The bald man hesitated. The Imperial Capital was already a dangerous place, full of people you couldn't afford to mess with. And now that this woman had something on them, he couldn't just make a move. Even if he did, he probably couldn't win. Was this where his life ended today? He could gamble, sure, but the consequences… he couldn't bear them. What if something went wrong?
Just then, Jing Shu shook the frail bundle in her hand. "Forget it. From what I've seen of the Yunzhou Medicinal Herb Association's so-called medical ethics, you people don't care about human lives. Since that's the case, I'll take this one off your hands. As for how you explain it later, that's your problem."
With that, she turned and walked away, the stiff little bundle dangling from her hand.
"What do we do now, boss? She just walked off with the kid," someone muttered.
The bald man was furious. "Hey! Miss! At least tell us your name! We need something to report!" Not that he actually cared about the kid's life. He just needed a story to cover his ass.
"You're not worthy," Jing Shu said flatly. She turned her head, raised her fist slightly, a silent warning that if they asked again, she'd really beat them up.
Then she vanished into the darkness with the motionless child in hand, leaving the group frozen in place.
After a long silence, one of them finally whispered, "Boss, so... we just let her go?"
The bald man kicked him hard. "What else can we do? You wanna chase her? Go on, try it! Damn it!" He kicked him a few more times to vent his anger, then wiped the blood off his face and spat on the ground. "We're leaving. We'll just report her dead."
Whatever happened with the Yunzhou Medicinal Herb Association after that, Jing Shu didn't know. Acting on impulse, she'd taken the child—or whatever she'd become—away. All she'd thought at the time was that if this kid stayed in their hands, she'd be doomed.
Jing Shu had seen enough death in her life. She'd collected more corpses than she could count, seen people die in all kinds of ways. Her heart was long numb to it all. But there was one thing she still couldn't turn away from—children.
"So what now? What am I supposed to do with you? Oh right, what's your name?" Jing Shu asked, shaking the little lump in her hand. The child, curled tightly into a ball, didn't respond. She'd fallen asleep, no longer baring her teeth like before. Covered in mud and filth, the small, frail thing looked pitifully fragile.
"Let's call you Wanzi," Jing Shu murmured.
"Alright, I'll take you back to Wu City first." She decided to bring the child home and think about what to do later. A thought flashed across her mind—this kid might actually help her confirm a theory she'd been turning over in her head.
"Maybe I should let you meet Hao Yunlai. You both absorbed crimson energy, so maybe you'll understand each other," Jing Shu said softly to herself.
There's an old saying, only by defeating something can you make it submit.
Maybe that's why Wanzi stayed obediently by her side. But the moment anyone else came close, the child bared her teeth and growled like a cornered animal. Jing Shu sighed. No one else could deal with this mess, so she had to do it herself.
She grabbed a basin, gave Wanzi a bath, and wrapped her in a big, warm coat. Once clean, she looked much better.
Wanzi still couldn't speak. Her intelligence was about the same as a five-year-old's, though her movements were strange, almost like an ape's—but not quite. Her strength, however, was shocking, far greater than any adult's. She was quick, too, which explained how she'd managed to escape from a dozen men.
Her appetite, on the other hand, was tiny. Like a cat's, and she was picky. Jing Shu tried giving her a homemade egg burger, but she refused to eat it and instead went after Xiao Dou's eggs.
"Really? Raw eggs? That's what you want?" Jing Shu muttered. "Is this some kind of beast instinct after regression?"
Cooked food should've been fine. No creature in history rejected cooked meat, right? Or did ancient apes only eat bananas? And where the hell was she supposed to get bananas in the apocalypse? Sure, she had some in her Cube Space, but she couldn't take them out.
Even if Wanzi wasn't that smart, Jing Shu couldn't risk exposing her secret.
She tried several other foods, but Wanzi refused them all. Honestly, only Jing Shu could afford to offer such a variety. Anyone else would've just let the kid starve.
In the end, the biggest surprise was that Wanzi actually liked sausages. She munched on them happily, just like a kitten, and after two, she was full. Jing Shu felt a stab of pain in her chest. Those sausages were apocalypse-era delicacies, long gone from the world. She only sliced them up for instant noodles or hotpot on rare occasions. Every sausage eaten was one less forever.
"Fine, whatever," Jing Shu sighed.
She didn't think much more about Wanzi, but something unexpected happened. The kid, who was wary and hostile toward humans, got along perfectly with Xiao Dou. Maybe, in Wanzi's eyes, Xiao Dou was her kind.
"Cluck cluck cluck!"
Like a protective hen guarding her chick, Xiao Dou stood in front of Wanzi. Her plump, towering body was even bigger than Wanzi's crouched form. Whenever they walked, Wanzi always followed right behind, as if Xiao Dou was silently saying, "If there's danger, I'll handle it first."
And so, Jing Shu left Wanzi in Xiao Dou's care.
Letting a chicken babysit a human child sounded absurd, but somehow, it actually worked.
Jing Shu handed most of her follow-up work to Wang Danai while she got back to her busy schedule—competition rewards, the sale price of the Bodhi, plans to open a new pharmaceutical factory in the capital—she pushed all of it aside for later.
The competition had gone too smoothly. Wu City's team would leave the capital in three days, and that was all the time she had to finish her plans.
First on the list was fulfilling her agreement with Jun Bao. Together with Song Bin, she headed to Jun Bao's Biotech Research Lab to sign the contract.
She hadn't expected much, but what she found still shocked her. When she heard the words "research lab," she'd pictured something like Qian Duoduo's private lab—high-tech, futuristic, neatly equipped.
But Jun Bao's "lab" turned out to be a renovated, abandoned cave outside the capital. And not just any cave.
A huge, reeking biogas pit blocked the entrance. God knows why there was even a biogas pit in front of the cave.
"Careful, Miss Jing, the road's rough here," Song Bin said with an awkward smile. Heaven help him, what kind of hellish job had Young Master Jun given him this time? Calling it a rough road was a joke—there was no road! He hated coming to this deathtrap more than anything, especially having to wade through that pit, which was basically a swamp of shit.
Everyone here was insane.
But he couldn't refuse, so he just kept smiling and muttered to himself, "Come on, you've got this, let's go."
They used a special transport to cross the foul swamp. Faint light flickered from inside the cave. Fully armed, Jing Shu stood at the highest point, frowning as she looked down.
"What the hell is this place? This is supposed to be a lab?"
Song Bin laughed weakly, almost crying as he began to explain.
===
Jing Shu gave her name 丸子 (wánzi). This means "ball" or "sphere," but it's most commonly used for food items like meatball, fishball, or a sticky rice ball.