She Will Grow Stronger

Zhou Diao's outstretched hand froze, and he didn't dare move a muscle.

Feng Ling's words were so terrifying that he would rather hear "or you'll die" than hear her say she'd give birth to him!

"I say you..." Zhou Diao took a deep breath, glaring at Feng Ling as he asked, "You haven't already turned into a Contaminant, have you?"

Otherwise, who would have such a sinister skill?!

Feng Ling furrowed her brow slightly and flicked her wrist again. The two cards, like streaks of silver light, instantly returned to her wrist and became bracelets.

"This is the Hive's advanced ability, called Nest Building," Feng Ling said. "I'm still figuring out the specifics of how to use it. For now, I can only confirm one thing: once the nest is complete, it can convert flesh and blood into new life. The more energy the nest contains, the stronger the lifeforms born from it."

She glanced at Zhou Diao, gently stirring the wonton soup in her bowl, then continued, "I don't want the lifeforms I nurture to have poor physical abilities, so I'm trying to stockpile as much energy as possible into the nest."

Zhou Diao: "..."

You can talk without talking—why did you have to glance at me?

Are you hinting at something?

Ding--

The doorbell rang.

Huangfu Miaomiao very conscientiously walked over to the door, stood on tiptoe, and peered through the peephole.

After confirming that the person outside wasn't a Xenomorph, she gave Feng Ling an all-clear gesture, then opened the door and took the takeout Feng Ling had ordered from the delivery guy.

Feng Ling had ordered so much food that the delivery guy had to make several trips to bring it all.

Finishing all that food would take quite a bit of time.

As she ate, Feng Ling silently sensed her nest—

Back when she was building the nest, she needed cards, so she deliberately chose a Spider Card that seemed highly compatible with the Hive, and a Bird Card that seemed very incompatible with it.

She chose that way because she wanted to know if the success rate of the Hive birthing life was related to card compatibility.

Before she could get results on that, she discovered another problem:

—The nest built with the Spider Card as its foundation was almost full of energy.

—The nest built with the unknown Bird Card had only stored a little over half its energy.

Why was that?

Was it because the difference in compatibility caused different energy absorption rates?

Or was it because the Spider Card was a Low-level Card, capable of holding less energy than an Intermediate Card?

...But, to be precise, spiders are arthropods, not insects, so it might not necessarily be a Low-level Card, right?

Then what was the real reason for such a huge gap in nest development speed?

Just as Feng Ling was pondering this, Zhou Diao asked her, "Besides Nest Building, what other abilities do your cards have? Can you heal teammates?"

She snapped back to reality, looked up at Zhou Diao, then lowered her head to continue eating.

"My Card Gene Mutated. I don't have any healing-oriented abilities."

"Tsk, the Research Institute will definitely be very interested in you—a completely unknown evolutionary path," Zhou Diao remarked.

He wanted to tease Feng Ling a bit more, but when the words reached his lips, he felt this matter should be taken seriously. After all, an unknown evolutionary path meant that Feng Ling would face greater risks than others when digesting cards in the future.

"Maybe you should join the Supervision Bureau after all, let those old folks at the Research Institute figure something out for you," Zhou Diao said, stroking his chin. "Actually, I wasn't in favor of you joining the Supervision Bureau before, but given your current situation, it really is quite dangerous."

Feng Ling picked up her soup bowl, took a few sips of wonton broth, then started opening the box for her chicken leg rice.

"Why weren't you in favor of me joining the Supervision Bureau?" she asked casually. "Are the benefits and perks not good?"

Zhou Diao frowned. "It's a real hassle. You have to file a report for everything you do, there's a weekly meeting, and also..."

He paused, turned his head to glance at the three Special Forces members in the living room, then turned back and lowered his voice to say to Feng Ling, "Also, I'm from Qingjiang."

"...What?" Feng Ling blinked.

Zhou Diao gave her a disdainful glare. "Don't you get it? I'm saying I'm a local from Qingjiang, so of course I have to look out for my hometown. All that 'think of the bigger picture' nonsense—I don't give a damn about those dog-shit principles. I only know that if I get transferred away, Qingjiang City will have no one left. If you join the Supervision Bureau, you'll definitely get transferred away too."

Feng Ling said, "But if your superiors order you to transfer, you'd have to obey, right?"

"They won't transfer me, hehe~" Zhou Diao mysteriously pulled a flat stainless steel flask from his chest. "I've got this."

Feng Ling tilted her head and looked at the flask for a while but couldn't figure out what was special about it.

"What's the use of that thing?"

"The secret is, don't be too well-behaved~" Zhou Diao said with the tone of an experienced senior, chuckling slyly. "I've already had five drunk-driving incidents and three cases of public property damage. If the higher-ups want to transfer people, they'll definitely prioritize those model supervisors with clean records. Me? I'm safe as can be."

Feng Ling couldn't help but laugh.

She had thought Zhou Diao was the type with brawn but no brains, but it turned out he had plenty of tricks up his sleeve.

"Feng Ling..." Zhou Diao tucked the flask back into his chest, his smile fading as he asked seriously, "Will you ever go back to your hometown?"

Feng Ling thought for a moment. "...Probably not."

She didn't have many fond memories of that place.

"That's perfect," Zhou Diao said with a grin. "You'll stay here with me in Qingjiang City!"

Feng Ling raised an eyebrow at that. "I'm a Hidden Boss. Your Lao Su would love nothing more than to kick me out of Qingjiang City."

Zhou Diao flashed his bright white Tiger Teeth. "You need to get strong—strong enough that no Xenomorph dares come to Qingjiang!"

Feng Ling smiled, picked up the chicken leg, and took a fierce bite.

She would get strong.

Strong enough that those people would never again dare treat her as a weak, easy target.

Early the next morning, Feng Ling headed to Qingjiang Bridge No. 1 as planned.

There were pedestrian walkways on both sides of the bridge.

She, Huangfu Miaomiao, Zhou Diao, and three Special Forces members walked from one end of the bridge to the other.

They went back and forth twice, but the trail seemed to go cold here.

From the bridge, Feng Ling could see the distant Ferris Wheel, but she couldn't figure out where "Snake Moon" and "Skyfire" were.

It was already the end of May, and there was no shade anywhere on the bridge. As time passed, the temperature climbed higher and higher.

Zhou Diao was drenched in sweat. "Qingjiang's great and all, but it's way too hot... Damn, it's only May and it's gotta be at least 34 degrees today... I'm about to get heatstroke!"

Huangfu Miaomiao nodded in agreement, too sun-beaten to even want to talk.

Feng Ling stared at the distant Ferris Wheel, thinking: Why are there no more clues?

After finding the Frog in a Top Hat, she had found White Bird.

Following that pattern, when she found White Bird, she should have discovered the next riddle's clue. But why couldn't she see Snake Moon and Skyfire yet?

Feng Ling paced back and forth on the bridge, thinking again: Could it be because the phrase "Salivating Kiss" hasn't been solved?

Yes...

That must be it.

She had found the "Frog in a Top Hat." When the frog "shot into the sky"—that is, reached the highest point of the Ferris Wheel—she had discovered "White Bird."

So the clue for the third riddle would only appear when the frog "salivatingly kissed" the white bird.

Feng Ling furrowed her brows, her face darkening as her gaze swept across the river. She spotted a River Ferry.

"Let's go. To the dock."

An early update~~ Haha! Mainly because I wanted to show off the little gifts I prepared for the top 5 on the reader leaderboard~~ So happy!