Chapter 268: Jealousy
Translator: Insignia Editor: Svjohn
The next morning, after Huang Jiahui had left, w.a.n.g s.h.i.+s.h.i.+ came out of her room shyly and walked into Luo Yuan"s room, holding her underwear in her hand as her heart beat fast. She came out of the room immediately, looking unhappy.
The colorful underwear exuded a girlish fragrance, and there was still a slight warmth to it if one touched it. Obviously, it had just been taken off her body.
"This girl!"
Perhaps it was because of her parents’ good genes, or maybe because she was an evolved human, but w.a.n.g s.h.i.+s.h.i.+ was getting prettier and prettier as she grew up. She was just like a fairy who had walked out of a picture. From an appearance perspective, Huang Jiahui and Zhao Yali were ordinary beauties. Though they could not be found everywhere, women like them could often be seen walking down bustling streets before the end of the world. w.a.n.g s.h.i.+s.h.i.+’s appearance, on the other hand, could make people feel amazing, or intimidate them.
It was definitely a big challenge for Luo Yuan to have such an enchanting woman flirt with him, giving him all sorts of hints. He had a body far beyond that of an ordinary person’s and exuberant flesh comparable to that of a mutated beast. As a result, he experienced desire ten times stronger than the average man did.
His secular eyes and moral taboos had gradually been weakening in his heart over time, but he still managed to maintain an ascetic self-restraint. He had to put a lot of energy in exercising intensely, otherwise, he would have made w.a.n.g s.h.i.+s.h.i.+ his wife a long time ago.
Luo Yuan quickly pushed the thought away and synthesized the rest of the material into the underwear.
After the synthesis was completed, there were still some leftover Qingming feathers. Luo Yuan kept them for Zhao Yali, planning to make a trip to her place in the evening.
The newly synthesized clothes appeared to be cyan in color, without any fluorescence, but this was the magic of this equipment. It seemed to be able to absorb the ions surrounding it in order to recharge, and also be able to absorb the current directly.
This was the result after Luo Yuan had tested it for the whole night. The underwear on his body now exuded a bright fluorescence, even brighter than the original feathers’, and occasionally produced a faint light. The equipment was extremely stable now; there was no energy dissipation phenomenon.
Luo Yuan believed that the feather must have been damaged, resulting in a certain energy dissipation, but the synthesization seemed to have fixed everything.
To be honest, he was a bit scared to wear it on his body. After all, it contained high-temperature plasma. If it was damaged, his flesh would be too fragile under such a high temperature. If that kind of defense was broken, his life would come to an end.
Ordinary bullets could not break the green level defense, only armor-penetrating bullets or high-level mutated beasts could pose a threat to it.
In fact, excluding any psychological factors, although it looked scary on his body, there was only a minimal danger of breakage. When he’d cut the feathers, he’d seen that the plasma field inside had not been completely in order. There were several single units that could generate energy independently, so even if it was damaged, the excitation of energy would not be fatal. Worst case scenario, it would leave a few holes through high-temperature ablation.
...
Luo Yuan looked at the time. It was almost 5 o’clock, so he immediately left home.
Today was everyone’s monthly day off, so since he had nothing to do, he decided to go to the school to take a look. After all, he was the guardian of three children.
This was the first time he would be visiting the boarding military school. Usually, no one could enter the premises other than the staff. Even the street opposite the school was deserted.
However, that day was clearly different. Before he had reached the school, Luo Yuan could already see that the front of the school gate was swarming with parents. There was an exciting atmosphere all around, and joyful laughter could be heard. The brutal end of the world might have changed people"s att.i.tude towards life, but family love would never change.
Luo Yuan looked at the happy scene and smiled warmly.
He glanced around the crowd, but he did not find the people he wanted to pick up. There was a trace of disappointment on his face. He was not surprised, though. All along the way, he had played a serious role in the team. Even Commander Xia had sometimes trembled before him. Perhaps in the children’s hearts, he had seemed stricter and scary than their teachers.
A young woman in the crowd was secretly looking at Luo Yuan. She seemed surprised and a bit uncertain. She stared at him for a little longer, feeling a small sense of familiarity. The man seemed to have sensed the stranger’s gaze, and he looked in her direction.
"Wu Xiaoxiao!" Luo Yuan called out in surprise.
"And you are?" Wu Xiaoxiao’s face felt a bit warm. This man had said her name, but she did not know who he was. Embarra.s.sed, she said quickly, "You look familiar, but I can"t recall your name."
"I’m Luo Yuan, we went to high school together! Have you forgotten about me already?" Luo Yuan smiled in surprise. It was not easy to meet a former cla.s.smate during the end of the world.
"Luo Yuan! Really? You have changed so much! This is really… unbelievable." Wu Xiaoxiao’s face flashed a little in surprise. She looked at him carefully again. There was something vaguely familiar about his facial features, but other than that, he looked almost like a different person.
She could not relate the memory of that shy cla.s.smate to this man that stood out among the crowd, exuding a brilliant light.
"I did not expect to see you again!" exclaimed Luo Yuan.
Wu Xiaoxiao used to sit in front of him in high school. He had even had a crush on her. She had been a G.o.ddess in his heart, but he would blush every time he talked to her. Now everything had changed, though. He no longer had a crush on her.
"Yes, it’s really amazing! When did you get here?" Wu Xiaoxiao said incoherently. She sounded really excited.
"Not long ago. How about you?" Luo Yuan smiled.
"No wonder I haven’t seen you before," Wu Xiaoxiao said with a laugh. "I have been teaching here ever since I graduated from school. I stayed here to work. I was very fortunate."
"You really were. So you’re a teacher here?" said Luo Yuan, gradually calming down from the excitement of meeting a friend in that foreign land.
"Yes. Do your children go here?" Wu Xiaoxiao asked as she looked at Luo Yuan. Her eyes were sparkling with a crystal light.
Even since she had met Luo Yuan, Wu Xiaoxiao had felt an intense throbbing that made her heart beat rapidly. Her face was blus.h.i.+ng.
After obtaining the system, Luo Yuan had not just improved in terms of physical strength. Even his appearance had changed and become more handsome. The transformation had deeply changed the genes in his body, making him attractive to the opposite s.e.x.
From a reproduction perspective, an instinctive desire to inherit good genes was generated from a woman"s body. This gave Luo Yuan a big headache every time he went out as people kept turning to look at him.
"Yes, my adopted children," Luo Yuan answered reluctantly.
"True. Even if you had a kid, they wouldn’t be this old," Wu Xiaoxiao laughed at her own foolish question.
Perhaps she was too excited, but Wu Xiaoxiao simply could not stop talking. Luo Yuan had nowhere to be, so he did not stop her rambling.
"Xiaoxiao, is this a colleague of yours?" a voice interrupted their conversation.
The speaker was a middle-aged man with a briefcase and a pair of thick, black-rimmed gla.s.ses. There was a smile on his face, but Luo Yuan noticed that it was somewhat reluctant.
Wu Xiaoxiao felt uneasy. She blamed herself for the thought she had had just now. She touched her hair to cover her uneasiness and said, "This is Luo Yuan, a high school cla.s.smate of mine. I did not expect to meet him here, so we just conversed for a while. This is my husband, Sun Youde. He’s working at the Inst.i.tute! "
"h.e.l.lo, there!"
"h.e.l.lo!"
The two of them shook hands quickly.
Sun Youde felt threatened by this new man. He was so handsome that even he himself felt a little dazzled. Plus, he had clearly seen his wife staring at his face without blinking just now. That d.a.m.n b*itch!
Sun Youde was considered average-looking, maybe even ugly. He had a low self-esteem, but lots of pride. Before the end of the world, he had been just a research a.s.sistant with a pitiful monthly salary. He’d had no house or car, and he had been single for over thirty years.
During the end of the world, the shortage of scientific research personnel had allowed him to enter the Reconstruction Area, where he had been promoted to laboratory director and met Wu Xiaoxiao. According to the common policy, the two of them had gone on a blind date and gotten married at lightning speed. Of course, he was happy and satisfied with his beautiful wife, but because of his low self-esteem, he was also concerned about every single guy that approached her. He was especially wary of the guy who was standing in front of him right now.
The d.a.m.n b*tch!
"I didn’t realize you were Xiaoxiao’s cla.s.smate. May I know which unit you’re working for?" Sun Youde said, his lips stretching tight as the muscles on his face tensed.
"I just came here recently, so I’m not working yet. Still waiting to get a.s.signed!" Luo Yuan said with a smile. He could feel some hostility from the man, but that was normal. Anyone would feel unhappy if they saw their wife talking happily with another man.
"Basically, there’s no ideal job. If you have no connections, you will either be recruited as a labor worker or a soldier. Being a soldier is way too dangerous, and if you do not have any technical skills, you can only be a labor worker. Both are hard, low-paying jobs. You might not be able to support a family in the future." Sun Youde tried to describe the situation as badly as possible to scare his rival, just like he had earlier.
"I have no choice. I just arrived here, so I don’t know anyone. I can only wait." Luo Yuan answered, feeling funny.
"Youde, this is my high school cla.s.smate! Can’t you help him out?" Apparently, Wu Xiaoxiao had not noticed the rivalry behind Sun Youde’s words. She sounded a bit worried about Luo Yuan.
"Well, do you have a bachelor"s degree? Anyway, it does not matter if you don"t. I can still hire you to be my a.s.sistant." Sun Youde felt even more jealous when he saw Wu Xiaoxiao be so kind to his rival. Suddenly, he laughed in a kind of morbid way.
"You can recruit people independently?" Luo Yuan asked curiously after he hearing what Sun Youde had said.
"Of course not, but we"re an inst.i.tute, so we can recruit certain supernumeraries," said Sun Youde maliciously, slightly emphasizing the word "supernumeraries".
Unlike before the end of the world, supernumerary staff were now considered as guinea pigs. In order to survive, all ethical and moral restrictions had been waived, and all kinds of cruel human experiments were allowed.
Cloning was just the lowest degree of cruelty. There was body modification, gene implants, radiation mutation. Thousands of volunteers died at the hands of laboratory criminals every year. People outside the industry never knew anything about it.
Whether the volunteers agreed or not, by the time they reached the lab, they could not resist anymore. The volunteer program during the end of the world was not as strict as it used to be, so anyone would easily sign the contract for the money without reading the small script.
Luo Yuan didn’t realize that this man wanted to kill him just because he had talked to his wife for a while. Even if he had known, he would not have known how to react, though.
"Excuse me, let’s talk about it later. The person I was waiting for is coming." Luo Yuan saw Chen Jiayi, who had just walked out of the school. He had no interest in talking to this jealous man anymore, so he beckoned to her.
"This is a rare opportunity. You may not have it again in the future," Sun Youde reminded him with fake kindness.
"This is true, Luo Yuan. People working in the Inst.i.tute get good benefits!" Wu Xiaoxiao also advised him enthusiastically.
Suddenly, a shrill air raid siren sounded all over the city. Luo Yuan was shocked. He subconsciously touched his waist, only to realize that there was nothing there. He had left his sword at home.
There was a commotion in front of the school gate. Luo Yuan turned and looked at Wu Xiaoxiao and Sun Youde. Both of them looked scared and panicked.