Chapter 114: Bai Ye’s Dream

Bai Ye laughed heartily, clutching his belly so hard that it felt as if his insides were about to fall out. “Are you serious? You? A scientist? Dreaming of being a scientist since childhood? Oh man, you’ve got me dying laughing. Damn it, my face is splitting again—I hate this body!”

Cao Fusheng was filled with disbelief, silently watching Bai Ye’s ridiculous antics. This wasn’t the personality he had expected from the letters Bai Ye had written to Han Xiang. Could it be that he was truly two-faced? Or had his mutation altered his character as well? After all, Bai Ye was the first talking undead specimen Cao Fusheng had ever encountered, the first to retain memories of his human life.

One day in the future, Cao Fusheng would come to understand just how extraordinary Bai Ye truly was—one in a billion.

“What’s that? I don’t have the talent? I don’t look like a scientist at all? What’s so funny about that?” Cao Fusheng feigned anger.

Who doesn’t harbor a dream that seems just out of reach? Every schoolchild boasts about becoming an astronaut, a scientist, exploring the moon or the seas, pursuing countless ambitions. Once, he too had been one of those children. Was it so shameful to dream of becoming a scientist?

Bai Ye finally caught his breath, struggling not to laugh himself into ruin again, only to be amused once more by Cao Fusheng. “You really don’t look the part. Look at you—big-shouldered, broad-waisted, with a full beard—more like a bandit than a scientist. You couldn’t be more different from one. Take me, for example—that’s what a researcher should look like!”

“Like you?”

“Refined on the outside, wise within. Plain build, exceptionally delicate features, ethereal grace, speaks with authority, constantly elevates his thoughts, chest and belly marked with deep valleys…”

“Stop! What on earth are you babbling? Are you performing stand-up for me? You’re falling apart from head to toe, I bet your brain’s fried!” Cao Fusheng shot him a disdainful glance.

Bai Ye was about to retort, but then caught sight of his own current state and sighed in disappointment, “Ah, once bitten, forever disfigured.”

Seeing Bai Ye’s momentary gloom, Cao Fusheng feigned sympathy, matching his despondency on the surface while secretly bursting with laughter.

“Alright, stop pretending to be so sad. You’re probably happier than me now that I’m like this,” Bai Ye sneered, glaring at him. Unexpectedly, Cao Fusheng’s eyes nearly popped out from the force of the stare; he hurriedly shoved them back in.

Unable to hold it any longer, Cao Fusheng burst into laughter. The sight, though terrifying, now sparked an urge to laugh until breathless. His laughter was abruptly cut off by a roar from above.

He quickly cleared his throat and fell silent.

“Come on, tell me about your dream. The moment I saw you, I thought you were exceptional, destined for something beyond the ordinary… I’ve taken down many undead specimens, but you’re the only one I don’t want to kill.”

“Yeah, right. You just don’t think you can kill me, so you’re bluffing.”

Caught off guard, Cao Fusheng showed no embarrassment, quietly lighting another cigarette. Bai Ye immediately reached out.

Before they knew it, the gap between man and undead shrank—from tens of meters to just a few.

“Give it here. What are you spacing out for? Never seen an undead smoke before? Consider yourself lucky today,” Bai Ye dragged the sniper rifle along the ground, pulling it over to Cao Fusheng.

Cao Fusheng didn’t hold back either, tossing half a pack of cigarettes his way. “Here, take these. You look so shabby, you need me to supply your smokes.”

Without hesitation, Bai Ye slipped them into his pocket and murmured, “You think I scavenge like human survivors? I can’t eat what they eat, and I don’t go rummaging in malls for cigarettes. I never smoked when I was human—it was bad for my health and work.”

“Now that I’m not human, it doesn’t matter. I’ve got no health left anyway. Smoking won’t give me lung cancer.”

Cao Fusheng gave a thumbs-up in admiration. “Makes sense. I can’t argue with that. You really can’t get lung cancer. In fact, the undead are probably the healthiest—at least they don’t get sick.”

“Want to try it? I’ll bite you, and you’ll be one of us. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt—I’ll knock you out, and when you wake, you’ll be one of my kind.”

Cao Fusheng felt utterly disconnected from Bai Ye’s world. Becoming an undead? He didn’t see himself as an outlier like Bai Ye—an undead with human memories and consciousness.

Bai Ye was essentially a human wearing the undead’s skin; aside from his body, he was still human at heart. Plus, he’d already undergone mutation once—a painful ordeal no one wished to endure twice. Most people never got the chance.

Seeing Cao Fusheng’s silence, Bai Ye shrugged it off. His offer was just talk anyway; deep down, he still planned to experiment on Cao Fusheng.

“My dream is simple. Since regaining consciousness, I’ve pondered an unanswerable question: am I truly the only exceptional undead? The only one who can recover human memories? If one day I can restore memories to all undead, wouldn’t that be a world-changing revolution?”

“Then there’d be no difference between humans and undead—only physical capabilities. I guess I understand your goal—you want to save Tianzhu, right? I’m similar—I want to save all the undead. After all, they dominate this world now. Ninety-nine point nine percent of the population is mutated. In the grand scheme, humans are the aberration.”

Cao Fusheng was so startled by this that he could only swallow hard. “Your dream… it’s truly grand.”

“So you just want to save the undead, not exterminate humans?”

Bai Ye looked at him as if he were a fool, his voice rising. “Tell me, in the old era, did humans exterminate the giant pandas?”

Cao Fusheng was speechless.

If Bai Ye had lived in the old era, he’d have been captured long ago—a fanatical extremist, no doubt.