Chapter 118 The fire is burning
When all the workers looked over, even someone as calm as Gerard felt his body stiffen, and then he subconsciously reached behind him.
But he forgot that he had no weapon on him.
But...it seems that there is no need to use weapons.
Gerard originally thought that he was exposed and would have to use force to escape from here, but he soon found that the workers were acting strangely. They were not staring at Gerard, but at Bai Wei's finger. But when Gerard moved his finger, their eyes would move with it, like a dull machine.
But in those lifeless eyes, one seemed to be able to see some kind of desire.
But apart from that, they did not make any other movements, did not stand up from their seats, did not speak, just watched.
Watching silently.
This scene made Gerald feel a little creepy. He asked in a low voice: "What's going on?"
"What do you want to ask?"
“Nature is everything now.”
"I'm sorry, I can only tell you part of it." Bai Wei raised Gerard's eyebrows, "The pollutants react to my body. They crave my body..."
At this point, Bai Wei paused, because he felt that this statement seemed a bit disgusting, but he continued.
"This is engraved in their instincts, so even if they have no shape and have been squeezed into juice, they will still react."
Jellal lowered his head and took another look at the source oil in the barrel. The strange face that emerged was still surging slightly, as if trying to break free from it.
This performance is obviously consistent with what Bai Wei said.
Source oil...is indeed polluting.
And what they have been shipping back barrel by barrel and distributing throughout Tianqin over the years, is this what it is?
If Tianqin City is a giant, then the source oil is its blood, but this blood itself is problematic.
The problematic blood has been flowing for hundreds of years.
This conjecture made Gerard shudder.
But what is even more chilling is...
Gerard slowly raised his head and looked at the workers in front of him again. Just when he wanted to ask Bai Wei more questions, the workers seemed to have received some instructions and retracted their gazes at the same time and continued their work. So the workshop, which had been quiet, became noisy again in an instant, as if everything before was just an illusion.
"What...is going on?" Gerard asked again.
"Well, how should I put it?" Bai Wei said, "It feels a bit like the rules are overriding instinct."
"Rules override instincts?" Bai Wei's words woke Gerard up. He thought for a moment, "You mean, their job is the rules, and their desire for your body is instinct?"
"Can you use a better description?" Bai Wei rolled his eyes at Gerard and said unhappily, "Even if you just say it's body parts?"
Gerard ignored Bai Wei's complaints. He just stared at the worker closest to him.
The worker performed his task very skillfully. His movements were precise and accurate, like a machine or gears - except not like a human.
Rules are imprinted deep in the heart of every Lyran. From the moment they are born, people will consciously abide by the rules.
But rules are not everything about a person.
As a human being, the most important thing is...humanity.
"It seems you have already guessed it."
Bai Wei said calmly.
"The people inside...can no longer be considered alive. The human part of them has long been annihilated. What drives them to act are just the rules."
Gerard didn't say anything, his expression was complicated: "When did it start? How long have they been here?"
"Well... it's a strange question for you to ask me." Bai Wei said calmly, "But I suggest you take a look at the clothes you are wearing. Maybe I can give you the answer."
Jellal reacted and immediately took off the uniform.
He had previously felt that the uniform was a bit too old, but he did not dwell on it because the uniforms at the Yuanyou Factory had not changed over the years.
And now, he saw the armband on the uniform.
"Apprentice Dolan (225 years of employment)"
Gerard murmured, "Twenty years ago?"
It actually happened ten years earlier than the Eve incident?
Gerard found it unbelievable, and then he quickly stepped forward and looked at the armbands of several workers in succession, and found that most of them had joined the company twenty or thirty years ago.
After finding out this, Jellal's face turned extremely pale.
If we count the time they started working, they should be old men with wrinkles on their faces now. But most of them just look like middle-aged people, as if time has stopped them at a certain moment forever.
And this... is also a symbol of pollution.
The soul is dead and the body has turned into a monster.
They have been working here as monsters for more than ten years, but no one knows about it, not even Gerard, the captain of the Evening Star.
"...That is to say, when I received the order ten years ago, Tianqin had already been in trouble for a long time, right?" Gerard said softly, "But we never noticed it."
Jellal clenched his hand holding the armband little by little and muttered.
"We have come into contact with it so many times, but we found nothing, nothing..."
Feeling Gerard's chest rising and falling with his breathing, Bai Wei said nothing, just chuckled.
But this laugh obviously brought Jellal back to his senses. He looked down at the armband in his hand that was almost torn, and then looked up at the hundreds of workers in front of him who had been working for who knows how many years. He was silent for a long time, and then he said softly: "Is all this because of the source oil?"
"Instead of asking me, don't you want to find the answer yourself?" Bai Wei said calmly, "There's no way there's only one living person in this huge factory, right?"
Gerard understood what Bai Wei meant.
It is obviously impossible to complete all the work of this factory relying solely on these puppets who have lost their humanity and only know how to work according to rules.
For example, those employees who handed over the source oil to Xiaoxing ten years ago could not have been like this, otherwise they would have noticed it long ago.
In other words... there has always been someone who knew everything about this factory, but he said nothing and kept everything about the factory secret, allowing the problematic source oil to be sent to all parts of Tianqin.
Thinking of this, Jellal's eyes gradually turned cold.
"Zhu Xin Hui?" Gerard said softly, "Is that the person you asked me to find today?"
"I just thought there would be a big fish here, and I wanted you to come and catch it."
"Yeah?"
Gerard didn't say anything else, just nodded, then closed the source oil barrel in front of him that had already formed a strange face, and then walked out of the workshop.
This time, he was not as cautious as when he came, but walked out openly and without any concealment.
He even deliberately knocked down one or two of the workers, then stopped and looked at them, as if he wanted to see some reaction from them.
There was a hint of hope in Gerard's eyes.
But the worker who was knocked down didn't react at all, didn't say anything, and even his expression didn't change. He just stood up numbly like a puppet, and then returned to his post and continued working.
Then that hope disappeared.
Just like that, Gerard walked to the door of the workshop in silence, then turned around and looked.
The workshop is still working.
Although he already had the answer in his mind, Jellal couldn't help but ask: "Do they... have any other options?"
Bai Wei had already guessed that Gerard would feel guilty. Given his personality, he would definitely think that it was the source oil they brought back that killed these people.
Bai Wei didn't hate this kind of self-blame. He chuckled and asked, "How did you do it in the polluted area?"
Before Gerard could respond, Bai Wei continued to speak slowly.
"If it's rotten, just burn it to ashes. If you don't want to do it, I can help you."
Gerard naturally heard the double entendre in Bai Wei's words.
He was silent for a moment, then nodded slightly: "I understand."
So after a while.
fire,
It caught fire.
My work and rest schedule is getting more and more chaotic, I wonder if I should ask for a leave to adjust it. If not, the next chapter will also be in the early morning, if yes, I will update it the day after tomorrow, and then finish this volume in one go.
(End of this chapter)
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