Teresa had just finished explaining when Shang Jianyao, standing next to Jiang Baimian, chuckled:

"Wearing masks is really interesting."

He spoke in Red River language.

Although he wasn't exactly fluent, the Red River language had changed somewhat in different places since the destruction of the Old World, and Teresa's own accent was different from the one prevalent in Wild Wheat City.

"What?" Teresa looked blankly at Jiang Baimian, seeking an explanation.

*He means, because you're wearing a mask, you can only judge whether someone is of Red River stock or Ashlands stock from their common language, which led you to talk so openly about the Gray Tongue people in front of us… A good disguise, huh? When the disguise goes so far that everyone can't tell the difference in appearance, things get interesting… It's like the material manifestation of the psychological concept of a "persona"... Heh, when the Gray Tongue people all master the Red River language, and when you also fully master the Ashlands tongue, what will you rely on to distinguish friend from foe, to form factions? To form "Animal Mask Party," "Character Mask Party," and "Monster Mask Party?"* A series of thoughts flashed through Jiang Baimian's mind.

In the end, these only turned into one sentence:

"He hasn't played with masks before."

Without giving Teresa a chance to ask further, Jiang Baimian said, "Mm,"

"The security post's cause of death was excessive fright?"

Teresa nodded slightly:

"They're too perfunctory; this cause of death doesn't convince me."

*The cause of death might not be false, but the main point is what caused the excessive fright…* Jiang Baimian thought as she asked:

"Did Mr. Herwig have any heart problems?"

"No, he's always been healthy. Whether it's running, jumping, or fighting, he's performed well," Teresa replied with certainty.

Shang Jianyao raised his hand, and without waiting for Jiang Baimian's agreement, asked curiously:

"You only mentioned his performance in running, jumping, and fighting. What about other aspects?"

Teresa shook her head:

"I just gave a few simple examples.

"If you really want to know, he just didn't perform well in bed."

*Pfft…* Jiang Baimian almost choked on her saliva.

*What's this about?!*

Long Yuehong coughed along, while only Bai Chen remained calm.

Teresa then explained:

"This is also a common problem for all believers of our faith.

"We must always be vigilant, even when doing that kind of thing. We have to distract ourselves to pay attention to the surrounding situation and be wary of our partner's abnormal reactions.

"To maximize our own safety, shortening the time is everyone's consensus."

*Clap clap clap,* This time, besides Shang Jianyao, Jiang Baimian also applauded.

She felt that nothing less would express her feelings.

She never expected that the word "vigilance," when taken to the extreme, would so profoundly change the daily life of Redstone Town.

And the only reason Long Yuehong didn't applaud was that he was stunned.

Even Bai Chen showed a bit of curiosity:

"Do you sleep together?"

"No," Teresa answered truthfully. "Distance is our true friend. When someone wants to, they'll agree on a time in advance."

"What about children?" Jiang Baimian followed up.

"Before the age of one, they can sleep with one of their parents; after that, they must be separated," Teresa looked around. "Let's not waste time on these questions."

Jiang Baimian then realized that she was indulging in learning about folk customs and had forgotten her hunter mission.

She glared at Shang Jianyao:

"What exactly did you want to ask just now?"

"To ask whether Herwig was good at holding his breath," Shang Jianyao replied righteously.

"Holding his breath… He can swim, at an average level," Teresa indicated her understanding. "In short, there was nothing wrong with his body. Weller also said he didn't find anything else wrong."

"Is Weller's autopsy result trustworthy?" Jiang Baimian quickly entered a professional state.

If there were no underlying health issues, then this kind of death by excessive fright had a good chance of being related to an Awakened.

At least Jiang Baimian now knew of two abilities that could cause similar deaths:

Nightmare Horse's "Real Nightmare" and "Fate Weaver's" control over the heart within its domain.

"Although Weller is an outsider, he's also a Red River person and wouldn't be too biased. Unfortunately, his level is limited; he was originally just a regular doctor, and his specialty isn't in this area," Teresa did her best to express her conflicting thoughts.

Just as Jiang Baimian nodded slightly, Shang Jianyao asked again:

"Why do you say 'Gray Tongue people' instead of 'Ashlands people'?"

In the Red River language, the former adds an extra suffix, making it more awkward to pronounce.

"The Ashlands belong to everyone," Teresa replied in one sentence.

Jiang Baimian clicked her tongue inwardly:

"If we take on this mission, how will the reward be calculated?"

"I'll go to the guild and combine this mission with the one for finding the arms. The reward will be half of that batch of arms," Teresa said without hesitation.

*Very generous. After completing this mission, plus the supplies we've saved up before, we can almost buy an old model of military exoskeleton device…* Jiang Baimian nodded:

"We'll do our best to complete it."

She turned and asked:

"What do you know about the arms being robbed?

"Are those bandits frequently active in the surrounding area, or did they suddenly appear?"

Teresa's emotions became a little agitated again:

"It must be the Gray Tongue people who did it! They just want to take back the arms trade!

"If it wasn't them, where around Redstone Town would there be such a heavily armed bandit group?"

After saying that somewhat hysterically, she took a few breaths and said:

"Herwig didn't mention too much about this to me during his lifetime, only saying that the group had very strong firepower, cooperated very well, all wore masks, and were disguised. About ten people showed up, and there were some hidden in the shadows.

"If you want to know more, you can return to the hotel camp and go to room 127 to ask Lehman.

"He's a smuggler from 'United Industries,' my husband's partner. He and his caravan brought over this batch of arms, but they were robbed shortly after completing the transaction."

"Okay," Jiang Baimian asked for some more details, stood up, pointed to the ventilation duct where Herwig died, and said to Shang Jianyao, "Climb in and take a look."

"Han Wanghuo checked it already; he didn't find anything," Teresa stood up as well. "It's also possible that he found something but destroyed it."

"We'll only be relieved if we check it ourselves," Jiang Baimian didn't give up because of this.

Shang Jianyao immediately pulled over the table, removed the ventilation grille, first shone a flashlight for a while, and then climbed in with a *whoosh whoosh* sound.

It wasn't too dirty here, obviously someone often hid inside, and there were no obvious traces left.

Shang Jianyao crawled along the pipe for a while, and the further he went, the narrower it became.

With the help of the flashlight's light, he carefully examined everything, and finally retreated, jumping off the table and saying:

"There are no traces of other people's activities."

"Mm," Jiang Baimian looked at Teresa, "Is that security officer around?"

"He went to the area where the Gray Tongue people often hide, saying that no matter what, the necessary procedures would be followed," On the surface, Teresa couldn't find any fault with Han Wanghuo.

Jiang Baimian exhaled:

"Then we'll go visit Mr. Lehman first."

"Okay, as soon as possible; he doesn't know when he'll return to 'United Industries,'" Teresa urged.

As the Old Task Force of four were about to walk out of "Gunfire," Shang Jianyao suddenly turned his head, wearing a monkey mask, and said:

"One last question.

"Do you have any children?"

"Yes, two," Teresa was quite puzzled. "Why do you ask?"

"Normal physical function," Shang Jianyao evaluated seriously.

Jiang Baimian knew that this guy's brain was twitching again, and taking advantage of this topic, casually asked:

"How old are your children?"

"The older one is fifteen years old, and the younger one is twelve. After that, we agreed not to have any more children and used some products produced by 'United Industries,'" Teresa didn't hide anything.

After bidding farewell to this widow, Jiang Baimian led Shang Jianyao and the others all the way back to the fifth floor, preparing to enter the parking lot.

At this moment, she looked back and glanced around the Redstone Town, which was so quiet that it seemed like no one existed, and sighed softly:

"It's indeed inevitable that the ideas of the Vigilance Church are accepted here."

"Why?" When Long Yuehong listened to Gao Di's explanation, he felt that they had joined the Vigilance Church too easily, even if the corresponding doctrines could indeed improve their chances of survival.

It's not like you can't improve your vigilance and hide yourself if you don't believe in the Vigilance Church!

Jiang Baimian withdrew her gaze and smiled in sigh:

"Redstone Town was formed by the DiMarco family exchanging supplies with the outside world.

"Its members come from all directions, speak different languages, have different customs, and have different appearances. They're bound to be divided into small groups.

"Because of the single source of trade at that time, these small groups should be more of a competitive relationship. There might often be conflicts between them. You assassinate me, I assassinate you, you ambush me, I ambush you.

"Normally, this would slowly evolve into the form of Wild Wheat City, but at this time, the Vigilance Church came. In this place where people extremely distrust each other, their doctrines are right at home. They not only improve people's chances of survival, but also rationalize, sanctify, and soften this distrust, and thus there is a relatively stable Redstone Town."

"Gao Di is a mixed-blood," Bai Chen pointed out a fact.

Jiang Baimian nodded:

"Even between two groups that hate each other, there might be love, and there will also be neutral parties.

"Gao Di represents what should be the third-largest group in Redstone Town: the fusion faction."

As they spoke, they got into the car, left Redstone Town, and returned to the hotel camp.

Room 127 was at the other end, closer to the small lake in the Old World Park.

Outside this simple house, two sturdy-looking men were guarding it. They were both of Red River stock, dressed in black, fully armed, and unsmiling.

Shang Jianyao approached, "looked down" at the other party:

"We're ruin hunters looking for Lehman to investigate the arms robbery."

He was the one "liaising" this time because he might need to make "friends."

As he asked, Jiang Baimian scanned around and found that several simple houses around room 127 had eyes looking over.

*Lehman has a lot of underlings…* She muttered silently as one of the guards knocked on the door and went inside to report.

After waiting for a few more minutes, the guard came out and said to Shang Jianyao:

"Mr. Lehman gives you two sentences:

"One, we had already left at the time, and we don't know anything about what happened afterwards;

"Two, if there are only four of you, it's better to give up early and switch to another mission."