It was already 3 a.m., and it was not good to wake up teammates in the middle of the night. Yu Hanjiang remembered that Xiao Lou had fainted in the afternoon and hadn't even eaten dinner, so he turned around and found some food in Shao Qingge's suitcase.
He didn't want to ask the waiter to bring food, so he simply cooked Xiao Lou a bowl of noodles and added a poached egg.
A moment later, Yu Hanjiang brought a steaming bowl of noodles into the bedroom and called to Xiao Lou, "Come and eat something. You haven't even had dinner, you must be hungry."
Xiao Lou's mind was filled with jumbled memories, and he had completely forgotten about "hunger".
Upon smelling the aroma of noodles, his stomach rumbled, the rumbling sound particularly clear in the quiet bedroom. Xiao Lou rubbed his stomach, coughed lightly, and said, "Cough, I've slept for 12 hours, I'm really hungry."
Yu Hanjiang smiled slightly and handed him the chopsticks: "Eat."
Xiao Lou sat down at the table and quickly finished a bowl of noodles. The food warmed his entire body. He had always been used to living alone, but now he found it quite nice to be taken care of.
Xiao Lou smiled slightly at Yu Hanjiang and said, "Thank you, the noodles are delicious."
As Yu Hanjiang packed up the lunchboxes, she raised an eyebrow at him: "Do I need to be polite with you?"
Xiao Lou wiped his mouth clean and changed the subject, asking, "Ninth Brother, have you remembered any more clues? Besides the singing, is there anything else about the person who saved them on Zerg Planet?"
Yu Hanjiang shook his head: "When Ninth Brother was rescued, he had lost too much blood and was in a daze. He even thought that the singing was a hallucination, that he heard the voice of heaven. As for anything else, he didn't see anything, and he has no memory of what happened after he was rescued."
Xiao Lou pondered: "So, at present, the only clue is'singing.' The story that my sister told us fishermen can hear singing at sea is just a legend?...You should rest first, and we'll investigate together tomorrow."
Yu Hanjiang nodded: "Okay, you should take a shower and then get some more sleep."
Xiao Lou's clothes were soaked with sweat and uncomfortable to wear, so she took a shower, changed into her pajamas, and lay down on the bed.
In a daze, he dreamed again of the scene when he was five years old, locked in a room with countless cloned children. Identical faces kept flashing before his eyes, and in the back of the dream, the faces of those children gradually turned into his current appearance.
Countless faces, each with a different expression. Some smiled, some were indifferent, some mocked, some hated, some were jealous... Countless "selves" flickered before his eyes. Xiao Lou curled up, trapped in a strange nightmare. Yu Hanjiang noticed that he was cold all over, so he reached out and gently pulled Xiao Lou into his arms, patting his back tenderly as if comforting a child.
The warmth emanating from Yu Hanjiang gradually calmed Xiao Lou down from his sleep.
He reached out and hugged Yu Hanjiang tightly as if grasping at a lifeline, then fell into a deep sleep.
When Xiao Lou woke up the next day, she found her face pressed against the man's firm chest, her arms tightly wrapped around his waist, leaning against Yu Hanjiang in a posture of "dependence on the other".
Xiao Lou's ears burned, and she quickly broke free from the man's embrace, coughing lightly: "I had a nightmare last night, dreaming that many identical versions of myself were waving around in front of me."
Yu Hanjiang held Xiao Lou's hand and said, "I know. That's why I held you while you slept, so you could get some rest."
Meeting his gentle gaze, Xiao Lou felt a warmth in her heart and smiled, saying, "It was just a nightmare. Let's go, it's time to set off."
The two walked out of the bedroom, where their teammates had already gathered in the restaurant. Upon seeing Xiao Lou, Ye Qi hurriedly ran over and asked, " Professor Xiao, are you awake? Are you feeling better? You suddenly fainted yesterday afternoon, which gave me quite a fright."
Xiao Lou said, "It's okay. I fainted because I had a terrible headache. It just reminded me of something that happened when I was five years old."
Upon hearing this, the four of them immediately walked up to Xiao Lou out of curiosity.
Lu Jiuchuan asked first, "What did you remember?"
Xiao Lou's expression was serious as he said in a low voice, "Our speculation was correct. His Majesty did indeed create so many princes to raise poisonous insects. Those 100 five-year-old children were locked in the same room by His Majesty to compete, and only the most outstanding ones could survive. In the end, including me, four of us survived. Let's say I am number 1. The very obedient Xiao Lou that Hanjiang met in His Majesty's palace is number 2, and the one who most resembled a prince at the birthday banquet is number 3. There is also a number 4, whom we have never met."
Lu Jiuchuan's face was filled with resentment: "So, the other 97 cloned children have been deliberately destroyed? This His Majesty is fucking insane!"
Ye Qi complained, "This emperor's method of cultivating his successor is indeed quite bizarre..."
Xiao Lou said, "We still have no clue about number 4 Xiao Lou. He might have been hidden by His Majesty, or he might have escaped from the Luoke Empire. Let's go find the singing invisible man first; maybe they know some clues."
The teammates all agreed.
Yu Hanjiang said, "The entire Azure Planet covers more than 50% of the ocean area, which is too vast. We'd better find a means of transportation."
Shao Qingge thought for a moment and said, "I'll go buy a hovercar."
Since the other four had secretly escaped to the Azure Empire and couldn't be discovered, only Shao Qingge and Ye Qi were there openly for tourism. So Shao Qingge stepped forward and bought a large hovercar that could carry up to 10 people.
This car is like a "floating house"
It was almost like a "zi" (a type of traditional Chinese house), and the interior was very luxurious.
In the future, the mainstream mode of transportation in cities will be hovercars. With advanced aerial transportation, there will be no traffic jams. Moreover, hovercars will be fully automated, requiring no driver's license.
Shao Qingge drove back to the hotel to pick up Xiao Lou and the other three, and then headed to the nearest beach according to the navigation.
The beaches here are just as beautiful as those in Sun City. The pristine white sand is so clean it seems to reflect light, and the sand is fine and soft. Many tourists play barefoot on the beach, while others enjoy water sports such as jet skiing.
Shao Qingge and Ye Qi inquired along the way: "Have you ever heard of an invisible person who can sing?"
The tourist looked blank: "Never heard of it!"
Ye Qi even asked some naive children, "Have your parents ever told you that disobedient children will be captured and eaten by invisible people who sing in the middle of the night?" The children looked at Ye Qi like he was a fool, "Hahaha, big brother, do you think I'm three years old? Only three-year-olds would believe this kind of story!"
Ye Qi: "..."
The two spent the whole morning asking around on the beach, but to no avail.
Everyone knows this is just a legend, like the fairy tale of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." If you stop someone on the street and ask, "Have you ever seen Snow White?" they'll think you're crazy.
Even little kids think Ye Qi is crazy—only three-year-olds would believe this kind of story, and five-year-olds wouldn't believe it anymore.
Back in the hovercar, Ye Qi clutched his head in exasperation: "The singing invisible man—no one has ever seen him, let alone heard him sing… Is this legend reliable?"
Yu Hanjiang frowned and said, "Let's check somewhere else."
Lu Jiuchuan leaned back in his seat, crossed his legs, and analyzed, "Legends aren't unfounded. I think there must be something in the ocean. However, humans live on land and don't know enough about the mysterious ocean... Asking around at tourist attractions is useless. We should go find the fishermen who make a living by fishing."
Xiao Lou agreed with this idea: "Let's find fishermen; they know the sea best."
This is the closest beach to the hotel, which is why Shao Qingge drove the hovercar here. After hearing Xiao Lou's words, Shao Qingge changed the navigation and drove the hovercar to the area where fishermen usually live.
Ye Qi found the oldest man in the fishing village and asked, "Uncle, have you heard the legend of the invisible man?"
The old man basked in the sun and said with a smile, "Who is it? My hearing isn't very good."
Ye Qi leaned close to his ear and shouted at a higher volume, "Invisible men from the ocean! We're from out of town. We heard there's singing here every night, so we came out of curiosity!"
The old man squinted and said, "Singing? Oh, Old Zhang's daughter next door loves to sing."
Ye Qi looked utterly helpless.
After inquiring around the fishing village, Ye Qi still found nothing. He returned to the hovercar and said dejectedly, "No one here has ever heard the singing either; they all say it's a legend passed down from generation to generation."
The clues are too vague, and the vastness of the planet's oceans is beyond imagination, making the investigation extremely difficult.
But what Ninth Brother said is also right. Since the legend has been passed down for so many years, it can't be without reason; someone must have heard it with their own ears. However, who was the first person to hear the song, and where they heard it, has been lost to time after all these years.
Yu Hanjiang frowned and said, "It seems we can only try our luck after dark, wandering around the sea to see if we can encounter the singing invisible man?"
The ocean is so vast that even if they were to drive Chu Huaying's starship around the planet, it would take them several hours. Moreover, the hovercar is much slower than the starship, and it might take them three days to circle the planet in a hovercar.
Try your luck? You might actually stumble upon some good fortune.
But what if we don't manage to bump into it? Wouldn't that be a complete waste of time?
Thinking of this, Xiao Lou suddenly said, "I have an idea."
His teammates turned to look at him.
Xiao Lou took out a card, looking quite helpless: "I have no choice but to bring out Di Renjie."
Everyone: "......"
Almost forgot, among the strange character cards Xiao Lou drew, there was also a God Card that he had never used before: Di Renjie.
Judge Dee is specifically designed to handle these kinds of "completely baffled" situations. Using Di Renjie's skill, he can directly find a clue in Hearts -type escape rooms, eliminate a wrong maze route in Diamonds- type escape rooms, or solve a puzzle. Now that it's a combined escape room, using Di Renjie to find clues is the most convenient option. Unfortunately, this card is a limited skill; it can only be used once per escape room.
Upon hearing Di Renjie's name, Ye Qi exclaimed excitedly, " Of all Professor Xiao's cards, Di Renjie is the only one we've never seen before. How about we invite Di Renjie out when it gets dark?"
Xiao Lou nodded: "Okay, let's talk about it when no one's around in the early morning."
Shao Qingge parked the hovercar in Azure Planet's largest fishing village and waited for nightfall.
Since the legend of the invisible man singing originated from fishermen, it must be that the fishermen's ancestors encountered this event during one of their voyages. Therefore, the probability of finding clues near the fishing village is the highest.
As darkness fell, the lights in the fishing village went out one after another. It wasn't until one o'clock in the morning, after all the fishermen had gone to sleep, that Xiao Lou summoned Di Renjie.
A younger version of Di Renjie, dressed in ancient official robes, holds a fan in his hand, waving it as if deep in thought.
Xiao Lou used the skill—Detective.
Di Renjie muttered to herself, "Hmm, let me think about it..."
Then
Surrounded by curious onlookers, Di Renjie stretched out her hand and pointed into the distance.
A soft light appeared on the distant sea; that must be the location of the clue.
Xiao Lou's eyes lit up. He put away the Di Renjie and said, "Let's move out."
******