From Apocalypse Boss to Farmer: My Vegetables Make Me Stronger!-Chapter 223 - 214: Who Exactly Is Ye Junhan?

Separated by a window, the two of them met each other’s gaze in silence.

To the side, Xu Hai, his face grim, had his men use brute force to break open the metal security door.

The heavy metal security door came crashing down. The impact kicked up a blast of air, sending the plant debris that littered the floor swirling into the air. It danced in several vortexes before finally settling at Gu Xi’s feet, returning to stillness.

A moment later.

Xu Hai walked into the laboratory. Staring at the utter mess, he looked up at Gu Xi. "Miss Gu, what happened here?"

They had eagerly entered the factory before dawn, spending the better part of the day deep underground, navigating a maze of traps and mechanisms.

And after all that, they had finally found the most important laboratory.

But as a result... everything they had come for was utterly destroyed, leaving nothing but this wreckage.

Seeing what he thought was in the bag slip right through his fingers, one could only imagine Xu Hai’s mood.

"Miss Gu?" he asked again, his tone more forceful.

Gu Xi pulled her gaze away and lifted her eyes slightly, her calm stare landing on him. "Are you questioning me?"

Perhaps because she had just conducted a one-sided slaughter, the girl who once looked delicate and weak now had a murderous aura about her.

Although her tone and expression were calm, Xu Hai felt an inexplicable sense of dread and didn’t dare to meet her eyes.

Just then, Qi Xiang came over and gave a simple recount of what had happened.

She left nothing out, except for the detail about that particular face.

After hearing the story, Xu Hai and his men were even more frustrated. They had spent the better part of a day just to find this place, yet Qi Xiang had stumbled upon it by accident and gone straight for the heart of the operation.

’The comparison was infuriating.’

However, thinking of Qi Xiang’s status... Xu Hai discreetly exchanged a look with He Yue. He then forced himself to approach Gu Xi. "Miss Gu, the original contents of the lab...?"

Gu Xi pointed at the plant debris on the floor. "It’s all here." Her unspoken message was clear: if you want something, get it yourself.

’Dammit!’ Xu Hai thought. ’It’s all smashed to bits, deader than dead! What the hell am I supposed to take from this?!’

He stared at the wreckage in frustration. He had been so close—so close to obtaining the complete experimental specimens.

’What a waste...’

’But it doesn’t matter. The specimens are gone, so be it. As long as we can get the data, with the strength of our research institute, we can sooner or later decipher the ultimate meaning of life.’

Xu Hai’s gaze swept across the lab, finally landing on Gu Xi.

He paused, then asked tactfully, "Miss Gu, Xiaoxiang just said that there were some plant-*people* locked up in here..." ’Now that the floor is covered in plant debris, where are the people?’

Xu Hai deliberately stressed the word "people."

Gu Xi gave him an indifferent look but didn’t say a word.

Just as Xu Hai was about to speak again, Ye Junhan emerged from the back of the crowd and walked straight up to Qi Xiang.

"Mr. Ye, is something wrong?" Qi Xiang arched an eyebrow, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

Having just escaped with her life and then been thrown out the window by Feng Xiao’s brute strength, her hair was a mess and she looked a little disheveled. However, it did nothing to detract from the young lady’s stunning beauty. Instead, it gave her a certain battle-worn charm.

At this moment, this battle-worn beauty was looking at Ye Junhan with an alluring gaze.

Unfortunately for her, Ye Junhan wasn’t buying her act. His aloof eyes grew even sharper. "You knew about this place all along?"

The next moment, she was pinned by his ability, her life hanging by a thread, dependent on his whim. Her body trembled uncontrollably, and she could only plead for help from Gu Xi with her eyes.

Gu Xi took a step forward, shielding Qi Xiang behind her. She lifted her eyes to meet Ye Junhan’s. "It was just a coincidence."

Ye Junhan frowned slightly.

He didn’t believe it was a coincidence.

Qi Xiang also knew there were too many coincidences for her to explain away. Ignoring Ye Junhan’s cold, scrutinizing gaze, she stepped forward and tugged on Gu Xi’s sleeve, saying earnestly, "Gu Xi, I didn’t..."

"I know," Gu Xi interrupted.

Qi Xiang let out a sigh of relief and discreetly edged half a step closer to Gu Xi.

’As for what Ye Junhan thinks?’

’Who gives a damn?’

’It’s not like I depend on him to survive.’

’All that matters is that Gu Xi believes me.’

Meeting the man’s cold, sharp gaze, Qi Xiang affectionately hugged Gu Xi’s arm.

It was a defiant, provocative gesture.

Gu Xi sensed the man’s gaze grow a few shades colder, but when she looked over, he had already averted his eyes and was murmuring something to Feng Xiao.

Half an hour later, once the area was confirmed to be safe, the research personnel accompanying the team were finally allowed to go underground and enter the site.

Gu Xi stepped aside and accepted a sweet potato from Wei Heng, then pointed to Qi Xiang’s pant leg. "You’re bleeding..."

Qi Xiang looked down, bent over to roll up her pant leg, and said in surprise, "Oh, I am..." At some point, a cut had appeared on her calf, but she couldn’t feel any pain.

Qi Xiang thought about it. She must have been pricked by the thorns on the plant people’s vines when she was escaping earlier.

But because it didn’t hurt and she was too tense at the time, she hadn’t noticed.

It was a rare occurrence, though. Feng Xiao, who was with her, hadn’t been injured, yet she had ended up with a cut.

Qi Xiang found it a bit strange but didn’t dwell on it. She rolled her pant leg back down, dusted herself off, and shot Gu Xi a meaningful look.

The two of them moved away from the crowd toward a corner. Qi Xiang lowered her voice. "Gu Xi, I really didn’t know about the lab before, but Dr. Qi did mention to me how to open this place..."

But at the time, she hadn’t known this laboratory even existed.

Gu Xi, however, glanced at a certain person nearby and asked Qi Xiang, "Are you sure it’s him?"

"I think so." Qi Xiang paused for a second, her gaze also sweeping over to Ye Junhan, who was standing guard at the entrance with his hands at his sides. She lowered her voice. "I’ve seen a photo of him with Dr. Qi before..."

It was a high-resolution photograph taken before the apocalypse; Qi Xiang wouldn’t mistake him.

And that was one of the most secret reasons she had initially chosen Ye Junhan as her target, her tool.

The man in the photo was said to have been Dr. Qi’s best friend, but he had gone missing in the early days of the apocalypse. And Ye Junhan’s appearance bore a forty to fifty percent resemblance to him.

Qi Xiang had told Gu Xi about this in private before.

She wondered, ’Who exactly is Ye Junhan?’

Her woman’s intuition told her that Ye Junhan’s identity was probably not that simple.

Gu Xi caught Ye Junhan in her peripheral vision as he happened to look up at them. After a moment of thought, she said in a low voice, "Go find Zhou Jing."

"Her?" Qi Xiang was taken aback.

From her observations over the past few days, Zhou Jing had no presence in Ye Nan’s squad at all. She was like an invisible person. If Gu Xi hadn’t mentioned her just now, Qi Xiang would have almost forgotten such a person was even in their convoy.

Gu Xi hummed softly in affirmation.

’I gave those 10 milliliters of blood to Zhou Jing earlier. But Zhou Jing didn’t seem surprised. She took my blood without asking any questions, but she did remind me to pay attention to this factory...’

Clearly, Zhou Jing knew far more than they thought.

Over on the other side, a few researchers were analyzing the plant debris on the ground.

Chen Jia stared at the data displayed on her instrument, her expression exceptionally grave.

’Although I knew these plants had human-like faces, I always assumed they were just that—plants.’

But the results from the data showed...

Beside her, Wang frowned slightly. "Ms. Chen, this set of data is absolutely impossible for a plant."

Everyone present was a botanist; they would never get such a simple, basic fact wrong.

Gu Xi "heard" this and immediately turned her head to look. At the same time, Ye Junhan, who had been standing by the door, also strode over.