Huihai City Is About to Fall into Chaos

Who could be visiting at this hour?

Song Weishi wasn't afraid, not really. Even if whoever was downstairs had truly mutated, she could still get herself out. It wasn't that she had much confidence in her newly acquired abilities—it was that she had confidence in herself.

She popped a couple of cherries into her mouth and glanced through the video doorbell. A dark mass was blocking the lens, completely obscuring whatever was outside.

First, she ruled out insects. The security dormitory was airtight; entry required full disinfection, so bugs couldn't possibly get in. Second, the camera was mounted high—even a normal adult reaching up wouldn't be able to touch it.

With humans and insects both ruled out, only one possibility remained. Song Weishi felt a little speechless. She looked down at her phone. Could the forum posters actually be right?

Refusing to believe it, she switched on the audio feed of the doorbell. A somewhat familiar voice came through: "Hello?"

Song Weishi broke into a smile instantly. It wasn't a monster at all—it was Xiaoli.

"Xiaoli, is that you? Step back a little, I can't see you."

The camera feed cleared. A furry head appeared with a pair of big, round eyes.

It was Jiang Qingrou's black-and-white ape. How it had managed to find her, Song Weishi had no idea—she'd only told Jiang Qingrou which room she was in. They'd all been assigned to the same floor by coincidence. Jiang Qingrou's room was a bit larger, since she needed space to accommodate Xiaoli and the others.

Song Weishi had clearance to unlock her door. The electronic lock clicked open, and she was immediately pulled into a furry embrace.

Xiaoli smelled clean, like the outdoors, though it was a bit warm. Its large hand gently patted Song Weishi's head. It was absolutely thrilled, treating her like family.

Laughing quietly, Song Weishi wriggled out of Xiaoli's hold and stuffed a few fruits into its mouth. The ape had hit the jackpot coming to her—every piece of fruit it had missed out on before, it was now eating at Song Weishi's place. What primate didn't love fruit? Xiaoli looked ready to lift her up in tribute.

"What are you doing here?" Song Weishi asked.

Xiaoli pointed to a door further down the corridor. Song Weishi understood immediately: "Did Qingrou send you to get me?"

Xiaoli nodded. Song Weishi found it a bit odd and pulled out her phone. Sure enough, Jiang Qingrou had sent her several messages—she just hadn't noticed earlier, too busy eating and with notifications off.

She laughed helplessly, closed the door behind her, and followed Xiaoli.

Xiaoli opened the door with practiced ease. The moment she stepped inside, Song Weishi felt like she'd walked into a bustling market—voices chattering nonstop. Good thing the rooms were well soundproofed; she hadn't heard a peep from next door.

Jiang Qingrou and the others were gathered on the sofa, deep in discussion. There were quite a few people: Ke Shaoyi, several of the aunts, and even Xie Yi.

Everyone was waiting for her. Jiang Qingrou turned, spotted her, and waved. "Sister Song! Finally! We've been waiting just for you."

These people had all come together because of Song Weishi, and they got along well. Even though the main players hadn't arrived yet, they'd been chatting up a storm.

Song Weishi was a little curious. Why were the aunts here too?

She sat down beside Xie Huiying and gave the others a questioning look. "What are you all doing here?"

Xie Huiying clapped her hands together. "We've been here for the past few days. Huiqing said going back was too inconvenient, a waste of time, so she arranged for us to stay in the apartments."

Song Weishi nodded in understanding. That made sense—the main city district was quite far, and the suburbs were relatively safer now. It was good that they were staying here.

"What happened that you needed to call me over?" Song Weishi asked.

Jiang Qingrou moved closer and held out her phone. "Sister Song, take a look."

It was an internal notice. She'd seen the one from the initial quarantine of security officers, nothing special. But there was new content appended at the bottom.

After screening, forty-three members of the organization have been found to have physical abnormalities and have been quarantined.

That was just the preliminary screening, and the number was alarmingly high. All of these people were security officers who had returned from external missions. The test agents they'd consumed during long assignments were far more than what regular officers took. Jiang Qingrou had once considered going down that path, but after Song Weishi had a frank talk with her upon getting off the vehicle, she abandoned the idea and started looking for alternatives.

That agent was indeed suspicious. If they could tell who had problems after drinking it, why not develop a gentler approach? Preventing people from turning into monsters early on was surely better than turning them into monsters outright, right?

Song Weishi couldn't wrap her head around it, and neither could the others. Nobody would accept this once they came to their senses—they'd all been led down the wrong path before.

News of this had somehow leaked, and before she knew it, word was spreading everywhere outside.

The situation was escalating far faster than they'd imagined. Who knew how many people in the city believed the official story, but public panic was definitely deepening. They couldn't immediately lift the quarantine, nor could they offer clarifications, without letting things spiral further out of control.

The best option was to ride out this period, because the citizens wouldn't act rashly for the time being.

"What does Chief Xie say about this?"

Song Weishi turned her head toward the others. Judging by their relatively calm expressions, nothing too serious seemed to have happened on that front.

Xie Huiying said, "We haven't been able to reach Xiaoqing yet, but it doesn't seem like there's a major problem at the moment. Otherwise, she wouldn't stay silent. She's probably just busy. We'll check again later."

Xie Huiying kept glancing at her phone, clearly worried.

"Still, we should stick together. If something really does happen, at least we won't panic—we can handle it together."

Sister Chen poured water for everyone. Small animals scurried around playfully from time to time.

The atmosphere was manageable. Song Weishi nodded. She was just scrolling through her phone in a different location anyway. She checked the forum again—no further internal leaks for now.

Refreshing the thread, the earlier posters who claimed there was trouble downstairs in the apartment building hadn't spoken again. Sounded like fearmongering. They'd been pressed for dozens of floors and hadn't responded.

There were always people stirring the pot, but Song Weishi couldn't figure out what kind of attention they hoped to gain. The world was already like this—what was the point? She clicked into both of their profiles and found them completely empty. Some netizens speculated they might have been sent by the pharmaceutical company to muddy the waters, and that wasn't out of the question.

After all, the pharmaceutical company had already launched a new ad campaign: a new resistance capsule designed to neutralize the toxins from the test agents. Sales were climbing steadily, topping the charts as a hot-selling product. The authorities had pulled it from shelves multiple times, but underground channels kept selling it anyway.

Song Weishi wondered if these people had a death wish. Selling medicine at a time like this? Did they really think money mattered more than their lives? And if such a thing really existed, why hadn't they brought it out sooner? What kind of profit were they even chasing? If the city collapsed, all their precious power and wealth would vanish into thin air—nothing would be left. Were they just promoting it with a kamikaze mentality?

She took a sip of water, but her mouth still felt dry. She gulped down a whole glass to steady herself. What was the core of this book, anyway? If this had happened in the real world, the authorities would have cracked down long ago. But here, it was still just a scandal exposed from the top.

She stayed at Jiang Qingrou's place until early morning and even caught some sleep. Nothing happened.

Everyone in the living room finally relaxed. Half a day had passed with no incidents, so it should be fine now. Song Weishi waved goodbye to the group, stood up to head back to her room, and quietly slipped some fruit to the two black-and-white apes on her way out—a little treat for the kids.

Just as she reached the door, Xie Huiying's phone suddenly buzzed with a message from Xie Huiqing.

She gasped and jumped to her feet. "Oh no! Something's happened at the Research Institute."

Frantic, she immediately started pulling on her protective suit, shoved her phone into someone else's hands, and prepared to rush out the door.

Song Weishi grabbed the phone as it was passed to her. Xie Huiqing had replied: Sister, stay put in the apartment. I'm coming out to find you.

She hadn't said what the problem was—just that one line. But judging by the forum, things were taking a turn for the worse.

The Research Institute's signal had been completely cut off. There were many quarantined people there, and Xie Huiqing hadn't withdrawn. She was inside, facing off with the biotech company. As second-in-command, she had to be on the front lines. With her there, authority remained centralized. Once the source encountered a crisis of trust, no one else's credibility could hold the security team together in service to others. Same for the pharmaceutical company. So she had to be present to prevent everything from falling apart.

Xie Huiying was beside herself with worry, refusing to accept her sister's reassurance. She couldn't just sit and wait. Only by seeing Xie Huiqing in person could she be sure her sister was safe.

Song Weishi felt everything spiraling out of control. As she gathered her things, she racked her brain for the story's plot. After the female lead arrived in Huihai City, she didn't seem to have gone out. Had the city faced a crisis like this? Or had it happened without Song Weishi's knowledge? Either way, this felt like the prelude to Huihai City's collapse.

If official power fell into disarray, civilians wouldn't stand a chance on their own.

Song Weishi's heart pounded wildly. So much had happened in just a few days—this felt harder than the journey to Huihai City. Sweetness after hardship had just become hardship on top of hardship.

Everyone packed their bags and headed downstairs. At least privilege had its uses—they got down without obstruction. But the apartment building would be hard to return to.

Song Weishi went back to her room and swept through every corner. In less than a minute, she packed everything she owned, just in case. Even the spatial arrangement was pulled back. She could always set it up again in a few days.

Everything was ready. Everyone loaded into the vehicle and drove toward the Research Institute. The streets had already grown restless—thugs and troublemakers were emerging everywhere. Without the security officers on patrol, the streets were like a prison without guards, and all the pent-up malice and discontent had been unleashed at once.

Xie Yi swerved to avoid a car charging at them, whipped the tail end, and floored the accelerator, racing toward the Research Institute.