Once she was ready, Lin Chu boarded Wang Rui’s speedboat.

“Let’s go.”

Wang Rui saw that she had packed a backpack, and he understood that she had made up her mind to go to Base No. 1.

He let out a small breath of relief.

Before coming, he had imagined many ways Lin Chu might react.

This—calm and cooperative—was the best-case scenario, and exactly what he’d hoped for.

After all, he was just a messenger, doing someone else’s bidding.

If anything went wrong, he would surely be blamed.

With his mind eased, Wang Rui started briefing Lin Chu about the current situation as the speedboat sped forward.

“Special Assistant Wu woke up this morning. After people from Base No. 1 arrived, the first thing they did was check on him.”

“They saw that his wound was healing well and showed no signs of fish scale growth, so they wanted to take him back to Base No. 1.”

At that, Lin Chu couldn’t help but interject:

“Take Special Assistant Wu back to Base No. 1?”

Wang Rui glanced at her quickly, then looked back ahead as he nodded while steering.

“Yes.”

“Mayor Li agreed to that?”

Wang Rui nodded again.

At a time like this, anyone could guess the real reason for taking someone back to Base No. 1—they wanted to make Wu a research subject.

And being a research subject usually meant constant blood draws and experiments.

It would be tormenting.

Especially for someone whose wounds hadn’t even healed yet.

Wu had followed Mayor Li for years—would Li really be willing to let him go?

After voicing her doubts, Wang Rui went quiet for a moment before answering:

“After waking up, Special Assistant Wu admitted that he had long known about what Jiang Da and Jiang Er were doing.”

“He turned a blind eye, and even took part of the spoils.”

Lin Chu wasn’t surprised by this.

The special privileges enjoyed by the Jiang brothers came from Wu in the first place.

If someone claimed that Wu hadn’t noticed what those two were up to, she wouldn’t believe it.

Without his tacit approval, they wouldn’t have dared to go that far.

“His indulgence led to today’s outcome.”

Hearing Lin Chu’s summary, Wang Rui gave a bitter smile and nodded.

“He thought Mayor Li lived too frugally, and that those who followed him had to live that way too.”

So, he let his two cousins engage in actions that hurt the collective for personal gain.

“So only the two of us are going to Base No. 1?”

Lin Chu asked, and Wang Rui nodded.

“Yes, Base No. 1 specifically requested both of you.”

However, by the time they arrived at the hilltop base, the number of people going had changed to three.

Bai Wei volunteered to go along to care for the still-injured Special Assistant Wu.

And her reasoning was perfectly sound.

“Dr. Lin is going to assist with research—she’ll be busy and won’t have time to care for Special Assistant Wu.”

“His injuries haven’t healed, he’s still immobile, and he needs constant care. These past few days, it’s been me and Xiao Ruan looking after him.”

Xiao Ruan was the round-faced nurse.

“She’s one of our senior nurses at the base and can’t leave. I’m the most suitable person to go. That way, Base No. 1 won’t be burdened.”

With these well-reasoned arguments, she convinced Mayor Li and the representatives from Base No. 1.

Bai Wei successfully boarded the helicopter headed to Base No. 1.

Inside the helicopter, she sat across from Lin Chu on a long bench.

Lin Chu leaned against the cabin wall, eyes closed, resting. Bai Wei, on the other hand, kept her eyes open, blatantly scrutinizing Lin Chu from head to toe.

When Lin Chu finally opened her eyes after resting, her gaze coldly met Bai Wei’s. Only then did Bai Wei look away.

“Have you stared long enough?”

Lin Chu’s words were like a boot stepping on Bai Wei’s tail.

“Don’t flatter yourself. I’ve never been on a helicopter before—I was just looking around. Did that bother you?”

After snapping back, Bai Wei rolled her eyes and turned her face away.

Special Assistant Wu, who had been unconscious for many days and was now well-rested, looked at the two of them, clearly bored.

Hearing their exchange, he couldn’t help but laugh.

Bai Wei turned and glared at him, only to hear him say:

“Nurse Bai, you really were staring at Dr. Lin just now. I saw it clearly.”

Bai Wei’s eyebrows shot up in irritation. She opened her mouth a few times, but couldn’t come up with a good retort.

Finally, she had no choice but to turn her back to both of them.

Satisfied that he had gotten under her skin, Special Assistant Wu turned to Lin Chu and said with a smile:

“Dr. Lin, thank you.

I heard everything. If it weren’t for your bold decision to operate and cut away the blackened tissue, I’d have turned into a fish by now.”

Hearing his words, Lin Chu glanced at him.

She had no fondness for someone who had enabled Jiang Da and Jiang Er.

She had already received her compensation—his gratitude was worthless.

But since he was being polite, she nodded back.

“No need to thank me. Mayor Li paid me in supplies.”

At the mention of Mayor Li, a hint of bitterness crept onto Wu’s face.

His expression was full of the desire to pour out his thoughts, but Lin Chu had already closed her eyes again.

And Bai Wei had her back to him.

Clearly, no one was interested in listening.

Special Assistant Wu had no choice but to fall silent.

Base No. 1 was over 500 kilometers from the hilltop base.

The helicopter flight took an hour and a half.

During the journey, Lin Chu looked out the window.

A vast expanse of yellowish water stretched below them.

As far as the eye could see, there was almost no land.

Occasionally, something floating on the water would suddenly burst open.

Lin Chu knew what it was—corpses that had soaked too long in the water.

Soaked bodies would eventually bloat to a grotesque size, and once the skin couldn’t withstand the internal gases, they exploded.

Similar swollen corpses had appeared near the residential area before. After some survivors had been relocated to the hilltop base, a security team had been sent to clean them up.

Now, another one exploded. The sound drew Lin Chu’s attention.

She looked calmly toward the source—and saw a school of large black fish suddenly emerge, scrambling to devour the burst flesh.

Each of those black fish was about the same size as the one that had bitten Special Assistant Wu at the hilltop base.

There were already so many of them.

Special Assistant Wu also sat up with effort and moved to the window, watching the scene below.

“So many big black fish…”

He muttered to himself, clearly shocked by what he saw.

But the people from Base No. 1 remained unfazed.

Clearly, they were used to sights like this.

Seeing Wu’s wide-eyed reaction, the man in charge of escorting them back said:

“You’re lucky. There was only one active big black fish at the hilltop base.”

“If you had as many as we do here, your base would never have had a moment of peace.”

As he finished speaking, Lin Chu noticed the helicopter beginning to descend.

Base No. 1 was in sight.