Unlike most floors in the "Living Area," the 349th floor wasn't densely packed with rooms; in fact, it was rather sparse.
As soon as Jiang Baimian exited the elevator, she saw a small plaza.
In the center of the plaza were flower beds filled with soil, planted with different kinds of greenery.
The light falling from the ceiling in this area was closer to natural light on the surface, rather than the usual fluorescent glow.
Jiang Baimian glanced at the flowers, some withering, some in full bloom, and turned into the street on the left, entering Area C, Number 12.
Upon entering, there was first a living room furnished with a sofa, coffee table, chairs, and a radio. To the left of the living room, connected to the kitchen, was a dining area.
Deeper inside the living room were more rooms.
At this moment, an old man in his fifties was sitting in a recliner by the window, reading a book by the light of the street lamp outside.
The old man's hair was still thick and black, only interspersed with a few silver strands.
His eyebrows were like swords, and his eyes were large. If it were a few decades earlier, he would definitely have been a handsome young man, not much inferior to the genetically modified generation.
Jiang Baimian glanced at the old man, frowned slightly, and pressed the switch on the wall next to the door.
Pa!
The lights in the house turned on, illuminating the place as if it were daytime.
"Dad, why aren't you turning on the lights again?" Jiang Baimian chided with concern.
Jiang Wenfeng lowered the book in his hand and chuckled:
"The streetlights are so bright, why bother turning on the lights?
"You have to learn to conserve energy. When I was young..."
Jiang Baimian quickly raised her hand and touched her ear:
"Ah, Dad, what are you saying?
"Anyway, you have to protect your eyes!"
Jiang Wenfeng, wearing black clothing with pockets on both sides of the chest, put down the book and stood up.
"Your ears are worse than your grandfather's before he died!" he deliberately walked next to Jiang Baimian and said loudly, "Hurry up and get surgery to implant a bio-cochlear implant. The effect is at least three times better than what you have now!"
Jiang Baimian opened her mouth and gave a dry laugh:
"I'm just afraid of surgery.
"It's good enough to get by."
"What's there to be afraid of?" Jiang Wenfeng said something he had repeated countless times. "When you had genetic modification and transplanted bio-prosthetics, weren't you afraid?"
Jiang Baimian argued, amused and helpless:
"I was unconscious at the time, how would I know if I was afraid?"
"Doesn't surgery also require anesthesia?" Jiang Wenfeng felt that his youngest daughter was not making things easy for him.
Jiang Baimian was silent for a few seconds, then pursed her lips and said:
"I'm just afraid of that feeling of not being able to control anything, like being dead."
Before Jiang Wenfeng could say anything more, she quickly looked around:
"Where's Mom?"
"The company sent two boxes of apples, and she took one box to your brother's house," Jiang Wenfeng replied helplessly.
"Oh, oh." Jiang Baimian pretended to understand. "Do you want me to peel an apple for you?"
"No, I just had dinner not long ago," Jiang Wenfeng shook his head.
Jiang Baimian immediately pointed to the study:
"I'll use your computer."
"Go ahead, go ahead," Jiang Wenfeng said with a look of disgust.
Jiang Baimian walked into the study with light steps, turned on her father's computer, and logged into his company's internal account.
Pangu Biology had an internal LAN.
People with computers and permissions could log in to browse some public messages and handle affairs within their respective levels.
Of course, the content that people with different permissions could see and the functions they could use were definitely different. There were even different restrictions when logging in from different locations.
For the vast majority of Pangu Biology employees, computers were a rare commodity. They could only see them at work, and even then, there weren't many.
Jiang Baimian used her father's account to read through various low-security messages in chronological order.
She wasn't in a hurry, just like she was browsing normally.
The news here was much richer and more in-depth than the hourly news.
Finally, Jiang Baimian saw a headline:
"Routine Investigation Report on the Death of D8 Employee Wang Yafei"
Jiang Baimian immediately clicked on it and read it carefully:
"...In the hour before and after, the elevator entrance surveillance did not detect any outsiders who did not belong to the floor where the incident occurred..."
"...Multiple employees confirmed that no one approached Wang Yafei at the time..."
"...The autopsy results showed sudden cardiac death..."
"Conclusion: Homicide ruled out, treated as natural death."
Jiang Baimian nodded slightly as she read, and silently exclaimed:
"The company's various systems are still very mature..."
This showed that since the company was established, it had some experience in preventing damage from various factors, including Awakened.
Jiang Baimian didn't linger on the current page for too long. She quickly closed it and moved on to browsing other content.
After reading a large amount of irrelevant material, she entered the medical section and looked up various health tips.
During this process, she searched casually:
"Sudden cardiac death cases in the last five years."
Soon, the results appeared, and the overall probability was within the normal range.
Jiang Baimian looked down the list of records, and her eyebrows suddenly twitched.
In the past year, there had been two cases of sudden cardiac death on the 478th floor.
And the 478th floor was where Wang Yafei served as the director of the "Materials Supply Market," and also where he died.
He was the second case.
In terms of population ratio, such an incidence rate was not too high and was completely acceptable, but in Jiang Baimian's eyes, who was holding a speculation, it seemed very suspicious.
Looking back further in the records, the incidence of sudden cardiac death on the 478th floor returned to normal, one case per year, or none.
Jiang Baimian closed the page and began to browse other content.
However, her eyes were somewhat unfocused.
"This means that the Awakened is a resident of the 478th floor? And only awakened in the past year?
"From a psychological point of view, it's difficult for a person who has obtained such powerful power not to try it out... There is a good probability of retaliating against the targets they hate...
"Moreover, this can also explain why the 'Life Ritual' cult wanted to execute Wang Yafei this time... In theory, at each, um, Misery Sharing meeting, there will always be members who accuse so and so, but Shang Jianyao has never seen anyone die because of this before...
"Is it precisely because there is an Awakened member of the cult on the floor where Wang Yafei works, who can operate well without leaving clues and being discovered by the company, that the 'Life Ritual' cult decided to implement divine punishment this time, making the believers on the 495th floor more in awe of the Director of Fate, and more devout and obedient?
"Then what about Shen Du's infection with 'Heartless Disease'?
"With such a convenient method, why bother letting the Awakened kill Wang Yafei? Wouldn't it be better to let him get infected with 'Heartless Disease' as well? This would be more concealed and have a better effect.
"Could it be that it's not 'Heartless Disease,' but a similar symptom caused by some ability of the Awakened?"
Thoughts churned in Jiang Baimian's mind, but on the surface, she continued to browse without a word.
...
Around five in the morning, Shang Jianyao woke up to a slight knock on the door.
This time, he didn't brush his teeth, but simply washed his face with cold water to make himself more energetic.
Then, he put on the dark green thick cotton coat that Shen Du had worn, took the clumsy flashlight, left the room, and headed towards Area A.
As he walked, he looked up at the ceiling.
There was a red dot flashing there, representing a surveillance camera.
Many employees believed that, apart from a few key areas, most of the surveillance cameras should have been damaged and unusable, just placed there as a deterrent, but Shang Jianyao had heard Jiang Baimian mention checking the surveillance, and he felt that there should be more cameras still functioning than imagined.
He suddenly raised his arm and shined the flashlight on the camera.
Then, he stuck close to the wall and entered a blind spot.
Before long, Shang Jianyao arrived at Li Zhen's house in Area A.
After completing the password exchange according to the procedure, he entered the room and found a place to sit down.
Unlike usual, this time the gathering seemed very depressing. Before the "Guide" Ren Jie came out, no one spoke, no one chatted, and no one knew what they were thinking.
Among them, Jian Xin and Zhuo Zhengyuan and his wife changed their sitting postures from time to time, looking very uneasy.
Finally, the "Guide" Ren Jie came out of the inner room and walked between the wardrobe, the cabinet, and the big bed.
She looked around and said with a serious expression:
"Today's gathering is to announce something."
As she spoke, her body trembled slightly, as if she was afraid of something, but her face showed a fanatical look.
After a pause, Ren Jie said in a deep voice:
"Shen Du wanted to betray the cult and has already suffered divine punishment."
ps: The second update is asking for monthly tickets~