Chapter 86 Infiltrating the Duke's Mansion "I remember when I came out..."
"I remember when I came out, I came out from another noble courtyard, but I guess that was just one of the exits." Under the moonlight, the group hid in the abandoned mansion and watched as several figures carried something out in the distance. Tou Hui frowned and said.
"So it seems the main entrance is in the Duke's mansion," Sang Zhitao said, frowning.
Touhui nodded before lowering his voice and continuing, "The courtyard we're in now is probably just one of the outposts."
"Go in from here?" Tou Lan asked with her eyes.
Tou Hui thought for a moment and shook his head: "The lower divisions are too complicated. Almost every division can be completely independent. If the main branch goes there, we will be trapped like turtles in a jar."
"How far is the Duke's mansion?" Sang Zhitao asked in a low voice.
He glanced at the map and whispered back, "The fourth house on the right."
“It’s not close…” Sang Zhitao murmured, frowning.
The Starry District is mostly comprised of the mansions of noble families and royal branches. Although it has the fewest residents in the country, it occupies the largest area. The area occupied by three or four mansions is almost the size of a shopping district.
"Should we change our clothes?" Tou Qing stared intently at the people carrying the things, her eyes gleaming in the darkness.
“No, the clothes are different in each area, and we can’t enter this area through the main entrance.” Touhui quickly refused.
Sang Zhitao narrowed her eyes and couldn't help but grit her teeth: "This person is really cautious."
"It seems that everything can only be resolved from the Duke's mansion," Tou Lan said coldly.
“If that’s the case, the Duke’s mansion must be more secure than we imagined.” Sang Zhitao sighed. “Hopefully, we’re lucky enough.”
"If it doesn't work, we should retreat first and resolve the Moonlight Ritual later," Tou Lan comforted her.
“But…” Sang Zhitao hesitated.
Tou Lan knew what she was thinking. The Moonlight Ritual was the moment the Dark Duke intended to make his move, so the laboratory would definitely do its best to research drugs or weapons targeting the royal family before then. If they didn't stop it before the ritual started, then perhaps even more people would die during the ritual.
"Let's go try it out first," Tou Lan said.
Sang Zhitao watched the figure in the distance return to the room, sighed, and nodded silently.
Without hesitation, Tou Hui led his men out of the abandoned house and headed towards the Duke's mansion.
"Damn it, is he insane?!" Tou Qing cursed under his breath as he looked at the Duke's mansion, which was guarded every ten steps and had weapons set up at the four corners.
“Touhui, is there any other way?” Sang Zhitao asked after thinking for a moment.
With a look of frustration on his gray face, he shook his head after a long while: "No, I haven't been here for a long time."
Touhuang patted him on the shoulder, offering silent comfort.
"Looks like that old geezer is getting more and more wary." Tou Qing licked his back teeth and couldn't help but curse inwardly.
Sang Zhitao stared at the person who came to the door, thought for a moment, and then said, "It's not that we can't go in."
Everyone looked at her, their faces full of confusion.
Sang Zhitao watched the people changing shifts, silently calculated the time, and after thinking for a moment, said, "Is it possible for us to go in when the shifts change?"
Tou Lan looked up and thought for a moment before saying, "It's not impossible. We can avoid their observation, but there's no entrance. Are we supposed to go through the main gate? That's too absurd."
Upon hearing this, Sang Zhitao subconsciously looked at her arm.
If she were still using her modified robot body, she would have crushed her way through the front gate long ago in this situation. Unfortunately, her current body can only be described as delicate and weak.
"Hmm?" Tou Lan asked softly.
Sang Zhitao came to her senses and pointed to a small hole, saying, "If you don't mind getting dirty, that's not a bad place either."
The group looked towards the cave entrance and discovered that there was a hole about ten centimeters wide.
"The drain?" Tou Lan frowned and asked, puzzled. "With our size, we can't squeeze through, can we?"
Sang Zhitao nodded, then shook her head: "Not this drain."
"You mean the underground pipes?" Tou Lan reacted instantly.
Sang Zhitao nodded.
Toutan rubbed her fingertips, pondered for a moment, and said, "It's not impossible."
Then he looked at Touhui: "Touhui, what do you think?"
After pondering for a moment, Tou Hui looked up and said solemnly, "It's not impossible."
"Then it's settled." Sang Zhitao made the decision immediately.
Touhui nodded, thought for a moment, and then got up and ran in one direction.
The others quickly and quietly followed.
They walked for about an hour before arriving at a relatively narrow alley.
Touhui pointed to a manhole cover in the alley and said, "If I remember correctly, one of these manhole covers leads to the sewage pool below."
Looking at the small alley, there were more than a dozen manhole covers, leaving everyone speechless.
"This guy's got some nerve, putting up so many manhole covers!" Touqing was the most impatient of them all.
Tou Hui gave a wry smile: "He's too cautious, afraid that someone might enter through these places, which is why he made so many disguises."
Tou Zi walked to the nearest manhole cover, lifted a corner with all her might, looked inside, and then looked at the crowd with a somewhat unpleasant expression: "Normal drain opening."
“Mine is too.” Touqing walked to another manhole cover and lifted it up.
"In other words, all of these dozen or so manhole covers are actually sewer outlets, just connected in different directions. Only one of them leads into the laboratory." Sang Zhitao's expression was also somewhat grim.
Touhui sighed deeply and nodded: "Otherwise, I would have brought this up earlier."
"Are we going to try them one by one?" Tou Lü couldn't help but ask.
“That won’t do. We don’t know where these pipes lead. If we try them one by one, it would take us at least a year, let alone a month. The old and new pipes underground are interconnected; it’s a huge maze.” Tou Hui waved his hands repeatedly.
Tou Lan thought for a moment and said, "I think there must be a way, we just didn't think of it."
Sang Zhitao stared intently at the dozen or so pipes and asked Tou Hui curiously, "Even underground sewer pipes need to be cleaned. How do they determine which company's pipes they're cleaning?"
Tou Hui paused for a moment, looking somewhat bewildered.
Tou Lan's eyes lit up: "Then there must be markings on the manhole covers."
“Let’s take pictures and compare them one by one,” Touhuang said, taking a camera out of his bag.
The four cameras were respectively used by Translucent Yellow, Translucent Gray, Translucent Blue, and the meticulous and perceptive Translucent Indigo, while Sang Zhitao, Crystal Light, and Crystal Blue waited on the side to make comparisons later, and Translucent Green was responsible for keeping watch.
"I never expected to come here and get to experience a real-life version of the 'Everyone's Looking For' game." Sang Zhitao looked at the printed photo handed to her and couldn't help but twitch her lips.
"Spot the difference?" Tou Lan paused for a moment, looked at the dozen or so high-definition photos, and couldn't help but nod. "They do look quite similar."
"Let's turn on a light and compare them together." Sang Zhitao sat in the corner, holding two photos in her hand, and turned on a small flashlight to compare them carefully.
Seeing this, the others also took their own set of photos from the several sets, found a spot, and carefully compared them with flashlights.
A long time passed, and Sang Zhitao couldn't help but close her eyes, rub her dry and itchy eyes, and sigh.
"Didn't find it?" Tou Lan looked up at the night sky and said.
Sang Zhitao nodded and rubbed her temples: "I really can't see any difference."
"I really can't tell anything." Touhuang sighed deeply and put the photo in his hand aside.
“I feel like something’s not right, but I just can’t quite put my finger on it,” Tou Hui said, frowning.
"Jingqian, what about you two?" Toulan looked at her two younger sisters, who were always very thoughtful.
The Jingqian sisters looked at each other and shook their heads.
Seeing that everyone had come up empty-handed, and that it was already dawn, Tou Hui began to rub his fingertips anxiously, and couldn't help but want to take out a cigarette from his waist to calm his restlessness.
“...Actually, if you look closely, there are differences in the patterns on the edges.” Tou Dian, who hadn’t spoken until now, chimed in.
As soon as he spoke, everyone perked up and rushed to his side.
Tou Dian instinctively flinched away; he really wasn't used to so many people getting close to him.
Seeing the dark circles under their eyes, he finally suppressed his discomfort and held up the two photos in his hand.
These two photos are slightly different from the others; the photographer seems to be in a hurry, and the angle of the shot is a bit off.
But it was precisely this slightly off-center angle that caused the moonlight to shine on the manhole cover, casting shadows on the patterns on it.
A closer look at the shadows reveals that they are somewhat different in the two photos.
"It seems the answer lies in the shadows." Tou Lan looked relaxed, a smile appearing on his face.
Sang Zhitao looked up at the barely bright sky and quickly said, "There's no time. Let's find another angle and shoot again."
Huang frowned as he looked at the sky, thought for a moment, and said, "Relight the lights with a flashlight."
As they talked, the group helped each other and quickly took a picture of the manhole cover.
Then the group sat cross-legged and picked out the ones with similar patterns.
Looking at the four sets of photos on the ground, the group of people were momentarily troubled.
"Which of these four sets is it?" Tou Qing frowned as he looked at the four stacks of photos in front of him.
Sang Zhitao pointed to the photos: "The first group has four photos, the second group has five photos, the third group has three photos, and the fourth group has two photos."
"The smallest group?" Tou Lan asked.
Sang Zhitao shook her head: "It could be the most, after all, the underground laboratory is really huge."
"Could there be any undiscovered areas?" Touhuang asked, frowning.
Sang Zhitao thought for a moment and nodded in agreement, "It's not impossible. After all, according to our initial plan, there should only be one entrance."
The sound of footsteps, "tap tap tap," came from afar, breaking the morning silence of the street.
Sang Zhitao frowned and silently pointed to the nearest manhole cover.
Once Tou Lan and Tou Hui realized what was happening, they quickly stepped forward and lifted the manhole cover, while the others quickly climbed down.
The sound of the manhole cover closing faded into the alley before the footsteps grew closer.
"Huh? I think I just heard a sound coming from here?" The person walking around the alley several times in confusion before leaving.
Tou Lan made a few hand gestures and asked Sang Zhi Tao if she wanted to go up and take a look.
Sang Zhitao shook her head, turned on her flashlight, and looked around.
Underneath the manhole cover was a large pipe, making them appear rather short standing inside. However, the smell inside the pipe wasn't unpleasant, and surprisingly, it wasn't particularly messy.
"It seems to be a pipe that hasn't been used much," Tou Lan said in a low voice.
"Judging from this, could the one we use often be the one from the lab?" Tou Lan asked curiously.
Sang Zhitao shook her head: "We can't just push it like that. What if a few companies have been using it all along?"
"Let's look at the photos instead," Tou Lan agreed after thinking for a moment.
Several people, each with a flashlight, leaned against the wall, carefully analyzing the pattern.
“Speaking of which… I feel like these patterns are some kind of writing,” Tou Dian said, frowning. “They look somewhat familiar.”
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