Chapter 226 - 91: Truth Serum and Broad-mouthed Bottle

Chapter 226: Chapter 91: Truth Serum and Broad-mouthed Bottle

He then remembered his resolution from yesterday—to be sincere and not dismissive with his friends. So, he added:

"This is... a bit complicated. You’ll understand in a bit."

Shi Zuozhou followed behind, his face full of suspicion. He just kept following Yu Xian toward the West Gate. As they walked, he suddenly realized something:

"Hey, wait a minute. Old Yu, are you heading back to your rental?"

Yu Xian had taken Shi Zuozhou there before. He nodded and answered seriously:

"Yeah, to my rental."

"What for? It’s the crack of dawn. Weren’t you staying at your relative’s place recently? Don’t tell me you’re making me help you with a deep clean?"

Shi Zuozhou chattered on relentlessly the whole way, and while Yu Xian responded to every question, he consistently avoided the main topic.

Soon, the two of them arrived at the apartment building.

Standing in front of the security door, Yu Xian reached out and knocked. Shi Zuozhou looked at him, confused.

"Someone’s here?"

The sound of footsteps quickly came from inside. With a CLICK, the door was pulled open.

Senior Sister Yiyi appeared behind the door, wearing a thick, off-white sweater and looking at the two of them outside.

When he saw who opened the door, Shi Zuozhou’s eyes nearly popped out of his head, his mouth agape, wide enough to fit an egg.

"Bro-Brother Yi? What are you doing here?!" Shi Zuozhou blurted out, his face a mask of disbelief.

Then, as if he’d suddenly understood something, he whipped his head around to look at Yu Xian. He pointed back and forth between the two of them, his voice stuttering:

"Old Yu, you... you didn’t drag me here first thing in the morning just to tell me that you two... you two are together, did you?!"

Yu Xian massaged his forehead in exasperation and pulled Shi Zuozhou inside:

"Where is your mind going? Just get inside first and we’ll talk."

Yang Yiyi was also amused by Shi Zuozhou’s reaction. She closed the door and poured them two glasses of hot water.

The three of them sat on the living room sofa. Shi Zuozhou cupped the glass of water with both hands, still looking around suspiciously.

"So what’s this all about? Why all the cloak-and-dagger stuff?"

Yang Yiyi’s smile faded, and her expression turned serious. She sighed softly and said:

"Zuozhou, I’ve... run into a bit of trouble recently."

Hearing this, Shi Zuozhou immediately dropped his gossipy demeanor. He set down his glass, his expression turning grave.

"Brother Yi, tell me. What happened?"

"A while ago, I accidentally saw some of my advisor’s... confidential research," Yang Yiyi began slowly.

Over the next half hour, she told Shi Zuozhou everything that had happened, from beginning to end.

From the emails she’d accidentally seen in her advisor’s inbox about MCH suppression waveforms, to the mysterious industrial fund; from leaving the lab to hide out in Yu Xian’s rental, to Yu Xian and Wen Xiao’s reverse-engineering of the audio.

Finally, she emphasized what they had just successfully verified yesterday afternoon—the "Dream Net connection"—and the astonishing phenomena they had discovered last night.

As Shi Zuozhou sat on the sofa, his initial attentive listening turned to stunned speechlessness, and finally, to profound shock and disbelief.

When Yang Yiyi finished her story, a long silence fell over the living room.

"So..." Shi Zuozhou swallowed hard.

"We really have a chance to create a massive virtual world inside a dream, right?"

"You could say that," Yu Xian nodded.

Shi Zuozhou suddenly whipped his head around to look at Yu Xian and Yang Yiyi, his expression a comical mix of grief and indignation as he accused them:

"Something this huge! How could you only be telling me now?!"

He beat his chest and stomped his feet as if he had suffered the greatest injustice imaginable.

"I treat you two like my closest friends, and you actually hid this from me! I’m great at keeping things bottled up!"

His theatrics made Yang Yiyi laugh. She picked up her glass, took a sip, and teased him with a smile:

"You’re right, you’re good at keeping things bottled up. It’s just that your bottle..."

She made a large gesture with her hands:

"Is a broad-mouthed bottle."