The Mushroom's Silent Struggle Chapter 10

"Mr. Hubbard, it's me, Shaw Scott."

When Boss Xiao sent a message to Hubbard, Adrian An was holding a human head and practicing eyebrow transplanting on it.

The hot melt needle pierced a tiny hole in the silicone rubber skin, and then planted the fiber simulating human hair into it. When the softened silicone rubber cooled again, the eyebrow was firmly rooted in the doll's skin. Boss Xiao's eyes were blurry, and it was difficult for him to do this kind of work at a high intensity. Adrian An guessed that this was one of the reasons why he was eager to find an apprentice.

Putting down the communicator, Shaw Scott took the doll out of the glass case and placed it on the chair in the middle of the room. All the joints of the doll could be easily rotated. He crossed its legs, clasped its elbows, and finally twisted its head to make it bow slightly. The light cast a shadow through its eyelashes, a condescending and slightly melancholy sitting posture.

Adrian An raised his head and looked over there. The dim light cast shadows of varying depths on the doll's face. The only subtle difference between silicone rubber and human skin was offset. It looked completely like a silent living person.

The excessive silence - the surrounding shop windows and containers - things that might be considered obscene in human cognition also became bizarre in such an atmosphere.

The bizarre atmosphere was broken by the sound of a door being pushed open, and the white light from outside shone in, illuminating half of the puppet's body. Adrian An narrowed his eyes and looked at the man who appeared at the door.

He was standing with the light behind him, tall, with half-long black curly hair, brown eyes, and cold features. Adrian An could imagine him walking in the wild with a gun.

Adrian An waited for him to come in, but the man just stood at the door. His eyes stayed on the puppet in the middle of the room. He didn't move for a long time. He seemed to have become a puppet too.

It was not until Boss Xiao coughed and said, "Come in," that the man seemed to have just woken up from a dream and moved. He strode into the room, and when he got close to the doll, his speed suddenly slowed down. Adrian An watched him raise his hand to touch the doll's face, his fingers suspended in the air, but he did not fall. In the silent room, there was only the man's slightly trembling breathing, which was very light. Perhaps there was a butterfly perched on the doll's eyelashes, and he was afraid to disturb it.

Finally, he retracted his right hand to his side, looked at the puppet, and said, "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Boss Xiao came over and looked at him with gray-blue eyes: "I also have to thank Mr. Hubbard for giving me enough data."

Hubbard smiled, but his eyes remained downcast.

Boss Xiao pointed to a packaging box the size of a person next to him and said, "Me?"

"I will do it myself."

His fingers finally rested on the puppet's shoulders, and he slowly moved down, picked up the puppet, and put it into the box.

Boss Xiao stood aside and said, "I didn't know that Captain Hubbard was such a sentimental person."

"There are some things I haven't had time to say." Hubbard half-knelt on the ground and slowly closed the lid of the box. The knuckles of his fingers pressing on the lid turned white. After a long time, he stood up again.

Boss Xiao crossed his arms and said, "The puppet needs maintenance every two months, and you can just send it back when the time comes. If there are any new skills, I will use them on it."

Hubbard said, "Shaw Scott never does business at a loss."

Boss Xiao laughed happily a few times.

"Captain Hubbard is very capable, but I am not," he said.

Hubbard: "What do you want?"

"I received a big order a few days ago, and the person's data is hard to find, so I would like to ask you for help."

Hubbard: "Is there any data that Mr. Shaw can't get?"

Boss Xiao grinned, raised his arm and made a shooting gesture to Hubbard.

Hubbard curled his lips into a smile, turned around, picked up the handle of the box, and walked to the door.

"Please wait a moment." Adrian An suddenly said.

Hubbard looked back.

Adrian An walked quickly to his side, unbuttoned the first button of his shirt, and took out the bullet shell hanging around his neck.

"Sir," he said, "do you know where this is from?"

Hubbard said nothing, but reached out and picked up the brass shell, turning it at an angle and looking at it in the light.

Adrian An's heart was pounding.

"The supply depot and the black market don't have this model." A minute later, Hubbard

He let go, and the shell fell back onto Adrian An's chest. He turned and left, leaving only one sentence.

"Military stuff."

His back gradually walked away. Adrian An reached his hand to his chest, holding the shell, and was slightly lost in thought.

In the silent room, Boss Xiao laughed.

"Hubbard said it was for military use, so it must be," he closed the door and smiled with narrowed eyes, "Why, have you slept with someone in the military? Dusay's business is really big."

Adrian An shook his head slowly.

What should he do if it was something from the military?

"Tsk," said Boss Xiao, "You lost your soul too?"

Adrian An said: "I want to find its owner."

Boss Xiao: "Why, this guy didn't give you money?"

Adrian An felt that Boss Xiao's thinking was very wrong.

He argued: "No."

"It's military stuff, and military people will definitely be able to recognize the model. I'll teach you a way." Boss Xiao said earnestly.

Adrian An: "What method?"

Boss Xiao: "You can't reach the main city and the wild. The outer city, the city defense post, and the court are all military territory. You can go there in the middle of the night and pick someone up. Although the military is very strict, there are inevitably some people with corrupt morals."

Adrian An: ...

He thought for a moment and then asked, "Who from the military would go into the wild?"

Boss Xiao flicked his forehead and asked, "Who do you think drew the map of the wild?"

It hurt, Adrian An bit his lip.

"You're still feeling wronged." Boss Xiao said, "Even the judges are not at the base for half a year every year. What do you think? All the military personnel are out there."

Adrian An had nothing to say, and lowered his head to continue transplanting his eyebrows. He realized that he might have to stay in the base for a long time.

At the end of the day's eyebrow transplant, Boss Xiao was very satisfied and let Adrian An go home.

Adrian An wanted to drink the potato soup at the entrance of the first floor of the black market. Today was his third day working for Boss Xiao. Boss Xiao paid him a month's salary in advance, and he now had 60 yuan in his ID card.

But when he went up to the first floor, he felt that the atmosphere was obviously wrong. The first floor was no longer as lively as before, people looked hurried, and there were few people at the exit.

He was a little confused, but the potato soup was so tempting that he walked over anyway.

Just as he was about to reach the potato soup, Adrian An's body suddenly stopped.

He paused for a second, turned around, and went back to where he was.

"Come back." A cold voice came.

Adrian An thought he was unlucky, turned around again, walked forward a few steps, and came to the judge at the door.

The judge did not come alone. There were three judges with simple clothes and young features beside him.

---He ran into the Inquisition's routine patrol in the city.

Then Cole Lu said calmly: "If your body movements are stiff and you evade them, you will be punished with one point."

The young judge behind him was holding a pen and paper. As he spoke, he looked at Adrian An carefully, then lowered his head and quickly wrote something on the paper.

Adrian An looked at them, but met Cole Lu's gaze, and he immediately looked away.

"One point for evasive eye contact." Cole Lu's tone did not change at all, and the young judge behind him continued to record.

Adrian An felt that this scene was somewhat familiar. He thought about it and confirmed that the Judge was not simply carrying out patrol duties. He was training newcomers, just like Boss Xiao trained his apprentices. However, Cole Lu was obviously not as patient and persuasive as Boss Xiao, and his teaching was very stiff.

He waited for the next deduction.

However, he found that although Cole Lu's teaching was very stiff, his attitude was not perfunctory. He began to ask questions: "Result?"

"Colonel," said the young judge, "Based on all the indicators, the person on trial is human."

"What are the reasons for the abnormal indications?"

"I'm afraid of you."

Cole Lu curled his lips.