Duan Jingfu took out a keychain from his pocket, picked through it, and simultaneously picked up a complex brass key with each hand, inserting it into the exposed keyhole below while performing different actions.
When he went in, the room was pitch black.
A girl screamed from inside the room, followed by the sound of someone groping for something.
The phone slammed to the ground with a loud thud, followed by the jarring sound of a chair overturning. The girl, probably flustered in the dark and unable to see anything, and having dropped her phone, likely bumped into the chair as well, finally asked in a panicked, trembling voice, "You...did someone come in? Can you help me? I'm Professor Duan's student."
A faint light shone down, enveloping Ruan Chen, who was lying on the ground, grimacing and rubbing his ankle.
The light came from Duan Jingfu's hand, but he seemed worried that the bright light might illuminate something that shouldn't be exposed to it, so he carefully used his fingertips to slightly block the light. The light leaking out from between his fingers was only enough for a person to barely see things up close.
Ruan Chen carefully looked at the person in the light, and when she saw who it was, her eyes filled with tears, her eyes reddened, and she opened her mouth but couldn't say anything.
"Mentor...it hurts..." she managed to squeeze out a sentence, her voice trembling with tears, "Where is this place? It's terrifying! I can't see anything. Someone tricked me into coming here, and the door was locked as soon as I entered...I'm so scared..."
She had almost never shown such a vulnerable side before, but Duan Jingfu seemed unmoved by this extremely rare, girlish side of Ruan Chen, and said in a somewhat cold tone, "Take your things and come out right now."
Ruan Chen seemed genuinely frightened, failing to detect the faint anger and commanding tone in Duan Jingfu's voice. She continued to whine in a soft voice, "My ankle hurts so much, I can't stand up. And Professor, I can't find my phone, I dropped it somewhere. Can you help me find it?"
Duan Jingfu seemed about to reprimand her, but his expression changed, and he didn't say anything. He squatted down and accurately picked up Ruan Chen's phone in the darkness, then put his hand on Ruan Chen's shoulder and asked, "Is that alright?"
In Duan Jingfu's office.
His gentleness and patience towards Ruan Chen seemed to have been used up in the underground laboratory just now.
Duan Jingfu poured himself a cup of hot tea and gazed at Ruan Chen's still-shaken expression through the rising steam.
Ruan Chen seemed oblivious to the scrutiny and examination she was receiving. She pouted and rubbed her ankle, still acting like a junior, saying, "Teacher, do you have any safflower oil or something? It hurts so much."
Duan Jingfu did not answer her, but said in a somewhat cold tone, "Tell me the whole story of why you went into that room."
Ruan Chen told the truth without hiding anything, but of course she wouldn't tell Duan Jingfu what she saw there.
She told Duan Jingfu the whole story, ending after she entered the laboratory and before nobody contacted her.
"I went in by scanning my face as the person said, and there was indeed a computer inside. But I searched for a long time and couldn't even find the light. I wanted to start the computer in the dark, at least there would be some light source."
Ruan Chen kept complaining, "The problem is that I couldn't find the power button on the computer, so I looked for my phone to turn on the flashlight. But it was pitch black inside, and I was alone for a long time. My palms were sweating with fear. I tried to unlock it with my fingerprint for a long time, but the phone wouldn't light up and it told me that the authentication failed."
"Then I heard the sound of a lock being opened outside. I felt that the person who had given me directions and said that the computer in this room could be used to look up information looked a bit unfriendly, so I panicked—I thought it was him."
"Look, Professor, I was so scared I dropped my phone, and my ankle is all twisted. Who was that person? That room doesn't look like a database at all. Is he trying to use me to sneak into that room and steal some secrets?"
Duan Jingfu still did not answer Ruan Chen's question. After listening carefully to Ruan Chen's description, he said, "Say it again."
Ruan Chen's face showed no sign of anything unusual, but she knew that her mentor was suspicious of her.
Repeatedly describing the same thing is usually used when interrogating criminals.
Because people have difficulty retaining long-term memories of impromptu fabrications, errors can occur when the story is repeated a second time. This can often be used during interrogation to determine whether the person being interrogated is telling the truth.
Ruan Chen was well aware of this little trick.
Duan Jingfu was certainly aware of this, otherwise he wouldn't have used it on his own students.
But what she didn't know was that Ruan Chen was not only smart, she also had a photographic memory.
Ruan Chen has never told anyone about this, including Fu Jianzhi.
First, for her, being able to remember everything is actually a mental burden, not something to brag about.
Secondly, Ruan Chen understood the principle that "a common man is innocent, but possessing a treasure is a crime" very early on.
Therefore, she never dared to flaunt her talent, just as she always kept a low profile and carefully hid her face when she was in the slums, trying not to attract attention.
Duan Jingfu made Ruan Chen repeat it three times. Apart from some unimportant details that Ruan Chen deliberately modified, there were no flaws overall.
“I will investigate that person. The room you went to was not a database; it contained some very important things.”
Duan Jingfu finally began to answer Ruan Chen's question. Ruan Chen obediently opened her hands, which were resting on her knees, and quietly wiped away her sweat.
Duan Jingfu relaxed, poured a cup of hot water and handed it to Ruan Chen, who reached out to take it.
The moment their fingertips touched, Duan Jingfu suddenly released the glass, letting it shatter on the ground. He then grabbed Ruan Chen's hand and looked down at her with an air of superiority.
His eyes were sharp and cold, as if they wanted to pierce into Ruan Chen's heart and see through her soul.
"My dear child, what did you see?"
In that instant, his voice seemed to come from the heavens, and Ruan Chen's mind went blank for 0.01 seconds.
Ruan Chen blurted out, "A computer, a desktop computer, and there seem to be other things inside, but I can't see what they are, but they look like file racks? They all look very tall."
She seemed genuinely frightened by Duan Jingfu this time, leaning back with panic in her eyes. "What's wrong, Professor? Did I go somewhere I shouldn't have?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com