Help, Brother Hen!

Inside the Tropical Pavilion.

Yu Yu took some potatoes from the soil cultivation area on the third floor.

Carrying a basket of potatoes back to the secret room, Yu Yu had just closed the door when she caught a whiff of something that smelled like a dead rat.

The smell came from another floor, and Yu Yu immediately pinched her nose.

She had no idea why, but after sleeping in her brother's arms, she'd woken up to find the scents around her unusually strong. Even her brother's sweaty smell was hard to bear.

So, while her brother was sleeping like a log, Yu Yu had thoughtfully wiped down his whole body.

Back in her own room, she used to wash her own bolster, too. If it smelled bad, she couldn't sleep well at night.

"Big Brother's starting to stink again today. He needs a wash!"

Yu Yu found a towel. With water so plentiful, she ought to give her brother baths more often!

To be honest, her brother was quite handsome when he wasn't talking. Why hadn't Heaven made him mute? Then she'd have the best big brother in the whole world.

First, she wiped his face.

Then his chest...

"What are you doing??" A voice suddenly sounded right by her ear.

Yu Yu went pale with fright, her cheeks flushing red as she stared at the human-shaped bolster that had suddenly woken up!

"I'm... I'm washing you." Yu Yu waved her little hands.

"You didn't do anything weird to me?" Wu Hen demanded.

Yu Yu immediately shook her head, whipping her little braids around.

Wu Hen looked at his own arm. Sure enough, it was covered in tiny tooth marks. Whenever the little cat got even a little upset, she must have bitten him!

Wu Hen didn't hold back either. He reached out and pinched Yu Yu's squishy cheek.

"Eee! Eee! Eee!!!!"

Yu Yu couldn't talk, but that didn't mean she couldn't make a sound. She was clearly calling for Mom!

Sure enough, Yu Yi rushed in and gave Wu Hen a hard slap on the head. "Picking on your little sister again!"

In the family, everyone had someone who could keep them in line. Wu Hen naturally didn't dare keep acting tough.

After Yu Yi had dealt with Wu Hen, she suddenly realized what had happened. Seeing that he was awake, she belatedly grew excited. "You're awake? You woke up again?"

Wu Yingting hurried over, too. Seeing his son conscious again, he immediately pulled him into a big hug!

"Dad, I came here on a mission this time. Things are a little complicated," Wu Hen said.

"Can you handle it? Do you need help?" Wu Yingting asked.

"I think so. But..."

"Xiao Yu has probably awakened her sense of smell," Wu Yingting said with certainty.

"Really??" Wu Hen was excited, too. Then he immediately asked, "So where exactly are my underwear?"

Yu Yu couldn't take it anymore and stomped hard on Wu Hen's foot.

"If you're going up against creatures with a strong sense of smell, it'd be best to take Xiao Yu with you." Wu Yingting felt quite pleased.

He hadn't expected both his children to become Awakened.

Of course, Wu Yingting was also a little puzzled. They were both his children, and both had awakened. Why hadn't he, despite all his effort? What had gone wrong?

Maybe he was just getting old.

"Fine. If we run into an Insect-Eyed Half-Human again, we won't be so helpless." Wu Hen nodded, deciding to bring this young ninja along.

They went down into the secret passage again.

Wu Hen and Yu Yu slipped into the school's air-raid shelter.

They successfully reached the back hill of the school. Since they were wearing uniforms, even if they accidentally ran into Order Maintenance Personnel, they didn't have to worry about being questioned.

They crossed the sports field and arrived near the teaching building.

Wu Hen saw figures moving around inside. They were probably students who hadn't been caught in the Desolate Dust but had been placed under lockdown. Some seemed surprisingly upbeat, playing around in the classroom corridors.

"Xiao Yu, put that little brain of yours to work. The school is so big. How do we find the Insect-Eyed Half-Human that's been infested?" Wu Hen asked.

Back in the air-raid shelter, Wu Hen had told Yu Yu about the Insect-Eyed Half-Human and the Soul-Resting Tree, so his detective-loving little sister could help him piece things together.

"Wait by the Medicine Warehouse," Yu Yu replied.

"There are armed Order Maintenance Forces over there. We can't get close, and the Insect-Eyed Half-Human probably can't either," Wu Hen said.

"If I were an Insect-Eyed Half-Human, I'd find a way to cause chaos. Maybe set a fire, poison someone, or..." Yu Yu hadn't finished signing when a commotion suddenly erupted from the direction of the teaching building!

Wu Hen and Yu Yu frowned and turned toward the connecting corridor. A humanoid monster covered from head to toe in Silver Mycelium was lashing out with countless tentacles, attacking the students inside the building indiscriminately!

They both knew the Insect-Eyed Half-Humans would cause a disturbance, but they hadn't expected them to start killing outright!

In the time it took to blink, several students playing in the corridor had been cut down, blood spraying everywhere.

"Quick!! Protect the students! Get them out of here!!" a female Order Maintenance officer shouted.

Soon, six Order Maintenance officers carrying guns rushed toward the corridor.

At first, they thought some hooligans had broken into the school. But when they saw the horrifying half-human monster in the corridor, their faces filled with terror and confusion!

What the heck was that?!

Had it been drinking nuclear wastewater?

Even eating poisonous mushrooms that hadn't been cooked properly couldn't cause a hallucination this bizarre!

"Fire!" the female Order Maintenance officer ordered.

The six immediately raised their guns and unleashed a torrent of bullets at the Silver-Eyed Half-Human.

But a mass of mycelium grew over its body. The strands were comparable to the most advanced fiber materials. They gathered in front of the Silver-Eyed Half-Human like a blast-proof shield with no gaps.

The six emptied a full magazine into the silver fungal shield, but all it did was force the Silver-Eyed Half-Human back a few steps.

Fortunately, the attack also kept it from moving, giving the students at the other end of the corridor a chance to escape!

"Help! Help!!" A curly-haired man in the nearest classroom to the corridor shouted at the top of his lungs.

Wu Hen took a closer look. It was his best friend, Wang Rui!

He seemed to have failed to escape from the last classroom, and the Silver-Eyed Half-Human was heading straight for it!

"Xiao Yu, hide here for now," Wu Hen said.

The Order Maintenance Force's guns were nowhere near the same caliber as Su Li's arcane weapon. Their bullets could at best slow the Insect-Eyed Half-Human down. They couldn't hurt a parasitic fungal monster like this at all.

With that, Wu Hen ran toward the teaching corridor.

When he reached the corridor, the female Order Maintenance officer recognized Wu Hen, whom she'd met once before. She glared at him and scolded, "Student, get out of here! What are you doing coming over?"

"I'll handle things here. Have your people reinforce the Medicine Warehouse immediately. Their real target is to destroy it!" Wu Hen countered.

"Don't make trouble at a time like this!" the female officer snapped angrily.

Wu Hen had no time to explain. He grabbed the woman by the collar and yanked her in front of him, then said coldly, "You're the one who needs to stop getting in my way. I'm an Awakened sent by the higher-ups. I'm in charge here!"

With that, he shoved the female officer hard against the wall, hoping the force and pain would bring her to her senses.

The female officer in uniform was stunned by Wu Hen's commanding presence. Before she could react, he strode toward the terrifying Insect-Eyed Half-Human!

"Xiao Yi, bow!"

Wu Hen stretched out his right arm. Silver-white strands quickly grew from his palm, shaping themselves into a striking White Profound Bow!

"Arrow!"

Wu Hen spoke again. A crystal-like substance appeared between the fingers of his right hand. As it grew and took shape, it was supple as silk, but once fully formed, it was as hard as cold iron!

"Whoosh!!!"

A snowy-white arrow shot past, its surface crackling with fine streaks of lightning. It stood out sharply against the school grounds as evening approached!

The Silver-Eyed Half-Human regained the ability to move. When it saw the arrow coming, one corner of its mouth lifted slightly.

Bullets couldn't pierce its body. What good could an outdated weapon like a bow and arrow do?

"Thwack!!"

The arrow pierced straight through it, then erupted in a brilliant burst of lightning across the parasite's chest, blasting away half of it!

But the monster's chest was no longer made of human tissue. Through the ruptured wound, countless silver worms could be seen crawling inside. They served as its skin, muscles, blood vessels, and connective tissue.

As Wu Hen tore open its chest, countless silver larvae that were breeding inside spilled out.

Once separated from the host and exposed to the outside air, they quickly vaporized.

"Cough, cough... Isn't that Wu Hen??"

"He dropped out, so why's he back at school... cough..."

"Back in school, you were the one I hated most. Looking at you now, you're still just as annoying!"

The Silver-Eyed Half-Human turned its face to the side. It was a boy with a buzz cut and sharp eyebrows, and he'd been the one most pleased when Wu Hen dropped out.

Wu Hen hadn't expected the one so thoroughly infested to be Zhou Guang, one of his classmates. It seemed the theory that spiritual consciousness chose the best tree to roost in was right: filthy flies were bound to flock to human maggots!

No wonder this Silver-Eyed Half-Human had targeted his class first!

Wu Hen looked farther down the corridor and saw many familiar faces inside the classroom:

The class beauty, Luo Yuying; his best friend, Wang Rui; the top female student, Tian Jiabao; the class slacker, Zhu Feiyu; and the class heartthrob and school heartthrob... oh, that was him.

"Wu... Wu Hen????"

"It's Wu Hen!!"

The students in the classroom were so frightened that their tears and snot had mixed together. When they suddenly looked up and saw Wu Hen, who had dropped out not long ago, they couldn't believe their eyes!

"Help, Brother Hen!!" His best friend Wang Rui yelled at the top of his lungs, so excited his voice cracked like an old shrew's!

Recommended: a new book by the great urban fiction author Lao Shi.