The Mechanic [BL]

[70]

Chapter 70 The Antidote to Human Nature (8)

As soon as dawn broke, Zhang Xun woke up from the single bed in his small apartment that had not been touched for nearly a year. The fire in the fireplace was out and the air still had a faint smell of pine rosin. He felt a pain in his head and a dry throat. He drank the water on the bedside table in one gulp, turned on the lamp and entered the bathroom like a zombie to take a shower. The face that appeared in the mirror was thin and haggard, he had heavy bags under his eyes, his eyes were bloodshot and his chin was covered with blue stubble.

He sighed, picked up the razor, shaved his chin and patted his cheeks hard so that he wouldn't look too frightening.

In the past two days, he had moved out of the Lab under the pretext of concentrating on reviewing the papers of the researchers participating in the mechanic assessment. He still went to the Lab to see Adam during the day, but would return to his apartment after ten o'clock. It's just that he wasn't reviewing the papers and instead spent the nights studying the investigation report on recovered Honey Plague patients submitted to him by Zhang Shuo through James.

For more than a month, Zhang Shuo had asked his trusted soldiers to take the questionnaire that Zhang Xun had attached to the report, and inquire door-to-door. However, due to the urgency of time and limited manpower, the survey results were very scattered and there was no one responsible for organising it all. The information obtained was huge and complex and Zhang Xun had to read it page by page by himself. For the past few days, Zhang Xun was only able to sleep for three hours a night and during the day he had to try his best not to be suspicious. By now, he was exhausted.

But today was extremely important, he had to keep his head clear. He boiled a large pot of coffee for himself, poured it down his throat like drinking water, stuffed some dry bread into his stomach, then put on a heavy coat, hat, scarf and gloves and opened the door.

The twilight hadn't completely faded in the dark blue sky and the light from the rising sun from the east was lightly scattered on the sloping eaves. Zhang Xun breathed in the cold air, squinting at the sun and suddenly remembered the scene of Adam waving his wings, facing the rising sun and rushing to the sky on the Harvest Festival.

At that time, he was really happy, happy like never before.

All good things come to an end, he thought inexplicably.

His heart felt like it was was twisted violently by an invisible hand.

Zhang Xun took a deep breath, suppressed the surging emotions in his chest and continued to trudge along the bad road that was half melting and half icy. In order to avoid all of Pan's extended sweeping robots, he had to take some long detours.

At such an early hour, even those who were the first to go to work had not yet left their houses. The narrow and winding streets were empty and all the grey and old buildings seemed to have not woken up. Zhang Xun made his way through the cobwebs of alleyways and finally stopped in front of a precarious, cheap apartment building on the outskirts of the Third District. The wooden structure was wonky and covered with traces of erosion by wind, frost and the years. Some windows were even shattered and hadn't been properly repaired, only covered with heat-insulating fabrics, rustling and flapping in the cold wind.

The corridor was so narrow that one had to turn sideways to pass and it was full of old furniture and debris. There was a particular rancid smell in the air, like rotten vegetable leaves, which Zhang Xun had never smelled before.

This place was located at the junction of the Third District and the Second District and was a place where the poor lived. As a member of the privileged class, Zhang Xun has hardly set foot here. He thought his own apartment was small enough, but when he saw the front door the size of a wardrobe door and the distance between the doors, he could guess that the space inside would not exceed three square metres, but often three to six people would be squeezed into that space.