"Jiang Shuyin".
"It's me."
"You departed on the afternoon of October 28th aboard a Pacific cruise ship. The people traveling with you disappeared before the evening of the 4th. On the 5th, the maritime rescue team received a report that you were missing. It is now December 3rd. What happened during the time you were missing?"
In the clean office, a long table was placed in front of Jiang Shuyin.
The middle-aged man in the center, directly opposite her, was the presiding judge. He had a square face and thick eyebrows, beneath which were a pair of intelligent and capable eyes that were now staring at her.
The two jurors next to her adjusted their glasses and gestured for her to sit down.
Jiang Shuyin was taken aback by the political interview-style meeting as soon as she entered the room.
Once she calmed down, it was time to answer the question. After thinking for a moment, she knew how to answer.
“The person who traveled with me was named Xingchen. He came from a very far place to find me and told me that someone wanted to meet me. He said that I met this person when I was on a mission abroad, so I went with him.”
The recording pen next to the middle-aged man was on the whole time, and the jury next to him was also taking notes.
“I bought the boat tickets for him. When we got to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, he suddenly told me that the person had died, and then pushed me off the boat. The weather was bad that day, with strong winds and high waves, but I had experience on missions in the United States. After surviving, I swam to Hawaii over several days using the satellite map displayed on my wristband.”
This is the key point: the middle-aged man picked up a pen and wrote a few words.
"As soon as I arrived on the island, I met someone who introduced me to Leeson, the leader of the Asian community. Leeson demanded that I show him some skills before he would let me stay. I told him that I had fuel, and they then came up with a plan to escape."
After spending a few days preparing, I set sail and fled. Another condition I discussed with them was that I wanted to return to my country. On the way, we passed through R country, which is overrun with mutants. One of the factions was supposed to disembark... that's how it happened."
The middle-aged man jotted down several timestamps and words in his notebook, then recounted what she had just said based on what he had heard. He would pause at certain points to allow Jiang Shuyin to add to the story.
This is a test to see if the person being interrogated is making up a story.
Jiang Shuyin certainly didn't, with an 80% accuracy rate.
Then, the middle-aged man moved on to the next round of questions: "Why did you trust that woman named Xingchen? Where was he taking you? Who were you going to meet? And why did he want to kill you? What methods and weapons did he use?"
Jiang Shuyin tilted her head back slightly and recalled for a moment: "Being curious, he told me that he saw merfolk in the middle of the Pacific Ocean."
Alvin's death told her that the chieftain was not a kind person.
After the saintess took Alvin's body away, her sixth sense kept alerting her, and the clan chief and the high priest both wanted to kill her.
Since that's the case, there's no need for her to keep it a secret any longer. Let the merfolk experience the warmth of humans too.
When you're out in the world, you have to meet people eventually.
"As for why he wanted to kill me, I don't know. I only remember that he was tricked by a group of people. I kindly went to help him, but he thought that the people genuinely liked him and blamed me for meddling." Jiang Shuyin scoffed: "Later, I found him to be getting stranger and stranger. So I followed him out at night and saw him jump into the sea with my own eyes. His legs turned into a fish tail, but he quickly found me and dragged me off the boat to kill me in the water."
The jurors wore intriguing expressions.
Mermaids? Is this some kind of mythological story?
The middle-aged man, ever composed, continued, "So how did you get rid of the merman? Did you kill him? Are merman tribes real?"
Jiang Shuyin was no longer as nervous as when she first entered. Making up stories on the spot was one of her specialties. You know, when she was writing a novel and rushing to meet a deadline, she only knew the plot two hours earlier than the readers, and she relied on her own creativity.
"The merman took me directly to their place, where there are far more women than men. When I arrived, they thought I was there to steal men, and they were very hostile towards me. I knew I would die there if I didn't leave, so I ran away when one of their people died." At this point, Jiang Shuyin reached into her pockets and found the crumpled map in her inner pocket.
"This is the map that the person named Xingchen gave me. The punctuation marks indicate the locations of my home and the Merfolk tribe. I am now handing this map over to the organization."
The juror sitting on the side immediately stood up and handed the map in her hand to the leader sitting in the middle.
The middle-aged man glanced at it a few times, then looked up again. His deep gaze seemed to penetrate one's very being, igniting a fire in one's heart: "Very good."
The middle-aged man's expression remained unchanged despite hearing those two words, but his inner emotions had shifted.
He pondered for a moment and said, "One last question: why didn't you send them to Country A, which is closer to you? You could have taken a plane back from there, but you chose to bring this group of people back instead."
Jiang Shu smiled and said, "These people are not a problem. In my eyes, they are just walking mission points. Besides, I think Country A is too risky. Even if I find a plane back home safely, no one will reimburse the airfare. My losses would be too great."
The middle-aged man raised an eyebrow. During their investigation, they had reviewed all of Jiang Shuyin's records from the past three years and knew that she was referring to the fact that her plane ticket from the United States a few months ago had not been reimbursed: "Comrade Jiang didn't apply for reimbursement, so how do you know the organization won't reimburse her?"
Upon hearing this, Jiang Shuyin realized there was hope.
She smiled and nodded: "Yes, yes, I'll submit the application right away."
After asking the last question, the middle-aged man took off his pen cap and put it back on: "Comrade Jiang, are you planning to return to Anshi?"
Jiang Shuyin: "Yes."
"We're heading back to the central base anyway, so it's on our way. Would you mind escorting us back? 200 mission points."
"sure."
Regardless of whether their purpose is surveillance or something else, she won't go against the mission objective.
The political review team is scheduled to return the day after tomorrow morning. They still have tasks to complete in the next two days. Jiang Shuyin didn't see Lison and Du Ou, so she guessed they had been called in for a talk.
......
The city had only been established for a short time, and there were only enough houses for locals. People from other ships had to sleep on their own ships.
Jiang Shuyin also returned to Lisen's boat to stay that night.
Back in the room, it felt stuffy.
She opened the balcony window, and the thin curtains fluttered in the wind, offering a unique view of the mirage from above.
The signal lights on the bow of the ship at night, originally intended to alert other vessels and prevent collisions, resembled stars in the darkness, blending the sky and water into one.
There were still figures moving around outside, and the sounds of playing cards and laughing could be heard from the drifting wooden boat. Jiang Shuyin was asleep on the bench on the balcony.
In a half-dreaming, half-awake state, someone came to her side.
Jiang Shuyin's tightly pursed lips curled up slightly: "...You were the one who dealt with that mutated giant shark at sea, weren't you?"
The air around them paused slightly.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
