother?"
Chu Liuyue: "Yes."
Li Xichen: "No!"
They exchanged a glance, and Chu Liuyue gave him a wink.
"Oh? It seems the intelligence is wrong. Did Secretary Liu make a mistake?" The smile on Commander Gu's face gradually faded.
Chu Liuyue: "No."
Li Xichen: "Yes!"
Zhou Yu'an, Yan Qingdu: "..."
It was hopeless.
Li Xichen immediately decided to just throw caution to the wind and said,
"I'm not Yan Qingdu's brother."
"I was a drug-testing volunteer at the Jiang City Research Institute, and it was because of the testing that I gained my abilities."
He shook the black bracelet cuffed onto his wrist, pointed at it, and said,
"What is this thing you put on us?"
"Abilities suddenly appear, and then are suddenly suppressed. What are you trying to control?"
Commander Gu was always used to beating around the bush.
After all, their system was about speaking vaguely; a single sentence had to be pondered three or four times, requiring one to guess its true meaning.
Someone like Li Xichen, who so decisively and bluntly laid things bare,
was extremely rare.
Commander Gu paused for a moment but answered,
"We are doing this for the future of humanity."
He looked at Zhou Yu'an again and said, "You understand best what your father's research all these years has been for."
Zhou Yu'an suddenly let out a cold laugh.
He had always been a stable and gentle person.
He rarely showed such a sharp side.
But Zhou Yu'an spoke up to refute him.
"Commander Gu, we aren't here to cozy up to you or reminisce."
"My father is already dead."
"He even turned into a monster after his death, and all of this is because of his research."
Yan Qingdu also added at the right moment, "Before coming here, we took a trip to the Jiang City Research Institute and learned a lot of things."
Commander Gu was stunned.
His expression changed drastically.
He immediately wanted to call Secretary Liu in.
Suddenly, a figure flashed before him.
The next second.
Chu Liuyue had already subdued him, pressing an invisible mental-energy gun against his temple.
Commander Gu turned pale with fright and instinctively looked at her wrist.
She was indeed wearing the black bracelet.
"Why?"
"Why can you still use your ability when you're clearly wearing the bracelet?"
Chu Liuyue smiled.
She said in an ambiguous tone, "Perhaps it's because I used that red potion."
Commander Gu's expression shifted slightly, and he looked at Zhou Yu'an and Yan Qingdu.
"You were lying to me just now!"
"The potion wasn't broken, and Gu Man wasn't bitten to death by zombies, was she?"
From behind, Chu Liuyue's smiling voice could be heard.
"Correct."
"I killed Gu Man."
Commander Gu let out a sharp roar of anger from his throat.
Suddenly, countless vines sprouted from the ground and quickly wrapped around her legs.
"Vines again?" Li Xichen was surprised.
He tried to use his ability but found that he couldn't pull off the black bracelet no matter what.
He looked anxiously at Zhou Yu'an and Yan Qingdu.
"What are you standing there for?"
"Hurry up and help Xiaoyue."
Yan Qingdu corrected him, "At this time, we shouldn't add to the chaos."
Zhou Yu'an also nodded in agreement.
Li Xichen followed their gaze.
It turned out that before the vines at Commander Gu's feet could fully attack, they were easily sliced clean by Chu Liuyue.
The vines on her feet and waist instantly shrank back as if encountering their nemesis the moment they touched the flames.
Chu Liuyue had already grabbed Commander Gu by the neck.
"This isn't an ability of yours."
"It feels more like you borrowed the power of something else."
How could people in high positions of power like them be willing to risk their own lives for experiments?
If they won, they gained abilities.
If they lost, they turned into zombies.
The moment Chu Liuyue grabbed him, she could sense that there was no spiritual root in his body.
Therefore, there was no wood-element ability.
The vines just now felt more like they were relying on some sort of temporary external power.
With the disappearance of the vines,
all the color drained from Commander Gu's face.
He collapsed onto the desk as if drained of all his strength, gasping for breath in a sorry state.
However, Chu Liuyue didn't let him off at all.
She continued,
"Spore plants."
"Right?"
Commander Gu was panting heavily. At this moment, he turned his head and looked at her in disbelief.
"Who exactly are you? Why do you know so much? And why did you kill Gu Man?"
Chu Liuyue smiled.
She explained patiently,
"A big shot as high and mighty as you surely hasn't heard my name, but I'll be kind enough to tell you anyway."
"My name is Chu Liuyue. I suppose you could call me a university alumni of your niece, Gu Man."
"Oh, right, I was forced to suspend my studies because of her. Of course, the bad things she did at school using your Gu family's power probably go far beyond just this one."
"So I killed her. It was revenge."
Commander Gu was silent for a long while.
Suddenly he said,
"That is a very justifiable reason."
"I won't pursue the matter of you killing Gu Man."
Everyone looked at each other in dismay.
They couldn't believe what he was saying.
His own niece had been killed, yet facing the murderer, he actually generously declared he wouldn't pursue it.
Was it that this person just had an extremely clear moral compass, or was he merely weighing the pros and cons?
Seeing that Chu Liuyue didn't speak, Commander Gu spoke again,
"Did you guys come to Kyoto for that thing?"
"Perfect. Let me take you to the research institute."
Even while being coerced, his smile remained genial.
Li Xichen felt something was off and warned, "Xiaoyue, I'm afraid it's a trap!"
