Chapter 52

Although she had been rejected without the slightest mercy, Zhu Yu naturally had a favorable impression of the woman before her. And hatred was hatred, but she did not sense any malice from her.

There was no contact information for Zhu Zhao in her address book. Otherwise, Zhu Yu would have been very curious what the original body had written about her. She looked cold and icy, her white coat without the slightest wrinkle, yet there were quite a few black smudges on the glove of her left hand.

Those messy stains subtly broke the overly strict sense of order around her, opening a crack in her ice-sealed aura and making her seem not quite so unreachable.

Noticing Zhu Yu’s focused gaze, Zhu Zhao swiftly pulled off the glove on her left hand.

Zhu Yu remembered that Feng Jiang often wore gloves too. She wondered whether this was some shared trait among top researchers.

But after Zhu Zhao took off her glove, what was revealed was not skin, but a tightly wrapped layer of white bandages, wound from her wrist all the way to the base of her fingers.

Zhu Yu instinctively asked, “Your hand… is injured?”

Hearing her, Zhu Zhao slowly raised that wrapped hand. Then, under Zhu Yu’s gaze, she slowly clenched it into a fist.

Zhu Yu could clearly see the smooth, powerful lines of muscle rising and falling along the forearm beneath the bandages.

Because that hand had been wrapped for a long time, its skin carried a cold pallor that had not seen the sun, while the knuckles were [stolen content]faintly red from exertion. From relaxed to tense, the joints made a crisp clicking sound.

In the next second, the fist tore through the air.

That fist, without the slightest warning, solidly smashed into Zhu Yu’s shoulder blade.

Zhu Yu had been staring too intently and had never thought to dodge. Caught completely off guard, she took the hit and sucked in a breath from the pain.

So she was showing off a weapon!

She remembered. She remembered everything now.

Zhu Zhao’s hobby was boxing! These were boxing wraps.

Their interactions had not been many, but in the memories the original body had left behind, they were unusually unforgettable.

Zhu Zhao was the dean of the mecha department. In the past, the original body had participated in the selection for internal mecha testing, and the final stage had been getting brutally beaten by this terrifying woman.

Not that she had targeted Zhu Yu specifically. Everyone had been beaten.

Zhu Yu had lasted the longest, but Zhu Zhao had mercilessly marked her as unqualified. In the end, because all her other data ranked first by a huge margin, [stolen content]after difficult negotiations from multiple sides, she barely managed to keep her qualification.

And when the school president asked about it, Zhu Zhao had not even bothered to give an explanation. She slammed the door and left.

Another memory was from the award ceremony when Zhu Yu first rendered meritorious service. Zhu Zhao had stood in a corner and casually lit a cigarette.

She did not seem to have looked at the stage, yet in Zhu Yu’s memories, everything was filled with her hazy side profile in the smoke, sharp and lonely, completely out of place amid the lively, grand ceremony.

Strange. Had the original body been beaten by her and held a grudge ever since?

Surely she had not really been beaten into a masochist.

Zhu Yu was still distracted. She did not dodge, nor did she fight back.

This submissive appearance instead angered Zhu Zhao even more. She abruptly grabbed Zhu Yu by the collar and pulled her closer, almost gritting her teeth as she threatened:

“Do not try to challenge my bottom line again. At least here, I am the one who decides.”

Zhu Yu honestly said, “But I haven’t done anything yet…”

Zhu Zhao said, “Still daring to argue?”

Zhu Yu waved her hands repeatedly. “I don’t dare, I don’t dare.”

Zhu Zhao said, “Go back and tell them that as long as I’m still alive, Genesis can forget about restarting smoothly.”

“Either execute me, or we all go down together.”

Genesis?

Zhu Yu froze slightly, and she no longer cared about the pain. She immediately hugged Zhu Zhao’s arm. “Did you misunderstand something? We’re also strongly opposed to this kind of unethical experiment! Then our positions are actually the same. Don’t hit me.”

“By ‘we,’ I mean me and Bai Shuzhou. It has nothing to do with anyone else.” Worried Zhu Zhao would misunderstand, Zhu Yu deliberately emphasized it.

“Opposed?” Zhu Zhao seemed to have heard the biggest joke in the world and gave a cold scoff. “Do you believe that yourself? Let me advise Bai Shuzhou of something: human greed is never satisfied. A snake that tries to swallow an elephant should be careful not to choke to death.”

Zhu Yu was furious. “How can you say that? Our princess is also a victim of that rotten experiment, all right!”

She had always been sensitive. At this moment, she instinctively stepped on the thing the other woman cared about most and blurted out, “Were you also one of the researchers back then? If you really wanted to stop it, where were you earlier? Have you seen the wounds on those children’s bodies…”

The wound was stabbed by Zhu Yu with salt. The woman’s brows furrowed fiercely. “Shut up!”

Bang!

Another heavy punch came. This time, Zhu Yu had learned her lesson and already raised her palm first, steadily blocking it.

Flesh and blood collided violently with a hard fist wrapped in bandages. Both of them used all their strength in that instant, their arms trembling slightly from the contest.

“You think I didn’t try to stop it?” Zhu Zhao’s eyes reddened slightly with anger. “But what did your royal family do?! What kind of victim does Bai Shuzhou count as?”

Such strength. Such terrifying strength…

Zhu Yu gritted her teeth and forced her back word by word. “The royal family is the royal family. Bai Shuzhou is Bai Shuzhou. How old was she back then? What could she decide?”

“You know nothing!” Zhu Zhao’s fist grew harder and harder, striking against Zhu Yu’s palm like a stubborn stone. Fine silver-gray feathers gradually appeared on her arm, and with a roar, she knocked Zhu Yu over onto the floor.

She could not win.

“I really don’t know. Then you can tell me. I’m investigating too.” A wise person submitted to circumstances. Zhu Yu dodged messily, staggered, and sat on the floor, panting heavily with absolutely no image to speak of.

“…”

A fist full of rage had struck cotton. Looking at Zhu Yu’s face, which was filled with innocence and sincerity, all of Zhu Zhao’s intense emotions seemed to be abruptly cut off.

Zhu Zhao took a sharp breath. The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. “Get lost.”

She abruptly turned around and slammed the door shut. A pale blue barrier rose in an instant. When Zhu Yu got up and tried to approach again, the barrier crackled with electrical current, forcing her back.

There was strong electromagnetic interference. Even the windows could no longer be used to see inside clearly. Zhu Yu sighed lightly.

Looking at Zhu Zhao’s attitude, transferring to the mecha department was probably hopeless.

On her first day in office, she had offended the immediate superior of the department she liked. Haha.

Fortunately, this place was remote enough. After walking a few steps away, Zhu Yu shook the hand that had gone numb from being hit by the woman. It hurt so badly that she hopped in place several times before slowly leaving with a grimace.

Behind the one-way barrier, Zhu Zhao was still watching Zhu Yu. Seeing her lively, bouncing appearance, her tightly furrowed brows loosened slightly. But after realizing it, she pinched the bridge of her nose in disgust and refused to look anymore.

After going back, Zhu Yu’s mind was full of that strange and powerful woman. She specially searched her up and found that Zhu Zhao’s résumé was frighteningly beautiful. She had achieved abundant results in the fields of brain science and quantum space, practically an interstellar Einstein.

Why would someone like that return to school to teach? It always felt like a waste of talent.

Even after nearly ten years of silence and then reemerging, the Empire’s top mecha research project was still led by her.

Zhu Yu finally understood why she was so arrogant. Ability crushed everything.

If Zhu Yu had that kind of ability, she might become a tyrannical crab, go tug Bai Qianze’s little braids, and also shout, “If you have the guts, execute me!”

As if possessed, she opened the Academy’s internal system and entered Zhu Zhao’s name.

The system loaded for a while, then jumped out with two entire pages of papers and data, almost all deeply related to mental power.

Zhu Yu read through them one by one and was shocked beyond words.

It turned out that years ago, the Empire’s research theory on this had already been this advanced and profound. But after so many years, these studies seemed to have completely stagnated, with no progress at all.

Even the Noetic Quanta value related to ability users had first been proposed by Zhu Zhao, quantizing and particle-izing the seemingly intangible force of mental power.

But all of Zhu Zhao’s data had been set to the highest authorization level, and only a very small number of people could access it.

Zhu Yu held her breath and followed the operation records bit by bit, peeling the cocoon strand [bailiantales.com]by strand. She discovered that Zhu Zhao had been expelled back then because of theft.

Theft?

With her academic status and achievements, those people had erased all experimental records related to Genesis, yet could not bear to delete her research results alone… What exactly had she “stolen” back then to cause such serious consequences?

Had she stolen the nuclear button and pinched it like a toy?

Zhu Yu felt somewhat regretful and sorry. But why did Zhu Zhao hate Bai Shuzhou so much?

The words Bai Shuzhou had once said suddenly surfaced in her mind. Bai Shuzhou had said White Bird became like that because she had “harmed” her. Her cold, sorrowful expression and Zhu Zhao’s anger gradually overlapped…

Pah.

Zhu Yu patted her head. Bai Shuzhou liked White Bird so much. How could she have deliberately harmed her?

The whole world could doubt Bai Shuzhou, but she would definitely stand with her!

No, the whole world was not allowed to doubt Bai Shuzhou! No one was allowed to bully her.

When she went to massage Bai Shuzhou that night, Zhu Yu deliberately picked some interesting things she had ​Read on BaiLianTales​encountered during the day to tell her, especially that training ground as grand as an ancient Roman coliseum, which had left a deep impression on her.

Such an exaggerated place was actually called the “big playground” by the students. Once again, it refreshed Zhu Yu’s understanding of just how formidable beastfolk were.

She praised several departments one by one, only carefully avoiding the mecha department and related topics. She thought she had concealed it flawlessly, not knowing this little thought was as obvious as an ink dot on white paper in Bai Shuzhou’s eyes.

She truly liked mechas, but Zhu Zhao clearly loathed Bai Shuzhou. Zhu Yu felt that she and Bai Shuzhou were one body and should share honor and disgrace.

In the past, Zhu Yu had put in enormous effort to win the qualification of mecha pilot, but because of her later suspension, it had been canceled along with everything else.

Bai Shuzhou fell silent for a moment, then took the initiative to speak. “Sorry. I couldn’t get you back to your original position.”

Zhu Yu was overwhelmed by favor. Through the thin blanket, her hand strength unconsciously increased a little. “It’s fine. I quite like this current position. It’s leisurely, safe, and my colleagues are all friendly.”

“That’s good.” Bai Shuzhou gently furrowed her brows and asked softly, “You like mechas, don’t you?”

“I remember you once said…”

Zhu Yu’s casual mention of her preferences—Bai Shuzhou had actually remembered all of it.

Being stared at so attentively by such clear and deep eyes, unauthorized copy Zhu Yu did not want to lie. After hesitating, she still honestly admitted, “A little.”

Bai Shuzhou’s fingertips moved slightly and lightly pinched Zhu Yu’s fingers. “Introduce them to me.”

The young woman’s dark eyes lit up. Like counting family treasures, she began talking about the current mainstream mecha models and the iteration of core technologies. No repair technician could resist the charm contained in such a colossal machine.

She spoke with shining spirit, and Bai Shuzhou quietly listened.

In a daze, fragments of memory flashed through her mind. The two of them were together in a cramped, shabby room. Not far from the bed was the dining table, separated by a gauze curtain.

Although the image was still blurry, her taste and hearing were very clear. One spoonful after another was delivered into her mouth, and beneath her skirt, her tail swayed lightly.

Tail…

With Zhu Yu, in such a crude environment, she really had grown a tail.

Zhu Yu could always describe and understand things from very novel and interesting angles.

Whenever everyone mentioned mechas, their first reaction was the top-level technology and absolute violence it represented: a killing machine born for war.

But Zhu Yu said that having mechas would make things much safer. They should exist for protection.

In this vast universe, humans no longer needed to use flesh and blood to resist danger.

Mechas were precisely that protective barrier.

The habitual indifference on Bai Shuzhou’s face unknowingly melted a little. She had originally only wanted to hear Zhu Yu’s thoughts and probe her ambitions, but looking at the young woman’s focused, shining side profile, the words that had reached her lips circled once and ultimately became:

“If you like it, then go fight for it.”

“I’ll help you.”

Her cool fingertips lightly held Zhu Yu’s hand, then soon released it with great restraint, like silk sliding past, maintaining the perfect distance.

Zhu Yu’s anxious heart, unsettled by Zhu Zhao, slowly settled back into place. She lowered her eyes, her gaze falling on the bright little red mole on Bai Shuzhou’s slender wrist. All her unease toward the new environment vanished in an instant.

“But the dean of the mecha department hates me. It doesn’t feel good for me to go again.” She was somewhat dejected.

“How could anyone hate you?”

This clumsy disguise was nearly transparent in Bai Shuzhou’s eyes. She gave a short laugh, perfectly stolen content aware of who Zhu Zhao truly hated.

Her long lashes cast fine shadows, covering her obscure thoughts.

Bai Shuzhou lowered her voice. Her cool tone was deliberately softened, like a gentle tide softly wrapping around Zhu Yu, so soothing it made one’s ears go numb.

“You only need to do what you like. Everything else has nothing to do with you.”

This was the first time anyone had ever said something like this to Zhu Yu.

Zhu Yu nodded solemnly. “Then I’ll try. I really do like mechas more than the strategic department.”

“And the mecha major also includes mental power training. In the future, I’ll be able to treat you all even better.”

“To me, you’re still the most important.”

While gathering warm light in her palm and massaging Bai Shuzhou, Zhu Yu let the shining words in her heart spill out.

Bai Shuzhou watched Zhu Yu’s softly lowered hair, her lips opening and closing. The energy wandering between her legs was abnormally warm, almost burning her.

She bit her lower lip hard, forcibly restraining the waves of throbbing at the tip of her heart. [unauthorized copy]She could not open her mouth, afraid that if she did, those shattered emotions would overflow.

For now, she did not plan to tell anyone that her mobility had recovered.

But Zhu Yu quietly lifted her eyes and looked at that tense, even somewhat cold and rigid side profile. Mistaking it for her massage strength being insufficient, she hurriedly increased her force silently.

A few wisps of silver hair were dampened by tiny beads of sweat, sticking to Bai Shuzhou’s smooth temple. Bai Shuzhou suddenly reached out and pushed Zhu Yu away somewhat hastily. Turning her face aside, she said coldly in a voice hoarse from extreme suppression:

“That’s… enough for today.”

Zhu Yu had been timing them with her terminal. Their contact time seemed to be getting shorter and shorter, and she could not help feeling a little disappointed. Still, she obediently walked outside.

“Good night.”

The door was gently shut.

The room returned to silence.

Bai Shuzhou leaned alone against the headboard, listening as the footsteps outside the door gradually faded until they disappeared completely.

Her fingertips unconsciously brushed over the skin Zhu Yu had touched earlier. [stolen content]It seemed to still hold that heart-shaking warmth and strength.

Once one tasted marrow, one knew its flavor. She longed to thoroughly obtain and possess Zhu Yu, like a beast’s instinct to feed. This kind of situation had never appeared before.

But if… she really devoured her, what would happen?

Bai Shuzhou leaned back weakly and raised a faintly trembling hand to cover her burning eyes.

She could not gamble.