Only after Jiang Baimian and the others were completely out of sight did Bai Chen put away the "Orange" rifle and leave the edge of the rooftop.
The next second, she and Long Yuehong simultaneously turned their heads, looking towards the slave market on South Street on the other side.
Amid the commotion coming from the west, Bai Chen withdrew her gaze and said to Long Yuehong:
“Let's go.”
Long Yuehong nodded slightly heavily, following Bai Chen, returning the way they came to the street.
Just as they were about to leave the area where the street lamp was broken, they suddenly saw a figure crouching by the dark roadside, in front of a certain shop, looking furtive, not knowing what they were doing.
That person seemed to have noticed the appearance of Bai Chen and Long Yuehong, and quickly turned around, looking over.
The next second, "he" fled frantically, quickly turning into an alley next to them.
"A thief?" Long Yuehong guessed suspiciously.
Bai Chen didn't answer him, walked to the place where the figure had been standing, and bent down to pick up a stack of paper.
…………
East Street, inside a warehouse, the light from outside shone through the glass windows, allowing some objects to barely reveal their outlines.
"What's your name?" Shang Jianyao asked with a smile, looking at the informant standing at the intersection of light and darkness.
"Chen Xufeng," the informant answered frankly.
Anyway, he wasn't giving his alias in Weed City, so he didn't need to worry about being exposed.
"Jiang Baimian, Shang Jianyao," Jiang Baimian also gave a brief introduction.
Shang Jianyao frowned slightly:
"That name sounds familiar."
Without waiting for Chen Xufeng to respond, he asked proactively:
"Do you know Chen Xianyu?"
"Ah? That's my dad!" Chen Xufeng was quite surprised.
He really ran into an acquaintance!
Shang Jianyao immediately smiled:
"Floor 495?"
"Yes, yes, yes. I'm the youngest in the Chen family," Chen Xufeng asked with amusement, "Do you also live on floor 495?"
Shang Jianyao nodded emphatically:
"I should have pinched your daughter's cheek."
"What?" Chen Xufeng sounded a bit confused.
"Chubby," Shang Jianyao commented, "About two years ago, Grandpa Chen often took her to the 'Activity Center' to play, but after she started elementary school, I haven't seen her much."
"Two years ago? Ah, at that time, I had just been dispatched here. My wife also has to work, so I guess it could only be the older generation taking turns to bring her. You know, the company's kindergarten closes too early!" Chen Xufeng roughly sorted out the cause and effect.
Then, he said "resentfully":
"How could you pinch her cheek? She was already a big five-year-old girl at that time."
"Grandpa Chen also has times when he's busy. If we were there, we would play games with her. Whoever loses gets their cheek pinched or their palm slapped," Shang Jianyao explained earnestly.
"So that's how it is..." Chen Xufeng smiled and said, "We're probably about ten years apart, right? Maybe I also bullied you when you were a kid, tit for tat."
The two chatted happily, feeling more and more that they could trust each other, and must trust each other.
Although Jiang Baimian could understand that Chen Xufeng had been away from home for two years and couldn't wait to learn about his parents' health, his wife's condition, and his daughter's growth, she also knew that business was important now, so she interrupted this reunion of "friends":
"Brother Chen, have you figured out the reason for the disappearance of the previous team?"
"Hey, why are you calling me brother? You're already a team leader, so you must be at least a D6, right? I'm far from it," Chen Xufeng was a little flattered.
Jiang Baimian didn't refute, and asked supportively:
"What level are you now?"
"D5, in charge of the intelligence network here, haha, not many people," Chen Xufeng sighed with a smile, "After completing my term and being transferred back, I should be able to get promoted another level."
"Pangu Biology" is quite generous to its dispatched employees.
"That's not much different from D6," Jiang Baimian said with a smile, "Let's talk about business first."
"Yeah." Chen Xufeng took out a stack of documents and said in a tone of recollection, "Before the company notified me, I didn't know that such a team had come to Weed City. You should also know that we're two parallel lines, and no one needs to care about the other."
"Yes, if we didn't have a mission, if we wanted to ask you for help, we'd have to send a telegram to the company first and have the higher-ups issue an order," Jiang Baimian echoed, "I remember the last telegram that team sent to the company said they had arrived in Weed City and hoped to find some old people who had experienced the destruction of the Old World."
She suspected that the "Old Tune Team" had encountered an accident after contacting a certain old person.
Chen Xufeng nodded slightly:
"When I received the company's telegram, they had been missing for more than two weeks, and many clues had been cut off, making it impossible to investigate."
"However, there was still some gain," he changed the subject, "They were a five-person team, three men and two women. With a try-and-see attitude, I asked people about the hotels and hotels in the city to see if there were similar groups staying there during that time. As a result, I actually found something!"
"Can't relic hunters be three men and two women?" Shang Jianyao asked.
Chen Xufeng chuckled:
"There must be similar teams. The feedback we received wasn't just one piece of information.
"But after careful comparison and elimination, I'm sure that the team stayed at the Meili Hotel, which is quite a good one in Weed City. The time they registered for check-in was completely consistent with the time the company received the last telegram."
Speaking of this, Chen Xufeng added an explanation:
"The people at the Meili Hotel had a deep impression because the women in that team were beautiful and the men were handsome, which was different from most relic hunters.
"Don't even mention it, after the popularization of genetic modification, the young people in our company are really a beautiful sight to behold!"
"You've also undergone genetic modification, right?" Shang Jianyao suddenly asked.
Chen Xufeng was stunned for a moment, and sighed deeply:
"Hey, I don't know what happened. Maybe my parents were relatively old at that time, or maybe it was a personal physique issue, but the effect of my genetic modification wasn't very good. The only advantage is that I'm very ordinary, and it's not easy for others to remember my face. Well, also, I have some talent in disguise and tracking."
"At least taller than 1.75 meters," Shang Jianyao earnestly consoled him.
Chen Xufeng's height was about the same as Jiang Baimian's.
Truly Long Yuehong's good friend... Jiang Baimian secretly rolled her eyes, seeing that no one was paying attention to her.
She interrupted Shang Jianyao and Chen Xufeng's chatting again, and proactively said:
"The fact that that team chose to stay at a place like the Meili Hotel shows that when they entered Weed City, they didn't feel that there would be any danger, nor did they think that there were any hidden enemies."
Very reassured, very aboveboard.
"I think so too." Chen Xufeng returned to the topic, "According to this inference, their subsequent actions in Weed City should also be relatively public, giving us a chance to track them down."
He held the stack of documents and continued:
"I asked the internal staff of the Hunter's Guild and checked to see if there were any similar five-person teams who had taken on missions during that time.
"The feedback was no."
——Since that "Old Tune Team" didn't hide their whereabouts, they certainly wouldn't deliberately split into two or three teams when they took on missions from the Hunter's Guild.
Without waiting for Jiang Baimian to ask further, Chen Xufeng proactively said:
"But I found their registered hunter identities, and they're all already 'official hunters'.
"Hehe, guess how I found them?"
"They used their real names," Shang Jianyao answered without hesitation.
"..." Chen Xufeng was stunned for a moment, "That's right! They're quite disciplined."
"This shows that their actions have never encountered any danger, or they've eliminated all the dangers, and they feel very safe," Jiang Baimian gave her own opinion.
This increased the possibility of an unexpected accident happening to that team in Weed City.
Chen Xufeng didn't comment, but instead said:
"I spent some money and got the photos of them when they registered for their hunter identities and all the missions they've completed.
"You can take a good look at them when you get back."
As he spoke, he handed the stack of documents in his hand to Jiang Baimian.
"Okay," Jiang Baimian reached out and took it.
Chen Xufeng recalled for a moment and then said:
"There are a few other clues that I've investigated so far:
"First, they went to the Flying Bird Bar and had a conflict with some customers inside, but it didn't escalate. This happened on the second night after they arrived in Weed City.
"Second, they visited a high-ranking member of the local Hunter's Guild. I only found out about this yesterday, and who exactly it is remains to be investigated.
"Third, they seemed to have entered North Street. A servant from the City Lord's Mansion who often comes out to do errands saw a similar group.
"Fourth..."
When it came to the "fourth" point, Chen Xufeng's expression became quite solemn:
"According to the waiter at the Meili Hotel, they checked out on their own.
"Two days before the company asked me to investigate."
"In other words, for nearly two weeks before that, they were active in Weed City but didn't send any telegrams back to the company? The actual time of their disappearance isn't as long as we thought?" Jiang Baimian asked thoughtfully.
That "Old Tune Team" was different from them, they had their own radio. According to the rules, they had to contact the company about once a week, and in the last few days of the second week, the company had actively sent a telegram to inquire about the situation.
"So it's very strange," Chen Xufeng gave a definitive answer.
Then, he frowned:
"Recently, someone told me that they saw people in the city who looked like Lei Yunsong and Lin Feifei, you know, the two pictures at the top."
Under the current lighting conditions, Jiang Baimian couldn't see the photos clearly at all, so she didn't bother to look at them, and "muttered" to herself thoughtfully:
"I don't know if they're strangers who look similar, or if someone is impersonating them, or if they can indeed still move freely?"
"Can't be sure," Chen Xufeng didn't blindly make a judgment.
"Are there any other clues?" Jiang Baimian slowly exhaled.
"Not for the time being," Chen Xufeng shook his head.
Jiang Baimian hummed and then asked:
"What happened to the library fire at noon?"
Chen Xufeng said with a mocking tone:
"Recently, there are many brainless guys in the city.
"They're the lunatics who preach that the Old World was destroyed because it pursued knowledge and committed taboos. They want to force everyone to stop reading the books left over from the Old World."
After finishing the main work and agreeing on the way to communicate later, Shang Jianyao told Chen Xufeng about the current situation of the old Chen family. Then, the two reluctantly waved goodbye.
Jiang Baimian took Shang Jianyao and circled a quarter of Weed City before finally turning back to the alley where the "Afu Gun Shop" was located.
After returning to the rented room, they found Bai Chen and Long Yuehong each looking at a stack of paper.
"What's this?" Jiang Baimian asked curiously.
"Flyers," Bai Chen handed the paper in her hand to the team leader.
Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao looked at the paper at the same time and began to read the contents:
"Thinking is a trap, knowledge is poison...
"Don't touch books anymore...
"Don't repeat the mistakes of the Old World..."
The word "repeat" was circled, and a line was drawn outwards to indicate revision.
And the revised word is:
"Replant"
"..." Jiang Baimian smiled wryly, "They are truly perfectly practicing their own ideals."