QT: The Rescue Of The Miserable Bigshots-Chapter 298 - 9.44

"Fang Jing has gone mad."

After a chaotic, sleepless night, this was the first thing Jiang Jiamian heard from Ling Zhuang the moment he woke up.

"Crazy!?" Jiang Jiamian shot upright. "Is he really that weak? You’re telling me he broke just like that? Did you do something to him?"

He hadn’t forgotten how Ling Zhuang had hypnotized Fang Jing’s nephew, Fang Geng, and turned him mentally unstable on the spot.

So this time, hearing that Fang Jing had suddenly gone insane, Jiang Jiamian’s first reaction was that Ling Zhuang had quietly handled him overnight using the same method.

Unexpectedly, Ling Zhuang shook his head with a straight face. "I didn’t touch him. And he’s not fully insane, sometimes he’s delirious, crying and begging, and sometimes he becomes briefly lucid. The entire base is in chaos. With Fang Jing losing it, several powerful figures are eyeing his position."

Jiang Jiamian blinked. "So what you’re saying is..."

It seems Fang Jing really didn’t have the mental strength.

He actually went insane from fear.

Ling Zhuang raised an eyebrow. "Of course, it has to be you, my Zombie King."

Fang Jing was driven mad by Jiang Jiamian, and Jiang Jiamian was the strongest. Who in the whole base could compete with him for leadership?

No one.

Jiang Jiamian grinned and patted Ling Zhuang on the shoulder as if they were old friends. "You’re right. I’ll become the leader first, then I can protect you!"

Ling Zhuang: "..."

With perfect calm, Ling Zhuang adjusted his glasses. "Fang Jing is already in the infirmary. I arranged for two people to restrain him. Others won’t interfere for now, so you should hurry."

"Got it! I’ll head over now!" Jiang Jiamian got up instantly. "Wait for me."

He didn’t bother asking which two people Ling Zhuang had arranged. With Ling Zhuang’s hypnotic skills, controlling two lackeys was child’s play.

Becoming the new leader of A City base was laughably easy for Jiang Jiamian.

A few dissatisfied ability users challenged him, and he beat them so thoroughly they shut up on the spot.

When Jiang Qing finally woke up, her memories slowly pieced together. In her frantic attempt to find someone to rescue her brother, she vaguely remembered hearing that Jiang Jiamian had become the new base leader.

Jiang Qing was utterly stunned.

Was she still dreaming?

Was she hallucinating?

"What are you thinking so deeply about?"

Just as she stood in the hallway dazed, a familiar voice sounded behind her.

That voice... Jiang Qing’s eyes lit up instantly. She spun around in excitement. "Brother!"

Too overjoyed, she completely forgot about Ling Zhuang’s terrifying presence for a moment and almost instinctively rushed forward to throw herself into Jiang Jiamian’s arms.

But before she could collide with him, a figure suddenly appeared behind him. Ling Zhuang grabbed Jiang Jiamian and pulled him back, catching him firmly in his arms.

Jiang Qing, having missed her target, nearly stumbled and fell.

Fortunately, Jiang Jiamian reached out quickly and steadied her.

The whole thing happened in less than a second... followed by complete awkwardness.

Jiang Qing stared at her brother being held tightly by Ling Zhuang and forced an embarrassed smile. "Brother, you’re really back. You scared me half to death!"

Ugh.

So annoying.

She couldn’t hug her brother at all!

And Professor Ling... he was someone she both wanted to ship with her brother and yet wanted to strangle at the same time.

Humph!

"You’re back? You’re really back?"

Before Jiang Qing even recovered, another voice rang out, mixed with relief, disbelief, and exhaustion.

Jiang Jiamian turned to see Chen Ran, looking slightly worn out but with bright, searching eyes.

Ling Zhuang: "..."

So many rivals.

He suddenly feels like destroying the world again.

"Yes."

Unlike with his clingy, headstrong ’sister’, Jiang Jiamian was much colder toward Chen Ran.

He didn’t know Chen Ran’s thoughts before. Now that he did, he refused to leave any room for misunderstanding.

He did not want complicated relationships with protagonists of any type.

Male, female, gong, shou, he didn’t care.

Chen Ran had no malicious intentions, so the best solution was distance.

Sensing Jiang Jiamian’s coldness and seeing him wrapped in Ling Zhuang’s arms, Chen Ran felt a surge of irritation.

Still, he forced a small smile. "It’s good you’re back. Really good..."

Worried and unable to leave the base to rescue him, Chen Ran had argued with the Gale Squad and shut himself in his room since yesterday.

Today, once rumors spread that Fang Jing had gone mad and several elites were preparing to fight for leadership, he realized something had drastically shifted.

When even Xiao Jingfeng considered making a move, Chen Ran understood Fang Jing was truly finished.

Then came the next shocking news: Jiang Jiamian wasn’t dead.

And not only was he alive, he had already seized power as the new base leader.

The elites who tried to challenge him, including Xiao Jingfeng, retreated in defeat.

The two most rebellious ones... had already been beaten to a pulp.

Even after hearing all that, Chen Ran couldn’t believe it until he ran over himself.

Jiang Jiamian was alive.

Completely unharmed.

Jiang Jiamian met Chen Ran’s gaze and simply hummed again.

Seeing that he clearly didn’t want to say more, Chen Ran paused, then whispered, "Then... I won’t disturb you anymore."

Jiang Jiamian...

He gave him one last deep look.

Lingering. Painful.

His eyes dimmed noticeably.

These two words, Jiang Jiamian, might remain buried in his heart forever.

Someone he admired, yet someone he could never reach.

If Jiang Jiamian had never appeared... Maybe his ambiguous, almost-romantic relationship with Xiao Jingfeng could’ve developed into something real.

But now...

Chen Ran turned away slowly, a bitter smile tugging at his lips.

His heart was already full of someone else.

Even if he spent his whole life alone, it didn’t matter.

After all, someone already occupied his heart.

And in a way... he wasn’t alone.

Laboratory.

When Fang Jing regained consciousness for a brief moment, he was shocked to find himself in Ling Zhuang’s laboratory, who knew when he had been moved there.

And beside him lay a zombie with a bluish, rotting face.

Something about the zombie looked familiar. When Fang Jing squinted, he realized... It was Xue Fang from the Gale Squad.

Xue Fang had become a zombie!?

"Chief Fang, no, former chief."

Ling Zhuang walked toward him in a pristine white coat, wearing a gentle, harmless smile.

"Former chief, don’t worry. I’m already working on what I promised you. You must be looking forward to it, right?"

Fang Jing was stunned. His mind slipped in and out of clarity, making it hard to think straight. "Wh... what...?"

Ling Zhuang raised a test tube of vivid red liquid and gave it a light shake. "Didn’t you want a potion to enhance your abilities? We were missing a suitable ability-user test subject. Now the timing is perfect."

He smiled kindly.

"You’re insane, and completely useless. There isn’t a single person in this base more suitable for human experimentation than you."

"No, no, don’t..."

Fang Jing stared in terror at Ling Zhuang slowly approaching him. He instinctively tried to struggle upright from the laboratory table, but whatever Ling Zhuang had done to him left his body completely unresponsive. He was conscious. He could feel everything. But he couldn’t move his arms, couldn’t lift his legs, couldn’t even tilt his head.

Ling Zhuang smiled gently and stepped to his side, lightly pointing toward the zombified Xue Fang lying on the next table.

"In addition to the drug that enhances abilities, I also want to test a formula that combats the zombie virus. And look, there’s a zombie right here. The two of you can perform repeated deaths together, happily, in this lab."

Fang Jing’s eyes widened in pure horror. The elegant smile he had once thought gentle now looked like something crawling out of hell.

Those light words: repeated deaths, stabbed straight into his soul like nails. He felt cold all over, like every escape route had been sealed.

He tried to scream, tried to struggle, but Ling Zhuang’s gloved hand gripped his jawbone with practiced ease. Before he could even protest, his jaw was swiftly and neatly dislocated.

Then, without hesitation, Ling Zhuang raised the test tube in his hand and tilted it, pouring the entire contents directly down his throat, right before his horrified eyes.

Fang Jing tried desperately to resist, to spit it out, to vomit, but his head couldn’t turn, his neck was stiff, and his throat spasmed uselessly. Within seconds, he involuntarily swallowed the entire dose.

"What did you feed me!?"

He coughed violently, but to no avail. His body couldn’t move, and all he could do was glare at Ling Zhuang with eyes full of fury and despair.

Ling Zhuang tilted his head slightly, as if pondering. "Hm... I don’t actually know yet. It has no name, its effects are unknown, and its taste is uncertain. If I already knew, why would I need you as the test subject? Right, former leader?"

Fang Jing’s face twisted in panic.

If he still couldn’t understand that Ling Zhuang was intentionally torturing him, then he truly was a fool.

But why?

Yes, he had planned to control Ling Zhuang and even use his research to solidify his own power, but he hadn’t actually taken action yet. He had only asked Shen Yunqing to report the lab’s status. Even the surveillance cameras had been installed secretly.

From Fang Jing’s perspective, he hadn’t done anything truly harmful yet.

He had even brought Ling Zhuang to A City, given him a private lab, treated him as a valuable asset. Even with Fang Geng, he hadn’t punished Ling Zhuang, he only asked him to continue his research.

Wasn’t that enough!?

"Ling Zhuang! I haven’t wronged you! I even valued you! Why are you treating me like this!?"

He grew more agitated, forgetting entirely his earlier desire to use Ling Zhuang’s results to elevate his own prestige.

In his mind, he had shown nothing but kindness, not cruelty.

The fact that he had intended to act but hadn’t yet done so was something he would never admit.

"What are you saying, Chief Fang?"

Ling Zhuang feigned confusion, his voice soft and puzzled. "Why does Chief Fang look so unhappy? If I remember correctly, you said you were wholeheartedly devoted to humanity’s survival and the future of the base. So..."

He leaned down slowly, lowering his voice to a whisper by Fang Jing’s ear. "Now that you finally have a chance to personally contribute to humanity’s hope, to test drugs yourself, to offer your body as experimental material, isn’t this exactly what you longed for? I thought Chief Fang would be grateful for the opportunity I created for you!"

Fang Jing was speechless.

Every word was a gentle knife.

He tried to breathe and froze.

A searing pain stabbed through his nose and throat, like inhaling tiny blades. Even a single breath felt like being carved open from the inside.

Panicking, he instinctively held his breath.

Ling Zhuang raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Difficulty breathing?"

He picked up a clipboard, adjusted his grip, and began writing calmly.

"Drug No. 1. Subject’s reaction: three minutes post-administration... breathing... no... displays symptoms of actively resisting respiration..."

Fang Jing’s face turned red from holding his breath. He trembled violently, but he couldn’t make a sound. To speak meant to inhale. And the pain was so unbearable that even half a second of breathing felt like torture.

It was a thousand times worse than being cut on the outside.

"Don’t want to breathe? But eventually you’ll have to."

Ling Zhuang casually clipped the report back onto the board.

"By the way, the more you hold your breath, the more desperate you’ll be later. The more you gasp, the more painful it gets. Whether you prefer constant mild suffering or short relief followed by intense agony... is entirely your choice."

He smiled gently.

"Also, I won’t be accompanying you anymore."

Seeing Fang Jing’s expression collapse into silent despair, Ling Zhuang slowly removed his gloves, took off his spotless white coat, and walked toward the door.

"I have to go home and make fish soup for my new leader."