Hidden Dead Ends - Chapter 20: Calm (II)

“You’re overthinking. I’m just an unwilling father. I have some money and some strength, and I just want to find my son.” Sindra shook his head.

“So, when do I start? How do I start?” Li Chengyi asked.

“Go for a comprehensive physical examination first. After the results come out tomorrow, I will arrange for training.

“Now, you need to describe in detail all the scenes of the Dead End you entered to facilitate modeling reconstruction.”

“What can you do after reconstruction?” Li Chengyi frowned.

“Dead Ends are all places that once existed but then disappeared. Only by finding traces can you find a way to leave completely.”

Li Chengyi worked in the New Age Building until 4 p.m. before he walked out exhausted. He stopped at the bus stop at the exit of the parking garage and quietly waited for a bus to arrive.

Modeling required describing many characteristic details and then getting him to check them in the examples found. It was time-consuming and labor-intensive.

Fortunately, he was done now, and the modeling was successful. All that was left was to wait for the results.

It’s time to consider the Flower Scale Gear… Perhaps only botanical gardens have the most varieties of wisteria.

Li Chengyi took out his phone and looked at the time. It was 4:15 p.m.

Then he searched for the nearest botanical garden.

He entered ‘botanical garden’ on his phone map, and soon, different options nearby popped up.

He decisively chose the nearest one. Four-point-three kilometers isn’t too far.

After determining the target, he got the map to plan the route.

He planned to visit botanical gardens one by one. At the same time, he would contact florists online and ask if he could order blooming wisterias.

Of course, it was best to use the free ones in botanical gardens. Without them, he would have to spend a lot of money to build his own garden.

After all, if the Flower Scale Gear was damaged, it needed to absorb living flowers to repair itself, so it was naturally the most convenient for him to plant flowers himself.

In addition, I must test the specific strength, enhancements, and abilities of the Flower Scale Gear carefully. With outsiders around, it’s impossible to test confidentially. I can only spend money to build a testing site myself. All of this requires money, a lot of money…

After thinking about it, Li Chengyi suddenly felt that the salary Sindra gave him was far from enough.

The test of the Flower Scale Gear was imminent. He had to know which weapons he could protect himself against when wearing the Flower Scale Gear and whether it could block bullets.

This concerned the direction of his future training.

Soon, an unmanned bus arrived. He followed the crowd onto the bus and grabbed the handrail. The bus rattled all the way as it headed to the nearest East Rising Botanical Garden.

Unfortunately, after he wandered around the botanical garden for more than an hour, it was about to close.

Helpless, Li Chengyi could only leave.

He had touched many other flowers, but he couldn’t find any other varieties of wisteria.

In the evening, he got on the bus home, exhausted.

He was sitting in his seat, his eyes blurry, sleepiness constantly knocking, almost causing him to fall asleep several times.

The people in the seats around him changed one after another.

Li Chengyi didn’t care at all and only wanted to use this time to rest well.

But a few elementary school students with school bags, standing beside his seat and chatting, attracted his attention.

There were three children wearing blue and white school uniforms, two boys and one girl.

“The succulent my mother brought me grew a layer of green hair today. Is your succulent like this?” The little girl was a little sad.

“Mine didn’t.” One of the little boys wiped his snot that was about to flow out and wiped it on his pants.

“Mine did! I poured milk and shampoo on my succulent! The shampoo was colorful, and it looked super cool mixed with milk. Now, it has changed color in several places, and some of the leaves have turned yellow. It’s so pretty!” the last boy with a crew cut said loudly with a proud expression.

“Won’t shampoo kill it?” the little girl asked worriedly.

“How is that possible? It’s fine since we use it to wash our hair. My dad said that my succulent has tenacious vitality. As long as I don’t mess with it, it definitely won’t die,” the crew-cut boy said with a sure tone.

“Awesome. I want my succulent to change color too…” The little girl’s eyes lit up.

“Let me tell you, I even secretly poured my dad’s hair growth lotion into it…” the crew-cut boy whispered.

“Won’t it die?” the boy with the runny nose asked.

“Why will it die? Some plants have super strong vitality and can absorb nutrients themselves. Perhaps feeding them random nutrients can cause them to mutate,” the crew cut boy replied.

Mutate?! This last sentence made a light flash in Li Chengyi’s mind. Some inspirations appeared in his mind. That’s right! How do plant varieties come about in the first place?

He immediately sobered up and took out his phone to search quickly.

Rows of information immediately appeared on the screen.

He soon found the answer.

[The reasons for the plant mutations are: 1. The effect of chemicals, such as watering and soaking in special medicinal liquids. 2. Exposure to radiation sources, such as space breeding. 3. Virus invasions. 4. The growth environment, soil, and water changes greatly, leading to long-term adaptation.]

In other words, I can induce and create mutations myself! Li Chengyi had an idea.

But he would do this in the future. When he finished absorbing all the varieties and they became useless, he would create his own varieties.

With these thoughts in mind, Li Chengyi felt much more expectant on the way back.

He had many ideas about the development direction of the Flower of Evil.

When he returned home, his sister, Li Chengjiu, had already returned. She was talking to their parents and didn’t react to him coming back.

But their mother, Feng Yurong, stood up and quickly brought him some food and chopsticks.

Li Chengyi was focused on how to evolve the Flower Scale Gear and had no interest in his predecessor’s sister.

After a quick meal, he lay on his bed and browsed on his phone.

The phone could provide him with a large amount of information and general knowledge, which would allow him to quickly recall the forgotten and blurry parts of his predecessor’s memories.

* * *

Suiyang City, Blue District.

In a villa in the middle of a mountain villa area.

In the backyard, Meng Dongdong suddenly woke up from her nightmare. She was sweating all over on the recliner, and her heartbeat was almost 140.

She wiped the sweat off her forehead and propped herself up on the recliner. She looked at the walls of her house around her. There were clearly electric wires and spikes on the walls, but she didn’t feel safe at all.

She picked up her phone and quickly dialed a number. The phone rang a few times before the call connected. “Daddy, do you have a solution?”

There was silence on the other end of the phone.

“I’ve asked the expert. In order to come out safely, one person has to die every time.”

“One person has to die?” Meng Dongdong’s pupils involuntarily shrank.

She remembered that if not for the gun-wielding man attracting the monster’s attention, she might have died. Later, she came out inexplicably, probably because one of the other two had died…

“Yes. As long as one person dies, the others can escape quickly. So, if you want to survive, you can only… make others die!” the man on the phone replied.

“…” Meng Dongdong fell silent after hearing this.

“According to your description, three people entered. Apart from you, there are two others.

“The last time you came out inexplicably, one of them should have died. If there are no new people, then the remaining person is the target you need to fight against next time,” the man explained.

“Is there no other way?” Meng Dongdong bit her lip gently.

“Sketch a portrait of him. Your mom and I will help you find him. Comparing portraits, coupled with the fact that he’s mostly likely a local,  as long as we can find his identity, everything will be fine.”

“Dad… do you want to…?!” Meng Dongdong knew that her family’s company had a gray background, but judging from her father’s tone, he seemed to have made some preparations.

“I’ve asked the expert. As long as we find the other entrants and kill them outside when it’s almost time to go in, it can extend the interval,” the man said.

“Dad…” Meng Dongdong’s body trembled, and she wanted to say something.

“I won’t let you die, Dongdong,” the man interrupted. “You have to prepare yourself mentally. Before you go in next time, you have to train how to use a gun. I’ll prepare it for you.”

* * *

At dawn.

The next morning, Li Chengyi hurriedly got up, cooked a bowl of egg noodles, and ate it. Then he went out and took a bus to the New Age Building.

Nothing happened along the way. After about fifteen minutes, he arrived at Hongjin Biopharmaceutical Company, Sindra’s shell company. The woman who had led the way yesterday was already waiting for him at the door.

“The boss isn’t here yet. I will take you to the place where you will train and test your physical fitness first.” The woman smiled with an extremely formal expression.

“In addition, I am your exclusive contact. If you need anything in the future, you can contact me. The boss might not be around sometimes, but I will find time to tell him.”

“Understood.” Li Chengyi nodded.

The two of them took the detour from the side and took the elevator to the eighteenth floor.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, rhythmic drumbeat music greeted them.

There was no corridor, no transitions, just a floor covered with gray cushions outside the elevator.

Facing the elevator was a spacious rectangular space.

Li Chengyi walked out of the elevator and looked up.

Above him were rows of bright, high-power light bulbs, and the entire right wall was covered with mirrors.

On the left were all kinds of black exercise equipment.

At a glance, there were no less than twenty.

There were two dumbbell racks placed on the soft cushions in the corner, and a blonde, blue-eyed woman with a short ponytail was holding a dumbbell in each hand, doing forearm muscle training.

Seeing Li Chengyi enter, the woman stood up, put down the dumbbells, and walked over.

“Christine.” She stretched out her hand and held it between them.

“Cheng Yi.” Li Chengyi reached out to shake her hand. “You’re not from Yi Country?”

“Yeah, I’m from White Star, Ibarumlu State. I’m your fitness teacher,” the blonde woman replied. Her Yi Country language was very authentic. Without looking at her appearance, it was impossible to tell that she wasn’t a local.

“I have three White Star professional fitness training certifications. I have been in the industry for fifteen years, and I have been invited to teach physical enhancement courses at several Starlink Universities. Therefore, in terms of physical fitness training, I am the most professional.”

“Then I’ll leave it to you.” Li Chengyi nodded seriously.

The Starlink University system was the top educational certification system of White Star. It was an alliance formed by the best thirty universities and represented the highest and best universities in White Star and the entire world.

To be able to teach physical enhancement courses, the salary of this blonde woman in front of him was definitely not low.

“The boss’s suggestion is to complete your physical strengthening and reshaping in the shortest time possible. So, you have to go all out, young man,” Christine said cooly.

“Understood!”

How straightforward it was when he agreed, but how painful it was after the training.

After an entire day of training, a massage, a medicinal bath, and stretching and recovery, Li Chengyi confirmed that no one else could see the Flower of Evil on the back of his hand.

At the same time, he saw clearly how bad the physique of this body was.

Just the endurance training alone utterly exhausted him. After finishing the standard amount, he didn’t even have the strength to get up.

Fortunately, the various recovery methods that Sindra had prepared were very good. After the massage and medicinal bath, he could at least stand up and go home.

Time passed slowly day by day.

Every morning, he went to the company for training and left in the evening. Then he went to the flower shops and botanical gardens to stroll around and search for the wisteria varieties, as well as collect the abilities of other flowers to prepare for the future.

At the same time, after receiving his salary from Sindra, Li Chengyi immediately ordered a lot of blooming wisterias and seeds online, preparing to find a place to plant them.

In the blink of an eye, a week passed, and the ordered goods finally arrived. The new wisteria variety was called wisteria sinensis ‘Alba’ or white wisteria.