Under the night sky, a green jeep drove along the sandy road. The jeep had a vintage feel to it, very much like a classic car from the last century.
Crunch. The tires crushed the gravel as it drove out of the large compound. The eight people on sentry duty only glanced at the vehicle’s license plate before ignoring it. As soon as the vehicle left the compound, it sped off, disappearing into the distance down the road.
Crunch, crunch~
The moon hung high. The faint, rustling sound of chewing in the night was inevitably unsettling. A figure sat on the edge of a roof dozens of meters away, one leg bent with the foot resting on the eaves, the other dangling naturally in the air. She held a piece of hardtack in one hand, chewing on it.
Crack.
Tossing the last small piece of hardtack into her mouth and chewing it, Gu Lian opened the memo on her wristwatch. ‘Around 11 PM, a vehicle with license plate b700978 will drive out of the large compound. This vehicle likely enters and exits the compound frequently around this time.’
Just after writing this note, Gu Lian closed her eyes, carefully recalling the attitude of the eight guards toward the vehicle. From the fact they only looked at the license plate, it proved that even if this vehicle didn’t come and go daily, it was definitely every two or three days.
So, based on this single observation, she couldn’t determine the exact schedule of the vehicle’s movements.
Gu Lian decided to wait a bit longer. She lay back against the roof, clasped her hands behind her head, and pretended to doze off.
In the darkness, something seemed to be surging. Threads, indistinguishable as reality or illusion, writhed in a chaotic, tangled mess.
The deep brown of the darkness receded. A twisted, distorted figure gradually solidified within the dark. Though it was in the darkness, this figure seemed to have a black hole-like suction force. The next moment, dense, countless eyes opened from the twisted body.
“Hehehe~”
From the chaotic murmuring, a maddening laughter could be heard. The dense eyeballs, each seeming to have its own consciousness, were originally staring wildly in all directions.
Bzzz—
Gu Lian only felt a buzzing in her head. Just as she tried to open her eyes, an electric, tingling numbness spread from the top of her head down her entire skull. Those eyes, which had been looking everywhere, suddenly all focused on her.
Her vision began to darken. A feeling of weightlessness spread through her entire body. At that moment, a roar as if from ancient times echoed in her mind. A beast’s claw suddenly dominated her field of vision—a claw covered in gray fur, grasping the monster covered in eyes.
“ROAR!”
Outside
Whoosh—
Gu Lian’s eyes snapped open. She sat bolt upright on the roof.
“Hah… Hah… Was it a dream?”
Her chest heaved violently. Moonlight shone down from above. Summer nights were muggy, but right now she felt a chill running down her spine.
Gu Lian felt a burning pain in her left eye, as if it were on fire. She raised her hand and pressed it over her left eye. In a place she couldn’t see, the pupil of her crimson left eye had already transformed into the vertical slit of her Weiyi state. From the center of the pupil, two tiny, sharp points extended.
As she closed her eye and gently rubbed the socket, when she opened it again, the vertical pupil had returned to a round one.
Drip~
A drop of clear liquid slid from the edge of her cheek into her palm. Feeling the wetness in her hand, Gu Lian was momentarily stunned. She lowered her hand and stared at the liquid in her palm, slightly dazed.
“Sweat?”
Gu Lian muttered, confused. She flicked the liquid off her hand and reached up to touch her face. Beads of sweat the size of beans were smeared on her palm.
‘Am I sweating?’
Ever since she became a Weiyi, even when not in that state, her physical constitution was no longer that of an ordinary person. How could she possibly sweat?
Although she was very puzzled, Gu Lian still took a tissue from her backpack, wiped the sweat from her face, and casually tossed the damp tissue away.
The wet tissue fell from the roof to the ground. Then, as if boiling, it began to emit a large amount of bubbles. The sandy, dusty earth began to corrode.
The tissue and the liquid evaporated rapidly as if scorched by fire, leaving only a depression about 5 cm deep in the ground.
At that moment, the jeep that had gone out earlier came driving back, its headlights on. Gu Lian shifted her gaze to the speeding jeep, her brow slightly furrowed.
She rolled up her sleeve to check the time. Only twenty minutes had passed since the vehicle left the large compound. This proved the vehicle…
The wind pressure carried by the vehicle blew past, swirling the yellow sand. The depression was filled by falling sand grains. The scene from just moments ago seemed as if it had never happened.
A night owl hooted lowly. A somewhat reddish waning moon hung low on the horizon.
“Stop. Submit to inspection.”
A burly man with a thick beard swung his arm down in front of him. The vehicle stopped at the entrance to the large compound as instructed. His gaze immediately turned behind him.
Four armed personnel, who knew their roles well, surrounded the car and began inspecting it. Seeing this, Gu Lian tapped her index finger on her watch and added a sentence: ‘This vehicle is suspected of entering and exiting daily.’
This wasn’t groundless speculation. The extremely short round-trip time and the extremely lax control revealed two pieces of information.
First, the vehicle’s destination was very close to here. Second, the vehicle’s entries and exits were very frequent.
Since the distance was short and the trips were frequent, could it be said that this vehicle had to go in and out almost every day? To extrapolate, wasn’t it also possible that this vehicle might make several trips in and out within a single day?
Looking up at the sky, Gu Lian got up from the roof and left. It was already very late, and she needed rest too.
In the slum-like town, Gu Lian casually found a relatively spacious awning and lay down on it.
The night passed without incident. That bizarre and twisted dream did not reappear. The next morning.
Morning light poured into the dilapidated small town. The unpleasant cawing of crows could faintly be heard. The air was cool and refreshing.
“Slept pretty well.”
Gu Lian sat up, exhaling a puff of white breath. She rubbed her sleepy eyes and glanced at the time. It was eight in the morning in the Mountain Kingdom. In theory, the large compound should now be open for normal entry.
Gu Lian did a kip-up, her feet landing on the edge of the eaves. Her crimson eyes fixed on the large compound a hundred meters away.
Leaping down from the roof, Gu Lian grabbed a drainpipe on the eaves with one hand. Thud. Her feet braced against the wall. With a pull of her arm, she slid down into the alley below.
Exiting the alley, Gu Lian walked briskly toward the large compound. She only had two days left before she had to return to work. Time was tight; she couldn’t afford to be careless.
After walking for no more than five minutes, Gu Lian arrived at yesterday’s entrance.
As soon as she reached the entrance to the large compound, Gu Lian saw a fully armed personnel step forward to block her way.
“Halt. Please present your credentials.”
“I don’t have credentials. I’m here to discuss business. Please step aside.”
Gu Lian smiled, reaching out to take the letter of recommendation and handing it to the other person. ‘I really don’t want to waste any more time. I have Yi Yi at home who’s quite a handful.’
‘And after I go back, on the day I return to work, I need to coordinate with Yao Yao. After all, Yao Yao is Yi Yi’s real older sister. I’m just an outsider.’
‘Although… I do quite like those two girls.’
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