When Lin Jianyuan said two minutes, he meant two minutes.

Two minutes later, Lin Jianyuan watched a human-shaped hermit crab jog toward him and felt the corner of his mouth twitch.

“Bro! Sister-in-law!” Pei Shuo came over with shining eyes, his face full of delight.

He held both hands up in front of his chest like a surgeon. Both hands were densely covered in large patches of blisters that looked like clusters of tiny transparent grapes. His palms and fingers were also shiny with ointment.

That was how ordinary passersby saw him.

But from Lin Jianyuan and Xie Yu’s perspective, Pei Shuo was covered with crab from head to toe.

On his head, shoulders, arms, and clothes…

The worst area was his two raised hands.

Crabs of every size clung to his fingers like oversized gold rings, with twenty crabs perched on his ten fingers.

Beneath the crabs was a dense field of blisters.

The grossest part wasn’t even the blisters. It was that the tightly packed crabs were still continuously blowing even more tightly packed bubbles.

Pei Shuo looked like an enormous human-shaped hermit crab, except the thing being inhabited was a human and the things crawling all over him were crabs.

Pop.

Pop.

The bubbles the crabs blew touched Pei Shuo’s skin and burst on his hands.

Wherever a bubble burst, a tiny new blister slowly emerged at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Lin Jianyuan’s scalp instantly went numb.

F**k! What kind of stupid Aberration was this?!

Why is it so disgusting?!

“Wow, what a coincidence! You really were nearby? I thought you were lying to me, bro!”

The joy in Pei Shuo’s eyes when he saw Lin Jianyuan was completely genuine.

After some time apart, Pei Shuo’s eyes were still just as bright, and his back was still just as straight. But the faint dark circles beneath his eyes betrayed his exhaustion.

Lin Jianyuan pulled him over to sit down and asked, “What happened?”

Pei Shuo told him everything.

Apparently, after Lin Jianyuan resigned, the shitty company simply never hired anyone to replace him.

Before Lin Jianyuan left, he often worked overtime because he couldn’t finish all his work. Once he resigned, the whole department lost its most useful, experienced corporate workhorse, and everyone’s workload immediately shot through the roof.

Everyone assumed that the company would hire someone, but it didn’t. They only realized that after frantically working overtime for quite a while.

Eventually, everyone got so angry that they went together to demand an explanation from Jiang Chen, but he told them that he didn’t think they were understaffed at all.

Sure, Lin Jianyuan was gone, but Pei Shuo already finished his internship and became a full-time employee, didn’t he?

And Pei Shuo was someone Lin Jianyuan personally trained, so it was only natural for him to take over the work Lin Jianyuan left behind. There was no staffing shortage since he should already be perfectly familiar with it.

Jiang Chen made it sound perfectly reasonable, but everyone knew what he was actually doing. He was taking petty revenge.

Lin Jianyuan resigned and became rich overnight. He returned in glory and handed out red envelopes to everyone while deliberately skipping Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen was furious about it, but there was nothing he could do, so he could only vent his anger on Pei Shuo.

“F**k!” Lin Jianyuan heard only half of it before he exploded. He shot out of his chair, blazing with fury. “F**k this, I’m going to find him right now! That stupid bastard! Did a donkey kick his brain or what?! I’m already gone, and he’s still taking revenge on my guy?!”

“Bro!” Pei Shuo jumped in fright at his sudden outburst and hurriedly grabbed him.

But a smile tugged at the corners of his lips. “Bro, I didn’t dare tell you before because I knew you’d get angry if you heard. I know you’d definitely help me, but there’s no need. Seriously, there’s no need. You already resigned. If you can stay away from trash people, then stay away from trash people! Don’t get angry over this kind of thing. Let me deal with it myself, okay? Bro, I’m not a kid anymore. I’m a full-time employee now!”

That line, “I’m not a kid anymore,” made Lin Jianyuan pause.

Pei Shuo was an adult, after all. He had his own pride.

Lin Jianyuan couldn’t fight every battle for him. Sooner or later, Pei Shuo had to learn to handle these things himself.

But handling things himself was one thing.

Handling things himself did not mean knowingly eating shit and insisting on keeping at it.

Pei Shuo forcibly dragged Lin Jianyuan back into his chair. Lin Jianyuan took a deep breath. “Quit. Go work for my friend.”

Pei Shuo helplessly raised both hands. “Bro, look at me right now…”

“What’s wrong with that?” Lin Jianyuan frowned. “This’ll be gone by tomorrow. Besides, what’s the big deal about a few blisters? It’s not contagious. What does that have to do with whether you quit?”

That part was true.

While Lin Jianyuan listened to Pei Shuo explain everything, Xie Yu secretly stripped all the mitten crabs off Pei Shuo’s body.

He only collected them. He didn’t eat them.

After all, Xie Yu was currently an entire glowing pink digestive system that Pei Shuo sees as a human.

Lin Jianyuan had only just escaped being labeled mentally ill. He didn’t want people to turn around and label his wife mentally ill instead.

After Lin Jianyuan kept insisting, Pei Shuo finally agreed to at least contact Shi Shaoning’s manager first and learn more about the assistant position.

Lin Jianyuan found an excuse and took Xie Yu with him to Pei Shuo’s home.

Pei Shuo was also from out of town, but unlike Lin Jianyuan, he didn’t come to City A just to work. He attended university in City A too.

The apartment he rented was also very far from the company, but it was very close to his university.

Lin Jianyuan asked, “Why don’t you move somewhere closer to work?”

Pei Shuo smiled. “I rented this place back when I was in school. I’ve lived here for so long that I got used to it, and the landlord is really nice. Mostly, I’m just used to living here.”

Unlike Lin Jianyuan, Pei Shuo rented the whole unit and lived alone.

It was a tiny place, barely over twenty square meters, with a private bathroom, an open-flame stove, and everything needed for daily life.

Aside from being small, there was nothing wrong with it.

Pei Shuo moved out to live by himself while he was still in university?

Why?

Lin Jianyuan assumed he was the type who loved dorm life and easily became close with his male roommates.

A vague guess surfaced in Lin Jianyuan’s mind, but before he could think it through, Xie Yu gently shook the hand he was holding.

“Done,” Xie Yu mouthed.

That meant all the mitten crabs inside the apartment were gone.

There actually weren’t many crabs in Pei Shuo’s home.

Xie Yu wandered once around the living room, and the intestines he extended cleared all of them away.

“I’m guessing these mitten crabs came from work too.”

Lin Jianyuan said after they left Pei Shuo’s apartment.

The two immediately went back to the company. It was Sunday, so nobody was there.

Lin Jianyuan went over to Pei Shuo’s desk. Sure enough, beside the computer, across the desktop, inside the drawers, and even under the desk, crabs were everywhere.

Fully cooked, orange-red crabs crawled all over the place, blowing one hollow bubble after another.

Lin Jianyuan frowned deeply and said with displeasure, “I knew it.”

He looked it up earlier. Medically speaking, the type of blisters on Pei Shuo’s hands could be associated with sweaty palms, low immunity, exhaustion, and psychological stress.

Pei Shuo was physically healthy. He didn’t normally have sweaty palms, and low immunity seemed even less likely.

So that left exhaustion and psychological stress.

Lin Jianyuan carried a black garbage bag, looking thoroughly irritated as he picked up crabs together with his roommate.

The more he thought about how he was already gone, and Jiang Chen was still tormenting his apprentice, the more pissed off he became.

“All right, don’t be angry anymore.” His roommate coaxed him gently. “When we get home, I’ll cook the crabs for you, okay?”

Lin Jianyuan froze. “I can eat these?”

Weren’t they Aberrants?

His roommate smiled. “You’ve eaten Aberrants before.”

Lin Jianyuan suddenly realized. Oh, right! When he thought he was mentally ill, he not only ate eyeball vines, but the frogs too!

The frogs Jiang Chen spat out of his throat!

…F**k.

Thinking about that now is kind of disgusting…

Lin Jianyuan looked repulsed and repeatedly comforted himself internally: They’re Aberrants. They’re Aberrants. They’re Aberrants.

“No. I think I genuinely have PTSD from this office.” Lin Jianyuan frowned. “Or maybe I’m allergic to the air here. If I stay here for a while, my chest starts feeling tight.”

His roommate asked, “Want to go outside for a walk?”

Lin Jianyuan smiled. “Sure.”

The two of them went downstairs.

In early September, the weather was already starting to show hints of autumn. Under direct sunlight during the day, it was still unbearably hot, but mornings and evenings were cool. It was the kind of weather where nobody knew what to wear.

Lin Jianyuan felt like he really wasn’t getting enough sunlight lately. He no longer needed to commute, so he barely rode in cars.

Whenever he needed to go anywhere, his wife took his hand, and whoosh, they were already there.

Yes, it was fast, but it also made him feel like he hadn't properly been under the sun for a long time.

And the Bureau was underground. After spending enough time there, he sometimes felt cold and damp right down to the bones.

“Come to think of it, don’t you think we’ve been running into way too many Aberrants lately?” Lin Jianyuan stood at an intersection waiting for the red light, looking thoughtful. “I pulled records from the Field Operations Department for the past few years. Normally, even somewhere like the mental health center where Aberrants appear relatively often, you only run into two or three a month. And most of them are below A-class... But ever since…”

The red light went dark, and the green light came on.

Pedestrians at both ends of the crosswalk began moving as if someone pressed the play button.

Xie Yu held Lin Jianyuan’s hand and turned his head. “Ever since what?”

Lin Jianyuan didn’t answer.

His gaze landed across the street, and he looked puzzled.

On the opposite side, beneath the pedestrian green light, an old woman with snow-white hair stood far away.

Still and completely motionless.

Her eyes were fixed on this side of the road.

The green light pressed play on everyone, but it somehow skipped her.

Lin Jianyuan lifted his eyes and happened to meet the old woman’s gaze.

Across the road, by the crosswalk more than ten meters long, and through the crowds flowing in both directions like waves...

Lin Jianyuan stared at the white-haired old woman.

The old woman’s lips moved, and the next second, she disappeared!

Lin Jianyuan didn’t even have time to be shocked before the old woman suddenly appeared again.

This time, she was only four or five meters away from him!

Lin Jianyuan: “?”

What are you, the Flash?!

Lin Jianyuan didn’t even have time to react before a huge mass of pink flashed in front of him.

A pile of pink intestines shoved him behind them and shielded him from the front!

“Careful!” Xie Yu snapped. “It’s S-class!”

Before he even finished speaking, the old woman four or five meters away disappeared again!

Lin Jianyuan’s eyes widened.

Almost at the exact same moment, an enormous flood suddenly surged out from around the street corner!

The torrent carried driftwood, fallen leaves, and trash as it roared between the city’s high-rises.

The towering wave was nearly two meters high. It churned with filthy water as it rushed toward them with unstoppable force!

Wait. A flood?

Why was there a flood?! They were in the middle of the city! The nearest river was…

Oh, got it.

It had to be an illusion.

After all, that Flash Granny in front of him was S-class. He still had no idea what exactly she was doing, but this flood definitely had to be…

Just as Lin Jianyuan was about to relax, something suddenly tightened around his waist.

Xie Yu.

Xie Yu wrapped an intestine around him and hauled him onto the roof of the nearest building!

At the same time, screams erupted from the crowd below.

“A flood?! Why is there a flood here?!”

“What are you standing around for?! RUN!”

“Help! HELP!”

The crowd scattered in panic while the drivers and passengers trapped in traffic frantically opened their car doors.

The white-haired Flash Granny appeared once again in the middle of the road. Like a white nail driven abruptly into the black asphalt.

After swallowing countless vehicles, the flood surged straight toward the intersection.

The filthy, raging wave carried the unquestionable force of nature and crashed so loudly that Lin Jianyuan’s eardrums ached.

His pupils contracted sharply. He stepped forward, grabbed the rooftop railing, and shouted anxiously, “It’s over! I think this flood is real! Wife, hurry and…”

Before the words “save them” could leave his mouth, Flash Granny disappeared again, along with the flood.

The enormous wave and the city garbage carried by the current... everything vanished as if it never existed.

There wasn’t even a trace of water on the ground.

Everyone who fled in panic, along with every driver and passenger whose vehicle the wave nearly swallowed, stood there completely bewildered.

Lin Jianyuan: “?”

Lin Jianyuan was just as confused as everyone else.

The next second, the people at the intersection seemed to remember what they were supposed to be doing and, one after another, resumed walking in the same directions as before.

The drivers and passengers who fled their vehicles returned to them too. They restarted the engines and slowly set off, crossing the intersection at a normal speed.

Lin Jianyuan: “???”

“B-baby?” Lin Jianyuan stared at his roommate in utter disbelief and completely lost. “What’s going on, baby? That Flash Granny…”

Then the most terrifying thing happened.

Xie Yu spoke in a voice even more confused than Lin Jianyuan’s:

“Huh? Why are we up here?”

THUD!

Lin Jianyuan felt like someone smashed him over the head with a massive hammer.

He remembered.

He suddenly remembered.

Before the flood arrived, in the instant when his eyes met the old woman’s across the road, the white-haired old woman said something to him.

The crowd around them flowed like waves.

The old woman, nearly motionless yet somehow fast as lightning, slightly puckered her lips at the instant their eyes met.

She said only one word to Lin Jianyuan.

One silent word.

“Shhh.”