Chapter 47

In other words, after the Shen couple died, someone opened their computer. Was it Shen Yao or someone else?

Was Shen Xiuping's death caused by pollution or murder?

"There are so many books. Are we going to have to flip through them one by one to find clues?" Huang Yu felt a headache coming on when he saw the entire wall of books.

“These books have been moved.” Yang Xiao glanced at the rows of books and said decisively, “A person who even categorizes and arranges the files on their computer would certainly not have such a messy bookshelf.”

"Where is the mess? It's quite tidy."

“I mean the types of books. Business, finance, history, and literary novels are all mixed together, and—” She pulled out a book that had clearly been hastily stuffed in, with most of the pages folded over.

It seems the clues might be in the book, but there are so many books that it's impossible to finish reading them all in a short time.

"What is this?" Chen Buyan took out a book and flipped through it. There was a piece of paper inside, hidden very well, at the very beginning of a book. It was easy to miss if you just flipped through it.

This piece of paper is very ordinary; it's just a piece torn from an ordinary notebook. The edges are uneven, and something is written on it in crooked handwriting.

All four heads crowded forward, trying to decipher the contents.

The handwriting is childish, and it seems to have been written by a child.

Xiao Shengyun suddenly remembered the sentence in the diary, "I helped her finish copying," which might have been written by Shen Yao, but it was difficult to decipher.

cluck—

A slight sound came from the window, and the next second, the paper vanished into thin air.

There are people there!

Like a mantis stalking a cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. Xiao Shengyun was the first to react, countless threads piercing through the window and flying towards the peeping tom, but the latter didn't stay put either, dashing away the instant he succeeded.

Chen Buyan and Huang Yu reacted quickly, smashing the window and running outside the instant the paper disappeared, and then...

They were both stuck in the window frame.

"I'll go out first!"

"I'll go first!"

Two idiots. Without time to hesitate, Xiao Shengyun pulled Chen Buyan down and then kicked Huang Yu away.

This is the eighth floor, where the "Golden Crow," capable of flying in the air, has an absolute advantage.

"Yellow Sparrow" carefully moved between the balconies and windows, not daring to linger, because a chilling aura emanated from behind him.

The drainpipe was not far away. Slide down the pipe and someone will meet you as soon as you reach land. Just as "Yellow Bird" was about to touch the pipe, a whooshing sound came from the air.

The "Yellow Sparrow" saw the person flying in the air and everything went black.

"Don't come any closer, or I'll tear it to shreds." His back, soaked with cold sweat, was pressed against the wall. His talent was already biased towards support roles, and such a large amount of exercise made "Yellow Sparrow" feel slightly dizzy.

The paper was held tightly to his chest, like a life-saving charm.

"How can you be sure this thing is useful? Maybe it's just some reading notes or something. Besides, we can keep looking for clues. Letting you go might mean even greater losses."

Huang Yu is young, but he's not stupid. He's gambling now, gambling on the importance of this piece of paper.

As the two confronted each other, a powerful gravitational pull suddenly appeared beneath their feet, as if two iron blocks were hanging from their wings. Huang Yu instantly plummeted toward the ground, but fortunately, he reacted in time, wrapped himself up with his wings, and rolled around before landing steadily.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, "Yellow Bird" stuffed the paper ball into his pocket, gripped the pipe with both hands, and carefully slid down to the ground.

The black thread aims at the opportunity, circling around and then onto the paper. At the other end of the thread, the operator applies pressure with their fingertips, and the crumpled paper flies from the air several buildings away.

The roar of car engines filled the air; there was more than one person arriving.

A sharp pain shot through Huang Yu's body from beneath his wings. He forced himself to stand up, and heard a whooshing sound in the distance, but he no longer had the strength to dodge.

The expected attack did not come; a barrier of light blocked it for him.

Chen Buyan gave Huang Yu a provocative look, and the light screen rapidly expanded and curved, completely surrounding the enemy.

The other party did not linger in the fight, and quickly left after rescuing "Yellow Sparrow". Chen Buyan wanted to continue chasing, but was stopped by a hand.

“We got the item. There are many ordinary people here; it’s not a place for fighting,” Xiao Shengyun said calmly.

He stayed with Yang Xiao the whole time. Yang Xiao's abilities were key to breaking the deadlock, and there couldn't be any mistakes.

Moreover, the other party should not be the same group that kidnapped Shen Yao and searched the study. There was enough time to search for it in the three days after the death of the Shen couple, but this piece of paper was missed. The only reason is that the person who read it thought it was not important, while this group obviously valued this piece of paper.

They returned to the operations office first, dispatched officers to protect the house, Huang Yu went to the infirmary, and the remaining three stayed behind to sort out the clues.

Of the 32 different colored dresses, Shen Yao's favorite is red, and her least favorite is green.

Her memory is exceptional; she can memorize nearly a thousand words in five minutes, but she seems unable to understand the meaning within those words.

[The maximum I can manage is... not eating any food for 10 days, but afterwards I will eat a lot, consuming around 100,000 kilocalories at a time.]

I read fairy tales to Shen Yao, and she seemed to really like "The Little Mermaid."

At the very end of the paper is a horizontal 8, with a shadowy outline on its side, like a pencil sketch.

This looks like a... diary.

Moreover, it was written in He Yun's tone, but the handwriting was Shen Yao's.

Xiao Shengyun speculated that Shen Yao might have copied her mother's diary.

Has an extraordinary memory? Can one consume fifty times more food than a normal person in a single meal? And why would a loving mother keep track of the number of days her child goes on a hunger strike?

...

"Sixth Brother, could you please bring me lunch today? I'd like the spicy hot pot from Sixth Meal."

Lin Mo was packing his things. "Sorry, I might not be back until tonight."

My roommate was a little disappointed. "Okay, then I'll ask around. Why have you been so busy these past few days?"

"I'm quite busy with lab work," Lin Mo said vaguely. Out of a delicate sense of pride, he didn't want to tell his roommate that he had found another part-time job.

That night, after seeing the flyer, he contacted the staff on the other end and passed the interview smoothly, becoming a lab assistant.

The workplace is not far from the school, and the working hours are relatively flexible.

The lab seemed to be researching some kind of fungus, and Lin Mo's task was to record the growth of the fungus every day, which only required him to spend an hour after class in the afternoon.

"Xiao Lin, you're here early today." The person in the white lab coat greeted Lin Mo as he entered. The person was probably in his fifties or sixties, with mixed black and white hair, but he looked very energetic.

He is Ren Jian, the big boss of this laboratory, and the fungi that Lin Mo is observing are his projects.

"I don't have classes this afternoon, so I came here to clean up a bit," Lin Mo replied. His job included cleaning the lab, tidying up equipment, and replenishing reagents, but the inspections weren't as strict.

He put down his backpack, took off his coat, took a lab coat from the sterilization box by the door, put it on, and walked into another laboratory.

Since fungi do not require light to grow, the laboratory was completely dark, with only a faint glow around the biochemical incubator indicating the status of the equipment.

The recording work is very simple. He just needs to input the values ​​from the instrument into a computer with special data processing software, and send the data in a package to the experimenters every week.

Inside the one-square-meter incubator, a large number of thriving white mycelia almost covered the entire incubator, while the white was mixed with red, like blood vessels extending in all directions as the fungus grew, creating a strange beauty under the dim light.

Lin Mo looked at it quietly. These past few days, he had been overwhelmed by all sorts of complicated work, but at this moment, he felt a sense of peace.

Upon seeing him enter, the mycelium carefully retracted the portion clinging to the glass wall, curling up together, just like a small, menacing animal instantly quieting down upon seeing its owner.

"How was your day? You seem to be getting older."

After closing the lab and immersing himself completely in darkness, Lin Mo talked to himself without restraint. Here, no one would think he was crazy; only a clump of mycelium kept him company.

His busy studies, his mother's illness, and the uncertain future all caused him pain.

Moreover, there is no one to confide in about this pain.

“My mother’s illness was getting worse and worse. The doctor gave her a critical condition notice. When I received it, I even felt a sense of relief. I must have gone crazy.”

"I met a professor at the college who asked me why I didn't do the experiments. He said those experiments were just low-level and useless measurement work."

"And what's so scary about pollution? People like me would be better off just dying."

The mycelium slowly wriggled, spreading itself onto the glass in front of Lin Mo, as if listening intently.

It grew extremely fast. When Lin Mo first arrived, it was only the size of a fist, but now it has become a large clump. Sometimes he felt as if it could understand his voice.

Lin Mo placed his hand lightly in front of the glass, and the mycelium quickly flowed towards his palm.

Just like teasing a pet.

This brought a slight smile to his face.

"Hey, are you done memorizing? Why are you taking so long to copy a few numbers?" The lab door was violently turned open, and light shone in from outside. The mycelium in front of Lin Mo seemed to be scorched by the light and quickly squeezed into the dark corner.

The person walked up to the incubator and said disdainfully, "I really don't understand why Professor Ren let a newbie like you join the group. What else can you do besides memorizing a few stupid numbers? Go and clean up the lab next door."

Lin Mo frowned. This person seemed to be from another project team, and he had disliked him ever since he arrived.

This fungal project seemed so important that in the few days he'd been here, he could sense the envious glances of many people.

But as a newcomer with no experience, who still needed this job to make a living, he didn't dare to argue with anyone. He recorded the data, silently turned around and left.

"Tch." There's no point in bullying a good-for-nothing. Chen Ming looked at the fungi in the incubator with a greedy gaze.

Lin Mo gently closed the door. As he left, he saw the clump of fungus again through the crack in the door. The bright red mycelium spread out like blood vessels.