Chapter 214 Ghostly Figures in the Files
At the very back of the small building of the Northwest Resources Administration Bureau, there is an archive room that is locked year-round.
Ma Weiguo's fawning face was exactly the same as that scoundrel security guard who had blocked the door earlier.
With a jingling bunch of keys, he laboriously opened the rusty padlock. A dull, musty smell, a mixture of rotting paper and dust, hit him, making him cough.
He led the way, bowing and scraping, while fanning himself with his sleeve: "Comrade Lu, Miss Su, it's dark inside, watch your step, watch your step."
The archives were dark, lit only by the faint light filtering in from the doorway. Rows of metal cabinets stood crookedly, covered in a thick layer of dust, and scattered on the floor were tattered, chewed-up pieces of paper, clearly the work of rats.
Ma Weiguo walked straight to the innermost safe, took out a small key from his pocket, fiddled with the key for a while, and finally opened it with a "click".
He pulled out a brown paper bag, yellowed and brittle, the seal broken. He handed it over, a genuinely sincere smile etched on his chubby face:
"Found it! Found it! This is it! This is the only copy left of the original research team's backup file!"
Lu Jingyan took it without saying a word.
Bai Shu stepped forward, took the paper bag from his hand, and walked to a brighter spot by the door, carefully emptying its contents.
There wasn't much stuff, just a thin little stack of paper, so fragile it looked like it would break at the slightest touch.
The contents were mostly unimportant itinerary records and logistical supply lists. Bai Shu flipped through the pages slowly and carefully. Her long, slender, and fair fingers contrasted sharply with the yellowed paper.
Suddenly, she stopped.
She held the edge of a sheet of paper, the latter half of which showed very obvious signs of being torn.
"Director Ma," Bai Shu looked up, her voice still soft and gentle, revealing neither joy nor anger, "Why were these pages torn out?"
Ma Weiguo quickly came over and took a look. He immediately slapped his thigh and exclaimed in annoyance, "Oh dear! It must have been those damned rats! Those beasts will gnaw on anything! Look at the ground they've ruined!"
Bai Shu ignored his performance and continued flipping through the pages.
She soon discovered that almost all the pages in this so-called "backup file" that contained the specific list of members of the scientific expedition team, as well as their respective research directions and professional backgrounds, had been torn out, leaving only some vague job titles.
This wasn't gnawed by rats at all. Someone is deliberately erasing the existence of those people.
Just then, a black and white photograph slipped out from between the pages of the file and floated gently to the ground.
Qin Zheng quickly picked it up and handed it to Bai Shu.
It was a large group photo, with bare rocks as the background. In the photo, a group of people in search and rescue team uniforms huddled together, their faces showing the exhaustion of having completed a mission.
Bai Shu's gaze swept across the photos, finally settling on the face of a young soldier in the far corner of the back row. The soldier was very young, probably not even twenty years old, with dark skin and chapped lips, but his eyes, like those of a stubborn wolf cub, revealed a determination and melancholy beyond his years.
"Who is this person?" Bai Shu pointed to the figure in the photo with his fingertip.
Ma Weiguo's expression changed, but only for a fleeting moment, so quickly it was almost imperceptible. He leaned closer to look and mumbled:
"Oh, this guy? It's been too long, I can't remember. He was probably just a regular soldier who retired and went back to his hometown. There are plenty of guys like that."
"Really?" Bai Shu smiled slightly, didn't ask any more questions, and casually put the photo into her pocket.
Her movements were natural, and Ma Weiguo saw it all but assumed she was just a young girl curious about these old photos and didn't take it to heart.
He didn't know that Bai Shu recognized him the moment he saw those eyes.
Those eyes were exactly the same as those of the hunched-over old waiter who silently brought them hot water to their room last night at the guesthouse.
Lu Jingyan's attention was on another piece of paper. It was a material handover form that had been forgotten at the bottom of a file folder, and because it was folded, it escaped being torn up.
At the very bottom of the handover form was a name signed in a flamboyant and elegant style.
The handwriting is powerful and penetrating.
—Shi Gandang.
Lu Jingyan's pupils contracted sharply when he saw the name.
He was all too familiar with that name.
Back when his father, Lu Zhenguo, was still leading troops at the grassroots level, his most trusted bodyguard was named Shi Gandang. Later, Shi Gandang was sent to carry out a top-secret escort mission, and then, on charges of "mission failure and serious dereliction of duty," he was forced to retire and disappeared without a trace.
The Lu family did try to find them, but all the clues were gone, completely lost in this yellow sand.
So, this is where he came from.
It turns out that he was also involved in the disappearance of the scientific expedition team twenty years ago.
Lu Jingyan slowly raised his head and exchanged a glance with Bai Shu.
Neither of them said anything, yet they already understood each other's meaning.
......
That evening, Bai Zhu did not eat the communal meal provided by the guesthouse.
She approached the manager of the guesthouse and explained that she had just arrived and was experiencing stomach discomfort due to the change in environment. She asked if someone could help her brew a bowl of local herbal soup to warm her stomach.
Not long after, the old waiter they had seen in the photo during the day knocked on their door, carrying a chipped, rough porcelain bowl.
"Comrade, here's your soup." His voice was hoarse, and his head was bowed low.
"Thank you, sir. Please come in." Bai Shu opened the door himself and warmly welcomed him in.
Inside the room, Lu Jingyan was sitting at the table wiping a dagger, with only a dim desk lamp on.
The old waiter put the bowl on the table and turned to leave.
"oops!"
Bai Shu suddenly let out a soft cry. She was taking a handkerchief out of her coat pocket when the group photo of the search and rescue team was "accidentally" pulled out and floated to the ground, landing right at the old waiter's feet.
The elderly waiter instinctively bent down to pick it up.
When he saw the person in the photo clearly, his whole body stiffened suddenly, as if he had been struck by lightning.
His hand holding the bowl trembled violently uncontrollably, spilling the soup and scalding the back of his hand, but he felt nothing.
He slowly raised his head, and his eyes, which had always been cloudy and seemed to be covered with a layer of death, suddenly burst forth with a terrifying light.
He stared intently at Bai Zhi, then glanced at the composed Lu Jingyan beside him and shouted.
"Who...who are you people?!"
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