Chapter 537: Killing Two Birds with One Stone
In the second half of the night, almost no one in the base slept. Zheng Yi, who couldn't wait for Jiang Shang to return, smoked one cigarette after another and walked back and forth in the room from time to time, thinking about possible situations in his mind.
At dawn, the rescue operation came to an end and the entire base fell into silence, like the calm before the storm.
When the first rays of sunlight rose in the early morning, Zhuang Mingxu, covered in dust and looking tired, was followed by hundreds of well-equipped base soldiers who surrounded the temporary hotel in Kyoto Base. Their position without blind spots ensured that if anyone took action, no one would be in any harm.
Standing next to him were two deputy base commanders and the head of the police station, Xu Chu. It looked like this included all the top brass in Yueban Bay.
"Captain Zhuang, what do you mean?" Seeing that no one from the other two teams spoke, Hu Cheng had to take the lead.
Zhuang Mingxu had a cold look on his face and his eyes swept around, finally landing on Zheng Yi. This made Zheng Yi, who had no idea of his purpose and chose to remain silent, feel a little nervous.
Kong Zhen, who was standing nearby, took out a photo and handed it to Hu Cheng, "Can I meet this gentleman from your team?"
Hu Cheng took it. It was more like a printed paper than a photo. On it was a man's figure, with close-ups of the front, side, and even body shape and height. He recognized at a glance that this was Zheng Yi's subordinate.
Hu Cheng handed the photo to Zheng Yi, and his eyes wandered between the two teams thoughtfully, not forgetting to nail Zheng's army and said, "Isn't this Jiang Shang from your team? He's not here?"
Zheng Yi cursed inwardly and was thinking about how to deny it, but when he saw the photo he was speechless. It was really... too clear.
He turned around behind himself and asked an attendant, "Liu Yu, you and Jiang Shang are in the same room, right? Where is he?"
“……”Liu Yu.
Liu Yu looked around as if he knew nothing and said, "I don't know either."
"Is he not awake yet? Should I go check?" someone asked.
Looking at Zhuang Mingxu's attitude, one could tell that he had already obtained evidence. Hu Cheng said to the people behind him with an air of enjoying a good show, "Go and help look for him too, in case Major General Zheng's men can't find him. A living person like this should not be lost."
Liu Yu glared at Hu Cheng, turned around and walked towards the room. Hu Cheng's men immediately followed him with a smile.
"Lao Zhuang, what happened?" Zheng Yi said with an innocent face.
"Someone broke into the joint research institute at night and triggered the institute's self-destruct device." Zhuang Mingxu kept his eyes on Zheng Yi, as if observing his reaction.
Zheng Yi and the others all looked displeased, "Where's the half corpse?"
"Where's the researcher?"
The two different sounds came from the mouths of Zheng Yi and the golden eagle.
"The entire laboratory is destroyed," Kong Zhenyi said angrily, glaring at Zheng Yi and saying sadly, "Out of 2,800 researchers, only 328 survived."
“Seven times…!”
He repeated, his eyes red.
These people are a combination of the country's elite experts and rare experimental subjects. They can be said to be the most likely group to crack the zombies' energy, but now they are gone.
How can this not make people sad? He destroyed the possibility of human beings eliminating zombies from the source in a short period of time.
Zheng Yi seemed to have not expected this to happen. He frowned and asked, "Why is there a self-destruct device in the laboratory?"
"The experimental subjects there are all zombies. The self-destruct device is the last line of defense to protect the experimenters in case of an accident," Zhuang Mingxu said, looking at Liu Yu who had looked around the entire temporary hotel but couldn't find anyone and was half-surrounded by a group of people. "Did you find him?"
Liu Yu didn't dare to look at Zhuang Mingxu and shook his head at Zheng Yi.
"Major General Zheng, can I ask where your team members have gone?" Kong Zhen asked, and added, "On the premise that we have instructed you not to go out at will."
The entire joint research institute's personnel were recruited from several bases, and now if something unexpected happens, the source of the problem cannot be placed on themselves.
After Zheng Yi figured it out, he calmed down and looked at Kong Zhen, "Sorry, I don't know where he went. What do you want to see him for?"
"…The self-destruct device was triggered by him!"
There was an uproar all around. Hu Cheng and Golden Eagle looked at Zheng Yi at the same time. Everyone knew that Jiang Shang would never act on his own without orders, which was almost the same as if Zheng Yi had done it.
"You suspect I asked him to do it?" Zheng Yi pointed it out directly, which made everyone less sure.
He chuckled, "What's the purpose?"
"Doing this will do me no good at all, not to mention that many of the researchers there were found and sent by our Zheng family."
No one around spoke, so Zheng Yi continued, "As for what you said, it was Jiang Shang who did it, to be honest, I don't believe it."
"Do you have any evidence?"
Zhuang Mingxu nodded, and someone immediately came over with a laptop.
This thing can no longer be manufactured today. All bases are using pre-apocalyptic stock, which are usually used to prepare documents.
In everyone's puzzled sight, several video windows appeared on the display screen. The operator clicked to open one, and the corresponding location happened to be the gate of the Joint Research Institute.
This is surveillance!
Zheng Yi closed his eyes, clenched his fists, and used the pain to calm himself down.
Five years after the end of the world, fuel shortages have made electricity a luxury at every base. Even in the Kyoto base, only a few crucial places are given priority for supply. As for unnecessary things like surveillance, they basically no longer exist.
He overlooked the fact that Yueban Bay had its own oil extraction island. Although the output was low, there was no shortage. Especially now that Crystal Core Energy was put into use, as long as they were willing, installing it on the entire island would not be a problem.
Before that, Jiang Shang went to investigate the mutant crab on the island in the middle of the night. Was it...
Thinking of this, he suddenly looked up at Zhuang Mingxu, and saw that Zhuang Mingxu's face was calm and no emotion could be seen.
In the video, patrol officers came and went from time to time, and the surroundings were quiet and silent. Then a black shadow passed by at an extremely fast speed and entered the institute.
The speed was too fast and the person could not be seen clearly. Without waiting for anyone to ask, the operator changed the window and Jiang Shang immediately appeared on it. He was hiding in a research room, quietly observing the movements outside.
This is an indisputable fact, and everyone's eyes were secretly looking at Zheng Yi.
Cameras in different locations captured Jiang Shang's wandering around the research institute, taking photos and recording videos with his camera from time to time. Following his route, he finally stopped at a place where experiments were being conducted.
Through the transparent glass, one could see a conscious person lying on the operating table inside. Next to him, a person in an isolation suit was performing a dissection. The man's painful screams were heard by everyone through the surveillance camera.
"Is this the...half corpse?"
"Vivisection?"
"That's impossible."
"Why else are you yelling?"
Several people asked in a low voice, and their attention was attracted by Jiang Shang's secretly recording the video.
The scene continues, and finally freezes on Jiang Shang's hand hurriedly pressing the self-destruct device as he escapes after being discovered.
With an explosion, the video stopped abruptly.
Everyone can see that he may have done it on purpose from time to time, but everyone knows that someone needs to be held accountable for the current losses.
"Do you have anything to explain?" Zhuang Mingxu finally spoke.
"I……"
"I don't want to know who is the instigator of all this, but... Zheng Yi, Jiang Shang is from your Zheng family, and you were the one who guaranteed him and brought him into the base."
"..." Zheng Yi looked at the paused video.
Zhuang Mingxu signaled to the operator, and the other party reopened several videos. The date displayed on them was the previous day. It was still midnight. Jiang Shang appeared on the giant mutant crab placed on the island. He kept observing and measuring the crab's wounds, and even took out some instruments for testing.
Afterwards, he wandered around the electric fence surrounding the island, but ultimately had no chance to get close or leave due to strict guarding.
After the playback, Zhuang Mingxu raised his hand towards Zheng Yi and made a gesture of invitation, indicating that he could start explaining.
It would be too pale to say anything now. Fortunately, Jiang Shangren should have been buried in the explosion.
"I will investigate and give Yuebanwan an explanation," Zheng Yi said dryly.
Zhuang Mingxu shook his head and said, "I don't care who ordered this, he is in your team and I will only hold you responsible."
As soon as these words came out, Zheng Yi immediately thought of the high-level crystal core that was still in Zhuang Mingxu's hands, and his face suddenly changed, "What do you want?"
"In this incident, only four people died in our base, and eighteen were injured. The rest were due to damage to equipment. Compared with the more than 2,000 deaths, it is not a big loss. I will make corresponding compensation for them as a punishment for our security loopholes. As for what other bases want, you can negotiate with them directly."
Zheng Yi's face changed. This meant that the escort team had to negotiate with five or six bases. There were casualties first, and then talking about joint cooperation would be a hurdle.
Zhuang Mingxu pinched his brows tiredly and waved behind him. A small cart connected to the man behind him was dragged over. "These are the crystal cores we need this time. Please count them."
As he spoke, he took out several purified high-level crystal cores from his body and handed them to Zheng Yi, "After the inventory is completed, please leave."
"Can I go and take a look?" Zheng Yi pointed in the direction of the research institute.
Zhuang Mingxu looked at him and knew that he still wanted to find some evidence, so he pointed to a base army and said, "Take Major General Zheng there later."
"yes".
Zhuang Mingxu left with a group of indignant people around him, and the remaining base troops completely blocked the area around the hotel.
Hu Cheng and Golden Eagle didn't react much. They gathered people and started counting the crystal cores. After a while, Zheng Yi asked others to join in, and he himself walked towards the joint research institute.
It was a chilly early morning in autumn. After what happened last night, everyone gathered in groups this morning to ask what had happened. All kinds of rumors had spread, and those who knew the situation pointed and talked at Zheng Yi as he passed by.
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