The high school student hadn't been home for several days, basically shuttling between the school and the hospital after Zhang Xin was transferred from a hospital in H City to one in A City. Since Xiao Pang's home was closer to the hospital, he'd been staying at Xiao Pang's house recently.
Although it's called Xiaopang's house, only Xiaopang lives there. Due to various considerations, he took the initiative to ask to live independently when he was brought home. His parents agreed, but they often asked him to come home and live with them.
Jiang Yujin expressed his understanding that young people like to live with their friends, but hoped that they would be polite when they are at their friends' homes.
I'm living alone again, but this time it's a little different. The barber shop owner downstairs wasn't ripped off and managed to keep his food.
On another whim, this person actually started cooking for himself. Whether it tasted good or not is another matter, but the barber shop owner was happy that he didn't see anyone trying to freeload during mealtimes.
Jiang Yujin hasn't gone out much these past few days. At most, he goes out to buy groceries when there aren't any left. He also has a lot of leisure time, so he goes to the supermarket in the nearby shopping mall and then sits in front of the TV to watch melodramatic dramas.
Once again, the family was out of food and supplies. He changed his clothes and was just about to leave when there was a knock on the door.
When the door opened, there were two faces that didn't look very serious.
Judging from their uniforms, they were from the Special Investigation Team. One of them spoke somewhat apologetically, "Boss Jiang, regarding the incident at Duolan Mountain last time, when the bureau was submitting the documents, we found that there are some things that we might need to consult about again."
It's possible, but since the two of them have already arrived at their doorstep, they should at least go with the person who gave them the courtesy.
Jiang Yujin yawned, nodded, went back to his room to get his keys, and then left.
He got into the car with the two men. After getting in, someone said, "Submitting materials to the bureau is such a hassle; everything has to be verified."
After the incident, they had to ask the same people to cooperate in collecting evidence again. They were the ones in charge of this area, and every time they asked someone to go to the bureau, they would get a lot of scolding.
Another person, speaking with the same voice of a corporate slave, said, "A case that had already been filed was brought up again, and the deputy captain even flew all the way to the snowy mountains to collect evidence."
Jiang Yujin said "thank you for your hard work," then seemed a little sleepy and closed his eyes: "Please wake me up when you arrive."
This is treating people like taxi drivers.
There was some distance between the office and the Special Investigation Bureau, and when I opened my eyes again, half an hour had passed.
It looks very busy here today, with many people coming and going. Some people even tried to argue with the guards at the entrance, but received no response.
After getting off the bus, the person standing next to me said, "Other victims were found in the Duolan Mountain area. Their families were notified as long as they could be identified."
These past few days, family members have been coming and going, making the entrance quite lively. Others, having somehow gotten wind of the situation, believe their missing relatives or friends from H City must also be in Duolan Mountain, and they're insisting on going in to take a look. The police station, of course, won't allow it, so they can only keep them outside.
Jiang Yujin glanced at it and then looked away.
The room where the evidence was collected was at the end of the corridor, and the process was both formal and simple.
After all, he was just a victim's family member who happened to go to the scene with the special investigation team. Once there, he was only responsible for watching the car and there was nothing else to say.
After asking the last question, the person collecting evidence nodded and said, "Thank you for your cooperation."
After the evidence was collected, Jiang Yujin was able to leave. He went back the way he came; the person who had driven him was already waiting at the door to take him home. But then someone walked out of the corridor.
The other person was wearing a floral shirt, with upturned eyes, and started waving from a great distance, saying, "Wait a minute."
The two people stood there looking at him. As they closed the distance, Hu Li looked at the person standing to the side and said, "You go ahead and do your work. I'll chat with Boss Jiang for two minutes, and then I'll take him home."
The person standing to one side glanced at Jiang Yujin, then nodded.
Hu Li watched the person leave, then turned his gaze to the person in front of him and said with a smile, "Want to come to my office? There are drinks and small cakes inside."
——
On the other side of the city, Little Fatty got to eat free breakfast and dinner.
An unreliable father can have a huge impact on a person. Even though he had already witnessed it at the firm, Xiao Pang was still shocked to see Chen Jing constantly stirring the wok with a cold face.
And the food was really delicious.
After the meal, Xiao Pang volunteered to wash the dishes, and then he went straight to the laboratory.
The advantage of having the house all to himself is that he can arrange the rooms as he pleases. He combined the space that was originally used as a study with the adjacent room to create his own small laboratory, where most of his materials are stored.
He never expected that what he had casually seen last time would be related to zero, let alone that there was an organized branch there. Zhang Xin's injury was completely unexpected.
On the bright side, however, they gained more information, and Chen Jing even managed to extract the location of headquarters from someone from the General Administration.
Perhaps it's not so much about extracting information, but rather about forcing the other party to reveal it. With a knife to one's throat, no one would remain unmoved.
After plugging the USB drive into the computer, Little Fatty turned to the computer and asked, "What exactly did he mean by 'the vanished city'?"
When it came to his life, the whip-wielding man revealed the location of headquarters without hesitation, saying, "In the vanished city." The "vanished city" was likely not something he made up, but a real place, and the only way to refer to it.
At that time, the special search team had already made a move, the situation was urgent, and there was still a laboratory that had not been checked. Chen Jing did not have time to ask any more questions. After the other party mentioned "the vanished city" and did not follow up, he directly dealt with the person.
When a person dies, what exactly does the vanished city represent? Only the person experiencing it can figure it out.
With the amount of data being imported into the computer too large, Xiao Pang stopped staring at the computer and instead took the opportunity to walk to a corner of the laboratory.
In addition to the items that were already there, there was now a scarlet chunk of flesh tightly sealed in a glass dome. A black cloth was also placed over the glass dome, and the contents could only be seen after it was opened.
Describing it as a chunk of meat might not be quite accurate; this thing is more like a product of a balance between animal and plant tissues, giving it an indescribable eeriness.
This must be a small part of something, but it still seems to have its own thoughts, constantly wriggling inside the small glass case. Little Fatty sometimes even has a strange feeling that he is being observed, so he covered it with a black cloth cover before.
This is something Chen Jing brought back from the branch's laboratory. It was protected in layers of security in the laboratory, so if I'm not mistaken, it must be something very important.
He got the item, but he didn't dare to make a move. For several days after bringing it back, he only observed it with his naked eye.
He had a strange premonition that the glass cover should not be opened easily, because something irreversible might happen if it was opened.
"We might have to change the order of our arrangements," Little Fatty said. "I think it would be safer to go to headquarters and find out more before we start working on this."
Chen Jing shared the same thought. He rubbed his forehead and said, "What we need most right now is to know exactly what kind of place the 'disappeared city' refers to."
The Special Investigations Bureau (SIB) is uninterested in the reasons behind the recurring appearances of aliens, but is very active in combating antisocial organizations. They also need to arrive before the SIB can locate headquarters; if they are even a step behind, the information will be stored in the SIB's archives, sealed away, and never to see the light of day again.
Little Fatty nodded.
Chen Jing glanced at the time, stood up, and said, "I'm going to make a phone call."
It's almost lunchtime now, and he still needs to ask the people in the firm if they've eaten.
The other party is a master of deception; they won't eat unless someone urges them to, and they might go downstairs to beg for food if someone does.
When the phone rang, Jiang Yujin was still in Hu Li's office.
The other person was sitting behind their desk, while he was sitting in front of it. He took a sip of his drink and started munching on a small cake, both hands occupied, unable to answer the phone.
Hu Li kindly answered the call for him, glancing down at the contact before looking away.
Jiang Yujin didn't try to hide it from him and made the phone call right in front of him.
It was just an ordinary phone call. A high school student was routinely asking him if he had eaten. He said he had while eating cake, and then the other person hung up.
The screen went black, and he remarked, "How indifferent."
Hu Li picked up the car keys and said, "Let's go, I'll take you home."
"Why not take a free ride?" Jiang Yujin stood up and followed the other person out of the office.
Hu Li didn't drive the car in the game; he drove his own, a bright red car that was the most eye-catching one in the parking lot.
All I can say is that this car perfectly matches the other person's personality.
Sitting in the incredibly flashy car, Jiang Yujin consciously took a seat in the back and casually pulled out his phone to start playing Candy Crush.
His pupils seemed to flicker when he saw the number of levels above.
Once the immersive match-3 game started, citizen Jiang automatically blocked out all surrounding sounds. After speaking to the other party several times without receiving a response, Hu Li glanced at the person quietly playing the match-3 game in the back seat in the rearview mirror and finally chose to drive quietly.
When the car stopped downstairs, Jiang Yujin, having exhausted his last bit of energy, put away his phone, opened the car door and got out. The person who had been sitting in the driver's seat also got out of the car.
He looked up at the other person: "You're very free?"
"Indeed," Hu Li nodded, looking completely unashamed, and said, "May I come up and sit for a while?"
Citizen Jiang, upholding the most basic courtesy and hospitality of a citizen, invited the other party upstairs.
Hu Li acted as if he had never been to this place before. On his way upstairs, he kept looking around with his hands behind his back, as if he wanted to dissect even the little grass growing in the cracks between the bricks.
Once inside, he sat down on the sofa, and the other person turned and went to the kitchen to pour him a glass of water, seemingly very considerate.
"..." Hu Li took the water glass and said, "If I'm not mistaken, this water should be tap water, right?"
After handing over the water glass, Jiang Yujin, who was heading towards the refrigerator, turned around and nodded, saying with an upright expression, "Mm."
"I think you're in good physical condition and can handle raw water."
Hu Li said incredulously, "I just gave you a drink and a small cake."
Jiang Yujin took a glass of milk from the refrigerator, filled it up, and said, "This is all I'm willing to accept."
Hu Li thought he must be blind to not see the bottle of milk.
Forcibly shifting his attention away from the quality of the drinking water, he glanced around the room while the other person poured the milk.
These are houses that can be seen everywhere, with ordinary decorations and a dated appearance, surrounded by traces of life.
On one side is a glass cabinet with a wooden frame, covered with various items, including a photo frame but no photos inside, and a stack of certificates of honor and awards next to it.
Everywhere you look, there's a sense of everyday life; this place is just like an ordinary family home.
Noticing his gaze, Jiang Yujin gulped down a mouthful of milk and said, "How did you know these are my son's award certificates in the cabinet?"
"..."
Hu Li didn't know, nor did he particularly want to know. He looked away and said casually, "You've been living here for quite a while now, haven't you?"
Jiang Yujin sat down opposite him and nodded.
After a brief chat, Hu Li switched to official jargon, saying, "You happened to be on the scene when so many things happened before, and you were very cooperative with the investigation, which helped us a lot."
Jiang Yu smiled and said, "As a citizen, this is what I should do."
Hu Li looked into his eyes and said, "But I also have some questions."
Jiang Yujin looked over, holding the milk.
"At the Hongsheng Building, everyone present had a corresponding doll. I killed many dolls, but not yours. Where did your doll go, and who took care of it?"
He killed the puppets quickly, but he carefully examined each one, and none of them contained a puppet of that person.
Hu Li's tone began to change, and his upturned eyes began to narrow.
"According to the surveillance footage, when you got out of the car at the Geese Square, the parking lot inside the square was closer and more convenient. But you chose to take a detour and even crossed several streets to park your car outside the square. Was it because you like taking long detours, or did you know what would happen after the square and therefore choose to protect your car in advance?"
"In Duolan Mountain, why is it that any random spot you stand in becomes the entrance to a branch of some organization?"
The smile on Hu Li's face gradually faded as he spoke. He asked, "Who are you?"
He noticed only inconspicuous little details, but it is in these inconspicuous little details that people are more likely to make mistakes.
These oversights are often crucial pieces of information that, upon closer examination, reveal many illogical and nonsensical aspects.
"How could you not know who I am?"
Jiang Yujin's expression remained unchanged as he said, "It's been too long. Even if you ask me these questions now, I might not be able to remember them immediately."
Hu Li said, "I know who you are."
After finishing his milk, Jiang Yujin put down the cup in his hand.
"Not long ago, there was an alien attack at a hotel. At that time, one of our cadres and a well-known entrepreneur got into a physical altercation over someone. According to people at the scene, that person's voice was exactly the same as yours."
The voice, which had sounded similar to Xu Gao's, was now exactly the same, and Hu Li spoke without even blinking.
He initially thought the other party was a player who had come out of the game and was hiding their identity. The more they tried to hide it, the more it meant something was up. After hearing what Xu Gao said yesterday, he finally understood what the other party wanted to hide.
No one would have imagined that the person who represents absolute strength in the game would be like this in real life: decadent, loves to join in the fun, enjoys gossip, and lives the life of just one of many ordinary people.
What he wanted to conceal was his identity.
Jiang Yujin remained noncommittal and continued listening to him: "And then?"
Even now, he still maintains a calm demeanor, as if he were listening to someone else's story.
Hu Li said, "Then I checked and found that the well-known entrepreneur had sent you a lot of flowers recently."
Jiang Yujin: "Is that so?"
Even after all that had been said, his expression remained unchanged.
Having already guessed his reaction, Hu Li wasn't surprised. He put down the glass of tap water he was holding and took a sealed plastic bag from his coat pocket.
At first glance, the plastic bag looks empty, but upon closer inspection, you'll find a hair inside.
—Perhaps it was her hair, white, neither long nor short.
Hu Li said, "This was found on the Kola Snow Mountain, right next to the dead alien. Maybe we can test it to find out whose hair it is."
There's nothing he can't find if he wants to. Whether it's information about sending flowers or past records.
After searching through all the cases related to this person in the archives, he discovered that one of the cases that was never truly resolved was the case of Kola Snow Mountain.
All but one tourist survived, and the strange sheep they had seen was also killed, so the matter seemed to be resolved.
However, players know that there should be a king behind the sheep, but the entire record never mentions the existence of such a person.
This is completely unreasonable. Given their circumstances at the time, if they wanted to get out, they would have to confront the king there.
There must be someone lying behind something that seems unreasonable.
The person in charge of the case was no longer willing to go to the mountains, so Hu Li went to the snow-capped mountains by himself.
Deep in the snow-capped mountains, beneath a massive crevice, he found what he was looking for—or rather, a corpse.
The extreme cold of the snow-capped mountains ensured that the bodies remained in the same condition as when they died.
The other party died a gruesome and direct death. The wounds on his body showed that he had been treated brutally, and the crown on his head had been taken away.
He had seen the same brutal and tyrannical methods more than once before.
"I found a white hair between the fingers of the alien creature that was pierced by ice spikes."
"Jiang Yujin," Hu Li said, "who do you say you are?"
With the white hair so close, Jiang Yujin looked curious and even leaned in for a closer look.
He still hasn't admitted it. Hu Li's eyebrows twitched slightly, and he was about to say something when his phone, which was in his pocket, rang twice.
Jiang Yujin kindly suggested, "Why don't you check the message first?"
Hu Li took out his phone and glanced at it. At first, he only glanced at it casually, but his expression changed after seeing the content.
The message came from the bureau, saying that an SS-class mutant had appeared in the west. But this mutant wasn't the main focus; it had already been eliminated before causing mass casualties.
Or rather, massacre.
Before they arrived, some members of the public recorded a short video, lasting only a few seconds.
Hu Li clicked on the video.
Amidst the swirling yellow sand, a person with white hair stood quietly before the enormous, hideous alien corpse, with blood flowing beneath their feet and their black coat billowing in the wind.
An immense sense of oppression overwhelmed them.
The team members made contact immediately and said, "Vice Captain, 001 is suspected to have appeared in the Zay Mountains."