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Chapter 20: 20

AH! Gu Jun suddenly woke up from the nightmare . His eyes shot open, only to see the white ceiling . He was still in the dormitory . That was just a dream, huh .

He glanced at the time on his mobile phone . It only felt like a short while for him, but he had already slept for two hours .

Gu Jun took a deep breath . There was a faint onion-like smell in the air, and the thick stench of formalin came from him . He pressed his still-groggy head and got out of bed .

“Was that really just a dream just now?” He muttered, “It doesn’t feel like it though . ”

Perhaps, it was a dream–a subconscious product of his own recent encounters .

Or maybe it wasn’t, but an actual scene that was happening somewhere .

Gu Jun thought about it while rummaging through his closet for clean clothes . He then went to the bathroom of the dormitory building to take a shower . Gu Jun was still carrying around Li Yuerui’s mobile phone . As he was showering, the hot water kept pouring from the showerhead . He scrubbed his hands vigorously and washed it over and over again, but the plasticky smell from the medical rubber gloves could not seem to be washed off .

1

After finishing his shower, Gu Jun returned to the bedroom . He saw that Cai Zixuan had returned and was busy beside his own closet .

“Tycoon Jun, you have only taken a shower now?” Cai Zixuan asked, stunned .

“I went to take a nap first . ” Gu Jun noticed the dishevelled state his buddy was in . His eyes were red and swollen, and his broad nose seemed to be flushed and enlarged . Perhaps due to over-stimulation from the formalin . Gu Jun couldn’t help but say, ” Zixuan, you look so miserable right now . ”

1

As the culprit, you still have the gall to say that . Cai Zixuan heaved a sigh, but he couldn’t bring himself to let loose the pent-up frustration inside of him . “Look in the mirror, you are way worse than me . ”

The moment Gu Jun heard his words, he immediately stood in front of a mirror to take a look . Sure enough, his face was indeed more haggard . No signs of tidiness could be seen from his face, and he looked like a crazed barbarian wandering on the edge of madness . He laughed aloud, not knowing what he was laughing at and shook his head while smiling . “Medical dog, medical dog . ”

“Fortunately, we’re not just the only ones who looked like this . ” Cai Zixuan walked over while carrying his clothes . He stopped and told Gu Jun, “The corpses, other than the malformed parts, are really of high quality . We just went to the neighbouring laboratories to take a look, and everyone is slogging as well . ”

What were the usual dissection specimens? Fat guys covered by layers of blubber, the victim of a car accident that was full of blood, the deformed broken corpse of a suicide victim…

1

Cai Zixuan emotionally said, “You know Shen Wanjie from Class 1, right? The cadaver of their group is a young woman with a malformed left hand, and there are no other abnormalities . The skin is so beautiful! Everyone says it is the most beautiful skin they have ever seen, rivalling those of models from skincare advertisements . ”

“Do you know how perverted you sound right now?” Gu Jun quipped although he knew that the “beautiful” Zi Xuan meant was referring to the precise structure of the skin .

8

“Cheh . ” Cai Zixuan scratched his head and went out with his clothes

Sometimes, there is an inexplicable connection between some things .

Advertisement? A fragment of memory seemed to flash in Gu Jun’s head . He seemed to have seen the huge withered tree somewhere . In some advertisement? Perhaps some travel advertising news?

Only if it wasn’t a withered tree, but still lush and verdant with the leaves young and ever-green .

Gu Jun sat down at the desk, opened his laptop and searched the Internet . He typed in searches for “domestic big trees” and “Eastern City big trees” . He was browsing through the information and suddenly saw a message that gave him a sense of deja vu and immediately clicked on it .

An old banyan tree with a life span of 1,000 years in Gurong Village, Eastern City .

Gu Jun stared at the photos in the news article portrayed on the screen . His eyes were shut together, as though trying to recall something . “That’s the tree! What I saw in my dream is this old banyan tree . ”

Gurong Village was not a particularly famous place . It was just an ordinary village . It was located in a remote mountainous area on the northern edge of Dongzhou City . Although there were some landscapes, it has always been underdeveloped . Only some dedicated backpackers will go there . Gurong Village was best known for this banyan tree .

Because it is placed in the entire Dongzhou city, this banyan tree was undisputedly one of the most long-lived .

The image of the withered tree flashed before his eyes, and Gu Jun took a sip of water before continuing his search for more information about Gurong Village .

The latest news about the village was from last year, and the rest were mostly related to the promotion of this tree . Afterwards, Gu Jun was unable to find new information about the village on the Internet . It was unusual for there to be so little bad rumours about the village to the point of being eerie . It was a small tourist spot after all . Why was it so spotless?

Unless something happened there, and the information there was being controlled .

2

“Could the origin of the deformity be Gurong Village?” Gu Jun thought, and then opened another news article about Gurong Village . His heart tightened .

The news article was about the director of Gurong Village Cultural Tourism District Management Committee introducing the development plan of their village to reporters .

The face of the director was incomparably familiar to Gu Jun .

After all, Gu Jun had personally removed the eyeball from this face this morning .

2

“Huff, huff . ” Gu Jun leaned back against the back of his seat with a series of guesses . Regardless of whether it was the origin, Gurong Village should have a plague outbreak . The fifty bodies were all those of the villagers . Perhaps they were even dead . What exactly happened there for things to become this way?

Looking at the lush verdant banyan tree on screen, he felt an increasingly strong impulse . Rush there this instant and take a look . Go to Gurong Village, the answer you’re seeking is right there .

2

“No!” Gu Jun shouted, cutting off his urge . He absolutely could not just go to Gurong Village on a whim .

This would only expose him to those who were monitoring him . He was not ignorant of this fact .

This was definitely a suicidal act . In horror films, people who acted on impulse were always short-lived .

14

“Gurong Village… Is anyone still there? Prevention and control work of the plague must have begun . Could it be quarantined?”

Gu Jun thought of another way to verify his guess .

It was past four in the afternoon . Gu Jun deliberated a while, and searched for some information . He then wrote it down on his mobile phone . After clearing his browsing history and turning off the computer, he quickly walked out of the dormitory .

After leaving the dormitory building, Gu Jun quickly left the campus dormitory area and headed to the street outside . He got into a taxi, deliberately asking the driver to detour a few rounds, before finally getting out of the car into a familiar alley . He bought an unidentified mobile SIM card at an ordinary roadside shop .

Gu Jun replaced his SIM card with the new one and opened his phone contacts . There was a new contact saved . “Gurong Village Cultural Tourism Zone Management Committee” .

3

He left the small roadside shop . As he walked along the old alleyway, he tapped his finger and dialed the number .

This was a landline number . With the current state of Gurong Village, he felt that the communication line may have been cut off or perhaps no one would answer his call .

Beep, beep… The sound of waiting to be connected rang . It seems like the line was still available .

Gu Jun looked up at the dusky evening sky and glanced around the worn-down signboards of small shops on both sides of the alley: “Mala Hotpot”, “Luo Ji’s Grocery”, “Health Massage And Footbath”…

The phone beeped ten times, but there was no one answering . Was Gurong Village really a dead piece of land?

Gu Jun raised his head . Just as his right hand was about to click the disconnect button and hang up, a sudden click was heard .

The call connected .