Searching, searching for A Turbot.

Ye Jiang: "No."

If she had heard this recruitment pitch half a month earlier, she might have agreed without really understanding what she was getting into. But now, she refused.

After the S-rank Polluted incident, how could she not understand what sort of organization the Ability Control Bureau was?

These were people willing to lay down their lives for the greater good of humanity. She didn't seem to have that kind of resolve, so she wouldn't get involved.

Seeing that his recruitment (swindling) had

failed, Zhao Yi sighed deeply. He didn't insist, though, and gave up with a shrug. "All right."

Some people just wanted to live ordinary lives. He couldn't force everyone to be like them, could he?

Putting away that trace of regret, Zhao Yi said, "By the way, what ability did you awaken? It's a high rank, right?"

He was very interested in this. She was a hidden gem he had discovered, and he wanted to know the results of her awakening!

Ye Jiang: "."

She walked past him with the kettle. "I'm going to the water room to get water."

Zhao Yi followed her a few steps. "I'll help!"

Ye Jiang refused. "No need."

Zhao Yi: "Then your ability..."

Ye Jiang interrupted him. "F-rank."

Zhao Yi: "..."

Huh?

She could withstand an A-rank Polluted's contamination at close range. How had she awakened at such a low rank?

Zhao Yi scratched his ear, overcome with regret. If only he had found her back then and sent her to the trial grounds. He had wasted a promising talent!

Zhao Yi wrung his hands in dismay.

Watching the young man from the Ability Control Bureau suddenly start scratching his head, beating his chest, and sighing, looking rather mentally unstable, Ye Jiang silently quickened her pace to put some distance between them. She hurried to the water room, leaving him behind. When she returned to the corridor with the water, he was already gone, probably back in his hospital room. She paid it no mind and carried the kettle back to Yu Qingyi's room. She waited there until evening before finally leaving the hospital at Yu Qingyi's urging.

Instead of heading home, she went to the little restaurant to return the lunch boxes.

The citywide alert had only just been lifted, and few residents were out and about. The little restaurant, however, was doing excellent business. Every customer was a familiar face, one of the people Ye Jiang had escorted.

The customers greeted her as soon as she entered. Keeping her face stiff, Ye Jiang headed for the kitchen to escape this enthusiasm she wasn't used to. Boss Xiao was working away over the flames, tossing her wok with gusto.

Ye Jiang set the lunch boxes aside. Seeing her, the boss asked her to help set out a plate. Ye Jiang stood motionless, still acting like someone who had to be waited on. The boss grumbled and set out the plate herself.

She tipped all the meat from the wok onto the plate and told Ye Jiang to carry it out. "Serving food is your job, at least, isn't it?"

This time, Ye Jiang moved. As long as she got paid.

Xiao Pei: "..."

The little restaurant stayed busy late into the night. Once all the customers had left, Xiao Pei cooked a few dishes and sat down to eat with Ye Jiang. Both were ravenous, their chopsticks moving rapidly.

After eating and drinking their fill, Xiao Pei slouched lazily in her chair, her gaze fixed on Ye Jiang.

"Waitress, you don't need to come here tomorrow."

Ye Jiang looked over at that. Xiao Pei said, "Business is bad. I'm changing jobs, going back to my old line of work. This place won't open tomorrow."

Ye Jiang said nothing. Xiao Pei went on by herself. "I'm leaving, too. Going to City M."

"The green mountains will remain, and the clear waters will keep flowing. We'll meet again if fate allows," Xiao Pei said, a touch of wistfulness coloring her hard features.

Something stirred in Ye Jiang's heart, a strange feeling flowing through it. Probably because, starting tomorrow, she could no longer come here to collect a regular wage.

Neither spoke.

The light of the little restaurant enveloped this tiny space.

When Ye Jiang left the restaurant, she received a bulging envelope containing her wages for the day. It was a lot. Xiao Pei said it was a share of the profits, since business had been so good today. Ye Jiang put it away and walked out, then looked back on an inexplicable impulse. Inside the restaurant, the boss was clearing the dishes. She wasn't good at such things, fumbling about and muttering a few curses whenever she made a mistake.

Ye Jiang watched for a long time. Just as she was about to look away, she noticed several strands of mycelium moving over the restaurant's outer wall. Turning her gaze, she saw a snow-white woman standing on the street deep in the night, staring blankly at the person inside the little restaurant.

Ye Jiang's eyes flickered. In a sudden flash of insight, a stone helped her connect the two.

So the previous waitress the boss kept talking about was Mushroom Man, who had become Polluted.

The world was small.

Ye Jiang didn't get involved in other people's stories. She went home.

When Ye Jiang reached her apartment and was about to open the door, a transparent figure peeled off the wall beside her, revealing a thin form before slowly turning from two-dimensional to three-dimensional.

"Friend, you're back!" Invisible Man, who had already moved in next door, asked hurriedly. "An S-rank Polluted nearly made it into the city. Nothing happened to you, did it?!"

The greeting came a little late, but there was no helping it. Invisible Man had only just returned.

When the S-rank Polluted had headed toward the city, one whiff of its S-rank contamination had gone to Invisible Man's head, and he had happily run out to parade through the streets.

Fortunately, it was a high-level Polluted with fairly strong willpower. Although the contamination had muddled its mind, it hadn't fought or killed anyone outside. It had simply been a little confused and kept wandering aimlessly.

Invisible Man's mind had only returned to normal today, and he had rushed straight back as soon as it did.

It was worried that the human next door had been hurt during the S-rank Polluted incident. Fortunately, she hadn't. The human was completely unharmed. Of course, she was so strong it defied explanation. How could anything happen to her?

Seeing that Ye Jiang was completely fine, Invisible Man relaxed and found himself in the mood to ramble. "S-rank Polluted are terrifying indeed. Their contamination has a fatal attraction for us. Getting touched by it is like having an addiction or a fit of hysteria flare up. Luckily, it's dead for-"

Before he could finish saying "good," a snow-white figure appeared in the stairwell alongside a human girl. The two had similar faces and walked slowly upstairs together. Seeing Ye Jiang, the snow-white one said, "Teacher, could we talk?"

Invisible Man: "..."

Humans might not be able to tell, but the Polluted could recognize others of their kind. Wasn't this snow-white "person" the S-rank Polluted Mushroom Man, who was supposed to be dead?!

Chapter 35: Searching, searching for A Turbot.

The vicious S-rank Polluted who should have been dead entered a human apartment as a human's guest. Sitting beside her younger sister, she held herself stiffly, her manner polite and her demeanor gentle, without a trace of an S-rank Polluted's menace or imposing presence.

Her snow-white hair was tied up, and she wore clothes. If not for her unusual eye color, she would have looked no different from an ordinary human with albinism.

If she hadn't extended a strand of mycelium to help her host pick up a broom that had fallen to the floor, that was.

Only after doing it instinctively did the S-rank Polluted realize that perhaps she shouldn't rashly extend her nonhuman parts in someone else's home. The mycelium curled a few times, then quietly withdrew.

She sat up straight, pretended nothing had happened, and cleared her throat. "Teacher."

Ming Chun wasn't a student. She was even older than the person she called her teacher. But the days when her teacher had treated her as a student were precious memories to her, so she liked that role.

"Teacher, would you like to hear my story?"

"I was originally from City S. Three years ago, my younger sister and I moved to this city and settled here. After we registered as residents, my sister attended school here, while I worked at a little restaurant near the school. Life was ordinary and unremarkable.

"About half a month ago, when the A-rank water-controlling Polluted appeared, I suddenly became Polluted. I woke up in a convenience store on the street, my mind hazy.

"I heard that humans become brain-dead after turning into the Polluted, but I felt I still had a sliver of consciousness. I knew I'd become an F-rank Polluted, the lowest level.

"After becoming Polluted, I had some trouble controlling myself. I wanted to kill, felt hostility toward humans, and craved higher-level contamination.

"But I barely managed to hold it all back.

"I didn't want to stay where humans gathered. I was afraid I'd lose control, so I left the city.

"My memories disappeared after I left the city. When I woke up again, my body hurt terribly, the kind of pain that reached deep into my soul. I had also somehow advanced to C-rank. The Jin Family found me and captured me. Because I restrained myself from attacking humans, they seemed to think I only had contamination without any corresponding abilities. They judged me suitable for testing people with potential. Since the Jin Family's young master went to the trial grounds, I was sent there too.

"It hurt so much. There wasn't a moment when it didn't hurt.

"Then I met you."

Ye Jiang listened to the story. As she listened, she noticed the storyteller turn her gaze toward her. Those unusual silver eyes fixed on her, holding no reflection, as though light couldn't refract into them. Such eyes would surely have looked very cold on anyone else, but on Mushroom Man, they became very gentle.

"You played board games with me and helped distract me from the pain. Thank you."

"Later, the teacher leading the group at the trial grounds took me away. At that moment, I suddenly developed an obsession. I desperately wanted to see my younger sister, so I ran back to the city."

"This wasn't what I wanted. I kept getting bigger and bigger. It was a disaster for humans. I didn't want to hurt anyone."

"Fortunately, fortunately, Teacher, you stopped me."

Ye Jiang fell silent, thinking, No wonder this Mushroom Man wouldn't listen at all and was so determined to enter the city. She was looking for family.

Her gaze shifted slightly toward Mushroom Man's side, taking in the girl's familiar face.

She grew even more silent.

A student she had taught was actually Mushroom Man's younger sister.

The world really was small.

Ming Xia and

Ye Jiang's eyes met, and a complicated look instantly surfaced in Ming Xia's eyes. She couldn't see through Ye Jiang. She never had. This woman was clearly only a low-level ability user, yet the strength she displayed was plainly nothing of the sort.

Ye Jiang, noticing the complicated look in Ming Xia's eyes: ?

Just then, her older sister spoke again, drawing their attention away. "Teacher, you have no idea how grateful I am to you. Thank you for helping me regain my sanity. Thank you for letting me look human again. Thank you."