Chapter 352 - Know Qiu yue

Chapter 352: Chapter 352 - Know Qiu yue

The reinforced door opened just enough for one person to pass through. Jai stepped inside, and the moment he cleared the doorway, it shut behind him.

Shao immediately moved closer to the glass.

"Shao," Yunfeng warned quietly.

"I know."

He stopped before getting too close, but his gaze never left Jai.

Inside, Jai found himself standing in a narrow decontamination area separated from the rest of the building by another sealed door. Bright lights flickered overhead, and the sharp smell of disinfectant filled the small space. A camera in the corner moved toward him.

Jai lifted the vial.

"I brought it."

The inner door remained closed.

For several uncomfortable seconds, nothing happened.

Then a hiss came from vents above him.

Jai stiffened as a fine mist sprayed through the room.

Outside, Shao saw it through the glass and immediately stepped forward.

"What the hell are they doing?"

"Decontamination," Yunfeng said quickly, although his own body had tensed. "It should be."

"It should be?"

Jai coughed once and waved the mist away from his face, clearly annoyed rather than injured. After several seconds, the spray stopped and the inner door unlocked.

He looked back through the glass.

Shao was practically pressed against it now.

Jai mouthed, I’m fine.

Only then did he turn and enter the next corridor.

Three people were waiting for him.

They wore protective suits, though none had their hoods up. The woman standing in front appeared to be in her late forties, with short hair, a thin face and deep shadows beneath her eyes. Behind her stood a younger man and an elderly researcher, both looking equally exhausted.

The woman’s attention immediately fell to the vial in Jai’s hand.

For a second, she didn’t even seem to breathe.

"That’s it?"

Jai looked down at the dark red liquid.

"Yes."

She took one step forward before stopping herself.

Her hands were trembling.

The fear outside hadn’t been an act. These people really had been terrified of them.

He slowly held the vial out.

The woman approached with extraordinary care and accepted it with both hands, treating the tiny glass container as though it were something precious.

Her eyes remained fixed on the liquid.

"You said it stops the infection."

"Our doctor says it does."

"Who is your doctor?"

"Qiu Yue."

The elderly man behind her suddenly lifted his head.

Jai noticed the reaction immediately.

The man stared at him.

"What did you say?"

Jai frowned.

"Our doctor’s name is Qiu Yue."

The older researcher went completely still.

The woman turned toward him. "Professor?"

But the old man continued staring at Jai.

Then, slowly, disbelief spread across his face.

"Qiu Yue is alive?"

The elderly researcher hurried forward so quickly that the woman beside him instinctively reached out to steady him.

"Qiu Yue is alive?" His voice shook as badly as his hands. "He’s really alive?"

Jai took a small step back.

The man’s reaction seemed genuine, but that didn’t mean Jai was going to start handing out information about where Qiu Yue was staying.

They had only met these people a few minutes ago, and their first conversation had involved threats of releasing deadly viruses. A familiar name wasn’t enough for Jai to suddenly trust them.

"How exactly do you know Qiu Yue?"

The old man seemed surprised by the question. Then his expression changed, and a broad, almost disbelieving smile appeared on his face.

"He’s my prodigy."

Jai raised a brow.

The old researcher laughed softly, but his eyes had already grown wet. He removed his glasses and wiped them against the front of his protective suit, although Jai suspected the glasses weren’t the reason he could no longer see properly.

"That boy..." The man shook his head. "Fuck. I thought he was dead."

The woman holding the vial looked between them. "Professor, you know this Qiu Yue personally?"

"Know him?" The old man shoved his glasses back onto his face. "I spent years dealing with that little bastard."

Jai’s lips twitched.

That description sounded considerably more believable.

The professor rubbed a trembling hand over his face before continuing. "He worked under me before all of this. Brilliant mind. Absolutely horrible temperament when anyone touched his work, but brilliant nonetheless. He could look at results the rest of us had been staring at for days and notice the one thing everyone else missed."

His voice softened.

"When the city was bombed, I thought he was there."

Jai’s expression changed.

The older man’s smile faded slightly as the memory caught up with him. "We lost contact with so many people after the outbreak. Phones stopped working properly, roads were blocked, facilities went dark one after another. Then we heard about the bombing. The last information I had placed Qiu Yue somewhere inside that area."

His hands began trembling again.

"I thought he died there."

The woman beside him quietly touched his arm, but the professor barely seemed to notice. He was looking at the vial now, and the sadness on his face gradually gave way to something much brighter.

"If he’s alive..." He let out a soft laugh. "Of course. If anyone could find something like this, it would be him."

Jai glanced at the serum.

"You haven’t even tested it yet."

"No, I haven’t." The professor looked at him. "And I’m not foolish enough to declare it a cure before we do. But you don’t know that boy the way I do. Qiu Yue doesn’t get excited over nothing. If he sent you here carrying a sample and asking for laboratory equipment, then he found enough to believe it was worth pursuing."

That much was true.

Qiu Yue had looked half insane that morning, but underneath all the excitement, he had been certain about what he’d seen.

The old man suddenly seemed to remember something and looked around Jai as if Qiu Yue might somehow be standing behind him.

"Where is he?"

Jai’s guard immediately returned.

"Somewhere safe."

The professor paused. His eyes narrowed.

Jai narrowed his own.

For several seconds, they simply stared at each other.

Then the professor asked, "You haven’t captured him, have you?"

Jai’s mouth fell open slightly.

"What?"

"You said he’s somewhere safe instead of simply telling me where he is. You came here asking for research equipment while carrying something he created. How am I supposed to know what kind of group you are?" The professor’s expression became increasingly suspicious. "Did you force him to make this?"

Jai stared at him before an incredulous laugh escaped his mouth.

"Capture Qiu Yue?"

The professor didn’t look amused.

Jai scoffed. "Please. You try capturing that man. He’d probably kill all of us with one of his scalpels before we figured out where he hid them."

The younger researcher behind the professor suddenly coughed, clearly trying to hide a laugh.

Jai continued, "Yesterday he carried an entire zombie corpse away because he wanted to cut it open. This morning he ran into our house looking like he hadn’t slept in a week because he was too excited about this serum. We had to force him to go to bed. Nobody is making that man do anything."

The suspicion slowly disappeared from the professor’s face.

Then he laughed.

Not the small, emotional laugh from before. This one was loud enough to echo through the corridor.

"That is my Qiu Yue."

Jai found himself smiling despite everything.

The woman beside them finally cleared her throat, drawing their attention back to the vial she was holding. She had been examining it closely throughout their conversation, though she hadn’t opened the seal.

"If this really came from Qiu Yue, we can test it here."

The professor’s amusement faded as his attention returned to the serum.

"Yes."

He carefully took the vial from her, holding it up toward the overhead light. The dark liquid shifted slowly inside.

"We still have infected tissue samples in secure storage. Some are old, but there are newer samples as well. If the serum works as you’ve described, we should be able to confirm the basic reaction ourselves."

Jai nodded. "That’s why we brought it."

The professor continued staring at the vial for a few seconds before looking at Jai again.

"Bring Qiu Yue here."

Jai blinked.

"We have equipment he needs. He has the research we need. There is no reason for us to work separately anymore." The old man’s excitement was returning with every word. "If his initial results are correct, we can continue testing immediately. We have containment rooms, diagnostic equipment, cultures, preserved samples, everything he would need."

He gestured toward the sealed corridors around them.

"This facility was built for exactly this kind of work."

Jai looked around.

That was difficult to argue with.

Their base hospital had been enough for Qiu Yue to perform basic testing, but even Jai could see the difference here. The research facility had survived almost completely intact. The people inside had power, functioning containment systems and apparently enough specialized equipment to make Qiu Yue lose his mind with happiness.

Still, Jai wasn’t going to agree on behalf of everyone.

The professor seemed to take his silence as hesitation.

"He’ll be safe here."

Jai looked at him.

"I mean it. Whatever you think of us after what happened at the gate, we aren’t interested in hurting him. If Qiu Yue is alive, I want him here. We can work on this together."

Jai hesitated.

"About that..."

The professor waited.

Jai rubbed the back of his neck. "We’re going to have to discuss that with our team first."

The old man’s face fell slightly. "Why?"

"Because I don’t make decisions for everyone."

"You’re his companion, aren’t you?"

"Friend. And yes. But that doesn’t mean I get to decide where he lives or works." Jai glanced toward the entrance where Yunfeng, Shao and Zei were still waiting outside. "We came here because Qiu Yue needs equipment. The original plan was to take what we could back with us."

The professor frowned. "Moving half a laboratory is ridiculous. You could damage sensitive equipment. Some of these machines can’t simply be thrown into a vehicle."

"I know."

The old man looked increasingly frustrated. "Then bring Qiu Yue here."

Jai gave him a flat look.

"And that’s why I said we need to discuss it."

The professor opened his mouth before apparently deciding there was no point arguing with him.

Jai continued more calmly, "We have people back at our base. Families. Injured survivors. We only reclaimed the place recently, and we’re still securing it. Qiu Yue is our main doctor as well as the person researching this serum. Asking him to move here isn’t a small decision."