The Chef Rules the Last Days
Chapter 401 - 400: Setting a Trap

Chapter 401: Chapter 400: Setting a Trap

"My God! Damn it, what happened to you?" Su Mo unleashed her superb acting skills, supporting him as they dashed outside, "I’m taking you to see a doctor."

Plunged into darkness and rendered blind, the researcher was almost frantic, his brain temporarily ceasing to think. When exactly Su Mo had handed him off to someone else was also somewhat blurry to him.

Having obtained a new identity card, Su Mo hooked her lips into a smile and returned to that grand entrance.

This time, she managed to open the door.

To her surprise, the space was vast and empty, save for the strange patterns on the floor beneath her feet.

She crouched down, touching the elliptical patterns, as if understanding something.

After surveying the area, she found the only electronic screen embedded in the metallic wall. With a series of operations, glass jars began to rise from the ground inside the hall, bringing with them swirls of white mist.

In each experiment jar, a child was immersed in liquid. The youngest seemed to be around two years old, a tube inserted into their belly buttons, connecting to the ground with the other end disappearing into the unknown.

Su Mo did not understand these things, yet she vaguely grasped what the sinister red tubes signified.

Passing by hundreds of glass jars, she saw each child, boy or girl, their faces nearly translucent with ghastly paleness, as if drained of all blood.

She reached the center and saw Ling Ye, the one she was determined to find.

Naked, covered in wounds, his hair shaved to baldness, he floated quietly in the nourishment jar like a corpse, yet the monitor on the glass indicated that all his vitals were normal.

Su Mo’s eyes reddened involuntarily, her hand on the glass surface, "I’ve found you, wait for me."

Having located him, Su Mo did not rush to rescue, but quietly withdrew. Under the camera’s surveillance, she confidently returned to the upper level, consumed another rice ball to transform her body back, and retreated to a blind spot in the camera’s view to take on the chef’s appearance again, pushing the food cart back to Zone C.

Along the way, the chef began to panic, banging on the metal box of the food cart, wailing.

Su Mo found the familiar bakery she had in mind, entered, and her gaze swept over the framed group photo on the wall. She closed the door, walked to a dead angle in the bakery’s camera, and released the person inside.

He rolled out of the small metal box and collapsed onto the ground, clutching his head and crying, "Mercy, mercy, please don’t kill me."

Seeing that he was about to kowtow, Su Mo reached out to support his arm and pulled him up, her voice unexpectedly gentle, "I had no intention of killing you, I’m very sorry for knocking you out just now."

Her apology seemed sincere, and she indeed had no intention of using violence. This softened the chef’s demeanor, lifting his head slightly, feeling much relieved.

"Here’s the thing, I need a little favor from you," Su Mo said calmly, completely different from the unruly girl she had appeared to be at Eden House.

"You say, I... I will certainly do it."

"Take some cakes and escort me back to Eden House," Su Mo finished speaking, returned his identity card to him, and squeezed herself into the small metal box where he had just been.

To save his own life, the baker acted immediately, placing cakes on the food cart and pushing her back to Eden House.

The ten gatekeepers seemed a bit wary when the baker came for the second time to deliver cakes. Only after he feigned composure, claiming it was Dr. Su’s order, did they open the door and let him into the house.

Su Mo climbed out of the cart, thanked him once more, and the baker, relieved, turned to leave.

"Do you enjoy living here?" Su Mo asked just before the chef left.

His smile was somewhat bitter, and his fear of her had lessened considerably, "We in Zone C are just ordinary people, with no right to be happy amid the apocalypse."

Su Mo thought for a moment, then picked up the cake he had placed on the table, "Then this piece is for you."

The chef was taken aback, and he instinctively refused, "No, no, no, if I’m found out, I’ll be beaten to death by the patrolmen."

"Then eat it here, I allow it, no one will dare to harm you," Su Mo said as she sat on the bed, propping her chin and watching him.

Her tone was very firm. Swallowing hard, the chef, although he had always worked in the bakery, had never dared to steal a bite. With 24-hour live surveillance, even swallowing some crumbs could result in getting one’s legs broken at any moment.

Now, a piece of Black Forest cake, wafting chocolate and cream smells, was laid out before him. His hands trembling, he scooped up a piece and put it in his mouth.

The sweet richness almost brought him to tears.

The food that Su Mo had grown tired of, in his mouth, each bite was worth savoring.

"If you could get out, would you be willing?"

"Of course, I’d love to go out and see the sun, breathe fresh air, but that would lead to death. There are monsters above, we are just ordinary people; our place is beneath the ground, serving them."

His voice choked up several times. Su Mo watched him with her chin propped up and spoke softly, "I’ve seen the children of the people in Zone A."

"Zone A?" The chef’s expression visibly shook, "I have a few relatives living there too. They say that as long as you have children, the conditions are very good."

"Do you know where the children have gone?" Su Mo asked with a slightly sinister smile.

"It’s said they were taken to be raised by the military," the chef looked at her with some suspicion, "What about it?"

"Them, well, they’ve been used for experiments," Su Mo deliberately spoke very slowly, her expression almost mournful.

The sweet taste in his mouth was instantly overwhelmed by something called bitterness. The chef’s mouth opened and closed, struggling to form a complete sentence; his eyes quickly reddened, "What... What! My son, I gave my son to them!"

The half-eaten piece of cake smashed onto the floor, his legs were shaking, and he had to lean against the wall to stand firm.

"The boy with the blue beret, right," Su Mo said softly. She had noticed this boy the first time she entered the bakery in Zone C.

It was that group photo.

Back then, she had not delved deeper, but now she was tying everything together.

With the child not by his father’s side, the outcome was, of course, easy to guess.

Her description of the child matched exactly the baker’s memory. Finally, his knees could no longer support him, and he crashed to the floor, hands covering his mouth, uncontrollable whimpers escaping.

Tears streaked over his twisted face. The feeling that the sky had collapsed in an instant, extinguishing the last lamp in the darkness, plunged him into abject despair.

Su Mo also felt bad inside, but the lab had to be blown up, all the equipment and this root of all evil destroyed. The only way to save these people was to stir their emotions, make them resistant, and have them cooperate with her plan.

She had to navigate this meticulously; she couldn’t let Lu Chen and the others be harmed because of her and Ling Ye.

"Otherwise, why do you think, in this world where the land is dead and resources are scarce, they are willing to raise so many children?"