Chapter Thirty-Two: The Girl Before the Steps
The team members lived in a dormitory with an inner and outer room connected. The boys lived in the outer room and the girls lived in the inner room.
Although they were very curious about the North 1 Base, they held back and only strolled around the military camp until Yang Yuning came to find them.
The military camp had broadened their horizons considerably. After all, it had several food stalls, a canteen with big bowls of white rice, and a cool training ground with a VR holographic training hall, all of which were far superior to their small, dilapidated East Camp!
By the evening of the second day, when Yang Yuning arrived as promised and was about to take them out of the camp for dinner, the team's curiosity and excitement reached their peak!
However, Yang Yuning's complexion was not very good, and there was obvious fatigue between her brows and eyes.
Everyone couldn't help but show concern. Yang Yuning hesitated for a moment, considering that the team members were also well-informed, and whispered:
"Professor Guan was assassinated again last night; it was poisoning. He was just rescued."
The team members exclaimed, "Huh?"
"No, this is too..." Zhuang Xiao was shocked, unsure whether to say that the assassins were too rampant or that Professor Guan was just too unlucky.
"Is Professor Guan alright?" Yu Shuang asked, still somewhat fearful and puzzled. "How come we didn't encounter any assassination attempts on our way here?"
The best time to act is in the deserted wilderness. Kill them all, bury them somewhere, and you won't be able to find their bones!
Do you think their team is too strong?
"Professor Guan is alright, he's been put back under protection." Yang Yuning quickly reassured everyone, adding:
"Our itinerary was known to very few people in the North 1 area. Professor Guan's family and friends were only notified when we were almost there."
"There was some tremor at the upper levels of the base this morning..." He mumbled for a moment, "Anyway, there will be an announcement in a few days."
This means that there is a power struggle at the top, and Professor Bao Guan's faction has retaliated. In a few days, there will be announcements of the dismissal and transfer of some high-ranking officials.
Everyone fell silent.
The sunset was still gentle and magnificent, and the glass curtain walls of the high-rise buildings in the city center shone with golden light, but everyone was a little numb at this moment.
The city is full of tricks!
“The key to ensuring Professor Guan’s safety is to make his research results public to all bases, but considering the possibility that the Advanced Wisps could infiltrate the network and steal knowledge…” Zhao Bohan frowned in thought. “Let’s not talk about that.” Yang Yuning tried to adjust his mood and showed a set of white teeth: “I showed the memory card you gave me to my friend. He said that it might be possible to repair it with the equipment in his lab, but it would take about a month.”
Yu Shuang and Zhao Bohan perked up upon hearing this!
The memory card Yang Yuning mentioned is a drone video storage memory card, which contains solid evidence that Team 1 fled in fear.
Team 1's act of throwing pulse grenades at them to destroy evidence can be considered a betrayal. If this evidence can be repaired, Team 1 will be doomed!
North Base 1 truly lives up to its name!
The city is full of tricks, but the cutting-edge technology inside is amazing!
However, Yang Yuning's friend quoted 1000 contribution points, which was supposedly a friend's discount...
Currency unification has not yet been achieved among the various bases across the country; the contribution points from the North 1 base are even subject to a premium when exchanged for currency from their smaller bases...
Yu Shuang poured all the supplies she had prepared before coming—a new mobile phone, dried mutton (a specialty of the Central Plains base), and pure grain liquor—into her efforts to barely get her friend, who was waiting outside the military camp, to agree.
Yang Yuning acted as the middleman, and the supplies were kept with him.
If this friend is ultimately unable to repair the video, he can only take the dried mutton and wine, and Yang Yuning will find a way to return the phone to the team.
The transaction was completed, and everyone, especially Yu Shuang, felt unsteady on their feet.
The supplies were gathered by the team except for Qi An, and their rapid dispersal has truly eroded everyone's heroic spirit.
Yang Yuning quickly swiped a couple of times on his phone:
"I'll take you to Dongcheng. There are restaurants there that serve live fish and shrimp today!"
Except for Qi An, all the members of the team grew up in the Northwest and had hardly ever eaten fish or shrimp in their lives except for extremely long-distance missions. They rallied again and were eager to agree, but then they considered the price.
"It's alright, it's not expensive." Yang Yuning spoke of contribution points with the air of a young master, quite nonchalantly, "Let's go if you want to eat!"
However, even in this post-apocalyptic world, the young master didn't have his own car. The area of the North 1 Base was so large that public transportation was necessary, so they took a bus to the East District.
Qi Anzhen had never ridden a bus before, let alone seen the "subway" mentioned in textbooks. She felt that she understood the world before she was born even more and longed for it even more!
Dongcheng District was originally a university town, and is now a hub for scientific research and high-tech manufacturing, adjacent to the military and political center of Beicheng District.
They strolled through the streets in the afterglow of the setting sun, passing tall and clean buildings. Yang Yuning chatted casually as they walked, introducing the buildings:
"This is the Institute of Mutant Plants. It is they who cultivated wheat that can yield 3,000 jin per mu, which alleviated the great famine of 45 years."
Next to it is the Mutant Animal Research Institute... The three floors behind seem to be the Nanomaterials Research Center, the basement is the Kuroshio Virus Research Institute, and...
They walked to the very middle of this research street.
The century-old sycamore trees have sprouted new buds, which intertwine with the trees and buildings to form an independent courtyard surrounded by an iron fence.
Outside the courtyard, lush greenery abounds, with winding paths leading to secluded spots. Inside, however, stands a square building of iron-gray, with smooth, even gray-gray floor tiles, exuding a hard and imposing presence.
However, on the wide steps connecting the building and the courtyard, a girl was sitting with her chin resting on her hand.
A bright red coat, a slender body, a tiny figure, seemingly on a different level from the surrounding environment, yet upon closer inspection, they inexplicably blend in, inseparable.
Qi An stopped in his tracks.
For a moment, she felt a sense of disorientation, as if the scene from her memory had suddenly materialized in reality; she was that girl.
But no, the girl's gaze drifted aimlessly towards the sky, and suddenly she saw Qi An.
She frowned slightly, blinked, and during the half-minute of eye contact with Qi An, her gaze shifted from boredom to surprise, and then to sparkling curiosity.
She stood up, put on her pig-shaped slippers, and ran towards the front door.
There were guards at the main gate, both inside and outside. The guards inside were startled by the girl's sudden running and hurriedly shouted to stop her.
"Tan...don't run, be careful not to fall..."
Two more people, a man and a woman, ran out of the building and rushed towards the girl, grabbing her at the same time!
The team outside was terrified, because the girl was struggling fiercely after being grabbed, biting the woman who was holding her, but the woman's arm did not loosen at all, and she gently comforted her, "Go back, it's time to sleep."
She half-carried and half-dragged the girl back.
Are they arresting a child or catching a fugitive?
Qi An involuntarily strode forward, even running, as he approached the courtyard!
But before her hand could even touch the iron bars, the guards outside the gate, along with Yang Yuning, grabbed her from both the front and the back!
"There's high voltage!" the guard and Yang Yuning shouted at the same time.
Qi An stumbled as Yang Yuning pulled him, almost falling into his arms.
But she regained her composure, though she was still somewhat shaken.
The top of the fence is covered with sharp iron spikes, which are also wrapped with thin electrical wires.
I don't know the strength of this high voltage, but if it's industrial grade, it could electrocute someone on the spot!
In the distance, the thin girl in the red coat was being led up the steps by a man and a woman, about to be led into the building's entrance.
The girl had stopped struggling, but she still turned her head to look at Qi An.
After taking one last look, she was half-pushed and half-protected by the two men and went inside, disappearing from sight.
The guards at both sides of the gate relaxed slightly, and Qi An even saw the soldier who had stopped him wipe away cold sweat.
He said very sternly to Qi An: "This is a key research area. Unauthorized trespassing will result in criminal detention!"
Yu Shuang stepped forward and blocked Qi An from entering, saying, "We didn't barge in; we just took a look out of curiosity!"
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