Pollutant Disguise Plan (POLLUTANT)
Releasing the mushrooms, Shen Ji never planned to recall them.
These were mushrooms with nascent self-awareness.
Especially after losing two prime meals—starved and frustrated.
Without freedom to feed, they'd revolt.
Thus Shen Ji's exhaustive instructions:
Feed only out of Li Zhiyan's sight.
No noise. No traces.
And while dining—scout escape routes.
For navigation, trust the mushrooms over Li Zhiyan.
The little mushroom stood tall and proud, assuring its master with absolute confidence!
They definitely wouldn't lose to those big butterflies!
Li Zhiyan glanced around as he scanned his surroundings before turning to Shen Ji. "Don’t you think something feels off?"
Shen Ji looked at him. "What do you mean?"
"It’s just… I feel like there’s something around us?" Li Zhiyan snapped his fingers, summoning a few small butterflies into the air. The butterflies fluttered about, trying to pinpoint the source of the unease.
Then, the strange sensation around Li Zhiyan grew even stronger.
Shen Ji, watching the mycelium drool over the butterflies: "..."
Just how delicious were Li Zhiyan’s butterflies? They were still obsessed even now?
"Really? Maybe it’s just your imagination," Shen Ji said casually. "Or maybe there’s another doppelgänger nearby?"
Li Zhiyan narrowed his eyes. "It doesn’t feel like a doppelgänger. More like something eerie is lurking. I’m very sensitive to contamination—I don’t usually misjudge this."
Shen Ji clicked his tongue inwardly.
‘...He’s way too perceptive.’
[That’s the protagonist’s strength. In any apocalyptic novel, the protagonist is always the most sensitive and quickest to detect contamination. It’s the most basic golden finger.]
‘The most basic golden finger? Then what’s the most special one?’
[Some apocalyptic novels make the protagonist’s true identity the villain—they just have a way to disguise themselves as human.]
Shen Ji hissed. ‘Are you talking about me?’
[Now that you mention it, we’ve already become protagonists in that regard. Not bad, not bad!]
Just then, Li Zhiyan realized one of his butterflies had gone missing.
Silently, he counted the remaining butterflies and checked their positions before walking toward where the missing one had vanished.
But no matter how hard he looked, there was nothing unusual in the area.
Instead, his gaze fell on the Gardener’s plants, filling him with instinctive disgust.
He absolutely loathed the Gardener and his freakish flora.
"Forget it." Li Zhiyan recalled his butterflies, cutting off the unseen creature’s snack supply.
"Once we deal with the Gardener, whatever’s hiding will have to come out eventually."
Shen Ji glanced at the little mushrooms that were happily munching on a stolen butterfly, then back at Li Zhiyan.
"Mr. Li, your contamination ability… almost seems more like contamination itself."
Li Zhiyan turned to him, his pale blue eyes reflecting Shen Ji’s figure. "Are you saying I resemble a Pollutant?"
"Not what I meant." Shen Ji shook his head. "It’s just that your contamination is unusually dense. Even your hair and eyes are different from normal people’s. Sometimes, looking at you feels like watching someone in cosplay."
"That’s an ancient term." Li Zhiyan raised an eyebrow. "I’m surprised you know about cosplay."
Shen Ji: "..."
Damn it. Too focused on avoiding the word "emo" that he forgot that in the apocalypse, no one even remembers cosplay anymore.
The system chimed in, [Actually, "emo" is outdated too.]
[You’re a whole generation behind the apocalypse folks.]
Shen Ji fumed but tried to save face. ‘But Li Zhiyan understood—he knew what cosplay meant.’
[True.] The system sounded puzzled. [Given his age, he was born after the apocalypse. How would he know that term?]
"One of my patients mentioned it," Shen Ji replied smoothly.
As a medical professional at the facility, he comes into contact with numerous patients. It's perfectly normal for him to know a few ancient terms, isn't it?
"S-class Mutants all have high contamination levels, not just me."
Li Zhiyan explained, "This applies to everyone else besides me. It's probably because we came dangerously close to becoming Pollutants ourselves—just a hair's breadth away from crossing that line. One step over, and we'd be Pollutants."
"Then it's fortunate Mr. Li didn't cross that line," Shen Ji remarked. "Otherwise, we'd be enemies."
[...You, a Pollutant, telling a Mutant: "If you became a Pollutant we'd be enemies"—how shameless can you be?]
'Why should I feel ashamed? I'm a Mutant now, definitely not a Pollutant,' Shen Ji thought righteously.
Li Zhiyan gazed at Shen Ji for a few seconds before nodding. "You're absolutely right. It's truly wonderful that we didn't become enemies, Dr. Shen."
"Besides, with you by my side, even if I had crossed that line, I believe you would have come to save me, wouldn't you?"
Shen Ji remained silent for a moment before reluctantly nodding. "Of course."
"Then to ensure you can rescue me in time, how about officially joining my team, Dr. Shen?"
Shen Ji: ...
He still hasn't given up on this idea.
Shen Ji turned and walked away.
Watching Shen Ji's retreating figure, Li Zhiyan hummed a cheerful tune as he followed, appearing in excellent spirits.
The mycelium was enjoying the show while munching on sugar particles floating in the air like snacks and observing their master's argument with the "big butterfly." Only after Shen Ji left did they reluctantly begin spreading out to explore.
Time to work! Time to work!
Wah! No more snacks—we need to find the exit!
Following the mycelium's guidance without hesitation, Shen Ji moved forward purposefully. Li Zhiyan walked beside him without offering any opinions, seemingly unconcerned about their direction.
"Mr. Li doesn't seem worried about Mr. Chu at all."
"Not worried. He's still alive," Li Zhiyan nodded.
"I've been curious—how can you be so certain he's alive?”
After rummaging through his pockets, Li Zhiyan produced a peculiar device—It was small and only two knuckles long. It was emitting strange signals.
[Ah, a life detector.]
The system noted: [According to the data, aside from significant emotional fluctuations, his vital signs remain stable.]
"While I send him into danger, I don't leave him completely unprotected," Li Zhiyan explained. "This is a custom device I commissioned from the Academy of Sciences—it functions even in contamination zones."
Shen Ji studied the detector briefly before looking back at Li Zhiyan. "Does Chu Ye know you installed this on him?"
Li Zhiyan looked puzzled. "Why would he need to know?"
Shen Ji: …
[Don't worry, you don't have one installed on you.]
‘System, do I look worried about that?’
"Rest assured, I didn't install one on you."
"...Mr. Li sounds rather proud of himself saying that."
Shen Ji sighed helplessly. "You really shouldn't say things like that to me—it might tempt me to report this to Chu Ye."
"At worst he'd scold me a few times. In exchange, I get to know whether he's dead or alive—that's a good trade."
Li Zhiyan seemed unconcerned. "If you want to see me get scolded, feel free to tell him."
The way he phrased it—if Shen Ji actually reported this, wouldn't it imply he wanted to see Li Zhiyan get reprimanded?
Shen Ji stopped discussing the topic with Li Zhiyan and continued walking forward. Just then, the mycelium transmitted a faint sense of tension.
He paused in his steps, and Li Zhiyan stopped alongside him.
"What's wrong?"
Shen Ji didn't answer but instead surveyed their surroundings.
At that moment, light footsteps emerged from the Doppelganger Forest draped in vines. Though the steps were gentle, the sheer number of people turned them into a clamor.
Countless figures appeared before them.
Men and women, old and young—all stared at them with peculiar gazes.
"Ordinary people?”
"Doppelgangers," Li Zhiyan replied.
They stepped out from the vines one by one before encircling the two. Their eyes were a lifeless gray, dull and zombie-like.
Just as the tension escalated, one person suddenly knelt.
Following this, countless others knelt as well.
They began to weep loudly.
"Are you from the security team?"
"Please save us! Get us out of here!"
"I've been trapped here for who knows how long. I want to go home—my child is waiting for me!"
"I can't take this anymore."
Shen Ji raised an eyebrow slightly and turned to Li Zhiyan. He noticed Li Zhiyan's expression remained unchanged and his gaze indifferent as he watched the kneeling crowd.
Seeming to sense Shen Ji's glance, Li Zhiyan met his eyes, his look reassuring.
[Found it—the "Z City Doppelganger Incident."]
[Unlike typical contamination incidents, the doppelganger case had one peculiar trait: all doppelgangers believed they were the original. From flesh and blood to memories, they were identical to their counterparts. They possessed human emotions and genuinely wanted to live.]
[The Anti-Contamination Control Center struggled to handle these doppelgangers. Though they were products of contamination, they were otherwise normal humans.]
[Three days later, all doppelgangers and originals in Z City vanished without a trace, marking the end of the incident.]
Shen Ji observed the exposed necks of the kneeling figures—each bore a thorny vine etched into their nape.
They were indeed doppelgangers.
Finally, Shen Ji understood why the mycelium had felt tense.
Though they were contaminants, the mycelium only consumed Pollutants and airborne contamination. Suddenly encountering a crowd of 'normal humans,' the mycelium found it strange but dared not act.
Their master didn’t eat people, so neither would they!
At that moment, Li Zhiyan looked past the crowd toward the depths of the vines. Shen Ji followed his gaze and saw a person in an Anti-Contamination Control Center uniform watching them from within.
A few seconds later, the person nodded at Li Zhiyan.
"Who is that?"
"Can’t remember the name, but I’ve seen that face before. Probably one of Chu Ye’s team members."
"A doppelgänger?"
"Seems like it. What a shame Chu Ye isn’t here—he’d probably cry if he saw this."
"Then it’s a good thing he isn’t. Seeing a living teammate only to have to eliminate them in the end would be too cruel."
Li Zhiyan and Shen Ji exchanged a glance before Li Zhiyan nodded. "True."
Yet, Li Zhiyan was actually a little surprised.
His impression of Shen Ji had always been good. Though the man was two-faced, he had done far too many good deeds—whether it was working overtime at the facility to treat the contaminated or other acts of kindness. Even if Li Zhiyan could sense some exaggeration in his words, he had never thought Shen Ji was a cold person.
But now, the first thing out of his mouth was "eliminate these doppelgängers."
Domineering, ruthless, and absolutely correct.
Li Zhiyan found himself even more satisfied.
A person should know when to be soft-hearted and when to be firm.
Avoiding the people kneeling on the ground and begging for their lives, Shen Ji and Li Zhiyan continued forward. Perhaps having been disappointed too many times, none of them resorted to extreme actions—they simply stayed where they were, weeping, or retreated back into the forest.
The fungal threads also avoided these people as they continued devouring the contamination, and finally reaching the outermost layer.
Then they quickly pointed the way for Shen Ji.
As expected, the fungal threads were far more reliable than Li Zhiyan.
Just as they stepped out of the Doppelgänger Forest, a voice called out from behind them.
"Mr. Li." A man’s voice asked, "Is the captain here too?"
Shen Ji and Li Zhiyan turned to see the same man still standing among the trees. He hadn’t stepped out, only half-hidden as he spoke.
He was the only doppelgänger who had followed them to the edge.
"What do you think?" Li Zhiyan replied.
"He must be here. Our captain is sentimental—he’d never let himself off the hook." The man sighed. "But with you here, Mr. Li, he should make it back safely."
"And this one must be an incredibly powerful Mutant."
He was referring to Shen Ji.
Li Zhiyan nodded. "Right. This is Dr. Shen—he cured your captain’s contamination."
The man froze. Then his head snapped up with eyes wide with shock.
As one of the team members who had come with Chu Ye but been left behind, he knew better than anyone what kind of contamination had plagued their captain. It was the Gardener’s seed—one of the most stubborn contaminations in the world.
And it has been cured?!
A Healing-type Mutant? What class? A-class? S-class?!
The Anti-Contamination Control Center had an S-class healer?!
"The captain must be in the Crystal Forest! The central tree of the crystal forest is there—the Gardener has been trying to turn him into its core!"
Suddenly invigorated, his eyes brimmed with hope. "Hurry! The captain’s still alive, but he’s in danger. With this doctor here, he’ll definitely be fine!"
Li Zhiyan nodded. A few seconds later, as if remembering something—
"Lu Zizheng?”
The man was caught off guard by Li Zhiyan's words and took a few seconds before nodding. "Yes, it's me. I didn’t expect Mr. Li to remember my name."
"Honestly, I didn’t recall it much, but Chu Ye mentioned it so often that it stuck."
The man fell silent before lowering his head. "Mr. Li, I remember your ability can burn away all contamination, right?"
"What are you trying to do?"
"Burn this place down."
"Everyone here—if you can even call them people—we’re just products of contamination. Living is more painful than death for us."
The Horror Botanical Garden was no paradise. The Gardener earned that title for a reason—his cruelty was unmatched.
Lu Zizheng knew all too well that he was merely a doppelgänger. The real Lu Zizheng had long since died, reduced to nutrients for the doppelgänger’s growth. Yet, he had inherited Lu Zizheng’s memories and emotions, becoming something more human than humans themselves.
He couldn’t leave this jungle. Through mental links, he sought out his companions, only to hear their agonized screams.
The Gardener had turned them into grotesque plant hybrids, each fused with flora while still alive and was forced to die in excruciating awareness.
They were helpless.
Li Zhiyan thought for a moment. "Let Chu Ye decide."
Lu Zizheng jerked his head up. "Mr. Li, no!"
"The captain… he wouldn’t have the heart. He’s already—"
"But he has the right to know." Li Zhiyan shrugged. "You’re his teammate, not mine. Logically, the one responsible for you is him, not me. So I’ll let him make the call. Wait here—I’ll bring him over later."
"Dr. Shen, let’s go."
Without another word, Li Zhiyan ignored Lu Zizheng’s protests and walked away.
Shen Ji watched him leave before whispering very quietly to Lu Zizheng, "He’s really insufferable, isn’t he?"
"Shen Ji, I heard that."
"I said nothing."
Shen Ji shoved his hands into the pockets of his dark blue work uniform and followed Li Zhiyan.
He walked beside him as they headed in the direction Lu Zizheng had pointed out.
Deep down, Shen Ji understood Li Zhiyan’s reasoning.
Yes, he damn well knew what Li Zhiyan was thinking.
This guy’s thought process was: But Chu Ye would want to know.
Even if they had to purge this Doppelgänger Forest afterward. Even if they knew Chu Ye would be overjoyed to see his old teammate’s shadow, only to have to destroy it himself. Even if the doppelgänger was, at best, a mere echo of what Chu Ye had lost.
Even so, Chu Ye would still want to see him.
……….
The Gardener’s botanical garden was vast—enormous, even. The place was overrun with chaotic, towering plants that blotted out the sky.
Just then, Li Zhiyan suddenly looked up.
Shen Ji followed his gaze.
A drop of water struck the corner of his eye.
He wiped it away, then held out his palm as another droplet landed.
"Rain?"
Li Zhiyan’s expression grew even more disgusted.
His hatred for rain hadn’t changed.
‘Hiss… Did the Gardener somehow figure out Li Zhiyan—this butterfly—hates rain?’
[You’re completely wrong. This isn’t rain—it’s an automated irrigation system.] The system gloated. [Did you forget? This is a botanical garden. Of course it needs regular watering. Don’t the lawns near your apartment complex get irrigated too?]
"My dislike for the Gardener just reached new heights."
Li Zhiyan had long since tossed his hat aside and would never wear a raincoat in the contamination zone. With the rain pouring down, he had nowhere to take cover, and droplets landed on his white hair, leaving it damp and clumped together.
His expression turned sour.
Shen Ji sighed before taking off his dark blue work jacket. As Li Zhiyan searched for shelter, Shen Ji draped the jacket over his head from behind.
Li Zhiyan blinked before turning to look at Shen Ji.
"Keep it on. At least it'll block some of the rain."
Li Zhiyan stared at Shen Ji for a long moment before tilting his head under the jacket. "What about you?"
"I'm not you."
Shen Ji spread his hands, standing in the rain. "I don’t hate the rain. Getting soaked doesn’t bother me."
Of course, mushrooms loved warm, damp places—they loved the rain. Every time it rained, the little mushrooms would crawl out along Shen Ji’s windowsill to play in the falling droplets like children. Now was no exception—he could even see them rolling around happily in the rain.
There was even contamination mixed in with the rain!
A real treat!
Li Zhiyan clutched the jacket as he watched Shen Ji in the downpour.
Now, Shen Ji was only wearing a white dress shirt. The rain soaked through, clinging the fabric to his skin and outlining his figure.
But he didn’t seem to mind at all, simply gesturing for them to keep moving.
So Li Zhiyan walked on with the jacket still over his head, though his gaze kept drifting toward Shen Ji.
It wasn’t his fault, Li Zhiyan thought—who could blame him when Shen Ji was so captivating?
A man who usually dressed meticulously, as if he’d rather be in a full suit, who buttoned every last clasp up to his collar and kept his cuffs neatly fastened—a man who seemed allergic to even a single wrinkle.
Now, he’d shed his jacket and walked through the rain in just a white shirt.
The water drenched him completely, wrinkling his clothes, matting his hair, and stripping away that prim demeanor, replacing it with a different kind of ease.
The contrast was striking—enough to make Li Zhiyan want to take a picture.
He smiled. "Looking at you, Dr. Shen, I don’t hate the rain so much anymore."
"Oh?" Shen Ji glanced at him. "Then give me back my jacket."
Li Zhiyan yanked the jacket off his head—only to pull it back on three seconds later.
He sighed dramatically. "Seems I still can’t overcome my fear of water. My apologies—I can’t return this jacket after all."
Shen Ji rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt and secured them above his forearms to keep the damp fabric from clinging to his hands.
“Is Mr. Li really afraid of water because of the butterfly?”
“Yes, my butterfly can’t fly in the rain. If its wings get wet, it’s over.” Li Zhiyan nodded. “But even before I became a butterfly, I didn’t like rain much.”
“Because after it rains, the roads get difficult to navigate, and accidents are more likely to happen.”
Shen Ji looked at Li Zhiyan. “Are you referring to rescue missions?”
During the early days of the apocalypse, the Control Center had indeed been swamped with work.
They had to rescue survivors in all sorts of places. China’s vast and diverse terrain meant some missions required traversing mountains and rivers. Under such conditions, a downpour would only make things worse.
Li Zhiyan didn’t answer, only smiling as he said, “It seems Dr. Shen is the opposite of me—you really like the rain.”
Shen Ji was puzzled. “How can you tell?”
“Because Dr. Shen is very particular about cleanliness and was always impeccably neat. To people with mysophobia, rain is the dirtiest thing—it carries dust and bacteria. Even getting a corner of their clothes wet would send them running for a shower. But Mr. Shen can stand in the rain without a care.”
“Only someone who truly loves the rain would do that.”
Shen Ji hissed inwardly, ‘System, he really understands me.’
‘He even knows I’m obsessive about cleanliness and that only someone who adores rain would stand in it like this.’
[…]
[I’ve said it before—the protagonist and the villain cannot be together.]
“It’s just unavoidable. Otherwise, I wouldn’t like getting drenched either,” Shen Ji retorted. “Alright, enough about the rain. Let’s move. There might be shelter ahead.”
Li Zhian watched Shen Ji’s retreating figure, the corners of his lips curling ever so slightly.
But the way he stood in the rain… it was so free.
He was different from everyone else in this apocalyptic world.
People were all rushing about, whether for themselves or others. Survival came first—dreams and hobbies had become distant luxuries in this era.
Yet when Shen Ji stood in the rain, Li Zhian could clearly sense it: he was enjoying the downpour.
How wonderful. Truly wonderful.
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