Recap
“Then you looked for me for a long time?”
“Yes, I’ve been looking for you. But I’m not good at finding people, and I don’t know if you will come back, or when.” Long Shiyu said, “In the end, you found me.”
For a while, Shen Chaomu was speechless.
As a human being, he couldn’t imagine what the concept of searching for nine hundred years was like.
But Long Shiyu’s attention was no longer on this, he asked: “Do you like candlelight dinners?”
After thinking about it, this gift is more romantic.
Shen Chaomu was originally lukewarm to this kind of thing. But the silly dragon was thinking so hard about it, he could see it at a glance. He said: “I like the kind I eat with you.”
Boarding the sky train, the scenery outside the window kept changing.
The Xino area is very far from the main city of Meistan. They set off at nine o’clock in the evening, and it took nearly two hours for the train to arrive.
Leaving the platform, it is obvious that this place is not as prosperous as the main city. The buildings are still tall, and the holographic projections in the air are still grand and eye-catching, but a little further away is the wasteland.
After all, it is the hub area of Starnet, and the wasteland is much more lively than other planets. The convoys and aircraft coming and going transported electronic components, and a little further away was the unified processing place for abandoned servers.
On the way to the hotel, Long Shiyu followed the princess all the way to eat.
The food here comes from all over the world, Bei En, Star City, Elf Forest… As long as you can think of it, the machines here can make it.
There is an ice cream shop on the side of the road, which is said to be from an ice sheet planet. Long Shiyu bought a milk-flavored one, and after taking a bite, it was indeed soft and delicate, with a strong milky fragrance.
He asked: “Do you want to eat? This is delicious.”
He originally meant that Shen Chaomu would buy another one.
“Yeah.” Shen Chaomu leaned over and took a bite directly. This ice cream is said to be from an ice sheet planet, but in fact the machine cannot simulate that unique taste, but he paused: “…It’s very sweet.”
Long Shiyu’s ears turned red again, but he got used to it a little bit after being subjected to various hooligan acts by the princess these days.
They walked on the street, and finished the milk-flavored ice cream one bite at a time.
Just like this, they walked and ate, and they didn’t arrive at the hotel until nearly twelve o’clock. The room was spacious, the bed was soft, and the light gray curtains were neatly tied. Long Shiyu lay on the window sill and looked out. The taillights of vehicles on the road passed by, and the neon colors were different, turning into a sea of light.
And looking in another direction, there is a slightly dark wasteland.
However, after just two minutes, the light flickered, and a huge holographic projection appeared on the wasteland.
Suspended above the city, the sky is its curtain. On the silent black and white screen, men and women are dancing gracefully.
Long Shiyu turned his head and said to the princess: “Come and see!”
Shen Chaomu put down the documents in his hand and sat in front of the window like him.
He said: “Meistan will have such a special movie screening time.”
“Why is it black and white?”
“In the past, movies were all in black and white.”
Long Shiyu thought for a while: “I don’t seem to have seen it before, it should have been a long, long time ago, right?”
“Well, when humans hadn’t landed on the moon. At that time, we knew nothing about space.”
“So amazing.”
“Yes, I don’t know about that era either.” Shen Chaomu also looked at the silent movie, “But I haven’t seen this movie either.”
“Then watch it with me.”
The affairs of the association have not been dealt with yet, so Shen Chaomu moved everything to the spacious bay window and worked under the light of his own oil lamp——
He later checked Shen Xing’s itinerary again, and finally, according to the border defense records at that time, it was confirmed that the place where she disappeared should be an old castle on the very edge of Xino.
The old castle is not far from here, it takes about forty minutes by aircraft.
Then again, it’s the other cumbersome information of the association.
Dealing with these matters consumes a lot of spiritual and brainpower. Even with the support of countless people, he still feels tired.
In this area, they have identified a suspicious person: Chen Ke, a key talent in the innovation of Starnet seventy years ago.
Starnet is conducting strict investigations, and technicians have always suspected that mercenaries are using some kind of backdoor in the system to evade border post inspections.
The border post has a strict system of its own, and it is impossible to let everyone pass without hindrance. This small change can only allow mercenaries to transport small contraband more safely, such as blood.
The other party was very cautious, but still showed his fox tail*.
*(Cunningness/slyness)
Just a few days ago, the other party tried to obtain some encrypted information – he finally succeeded, but was defeated by the anti-hacker security system. After such a long investigation, the technical team and the alliance also have bigwigs who came to Meistan in person. With this incident, they almost immediately discovered what the backdoor was:
It was a small trick that could only be left when the Starnet was undergoing large-scale innovation.
Finally all doubts fell on the “dead” Chen Ke. The star police checked the autopsy report of that year and found something suspicious in it, but it will take time to confirm.
Anyway, it’s another tricky thing. He couldn’t help with technical matters, Shen Chaomu rubbed his eyebrow, and continued to read other materials and reports.
On the screen, the two dancing people are very close, their breaths intertwined, their lips are close to each other, and occasionally the woman’s eyes flicker when she lowers her eyes, which is the joy that cannot be concealed by the black and white picture.
Long Shiyu took a bag of potato chips and ate slowly, concentrating on watching the movie.
Occasionally Shen Chaomu looked up, just in time to see the two kissing in the silent picture, black and white light and shadow jumping, he also tilted his head slightly and kissed Long Shiyu.
Then the evil dragon with red ears nervously ate a few potato chips, and then kissed the princess’s cheek.
But before he could finish watching the movie, Shen Chaomu received a notification from the association.
Not far from them, there was a bar where mercenaries were suspected of having underground transactions.
The surveillance system of Meistan showed that several suspicious persons passed the platform and the east intersection near the bar in different time periods one after another——they did not capture their faces, but judged based on their body shape and walking posture.
Long Shiyu glanced at it: “What’s the matter?”
“I’m going to a bar.” Shen Chaomu said briefly, got up and put on his windbreaker, “I’ll be back soon.”
“I want to go too.”
“You stay home and watch the movie.”
“Ying.”
Three minutes later, they set off in the car.
The bar was indeed not far away. On the way, Shen Chaomu used the terminal to slightly change his appearance. It didn’t change much, but people who were not familiar with it would definitely not be able to recognize it at a glance.
The car stopped, and the windows of the bar in front of him flickered with blurred light, and big characters were written on it: “Mimi Huan Wu Mian · Gai Gu”.
Shen Chaomu: “…” I always feel that this shop name is somewhat familiar.
Long Shiyu was quite pleasantly surprised: “It’s a branch of the store in Cassandra!”
This store is much bigger than the one in Cassandra, and it has many floors. The other hunters also disguised themselves, ready to search slowly under Shen Chaomu’s command.
After entering the bar, Shen Chaomu pointed to the bar with Long Shiyu: “You stay here for a while, it will take some time to find someone.”
“Okay.” Long Shiyu said, “Can I order wine?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“What if you get drunk?”
“I won’t get drunk.”
“Don’t cry, don’t cry. Anyway, it’s not allowed.” Shen Chaomu skillfully interrupted his skill charge.
Long Shiyu was very disappointed, but he was still led by the princess honestly, sat at the bar and ordered a few glasses of juice.
Shen Chaomu went upstairs and was submerged in the carnival crowd. There were hunters in twos and threes around him, either holding a glass of wine and teasing casually, or twisting their bodies with the people, their eyes on the people around them, not letting go of any details. And every exit has actually been blocked, no one can leave.
There was nothing unusual on these floors, and after going up a few more floors, the music was still deafening, but the crowd was slightly smaller.
On the fifth floor, Shen Chaomu turned his head to look at the open-air platform outside, where people were still drinking and having fun.
His spiritual power caught a trace of abnormality, and after turning his head to signal to the other hunters, he walked up alone.
Following the abnormal fluctuations of spiritual power in the air, he walked to the very corner of the platform. There was a round table, five or six men were sitting lazily, dressed in suits and leather shoes, beer bottles were poured all over the floor, they looked like ordinary office workers, they came here to carnival after get off work.
Seeing Shen Chaomu approaching, one of them looked over with blurred eyes: “What are you doing?”
“Come and drink.” Shen Chaomu said, and lifted the table away.
Those people stood up abruptly, their blood vessels popped up strangely, and the surface of their skin immediately began to become beastly. However, the golden light and shadow pressed over in an instant, and effortlessly shocked them unconscious, shaking their heads and feeling dizzy.
This immediately alarmed the other guests. Just as they started screaming, the hunters showed their badges to maintain order: “Please don’t panic, the Hunter Association needs your cooperation!”
There are not only these mercenaries in “Mimi Huan Wu Mian · Gai Gu”, they are scattered on different floors, and when they saw this, they wanted to run away, but they were quickly subdued by the hunters blocking the exit.
After all, this is just a small scene, a very common private transaction, and it is effortless to solve it.
Shen Chaomu opened their briefcases placed under the table, which still contained syringes and blood samples. As he said, things were resolved very quickly.
Shen Chaomu returned to the first floor and saw dozens of empty cups and several plates of snacks already placed in front of Long Shiyu.
“Eating too fast is not good for your health,” he frowned slightly, “and you didn’t drink, did you?”
“No crying!”
Shen Chaomu hesitated for a few seconds: “What?” The tone of the last “ying” was obviously different.
“Ying!”
Shen Chaomu hesitated again: “Are you okay? Are you feeling unwell?”
“It’s okay, I just drank too fast, ying! Ying!”
Shen Chaomu: “…”
He understood that Long Shiyu’s hiccups were different from other people’s voices.
It took some time to deal with the scene, and a hunter hurried over and said, “Chief, there are some things I need to tell you.”
He sent Shen Chaomu a report.
Through facial recognition of the few people who were just arrested, it was confirmed that they were all interstellar wanted criminals. And by cracking their terminals, he found some chat records mentioning “Boss”.
To be precise, someone – most likely Augusta – told them some necessary information. It seems that the “boss” himself is also in this area, directing them to act in the dark.
So, now Shen Di is also in Meistan, also in the Xino area?
Compared with other planets, apart from Starnet, there seems to be no value here.
Shen Di has been awakening the strange beasts on different planets, but Meistan is one of the few planets where there have been no ferocious strange beasts in history. Its prevention and control have always been strict, and it can be said that it has avoided the ravages of strange beasts to the greatest extent. The night ghost riot hundreds of years ago was already the worst incident related to strange beasts.
The hunter said again: “Fifteen minutes ago, an unidentified aircraft appeared at the west exit of the city… It may be another mercenary, and three teams have already rushed there.”
West is the direction of the old castle that Shen Xing went to.
Logically speaking, there is no such coincidence, but Shen Chaomu still frowned slightly, feeling something was wrong.
On the way back to the hotel, Shen Chaomu said to Long Shiyu, “Let’s go to that old castle tomorrow morning.”
“Okay, ying!”
“I’ve said that you should eat slowly, why don’t you drink some water to suppress it.”
“I just drank it! It’s useless!”
Shen Chaomu: “…”
This is really a veritable crying dragon.
The aircraft flew over the sea of lights, and five minutes later, Shen Chaomu’s terminal vibrated.
It was news from the association, saying that they had found out what the hacker had cracked.
They are all about the Xino area, the border defense records from nearly a thousand years ago, and some medical records from Nancy Hospital.
Exactly the same as the clues they found before.
Shen Xing.
This name suddenly appeared in his mind.
Shen Chaomu stopped abruptly.
Then he immediately replied: “I’ll go there now, don’t act rashly.”
He disengaged the speed control system, and the aircraft turned around and flew straight to the west.
Forty minutes later, Xino Old Castle.
It is far away from the center of the city, the sky is dark, and there are not many stars to be seen. The castle has been abandoned for many years, dilapidated, and not even qualified to be a tourist attraction. The unidentified aircraft is parked outside.
They came to the right place.
Around the castle are layers of machines – those cold servers are silent, waiting for a new life after being dissolved. The periphery is a circle of holographic barriers, which need authorization to be opened to enter. He didn’t see any traces of intrusion for a while, most likely they were hacked.
Shen Chaomu said: “Not only servers, but most of Xino’s electronic products will be sent here. But…” He gently touched the shell of a server.
In an instant, blue data floated in the air, and点点of faint light illuminated the earth. The remaining information has not been erased.
Someone has used the resources here for calculations recently.
…It should be that Chen Ke.
Under Shen Chaomu’s order, the other hunters did not rush into the castle.
Shen Chaomu was about to go straight in, he stood at the gate of the castle, and said to Long Shiyu: “It’s very dangerous inside, don’t go in.”
“I want to be with you!”
“Be obedient, you see your hiccups haven’t healed.”
“I’m very good at hiccups! Hiccups!”
Shen Chaomu: “…” Only then did he realize that he seemed unable to refute this sentence at all.
Most of the outer wall of the castle has collapsed, making it easy to get in. The space inside is very large, and the golden light flakes gently sweep away some dust, revealing the traces underneath——
Those are the claw marks left by the alien beast.
Shen Chaomu identified it, and said softly: “It’s a night ghost.”
In the early years, the Xino area was relatively desolate, and night ghosts often appeared. However, he did not find that night ghosts had attacked this castle on a large scale. Perhaps it was because the area was remote and had not been discovered by others.
“Hiccup!” Long Shiyu also hiccupped softly in agreement, “I never liked them hiccup!”
Walking forward, passing several huge oil paintings, the great men of the past on them are still imposing, as if they are still staring at them.
Shen Chaomu’s spiritual power always responds to strong emotions, and this response is…extremely special.
Walking through the corridor at this time, he seemed to be able to see how magnificent the castle was back then, and how the woman slowly explored the castle.
Her jet-black hair hung down her shoulders, soft, with a lively luster. Her slender fingers touched the walls and picture frames, the serious injuries on her body had not healed, and occasionally when she coughed, there was a dull pain in her third rib.
Beside her, a bright oil lamp floated.
In an instant, time passed, and Shen Chaomu recovered from the illusion, the magnificent corridor fell into ruin, and the woman’s figure no longer existed, only the oil lamp swayed, lengthening the shadows of him and Long Shiyu.
Long Shiyu sniffed the air: “He’s been here!”
Shen Chaomu also felt the corrosive spiritual power.
The impression Shen Di gives people is always pale, gloomy, always entangled with those strange shadows, completely different from the hero in his cognition.
A long time can change a lot.
And one person can never know all the stories of another person.
He didn’t understand Shen Di’s obsession, and he couldn’t know Long Shiyu’s past, even Shen Xing who seemed to be related to him by blood – he had read her medical records, listened to all the contents of her recording pen, and still felt strange.
Because of her persistence, she has some admiration, but that’s all. Now that he came to the castle, he just wanted to know the truth.
I want to know what Shen Xing left at the end of her life, whether it is related to the ghost whale, the nameless king, or the High Wind plan?
Following the little trace left by Shen Di, they went all the way to the basement of the castle.
After being abandoned here, many servers were temporarily placed here for computing power during overload. The server models are very old, and they were idle after a short period of use, and they were never removed after that. So this underground is very messy, full of crooked machines like the outside.
When walking through it, the spiritual power suppressed all movements, so the footsteps became silent.
It makes this place look even more like an eerie cemetery.
Until, the shadow on the ground moved.
In an instant, light flakes exploded in the air like snowflakes!
Golden entangled with the shadow, directly destroying it with an overwhelming force, including the wailing of the strange beast in it. At the end of the field of vision, in the center of the abandoned machine, the familiar figure appeared again.
A pale smile, an old-fashioned suit, and a delicate red rose pinned to the chest.
He don’t know what Shen Di is holding in the darkness.
But they were indeed a step late.
The offensives of both sides eased for the time being.
Shen Di said with a smile: “You came earlier than I expected, are you here to… find this?” He shook the recording pen in his hand.
Exactly the same as the one Shen Xing left on the spaceship before.
She really left something here.
It’s just that Shen Di’s expression was a bit strange. He said: “I have to admit, the information she left behind was a bit unexpected. I can give you this, and it contains the High Wind plan you want to know. Shen Chaomu, maybe you don’t know enough, I am different from other participants in the plan, The things you pursue are completely different.”
“To be precise, I have been an opponent of the plan to this day. I used to think that we would have something in common, but now it seems that things backfired. You actually violated the principle, really…”
Before he finished speaking, Shen Chaomu saw Long Shiyu grab a server with one hand and throw it violently!
With a sonic boom, the giant server directly broke the sound barrier in the air, and instantly sent Shen Di flying.
Shen Chaomu: “…”
Long Shiyu was so angry that he slammed his tail on the ground: “Don’t listen to this person, ying! I’m so annoyed when I see him, ying!”
Shen Chaomu: “…Indeed. It can be seen that you are not only annoying, but also very irritable.”
This Shen Di didn’t have a strong spiritual power on him, and he didn’t seem surprised before he died, with that strange smile still on his face.
The light flakes brought the recorder back.
Press the button, unlike the recording pen found on the spaceship, its projection function is not damaged.
So they saw the woman’s figure.
Her body is not tall, her eyebrows are bright, her appearance is beautiful, and she is wearing very simple shirts and jeans.
She is a dusty traveler.
Her voice recounted the past: [I lost the previous recording pen, so let me briefly tell the story again. ]
[Let me think, the beginning of the story should be…]
[The beginning of the story should be that summer. ]
___
The author has something to say: Daily whimper (19/1) Today is the grumpy table-lifting princess and the grumpy throwing dragon (?)
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