Chapter 7: The man is not very smart
A transparent barrier wall separated them, and the firebird on the other side was squawking again.
It was one of the noisiest birds. Since becoming neighbors with the firebird, 012 had heard it calling day and night.
If 012 were an irritable tenant, he probably would have fought with the noisy neighbor by now, but 012 showed no reaction.
He remained extremely quiet most of the time. When the firebird’s noisy cries sounded, he would move his ear feathers and tilt his head to listen.
Amidst the bird calls that humans found overly noisy, he could hear the firebird’s cries of sorrow.
This firebird was different from him; it wasn’t a product of the laboratory but was captured from the wild. It wasn’t accustomed to such a confined space, and even with food and foliage, it frequently tried to call for its companions.
Firebirds typically roamed in flocks in the wild, needing their companions.
When it finally realized that its companions weren’t here, it would sadly stop and rest.
Besides the firebird, 012’s new neighbors made various sounds.
The whistling eagle would occasionally coo twice at night, the colorful bird liked to shake its long tail, making rustling sounds.
Other birds would sway branches, searching for food in the artificial moss layer.
These sounds were all particularly novel to 012.
The dangerous virus fused within him made human researchers wary of approaching him, and they wouldn’t place ordinary experimental subjects near him.
Whether other experimental subjects died from his virus or the new viruses they cultivated in him mutated uncontrollably, it was always troublesome.
In the past, his isolation room was utterly silent, with only his faint breathing breaking the quiet.
Only when he was transported from the isolation room to the operating table would he pass by the breeding area and hear other animals.
Their dying sounds were filled with pain.
012 somewhat liked his current large cage. He liked the winter bell tree that emitted a sweet scent of nectar and bloomed, and he liked the noisy other experimental subjects.
Here, the only thing he disliked was humans.
Among the humans he disliked, that oddest human had come again to feed the experimental subjects.
The low-level experimental subjects didn’t like him much; they always attacked him when he got close, so he ended up looking quite disheveled every day.
But he seemed to enjoy it, sometimes even provoking them on purpose.
012 parted the large leaves in front of him, looking at the man squatting by the hot sand pool in the distance.
He was feeding fresh meat to the dragon snapping turtle. The sleeping turtle had a bad temper, and he intentionally stuck his hand into its shell to touch its head, getting bitten again as expected.
When the ill-tempered dragon snapping turtle started eating, he sprayed its injured shell with a healing solution mixed with disinfectant and carefully pried off some parasites with a small knife.
The turtle, feeling uncomfortable, would try to bite him after every few bites.
The man laughed and pushed its head away with a gloved hand, saying, “Almost done, it’ll be over soon. Just eat your food.”
Why say such things? The dragon snapping turtle couldn’t understand him.
012 watched him, observing as he moved on to feed the birds nearby.
The firebird, which had been searching for companions for a long time, was the first to rush up and eat the food he scattered.
After eating, the firebird gently fanned his calf with its wings and lightly pecked his arm with its red beak.
These actions were signs of affection from the firebird, usually shown only to companions.
This not-so-smart firebird had mistaken the man for its companion.
“Hey, I feed you all this good food every day, and you still peck at me,” the man said.
Clearly, he didn’t understand the firebird’s intentions, mistaking its actions for provocation.
The man liked the colorful tail of the colorful bird and would always take the opportunity to touch it while feeding it. Today, the colorful bird didn’t appreciate his touch and spread its colorful tail feathers in response.
So the man praised, “What a beautiful tail you have. You’re so well-behaved, not pecking me and even showing off your tail.”
It wasn’t. The colorful bird spreading its colorful tail feathers was a sign of intimidation and a precursor to an attack.
012 concluded that this human was no smarter than the firebird that mistook him for a companion.
“Huh, where’s the other one?”
The chameleon was missing.
Yu Yan walked around the habitat with the food bucket but couldn’t spot the chameleon.
This chameleon was the only mid-level experimental subject among the batch.
Due to its small size and adaptability to various environments, and because it didn’t have a predatory relationship with the birds, Yu Yan hadn’t arranged a separate living space for it, placing it directly in the bird area instead.
However, its presence was so weak—never making a sound and perfectly camouflaging itself—that Yu Yan often couldn’t find where it was hiding.
Unable to locate it, Yu Yan had to leave the food bucket open in a corner, waiting for the chameleon to come and eat when it got hungry.
012 was, as usual, the last one, as he was more troublesome and required Yu Yan to wear a special protective suit to interact with him.
012 had already learned to take the plasma bags from his hand, but Yu Yan suddenly raised his hand, preventing him from getting the food.
His actions seemed like he was teasing the other animals. 012 didn’t respond like the others, who would get angry and attack; instead, he just stared at him intensely.
Yu Yan chuckled and twisted open the blood bag to show him, “I wanted to show you that you can open the cap and drink.”
No need to make a mess with blood all over, which he then had to lick off.
“Look, there’s a straw here. Since you’re sucking anyway, you know how to use a straw, right?”
A gloved hand pressed the end of the straw to his mouth.
012 stared at Yu Yan and slightly opened his mouth, biting down.
The straw got pierced and stuck on one of his sharp teeth.
Yu Yan laughed, “Hahahahaha.”
Yu Yan laughed unabashedly. When he finished, he noticed that 012’s annoyance level had increased by another 10 points, now reaching 30.
Tsk, he must have realized he was being mocked and got angry.
“Ahem, don’t bite with your teeth. Just use your tongue to suck, got it?”
“……”
“Okay, you drink on your own. I won’t laugh anymore.”
Yu Yan continued to chuckle, his smile blurred behind the mask.
He quickly left 012’s enclosure and returned to the office.
012 held the blood bag, ignoring the straw, and bit into the bag as he usually did, slowly licking the blood off his hands.
It was only after arriving here that he had started drinking from these blood bags.
In the past, the lab provided him with blood rabbits, which he had to bite into to pierce their skin and blood vessels to feed.
The researchers, from behind thick isolation barriers, would point at him and say, “Look at him feeding, he’s truly an animal, so ferocious.”
But their comments were inconsistent. At other times, they would say, “He looks so human, and he can understand our words, almost no different from us.”
“If only he didn’t have those wings, he’d look even more human.”
After finishing his food, 012 suddenly looked towards a corner.
There, a chameleon slowly revealed its grey-brown body.
It was the same chameleon that was supposed to be in another area, the one Yu Yan had searched for but couldn’t find.
It had likely blended into its environment so well that it silently followed Yu Yan and ended up in 012’s territory.
It was unclear how long it had been there or how long it had stayed.
The chameleon moved slowly, lifting its short front limbs and advancing towards 012, pausing with each step, which looked somewhat comical.
Seeing this constantly color-changing creature approaching, 012 softly said, “Don’t come any closer.”
It would get infected by his virus.
But the chameleon couldn’t understand and continued resolutely towards him.
012 stood up and actively moved away from the unlucky chameleon.
In the past, researchers placed live blood rabbits in his isolation room. Even if he didn’t eat them, they would quickly die from viral infection.
This chameleon would also soon die here.
012 moved aside, and the chameleon crawled to the winter bell tree he often stayed under, extending its long tongue to curl around and eat the flowers.
012 looked towards Yu Yan’s office.
He usually stayed there, but today he wasn’t present.
Yu Yan had gone to learn from the main character, Su He.
He planned to learn Su He’s method of securing funding without harming the experimental subjects.
Su He still didn’t particularly welcome him, but compared to the mutated silver wolf that would jump out to chase him at the mere scent of him, Su He’s attitude was quite good.
After gaining some experience and causing a bit of chaos in Su He’s experimental area, Yu Yan brushed off his white lab coat and leisurely returned to his own lab.
As soon as he got back, there was a sound of tapping on the glass from the breeding area.
Yu Yan looked over and saw that it was 012, who usually ignored him and preferred to sit under the tree, keeping to himself.
He had moved away from his usual spot and stayed far from it.
Yu Yan walked over, showing a puzzled expression.
Why did 012’s emotions status bar show “anxious”? With his expressionless face, there was no sign of anxiety.
After attracting the “caretaker” over, 012 raised his hand and pointed to the chameleon on the winter bell tree.
Yu Yan looked at his gesture with confusion. “What? The tree? What’s wrong with the tree? You don’t like that tree?”
He clearly saw the ear tufts on the sides of 012’s head twitch.
“It’s there,” 012 said.
“What’s there?” Yu Yan didn’t understand.
The chameleon’s camouflage was too good for Yu Yan to notice.
012 didn’t know the term “chameleon,” so he simply told Yu Yan, “Come in.”
