"Then does Aurora City have not the slightest bit of movement at all?" Jian Changsheng frowned and spoke.
"If the Lord of the Aurora really dies, Aurora City's fall is destined. Do those Enforcers have no measures to take?"
"Measures? What measures can there be?" Chu Muyun slowly spoke. "Aurora City must have started researching how to extend the lifespan of the Lord of the Aurora from very early on. Believe me, they have done all they can do, it's just that you guys don't know... They even would have thought of finding a method to replace the Lord of the Aurora, to shelter the entire Aurora Domain, but ultimately still had no harvest."
"What did they do, how come you are so clear about it? Has the Dusk Society's infiltration of Aurora City already reached this step?" Jian Changsheng didn't believe it.
"Because I've seen it with my own eyes."
"You've been to the Aurora Base?"
"No, not the Aurora Base..."
Chu Muyun took a deep look at Jian Changsheng. "Did you think among humanity's Nine Great Bases, the one whose life has walked to its end... is only the Lord of the Aurora?"
Jian Changsheng was stunned. He suddenly recalled a certain extremely vile and shocking rumor regarding the Dusk Society...
"Some matters, wait until you guys personally experience it once, you will naturally understand."
Chen Ling looked at the two people playing charades, his brows full of incomprehension. Just as he was preparing to speak, Chu Muyun then said once again:
"In short, you two are the best candidates to infiltrate the Aurora Base. This mission is very important, and the danger coefficient is extremely high. You guys must make psychological preparations."
"But wasn't it said that the Aurora Base is the heart of the entire Domain, with extremely heavily guarded security, and is very hard to enter?" Jian Changsheng pointed at himself. "Just relying on the two of us 6s, how do we sneak in?"
"[Six of Hearts] has special methods, able to disguise his identity and enter within it. But there are numerous checkpoints inside the base, wanting to get close to the Lord of the Aurora, is still not that easy... Unless, there is someone inside the base to coordinate with him."
"Coordinate?"
Jian Changsheng blankly stretched out his hand, pointing at himself. "...Me?"
"That's right."
"But I don't have disguise methods, how do I enter the base's interior?"
"You don't have disguise methods, but you have strong points in other aspects ah..." Chu Muyun looked at Jian Changsheng with a beaming smile. "I already have a meticulous plan, it's just that, it requires you to make a little bit of a small sacrifice..."
Looking at Chu Muyun's smile, Jian Changsheng suddenly had a bad premonition.
...
Inside the messy and narrow room, Wen Shilin pinned a photo onto the wall. Following which he sighed heavily, tiredly sitting down by the bedside.
He looked at the wall opposite him. Those densely packed intersecting lines were just like a spider web, connecting a massive amount of disorganized photos, articles, and essay records together. Taking a glance it was just like entering a spider demon's cave...
The dim yellow setting sun passed through the window, shining on this dazzling wall. Wen Shilin tiredly rubbed the corners of his eyes.
He rested on the bed for a moment, slowly climbing up and returning to sit down by the desk.
"New Era Calendar Year 379, December 28th..."
As he spoke hoarsely, the fountain pen on the Notebook began to automatically write,
"It's another day without leaving the door... however, I completed all the event puzzles suspected to be related to the 'Hand of Salvation'. Tossing aside those events that can already be confirmed to have no relationship, ultimately the related events screened out by me, total to three."
"First, Deputy Director-General Tan Xin secretly transferred a large equivalent of Explosives to the Aurora Base."
"Second, looking at the transaction records obtained from the Stars Chamber of Commerce, there was once a portion of organs traded to an object named 'Aurora'. To be able to make the Stars Chamber of Commerce only dare to leave behind two words, without any more excess information, in reality it's impossible to be an ordinary merchant or an individual pseudonym... Related to these two words, is nothing more than 'Aurora Domain', 'Aurora City', 'Aurora Base', and 'Lord of the Aurora'... Looking at the scope, the first two can be tossed aside, and the 'Lord of the Aurora' is originally inside the 'Aurora Base', so that batch of organs has a high probability of having entered the Aurora Base..."
"Third, is the missing Old Man case investigated half a year ago... A patient judged by the Doctor to be incurable, vanished into thin air from inside the hospital, even the family members didn't know the inside story. The next day a generous amount of property was added to the family's account... At that time that case was investigated all the way to the Law Enforcers' heads. Later the official side issued a voluntarily signed document, it was that the Old Man didn't want to become a burden to his family members anymore, thereby taking the initiative to donate himself to the Aurora Base to conduct Human Experimentation."
"Explosives, organs, living human experiments... these three all have a close connection with the Aurora Base. Exactly what are they doing over there?"
Wen Shilin fell into silence.
He looked outside the window at the sun setting behind the western mountains, those city buildings and pedestrians that constantly extended to the end of the horizon, a firmness emerging in his eyes,
"This case implicates too much, it even cost an A'cheng... I cannot drag Lin Yan down into the water as well. This matter, I can only investigate it myself."
"Too many people live in this city, their destinies are involuntarily controlled by themselves. If the Aurora Base wants to be unfavorable towards the entire city, that will be destructive... Even if it's more dangerous, there will always be someone who has to go look for the truth..."
"I am willing to become the eyes of this city."
"...Recording complete."
As Wen Shilin finished saying the last sentence, the fountain pen gently swayed, automatically dropping back onto the paper surface.
Wen Shilin took a deep breath. He swiftly draped on the overcoat at the doorway, put on a gray beret, stuffed the Notebook and fountain pen all into his pocket, and left hurriedly with a camera hanging on his neck...
Click——
The room door was locked from the outside amidst the dusk.
...
The color of the night gradually thickened.
The residents by the street side lit the candle fires, gently placing them into Lanterns, and hung them on the eaves in front of the door. Looking over with narrowed eyes, they seemed like bunches of clustered bouquets.
Apart from the dense and bustling commercial districts, Aurora City's other streets would very rarely set up streetlamps. In this era where electrical resources were extremely precious, it was these gentle lights hung at the doorway, that haloed out patches of brightness for the dark streets, guiding the direction of home for their husbands, wives or children.
At this time, a young man draped in a gray cotton coat, slowly shuttled beneath the mild lights. His shadow was like an unsteady remnant candle swaying in the wind, constantly being shortened, lengthened...
His dry and cracked lips lightly parted. A trail of white fog drifted into the cold wind of the night, scattering into fragments in the blink of an eye, not knowing where it went.
"Noodles~! Steaming hot noodles~~"
"Little brother, just getting off work so late? You must be hungry right?"
"Come have a bowl of noodles to warm your stomach ah!"
A voice full of vigor transmitted from the side. A Middle-Aged Man wearing an apron stood at the doorway. With one hand holding a noodle scoop, and one hand resting on his waist, he spoke enthusiastically towards Zhao Yi who walked past. His voice was like the blazing sun in winter, full of youthful spirit and hope.
Zhao Yi stopped. He stiffly turned his head, looking at that noodle shop whose storefront was illuminated by Lanterns, his expression somewhat dazed.
"Little brother, how come your complexion is so ugly." The Middle-Aged Man spoke in doubt. "Looking at your appearance, you're only in your teens right? How come you feel even more lifeless than a fifty-year-old Old Man like me..."
"...No, nothing." Zhao Yi's mind was very messy right now. He subconsciously waved his hands, completely not knowing what he was saying.
"Come in and eat a mouthful of noodles. I see you have a kind face, how about I give you a 20% discount? Our family's pork chop noodles is a unique specialty in Aurora City!"
Zhao Yi took a deep look at that hot pot cooking noodles and bubbling, unable to resist gulping a mouthful of saliva,
But as his fingertips touched the meager amount of money inside his pocket, ultimately he still withdrew his gaze.
"Thank you, but I'm not hungry."