Chapter 89: He used what he learned.
Xie Weiran met Xie Zijing and Qin Ge at the entrance of the hotel.
Both of them looked energetic. Xie Weiran noticed a kiss mark behind Qin Ge’s ear and instantly her mind spun with countless thoughts, but she eventually asked one question, “Did you sleep well?”
Qin Ge: “Very well.”
Xie Weiran: “Slept until noon, huh?”
Xie Zijing: “Have you been waiting for us for a long time?”
Xie Weiran: “No, no.”
She drove the two of them to Jiang Yong’s village, feeling utterly surprised by her colleagues: When they first met, they seemed unfamiliar with each other, but how long has it been? And now they’re already in bed?
Her crab crawled to the back seat, its beady eyes looking at the two men in the back seat, heads together, browsing Weibo.
Xie Weiran was somewhat distracted along the way. She occasionally glanced in the rearview mirror, unsure if she was looking forward to seeing them steal a kiss or dreading it.
In the midst of this inner turmoil, the car stopped.
Xiaohai and Jiang Yong were squatting by the roadside forest. Jiang Yong was drawing on the ground with a stick: “The way you’re applying the formula is completely wrong! You haven’t even got the directions of the forces right.”
Qin Ge and Xie Zijing walked over and quietly watched for a while, realizing that Jiang Yong was tutoring Xiaohai.
The cardboard Jiang Yong had collected was tied up neatly and was now under Xiaohai’s butt.
Under the scorching afternoon sun, the group listened as Jiang Yong solved a physics problem in three different ways.
Xie Zijing: “Does the Talent Planning Bureau’s academic test cover this stuff?”
Qin Ge: “It’s possible, I’ve heard. Lei Chi has already informed Xiaohai’s teacher about him, and his teacher is very interested, urging Xiaohai to go to Beijing as soon as possible to talk with him personally.”
Xiaohai stood up and helped Jiang Yong lift the cardboard: “My mom plans to go with me, we’re taking the train next week.”
“Don’t be nervous,” Qin Ge said, “It won’t be too difficult.”
Xiaohai smiled at him: “I’m not afraid, I have someone looking out for me.”
Xie Zijing was curious: “Who?”
Xiaohai shook his head, refusing to say. Jiang Yong, walking beside him, chatted with Qin Ge about his school experiences. He looked much more spirited than before, his hair still white but his eyes bright and his face full of smiles. Qin Ge knew he was happy for Xiaohai. Changing one person’s fate would bring about changes for many others.
After dropping Jiang Yong off at home, Xiaohai bid everyone farewell. As he was leaving, Jiang Yong reminded him: “Don’t go swimming in the sea these days, be safe. If you really want to swim, don’t take off your pants; if someone accuses you of being indecent, it could affect your evaluation.”
Xiaohai waved and ran off. Jiang Yong stood at the door watching until he disappeared. “Can he really get in? Can he really continue his studies?”
“He definitely can,” Qin Ge suddenly wanted to give the old man some confidence.
This inspection was much easier than the last. Jiang Yong fully trusted Qin Ge, and since he was in a very good mood, Qin Ge encountered no resistance in his “sea area” and soon found himself back in that dark cell. But unlike the last time, the darkness started to crumble as soon as he got his bearings.
In just a breath, he found himself walking in a snowy landscape.
Xie Liang was walking ahead, holding a short iron chain. The chain was connected to the hands of a person in thick winter clothing.
Qin Ge turned and saw a pickup truck parked by the roadside. The snow wasn’t heavy, but the wind was very cold. He heard Xie Liang’s voice: “Don’t move, don’t bite your tongue. Doesn’t your ‘sea area’ hurt anymore?”
The vast expanse made it hard to see the distant mountains. Qin Ge walked to Xie Liang’s side and saw Zhou You, whose hands were chained, stumble and fall.
Xie Liang bent down to help him up: “Don’t be afraid, once we get to Warehouse No. 0, you won’t see me again.”
Zhou You looked up at Xie Liang with a strange expression, full of longing and deep hatred.
The three continued walking and soon reached the foot of the mountain. The snow was thick, and each step left a deep footprint.
Jiang Yong walked straight to an open area. He squatted down and swept away the snow in front of him, revealing a stone slab with two lines of unfamiliar characters engraved on it. Jiang Yong, seeming unsure, pressed his hand on the large characters. Soon, a loose spot sank in under his touch. A small square hole, about the size of a baby’s fist, appeared before Jiang Yong.
Jiang Yong stood aside, and Xie Liang stepped forward. A mist rose from his palm, and a peacock feather emerged from the mist, as if being pulled, and entered the dark hole.
Qin Ge suddenly understood: The door to Warehouse No. 0 wasn’t opened from the outside. It was opened by the internal staff!
And the key to opening Warehouse No. 0 was a feather from Xie Liang — or rather, a recognized part of the spirit bodies of certain sentinels or guides from the Special Management Committee who could enter Warehouse No. 0.
His heart sank: Even if the people from the Adjustment Department and Lei Chi reached the entrance of Warehouse No. 0, they wouldn’t be able to get in.
Even if his rabbit or Xie Zijing’s lion could separate a few hairs to enter the hole, these hairs wouldn’t be recognized by the internal staff.
The stone slab began to shake.
Jiang Yong and Xie Liang stepped back, and the stone slab, shaking strongly, slowly descended as if being removed from the inside.
Jiang Yong stepped in first. Just as Qin Ge thought he might fall from a height, something strong wrapped around his body.
“…Couldn’t they install an elevator? Stairs would work too.” Jiang Yong said as he landed, “I really don’t like being picked up by my nose.”
Below was a huge underground cavern filled with mist, with a few faint lights making the place appear even more dark and mysterious.
Almost as soon as Jiang Yong landed, Xie Liang and Zhou You also descended. Xie Liang walked a few steps, dragging the nearly collapsed Zhou You, and a small, thin figure emerged from the mist.
“Is it him this time?” The figure’s voice was hoarse, “Warehouse No. 0 hasn’t received such a young prisoner in a long time.”
He pinched Zhou You’s chin, lifted the lamp in his hand, and illuminated both Zhou You and himself. Qin Ge felt a surge of discomfort: this person looked very much like a rat.
Zhou You’s eyes were dark and bright, staring intently at the stranger before him. The man scrutinized Zhou You carefully, finally patting his face.
“So handsome…” he chuckled, “and so pitiful. Once you enter Warehouse No. 0, you’ll never get out in this lifetime.”
“Alright, Rat,” Jiang Yong said, “let’s get the paperwork done. It might snow heavily tonight, and we need to get back before it starts.”
The opening above was covered again by the stone slab. Only then did Qin Ge notice two gigantic white elephants standing behind him and Xie Liang. They had used their trunks to set the stone slab in place, and now their large ears moved as they looked down at the group.
“Why are they even bigger than last time?” Jiang Yong asked, looking at the elephants.
“Having nothing to do, I could only research my own spirit bodies. I’ve made some progress; they might get even bigger in the future,” Rat replied with a smile.
A smaller elephant emerged from the mist, shaking its trunk to signal everyone to follow it. Xie Liang and Jiang Yong, familiar with the process, followed the small elephant and Rat.
Qin Ge was once again shocked: this person named “Rat” could enlarge his spirit body and had a similar ability to Bai Xiaoyuan’s — duplicating spirit bodies.
Was he a guard? Was there only one guard in Warehouse No. 0?
Qin Ge soon got his answer: after walking through the dense mist for a while, they entered a brightly lit circular room. The room resembled a large laboratory with numerous machines Qin Ge couldn’t comprehend. Since Jiang Yong’s attention wasn’t on these machines at the time, Qin Ge couldn’t make out the details in his memory. He only saw someone standing up in the room.
It was a very burly man, shirtless, with muscles on his upper arms as big as Rat’s head. His chest muscles were well-developed, and his ears were large and floppy. His round head and eyes gave him a somewhat clumsy appearance.
“Long time no see,” he greeted Jiang Yong and Xie Liang.
Several rats carrying teacups and teapots scurried to the guests and held them up high.
“Thank you,” Xie Liang didn’t take the tea, “Elephant, Jiang Yong and I are in a hurry. Please proceed with the registration for this person.”
After placing the teacups and teapots back, the rats vanished into white mist.
The man called Elephant and the man named Rat pressed Zhou You into a chair and started drawing his blood for registration.
Zhou You couldn’t stop trembling. He turned to Xie Liang and Jiang Yong, saying, “I was wrong, I really know I was wrong. I don’t want to stay here…”
Rat, holding a syringe and vial, turned to him, “Don’t be afraid, it’s nice here.”
Zhou You fell silent, almost curling up in the chair. Clear liquid flowed from the syringe and needle into his muscle.
Moments later, he slumped, slightly trembling.
“Last name Zhou, but no given name?” Rat clicked through Zhou You’s file, “He’s a special human who was never registered?”
“His family situation was complicated, no household registration. He lived in Wangdu District without an identity,” Xie Liang explained, “If you need a name, you can call him Zhou You.”
“What did he do?” Rat asked.
The file was vague about Zhou You’s offenses. Rat and Elephant exchanged glances, then looked at Xie Liang and Jiang Yong, “So young, what serious crime did he commit?”
Xie Liang smiled, “Murder.”
“Just that?” Rat asked.
Xie Liang and Jiang Yong exchanged a look. “What’s going on?” Jiang Yong chuckled, “Warehouse No. 0 is only responsible for receiving prisoners. It’s not our place to know their crimes or abilities.”
Rat: “We can always find out. Living underground with these people, we can always get the information if we want.”
Jiang Yong: “Then you can ask. Xie and I can’t say.”
Rat laughed, “Just kidding, how could we ask? They’re sedated all the time, with fixed eating and excretion times. The rest of the time, they’re locked in their cells. We can’t talk to the prisoners.”
Xie Liang also smiled, “We’re not here for an inspection, no need for so much talk.”
Elephant then looked up, “Registration complete…”
That was the last sentence Qin Ge heard.
Jiang Yong’s “sea area” began to shake and crumble. Just before Qin Ge was forced out of the “sea area,” he saw a massive cloud of mist rising from the confused Zhou You. A gorilla emerged from the mist, its appearance not as terrifying as on the night of the Luquan incident but covered in scars. The gorilla lunged, reaching its huge paw toward Xie Liang.
Standing in front of Xie Liang were Jiang Yong and his black panther. The enraged gorilla and the panther were locked in a fierce struggle. Jiang Yong screamed and fell to his knees before Xie Liang. As Xie Liang helped him up, countless rats swarmed in from outside, heading toward the gorilla, while Zhou You, who had rolled to the ground, screamed in terror—a giant elephant was raising its front leg towards him.
Qin Ge felt dizzy, leaning against the wall with the support of Xie Zijing.
“What happened that day… in Warehouse No. 0?”
Jiang Yong, sweating profusely, was forced to recall everything from that day.
“Zhou You… tried to attack Lao Xie, but I blocked him… He damaged my ‘sea area’, enraging the elephant and the rats… They are the administrators of Warehouse Zero, and they can decide which cell a prisoner should enter. Zhou You was eventually placed in B0064… B0064 is the smallest cell in Warehouse Zero.” Jiang Yong, barely maintaining his composure, raised his hand to indicate, “It’s like a vertical shaft; inside, a person can only stand, unable to lie down. If they must lie down, they can only curl up, hugging their legs to minimize space.”
Qin Ge: “I don’t understand. Why would the Special Management Committee create such a place… Since it imprisons people, it should be a prison.”
“It’s a warehouse.” Jiang Yong looked at Qin Ge, “Do you know what a warehouse is? The people there are not treated as humans, but as items—items that the Special Management Committee doesn’t know how to handle or dare to destroy recklessly. Zhou You… is one of them. He can’t be used but is valuable. Until a way to control him is found, placing him in a secure place where he can’t act at will is the most appropriate measure.”
Torture him, weaken him. They only need his abilities, not his defiance.
“He killed many people.” Qin Ge felt a chill in his heart.
“That’s why Zhou You is important,” Jiang Yong said. “That’s why Zhou You… must be strictly supervised until he can be used.”
Qin Ge couldn’t say a word.
In Zhou You’s fate, almost all the choices that influenced his life were imposed by others. Every choice he made independently, without exception, was to kill—killing Zhou Xuefeng, the real Zhou You, others in Wangdu District, and the Eagle Falcon Squad.
It seemed that apart from this method, he had no other way to coexist with the world.
Zhou Xuefeng’s way of educating him was through insults and beatings. He escaped from Zhou Xuefeng by pushing a big stone down on him. Everything was simple and direct: he used what he learned.
But the paths connecting people are extremely complex. Every choice he made brought countless repercussions.
Qin Ge and Xie Zijing left Jiang Yong’s house and waited by the seaside for Xie Weiran, who was still at Xiaohai’s house discussing school matters with the mother and son.
After telling Xie Zijing what he had seen, Qin Ge felt very complicated: “Living a peaceful and smooth life is not an easy thing.”
Xie Zijing: “Yeah, it depends on luck.”
Qin Ge looked at him: “Do you think you have good luck?”
Xie Zijing: “I didn’t before, but I do now.”
They held hands, saying nothing for a long time.
“Xie Zijing, Zhou You can only destroy ‘sea areas’; he doesn’t have the ability to establish them.” Qin Ge said, “I remember you said you saw Lu Qinglai in the hospital; he patrolled your ‘sea area’.”
Xie Zijing nodded: “You mean to say, Zhou You destroyed my ‘sea area’, and Lu Qinglai… Lu Qinglai built a small house for me? Why would he do that?”
Qin Ge: “I don’t know. To simply toy with you? To experiment on you? But that doesn’t make sense. I now think that Lu Qinglai’s motives are even more inscrutable than Zhou You’s.”
Xie Zijing’s phone rang; it was Bai Xiaoyuan.
“Lei Chi said you two made up,” Bai Xiaoyuan’s cheerful voice came through. Xie Zijing put her on speaker, “That’s great! Qin Ge? Are you there too?”
“I’m here.” Hearing her voice, Qin Ge felt his mood lift a bit. “Captain Lei really tells you everything.”
“Of course, we are good friends. Hey, never mind that. I have some news for you.” Bai Xiaoyuan informed them of Zhou You and Lu Qinglai’s whereabouts, “Director Gao and Cai Yi mean that since the Special Management Committee has already started secretly pursuing Zhou You and Lu Qinglai, they hope we can catch up quickly. If the Special Management Committee finds them first, it might repeat the last Wangdu District incident: they capture Zhou You and Lu Qinglai, secretly hide them, and they won’t face any punishment, still living under the Committee’s twisted protection.”
Both Qin Ge and Xie Zijing found Bai Xiaoyuan’s use of the word “twisted” very apt.
“It is twisted,” Xie Zijing said. “Who’s leading the investigation? Does Cai Yi know?”
“Not Wolf Fang. Gao Qiong and Teacher Zhang Xiao were sent to Australia to discuss setting up an international organization similar to the Crisis Office in the South Pacific region,” Bai Xiaoyuan said. “Cai Yi only knows that the person leading the pursuit of Zhou You and Lu Qinglai is also a wolf… wolf something…”
Qin Ge’s heart skipped a beat: “Wolverine?”
Bai Xiaoyuan: “Yes, that’s it!”
Qin Ge suddenly breathed a sigh of relief. Amidst the heavy pressure, he finally got some good news: “I know who he is.”
He immediately perked up: “Xiaoyuan, I have two tasks for you. You and Tang Cuo must get them done quickly, before we head to Luquan.”
Bai Xiaoyuan became serious: “Go ahead.”
The first task Qin Ge assigned was to use Gao Tianyue’s authority to search the special human population data management system for information on two individuals. These two individuals were codenamed “Elephant” and “Mouse,” with their respective spirit entities being a mouse and an elephant. They were the administrators of Zero Warehouse, and Qin Ge wanted to know everything about them. After giving Bai Xiaoyuan a detailed description of their appearance, he told her, “These two people are very similar to you, as they also have the ability to duplicate their spirit entities.”
“Got it,” Bai Xiaoyuan responded immediately. “My mentor once told me that there aren’t many people in the country with abilities like mine. I’ll ask him too.”
The second task was to have Bai Xiaoyuan go to Jiang Xiaochuan to get the rescue robots he had developed and learn how to use them.
The rescue robots developed by Jiang Xiaochuan were originally made for Qin Ge. Qin Ge only remembered that the little things were very agile, able to climb up and down with ease, and now they were equipped with cameras to transmit rescue information at any time. They should be able to smoothly enter the small opening at the entrance of Zero Warehouse and scout the current situation inside.
Xie Zijing interjected from the side, “But even if it gets in, it doesn’t have the ability to open the stone slab covering the entrance.”
Tang Cuo’s voice came through the phone, “What do you mean?”
Xie Zijing explained the situation at the entrance of Zero Warehouse: “Hey, do you know of any spirit entities that can both enlarge and shrink? Something that can be smaller than a fist when tiny and can remove the stone slab from the inside when big.”
Bai Xiaoyuan suggested, “Directly blasting it open?”
Qin Ge immediately said, “No. The surface in that area is very fragile, and we don’t know the exact layout inside Warehouse Zero. Reckless blasting could cause significant damage. We have very few people we can mobilize for this operation—just a few from our department and some from Lei Chi’s team in the Criminal Investigation Division. We can’t have more than that.”
Tang Cuo moved closer to Bai Xiaoyuan’s phone and said, “I know someone with such a spirit body.”
Xie Zijing asked, “Who?”
Tang Cuo suddenly stuttered, “M-my… my boyfriend.”
Bai Xiaoyuan exclaimed, “Gao Shu?!”
Tang Cuo replied, “His little fish… no, shark, has the ability to both enlarge and shrink.”
Qin Ge immediately responded, “Okay, I’ll contact Director Gao right away and have Gao Shu join us.”
After hanging up, Qin Ge looked at Xie Zijing, “We need to head out to Luquan too.”
Xie Weiran had returned and was calling the two of them from the road. Xie Zijing and Qin Ge got up and started walking back. Xie Zijing couldn’t help but ask, “If everything goes smoothly, we might catch Zhou You before he reaches Warehouse Zero. But why does Zhou You want to go to Luquan, to Warehouse Zero? That place is hell for him.”
He had angered the guards and was placed in the smallest cell, where he couldn’t lie down, spending long days curled up. Qin Ge thought of the thin young man who stood up that night in Luquan, covered in scars and with a terrifyingly indifferent expression, like a demon crawling out of hell.
“I don’t know what he wants to do,” Qin Ge said, “but I really want to get into Zero Warehouse. Besides wanting to know its secrets, I also want to see who is being held in cell B0064.”
Xie Zijing stopped walking.
Qin Ge looked at him.
“Xie Zijing, during the Luquan incident, your mother was killed before your eyes, but her body was never found,” he said. “Your father disappeared, and his whereabouts are still unknown.”
Xie Zijing was stunned; he knew what Qin Ge was going to say.
“There has always been someone held in cell B0064. Zhou You is determined to return to Luquan, and his target is obviously Warehouse Zero,” Qin Ge asked softly, “Who is the person being held there?”
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