365: Chapter 365 Features

They searched all night.

The searchlights swept across the Gobi Desert back and forth, and the roar of the armored vehicle engines continued until the horizon turned pale. The search range expanded to fifty kilometers, drones flew three rounds in the sky, and ground personnel used infrared scanners to check behind every rock.

There was nothing.

That grayish-white figure, along with the stretcher he was carried on, and the woman who could paint within others' vision, seemed to have truly vanished into thin air.

At dawn, Golden Bone finally gave the order: "Withdraw."

No one spoke in the vehicle on the way back.

The next day.

Lu Jianchuan, carrying a bag of fruit, pushed open the door to Wei Ziqing's dormitory.

Sunlight shone in through the window, making the room bright. Wei Ziqing was standing in front of the mirror tidying his clothes; hearing the door, he turned around. The bandage on his left arm had been removed, revealing skin as smooth as before, without even a single scar left behind.

"Brother Lu!" His eyes lit up, and his gaze fell on the bag of fruit. "Hey, why'd you bring something?"

Lu Jianchuan placed the fruit on the table and sized him up.

"All better?"

"All better." Wei Ziqing lifted his left arm, even intentionally clenching his fist and flexing to show off his muscles. "The doctor said it's fine. With a special Physique, recovery is just fast."

He paused and sighed.

"Sigh, now I have to go back to filming. The director has been urging me several times."

Lu Jianchuan nodded.

"Keep at it," he said. "After all, I went through the same thing back then."

He paused, looking at Wei Ziqing's arm again.

"But is it really okay?"

"It's fine, it's fine," Wei Ziqing waved his hand, then suddenly remembered something and looked at Lu Jianchuan. "By the way, Brother Lu, yesterday on your side... I heard something happened?"

Lu Jianchuan was silent for a second.

"Yeah," he said, without going into detail. "Someone's missing."

Wei Ziqing was stunned for a moment and wanted to ask more, but seeing Lu Jianchuan's expression, he closed his mouth.

The room was quiet for a while.

Lu Jianchuan stood up and patted Wei Ziqing's shoulder.

"Film well. Call me if anything happens."

"Sure," Wei Ziqing nodded. "Take care, Brother Lu."

Lu Jianchuan came out of Wei Ziqing's dormitory and walked down the corridor.

Sunlight shone obliquely through the windows, cutting bright grids onto the floor tiles. He stepped across those grids, but his mind wasn't on his feet at all.

Lin Wan.

He was certain his punch had landed solidly on her. That sensation of hitting a physical body, the feeling of the opponent's body going limp—it couldn't have been fake. But that voice last night, that tone of being at ease in the dark, that sentence "I'm a Painter, you know"... Painting?

Painting within vision?

If her ability really had to do with visual deception, then why was it a punch-to-the-gut battle at the time? She could have used that ability to escape or counter-kill from the start. Why wait until she was "beaten to death" to use it?

Unless—

Unless she hadn't Awakened that ability yet.

Or, it wasn't her at all.

Lu Jianchuan stopped in the middle of the corridor, his brow furrowed tightly. If the woman last night was Lin Wan, then who was the one he killed? If it wasn't Lin Wan, then who was she? Why impersonate Lin Wan? Why speak to him in that tone?

His mind was a mess of tangled threads.

"Lu Jianchuan?"

A voice came from the side. Lu Jianchuan turned and saw the old professor with grayish-white hair walking toward him with a smile, his steps much lighter than their last meeting.

"Ah, I happened to run into you." The old professor walked up to him and patted his arm. "I came specifically to thank you. That research application has been approved."

Lu Jianchuan was stunned for a moment, then reacted.

"Oh, Professor, you're too kind," he said. "Helping you was the right thing to do. I am indeed interested in your research direction."

The old professor smiled and waved his hand.

"In any case, I'll remember this favor," he said. "Now that the application is approved, I'm preparing to set off."

"Setting off?" Lu Jianchuan asked. "Where to?"

"The Arctic."

The old professor's eyes brightened, the look behind those reading glasses like a youth about to embark on a treasure hunt.

"Guess what my main focus is this time?"

Lu Jianchuan shook his head.

"Mosquitoes," the old professor said.

Lu Jianchuan was stunned for a moment.

"Mosquitoes?"

"Yes, mosquitoes." The old professor nodded, laughing at Lu Jianchuan's confused expression. "You might not know this—it's a bit of trivia—mosquitoes are the only biological group on Earth without the evo factor."

Lu Jianchuan's brow twitched.

"The only one?"

"The only one," the old professor repeated. "Every life form on Earth, from single-celled organisms to humans, from deep-sea fish to mountain plants, has the evo factor in their bodies. Only mosquitoes don't. Not a single one."

He paused.

"That's also why I'm curious about them. Why mosquitoes of all things? What did they do during the process of evolution to make the factor disappear from their bodies? Or did they never have it to begin with?"

Lu Jianchuan was silent for two seconds.

"Then... has no one researched this before?"

"They have," the old professor said. "Someone discovered this phenomenon decades ago. The conclusion then was that mosquitoes actively abandoned the evo factor during evolution in exchange for something else—extreme environmental adaptability and the survival characteristic of never going extinct globally. So they've stayed just as they are now, unchanged for tens of millions of years."

He pushed up his glasses.

"But I don't quite believe that conclusion. So I want to dig into it myself."

He looked at Lu Jianchuan.

"A batch of ancient biological frozen fossils was recently discovered in the Arctic, and I heard there are some special samples in there that look like the ancestors of mosquitoes. I applied for an expedition there, it was approved, and I'm leaving next week."

Lu Jianchuan nodded.

"Then have a safe journey."

The old professor smiled and patted his shoulder.

"Don't worry, don't worry. When I get back, maybe I can bring you something interesting."

He waved his hand and turned to walk toward the other end of the corridor. His steps were light, and the hem of his white lab coat swayed gently behind him.

"In the afternoon, at the Movie City, the filming set of the second season of 'silver skeleton'."

The lights in the studio were dazzlingly bright, and several cameras were pointed at the open space in the center from different angles. Wei Ziqing was wearing a black and white costume—a prop suit designed to look like armor, much lighter than real armor, but it looked imposing enough on camera. Opposite him stood Long Qingyun, also in costume, with makeup heavier than usual and a few sequins stuck to the corners of his eyes.

The director sat behind the monitor, rolling up the script in his hand, and shouted, "Alright, Scene 37, Take 5, ready—action!"

Wei Ziqing took a deep breath, his gaze falling on Long Qingyun's face, and reached out to grab his wrist.

"I will never give up on you."

His voice wasn't loud, but it was steady, every word carrying that seriousness unique to youth.

"Because I will never give up on any of my partners. I will grab—"

He paused, exerting force with his hand to pull Long Qingyun up from the ground.

"—every hand reached out to me."

Long Qingyun was pulled up by him, stumbled a bit, stood firm, and showed that expression required by the script—both moved and trying to look cool.

"Cut!" the director shouted, nodding in satisfaction. "Good, passed! This take works. Twenty-minute break."

The atmosphere in the studio immediately relaxed. Prop masters came up to touch up their makeup, and the set assistants handed out bottled water. Wei Ziqing took the water, unscrewed the cap, took a swig, and sat on a nearby folding chair. Long Qingyun also sat down, unbuttoned two buttons at the collar of his costume, and let out a long breath.

"Hey," Wei Ziqing turned to look at him. "By the way, didn't you say you picked up a big cat last time? How is it now?"

Long Qingyun was stunned for a moment, then laughed. "It's doing great," he said, his eyes crinkling. "I gave her a name."

"What name?"

"Qing Lian," Long Qingyun said, his tone carrying a bit of pride. "The 'Qing' from sunny days, and 'Lian' for connection. Does it sound good?"