Embers Ad Infinitum

Regarding Lehman's warning, Shang Jianyao showed no shame at all. Instead, he seriously suggested:

"If you join us, there will be more than four of us."

When he said this, he looked back at Jiang Baimian, a little eager to try.

Understanding that he was asking for permission to "make friends", Jiang Baimian thought for two seconds and shook his head.

This is not necessary yet.

After leaving the area where Lehman and his men lived, the four members of the "Old Tune Team" prepared to head to the next destination:

The "low-rise area" near the lake near the ruins of the city.

One of Herwig's confidants, Baz, lived in this area, and he experienced the whole process of the arms being robbed.

Before leaving the hotel camp, because Shang Jianyao wanted to use the toilet, they went back to rooms "05" and "06".

As soon as he opened the door, Jiang Baimian saw a piece of paper falling lightly to the ground.

It is slightly larger than a palm, with a row of gray characters written on it:

"Don't mind your own business!"

"There's no typo." Shang Jianyao picked up the paper with a surprised look on his face.

"Not everyone is anti-intellectual." Jiang Baimian took the piece of paper and read it several times under the winter sunshine.

After Bai Chen and Long Yuehong finished solving their personal problems and walked out of the room, she handed the piece of paper over and asked with a smile:

"Any ideas?"

"Is it to prevent us from investigating the cause of Herwig's death, or is it to prevent us from searching for the robbed arms?" Long Yuehong followed the method taught by the team leader and analyzed step by step, "If it is the latter, it means that the group of robbers It is very likely that it is inside the Hongshiji. Otherwise, it would have been moved to other places long ago, and only one or two people were sent to discuss the sale. There is no need to threaten us. If it is the former, I think it is too hasty? What are we? We haven’t found any clues yet, so it’s better to threaten us than to warn Han Wanghuo from the police station.”

Bang bang bang, Shang Jianyao applauded warmly when he came out of the toilet to express his appreciation.

This applause made Long Yuehong a little happy, but also quite uncomfortable.

"Not bad." Jiang Baimian smiled and praised, "You are getting started in analyzing problems."

After speaking, she looked at Bai Chen:

"What do you think?"

After washing his face, Bai Chen, who had not yet put on the mask, frowned slightly and said:

“I feel a little weird.

"It's too early...it's not necessary, is it?"

What she meant was that it wasn't yet to the point where she needed to warn herself and others.

Jiang Baimian smiled:

"really.

“There are only four of us in total, and there is only one ‘intermediate hunter’ among them, and we haven’t found any useful clues, so why threaten us in such a hurry?

"Didn't that arms dealer Lehman just say that? With our 'strength', it would be better to abandon the mission as soon as possible."

Bang, Shang Jianyao clenched his right fist and hit his left palm:

"I understand!"

"What do you understand?" Jiang Baimian asked angrily and amusingly.

Shang Jianyao said seriously:

“They must have seen through our disguise and know that we are the ‘World Saving Team’ sent by the ultimate villain ‘Pangu Creature’.

"They are afraid of our strength and don't dare to fight us head-on. They can only give some warnings in a sullen tone."

Jiang Baimian let out a long breath:

"You think too highly of us."

She deliberately used honorifics.

Then, she said casually:

“Even if the various branches of the Hunter Guild regularly exchange data, it will still take some time for the events in Weed City to reach here.

"Besides, the Wild Grass City branch of the Shang Jianyao Brotherhood should still be operating normally, and no one outside knows what we have done."

As a genetically modified person who can sense electrical signals, Jiang Baimian is very sure that there is no such thing as a bug in rooms "05" and "06" and the surrounding area.

"The ultimate villain and saving the world cannot be related..." Long Yuehong muttered.

Without giving Shang Jianyao a chance to refute, Jiang Baimian "complained":

"Really, it broke my train of thought.

"Well, since he warned us without any unnecessary threats, I can initially think that this is actually a kind of protection."

"Protect?" Long Yuehong was shocked.

Jiang Baimian smiled and explained:

"The detailed description is: Seeing that we were too weak, they were afraid that we would not be able to bear the consequences of being involved in the whirlpool, so they gave us a warning in advance to keep us away from right and wrong.

"Well, besides this, there are two possibilities: First, the conflict has intensified to a certain extent. The addition of any external force will cause the balance to tilt. They have to take some preventive measures, but judging from Theresa's reaction and her Judging from the choice, this may be very low; secondly, someone deliberately wrote such a warning letter in order to frame someone. If this is possible, even if we do not publicize the threats, someone will definitely Come to inquire and investigate, and when the time comes, the clues will be delivered to your door."

Long Yuehong was filled with admiration and couldn't help but sigh in her heart:

Hey, I'm only 1.75 meters tall after being genetically modified, and I don't know how far behind the team leader is in terms of brains. Well, she was genetically modified, so there's no way she can compare. There's no need to compare...

"If it's the first possibility, why do you want to protect us?" Long Yuehong asked.

Shang Jianyao got ahead of Jiang Baimian and answered seriously:

"Because I'm 1.85 meters tall and good looking..."

"Stop!" Jiang Baimian stopped singing in reverse.

She smiled and said:

"Maybe it's because we didn't disguise ourselves when we first entered the Red Stone Collection. At first glance, we looked like Gray Earth people, no, Gray Whisperers."

Long Yuehong looked at the "warning letter" in her hand in shock, and found that it only had gray native writing on it and no Honghe dialect.

He nodded thoughtfully:

"So that's it..."

…………

The "low-rise area" of the ruins of the city where Hongshi Ji is located is composed of three- and four-story buildings with yards and walls.

Before the destruction of the old world, there was another name here, but it has been forgotten and no one mentions it anymore.

In the entire Red Stone Collection, it is estimated that only Dimarco or the information left by his family in the "Underground Ark" still remembers it.

According to Teresa's description, the "Old Tune Team" found the ancient tree that was hundreds of years old and had been struck by lightning at least twice.

There is also a three- or four-story building with a yard and walls behind the ancient tree.

Jiang Baimian got out of the car, walked to the door, and rang the doorbell.

After nearly a minute, a male voice came from the trunk of the ancient tree that seemed to have died long ago:

"Who are you looking for?"

Before that, Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao had already set their sights.

"We are relic hunters who took over the arms robbery case." Bai Chen, who was sitting in the driving position, facing the ancient tree, replied loudly, "Mrs. Teresa asked us to come here."

"Wait a moment." The male voice in the tree trunk said after a moment of silence.

After waiting for another two or three minutes, Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao looked at another building with a courtyard and walls.

A wooden board suddenly lifted up in the wall there, revealing a large hole.

Behind the big hole is not a garden, but a deep passage.

The next second, a man climbed out of the big hole.

He wore an iron-black mask with a metallic luster, and his flaxen hair was messy, as if it hadn't been combed for a long time.

As soon as he regained his footing, he saw a grinning monkey mask.

Shang Jianyao rushed over in a flash.

"Stop! Distance is our friend!" The man in the iron mask was startled and quickly took a few steps back to the side.

"Is your mask bulletproof?" Shang Jianyao asked curiously.

"No." The man in the iron mask replied blankly.

"Okay." Shang Jianyao was a little disappointed.

At this time, Jiang Baimian had already moved closer:

"You're Buzz."

"Yes." Baz nodded.

"Is it you who spoke just now?" Jiang Baimian asked.

"Yeah." Baz wondered if the other party had something wrong with his ears.

Jiang Baimian suddenly became very interested:

"You dug a lot of tunnels and connected many places nearby?"

"I learned this from the Gray Whisperers." Baz was quite proud. "There are tunnels and exits everywhere, so no one can block me! I can even get behind the enemy. , shooting them from places they couldn’t imagine.”

"A good idea." Jiang Baimian praised, "Given the geological structure and soil conditions here, it should be more difficult to dig a tunnel."

"We have machines from United Industries." Baz took the opportunity to ask, "Do you want it? We can get a lot of things in war-torn areas where tunnels need to be dug."

"First we have to wait until we get back the batch of arms and get the corresponding reward." Jiang Baimian responded with a smile, "Besides, in real war-torn areas, we may encounter ground-penetrating bombs and thermobaric bombs at any time, hiding in underground fortifications. It’s not necessarily a good thing.”

She stopped chatting and asked seriously:

"Have you seen what that group of robbers looks like, and do you know their origins?"

Baz shook his head:

"They were all wearing masks, hoods and sunglasses."

Having said this, he suddenly sneered:

“This can actually explain some problems.

"If it was an outside robber who robbed and ran away, why would he need such a strict disguise?

"I'm afraid they wear hoods because they don't want others to see what their hair color looks like..."

Shang Jianyao interrupted:

"This can also be achieved by dyeing hair. I can introduce you to a professional team, but it is relatively far away..."

Jiang Baimian interrupted him:

"It seems you have a target of suspicion."

"It must be those Gray Whisperers!" Baz said angrily. "Afterwards, a few people and I followed the wheel tracks and found that they went to the south. After leaving the ruins of the city, they went around to the east again!"

After that, he roughly explained what the east side meant:

The "Underground Ark" of the Dimarco family and the church of the Vigilance Sect are in the north of the city ruins; the Red River people are mostly in the west area near the lake; the Gray Whisperers are mainly hiding in the buildings in the east area of ​​the city ruins; and in the south are the activities of the mixed-race people territory.

——The park corresponding to Hongshiji is located west of the center.

"That's it..." Jiang Baimian was noncommittal, "Besides these, what else did you find?"

"No more." Baz shook his head again, "Well... there were nine people involved in the robbery. Their heights were nothing special, and there were seven or eight people lying in wait around..."

After asking for some more details, Jiang Baimian simply replied:

"We will go to the Gray Whisperers to investigate."

After bidding farewell to Baz and getting on the Jeep, Long Yuehong sighed:

"It seems that those weapons were probably stolen by the Gray Whisperers..."

When Jiang Baimian heard this, he looked ahead and chuckled:

"Strict camouflage does not necessarily conceal the characteristics of the Gray Whisperers, but may also be the hair color and eye color of the Red River people."