Captain Zhang suddenly remembered that Grandpa Pei had called Lan Jin out last night. He quickly asked, "I remember Professor Pei called you out alone yesterday. Did he say anything to you? Or give you anything?"
Lan Jin ignored the chip and instead pulled out the IC card and Professor Pei's work ID from her pouch. "These," she said. "These two are what Professor Pei gave me last night. He said I was probably the strongest one in the team, maybe able to last until the end, so he handed these cards to me."
Both the IC card and Professor Pei's work ID were the same size, with identical chips placed in the same spot. The difference was that the ID had Professor Pei's photo printed on it, while the IC card did not, making it easy to tell them apart.
Captain Zhang took the two cards, glanced at them, and frowned. "Just these? He didn't give you anything else?"
Lan Jin shook her head. "No. Professor Pei only gave me these two cards. And he didn't give them to me in private. Pei Xin and Huang Jinghe were there too."
Her explanation was clear. Among those people, even if Huang Jinghe might cover for her, Pei Xin would never lie for her. Everyone knew the two didn't get along, even back at the base.
Captain Zhang glanced at Pei Xin. Seeing she didn't deny it, he assumed Lan Jin was telling the truth and dropped the questioning. Still, he couldn't help but ask, "So only the cards? When Professor Pei talked with you last night, did he mention anything else?"
Lan Jin looked at him. "What kind of thing? Maybe give me a hint? There was a lot of talk last night, and I have no idea where to start."
Captain Zhang didn't hide anything—he couldn't even if he wanted to. "Honestly, I don't know exactly what it is either. But I know there should be something else besides these cards. Without it, we can't complete the final mission."
Zhou Zhi, who had been silent, spoke up. "Could it be in Professor Pei's bag? Or on him? Maybe we should search first."
"Right. Let's search."
The mention of searching Professor Pei's body set Pei Xin off. "My grandfather is dead. And you still want to insult his body?!"
Captain Zhang explained patiently, "We're only looking for something. How is that insulting him? If we can't find it, we can't finish the mission. No one will get back alive."
"But you don't even know what it is! What are you going to search for, huh? Just grope around on my grandfather's body?"
Her words almost made Captain Zhang lose his temper. She was making him sound like some kind of pervert. But considering she was Professor Pei's granddaughter, maybe she really knew something. He asked, "Pei Xin, you were always with Professor Pei. Did he ever tell you anything?"
Pei Xin glared at him. "These are classified matters. Even family wouldn't be told. Otherwise, he'd be breaking base protocol."
So, asking her was pointless. She didn't know.
Seeing the tension between the two rise, Lao Shi, who'd been silent the entire time, spoke up. "If it's mission-related, it won't look ordinary. Let's check his bag first. If it's there, it should stand out."
Pei Xin wasn't as resistant to searching a bag. She watched Lao Shi closely as he carefully opened Professor Pei's bag and took things out one by one. Finally, at the very bottom, he found a hard-shelled box, something clearly out of the ordinary.
The moment he took it out, everyone's attention sharpened.
"This should be it," Lao Shi said.
"Open it," Captain Zhang ordered.
Lao Shi flipped open the box. Inside was a chip identical to the one Professor Pei had given Lan Jin last night.
Lan Jin had been observing Captain Zhang closely. His expression didn't change much when he saw the chip. Unless he was an incredible actor, he truly had no idea what it was. But the situation didn't add up. Professor Pei had already given her a chip last night. Why was there another identical one in his bag?
Unless… completing the mission required two chips. Or Professor Pei had already planned this substitution from the start?
What had pushed the old man to do this?
Whatever the reason, they only needed to act like they knew nothing.
As Grandpa Pei had expected, Pei Xin understood the significance of the chip at first glance. She wisely said nothing.
Captain Zhang carefully stowed the chip away like a treasure, then turned to the people resting inside the cabin. "When did those bugs appear? There were so many crawling over you. None of you noticed?"
These weren't just any people. Most here were elite fighters. Even asleep, they wouldn't fail to notice something crawling all over them.
Wasn't that odd?
Of course, it was odd. Everyone thought so.
Inside the cabin, the Shen siblings had been sleeping together, but Shen Zhiyu hadn't actually slept at all. He'd been awake the whole time, guarding his sister, yet he hadn't sensed a single bug crawling near them.
And the stench—he'd only noticed it the moment Captain Zhang opened the door.
So was the problem with them? Or with the house? After some thought, everyone leaned toward the latter.
Xi Yu spoke up. "Let's settle Professor Pei first. This house feels wrong. No matter what, we shouldn't leave him here."
"Agreed."
Huang Jinghe stepped forward, carefully lifting Grandpa Pei's body and carrying him outside.
That was when something strange happened.
Once Huang Jinghe placed Grandpa Pei on the ground outside, his body began to decay at a visible speed. In less than a minute, only a skeleton remained, along with the high-tech insulated suit that had covered him.
Everyone was stunned.
Forget figuring out the cause—Pei Xin was completely shattered. Her scream pierced the silence. "Grandpa! Grandpa!"
She lunged forward to grab him, but no one dared let her get close. Captain Zhang and Lao Shi were closest and caught her mid-dash, holding her back.