Chapter 74#

Wandering Photos 20#

Hua Jin arrived at the scene over an hour later.

Tang Beihe stood outside the crowd, staring blankly ahead, unable to dodge in time as Hua Jin, walking briskly, bumped into him hard.

“Sorry—Xiao Tang?” Hua Jin recognized him. “What are you doing here?”

“I…” Tang Beihe couldn’t speak.

Hua Jin had only asked casually. He had heard that someone was seriously injured and the situation was still somewhat urgent. Without waiting for Tang Beihe to organize his words, he reached out, pushed him aside, and continued running forward.

“I’ll talk to you later. I’m in a hurry.”

He hurried forward, using some force to shove aside the people blocking his way, raising his voice to ask, “Where’s the injured person?”

Upon seeing the work badge hanging around his neck, a police officer who seemed to be in charge quickly squeezed over and led him to the injured child.

The most severely injured child was the one the criminal had thrown forcefully out of the vehicle. The others, at worst, had fractures, which had already been given simple treatment by the medical staff who had just arrived.

The officer pointed to an open space where a large group of children were sitting, with several relatively gentle police officers and medics comforting them nearby.

They were badly frightened, and the existing police cars couldn’t take them all back. The police had requested a bus, which wouldn’t arrive for a while.

As he passed the police cars that were haphazardly parked in disorder, Hua Jin caught a glimpse of several people lying inside.

They were all adult men with ferocious expressions. Setting aside their twisted faces, they all had a somewhat sleazy look.

But now they were all silent. The only thing they had in common was a few tiny red dots on their foreheads.

Hua Jin paused slightly, finding it somewhat familiar.

Beside the bodies, two police officers were huffing as they turned the bodies face down. Their movements were noticeably careful, as if afraid of disturbing something.

The officer leading the way thought he had misunderstood and explained in a low voice, “Those are the criminals. They’re beyond saving.”

Hua Jin nodded and didn’t ask further. Carrying his medical kit, he hurried toward the injured child.

The external injuries on the child were not difficult to heal. Under the astonished gazes of the doctors, the wounds healed at a visibly rapid pace.

But the brain is such a delicate place that even a slight misalignment could leave someone unconscious indefinitely. Even his healing ability was somewhat helpless.

Still, the external wounds had healed. If the child could wake up soon, there would probably be no major issues.

When the bus arrived to pick up the children, Hua Jin got on with them and returned to the nearest police station.

Chu Chenli and the others happened to arrive with another police car.

With them was the driver who had escaped earlier, now handcuffed, escorted off the car by two officers, and sent directly to a holding cell without even needing an interrogation.

The children were taken to the hospital for a full physical examination. During this interval, Hua Jin stayed behind to ask about specific details.

The three of them had gone with the police later to search for the lab that seemed to be conducting experiments on children.

The outer perimeter of the city was tightly sealed off by base guards, and there were various high-end precision monitoring devices. Transporting children out one by one at high frequency was not easy.

On the other hand, inside the city, the area was large, and the population had been generally declining in recent years. Many places were actually unguarded.

So it was more likely that the lab was set up within the city at great risk.

The driver responsible for transporting the children might not have known the specifics of the experiments, but he certainly knew the routes.

With Mu Yanshen’s aid, they set off immediately for the location in the driver’s memory.

Unfortunately, the other side seemed to have gotten wind of it. By the time they arrived, the place was already empty. The only things they found were two transparent glass bottles containing unknown pills, which they brought back for analysis at the base’s research institute.

As for backup hideouts, even this driver didn’t know about them.

The only gain from this trip was confirming that the lab did exist.

Of course, that wasn’t exactly good news.

Worse news came later: the examination reports for the group of children all showed some abnormalities. After questioning them in detail, the police speculated that the kidnappers might have mixed drugs into the meals they fed the children.

For now, the children showed no negative effects, but further observation was needed.

These medical and biological matters could only be left to the professionals.

Fang Xiyu, who had also been harmed by human experiments, was called back by the doctor for blood comparison and a follow-up check. Mu Yanshen and Chu Chenli, who remained, helped out at the police station and went with Tang Beihe to visit the neighbor’s child.

The thing Tang Beihe worried about didn’t happen. The neighbor’s child wasn’t among the kidnapped children.

He had gone to a classmate’s house to play games and planned to pretend to be missing for two days to scare his mother. Instead, a classmate who couldn’t stand it gave him a good scolding. The child couldn’t take it and sneaked out again in the middle of the night, but because it was dark and he couldn’t see the road clearly, he fell into a mud pit in the suburbs.

Fortunately, the classmate, worried about him, came out with an adult to look for him and managed to rescue him.

The neighbor’s child broke his leg, but while alone in the pit, he thought he was going to die there. He began to reflect on himself, and the more he thought, the more regretful he felt.

Once he got to the hospital, he felt too ashamed to face his mother again and insisted that the classmate’s family not contact her.

Fearing that his emotional agitation might affect his injuries, the classmate’s parents pretended to agree. Only after he fell asleep from the medication in the afternoon did they take the chance to contact the child’s mother.

They had also heard that the child’s mother was very indulgent, and worried that things might not be clear later, they simply called the police to have them witness the situation, to avoid any trouble.

Tang Beihe and the others just happened to tag along as curious onlookers.

Tang Beihe was greatly relieved that the neighbor’s child wasn’t involved. As for how the mother and son cried in each other’s arms, apologized, promised to communicate better, and whether they would actually change their dysfunctional relationship in the future… that wasn’t their concern.

After the incident with the children came to a temporary close, the next matter was Tang Beihe’s.

Mu Yanshen and Chu Chenli waited for two days and finally caught the thugs who had been secretly stalking Tang Beihe.

But whether they should be disappointed or relieved, those people purely had a personal grudge against Tang Beihe and were merely buyers of Awakening Stones. They knew nothing about the forced feeding of stones as described by Liang Yuan.

They sincerely believed that the stones had special energy. Even just carrying them around could strengthen the body, and over time, they would become superhumans.

They had been following Tang Beihe to scout ahead, planning to give him a thorough beating to settle their personal vendetta once their power increased to a certain level.

Apart from confirming that people in the city were still privately promoting and selling Awakening Stones, there were no other useful leads.

One thug, however, had more contact with the stone seller. Because he was stingy and bargained several times, the seller thought he was short on cash and told him to keep an eye out for isolated, unattached, and unnoticeable people on the streets. Reporting one would earn money, or if preferred, could be exchanged directly for stones.

But he had been busy stalking Tang Beihe and hadn’t acted yet.

In fact, someone like Tang Beihe, who went to work at the shop at fixed times every day, was hardly the target of those people.

It sounded like there were many intricacies involved. However, Chu Chenli and Mu Yanshen soon had a mission and couldn’t investigate further. They simply handed the matter over to the base’s team for investigation and gave the thugs a thorough ideological education.

Since the Awakening Stones were involved, Xiao Bai also actively participated.

With him keeping an eye on things, there was no need to worry much for now.

So the day before the mission officially began, Chu Chenli and Mu Yanshen returned to the base to prepare first.

This mission could also be considered a protection assignment, as it involved a certain research project at the institute, so two core researchers were to accompany them.

To maximize safety and efficiency, only one logistics officer would accompany them, making a total of six people.

The two researchers were busy organizing data the day before departure. The logistics officer met with both sides in advance to discuss precautions for the mission.

For Chu Chenli’s side, this logistics officer wasn’t entirely unfamiliar.

He was one of the assistants originally assigned to Shen Xuanyi by Central Base, from the same batch as Luo Yunshu, named Meng FengHuai.

Luo Yunshu had been assigned by Shen Xuanyi to handle the daily affairs of Chu Chenli, He Ziyue, and the others. He now shuttled between Shen Xuanyi’s office and the dormitory building, almost having become a part-time apartment manager.

Meng FengHuai, on the other hand, had always stayed by Shen Xuanyi’s side. Others didn’t delve into his specific duties, only that when they went to find Shen Xuanyi, they would occasionally see him nearby.

Unlike Luo Yunshu’s ordinary face, Meng FengHuai was relatively good-looking, but in a cute way.

Small in stature, with a baby face, he could probably pass for a woman in women’s clothing. Although he was occasionally teased by other men for being effeminate, he was quite popular among women.

He Ziyue had a fondness for him—of a maternal sort.

Those who reached this position were never simple characters. According to rumors, he had strong combat skills, but when out on field missions, his most practical asset was likely his space-type ability.

He couldn’t move living things, but he could preserve food. For now, he was essentially a portable refrigerator.

He came to find Chu Chenli and the others in advance to have them store some necessary daily items in his space. The mission included monitoring and observation, which would take at least half a month, so supplies naturally had to be ample.

After Chu Chenli and his team packed their things, he set off to find the researchers at the lab.

Luo Yunshu, who was playing games downstairs, watched him walk out briskly, barely lifting his eyelids.

A while later, Chu Chenli also came downstairs, saying he was going to find Shen Xuanyi.

Luo Yunshu thought about the president’s recent schedule and said he should still be in his office.

Chu Chenli thanked him and turned to leave.

Luo Yunshu suddenly called out, “Brother Chu—”

Chu Chenli stopped and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Luo Yunshu hesitated for a moment, then asked, “Did Meng FengHuai say anything strange to you guys just now?”