XG 61 - Ash, how old are you?

It was not fun with only two of them, so they went to invite Kim Sung-Ho, who agreed. Hearing their invitation, Ash decided to come along with a friendly smile.

As someone with a scarily thin body and white hair, Vihaan declined the offer. He had already scared quite a number of people in the laboratory in less than a day. He was also quite tired of diffusing people’s fear and does not want Kim Sung-Ho to explain on his behalf again and again.

From Chen Yibo's explanation and guide, they discovered that the laboratory has eighteen floors, with five floors built above the ground. The rest was hidden underground. The sleeping quarters were in another building beside the laboratory, both buildings linked by a short bridge. The other buildings were either used as storage rooms to keep ingredients, medicines and records of their research.

Wong Xue Guo was a little curious whether the government had known about the underground floors.

As the underground floors were not authorized for their visit, they just visited the floors above ground. Chen Yibo just did a rough introduction around the laboratory and the group did not linger around to avoid blocking other people's paths.

"Can I call you Sung-Ho?" Wong Xue Guo asked Kim Sung-Ho as they wandered around the barn. She was not really interested in animals or their smells, but since Chen Yiwen had told Chen Yibo to introduce it to her, they dared not skip it.

When Kim Sung-Ho nodded, she proceeded to ask, "Can I ask about your trip with my mother to Penang Island? She did not tell me anything other than you all being safe."

The concern in her tone and eyes worked well to charm Kim Sung-Ho to share what he knew. Even Ash also offers his experience willingly.

"What a cruel method!"

Not only was Chen Yibo angry, but Wong Xue Guo was as well. They had already known from Suzie Yap that the virus was man-made, but they were not exactly aware of how the virus would start from an area.

There were wild guesses such as throwing an infected person into a populated area. But they had never thought the bad guys would be injecting the gene into an innocent person to spread the infection. It was much worse than they thought.

"I completely suspect this virus is created by a stronghold country to destroy other countries," Ash shared his suspicions with a profound expression. "Those people purposely choose the most populated places to start the virus attack, to make sure no one could contain it in time. After the virus spreads further and further until the world goes into panic, the mastermind will finally come out with a cure in exchange for a price."

"Ash, how old are you?" Wong Xue Guo suddenly asked an irrelevant question.

"I'm twenty. Why?"

"I'm just curious if I guessed right, with how young you look. It's actually a little surprise that you are actually two years older than Yibo and me."

Chen Yibo could spot she was lying, but unknown for what reason. But he suspected that it was something to do with Ash's guess about the origin of the virus.

Rationally, it was too risky for the mastermind to use such a deadly virus to topple other countries because it could bite them in return. For them to heartlessly sacrifice millions of innocent people to the deadly virus, it was only logical that their plan would be full of sinister intent instead of greed.

It would be another thing to consider if those fools did not think the virus would become this deadly, but that possibility was struck out from the list when those masterminds did not stop the spreading even after knowing how deadly it was.

They clearly know what they were doing.

Only Kim Sung-Ho was not completely exposed to the darker side of humanity and has no opinion about Ash's suspicions.

"Aha! That's because I look more like my mom! She's also a babyface like me." Rubbing his cheeks, Ash's expression went down. "She's in Australia for work and I had lost contact with her before Malaysia was infected."

"If she is strong and resourceful, it's likely she will survive. Are you planning to go to Australia?" Chen Yibo asked.

"No.” Ash’s shoulder droops. “I have nothing that will help me to fly to Australia. It's too far away! Without a phone call from my mom, I don't even know which area she's in Australia. I think she said it’s Melbourne?"

Ash does not have an interest in knowing where exactly his mother had stayed in Australia, other than knowing she was there for work and how long it would take. He was busy gaming and going through his college life, thinking everything will be as usual since this was not the first time his mother had gone overseas. It was only when he saw the news of the human infectious rabies did he start to panic for his mother’s safety. After knowing Australia had the infection case and his mother was not answering his calls, he wanted to go find her.

By then, the government had already stopped everyone from flying to the infected countries.

"Why are you at the hospital? Are you injured?"

Wong Xue Guo's caring question had Ash sniffling his nose. "It's for Kuek… my college friend. He had a severe gastric problem and I accompanied him to the hospital and stayed one night. I failed to save him."

In fact, what Ash had seen was actually not the only victim in the hospital that was injected with the virus. Way earlier, that unknown man had also injected someone at the other side of the wing, which was closer to his friend’s hospital room.

When Ash raced his way to get his friend, it was already too late.

"You did your best," Kim Sung-Ho reassured.

"Is there any delay on the road after you leave the hospital?" Wong Xue Guo changed the subject.

"Roadblocks. Crazy people that want to hitch a ride. And that one horny woman…" Ash trailed off, remembering that they had a kid listening, even if Kim Sung-Ho was there when the incident happened. But the recently graduated high schoolers also should not be listening to adult things.

However, Wong Xue Guo refused to let Ash back away. "What's with that horny woman?"

"That aunt keeps on clinging onto different men until other women scold her with bad words." Kim Sung-Ho could still remember some bad words tossed at that aunt who was wearing a very short dress.

With Kim Sung-Ho already opening the lid, Ash just poured the content out, venting his bottled frustration. "That woman broke up at least two relationships and those angry couples kept yelling at each other until the zombies found us. I nearly shit myself because of them!"

What was even weirder was that when Vihaan told Suzie to hasten their journey so that they would not get caught in the drama, she refused. Her bodyguards also failed to move her.

Ash always felt that Suzie Yap was entertaining herself with the soap drama. But she did help kill the zombies when they were under attack and even had Vihaan to make use of the trouble to train his ability against those zombies. Yet she did not actively reach out to save those people, silently watched them fall onto their own demise created by their stupidity.

Just remembering those detached gaze had Ash broke out goosebumps.

"Sung-Ho, do you want to find your relatives?" Chen Yibo asked.

Kim Sung-Ho only pondered over the matter for two seconds and shook his head. "I want to stay with Uncle Vihaan."

He may have been young when he left Korea with his parents but he still strongly remembers that his relatives disliked him. There was not a moment of peace whenever they visited, trying to get his parents to try for another healthy kid instead of sacrificing everything for their sick firstborn. It resulted in him not having much affection for them and even grew to dislike them for causing his parents to be unhappy.

As they talked, they wandered deeper into the barn and encountered the fifteen little chicklings.

"There are more chicks than the last time I visited. Which one will you pick?"

Wong Xue Guo was just about to reject Chen Yibo's offer when she heard heavy footsteps coming towards them.

"Oh… you must be Professor Chen's younger son! You look just like him!" A man with good skin despite his older age smiled.

As he was speaking Korean, only Chen Yibo and Kim Sung-Ho could do the talking.

"Hello. We are here to visit. I hope we did not disturb you," Chen Yibo greeted formally, which made the man pleased.

"Not at all! The younger Professor Chen had told me in advance that Mr. Wong's daughter wants a baby chick. She must be Miss Wong?"

Wong Xue Guo's back stiffed when the man's gaze fell on her, but she had no clue what he was talking about. She could only helplessly stare at Chen Yibo.

Chen Yibo smiled. "You guessed correctly but she could not understand the Korean language. Would you mind if we pick one?"

"Go ahead! Just make sure to have something to identify the chick Miss Wong picks so that we will know!" The workers do not mind anyone claiming ownership of a chick, especially if the other party was one of the big boss' daughters. They just feel a little funny about it.

Wong Xue Guo watched Chen Yibo nod at whatever the man said before turning to her. "He says to tell them which one you pick so that they won't accidentally get the wrong chick."

With the other party already helping her secure the deal, Wong Xue Guo could not just reject other people’s goodwill. Gazing around the chicks, she picked the roundest one and fluffy yellow fur. To differentiate the chick from others, she tied a ribbon around its neck loosely so that it would not get strangled or uncomfortable.

She unconsciously smiled when the yellow chick did not struggle out of her grip, allowing her to rub its fluffy fur. It let out a soft ‘cheep’, its tiny claws moved around her palm.

With bright eyes, Kim Sung-Ho slowly approaches the fearless little chick on Wong Xue Guo's palms. "Can I hold it?"

"Sure."

Even Ash ended up succumbing to the cute chicks and huggled a few to touch, but not at all disappointed when they ran away from him.

When Nana came over to pick up Wong Xue Guo and Chen Yibo under the request of their parents, it was hard to pull them away from the fluffy chicks.