Villain Boss Chapter 154
Translated by Digitalian (ko-fi)
Chapter 154: Change In The Course Of Events
If they knew that she ordered the giant python to attack Wei Yage, Jiang Ran wondered if those people would jump up and beat her...
Jiang Ran muttered inwardly, picked up a branch and teased the ants crawling on the ground.
"Hey, I just heard a piece of news, but I don't know if it's true or not..." The person who said this paused, as if he was hesitating whether to say it out loud.
"What news?"
"Well... it seems that Captain Chu didn’t come back."
"Captain Chu?" The person asking the question was uncertain. "Are you talking about Captain Chu Yuan?"
"Yeah."
"What does 'didn’t come back' mean?"
"What else could it mean? You're asking the obvious!" The man lowered his voice and said angrily, "Has anyone seen Captain Chu for the past few days?"
After being asked this question, the people present recalled that both the first and second teams had returned, but it seemed that no one had seen Captain Chu Yuan.
"No, it can't be..." Some people couldn't believe it. "Captain Chu Yuan is such a powerful superhuman. How could he have..."
"Did he encounter a very powerful mutant? If even Captain Chu Yuan couldn't deal with it, wouldn't the others be dead if they encountered it in the future?"
"But there’s no news from the base yet. Does Captain Chu have other tasks..."
"That's right, Captain Chu is so powerful. He won't die so easily!"
"Ahem, I have a friend in the first team, so I know some gossip." The first person to speak lowered his voice. "My friend said that Captain Chu was plotted against by someone."
"Huh?"
"Plotted against? What do you mean? Are you saying that there’s a traitor in their team?"
"No way. I heard that Captain Chu takes good care of the members of the superhuman team—he’s very, super, extremely protective of them."
"Hey, explain it clearly. What did you mean by being plotted against?"
"I just heard it from someone else. It’s hearsay, so don't take it seriously."
"Hurry up and tell us! Stop hemming and hawing!"
"As you know, Captain Chu is Professor Si's subordinate. Professor Si, ahem, has always been at odds with Marshal Shen..." The man’s voice trailed off.
There was no need to say the rest.
"This..."
"If that's the case, Marshal Shen has gone too far!"
"I have another piece of news..."
"What?"
"Didn't Deputy Captain Zou Yun stay at the base and not go out with Captain Wei? Some time ago, Deputy Captain Zou was killed at the base. The military command building was vague about it, but a friend of mine said that it was Zou Yun who violated the base's rules by attacking an ordinary person and hence was executed by the base."
"Yeah, what’s wrong with that? It was wrong for him to attack an ordinary person in the first place."
"The point is, the ordinary person who was attacked happened to be Captain Chu Yuan's fiancée."
"..."
"..."
The gossipers fell into a strange silence.
No one spoke, and only the shouting of the staff in the distance and the whistling of the wind could be heard.
"If that’s true, then what a coincidence, hah." After a long while, someone lamented.
What a coincidence indeed. Why did the deputy captain of the sixth superhuman team suddenly attack an ordinary person, and that ordinary person happened to be the fiancée of Captain Chu Yuan who didn't come back...
"Does Wei Yage... have a grudge against Captain Chu?" If there was no grudge, why did she do something so overboard?
"What grudge could they have? Aren't Wei Yage and Chu Yuan from the same place?" They all came from the laboratory and were Professor Si's subordinates—at least that was what outsiders thought.
"It’s a struggle for power and benefits." Someone sighed. "It's that simple. Wei Yage has turned to Marshal Shen, while Captain Chu is Professor Si's subordinate, so they..."
"Shh! Don't say that!" The person who told the story at the beginning hurriedly made a silent gesture. "Do you want to die? How dare you say such a thing?"
The scene fell silent again.
Jiang Ran's legs were numb from squatting, so she tried to change her posture.
The staff on the other side of the wall had also rested enough. They called out to each other to get up and continue to clear the zombies.
"Come on, let's go! They will stink if they are left there for a long time. Hurry up! Get back to work!"
When everyone had almost left, Jiang Ran stood up with the help of the wall and beat her numb legs slightly.
It seemed that Si Xu had made arrangements.
She wondered what Wei Yage would feel when she woke up and heard these discussions?
However, compared with Qi Yao, who had a miserable end, her payback to them was nothing.
……
Because of Jiang Ran's identity as an ordinary person, Shen Yang was worried that she would be infected with the virus, so he didn’t allow her to participate in the work of clearing the zombies.
So in the next few days, Jiang Ran returned to normal work, and on her days off, she followed Shen Bai to inspect and repair the city walls.
The military command building announced the news of Chu Yuan's death in the line of duty and held a grand mourning session.
Fearing Si Xu’s retaliation, the Shen family didn’t try to take control of the first team this time.
The position of the captain of the first team was temporarily taken back by Si Xu.
Wei Yage hadn’t woken up.
The members of the sixth team heard about what happened to Zou Yun and ran to the military command building to demand for an explanation, but were stopped by Luo Rui outside Shen Lang's office.
No one knew what Luo Rui said to those people. In any case, the uproar died down.
In addition, because Wei Yage was injured, the position of the captain of the sixth team was temporarily handed over to Luo Rui and Xie Chengzhi.
The base gradually returned to its former tranquility.
However, every time Jiang Ran went to the office in the morning, she was unaccustomed to the fact that she could no longer see that familiar figure.
She still made two breakfasts, ate one for herself, and took the other home when she got off work.
Without Chu Yuan, Gu Yunqing and the others talked a lot less. Every time they met, they were in a hurry and there was always endless work to do.
Si Xu had some free time, spending every day in the laboratory studying the materials left by Jiang Yize, rarely showing up in front of outsiders.
Everything returned to normal, but with subtle changes.
Now, when people mentioned Professor Si, they no longer talked about how cruel and terrifying he was, but instead focused on describing his achievement of fighting off the zombie tide alone, with respect and admiration from the bottom of their hearts.
Hence, Si Xu's fans in the base began to increase exponentially, and all kinds of strange gifts from both guys and girls were often found in the lobby of the laboratory building.
Si Xu wasn’t interested in those gifts, so he asked the staff to pass them on to those in need.
And so this process kept repeating itself.
Jiang Ran squatted in the lobby, holding her chin and looking at the gifts piled up at the service desk.
Song Rong was on duty at the service desk today. He stood straight, glancing at Jiang Ran from time to time, and finally couldn't help saying, "Sister Ranran, you've been squatting here for half an hour. What are you looking at?"
Jiang Ran didn't even raise her head, and said in a dull voice, "I'm wondering what these gifts contain."
Based on his previous experience of receiving gifts, Song Rong said, "Most of them are handmade, and there are also some fruits and the like."
Fruits were getting more and more expensive in the apocalypse, and those who could give fruits were stans.
Jiang Ran nodded. "I’m also a stan of Si Xu. Shouldn't I also give him something to show my respect and admiration for him?"
She didn’t seem to be joking, and Song Rong's mouth twitched.
Honestly, Professor Si would be thrilled to see you, and wouldn't need other gifts.
……
When it was time to get off work, Shen Yao was no longer surprised to see Jiang Ran in the lobby.
"Seventh Brother, your little wife is here," Shen Yao said, waved to Jiang Ran from a distance, and walked towards the door with her coat dangling.
Si Xu stood there, waiting for Jiang Ran to walk over.
Jiang Ran got up and was about to leave when she suddenly heard a faint "click" sound from the pile of gifts behind her.
Before she could turn around, she saw Si Xu's eyes suddenly turn cold.
Tick, tick...
Time seemed to stand still, and every second passed extremely slowly.
Jiang Ran wanted to turn around, but realized that she couldn’t move.
The space behind her seemed to be distorted, and there was a glint of fire.
She blinked.
Everything returned to normal.
There was a loud explosion on the empty grass outside the laboratory, and the flames of the explosion turned the sky red.
Screams came one after another.
The whole building shook twice because of the explosion. Jiang Ran stumbled two steps and was immediately hugged by Si Xu who strode over.
His face was pale, his eyes were cold, and the arm around her shoulders was trembling a little, gripping her tightly.
Jiang Ran realized in hindsight.
"That bomb... was mixed in with the gifts?"
