Contamination Overture

Chapter 35

Zhou Xiangzhe's treatment in Sector S was going smoothly — his Contamination Level kept dropping, and there was every reason to think it'd be back under 80% within the week.

During that time Shen Wang visited him every day, then wandered around outside afterward. The security inside Central City was tight, though, and Contaminants mostly stayed well clear of the population Inside the High Wall — so beyond The Night Wanderer, he only managed to catch one other Grade-D Contaminant.

Shen Wang hung both paintings on his bedroom wall without a second thought, achieving what could generously be called a very distinctive aesthetic.

Today was the day Zhou Xiangzhe was leaving Sector S. Before Shen Wang even had a chance to head out, the doorbell rang.

The doorbell?

Almost nobody came to his place. The short list was basically Zhou Xiangzhe and Lan — but Zhou Xiangzhe was in Sector S, and Lan would never bother with a doorbell. He'd just blink straight through the wall.

Shen Wang went to answer it and found Ming Guang at the door — along with a man he'd never seen before.

'Good morning.' Ming Guang greeted him. 'Sorry to bother you — what's that sound?'

'Music. Left it on.' Shen Wang leaned against the doorframe and looked them over, expression completely unhurried — if anything, a little too relaxed.

When Shen Wang had joined Polaris, Ming Guang had done his homework. He couldn't just slot someone into the team on the strength of Zhou Xiangzhe's personal feelings alone. What the investigation had turned up was this: an exceptionally stable mind.

Whatever he'd been through in his younger years had built in him a kind of bedrock calm — he didn't flinch, didn't rattle, and almost nothing could shake him.

So when Ming Guang found out Shen Wang had gone and updated his talent to Contamination Immunity, his first thought was: of course he did.

It proved two things: Zhou Xiangzhe's eye for people was sharp, and Ming Guang's read on him had been right.

Shen Wang's mental fortitude was something else — rock-solid and steady. Exactly the kind of person you wanted on a dispatch team.

Shen Wang, unaware he was being silently praised, asked: 'Something up, Deputy Captain? If it's team business you could've just messaged me. Why come in person?'

Ming Guang caught himself and gave a small smile. 'Because it's not just me who needs to talk to you. He does too.'

He gestured over his shoulder at the stranger behind him. Shen Wang shifted his gaze.

The man was built like a wall — nearly two meters tall, wearing dispatch team combat gear that his chest muscles were doing their best to escape, cropped hair that stood out like spikes, a scar crossing the bridge of his nose. He gave Shen Wang a single, expressionless nod.

What was surprising was the Polaris badge on his chest — but Shen Wang hadn't seen him at the last meeting.

Ming Guang, always quick to read a room, explained immediately.

'Polaris runs three units. The one Zhou Xiangzhe leads is the middle unit — handles everything inside and outside the city, pretty flexible deployment. First unit is strictly outside, barely ever comes back. Second unit handles contamination sources; anything Grade C or above is their territory.'

He turned to the big man. 'This is Qiang Li'an. Second unit.'

'Hey.' Qiang Li'an extended a hand toward Shen Wang. 'Nice to meet you. Hope we get to work together sometime.'

Shen Wang looked at him with mild curiosity but shook the hand without hesitation.

So Polaris wasn't just the handful of people he'd met — there was a whole other contingent out beyond the walls. That made more sense for what was supposed to be Central City's strongest team.

He brought them both inside, found a couple of paper cups, poured some water. He didn't bother turning off the music; it kept drifting through the room.

A woman's voice, humming something wistful and lovelorn, wringing herself out over some romance — a little at odds with the current situation.

'So what's this about?'

'Zhou Xiangzhe can leave Sector S this afternoon, but I'm not easy about it,' Ming Guang said. 'Using his talent puts a huge strain on him. If you can, I'd like you to keep an eye on him — make sure he doesn't use it again during missions. Absolutely no exceptions.'

'Why me?'

Shen Wang looked at him, genuinely puzzled. 'Setting aside the fact that he's the captain and I'm just a member — why do you think I'd be able to keep him in line?'

'Am I somehow special to him?'

Ming Guang went quiet.

…Technically yes, but he couldn't say that. Damn Zhou Xiangzhe and his talent for causing problems.

Shen Wang wasn't about to let him off the hook. He pressed on, voice going even more innocently bewildered: 'You're his actual friend, Deputy Captain, aren't you?'

So you all know and you're keeping it from me? Fine, I'll play dumb too — let's see how you answer this one.

Shen Wang very deliberately set aside the question of his own identity in all this.

Ming Guang had no good answer ready. Just as Shen Wang was gearing up to repeat the question with extra innocence, the large man beside them spoke up out of nowhere.

'Because he likes you!'

Both Shen Wang and Ming Guang turned to stare at him.

Shen Wang / Ming Guang: …?

Apparently registering what had just left his own mouth, Qiang Li'an slowly raised a hand to cover it and shuffled sideways on his seat.

Ming Guang was quiet for a moment. Then: 'Spread rumors like that near the captain and he'll set you straight. I told you before you came — when you're out meeting people, talk less.'

'But no matter how I think about it, that's just what it is.' Something seemed to crack loose in him — Qiang Li'an dropped the act entirely, and this enormous man somehow managed to look completely put-upon.

'I've been in Polaris this long and I've never seen the captain care that much about anyone. He's in Sector S and he's still sitting there every day waiting for this one teammate to come visit. The rest of us show up and he just looks annoyed.'

'If that's not love, what is?!'

Watching Ming Guang's expression collapse into speechlessness, Shen Wang asked a few more questions — and gradually pieced together who exactly Qiang Li'an was.

Grade-A Variant, second-in-command of the second unit, second-generation elite of Central City — his father was one of the city's administrators, his mother a Science Academy Researcher who'd died in an accident in the early days of the apocalypse. That loss had turned Qiang Li'an into a handful growing up, and after his talent awakened he'd gone behind his father's back to apply for Polaris's open recruitment drive. Got selected too.

His father had been furious.

As the child of an administrator, he'd developed a bit excessively — built like a battering ram, with a face that could stop a fight before it started.

And yet: he was gay, he was a bottom, and he had a devoted passion for pre-apocalypse love stories. When he and Zhou Xiangzhe went out on expeditions, Zhou Xiangzhe collected music while he tracked down romance novels, then spent the small hours crying over them.

He also had an unerring eye for romantic tension — and the moment he came back to Central City for this mission, he'd decided with complete conviction that Zhou Xiangzhe and Shen Wang were absolutely a thing.

Ming Guang had spent the whole journey over hammering home one message: do not say any of this in front of Shen Wang. And still he'd let it slip.

Shen Wang turned to Qiang Li'an, curious. 'You said it's love — so is it me loving Zhou Xiangzhe, or Zhou Xiangzhe loving me?'

'See!' Qiang Li'an pointed at Shen Wang and looked at Ming Guang. 'He doesn't even call him captain — just uses his name!'

Ming Guang: …

Exhausted, he repeated his request from the top: please keep an eye on Zhou Xiangzhe, don't let him use his talent. Then he said his goodbyes and got out of Shen Wang's apartment, leaving Qiang Li'an with clear instructions to explain why he'd actually come and stop saying things that had nothing to do with it.

Once outside, Ming Guang let out a long breath.

'I can't deal with him.'

He headed to Sector S — though he didn't visit often; with Zhou Xiangzhe gone, he'd been acting captain and drowning in work. Honestly, Zhou Xiangzhe was the quiet type and didn't particularly enjoy company, and just like Qiang Li'an had said, it seemed like the only person he was actually waiting to see was Shen Wang. Everyone else got the look.

When Ming Guang arrived, Zhou Xiangzhe had just finished his final check. His Contamination Level had come down to 80% — by the standards set specifically for him, that meant he could leave.

Seeing Ming Guang walk in, Zhou Xiangzhe adjusted the suppressor on his wrist. 'How bad is it?'

'Not good. I'd say very bad, actually.' Ming Guang sighed. 'Nothing we've tried is working. The second unit is holding on through sheer willpower and they're at their limit.'

'Understood,' Zhou Xiangzhe said.

Ming Guang watched him for a moment before speaking. 'This time — Shen Wang will be going too.'

Zhou Xiangzhe's hands stilled on his suppressor. He looked up at Ming Guang. 'Why?'

'Because his talent is Contamination Immunity. He's not like us — he can't be contaminated.' Ming Guang said: 'Stop treating him like an ordinary person who needs protecting. He's a powerful Aberrant who can protect others. You need to accept that.'

'I do accept it.' Zhou Xiangzhe tugged at the hem of his clothes, straightening them — something to do with his hands.

'But that doesn't mean I'm not going to worry,' he said.

'You actually have someone you worry about this much…'

Ming Guang shook his head with a sigh.

That Zhou Xiangzhe treated Shen Wang differently — Ming Guang had known that before he'd ever laid eyes on Shen Wang.

As a Grade S Aberrant, Zhou Xiangzhe had almost no time that was truly his own. He'd spent years outside the walls clearing Contaminants, and only returned once the world had settled into something closer to stable. From the day he came back, he'd been looking for Shen Wang — day after day, year after year — only to finally track him down and find that Shen Wang had vanished from a hospital.

That was the most grief Ming Guang had ever seen on his face, in all the time they'd been teammates.

Now Shen Wang had come back on his own. That Zhou Xiangzhe was protective of him made complete sense.

Thinking it over, Ming Guang found himself recalling what Qiang Li'an had said. He turned it over in his mind for a moment.

'Special' didn't necessarily have anything to do with romantic feelings — did it?

'Hey.' Ming Guang asked, almost idly: 'Do you like Shen Wang?'

Zhou Xiangzhe looked up and met his eyes. Three seconds passed. Then he looked away, thought about it, and said: 'Yeah. I do.'

'I mean that kind of like — not friends, I'm saying — ugh, why am I even saying this, Qiang Li'an's rubbing off on me.'

But Zhou Xiangzhe was still watching him seriously. He waited until Ming Guang finished before he spoke.

'I know.'

Ming Guang short-circuited.

What? You know?? Know what exactly?!

Do you know that I meant 'that kind of like,' or do you know that Qiang Li'an is rubbing off on me?!

What the —

…

Ming Guang had left, but Qiang Li'an was still there — and it was only after Ming Guang walked out that Qiang Li'an finally got around to explaining why he'd come.

As a second-unit member, his work was, of course, tied to contamination sources.

Shen Wang was well aware that his Contamination Immunity talent was, in practical terms, extraordinarily useful — so useful that after he'd updated it, half the dispatch teams apparently started quietly mourning, shaking their heads over how Zhou Xiangzhe had somehow seen it coming and scooped him up first.

'Don't think too much about what I said earlier.' Qiang Li'an cleared his throat. 'Here's the situation: I only found out Polaris had picked up a Contamination Immunity Aberrant after I got back to Central City. So I asked the deputy captain to bring me along. I've got a task — it's urgent — and I'm hoping you can help.'

'A contamination source?'

'Yeah. A contamination source.'

Qiang Li'an nodded. 'If it weren't genuinely critical, they'd never send someone back to Central City.'

'The source started expanding for no apparent reason. Every Isolation Barrier we had in place has failed, all the personnel stationed at the perimeter have been swallowed up, and even residential areas nearby are already showing Contamination effects. We're doing everything we can but it's barely making a dent — our techs think the problem might be coming from inside the source itself.'

'So you need someone who can go in?' Shen Wang looked at him.

'Exactly.' Qiang Li'an nodded. 'With an ordinary contamination source we'd never have gotten to this point. But this one —'

Shen Wang listened. 'What contamination source?'

'A Grade-S Contamination Source.' Qiang Li'an said: 'The Grade-S Contamination Source Outbreak from over a decade ago — you've heard of it?'

Shen Wang's eyes widened slightly.

Of course he had. He would have lived through it — if he hadn't been in a hospital at the time.

'Where are you talking about?'

'The Grade-S Contamination Source that erupted suddenly more than a decade ago.' Qiang Li'an repeated it. 'What used to be Starriver Orphanage. Beneath it.'

'More than ten years later, the Grade-S Contamination Source has started expanding without any apparent cause. It's completely out of control — every Isolation Barrier we've set up has failed, the Contamination has been leaking out and it's already hit a lot of people. We need to deal with this fast. Right now all we can do is find someone who can go inside and tell us what's happening in there.'

Shen Wang closed his eyes. He was quiet for a few seconds before he opened them again.

'Tell me more.'

'It started a week ago. The second unit has always been extremely careful around this Grade-S Contamination Source — someone from the team does a perimeter watch every single day. That day it was one of our veterans, sharp as they come, completely reliable. He sent the all-clear signal at the scheduled time that night.'

'Then the next morning we started getting calls. Lots of them — all from residents living more than three kilometers out. Every single one reported seeing Contaminants.'

That was when Qiang Li'an had known something was wrong. He'd ordered personnel to head to the residential areas to confirm, and started calling the veteran teammate himself, relentlessly.

When the calls wouldn't connect, he kept dialing — all while leading a team toward the site, phone to his ear the whole way.

Eventually someone picked up. But the voice on the other end was a child's.

Soft and sweet, a little girl's voice: 'Hello, mister, I found this phone. I haven't seen whoever it belongs to.'

Qiang Li'an hung up immediately — but the Contamination Level inside the vehicle spiked by 20 on the spot, telling everyone present exactly what that little girl was.

They never made it to the perimeter of the source. Three kilometers out, they found infrastructure that only existed inside the contamination source itself. After multiple rounds of testing, they finally had to face it: the source had expanded.

With an ordinary contamination source nobody would be this worked up — you fence it off again, move the nearby residents a little further out, done.

But this was a Grade-S Contamination Source. One of the ten deadliest in the world.

'We've thrown everything at it and the expansion hasn't stopped once. It's pushing out by a hundred meters every day. We can't stop it. But we absolutely cannot let it keep going.'

The expansion of a Grade-S Contamination Source was basically a death sentence for humanity. It was a Grade-S Contamination Source, after all — outside of Grade S Aberrants and specific cases like Shen Wang with Contamination Immunity, no one could withstand the Contamination. Everyone else would just undergo Aberration and turn into monsters.

Shen Wang exhaled. 'Zhou Xiangzhe's going too?'

'Yeah, and not just the captain — another Grade S Aberrant is coming in to help as well. This one's too critical to handle otherwise.'

'Of course, it's still a Grade-S Contamination Source — we're not asking you to go inside. The Contamination spreading around the perimeter is expanding fast and the boundary is unclear; what we're asking for your help with is clearing that as quickly as possible.'

Qiang Li'an added, by way of explanation: 'Whatever's going on inside the source — that's for the Grade S Aberrants.'

Because it was a Grade-S Contamination Source, and nobody could guarantee what would happen to a Grade-A Variant who went in — even a Contamination Immunity Aberrant like Shen Wang.

They couldn't take that risk. They couldn't afford to lose the one and only Contamination Immunity Aberrant they had.

'Got it,' Shen Wang said. 'Come get me when it's time to leave.'

Qiang Li'an let out a breath, clapped himself on the chest, then stood and said his goodbyes.

At the door he turned back. 'Wishing you and the captain a happy future together!'

He remained completely committed to the belief that Zhou Xiangzhe and Shen Wang were absolutely a thing.

'Wait until we make it back before you wish us anything.' Shen Wang looked at him without expression. 'If either of us has a problem, it's your fault for flagging it right before we shipped out.'

Qiang Li'an: ???

He left, heartbroken.

The captain's person was terrifying.

Shen Wang closed the door and settled back onto the couch. The music was still going — impossible to say how many songs had cycled through by now. The current one was a children's song, a girl's bright clear voice singing about a little teddy bear, about my bear, my friend.

Shen Wang thought: so there's no keeping this hidden anymore.

Zhou Xiangzhe was Little Seven. Shen Wang was Little Fifteen.

That Grade-S Contamination Source everyone feared had once been their home — the place where they'd been young.

Maybe it wasn't just him. Maybe even Zhou Xiangzhe had never imagined he'd go back.

Back to where it all started? What a joke.

Shen Wang dug his phone out of his pocket, thinking he'd check whether it was time for Zhou Xiangzhe to get out — and found a new message waiting for him.

It was from Zhou Xiangzhe. He'd already left Sector S early; don't make a wasted trip.

'Already gone, huh.' Shen Wang stared at the screen. 'Something this big, and you couldn't wait a little?'

'Hmm…'

He thought about it.

He had a pretty good idea where Zhou Xiangzhe would've gone.

So he got up, reached over and turned off the cheerful little tune, then grabbed the first jacket off the coat rack. He was already wearing it before he noticed it was white.

Well.

Shen Wang thought: call it matching with Zhou Xiangzhe — they used to wear the same clothes all the time back at the orphanage.

/

This was the memorial cemetery reserved for fallen dispatch team members. It was vast — headstones stretching as far as the eye could follow, row after row. Thirty years since the apocalypse, and every Central City worker who had given their life was buried here.

Zhou Xiangzhe had placed a bunch of flowers in front of Baihe's grave — white blossoms, the same flower as her name, their quiet fragrance drifting through the cold of the early morning.

He'd been in Sector S and couldn't attend her funeral. This was the least he could do.

He let out a soft breath, turned, and walked out of the cemetery, pulling up the player on his communicator as he went.

A girl's voice came through.

'Hello, mister, I found this phone. I haven't seen whoever it belongs to.'

It was the auto-recording from Qiang Li'an's communicator. When Qiang Li'an came back to Central City, he'd passed the recording along to Zhou Xiangzhe with everything else.

Zhou Xiangzhe's memory had always been remarkable — the director used to say he was the sharpest child she'd ever seen, that nothing slipped past him. So even after all these years, he still remembered the face of every child at the orphanage. Remembered their voices.

The moment he heard the recording, a small girl's blurred face surfaced in his mind.

She was two years younger than him — Little Twenty-Nine, Xiao Ershijiu. Her wishes were a pink princess dress and sweets every day. She'd been so envious that Little Fifteen could bring back an umbrella for Little Seven from the outside world — a thing that belonged to just one person, something all your own; back then, that meant everything.

She'd wanted an umbrella too, but she was scared of Little Fifteen, so she'd only ever tugged at Little Seven's sleeve and begged.

But Zhou Xiangzhe hadn't helped her. Because he'd wanted to be the only child at the orphanage who had an umbrella.

Looking back now, they'd all had their selfish little corners back then — he was no saint either. At the very least, whatever Little Fifteen gave him, he hadn't wanted to share a single bit of it.

He listened to the recording one more time, then walked out of the cemetery — and that was when he caught a flash of white at the corner of his vision. He looked up and found Shen Wang standing at the gate.

Shen Wang had on a white jacket, which wasn't like him at all — it made his already open, gentle face look somehow brighter.

'Knew you'd be here.' Shen Wang said. 'Congrats on getting out of Sector S.'

Zhou Xiangzhe held his gaze for a few seconds, then nodded. 'Thanks.'

'I'm glad.'

They left the cemetery together. Zhou Xiangzhe was in a plain white combat uniform — what he usually wore around Central City, clean lines, exactly his standard for clothes. Shen Wang, on the other hand, practically never wore white, so today was a surprise.

Walking side by side they made quite a picture. Like — a couple in matching outfits?

They wandered into a small park nearby, found it empty, and strolled through it.

By unspoken agreement, neither of them brought up the Grade-S Contamination Source — as if neither of them had quite let themselves understand what it meant.

'Zhou Xiangzhe.' In the end it was Shen Wang who spoke first. 'Whatever happened to that friend of yours — the one who gave you the umbrella?'

The question left Zhou Xiangzhe without a good answer. Because the friend who'd given him the umbrella was standing right beside him, and had just asked.

'He's doing well.' That was what Zhou Xiangzhe said, in the end. 'He's in a good place now — steady, clear-headed. He doesn't seem to remember me anymore, but I'm still glad.'

'Yeah?' Shen Wang asked again. 'If he doesn't even remember you, what did you do with the umbrella?'

'I lost it, actually.' Zhou Xiangzhe said it like he wasn't sure if he was explaining or just saying it out loud — maybe Shen Wang was carrying both roles at once, listener and the person it was about.

He could never fully separate the Shen Wang in front of him from the one he'd known when he was young. The old image kept surfacing.

'But — it might be possible to get it back.' Zhou Xiangzhe's voice dropped a little. 'I just don't know if it's still there…'

That cheap little disposable umbrella, left behind in the orphanage.

Shen Wang watched him. Dark eyes that held Zhou Xiangzhe's reflection — just watching, with complete attention.

It was like peeling back his memory of Little Seven, piece by piece, and rebuilding him from scratch — until at last what was assembled was the Zhou Xiangzhe standing here now.

Of course. A kid with Little Seven's nature could only have grown into someone like Zhou Xiangzhe.

Shen Wang sighed, and said, easy and offhand: 'Maybe you should just forget him too.'

Zhou Xiangzhe looked at him.

'He forgot you — only fair if you forget him back. And as compensation, I'll get you a new umbrella.'

Shen Wang smiled at him. 'What kind do you want?'

This was why Zhou Xiangzhe could never let go of his Little Fifteen.

Because no matter what, Shen Wang always gave him back the same weight of care — even now, when everyone else held him at a reverent distance, Shen Wang was the only one who'd say: I want to give you a new umbrella.

How could he not love someone like that.