Chapter 70 Energy Diagram "Didn't you promise me you'd mind your own business...?"
Shu Qing didn't take any immediate action. Even in a game, you need to read the level descriptions carefully first. She currently had too little information; acting rashly would have a very low success rate, essentially a waste of time.
She followed the car all the way to the Super Management Bureau, and the first stop was the containment room. Along the way, the number of lost little monsters on the roadside increased dramatically. Normally, she might not encounter a single wild little monster for several months, but today, she saw three in less than an hour.
At this critical juncture, letting them roam the streets would be tantamount to letting them die, so Shu Qing had no choice but to pick them all up, put them in the car, and send them to the traffic management bureau.
“These are all abandoned, superhuman pets,” the animal caretaker at the shelter sighed. “Look, this one was rescued from that… what kind of corporation, and then adopted. Do you recognize it?”
Having rescued so many extraordinary creatures at once, how could Shu Qing possibly remember them all? She stared at the little monster for a long time before finally managing to recall a vague memory.
She sighed softly and patted the little monster's head. "There must be more than just these abandoned ones. Although killing supernatural beings is illegal, given the current situation... Anyway, if the Supernatural Management Bureau still has manpower, it would be best to look around. Or issue a notice asking everyone to return any little monsters they no longer want to keep to the Supernatural Management Bureau?"
The caretaker smiled wryly and pointed to the shelter. In just half a day, the shelter had already taken in five or six abandoned little monsters, all of whom were dumped at the entrance of the Super Management Bureau by nearby residents.
H City's shelter space has always been limited, making it difficult to take in all the abandoned little monsters from across the city.
Shu Qing had no good ideas either. She gave the caregiver a wry smile, left the shelter, and went straight to find the head of the Special Operations Department of the H City Branch.
She wanted to find out Director Yang and Xie Heng's "guesses" about the reason why the monster went out of control, but she wasn't sure if she, as a partner, could get such crucial information right away. So she adopted a very tactful and polite attitude, and prepared a long speech in her mind to persuade them.
Unexpectedly, the head of the special operations team readily agreed, "Sure. Director Yang instructed that as long as you don't take it out and don't tell any unrelated people, Miss Shu can ask you anything without having to hide it from you."
He quickly pulled up three documents on his laptop and pushed them in front of Shu Qing.
Shu Qing thanked the special operations officer and simply sat down opposite him at his desk, starting to read the text word by word.
Of these three documents, two are photocopies of manuscripts by Director Yang and Xie Heng—both of them were accustomed to taking notes with pen and paper, their handwriting was flamboyant and messy, the information was fragmented, the layout was not neat, and it was hard on the eyes to read.
The remaining document was much more readable; it was a written document compiled by the staff of the Superpower Administration based on their manuscripts. This document was clearly intended for higher-ups; although it was not yet finished, the information was clear, with illustrations and text, and it also included photos of monsters and energy diagrams.
Shu Qing first reviewed the draft. This document already listed two different viewpoints: Xie Heng presented facts and reasoned arguments, using energy spectrum comparisons to illustrate his points, concluding that no obvious external force had been found, nor had any stimulus source been identified. He then subtly suggested at the end that it was suspected to be the autonomous behavior of some extraordinary biological populations.
Upon seeing this, Shu Qing's heart suddenly raced; she hadn't forgotten some of Hu You's previous remarks.
Although she didn't explicitly say anything about "past grievances" or "being a hyena," she could still understand the underlying meaning. Wasn't it just that they were dissatisfied with the current situation of the monsters and wanted to "do something great"?
Is this what Xie Heng meant by "autonomous behavior of the population"?
Just then, the head of the special operations team poured her a glass of water. Shu Qing used the water to calm her racing heart, smiled at him, and thanked him.
Her document happened to be on this page. The person in charge glanced at the screen out of the corner of his eye, chuckled, shrugged, and a sly look appeared in his eyes.
Shu Qing asked cautiously, "You're a monster too. Do you think what Professor Xie said is possible?"
"It's hard to say, maybe." The person in charge returned to his seat and said, "As Miss Shu knows, our Special Operations Department often comes into contact with monsters hiding in the mountains and fields."
Shu Qing nodded. The fire rat that caused the fire was hiding in the mountains and fields. Jiu Su had mentioned before that she wanted to leave her and hide in the deep forest.
"The main reason they refuse to come out is that they don't want to be detained and they want freedom, right?" the person in charge said dismissively. "If you were to say that they wanted to cause some trouble to keep humans away from monsters, that would be understandable. Besides, it's not just those monsters..." He hesitated slightly, then continued, "Didn't Vice Minister Hu think the same way?"
This refers to Hu You. It seems that not only did she and Jiu Su overhear his remarks, but he also didn't really hide them from his other monster colleagues.
If he were to recruit accomplices, that would be one thing, but as far as Shu Qing knew, most of the monsters in the Super Management Bureau had lived with humans since childhood and were well adapted to the order of modern society. For example, the person in charge in front of him was clearly not on Hu You's side.
Such impatience is not a quality for achieving great things.
Shu Qing suppressed the myriad thoughts in her mind and turned back to look at Director Yang's point of view.
Given Director Yang's position, his opinions were essentially considered definitive, so he spoke with great caution. He simply listed the information he had discovered at the scene and offered some brief interpretations of the energy spectrum, without making any judgments or expressing any doubts.
Regarding the interpretation of the energy spectrum, Director Yang and Professor Xie generally agreed. However, during the on-site survey, the staff of the Supercapacity Management Bureau scanned the energy infrared image at the site, and Director Yang extracted a small segment of a unique waveform from it.
After removing noise, this waveform looks beautiful and harmonious.
"This waveform does not match uncontrolled supernatural bioenergy, nor has it been seen in any known supernatural bioenergy waveform. It is similar to natural energy," Director Yang noted here. "It may be left behind by a higher-level supernatural being, or it may be caused by changes in the natural environment."
Shu Qing quickly stared at the waveform for a few moments, trying to memorize it.
Then, she opened the manuscript document while looking at the edited version.
Xie Heng's manuscript and the compiled version were similar in content. His characters were beautiful in both form and structure, and could be called calligraphy. It was not as difficult to read as Director Yang's flamboyant handwritten notes. Shu Qing compared the manuscript with the compiled version and finished reading it quickly.
His manuscript contained little additional information, only comparative data from the diagrams. Shu Qing read it but found nothing, yet she didn't give up and opened Director Yang's manuscript anyway.
Yang's manuscript was much more difficult to read, so Shu Qing compared it word by word with the edited version. She struggled to read it, and just when she was about to break down, her gaze suddenly fell on a line of words that had been erased.
This was another annotation on that beautiful waveform. Director Yang heavily scribbled it out, as if crossing it out wasn't enough; he didn't want anyone to be able to see what the words meant.
Shu Qing had no choice but to cut out the line of text, put it into Photoshop, and after some manipulation, he could barely make out from the few strokes that hadn't been erased that he had written "...like...the...demon king...form".
Shu Qing frowned slightly. What does this mean? Is this related to Jiu Su?
No… She understood Jiu Su. Jiu Su had always been most afraid of repeating the mistakes of her past life, and she wouldn't deliberately create trouble for herself. Besides, judging from Director Yang's psychology, she knew that he had meticulously erased that line to prevent others from seeing it and shifting the blame onto Jiu Su, which meant that he at least tended to believe Jiu Su.
So, when Jiu Su wakes up, should she take this waveform and ask Jiu Su about it? Jiu Su can't be considered an "unrelated bystander," can she?
Or perhaps, Director Yang said he wouldn't hide anything from her. Then what exactly did that crossed-out line mean? Could she just ask Director Yang directly?
Shu Qing glanced at the waveform a few more times, memorizing the shape, before turning her attention back to the computer screen. She reviewed the three documents again, making sure there was no information she had missed, before discreetly erasing all traces of her Photoshop work and returning the laptop untouched to the special operations supervisor.
She walked out of the Special Operations Department office, stood outside in the increasingly cold west wind, clutching her phone, watching the distant sunset slowly sink below the horizon.
In a daze, she recalled the sunset she watched more than half a year ago when she resigned from Huiyao Group.
The sunset wasn't exactly beautiful; the towering skyscrapers left only a narrow slit in her view, allowing her to glimpse a ray of light on the horizon—a truly limited perspective.
The Supermarket Management Bureau enjoys a superior geographical location, away from many modern high-rise buildings. She can clearly see the sunset slowly sinking, burning the sky with brilliant light and the boundless clouds.
For a moment, she thought, "If only I could go back to that time."
She then gave a self-deprecating laugh.
As the sun completely disappeared below the horizon, she didn't dial Director Yang's number; instead, she put on her headphones.
Jiu Su slept all afternoon and woke up half an hour ago. However, she couldn't leave the treatment pod and had nothing to do, so she closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep again. In her hazy state, she heard Shu Qing's voice.
"Hmm, I'm awake." The little bit of sleepiness she had managed to regain vanished instantly, and in just five syllables, Jiu Su was fully awake. "What's wrong?"
Since Shu Qing had already chosen to ask him directly, she didn't hesitate any longer and told him about her visit to the Traffic Management Bureau that day, borrowing documents, and the unusual waveform that Director Yang had discovered. Finally, she said, "I want to know what that waveform is. Director Yang mentioned you in his annotations, so you... should know the origin of that waveform, right?"
Jiu Su remained silent for a full minute.
"Little Red?"
“Ashu,” Jiu Su’s voice was almost flat, “didn’t you promise me that you wouldn’t go anywhere and would stay out of trouble?”
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