The Creature Keeper - Chapter 15

“Thank you.”

Tang Rou expressed her gratitude sincerely, raising her hand to wipe away the traces of blue blood left on Number 17’s thin eyelids.

Beneath those cold, strange-colored veins, the young man’s handsome and profound face appeared unusually striking.

“You saved me, Number 17. It’s all thanks to you.” Otherwise, she might already be dead.

Number 17 blinked slowly, his damp lashes drawing soft, graceful arcs.

She was thanking him.

She was so gentle.

Like…

Joy left his mind blank, unable to react at all.

“With you, can I…”

“You can.”

Tang Rou touched his antennae, causing them to shyly curl together, wrapping around her fingers, gently sucking as if acting spoiled.

“Number 17, you can keep following me now.”

The cold-blooded creature’s beautiful face showed little expression, his dark green eyes suppressing a grand celebration. Bit by bit, he uncontrollably and reservedly wrapped around her, then suddenly stopped as if something crossed his mind.

There was obvious anticipation in his eyes, like a child waiting for candy.

“Call me…” He wanted to hear her call that name.

Under his puppy-like, wet gaze, Tang Rou immediately understood.

Smiling, she called him, “Alphino, you’ll get your candy tomorrow.”

.

After Number 17’s farewell, as painful as a parting between life and death, Tang Rou was finally carried away on a stretcher.

After bathing, Tang Rou sat pitifully wrapped in a blanket on the bed in the observation ward, while someone checked her body for any unknown toxins or wounds.

Tang Rou was staring blankly at a scale in her hand.

When changing clothes, someone found a bullet hole at the heart position of her shirt, and a steel shell wedged in her underwear-likely from the intense attack, having penetrated through the gap in Number 17’s antennae.

Yet this bullet did not kill her.

The healer looked at the hole and her intact skin, surprised. “Amazing, this could be called a miracle. The bullet could have easily pierced your heart, but this thing blocked it at the time. May I study the material of this thing?”

The healer held a fan-shaped, iridescent scale-the kind Tang Rou had once seen on the beautiful Mermaid deep within Sector S.

Tang Rou shook her head, politely declining, “Sorry, this is my personal item.”

The healer regretfully placed the scale back in Tang Rou’s hand. “A splitting weapon can easily penetrate tanks and heavy mechs, yet you were protected by this scale-it’s truly a miracle. Its material must be extremely refined; the bullet didn’t even leave a mark on it.”

Tang Rou lowered her gaze to observe the thin, brilliantly shimmering scale. Just as the healer said, there wasn’t a single mark on it.

But she was certain that the scale had previously been stored in her outer pocket, with no reason to appear pressed against the skin near her heart.

So, when exactly did this scale end up here by some twist of fate, saving her life?

Aselan burst in with a late-night snack, placing it on the table beside her and grumbling, “That Professor Xu, he wanted your life.”

Or rather, he never cared about Tang Rou’s life at all.

Tang Rou said nothing. She had never watched any of the biological experiment tests before, only knowing they were extremely cruel. Today, having experienced it herself and narrowly escaped death, she was mentally exhausted.

A kind of collapse after being badly frightened.

“But he ran away in the end! Can you believe it-he ran off, looking really scared.” Aselan muttered, “To scare that ice block, could it be…”
Tang Rou was puzzled. “He gets scared too?”

“It’s true, he was scared. Didn’t you see the way he looked when he left? I think he was even sweating.”

Sector S was a brand new, extremely dangerous area. No one knew what kind of perils lurked there.

Even Professor Xu could be so afraid-something truly dangerous must have happened.

After cursing the professor, Aselan couldn’t help but sigh. “Aren’t your Experimental Subjects a little too clingy? Other Experimental Subjects can’t wait to kill their Feeders, but yours-each and every one of them is a clingy little thing.”

Still, they’re beautiful and obedient clingy little things-of course, to others, they’re still terrifying killing machines.

Tang Rou couldn’t help but laugh. “Number 17 is still young. He’s just worried about me.”

“He’s young?” Aselan raised her voice, but after thinking about it, she nodded. “True, he’s only been hatched for a little over two years. He is young.”

Tang Rou tasted a chicken broth wonton, her eyes curving slightly. “It’s good. Where’s it from?”

“I went all the way to the city to get it for you. It’s from a newly opened internet-famous shop.”

“Delicious. Next time, if I have time, I’ll buy some for the Sea Rabbit to try.”

“…” Aselan fell silent again, then analyzed rationally, “Your Number 17 was really fierce just now. He seriously injured several waves of people, and they still couldn’t get you away from him. I guess he was afraid of waking you, so he didn’t make too much noise or kill anyone. If Professor Xu had managed to get you killed today, I bet Number 17 would have torn the whole Base apart.”

Tang Rou sipped the warm chicken soup and said nothing.

“But in the end, he still listened to you. You told him to let go, and he let go. Watching that, I almost want to try raising an Experimental Subject myself.”

Tang Rou said nothing more. She acted very rationally, as if detached from the whole matter, observing from a bystander’s perspective.

If Number 17 hadn’t evolved at that moment, she probably would have died.

Even now, she felt as if she had survived a disaster. Her hand holding the spoon trembled almost imperceptibly.

Who wouldn’t be afraid? The feeling of being close to death was terrifying.

Aselan patted her head, comforting her childhood friend. “Don’t worry. Just rest well. When you open your eyes tomorrow, you’ll see Number 17.”

During the meal, Aselan chattered on for a while. At the healer’s reminder, she reluctantly said goodbye to Tang Rou.

Tang Rou still had to stay in the Experimental Base’s treatment area for two more days of observation, to make sure she hadn’t been affected by any terrible weapons or radiation.

All those grand-sounding reasons were just the engineers wanting to see if she would mutate after being exposed to Number 17’s blue blood. Tang Rou didn’t care. She ate, bathed, played on her phone, and slept, completely unfazed.

After night fell, the cold lights flickered, and the treatment area suddenly became dim.

In the deep darkness, gorgeous scales reflected a strange, shimmering light.

Lying on the hospital bed, Tang Rou suddenly fell into a nightmare. Her previously relaxed brows unconsciously furrowed, and cold sweat beaded on her forehead.

In her dream, her mind connected to another place.

Tang Rou was back in that pitch-black, icy space.

Darkness, emptiness, an eerie silence.

Every step she took was accompanied by the sound of trickling water.

Tang Rou felt dazed, as if trying to remember where this was. It seemed familiar, but she couldn’t recall it for the moment.

Suddenly, a cold sensation appeared behind her. Pale, icy arms, silent as snakes, wrapped around her waist.