Chapter 52
Chapter 52
“The box contains the ashes of something that was burned.”
Old Dao avoided Qin Zhiguo’s gaze as he spoke.
That red box, deliberately placed in the middle of the empty laboratory, was filled with the ashes of incinerated plants.
As for what kind of plants they were, one could probably guess.
The Mastermind was utterly wicked and arrogant, yet incredibly cautious.
The entire laboratory had been cleared out; a massive amount of data had been burned to cinders.
Aside from the woman the Mastermind had intentionally left behind and that “surprise” gift box, there were almost no useful clues.
Qin Zhiguo’s heart sank further and further. While the technical department checked for traces, he stood still in front of a glass wall.
Behind the glass was a patch of damp, artificial mud. It should have been a planting area, but now it was nothing but a floor full of pits.
Everything grown inside had been dug up and completely destroyed by fire.
In such a vast space, they hadn’t even found a single fingerprint.
The laboratory had been established legally, but the founder had already gone missing.
Rat Scout lingered over the ashes, seemingly unable to find any further leads.
Qin Zhiguo rubbed his face in frustration.
Feeling stifled, he wanted to step outside for a few cigarettes. However, as soon as he walked out of the research institute’s gate, he saw Qin Ying sitting on the curb.
Qin Zhiguo paused for a moment before walking toward her.
“I’ve used my connections to contact the most famous thoracic surgeon. That thing can be removed just as well through surgical peeling.”
He didn’t realize how stiff his smile was as he tried to comfort Qin Ying. “Don’t worry, it’s not a big deal.”
Seeing this, Qin Ying cooperated with a soft hum. “I know. I’m not worried.”
She was being sincere. Aside from her natural sense of detachment, she knew there was still a glimmer of hope, so she wasn’t particularly panicked.
Seeing her like this made Qin Zhiguo’s eyes sting. He quickly turned his head away to hide the tears. “Exactly.”
“You… hurry back to the hospital and rest. You have to keep your body temperature under control before the surgery. It’s going to be a grueling process.”
Qin Ying shook her head and made a request. “Can I go in and take a look?”
Before Qin Zhiguo could refuse, she added, “I feel like I have a faint connection with those things. Maybe I can discover something.”
“My dreams.”
There was no reason for a person to dream of things they had never seen or heard of before.
Qin Ying had never seen Dream-Embracing Grass, yet she had entered that red wasteland in her dreams.
Then there was the goodwill the Ghost-Shadow Vines had shown her.
Qin Ying looked up at Qin Zhiguo. “I keep thinking… could these things be a species with a shared memory?”
Connected to one another, sharing memories-that would explain why Qin Ying stood in that wasteland covered in Dream-Embracing Grass in her dream.
It was impossible to ask Zhang Tao if he had also had dreams. He had been in a deep sleep, and no amount of effort had been able to wake him.
Qin Ying’s expression was very serious. Qin Zhiguo pondered for a while before stepping aside to make a phone call.
A moment later, he returned and nodded to Qin Ying.
Under his lead, Qin Ying put on shoe covers and crossed the police line to enter the research institute.
People were moving about everywhere. Qin Ying frowned as she looked around.
Just as Qin Zhiguo had said, they really hadn’t found any clues.
Upon reaching the second floor, Qin Ying was greeted by the whiteboard with the provocative clown drawing, the gift box, and the labeled tag.
These were all written in blood. The person who did this was utterly insane.
However, that person certainly had the right to be arrogant.
No one knew how many cases he had committed or how many people he had killed in Yunlan City so far-sorting through the countless fragmented bones recovered from the Wetland Park was a task of epic difficulty.
If Old Dao hadn’t been sharp-eyed despite his age, the homemade detonator rigged to the door would have surely caused another sensational disaster.
Under these circumstances, the killer had escaped. No wonder he dared to be so provocative.
Qin Ying shook her head.
Upon seeing her, both Old Miao and Old Dao turned their heads away.
They were riddled with guilt and shame, not daring to look her in the eye.
Qin Ying walked to the glass wall of the laboratory. She quietly stared at the excavated pits and hollows, and a thought suddenly sprouted in her mind-she wanted to enter the dream again.
It wasn’t to seek help from Han Lie, but to save herself.
The Mastermind behind this wouldn’t have messed with the Dream-Embracing Grass just for fun. Would he really be willing to let all of this burn to ashes?
What if he had taken one or two stalks of Dream-Embracing Grass and Ghost-Shadow Vine with him?
And what if the Dream-Embracing Grass really functioned as she suspected, with a shared collective memory among the species?
Then, could Qin Ying find some clues through the dreamscape?
As soon as the thought arose, her lips curled up unconsciously.
Some people get excited at the sight of blood, their usual personality shifting the moment a gambler’s instinct is triggered. Unfortunately for her enemies, Qin Ying was exactly that kind of person.
She suppressed her emotions, choosing not to act on her own but to inform the others of her plan.
Qin Zhiguo disagreed in his heart, but in the current situation, he had no other choice.
They called it surgical extraction, but removing things that were so densely rooted within internal organs was harder than climbing to heaven.
At Qin Ying’s insistence, she returned to the hospital and lay back down on the hospital bed.
The rhythmic beeping of the monitor echoed in her ears.
Dean Tan and the others prepared the tools to wake her up.
Under their watchful eyes, Qin Ying slowly closed her eyes.
She didn’t actually know how to do it; she simply clutched a handful of soil she had brought back from that laboratory.
She kept visualizing the scenes of the laboratory in her mind.
Suddenly, there was a buzzing sound in her head.
It felt like sinking into the deep sea; her breath hitched.
Vast swathes of light and shadow flickered before her eyes.
Qin Ying was in a state between sleep and wakefulness, unsure of how much time had passed.
Suddenly, she smelled a foul stench.
Pungent agricultural fertilizer, rot…
She felt as if she were a plant rooted in the mud, with someone pouring foul-smelling fertilizer over her head.
Did it work?
Qin Ying tried her best to see who was fertilizing her, but in the end, she only saw a giant wearing heavy lead clothing and a gas mask.
She was like a short, tiny blade of grass, completely enveloped in a massive Shadowy Figure.
For a moment, Qin Ying thought she had failed, but then she realized something.
Perhaps these Dream-Embracing Grass plants came from the World in the Box.
Grass blades that were three people tall in the World in the Box were no taller than a succulent in this world.
After making the comparison, Qin Ying’s heart skipped a beat.
If she calculated according to that scale, what kind of massive Ghost-Shadow Vine would Han Lie have to face while searching for the Dream-Embracing Grass alone in that world?
This shock made Qin Ying feel a bit more alert.
Just then, the scene before her blurred.
She found herself in a swaying vehicle, covered by a black cloth.
The car stereo was playing a piano piece.
The sound of a clock chiming the hour echoed from outside.
Amidst the noisy sounds of a mall promotion, a man’s voice said irritably, “All this noisy fertilizer.”
Then, a hand touched her leaves through the black cloth with extremely gentle pressure. The man who had just spoken added, “I didn’t scare you, did I?”
The man’s voice was very young, his tone deep and full of doting affection.