Chapter 42

Red Shoes later found out that the unlucky guy, Crazy Bag, was not just kicked.

The kick was just a prelude - the next step was a beating. The opponent was obviously well prepared and did not show up directly. The only thing Crazy Bag remembered was the dog.

"Gah, so many dogs." When he recalled this incident later, he was still frightened for a while, "Dogs with such big eyes, several of them, biting me..."

Dogs with big eyes?

Red Shoes tried to understand. However, no matter how he thought, he could only think of Chihuahuas.

"That's enough." She leaned against the sofa, smiling faintly, and comforted her companion insincerely, "Maybe you provoked someone you shouldn't have provoked, so you're being sought for revenge... Injuries are nothing, as long as nothing is lost."

The man, who was barely breathing, exploded instantly when he heard this.

"Who said you weren't robbed--" He sat up from the bed with a last breath, but soon fell down again due to weakness. He didn't even finish what he wanted to say.

Red Shoes was a little curious and asked further questions. Crazy Bag, however, seemed to be stabbed in pain, groaning and refusing to tell the truth, just lying there like a dead fish, staring at the ceiling with hatred. He

looked like he had a lot of resentment.

*

Xu Ming quickly found the answer to the same question.

She and Qiu Yufei stayed in the hotel for two days as planned. Because they had booked high-speed rail tickets in advance, they went straight home after the experience.

Anyway, Gu Yunshu had her work badge, so it would be convenient to find her way back.

As soon as she returned to her apartment, Lando, who had been waiting in the house, hurried to greet her.

When Xu Ming came in, he was standing on a stool, trying to remove the heat sink in the air conditioner. Seeing Xu Ming, he immediately jumped down, turned around and wanted to greet him, and seemed to think of something and took off his apron.

The whole set of movements was smooth and flowing, and it seemed that he was very skilled.

Xu Ming was a little stunned, but Lu Yueling, who had followed her all the way back, curiously poked her head out from behind her, looked at the apartment and then at Lando, and exclaimed "Wow" from the bottom of her heart.

"Such a small apartment, but with such a big man!" She exclaimed in amazement, "Isn't it really too crowded?"

Xu Ming: "..."

How does this kid talk?

If you can't talk, just shut up, thank you.

"No." The fat man, who was eager to get involved in the fun, came out of his bag and spoke in the tone of an old tenant, "He usually hangs it on the door."

"Oh." Lu Yueling nodded as if she suddenly understood, and looked around again, with a slightly worried look on her face, "But such a small place will still feel crowded, right?"

"Then where should I sleep?"

"The closet is Gu Yunshu's, the entrance is for that man, the bed is for the child, and the place under the bed is mine." The fat man enthusiastically explained to her, "As for the rest of the places, you can pick them. I recommend the bay window or above the air conditioner, the lighting will be very good."

Xu Ming:...

You shut up too!

And why did he decide to sleep at her house so naturally, when he obviously didn't even want his work ID card...

Xu Ming thought silently, his eyes passed over Lu Yueling's empty chest, and he couldn't help but sigh again, and his eyes fell on Lando.

Lando had taken off his apron at this time, and was standing quietly in front of her. Maybe because he heard Lu Yueling and the whale man talking, he had already opened his mouth, but he still kept silent, until they finished talking, then he whispered and asked about Xu Ming's situation.

Xu Ming didn't hide it, and explained it as simply as possible, and introduced him and Lu Yueling to each other. As he spoke, he kept looking at Lando's feet. He didn't see the puppy he used to bring with him. He couldn't help but frowned. Just when he wanted to ask in detail, he saw Lando suddenly frowned and smiled.

"I prepared a gift for you." He said seriously, "But I hid it outside. Wait a minute."

After that, he rushed out the door with an umbrella. For some reason, as an alien root, Lando seemed to be particularly sensitive to sunlight. He had to walk in places with thick shadows when he went out during the day. For this reason, Xu Ming specially gave him a sunshade with good light protection. Lando cherished it very much and took it with him wherever he went.

As soon as he walked out the door, he opened the umbrella. Xu Ming noticed a broken rib inside the umbrella. He frowned and was about to ask about it when he saw Lando trotting away.

Xu Ming became more and more confused and had to look away. Turning around, he saw Lu Yueling still looking around curiously. He coughed and was about to have a good communication with her when he heard a burst of hurried footsteps in the corridor - followed by the sound of scratching on the door.

Xu Ming opened the door and the next second saw a lush golden ball flying towards her and straight into her arms. Xu Ming subconsciously blocked it with her hand, and two fluffy claws naturally rested on her wrist. Xu Ming looked closely and laughed.

"Where did this big golden retriever come from——" She exclaimed in surprise, staring at the enthusiastic big dog for a while, and suddenly exclaimed "Huh".

"You are the little one next to Landor..." After confirming the eye contact, Xu Ming finally recognized the other party, and was immediately more surprised, "How did you grow so big?"

She has only been gone for a few days? Do pets with mutant roots grow so fast?

And not only do they grow fast... It seems that even the breed has changed, right? Xu Ming remembered that the puppy he saw before had a very short nose and was white, and it didn't look like a golden retriever at all... Just as

he was surprised, footsteps were heard in the corridor again. Landor poked his head out of the corridor, his eyebrows and eyes still smiling. Xu Ming raised his eyes to meet his gaze and couldn't help but smile too.

"I saw your gift!" She put her hands on the big golden retriever's neck and instinctively called out, "Thank you, I like it!"

The golden retriever is awesome!

Xu Ming held the fluffy cat in his arms, and finally felt completely relaxed physically and mentally.

"..." Landor, who was still standing in the corridor, stiffened slightly when he heard this.

Then he lowered his head and looked at the laptop he was holding carefully in his hands.

For a moment, he didn't know what to say.

*

So, more than ten minutes later.

In the apartment, in front of the coffee table. Xu Ming sat cross-legged, looked at Landor who was sitting opposite him with a subtle expression, and then looked at the golden retriever who was squatting beside him, still trying hard to show an angelic smile.

His sight finally fell on the small computer on the coffee table.

The laptop was about fourteen inches in size, very thick, with a gray and black shell, and looked very old.

Xu Ming was silent for a moment, then asked with certainty: "So, this is the gift you prepared for me?"

Lando nodded seriously.

Xu Ming: "Thank you for your trouble... By the way, how did you get this?"

Lando was very honest: "I stole it from someone else's bag."

"..." Xu Ming silently withdrew his hand that wanted to touch it.

"From a nasty guy." Lando added, "The one who bothered you before..."

Bothering me?

Xu Ming was stunned for a moment, and a distant figure suddenly flashed through his mind.

The man with a hunched figure and a strange snakeskin bag on his back. The one who once came to trouble him, but was finally beaten away by Gu Yunshu.

"Wait, how did you meet him?" Immediately afterwards, Xu Ming realized another very concerning question, "Is he here to cause trouble again?"

Lando: "..."

Cause trouble...

He lowered his eyes, and his mind quickly went through the memories of the recent past.

He followed the teeth left by the other party and followed the breath all the way to the past. When he found the other party, he was strolling along the curb, and when he saw him, he rolled his eyes in disgust...

"Yes." After confirming, Lando nodded affirmatively, "He is looking for trouble."

He rolled his eyes at himself first.

"Sure enough." Xu Ming nodded slowly, with an expression of not expecting it, and his eyes fell on the computer again.

After confirming that this was a legitimate trophy, Xu Ming acted decisively and directly turned on the computer in front of him. But seeing the black screen covered with dust, she tried to press a button, but the computer did not respond.

"..." Xu Ming raised his eyebrows slightly, and pressed a few more times, but the screen was still black.

It happened that the whale man climbed onto the table to watch the excitement, and after watching for a while, he couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"Okay, don't waste your time." He said to Xu Ming, "You can't operate this computer. It's a 'root'."

Humans cannot use the root directly, and can only rely on the form of a rule book. Therefore, it is impossible for Xu Ming to open this computer.

Xu Ming did not have any special reaction to this. He said "Oh", and looked up at Lando opposite him, "Have you ever opened this computer? What's inside?"

Lando shook his head slightly. He himself was not good at digital products, and the same was true for roots that existed in the form of digital products. Therefore, after getting the thing, he just confirmed the category of the thing and kept it directly, waiting for Xu Ming to come back and give it to her.

Xu Ming couldn't help but exclaimed "Oh" when he heard it, and just when he was about to ask him to try it, the whale man next to him couldn't hold back, jumped directly to the keyboard, and stepped on the power button.

This time, the computer finally responded. However, it only lit up briefly, showed a blue screen for a while, and soon turned off by itself.

"Oh, there is still a little trouble." The whale man held his chin and muttered to himself, "It seems that it cannot be used directly. A connection must be established."

"Establish a connection?" Xu Ming frowned, "How long will it take?"

She was sighing, but the whale man thought it was a question, and answered himself: "This depends on the object. In most cases, the time required for a dead person is longer than that for an alien root. The alien roots also depend on the situation. If certain characteristics of the root itself are compatible with this root, the time required for 'digestion and absorption' will be shorter; otherwise, it will take a long time."

To put it in a simple way, a book on mathematical modeling will most likely be learned quickly by students majoring in mathematics; students who are not majoring in mathematics but are studying advanced mathematics may find it difficult to understand.

If it is a pure liberal arts course without any advanced mathematics, it will definitely take more time to finish the whole book.

In some extreme cases, such as when the characteristics of the digester and the root are completely opposite, the time required may even be longer than that of a dead person.

In comparison, sometimes it is more convenient to use a living person.

"Hey." The whale man poked the back of Xu Ming's hand and hinted to her undisguisedly, "If it really doesn't work, just put it directly on your notebook."

"..." Xu Ming was silent for a moment, but did not answer directly. His eyes subconsciously swept to the side and passed by Lu Yueling not far away.

The latter has consciously stopped participating in their conversation since Landor brought back the computer. At this moment, she was sitting alone on the windowsill, staring out the window, with her long skirt hanging down, looking quiet and lonely.

Xu Ming blinked, then slowly retracted his gaze.

- Although the other party was Bo He's friend, from the current situation, he was indeed a good person. But out of some tacit caution, Xu Ming and others all avoided the term "rule book" and used "that" or "book" instead.

Xu Ming once wondered if they were too vigilant. But when he thought about it carefully, he found it hard not to be careful - after all, the other party had followed all the way, and the reasons he gave were really hard to convince people.

She said that she followed Xu Ming and the others in order to better understand the movements of the red shoes, and planned to wait until Gu Yunshu came back from the hotel. But after Xu Ming proposed to give her a work badge so that she could go back to the hotel directly, she showed obvious hesitation and even felt a little guilty, and finally refused with some other words.

Going back further, when she first appeared, her behavior was a little strange - when she asked Gu Yunshu for information, she said, "If I'm not mistaken, you should also care about the woman with red shoes, right?"

The word "care" is very concerning. Under normal circumstances, would you express it like this? At least if Xu Ming put herself in the same situation, she would definitely be more inclined to ask Gu Yunshu if he "knows" her or "has seen her before."

"Care" itself is a conclusion based on a phenomenon. Xu Ming was not sure if she was overthinking, but the use of this word inexplicably gave her a feeling:

it felt like Lu Yueling might not have come to them for the red shoes. She mentioned the red shoes in order to find them.

If that's the case, it would be better to remain appropriately alert before clarifying her purpose.

Xu Ming thought silently, and did not respond to the whale man's words. She just closed the computer and pushed it in the direction of Landor, asking him to put it away first. After

she finished speaking, she seemed to think of something again. She reached into her bag and quickly took out a half-finished work card in front of several other people. She filled in her name seriously and put it on the computer.

Whale man: "..."

"You should know that this behavior is meaningless, right?" It confirmed to Xu Ming.

"I know. But at least we have to clarify the ownership of the assets." Xu Ming argued.

The whale man was speechless for a moment. At that moment, it even doubted whether Xu Ming simply liked the feeling of labeling other things, just like some people particularly like to organize and label things.

In any case, the matter is settled. Landor was obviously a little disappointed because the gift he gave was not used. After putting away the computer, he continued to step on the stool to clean the air conditioner. Xu Ming tried to comfort her with a few words, and inadvertently glanced to the side, just in time to see Lu Yueling's furtive retraction of her gaze.

Xu Ming:... ?

What on earth is this little girl thinking about?

Xu Ming really didn't understand.

This doubt even lasted until a few days later - Gu Yunshu came back once and informed that the red shoes were not in the hotel. Then she went back and said that they were a little short of staff and she wanted to help. By the way, she also asked Xu Ming if he had any ideas or requirements for future employees.

Xu Ming could probably guess what she meant by asking this question. He opened and closed his mouth, struggling for a long time, and finally just said it was up to you.

Anyway, she was not really running a company. Even if she really brought back some weird people, she would accept it. It was just a matter of issuing an extra work ID card.

But in this way, Lu Yueling's weirdness became more obvious - she claimed that she came here to find the red shoes. Since she was sure that they would no longer have relevant information, there was naturally no reason for her to stay here.

However, she had no intention of leaving, and continued to follow Xu Ming. However, she probably realized that her reasons were no longer tenable, so she stopped staying in Xu Ming's house, and ran to squat in the corridor of her apartment, and sometimes sat alone on the edge of the flower bed downstairs.

Later, Xu Ming couldn't stand it anymore - mainly because he was afraid of scaring other people walking at night, so he invited her back. So she sat back on Xu Ming's window sill, and most of the time she was silent like a vase, and sometimes when she mentioned a topic of interest, she would talk for a long time.

After a few days, Xu Ming still didn't understand her purpose, but he was familiar with many of her trivial matters before her death.

And during this time, she noticed another thing.

- A lot of news about "Lu Yin" suddenly appeared on the Internet.

The so-called "Luyin" is actually a word created by a witty netizen, which corresponds to the commonly said "Shenyin". Specifically, it refers to a supernatural phenomenon often mentioned in novels, that is, someone is driving on the road, and suddenly enters another world. When he returns to the present world, he finds that a long time has passed...

Of course, this phenomenon looks very familiar to Xu Ming.

This time, this topic suddenly became popular because many people in City A suddenly appeared who claimed to have encountered Luyin. The experience is also very similar - driving or riding on the highway, suddenly entering a mysterious road with no exit and no signboards. After circulating inside for dozens of hours, she finally found the exit. The sign pointing to the exit had a strange unit written on it...

When she returned to reality, she found that several hours had passed in a flash - the longest was even half a day.

... This also explained Xu Ming's previous doubts. She was still thinking, when she came out, less than an hour had just passed, so what about the people who went in earlier than her.

Now it is clear. Although they entered at different times, they came out at the same time. People who lingered in the strange legend area longer will miss more time when they return to reality.

Judging from the time period, most of the people who broke the news this time were the ones who escaped from the strange legend area with her - of course, there were also some who were obviously made up out of nothing and came to join in the fun.

Perhaps because there are too many marketing accounts trying to get in on the fun, the topic is getting hotter and hotter. Soon, someone put the two keywords "City A" and "circular road" together, and then associated it with the circular legend that has long existed in City A.

This made Xu Ming feel a little uneasy - although the Rubik's Cube Building has the upper hand over the hotel now, it does not mean that this legend will always be safe. Such a large-scale spread may lead to more people entering...

Who would have thought that she was still worried in the last second, and the next second she saw the related entry fall off the hot search list.

Xu Ming doesn't play this kind of big information social platform very often, but even she can see that the related hot searches have been removed by someone.

Not only that, a large number of accounts that followed the trend to hype this incident and spread strange stories also began to quickly delete posts and topics. At the same time, another hot topic was quickly hyped up, and the heat continued to rise, and soon this incident was overshadowed -

but in just a few hours, Xu Ming witnessed the rise and fall of an Internet hot topic, and watched helplessly as the so-called "Lu Yin" was covered by the human traffic frenzy.

I have to say that she is still quite grateful for this. In addition to being grateful, she is also a little curious.

Just at this time, Anxin Gardening started to send her messages again - the one who was looking for her was Shi Mian, the employee who asked her to take notes after the Hongqiang incident. The reason for coming to her was also very simple.

She had already confirmed that Xu Ming was one of the survivors of the Butterfly Building, and needed to find her again to take some notes. For the convenience of management, Shi Mian is still in charge of this matter.

What is different from before is that when Shi Mian came to her this time, his tone seemed to be more polite and reserved. Some internal terms that were hidden before are no longer hidden, but directly put on the table.

Obviously, she has learned some things from Fang Xueqing and others in advance. Including the unit where Xu Ming - or Gu Ming, is currently employed.

This was even more obvious when she called Xu Ming to make an appointment for a meeting:

she directly asked Xu Ming if he had a company confidentiality agreement. If there are some issues that are not convenient to disclose, she will directly avoid them at that time; she also asked whether another contract is needed. After all, in a sense, this can be regarded as a cooperation between the two units.

"In this regard, if you have any requirements, you can tell me directly. I will try my best to meet them." Shi Mian's tone was cautious and a little nervous on the phone, "If you have any venue requirements for the conversation, you can also tell me."

Your Excellency...

Xu Ming was silent for a moment because of her wording, and turned to look at the small shabby apartment behind him. The big golden retriever was lying in a cramped corner to rest, and next to it was Landor who was studying how to remove the mold on the edge of the basin.

"It's okay." After a moment of silence, Xu Ming said, "I just need to tell the leader. You can just come to my house directly like last time."

"Okay, okay." Shi Mian agreed immediately, sounding relieved.

Xu Ming blinked, but thought of another thing.

"By the way." She asked Shi Mian, "Did you handle the trending search about Lu Yin?"

"Yeah." Shi Mian was very frank about this, "We have a dedicated public relations department."

"Oh..." Xu Ming responded slowly, and his brain began to work again.

Being able to directly handle trending searches and even ask various accounts to delete posts and comments shows that there may be more than just wealth behind Anxin Gardening.

Thinking about it carefully, the fact that they were able to find him directly at the beginning seems to explain something in itself.

In this case...

"Can I ask you for another favor?" Xu Ming followed, "It's my personal request."

Shi Mian: "?"

"I want to find someone. But my company doesn't allow it... I don't know if you have similar requirements, but our unit is very strict in some aspects." Xu Ming tried his best to make his tone sound a little embarrassed.

Shi Mian on the phone was obviously startled, and after a moment of silence, she asked Xu Ming who he was looking for. Xu Ming quickly gave his answer.

"It's the family of one of my colleagues." She said softly, "Gu Yunshu."

"I think you should know this name."