98: Chapter 98 Damn it, whose good person's kidney deficiency report is on the national archives?!

As soon as the plane landed, Zhou Yu's nerves, which had been taut for fourteen days, finally relaxed for three seconds.

Then, two plainclothes air marshals appeared beside his and Shen Nian's seats, their smiles standard and their tones polite.

"The two of you, please come with us."

Zhou Yu: "?"

Shen Nian: "??"

There were no interrogation rooms, no handcuffs.

A dark, unplated commercial vehicle took them to a national-level biomedical research institute located in the suburbs.

Greeting them were cold instruments, white walls, and a group of researchers with sharp eyes wearing white lab coats.

From functional MRIs to whole-genome sequencing, and then to energy particle detectors whose names he couldn't even pronounce.

Three whole days.

Zhou Yu felt like a lab rat being studied over and over again.

On the fourth day, a report was placed in front of him.

Shen Nian: All indicators normal, perfectly healthy.

Zhou Yu: Abnormal adrenaline levels, neurasthenia due to long-term sleep deprivation, mild osteoporosis... and, kidney deficiency.

The doctor in the white lab coat responsible for interpreting the report, an old professor who looked at least at the academician level, pushed up his glasses, let his gaze linger on Zhou Yu's waist for half a second longer, and spoke in a meaningful tone.

"Young man, take care of your health."

Zhou Yu's hand, reaching for the report, froze in mid-air.

He felt that his dignity, along with that damn "kidney deficiency report," had been stamped with the state's highest-level red seal and permanently archived.

Finally, that square-faced man named Section Chief Han Zheng appeared again.

Standing behind him was Wang Hao, clutching that bronze piece of Kindling which had already turned cold.

Section Chief Han Zheng's questions were ten times more precise than the interrogators from the previous days, striking straight at the core.

"How much do you know about 'Kindling'?"

Zhou Yu and Shen Nian exchanged a glance and spoke in unison.

"What is Kindling? Is it a new brand of instant noodles?"

Their expressions were as innocent as if it were true.

Wang Hao stepped forward and quietly pressed the bronze piece against Zhou Yu's back.

No light. No heat. There was no reaction whatsoever.

He tried it on Shen Nian as well. It was the same.

Wang Hao shook his head at Section Chief Han Zheng.

Section Chief Han Zheng stared at Zhou Yu for a full ten seconds before finally waving his hand.

"Let them go."

When they walked out of the research institute's gate, the sunlight made them both squint.

Shen Nian let out a long sigh of relief.

"We... are free."

Zhou Yu rubbed the back of his neck, expressionless.

"No, my kidney deficiency report will stay here forever."

The dormitory. As soon as the door was pushed open, three pairs of eyes locked onto him in unison.

"You're back? The one who returned by private car?"

The third roommate held up his phone, the camera right in his face.

"It's all over the campus network; you two are now legendary figures at school."

The second roommate leaned back in his chair and said leisurely, " 'Disaster Couple,' I've even thought of a trending topic for you. Why is it that wherever you go, trouble follows?"

Zhou Yu kicked the third roommate, threw himself onto his bed, and covered his head with the quilt.

"Get lost! I'm not leaving the province for the rest of my life! Even if the King of Heaven himself comes, it won't work!"

The eldest roommate dragged a cardboard box out from under the bed.

"Your mom sent it; it just arrived yesterday."

Zhou Yu reached a hand out from under the quilt and listlessly sliced through the packing tape.

Cordyceps, rock crabs, dried bamboo shoots, and a few bags of tea.

The second roommate rummaged through the cordyceps, his eyes lighting up.

"Good stuff! Wild ones! I heard this stuff is good for the kidneys!"

The third roommate leaned in and lowered his voice.

"Just in time, someone needs it."

A rush of hot blood surged to his head, and Zhou Yu felt his cheeks burning as he sprang up from the quilt.

"My kidneys are fine! Golden kidneys! Platinum kidneys! Titanium-alloy kidneys!"

"Alright, alright," the eldest roommate laughed as he rummaged through the bottom of the box.

"There's also a small cloth bag, it's quite heavy. Probably some medicinal herb too."

He unwrapped the cloth bag. A bronze piece fell onto the table.

With a 'clang,' it sounded crisp and jarring.

It was palm-sized, with a dull brass luster, rough edges, and two ancient, crude characters engraved on the front: "Kindling."

The color drained from Zhou Yu's face in an instant.

The world went quiet. The noise of his roommates and the game BGM from next door were all shut out.

In his eardrums, only the voice of that square-faced man at the research institute remained, roaring repeatedly— "Have you heard the word 'Kindling'?"

Countless chaotic fragments exploded in his mind, then were forcibly connected by an invisible force.

The East Sea. A blood-red sky, eight tentacles bursting out of the water.

Hangzhou. The highway fractured, the bus hanging on the edge of an abyss.

Twice! Two desperate situations with certain death! Both times saved by the same mysterious person!

That person who walked down from the sky stepping on white flames, that person who lifted ten thousand tons of weight with a single hand!

A half-mask, a black trench coat, a young jawline...

And now, the "Kindling" bronze piece that represented all these secrets had fallen in front of him from the package his mother had sent.

Zhou Yu's hand shot out like lightning, snatching the bronze piece from the eldest roommate's hand with a movement so fast it left the other stunned.

The moment his fingertips touched the engravings, a trace of extremely faint warmth came through.

It was faint enough that he could lie to himself that it was an illusion. But he couldn't fool himself.

"Number Four?" The eldest roommate was startled by his expression.

"What's wrong with you?"

Zhou Yu gripped the bronze piece tightly, suddenly retreated back into his quilt, and pulled the corner of the quilt over his head.

"It's nothing, I'm just tired."

It was pitch black inside the quilt. He stared fixedly at the bronze piece in his palm, his fingertips repeatedly rubbing over the engravings of the two characters, as if touching a scorching secret.

In the dormitory, the second roommate was still arguing with the eldest over the ownership of the cordyceps, and the third was recording with his phone, with the noise of normalcy in the background.

Yet Zhou Yu felt as if he had been cut off from the entire world.

He figured it out. So-called "Disaster Couple"—it wasn't that he and Shen Nian had bad luck, but that they were being targeted by someone! No, they were being targeted by those monsters!

And that mysterious boss in black was a member of "Kindling"! Kindling must be a mysterious extraordinary organization dedicated to fighting these terrifying monsters!

But this bronze piece... why was it sent from home? Could his parents be members of the Kindling organization?

No! Impossible! In Zhou Yu's mind, images surfaced of his father sticking out his beer belly while watching anti-Japanese war dramas, and his mother sighing because she failed to haggle.

With their pathetic selves, they had absolutely nothing to do with any mysterious organization.

Then how did this bronze piece... come to be? Could it be that the mysterious boss had placed it in the package without anyone noticing, using some method he couldn't comprehend?

Was this implying something? Recruitment? Or a warning?

A more terrifying thought surfaced. Should he contact the police? Hand this bronze piece over to Section Chief Han Zheng?

This thought only existed for three seconds before he extinguished it.

How would he say it? "Officer, I encountered the apocalypse twice, was saved by a flying superhero, and now he gave me a coin; I think I'm about to awaken superpowers?"

He would be treated as a lunatic and sent back to the research institute; this time they wouldn't be checking his kidneys, but his brain.

Cold sweat seeped from his forehead, soaking the pillowcase.

Possessing this bronze piece meant his life trajectory had completely deviated from the normal.

And the other side of being extraordinary was unforeseeable danger. He couldn't drag Shen Nian into this anymore.

The vertical pupils in the East Sea, the fissures in Hangzhou—any one of them was enough to crush her to pieces.

He couldn't let Shen Nian suffer "bad luck" with him anymore.

Zhou Yu closed his eyes and fished out his phone in the darkness, his fingertips trembling slightly from the effort.

He sent a message to Shen Nian.

"Tomorrow night, school rooftop, I have something to tell you."

Three seconds later, a reply popped up.

"Perfect, I have something to say too."