Chapter 71#
Wandering Photos 17#
“Well, well, well, did you hear anything?”
“Not a single sound…”
“Holy shit! The soundproofing is way too good. Don’t tell me the boss got Xi Yu to reinforce it again!”
“Is this really the time to be thinking about that?”
“With soundproofing this good, even if they’re fighting inside, we wouldn’t hear a thing.”
“That’s a bit much…”
“They’ve been in there for so long without a peep. Any minute now, Xiao Mu might just come flying out the door. Should we back off a bit?”
“…”
The murmuring chatter was cut short by a voice that suddenly interrupted from behind: “What are you all doing here?”
He Ziyue answered without thinking: “Eavesdropping on Xiao Mu confessing to A Li.”
The unabashed, matter-of-fact tone made Hua Jin, standing numbly beside her, cover his face in exasperation.
He Ziyue caught his expression of speechless defeat and suddenly realized what she’d said. She whipped her head around.
There, not far behind them, stood Chu Chenli and Mu Yanshen.
Chu Chenli was a step behind, his hand still resting on the doorknob, not yet let go. He looked at the trio weirdly crouched by the door and asked, equally puzzled, “So what are you all doing crouching there?”
The two of them had come out of a different room.
He Ziyue: “…”
Hua Jin: “…”
Si Yue: “…”
Damn, we miscalculated!
That was their first thought.
Hua Jin still had some sense of shame. He coughed awkwardly, unable to come up with an explanation, and stared at the sky and ground, nudging He Ziyue’s arm to get her to explain to the parties involved.
He Ziyue’s embarrassment never lasted more than five seconds. Even caught red-handed, she could act as if nothing had happened. She quickly adjusted her expression, her gaze darting between Mu Yanshen and Chu Chenli.
—They seemed no different than usual.
Mu Yanshen’s dark circles were noticeable, but his lazy demeanor showed no signs of pain or strain from a blow. He was still in that aloof, couldn’t-care-less state.
Chu Chenli smiled slightly. He seemed a little happier than usual.
But only a little.
The increase was less noticeable than the effect of one of He Ziyue’s bad jokes.
So was it a success or not?
Even He Ziyue, who fancied herself the writer of this love story, couldn’t tell for sure.
The two at the center showed no intention of hiding anything. He Ziyue simply asked directly, “Are you two together now?”
Chu Chenli shook his head. Mu Yanshen’s smile was clearly fake: “Not yet, for now.”
He Ziyue was baffled: “What do you mean, ‘for now’?”
Chu Chenli thought for a moment, then said, “Well… I think it’s better to keep being partners for the time being. Saying ‘I like you’ right away feels a bit too fast.”
He Ziyue nodded. “That makes sense, I mean, you only just got out of the quagmire of love not long ago—wait.”
What did he mean by “for now”?
What did he mean by “too fast”?
Was he implying there was still a chance to take it slow and get closer later?
He Ziyue caught the hidden point.
But when she looked up, both of them were already gone.
Turning around, she saw them already at the stairway.
Only Si Yue was still there waiting for her.
Si Yue was the kindest of them all.
He Ziyue threw herself at her, touched.
Si Yue briefly explained what had happened. While He Ziyue had been lost in her brainstorm, Chu Chenli had received a text saying something happened with Xiao Bai, so they decided to go check it out together.
He Ziyue, too engrossed in her thoughts, hadn’t noticed the conversation shifting to a different topic.
But when she heard it was about Xiao Bai, she straightened her expression.
Although Xiao Bai had resolutely latched onto Chu Chenli the moment he arrived, He Ziyue, due to her more casual nature and freer schedule, usually kept an eye on him. But in truth, Xiao Bai rarely took the initiative to ask for their help.
He Ziyue initially thought he’d be a troublesome type, ready to be pestered eight hundred times a day. But weeks passed, and she only received one non-work text from Xiao Bai.
It was just to wish her a happy holiday.
Even when people occasionally mocked or taunted him, Xiao Bai didn’t take it to heart, nor did he ask them—his “connections”—to get revenge or throw their weight around.
Because of all this, He Ziyue’s fondness for him had skyrocketed, and their relationship had grown closer than at the start.
From what she knew of Xiao Bai, if he had reached the point of actively asking for help, this was probably not a small matter.
Si Yue didn’t care much about it. She wasn’t familiar with Xiao Bai, but she could tell He Ziyue was concerned. So instead of just turning and leaving, she asked, “Going?”
He Ziyue nodded eagerly and pulled her downstairs. “Let’s go, let’s go. I’ll go take a look too.”
Si Yue followed her helplessly.
As for Xiao Bai’s side, he wasn’t in any emergency himself. The problem was in the city area.
Because so many people had come, Xiao Bai was startled. He had to move from his single dormitory to an empty meeting room in the conference building.
Xiao Bai courteously handed each person a cup of hot water, then sat down opposite them, shivering and sitting as stiff as a primary school student.
Once all eyes were on him, he nervously began explaining: “Brother Li, do you still remember that kid we met last time? The one who snatched the boss’s photo.”
Chu Chenli nodded.
That was Liang Yuan, a local street bully.
But from last time, it seemed he had lost his authority among his underlings and started living alone.
“I ran into him again today on my way back,” Xiao Bai said, recounting the day’s events.
After the morning’s commotion, he went to find the tavern owner to calm down.
One reason was that he didn’t have many friends here. Another was that, on his way back the previous day, he had accidentally taken the owner’s coat. So he planned to return it during his break.
On his way back, Liang Yuan suddenly jumped out and blocked him.
Xiao Bai initially thought he was there to rob him again and instinctively hugged his bag tighter. But Liang Yuan just nervously glanced around, then pulled Xiao Bai into a corner of an alley, saying he had something to tell him.
“Asked if I worked at the base, if I was in charge of supervising the newly awakened.”
Xiao Bai couldn’t find a reason to lie, so he reluctantly nodded to everything.
“Then he asked: ‘Is it true that people who swallow the stones get burst apart?’”
Xiao Bai had to explain: “It’s not ‘burst apart.’ The stones cause an energy surge in the body, and the body can’t withstand it, so… it turns out that way.”
“So it’s still being burst apart by the stones.”
Liang Yuan didn’t care about official explanations. He hesitated for a long while, then gritted his teeth and asked: “Are all the people who died from that… have they all been made public?”
“‘Energy surge,’” Xiao Bai automatically corrected, then his heart suddenly tightened. He asked warily, “They should all have been publicized as warnings—why are you asking?”
Liang Yuan pointed at the big screen in the square and pressed on relentlessly, “Are you sure that’s all of them?”
One corner of the screen was cycling through cases of deaths from “awakening stones.” Since Zhu Wenxin, there had been no shortage of brave souls who confidently believed, “I won’t end up like that guy.”
The lucky ones—like the newly arrived awakened person this time—were rescued in time and survived.
But most weren’t so lucky.
By the time patrols found them, their bodies had gone cold. Their bodies—especially the abdomen—showed varying degrees of damage, like a small explosion had happened inside.
Xiao Bai himself had often wondered why, with such horrific examples right in front of them, people kept rushing to their deaths.
But once the official investigation reports came out, the recorded casualties were immediately added to the big screen for rotation.
Though some blurring was applied, this place was a small world. With a little asking around, people could quickly match names to faces.
The shock of a familiar person’s death should have been enough to deter ordinary people living stable lives.
In the end, Xiao Bai could only chalk it up to the innate death-wish talent of rebellious teenagers.
—At least, that’s what he had thought.
But just as he confidently stated that the official list of “awakening stone” casualties was complete, Liang Yuan grabbed him by the collar in a panic, shouting, “Impossible!”
“That list is wrong!”
“What’s wrong with it?”
“There must be more than that! Just from what I’ve seen, there were already three people! No, four! Their names aren’t on that list!”
Xiao Bai froze.
Not just because of the information in Liang Yuan’s words, but because, when the other accidentally bumped his hand, a bloody, flesh-tearing scene flooded Xiao Bai’s mind in an instant.
Liang Yuan had witnessed with his own eyes a living person turning into a mist of blood right in front of him.
And among those repeatedly played images, there wasn’t just one face.
Recalling the fragments that flashed through his mind, Xiao Bai couldn’t help but shiver. Only by gripping the water cup in his hand did he feel some warmth.
Distinguishing the truth of memories wasn’t hard, especially since Liang Yuan didn’t know about his ability and wouldn’t have been guarded.
Hua Jin was the first to ask: “Did you report this?”
What he really wanted to say was that asking them for help was less useful than going to professionals. He himself hadn’t even memorized a few streets near the city entrance, let alone gather intelligence.
But seeing Xiao Bai’s slightly pale face, he swallowed the less sympathetic words.
Xiao Bai nodded. “As soon as I got back, I told the director of S-zone and the head of the monitoring center. They said they’d look into it, but they hadn’t detected anything unusual before.”
He paused, glanced at Chu Chenli, and nervously continued: “I originally wanted to ask Brother Li to help me pass a message to President Shen. I feel like… none of them really want to handle this.”
He couldn’t control his immediate superiors, so he had to report higher up.
Even though he still hadn’t figured out exactly what Shen Xuanyi’s position was, he could tell that he had high authority and could make things happen.
Some things weren’t suitable to say in a message, so he had to meet Chu Chenli in person.
But he hadn’t expected everyone else to be there, and they all came along in a crowd.
Saying this, Xiao Bai curiously looked them over and couldn’t help asking, “Were you all just having a get-together?”
The eavesdropping trio looked up at the sky and down at the ground.
He Ziyue coughed, changing the subject: “So you just need us to find the boss and report this? Got it. We’ll go find him soon.”