A Curious Experiment and a Sealed Building

Huang Xiu remembered it clearly.

Only a few drops of blood had fallen onto the potted cactus last night.

Yet, those drops had caused the cactus to transcend its botanical nature, as if imbued with life, gaining formidable offensive power.

“Could it be due to the type of plant?”

Huang Xiu mused, “Because one is a cactus, and the other is a roadside weed?”

“No, that can’t be the reason.”

Regardless of how a cactus grew or mutated, it should fundamentally remain a plant.

It shouldn’t acquire the ability to actively launch its spines.

After all, one couldn’t claim that wheat fortified with Jinkela (TL Note: Jinkela is a fictional, meme-famous Chinese fertilizer, often associated with exaggerated claims of efficacy) somehow ceased to be wheat!

“And… is my blood only effective on plants? Does it work on other living beings — animals, insects, or even… humans?”

Huang Xiu’s heart swelled with curiosity.

This continuous process of exploration, self-reflection, and uncovering one secret after another left him feeling somewhat intoxicated.

He quickly decided to experiment.

Fearing that an animal’s mutation might become too extreme and pose a threat to him, and also because finding a suitable animal on short notice was difficult.

Huang Xiu temporarily chose only ants.

Regrettably, after consuming his blood, the ants showed no discernible changes.

“Insects are also animals, so extrapolating from this, perhaps my blood is only effective on plants,” Huang Xiu murmured, stroking his smooth chin.

Most boys started growing beards around fifteen or sixteen, and the chins of his classmates his age were already showing stubble.

Yet, his own remained inexplicably bare.

Huang Xiu, however, didn’t much care; after all, beards were troublesome, growing only to be shaved.

Next, Huang Xiu experimented with several different plants, including roadside wild chrysanthemums, dog-tail grass, and moss.

He had actually wanted to test his blood’s efficacy on large trees, but fearing the commotion it might cause, he decided to postpone it for now.

It seemed his blood was indeed only effective on plants.

These plants, after being nourished by his blood, exhibited varying degrees of growth and transformation.

However, none of them had transcended the fundamental nature of a plant.

They simply grew larger, healthier, and more vibrant.

Time slipped away unnoticed amidst his experiments until his rumbling stomach loudly protested.

Only then did Huang Xiu pause.

Rubbing his mist-filled eyes, he pulled out his phone and saw that it was already one in the afternoon.

“I should eat first,” he decided.

Huang Xiu tucked the paper cutter back into his pocket, crumpled the blood-stained tissue he’d used to wipe the blade, and buried it in a small dirt pit.

Perhaps because he had lost a considerable amount of blood and his body had repeatedly healed numerous cuts, he felt exceptionally hungry.

Huang Xiu, at seventeen, was already at an age where he ate a lot, usually possessing a hearty appetite.

With both factors combined, the result was quite something.

At a restaurant, he devoured four large bowls of rice and three bowls of complimentary soup, all alongside a twelve-yuan meal of two meat and two vegetable dishes.

He ate until his belly was perfectly round, stopping only when he felt food pressing against his throat.

The owner’s eyelids twitched, clearly terrified that Huang Xiu might actually gorge himself to death right there in his restaurant.

“It seems healing consumes a significant amount of energy,” Huang Xiu mused, wiping his mouth as he exited the restaurant and headed towards school.

While the threat of the Pig-headed Teacher certainly loomed, unfinished homework was no trivial matter either.

Although a lingering fear gnawed at him, he couldn’t realistically just stop going to school.

As a student, school was an inescapable part of his life.

Furthermore, Huang Xiu speculated that the Pig-headed Teacher, this monstrous entity, was highly likely to appear only late at night.

It probably existed within some alternate dimension.

He might have stumbled into it that day only because certain conditions were met.

Otherwise, with so many students constantly entering and exiting the teaching building daily, something would have gone wrong long ago.

“Sigh, even with a formidable enemy at hand, I still have to do homework. Such is the plight of a high school student!”

Huang Xiu ambled towards the teaching building.

Before he even reached it, he noticed a cluster of students gathered not far from the teaching building, pointing and gesticulating towards it.

A jolt went through him, and he swiftly walked into the crowd, his gaze fixed on the building.

On the open ground in front of the teaching building, a yellow-and-white barrier tape had been strung up, cordoning off the entire structure.

Men in black vests, emblazoned with the “Rong’an Pest Control” logo on their backs, stood guard outside, preventing anyone from entering.

The naturally perceptive Huang Xiu instantly became highly vigilant, and he casually pulled aside a nearby student.

“Excuse me, classmate,” he asked, “the Rende Building was fine this morning. Why is it suddenly cordoned off?”

“I heard there were too many cockroaches, so they’re doing pest control,” the student replied. “Since the insecticide is toxic, no one’s allowed in until it dissipates.”

Too many cockroaches? Pest control? It sounded plausible enough.

The school had done it before.

He remembered a full-school disinfection last year, which even gave their first-year high school class half a day off.

But… he had just reported the incident that morning, and in the afternoon, the teaching building was immediately sealed off. Could it really be such a coincidence?

Huang Xiu’s eyes flickered. Feigning urgency, he spoke while attempting to cross the barrier tape, “Oh, but my homework is still inside! I need to ask if I can just go in and retrieve it, otherwise I won’t finish it in time.”

The staff member reacted quickly, swiftly blocking Huang Xiu’s path. “Classmate, pest control is underway inside the teaching building. Please come back tomorrow.”

“Ah, tomorrow? But school starts the day after tomorrow! I won’t be able to finish my homework!”

Huang Xiu pleaded pitifully, “Uncle, can I just go in and grab my homework? Just one minute, I’ll be quick!”

“The insecticide sprayed inside is toxic. You don’t have a gas mask, so you really can’t go in. This is a matter of principle. If something happens to you, I’ll be in huge trouble and get fired!”

The staff member smiled amiably, “How about this: tell me where your homework is, and I’ll have my colleague fetch it for you, alright?”

He was unyielding, his attitude firm.

Yet, Huang Xiu grew increasingly suspicious of them.

His eyes darted around. Then, rising slightly on his tiptoes, he whispered into the staff member’s ear, “Uncle, I’m Huang Xiu.”

“Huang Xiu? Never heard of him!”

The staff member chuckled dismissively, “Even if you were Li Gang (TL Note: A reference to a well-known Chinese internet meme, ‘My dad is Li Gang,’ used to imply someone trying to leverage connections or authority), it wouldn’t matter. Even the school principal couldn’t enter today. It’s genuinely toxic in there, not a joke.”

Seeing his probing was ineffective, Huang Xiu muttered to himself for a moment…

‘They don’t recognize me, so it seems they weren’t actually sent here because of my police report this morning.’

“Fine,” he said, a hint of disappointment in his voice, before telling the staff member his seat location.

After waiting for about ten minutes, a man emerged from the teaching building, completely enveloped in a white protective suit.

The other staff members made way for the man in the protective suit.

The man wore a mask underneath, further obscured by the protective suit, making his face indistinct.

Yet, the pair of eyes visible were remarkably sharp.

“Here’s your homework. Take it,” the man said, handing over the homework, whose cover felt slightly damp.

“Thank you, Uncle,” Huang Xiu replied obediently, accepting it.

Just as he turned to leave, he suddenly felt an intensely cold gaze sweep over him from behind.

He instinctively spun around, following the gaze, and met a pair of dark, piercing eyes visible through the transparent plastic of the suit.

“Study hard.”

The man in the isolation suit offered Huang Xiu a gentle smile, gave a thumbs-up, and then turned to depart.

Only the perplexed boy remained, scratching his head.