After disembarking, the three high school students, along with some other members of the special search team who had sustained minor injuries, were taken to a local hospital. The doctor's eyes widened when he saw their injuries; he was probably astonished that students in modern civilized society could be so badly injured.
Because the injuries involved dermatology, orthopedics, and possibly neurology, seeing a doctor turned into a three-way interrogation. The chubby boy's arm was burned by venom, and his hand was a bloody mess; the doctors never imagined the wounds were so severe until he laid his hand out.
The injuries on Chen Jing's body were also shocking.
Their injuries involved some minor surgeries, and the doctor asked, "Where is your guardian? There are some things we need to tell him."
Their guardian was fast asleep in an unknown corridor, surrounded by armed special search teams, but no one dared to disturb them. In the end, Xu Tonggui became responsible for overseeing the entire process. His communication with the doctor was concise yet meticulous, and he seemed strangely reliable.
They seem much more reliable than their actual guardians.
The fake captain is acting as a babysitter for three children, while the real deputy captain is completely preoccupied with writing reports and trying to fabricate a complete story to explain why the ship was in such a dilapidated state. While he is writing these reports, someone reports that something strange has been found in a marine supplies store in the commercial district.
With this added to the list, without much thought, he immediately guessed that there must be 001, or rather, Jiang Yujin, behind this.
This person is a master of deception. He seems idle and lazy, but in reality, he knows everything and does everything in secret.
It's terrifying.
All of them combined probably couldn't outmaneuver this person. He only had slight doubts at the Hongsheng Building, and hadn't yet suspected this person, but this person had already begun plotting from that moment. If this incident hadn't occurred, and evidence hadn't been found, he might have remained only in suspicion.
To deceive people to death—thinking about it, that's definitely this person's style.
Hu Li lowered his eyes to look at the paper under his pen.
Top Secret Files
[Number: 001]
Name: Jiang Yujin
He sighed and put down his pen.
Most of the special investigation team needed to return to headquarters to report for duty, and since headquarters couldn't be unattended for an extended period, they left on the same day they boarded the boat and went ashore. Atsa had been completely wiped out, making it impossible to go back down to collect evidence; all the materials had to be based on oral accounts from those present. Coupled with the situation in the commercial district, the remaining team was extremely busy every day, and it wasn't until several days later that they were finally able to leave.
The three high school students left with Jiang Yujin. Sitting on the plane, the three wounded men sat side by side, watching as the person sitting by the window took out his phone.
In an instant, the expression on the person sitting by the window changed. His change in expression immediately made the three high school students' hearts jump. Chen Jing asked, "What's wrong?"
Jiang Yujin, with lifeless eyes, handed his phone screen to his eldest son, his voice filled with grief: "I lost my chance to play Candy Crush."
Zhang Xin: "..."
Little Fatty: "..."
You'd better not say anything.
People's joys and sorrows are not shared. Citizen Jiang was heartbroken, and the silence of the three high school students was deafening.
They were already quiet, but what happened next plunged them into a deathly silence.
From boarding the plane to disembarking and exiting the airport, they encountered several groups of people trying to strike up conversations with them. These conversations had nothing to do with the people who were clearly still high school students; they were just silent witnesses.
After rejecting several people who tried to add him as a friend, a man in a wrinkled shirt walked by and scratched his head, saying, "Young people these days really like making friends."
Unfortunately, these people only like to go out and have fun together or just chat online. But if it's about playing cards or drinking together, he will definitely add them without hesitation.
The high school student felt that these people probably didn't mean to make friends; chatting was just an excuse.
Zhang Xin and Xiao Pang looked at Chen Jing, who was standing silently to the side.
It's hard to describe the feeling of a father being hit on in front of his son; it's probably just as indescribable as when a rich kid asked them to help him pursue that person.
Today, Mr. Jiang, a kind-hearted citizen, personally watched over the other two high school students as they went home. He then took his eldest son home with him.
A few days after returning to City A, Mr. Jiang finally had time to go to the barbershop downstairs and regain his black hair.
There are no customers at this time; he's the only one in the shop, and the news is playing on TV.
"Recently, with the support of enthusiastic citizens, the Special Investigation Bureau dismantled the headquarters of a large anti-social organization, and its branches are rapidly disintegrating. At the same time, the issue of alien species has been effectively resolved, and their numbers have been brought under control..."
The barber shop owner, a cigarette dangling from his lips, sat to one side and asked, "So, how did things go?"
Jiang Yujin, looking down at his Candy Crush game, said, "The Special Investigation Bureau called me in for questioning."
The questioning was quite a spectacle; the room was full of people, all looking tense, as if they were afraid he'd destroy the Special Investigation Bureau. But it was just questioning; he was a law-abiding citizen who hadn't done anything illegal or disorderly. After the questioning, they could only send him back.
But it's not limited to just asking questions.
Jiang Yujin said, "There are two people in the alley outside, one person in the convenience store, and two people in the car diagonally across the street."
From the moment he boarded the plane back from Southeast Asia, his neighborhood has been quite lively these past few days.
The barber shop owner's eyes twitched: "You knew someone was following you, yet you still came here?"
Jiang Yujin chuckled twice, looking utterly innocent.
The utterly innocent man got a punch from the barber shop owner, rubbed his hair, and said, "I can't keep them here for more than ten days. I bet they'll go back in ten."
Jiang Yujin guessed correctly. On the tenth day, unable to bear watching people gossip in the small park and secretly go to the tavern for drinks any longer, the person responsible for investigating the high-risk player number 001 submitted a request to end the mission to their superiors.
The mission completion application was not immediately approved. On the same day, the Special Investigation Bureau held a small meeting with the higher-ups regarding the high-risk player numbered 001.
Hu Li was also in the meeting, which was held in secret due to various considerations.
The person in charge of investigating 001 produced a report summarizing the other party's life trajectory over the past ten days.
Overall, there's a certain pattern to this seemingly irregular behavior. This person spends his days either at home or gossiping, occasionally going out for a couple of drinks when his son isn't around, working a couple of days, and looking for his cats and dogs, without exhibiting any unusual actions.
They live much more comfortably than they do; the more I look at them, the more I want to cry.
Hu Li asked, "Has he ever had extreme emotions, such as extreme anger?"
"...some."
When encountering extreme anger from high-risk players, the person reporting it was less fear and more a feeling of being overwhelmed with emotion. He handed a few sheets of paper to Hu Li, and after the latter took them, said:
"On the morning of the 2nd, the target went out to work and parked his vehicle on the side of the road. When he returned, he found that his helmet had been stolen and immediately became very angry."
The other person was both angry and sad, staring at their electric scooter for a very long time, as if contemplating the origin of the universe.
This was at least the most emotionally volatile moment they had experienced during all the days they had followed them.
Hu Li: "..."
If he remembered correctly, at least to the best of his knowledge, the other party's helmet had been stolen twice.
Hu Li asked, "How does he express anger?"
The person giving the report pointed to the papers in his hand and said, "They're in the vice-captain's hands."
Hu Li looked down and examined it carefully for a few moments.
These are complaint letters. And there's more than one; they're all complaints to various departments about the increasingly rampant helmet theft, hoping they can take action and create a helmet-friendly city.
"..."
Hu Li finally understood why the person who gave the report had such an indescribable expression.
High-risk players express extreme anger by writing several complaint letters in a very civilized and polite manner.
He looked at it carefully and found that the handwriting on the complaint letter was different; it was written in two completely different characters, one of which he recognized very well.
Half of this is written by Xu Tonggui, and if I'm not mistaken, the other half should be written by the other party's son.
Outraged, I filed a complaint, but I didn't want to write it myself.
Everyone present wore the same expression as the person giving the report.
The meeting concluded with the conclusion that the threat level of high-risk players had been reduced, the reconnaissance mission was approved, and they no longer needed to stake out the location.
Everything seemed to have returned to normal.
Not long after the first joint mock exam, the second joint exam began. The three high school students returned to school immediately upon their return, but they needed to go to the hospital for regular checkups. Chen Jing's fracture would take some time to heal, but it wouldn't affect his daily life too much. Before the exam, Xiao Pang gave the Special Investigation Bureau the data from his previous research.
The crystal of [0] has been destroyed, and a significant portion of it has been dealt with. The remaining task is to handle the scattered bio-organisms. The path has been paved this far; it wouldn't be right not to continue. Now, the Special Investigation Bureau must take over the rest. Cultivating bio-organisms is difficult, but eliminating them is relatively simple. With detailed information on [0], targeted elimination isn't too difficult. The most challenging part is delivering the reagents for eliminating bio-organisms to various locations.
When delivering the materials, Xiaopang suggested using the Rahu tree. Rahu trees can grow rapidly as long as they have nutrients, and if there are enough of them, their spores can spread to every place. Without [0], Rahu trees can no longer appear, but Xu Tonggui brought back juvenile Rahu trees from the Goose Square. The juveniles are still preserved in the laboratory, soaked in a special liquid; they cannot grow, but they will not die either.
The laboratory's research direction has shifted to improving the spores of the *Rhododendron molle*, enabling them to specifically parasitize the organisms that are parasitized by the progenitor. The project is massive, but not impossible; it just requires time.
Jiang Yujin, who occasionally works but spends most of his time slacking off, waited for his eldest son, who had finished his second mock exam and gone home early, to return home.
After the unexpected sound of the key turning in the door rang out, he quickly threw the empty wine can on the table into the trash can, and also covered the trash can with a few pieces of paper.
After finishing the exam, the calm and composed high school student walked through the living room with his schoolbag on his back and, as expected, saw someone lying on the sofa.school suppliesschool supplies
He brought back a message saying that a parent-teacher meeting would be held in a few days.
He had barely finished speaking when he smelled something and asked, "Have you been drinking again?"
Jiang Yujin's gaze shifted.
Without needing his reply, the high school student noticed a wine can sticking out from under the papers in the trash can.
The person sitting on the sofa tried to explain: "You know, adults are under a lot of pressure."
The pressure is immense, referring to the fact that my favorite soap opera wasn't replayed today, and I'm stuck on a level in the match-3 game.
The high school student was clearly not fooled by this explanation. After putting down his backpack, he went to open the refrigerator to check the number of beer left.
Jiang, a citizen, sighed as his son showed no faith in him.
He not only failed to gain his son's trust, but was also deprived of his alcohol for several days.
Without soap operas and alcohol, the joy of lying at home was mostly gone, so Jiang Yujin only had a brief respite and has been working outside these past few days.
The results of the second mock exam were released in the morning, and the parent-teacher meeting was in the afternoon. When the results came out in the morning, he was still helping someone look for their kitten. The person who asked for help searched with him for a long time in the yard but couldn't find it.
This cat is small, but it can run surprisingly fast; it disappears into the bushes in an instant and is never seen again.
I had originally planned to finish the work in the morning, but just as I finally found the kitten, someone walked by and startled it away.
Jiang Yujin searched until noon, and only when the client said he was a little hungry did he realize that it was already late.
Around noon, Xu Tonggui, who was still at the Special Investigation Bureau, received a phone call from Boss Jiang. The caller seemed to be in a hurry, speaking very quickly, as if he needed to rush.
"Chen Jing has a parent-teacher meeting this afternoon. I won't make it in time to get there. You happen to be off this afternoon, so could you go for me?"
It gets straight to the point, simple and direct.
Xu Tonggui tapped his fingers lightly on the table twice, said nothing more than "okay", and then asked if anything needed to be prepared.
The other party told him that he didn't need to prepare anything, just wait to be praised.
After a round of negotiations, Jiang Yujin on the other end of the phone hung up and then dialed another number.
Before the parent-teacher meeting started, Chen Jing, who was at school, received a call from his father, who told him that someone else would be attending the meeting.school supplies
"I've brought a friend over. He's a very nice person, very gentle, easy to talk to, and not fierce at all. Remember to get along well with him."
After saying the last sentence, the phone call ended.
Chen Jinggang put away his phone, and a classmate next to him asked him to go to the school gate to wait for his parents. He agreed.
Learning from the experiences and lessons of previous parent-teacher conferences, in order to prevent unauthorized individuals from sneaking into the school during these conferences, the school requires parents to be accompanied by their children before entering. Otherwise, they will not be allowed to enter.
When the entire grade held a parent-teacher conference, the school gate was filled with students and parents peering out.
Chen Jing looked at the crowd.
The person still catching the cat said he had seen this friend before, and the other person knew him too; he just needed to wait at the school gate.
He doesn't really care if no one comes to the parent-teacher meeting, but if they insist on sending someone, then he'll wait here.
Although he was waiting, he hadn't actually figured out who would be coming. He didn't know many of Jiang Yujin's friends, and none of them seemed to be easy to talk to or not fierce.
One by one, the students around me found their parents, so I brought them into the school first.
Amidst the constant flow of people, Chen Jing spotted someone unexpected, someone who should never have been there before.
It was Xu Tonggui. He looked like he had just come from the police station, wearing a black top and windproof pants. He was tall and had long legs, making him easy to spot in a crowd.
The other person's gaze searched through the crowd, focusing on the students in school uniforms.
Does this person have children?
These things are no longer important. After their paths crossed, he no longer had any extra curiosity about them.
With a slight twitch of his eyebrows, Chen Jing withdrew his gaze before the other party noticed.
As he looked away, the person standing in the distance looked over.
Then Chen Jing watched as the other person walked towards him.
She walked directly and firmly toward him, then stopped in front of him.
"Hello, I'm Xu Tonggui, your father's friend," the man said. "We've met before, do you remember me?"
Chen Jing: "..."
Chen Jing had a strong impression of him.
The man's voice was sharp, he had an absolute advantage in height, and his eyes and brows were piercing; he was very intimidating just standing in front of him.
Chen Jing briefly recalled what the person who caught the cat had said to him on the phone.
Gentle, easy to talk to, and not fierce.
"..."
Chen Jing said, "Hello."
As he led the group toward the teaching building, Chen Jing's expression remained blank.
It's almost time for the parent-teacher meeting to officially begin. The classroom is already mostly full, and the students who have settled their parents are standing in the hallway outside the classroom chatting and looking around.
Facing the gazes of his classmates, Chen Jing led Xu Tonggui into the classroom.
The classroom seats aren't small; at least when real parents came before, there was plenty of room to move around and even play Candy Crush with legs crossed. Now that this person is sitting down, it's just a little cramped.
After Chen Jing led the person to their seat, he left. As soon as he stepped out of the classroom, several boys surrounded him, asking curiously, "Class monitor, is your dad this handsome?"
"What does your dad do for a living? Why does he look like he's wearing a uniform?"
Although they felt that the person they met today was different from what they remembered, it did not stop them from being curious.
Chen Jing had a headache: "No, I don't know either."
After the parent-teacher meeting began, Xu Tonggui understood what Jiang Yujin meant by "just need to be praised".
Chen Jing's grades are excellent and consistently high, always ranking at the top of the grade. There's always a praise segment at parent-teacher meetings, and Chen Jing is always praised, which also goes to his parents for their excellent parenting.
No classes will continue after the parent-teacher meeting; students can go home directly with their parents.
Xu Tonggui drove Chen Jing home. When the car stopped downstairs, they ran into Jiang Yujin, who had just returned from catching a cat.
Jiang Yujin waved his hand, and the three of them went upstairs together.
Xu Tonggui is also on leave tomorrow, and Jiang suggested that he sleep here tonight.
My eldest son is very hardworking; he immediately went to tidy up the guest rooms.
Jiang Yujin originally thought his bed was spacious enough to fit another person, but seeing that his eldest son had already started cleaning, he didn't say anything. He glanced at Xu Tonggui's expression and couldn't help but laugh. His boss patted him on the shoulder and said, "Your good son specially prepared this for you, so just relax and sleep in the guest room."
That night, Xu Tonggui, who was supposed to sleep in the master bedroom, slept in the guest room.
Before going to sleep, Mr. Jiang solemnly announced while holding a large goose in his arms that the three people in the house should get up for breakfast the next morning to welcome a beautiful day and strengthen their bond.
When he heard "promoting emotional connection", Chen Jing raised his eyebrows slightly.
The next morning, apart from the person who solemnly announced the news while holding the goose, the other two people got up.
Chen Jing always wakes up early and is always the first one up in the family, but this time when he woke up, there was already a delicious aroma coming from the kitchen.
It was Xu Tonggui, cooking, and it smelled quite good.
"..."
Chen Jing woke up instantly early in the morning.
"You're awake," Xu Tonggui said, taking off his apron. "The porridge is ready. I'll go wake him up."
Jiang Yujin found getting up extremely painful and unwilling; even getting him to wake up required a battle of wits.
Sunlight streamed into the room. Xu Tonggui patted the person in the blanket whose head was the only part showing. The person inside stirred slightly, then fell silent.
Xu Tonggui patted him again and said, "Get up."
"don't want."
The person inside reached out and hugged the blanket tightly, their eyes closed, and said, "...I want to marry the blanket."
This person is clearly not yet fully awake.
Xu Tonggui reached out and pulled at the blanket, but couldn't budge it. He changed tactics, bending down and saying, "You've married the blanket, so what am I supposed to do?"
The person on the bed loosened their grip on the blanket, as if deep in thought.
Taking advantage of the moment when he let go, Xu Tonggui quickly grabbed the blanket.
Jiang Yujin finally opened his eyes, his eyes still filled with disbelief.
The man forced to get up early was more resentful than a ghost. He had droopy, lifeless eyes while washing up, and he would occasionally glare at Xu, who was passing by.
He was the one who said everyone had to get up for breakfast in the morning, and Xu Tonggui was the one who got glared at.
After sitting down at the table and enjoying the fresh and fragrant shrimp porridge, Mr. Jiang stopped staring at people.
He smiled and looked at the high school students who were still drinking porridge, saying seemingly cautiously, "It tastes pretty good, doesn't it?"
The high school student nodded: "Mm."
He said, "It feels good to be a family of three."
The high school student opened his eyes: "...Huh?"
The elderly father introduced him, saying, "Let me introduce you. This is Xu Tonggui, your stepfather."
"..."
On this peaceful morning, the CPU of a high school student, who hadn't been damaged by [0], was burned out by these few words.
——
The three high school students met before the college entrance examination.
When they learned that Chen Jing had a stepfather, Xiao Pang and Zhang Xin said it was both unexpected and reasonable, and they congratulated him, saying that he no longer had to shoulder the burden of the family alone.
Fatty: "By the way, who's your stepfather?"
Chen Jing said, "Xu Tonggui."
Xiao Pang and Zhang Xin's first reaction was that they had misheard, but when they gestured for Chen Jing to repeat himself, they saw his expression.
"..."
Okay, you heard me right.
Xiao Pang and Zhang Xin made the most shocking sound they had ever heard in their lives, gesturing wildly with their hands, unable to describe their explosive emotions for a moment.
It turns out that some people, who kept quiet, actually pulled off a big move.
They were still playing the biggest one.
The short message contained a great deal of information, and even the college entrance examination had a greater impact on them than this event.
Or rather, the impact of the college entrance examination on them is indeed not that great.
Chen Jing and Zhang Xin were competition participants and had already secured their admission to universities through direct admission when the semester started. Xiao Pang's grades were mediocre, but he had a sharp mind and signed an agreement with the Special Investigation Bureau's laboratory, securing a stable job ahead of time.
Even though they had already been admitted through the guaranteed admission program, they still took the exam.
On the same day that the college entrance examination ended, a giant tree grew rapidly in the suburbs of the city, its branches soaring into the clouds, and its spores began to drift far away on the wind.
When Chen Jing walked out of the examination room, among a group of nervous and excited parents, he saw two figures. The person wearing a loose white shirt waved to him, and the people next to him also looked over.
Xu Tonggui drove here, and they got into the car together after he came out.
Driver Xu was driving ahead. Jiang Yujin, unusually, wasn't playing Candy Crush, and Chen Jing chatted with him for a few minutes.
They took him to a place, a residential area called Huayang Residential Area.
As they walked down the road after getting off the bus, Jiang Yujin told him, "Remember this road; this place will be yours too."
They took him to have his face recorded, completed the residency procedures, and then took him upstairs.
Upon entering the house, in the living room, Chen Jing saw the trophies and certificates that had mysteriously disappeared from the cabinet earlier.
In this clean and tidy house, there is a room that is exclusively his.
As Jiang Yujin showed the soon-to-be college student the room, Xu Tonggui stood at the entrance and bent down to pick up the photo frame that was lying on the cabinet.
The two people in the photo are wearing a red scarf haphazardly wrapped around their necks and smiling at the camera with their eyes squinted.
Jiang Yujin, who had shown someone a house but turned back halfway through, returned to the living room and saw him looking at photos.
Xu Tonggui looked at the person approaching with light steps and asked, "You've seen your son, has my job application been approved, boss?"
Boss Jiang told him to bow his head.
Xu Tong obediently lowered his head, and feeling that it might not be low enough, he bent over slightly as well.
The warm touch traveled clearly through my thin eyelids to my brain, and then I immediately let go.
Jiang Yujin rubbed his messy hair: "The boss has stamped your approval, you're authorized to start working."
Inside the room, Chen Jing could hear faint voices and laughter coming from outside. The room was well-lit and bright, and through the window, he could see the faint shadows of trees above all the tall buildings.
The room contained a bed, wardrobe, bedside table, desk, and bookshelf. The bed was neatly made, with a safety rug next to it. There was also a small doll in the corner, which seemed to be a favorite of some adult man and had been placed there intentionally.
Previously, when he went back to the shelter to retrieve his documents for his college admission, he ran into the manager who had previously been in charge of them. The manager, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, told him that among the people who were adopted that year, he was the only one who hadn't been returned.
When the manager saw him return, he thought that after so many years of perseverance, he would still be discharged. He didn't expect it was for the sake of further education, and he was going to a top university.
His eighteenth birthday gift was something unattainable before, a complete gift.
"Prospective college student, come and have your fingerprints taken."
Jiang's voice came from outside. Chen Jing took one last look at the room before going to the living room.
The other two people were already standing outside the door, one of whom waved energetically at him.
For every energetic person, there must be someone else bearing the burden for them. Xu Tonggui, who was on the side, kept setting the door lock, then got up and made way for him to come over and register his fingerprint.
After finishing their business here, they returned to the firm.
After getting off the bus and standing downstairs, taking advantage of the joyous occasion, Jiang Yujin made his request, holding up one finger and saying, "Add another bottle to today's supply."
Xu Tonggui: "No."
Chen Jing: "No."
"??"
Jiang Yujin was both incredulous and heartbroken after being rejected twice.
The barber shop owner, who was standing not far away, glanced over and chuckled, "He's not drunk to death yet."
Jiang Yujin nodded with a smile: "Hurry up and beat you to death."
He glanced at the closed shop and said, "Going to sweep the tombs again?"
"She doesn't like it when there's too much dust," the barber shop owner glanced at the other two people and waved his hand. "You three make quite a lively family."
The family of three went upstairs, and the barber shop owner left with a rag and dried flowers in his pocket.
The streets returned to normal; the greatest form of life is the ordinary.