Little Mushroom 小蘑菇-Chapter 51 - 2 - "One Day."

An Zhe looked up at Lu Feng with a frown. He was unhappy, the rims of his eyes reddened, and he did not speak to Lu Feng. Grabbing Lu Feng's wrist, he forcefully tried to move it aside.

But the man was far stronger than him, so An Zhe couldn't pull it away at all. After trying a few times, he simply turned his fingers into hyphae and wrapped themaround Lu Feng's wrist, pulling it outward. But the strength of his soft hyphae was even less than that of his human form, breaking with even a bit of force.

"Don't pull," Lu Feng said into his ear, his voice low.

An Zhe ignored him.

Lu Feng laughed softly, then parted the snow-white layers of hyphae with a feather-light touch and once again laid his fingers on the skin of An Zhe's abdomen.

"Do you have any more?" he asked.

"I don't." An Zhe's tone was hostile.

He already had his spore dug out once by this man, so how could there possibly be a second time? Furthermore, he truly did not have any new spores now.

The strange thing was, although the original spore had clearly been lost and there was no new spore in his body, that feeling of something being missing had also left him. The hole in his body that could never be filled was gone, and his mind was no longer constantly preoccupied with the missing spore—just like a long time ago, when he hadjust been born. When he woke up, he could not have been any more whole.

An Zhe looked down at his hyphae, his snow-white, soft, dexterous, and well-defined hyphae. Slightly stunned, he put his other hand to his abdomen and touched them. Then Lu Feng held that hand as well. He could not help but think of his time at the research institute. He would shut himself up in a deserted room and carefully change part of his limbs back to hyphae, and what would be revealed after the human skin and bones disappeared was a tangled dark gray mass. The original hyphae had shriveled and liquefied. Before long, his entire body would turn into a puddle of black liquid and dry up on the floor or in a corner; this was how a mushroom died. Every time he got to that point, he would turn them back into human form as though he hadreceived an electric shock, then look out the window at the endless night sky and at the deep nighttime of his own life. The tremendous fear that every creature felt when directly facing death shrouded him as well. He would feel the bonedeep chill of it, tremble, close his eyes, and wait for everything to slowly dissipate before walking back out to live with the people of the research institute like a normal human.

Of these things, Lu Feng knew nothing.

For some reason, this knowledge made the rims of his eyes sting. Recalling the fear and despair from that time, he once again looked up at Lu Feng, his heart suffused with a feeling of hurt even stronger than before.

Lu Feng clearly understood his expression.

"You're crying for real?" The hand that the Colonel had held his shoulder with moved up, touching the corner of his eye. "What's the matter?"

An Zhe shook his head. "In any case, I'm not giving it to you."

With that, he struggled to escape Lu Feng's grip, but he was restrained in another way, and the two of them toppled over onto the grass! He found himself pinned down beneath Lu Feng.

The thin, soft mid-February grass rose past him. Springtime came to the Abyss extraordinarily early this year. An Zhe turned his head and looked to the side. A plump, pure white mushroom had just unfurled its cap. Its gills were not yet fully open, but presumably it would not be long before thousands of spores would fall from the cap and diffuse outward like fog.

Other mushrooms had many spores, but he only had one, and it was gone to boot. He bit his lip.

He heard Lu Feng say, "Don't be afraid."

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He said nothing, and Lu Feng continued. "I don't want the spore."

"Then what about my spore?" An Zhe asked.

"You wish to know?"

"I do."

Lu Feng scooped up a few strands of hyphae.

"Other mushrooms all have many spores," he said. "Why did you only have one?"

"I don't know," An Zhe said.

"When did you know that you were a mushroom?" Lu Feng asked.

An Zhe thought hard, then said, "Since a long time ago."

"Was there a catalyst?"

"It was raining."

"What else?"

"I snapped in half, but I didn't want to die yet."

"Did it hurt?"

An Zhe shook his head.

Lu Feng asked, "Is there anything else?"

An Zhe could only think of one thing. "It was raining," he repeated.

Lu Feng seemed to think for a while. Then he asked, "You can fuse with many creatures. Are you able to distinguish exactly how many you've fused with? No matter if it was active or passive?"

An Zhe shook his head. He had indeed come into contact with many creatures either actively or passively, but he did not know if he had obtained their genes. The sole time was when he completely absorbed all of the blood and tissues from An Ze's body, unconsciously obtaining the ability to turn into a human.

He heard Lu Feng ask, "Have you seen snakes before?"

An Zhe nodded, for he had certainly seen snakes before.

"Snakes shed their skin. The original skin is discarded, and it crawls out from there," Lu Feng said. "Many creatures can do the same."

For a while, An Zhe did not know what Lu Feng wished to express, so he merely listened.

"But Mr. Pauli said that this is still very different from your form of life. Some single-celled eukaryotes have an additional trait," Lu Feng said. "When the environment is hostile, it will stop growing, and the main parts of its body will form a sporocyst and fall into a deep sleep, only to come back to life in a suitable environment."

An Zhe frowned. He seemed to understand what Lu Feng was saying, yet he also seemed to still be unable to accurately express it.

"Furthermore, you are a fungus. Although you aren't thesame species as them, you're all living things with simple compositions."

Feeling that what Lu Feng was saying was not flattering, An Zhe pushed the man away.

Lu Feng did not move. He only looked at An Zhe, a hint of a smile in his eyes. "It still hasn't occurred to you?"

An Zhe looked at his hyphae as he asked in a small voice, "Are you saying that my... my spore grew into me?"

Strangely, after saying it, he did not feel surprised at all. Perhaps he simply said something ordinary.

He became lost in thought as he contemplated the whole thing.

"Pauli said that when you cast off your fundamental form as a mushroom, you also obtained new properties. Perhaps you fused with the properties of other simple creatures, obtaining a new form of life. As an existence similar to sporocysts, the spore became a spare life to be used after your body decayed. Therefore, you viewed it as more important than your own life because it truly was your life. Through this method, you may have achieved immortality," Lu Feng said.

An Zhe's eyes widened slightly.

"Also," Lu Feng said, "the first time I met Pauli, he was suffering greatly. At that time, the spore landed on Pauli of its own accord. I figured that only you would know him."

An Zhe nodded, for he did indeed have a vague recollection of approaching the grieving Pauli. Similarly, he also had many memories of approaching Lu Feng.

It was simply that he was not aware of what he was doing at the time.

He perceived his intact body.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled to Lu Feng.

If this were indeed the case, then he truly was wrong about Lu Feng—he had assumed the worst of this man. Lu Feng truly had not gone against the wish he left behind and raised the spore to adulthood.

"It's okay." Lu Feng leaned closer to him. Within those perpetually indifferent cold green eyes, indescribable waves seemed to surge. He lowered his voice, saying, "... You're alive."

Indeed, he was alive.

He was still alive.

Golden sunlight shone down on the verdant grass, and sparkling dust gently floated on the breeze. It was like a dream.

An Zhe lightly grabbed the edge of Lu Feng's sleeve.

Then he thought of something else—the thing he had held a grudge over for a long time already. On that long- ago day, he had opened the laboratory door and seen the spore. He had assumed the spore belonged to him and would float in his direction, but it had floated to where Lu Feng was.

He said it.

Lu Feng murmured, "It was you wishing to be at my side."

An Zhe slowly lowered his gaze.

"I didn't know," he said. "At that time..."

At that time, he and Lu Feng did not exactly have a good relationship.

At that thought, he then wondered if the relationship between himself and Lu Feng could now be considered good.

He gradually tightened his grip on Lu Feng's sleeve, but these unformed and chaotic thoughts vanished like mist the moment he looked up and met Lu Feng's eyes.

Today was February 14th. On this day four years ago, he and Lu Feng met in the wilderness of the Abyss.

Later, they spent a brief amount of time together. Then he slept for three years, and Lu Feng raised the spore for three years.

They might not have known each other for too long, nor did they have much experience interacting with each other, so compared to the relationships between other people, theirs really did not count for much.

However, for the two of them, for a xenogenic and an Arbiter, there was nobody else who could be like the other party.

In the wind, he and Lu Feng silently locked eyes.

After a long time, he heard Lu Feng murmur, "Thank you."

He asked, "For what?"

"A lot of things." Lu Feng's tone of voice was neutral, but his eyes never left An Zhe. He reached up and gently restedhis hand on the side of An Zhe's face, his voice slightly raspy as he said, "Mostly for waiting for me all night on Judgment Day."

An Zhe smiled, clearly very happy, but then he felt a little bitter. With his voice also slightly raspy, he said, "Then I also thank you for always sparing me."

The Colonel's pale, thin lips curled up, and then he lowered his head to kiss the corners of An Zhe's eyes, everytouch fleeting. In his cold green eyes was An Zhe's reflection. An Zhe suddenly felt that this color was very gentle.

Lu Feng looked at him in that manner, and An Zhe waspressed into the grass. He initially felt that this man's gaze was very gentle, but then a feeling of danger slowly arose, as though he were being watched from the jungle by some man-eating beast that was ready to pounce.

When Lu Feng leaned down, dropping all his weight onAn Zhe, and buried his head in An Zhe's neck, the feeling reached its peak.

They were so close that there wasn't the slightest gap, pressed directly against each other. Lu Feng's breathing and heartbeat were right in his ear and on his body.

An Zhe hesitantly put his arms around Lu Feng's shoulders and used his limited knowledge to analyze the current situation.

Then he asked in a small voice, "Do you wish to bed me?"

He heard Lu Feng let out a soft laugh, the sound slightly hoarse and breathy.

Then Lu Feng asked, "Who taught you that?"

"Mr. Shaw said it once," An Zhe replied.

"Shaw Scott." Lu Feng accurately pronounced Mr. Shaw's name. "What else did he say?"

An Zhe said, "It was all more or less the same."

In short, Mr. Shaw's language always revolved around these words.

Lu Feng asked, "If I did, what would you think?"

An Zhe thought hard.

"That..." he said, "that Mr. Shaw truly was very incredible."

He used to think that Mr. Shaw's words were completely unfounded, but now it appeared that they were correct about even the Arbiter himself.

He truthfully shared his thoughts with Lu Feng.

Buried in his neck, Lu Feng began to laugh. It unexpectedly sounded like he was quite happy.

After he finished laughing, he rolled over and lay side by side with An Zhe on the grass. An Zhe turned to look at him and saw that this man was indeed relaxed. He had never even dared to dream that this Arbiter who lived in constant night would wear such an expression.

Lu Feng asked, "Who else wished to bed you?"

"Hosen, I suppose, when I came to the base in their vehicle." An Zhe thought back as he spoke. "I think there was Josh as well, and on the third floor, there were some mercenaries."

"What about you?"

"I didn't like them much." An Zhe thought about their gazes.

He saw that Lu Feng was looking at him as well, the cold arches of his eyebrows relaxing. It was a clear expression, similar to the mountain breeze currently blowing through the wilderness.

An Zhe became a bit lost in thought. If time repeateditself, if Lu Feng were not the Arbiter, if he were an invincible, ambitious, and powerful young military officer, perhaps his expression would often have been like this.

"Then," Lu Feng said, "I'm different from them."

An Zhe questioned him with a puzzled gaze.

The Colonel only smiled. It was very good-looking, like the season's snowpack in the initial stages of thaw.

"Let's go." He got up from the grass. Facing the morning sunlight, he held out a hand to An Zhe. "I'll take you to search for An Ze."

An Zhe also held out his hand, got pulled upright, and then followed.

"What's different?" he asked.

"Everything's different."

An Zhe looked at him with suspicion.

"Really?" he asked.

This time, the Colonel did not reply.