553: 9.23 No Wonder

9.23 No Wonder

Lu Yizhou was caught off guard by the question that came out of nowhere. In this world, he only had one secret: his identity as a zombie. Could it be… had Zhao Bolin found out already?  1

His mind drifted back to their earlier interaction, trying to analyze exactly where had he slipped enough to give Zhao Bolin the clue he needed. Lu Yizhou had no intention of hiding it, of course, but it was not like he could expose himself under fifteen pairs of eyes and thus, he tried to keep himself in check and acted like a normal human. Who knew what kind of catastrophe would come forth if his identity was discovered? Worse, he might even implicate his lover and end up being separated from him…

With only the two of them on this floor, there was no better time to come out than now. Alas, just as he wanted to do that, Zhao Bolin had beat him to it. Lu Yizhou could not help but feel curious. Exactly when did he find out?

Lu Yizhou stared at the man's tense back, helpless. Zhao Bolin's current demeanor was akin to preparing oneself for a fierce battle. This was one of the reactions which Lu Yizhou wanted to avoid the most. He did not mean to scare Zhao Bolin yet unfortunately, he acted like Lu Yizhou had already backed him into a corner…

Moreover, with his back facing Lu Yizhou like this, how did he expect them to communicate?

As though sensing his thoughts, Zhao Bolin asked again, his grip on the door handle tightened. "You… Are you really unable to speak?" 

Lu Yizhou had no choice but to move to Zhao Bolin's side to enter the man's peripheral vision. Zhao Bolin had his head hung low, brows furrowed tightly as he insisted on not looking at Lu Yizhou. The metal chain that hung on the sides of his face glinted sharply like a string of little pearls and the glasses frame obscured his sight. It was no use, Zhao Bolin was still unwilling to acknowledge him. Helpless, Lu Yizhou reached out to touch his arm only to be flung away. 

"Stay back!" Zhao Bolin hissed like a kitten whose tail was being stepped on. Forgoing the laboratory door, he retreated step by step along the wall as though being in Lu Yizhou's presence sent him immense distress.

Lu Yizhou stared at his outstretched hand, unexpectedly feeling his sturdy skin stinging from the brief slap. 

"You… You're lying to me." Zhao Bolin whispered, his trembling figure made him look particularly fragile, like he was on the verge of breaking. However, how could such a prideful person like him show such obvious weakness in front of others? Even at a time like this, he kept his back ramrod straight and his chin lifted. The sunset spilled in through the window, casting his silhouette into shadows. Yet his golden eyes burned even brighter, brimming with tears of anger and heartbreak. "I have already checked the university database. There is no person named Lu Yizhou at all! You're not a student, aren't you? Why are you lying? Why…?!"

Lu Yizhou's mind screeched to a halt as he comprehended Zhao Bolin's words. He had assumed that Zhao Bolin was talking about his identity as a zombie yet as it turned out, he was actually confronting him about names?

Looking at his speechless look, Zhao Bolin seemed to figure out something and the corner of his lips curled into a mocking smile, the hurt in his eyes deepened. "From the start, I have sensed that something is off with you. You're not afraid of zombies and your fighting prowess far surpass your peers. I heard…" he struggled to choke back his emotions and hardened his voice. "I heard you can join Special Forces at twenty. You can even start training for it early on. Tell me, are you one of Yang Tengfei's men? Are you doing this because those bastards have told you that I will not divulge the results of my experiments, and hence the army came up with this tactic to send their personnel here?!" His voice rose higher, filled with indignation and grievance. "Is that all you are, Lu Yizhou?! Do you deliberately get close to me, manipulating my emotions so that you can join my research team?!!"

"No wonder…" Zhao Bolin murmured under his breath, not waiting for Lu Yizhou's reply. His lashes quivered, shielding his emotions from sight. "No wonder you're so good at fighting, no wonder you were not scared when those soldiers pointed their guns at you, no wonder Commander Yang yielded to you…" the more Professor Zhao spoke, the more plausible everything was and in exchange, the more aggrieved he was. He glared accusingly at Lu Yizhou, wishing that he could chop the other to pieces. "You guys were colluding to fool me!!"

Lu Yizhou was so angry that he wanted to laugh. One of Yang Tengfei's men? Sent by the army to manipulate him? His lover's imagination was really wild yet sadly… he was totally off the mark. Nonetheless, Lu Yizhou could not really blame him. If he were in Zhao Bolin's shoes, perhaps that would be the most likely scenario he could think of. After all, nobody could have expected the zombie king to disguise himself as an ordinary university student, right?

Thinking up there, Lu Yizhou decided to come clean once and for all. It was time to cut off Zhao Bolin's wild imagination at the nub before it sprouted into a towering tree. He moved his hands to sign when Zhao Bolin suddenly cried out, "Don't!" He let out a shaky exhale and in the next second, a droplet of tears slid down his cheek. "If it's the truth, then… I don't want to hear it— I told you to stay put, damn it!"

Lu Yizhou couldn't care less about a certain someone's absurd argument. If Zhao Bolin did not want to listen, then he could only resort to brute force. 

With every step Lu Yizhou took, Zhao Bolin would retreat two steps, maintaining a steady distance between them. 

Zhao Bolin reeled back so far that his back inadvertently bumped into the trolley. Hard. Zhao Bolin let out a sharp gasp as he abruptly lost his balance. His feet slipped and he tumbled to the ground together with the trolley. Lu Yizhou's pupils dilated sharply. The trolley was where Zhao Bolin stored his experiment tools like apparatuses, scalpels, beaker glasses, test tubes, flasks… everything was made of glass which would hurt him! Worse, due to the position of his fall, Zhao Bolin's head banged onto the tray and the gleaming sharp scalpels were heading straight to his face…

Lu Yizhou moved like a sharp arrow released from the bowstrings and caught the tip of the scalpel with his bare hand before it could graze Zhao Bolin's skin. Around them, the glass equipment shattered into thousands of pieces; some of the sharp shards grazed Lu Yizhou's skin, immediately drawing beads of blood whereas Zhao Bolin was perfectly unharmed because he was protected by Lu Yizhou's body…

Zhao Bolin's breath stilled sharply at the sight of blood. He sat up and pried Lu Yizhou's palm open, flinging the scalpel away. "L–Let me see…" his already pale face turned ashy at the sight of a huge gash across Lu Yizhou's palm. Against his fair skin, the crimson blood was so striking it was like a sin. "We… We should stop the bleeding first. Yes, that's right, we should do that…" He tried to get up but Lu Yizhou firmly kept him in place.

How could he let Zhao Bolin run around when the ground was filled with broken glasses? More importantly, Lu Yizhou had finally caught him. How could he let Zhao Bolin get away from him again?

For the first time ever, Lu Yizhou lamented that he could not speak. He could only grab Zhao Bolin's shoulder with his uninjured hand and forced the man to look into his eyes. "Listen!" he mouthed. "Listen to me."

But Zhao Bolin was just equally stubborn. Lu Yizhou was bleeding profusely because of his stupidity, how could he remain still and watch?! Everything else could be pushed aside but they should treat the wound first! Alas, his body trembled so badly that he did not even have the strength to push Lu Yizhou away. 

And in that moment, the corner of his eyes caught sight of a strange movement on Lu Yizhou's palm. 

He saw the bleeding gash rapidly closing with a speed visible to naked eyes. The broken tissues mend themselves and the torn flesh stitched together again. In less than two seconds, the wound disappeared without a trace. If not for the liquid blood still on Lu Yizhou's palm, Zhao Bolin would have thought that he was imagining everything.

His eyes snapped to Lu Yizhou in utter shock. "You… How…"

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