Chapter 35
The highly toxic liquid extracted from the Zerg corpse fell onto the lab bench, instantly corroding a mottled ring into its surface.
Xue Yao looked down at the small ring of corrosion and suddenly gave a quiet snort.
It was only a quiet snort, but the assistant who had been trying to curry favor with the adviser froze the moment he heard it.
Everyone knew that a snort like that meant His Majesty the "Tyrant" was in a sufficiently foul mood.
Seeing that the panicked adviser was foolishly about to continue questioning Xue Yao, the assistant could no longer worry about anything else. He hurriedly found an excuse and dragged the adviser out of the lab.
Please, he didn't want this idiot to actually provoke the Tyrant's wrath. That would be a massive disaster none of them wanted to face.
After finally getting rid of the stupid adviser, the assistant heaved a long sigh and trudged back to the lab. But when he saw the cold metal doors, he found himself inexplicably reluctant to go straight back in.
"S-senior."
As he squatted on the steps smoking, another of his junior colleagues from the lab timidly approached him.
"What?" he asked irritably.
"Um, don't you think the boss has been getting scarier and scarier lately? It seems like he's been this way ever since word of what happened at No. 37 came back."
His junior's face was pale as he asked the question, looking utterly miserable.
"Mm." The assistant gave a vague response, neither denying nor admitting it, but it was a clear enough answer.
His junior frowned, his face full of confusion.
"But we didn't have anything in place out in the sticks like that, did we..."
The assistant flicked some ash from his cigarette and glanced at his junior. After a moment's silence, he replied dryly, "Who knows?"
But even as he said it, a scene from a few days earlier flashed through his mind, one straight out of a horror movie.
It had been the third day since news of Research Institute No. 37's destruction had arrived. During those three days, Xue Yao had worked without sleep or rest as usual. The assistant hadn't thought much of it, assuming Xue Yao had simply come up with another new project and was desperately trying to make progress. But after checking the list of the dead to make sure none of their own team members were on it, the cold, merciless Professor Xue Yao had suddenly raised his head and stared straight at him.
"If I wanted to pay tribute to someone, how should I do it?"
Honestly, the assistant had even suspected that his cold-blooded boss had been swapped out for a Zerg spy.
Really, he had been completely dumbfounded.
After all, how could a "machine" think about something as intangible as "paying tribute"?
He had been so shocked that he failed to react and answered entirely on instinct.
"Generally speaking, you could put some things they liked in front of their gravestone, I suppose?"
He swore that was the one and only time in his life he had seen Xue Yao freeze for a moment.
Then he heard Xue Yao murmur, "He doesn't have a gravestone."
For an instant, the assistant even thought he saw a trace of something that could be called "pain" in those eyes, which were always as cold as the lens of an instrument.
"Then, in that case, you could just put some things he liked when he was alive in front of a keepsake he left you. He's gone, so it's just a way to show you care."
The assistant still remembered saying that.
With a sigh, the assistant put out his cigarette and went back into the lab.
As he passed Xue Yao's lab bench, the assistant cast a slightly peculiar glance at his boss's desk and the little cake placed as an offering before a cheap star-shaped stone on it.
It was a little cake completely at odds with the atmosphere of the entire lab, with sweet cream and fresh fruit. Its exquisite appearance alone made it clear that it was expensive.
And it was replaced every day. That had gone on for many days already, and it was clearly going to continue for many more.
Barbecue.
I want barbecue so badly. I want barbecue so badly. Barbecue and beer...
"Ahh-"
On the Security Committee's spaceship.
Su Lin desperately recalled the barbecue and beer of the human world as he sucked down the bland, tasteless nutrients with a miserable expression.
If he could have a bite of barbecue right now, even if it was only cheap synthetic protein meat with artificial imitation spices, he'd probably be moved to tears, wouldn't he?
Su Lin had never known he would miss barbecue so much one day, and he didn't think he could be blamed for craving it. The incense in Medises's cabin was simply too cloyingly sweet.
That sweet smell definitely hadn't been there before, but after Su Lin crawled out of the advanced treatment pod his senior had provided, he somehow kept feeling that a sweet fragrance lingered in his senior's room.
Does a tough, cold-blooded guy like my senior actually like this kind of room fragrance in private?
Su Lin really wanted to ask Medises about his journey after returning to the Zerg, but years of survival instinct kept a smile on his face and any further words to himself.
The smell really wasn't unpleasant. It could even be called a refined, subtle sweetness. Whenever he tried to seek it out, it vanished, but the moment he relaxed, the fragrance followed him like a shadow.
Strangely, just smelling that faint fragrance made the back of his tongue seem to turn slightly sweet.
...Then the smell made Su Lin dizzy.
The last time he had craved spicy barbecue this badly had been many years ago at university, when he had clung to Professor Xue Yao's coattails while working on a research project.
Come to think of it, that had been a sorrowful time, enough to bring tears to anyone who heard or saw it. Back then, he had been unable to work his usual part-time job for several days because someone was harassing him. No work meant no income, and with his expenses exceeding his means, the only thing Su Lin could do was cut back on food. Then, embarrassingly enough, he had passed out right in the professor's arms during an experiment.