Embers Ad Infinitum

No. 12, Area C, Floor 349.

Chen Xinyan picked up the wired phone again and listened for a while.

Seeing his expression become serious, Jiang Baimian asked thoughtfully:

"Has there been a bad change?"

Chen Xinyan nodded:

"Ren Jie, the 'leader' on the 495th floor, was infected with the 'Wuxin Disease' and has been brought under control.

"The First Seventh Saint Master Zhang Zicong physically destroyed many surveillance files and hanged himself in his office."

Jiang Baimian raised his eyebrows:

"It's pretty fast."

Chen Xinyan continued:

"Zhang Zicong left a suicide note, claiming to have the ability of an awakened person that can drive people crazy and appear to be infected with 'Wuxin Disease', and he personally dealt with Shen Du and Ren Jie.

"He knew that the matter had been exposed and that he would not be able to survive, so he decided to die for the religious order."

Jiang Baimian listened quietly and asked:

"Did he say where he received the Shi Ming faith?"

"His suicide note stated that he served in the Ministry of Security and frequently visited the surface for ten years. This is consistent with his resume." Chen Xinyan's expression has softened and he has regained his previous composure.

He thought for a moment and asked:

"What do you think of Zhang Zicong's death and suicide note?"

Jiang Baimian puffed up his cheeks invisibly, and then quickly stopped this behavior to maintain his image.

She smiled slightly and said:

"The suicide note was too detailed, as if he wanted to explain everything clearly and bear all the charges on himself."

"Heroes see the same thing." Chen Xinyan gave a thumbs up.

He paused and said:

"However, once all the relatively important members of the cult that Xiong Ming told us are captured, today's operation will be almost over.

"Zhang Zicong's death and the destruction of surveillance data have indeed cut off the direction of our further investigation. We can only learn about his daily interpersonal interactions based on his confession later and conduct a more detailed investigation. At the same time, it also depends on whether the technical department can rescue him. How much useful surveillance video.”

Jiang Baimian nodded seriously:

"If you need any cooperation, just come to me."

After making the promise, she immediately put on a smile:

"If you have any further news, please tell me as soon as possible."

Chen Xinyan smiled:

"no problem."

…………

Floor 495, Area B, No. 196.

Shang Jianyao sat behind the desk, looking at the glass window that could be touched with his hand, his eyes a little divergent.

At this time, on the "Story Talk" broadcast, a sweet voice that was very familiar to the "Pangu Biology" employees suddenly appeared:

“Dear employees, here’s an important piece of news, I’m the announcer Hou Yi.

"After rigorous investigation, the company arrested a group of saboteurs tonight..."

Shang Jianyao's eyes moved and he leaned back on the chair.

After this news, the interior of "Pangaea" returned to normal.

The next day, Shang Jianyao entered Room 14 on the 647th floor a quarter of an hour early, and as expected saw Jiang Baimian waiting here.

He walked over, pulled out a chair and sat down. Before the team leader could speak, he said first:

"I might have been attacked."

Many of the words Jiang Baimian wanted to say were blocked in his mouth.

She couldn't hide her astonishment and asked:

"What does it mean to be possible?"

Shang Jianyao pointed from his left shoulder to his chest:

"There's a fresh hole here, right down to the body armor."

He then raised his right arm:

"There are suddenly more bruises and abrasions on this side of the elbow, ribs, and side of the leg."

Having said this, Shang Jianyao added:

"It wasn't caused by you in combat training. I didn't participate in training at all yesterday."

"You are very careful." Jiang Baimian nodded gently and thought thoughtfully, "When did these traces appear?"

Shang Jianyao has already thought about this problem:

“After saying goodbye to you, before entering the room.

"I just remember that I just walked to Area B, and then I found myself at the door. There was maybe a two or three minute gap.

"At that time, a strange person passed by, but I didn't see his face clearly."

"How weird?" Jiang Baimian asked.

Shang Jianyao replied very "rigorously":

"His singing is terrible."

"...This is a characteristic." Jiang Baimian sighed silently, "What about other than that?"

"He wore a peaked cap, which was held down very low. When I called him, he ran like a rabbit." Shang Jianyao described truthfully, "He picked up thin metal pipes and other things on the ground. I I suspect that was the weapon that attacked me and caused the hole."

"You are quite impressed by the rabbit." Jiang Baimian said casually, "Why didn't you chase him back then?"

Shang Jianyao answered calmly:

"At that time, I thought he ran away because he was afraid that I would judge his singing skills."

"..." Jiang Baimian moved the corner of his mouth, "Your psychotic thinking jump seems to have pros and cons. Sometimes, it can make you not affected by the corresponding state and jump out of the shackles. Sometimes, it can make you jump out of the shackles. Causing you to miss some obvious clues."

Without waiting for Shang Jianyao's response, Jiang Baimian asked again:

"How can you be sure that there was a gap of almost two or three minutes?"

Shang Jianyao looked at the team leader strangely:

“When you first got your watch, didn’t you look at it from time to time?”

"..." Jiang Baimian had to admit that what Shang Jianyao said made sense, but he didn't want to admit it, "But it has been many days since you got the watch. You went to Qifeng Town and returned to the company, and, That watch of yours is good, only a little damaged, and it keeps running, aren’t you tired of looking at it?”

Shang Jianyao said with an expression that was not obvious:

"How can I let the company's employees know that I have a mechanical watch if I don't take a look at it often?"

"That makes sense..." Jiang Baimian was convinced.

She didn't ask any more questions and analyzed while thinking:

"That is to say, you are likely to have been attacked, but you have no relevant memory and can only make assumptions based on the marks on your body...

"The people who will attack you recently are the people from the 'Life Sacrifice' cult. Well, the first seven saint masters probably saw you talking to Xiong Ming, so they reacted immediately.

“Their goal must have been to wipe out relevant clues and shut down the investigation.

"This goal can be achieved by killing you and infecting you with the 'Wuxin Disease', or by erasing the relevant memories.

"The latter can be connected with your lack of memory of the attack."

Speaking to himself, Jiang Baimian looked at Shang Jianyao and said in a guessing tone:

"The 'Life Ritual' cult had no time to plan a thorough murder plan, so they could only send awakened members with the ability to erase memories to come to you immediately. In the process, there was a high probability that a series of battles took place, but he failed in the end. , had to rely on erasing the latest memory to abort the attack and escape safely..."

Bang bang bang, Shang Jianyao clapped his hands in agreement.

Jiang Baimian glanced at this guy:

"Why don't they let you be infected with Wuxin Disease directly?

"Is this the last resort? Before attacking you, did the First Seventh Saint Master Zhang Zicong not sacrifice himself?"

Without giving Shang Jianyao a chance to speak, Jiang Baimian asked:

"Have you forgotten the conversation with Xiong Ming?

"Have you forgotten anything related to the 'Sacrifice of Life' cult?"

Shang Jianyao replied seriously:

"No, those memories are very complete and can be corroborated with each other."

Apparently, he had finished recalling last night.

"It seems that the ability to erase memories is also very limited. Maybe it can only target two or three minutes of content, and it can only be one paragraph at a time... It's a pity that the first seven saint masters destroyed a lot of surveillance data, otherwise We can find traces of the person who attacked you, um, I'll report it later..." Jiang Baimian turned to talk about last night's operation in great detail.

She finally said:

“Originally, I was a little bit strange.

"Xiong Ming's confession did not mention you at all, nor did he mention chatting with you.

"I thought he was protecting you, who is also an awakened person and a new human being. I thought he was quite humane by a certain standard, but not many people were recognized as 'human' by him.

"Now it seems that he may have met that person earlier than you, and the relevant memories were erased."

Shang Jianyao expressed his confusion:

"Why do you want to erase his memory? If you know it, you will know."

"I can't figure it out either. Maybe the higher-ups of the 'Life Sacrifice' cult were worried that Xiong Ming would start a new human faction... At that time, they should have been relatively confident and dealt with it very carefully. As a result, your combat effectiveness was beyond It captured their imagination and forced their plan to be interrupted, so I did not encounter subsequent attacks." Jiang Baimian said a few words casually, "Next, we can only see what the company can investigate, haha, at least until So far, the secret of you, the Awakened One, has been kept.”

Shang Jianyao nodded and suddenly said:

"I just think there's something wrong with the surveillance cameras."

"Yeah... no wonder the 'Life Sacrifice' cult has the confidence not to let the secrets leak out, and the gods keep saying that the commander is always watching all living beings, and the holy master is always watching you." Jiang Baimian said sincerely. He said, "Who would have thought that the supervisor of the entire monitoring department is the holy master of the religious order? This also explains why they have been secretly preaching for many years without being discovered."

Shang Jianyao thought for a moment, and his expression became a little strange:

"Team leader, tell me, can those monitoring data be recovered?"

"The current feedback to me is that it's very difficult." Jiang Baimian's heart moved and he asked with a smile, "You wouldn't take off your pants in front of the surveillance camera to humiliate it, right?"

Shang Jianyao looked Jiang Baimian up and down:

"Team leader, you are so perverted."

"..." Jiang Baimian gritted his teeth.

Shang Jianyao said seriously:

"I also made funny faces to scare him, shined a flashlight on it, and made insulting gestures to it."

Jiang Baimian closed his mouth tightly and shook his head slightly, with a complicated expression.

After a few seconds, she breathed out:

"Your life is so colorful..."

As soon as she finished speaking, the only wired phone of the "Old Tune Team" rang.

Jiang Baimian signaled Shang Jianyao not to speak and picked up the receiver.

"Hello? Oh, Minister... would you like me to come over?" Jiang Baimian quickly put down the receiver and said to Shang Jianyao, "Vice Minister Xi Yu has something to ask me about. I guess it's not about the 'Life Sacrifice' cult, or The reply from Shuiwei Town is here.”

PS: The third update is completed, please vote for the month, double the last day, it will be wasted if you don’t vote~