Soul Patch

Chapter 268 Where are the people?

The scorching sun beat down on the earth.

Wenjie felt as if that intense heat had penetrated his body and shone into his heart, causing him unbearable torment.

The group quickly arrived at the Second Precinct.

The car swerved to the side and came to rest at the entrance of the Second Precinct. Wenjie jumped out of the car and strode towards the lobby.

At 2 p.m., the business hall is busiest.

The lobby was buzzing with people doing business, asking questions, and filing complaints... it sounded like five hundred flies were swarming around.

Wenjie felt a sense of oppression looking at the dense crowd. He narrowed his eyes slightly, took a few deep breaths, and squeezed into the crowd.

When he was still a few meters away from the row of workstations in Zone C, he suddenly stopped and stood still.

The surging crowd behind him nearly collided with him due to inertia.

"Hey, I have to say, you..."

"Are you going to move or not? If not, move aside."

"Hurry up, the elevator's here!"

The people behind him grew impatient and ran past him, not forgetting to glare at him as they went.

However, the indignant look on her face vanished the moment she met Wenjie's eyes...

The group reluctantly withdrew their gaze, turned around with a puzzled look, and continued on their way.

Andy and Awen followed, standing beside Wenjie and following his gaze.

He glanced past the crowd in front of him and saw a row of service windows. In the direction Wenjie was staring intently, he saw a baby-faced staff member sitting there.

The woman was on the curvy side... her uniform was a bit tight on her.

Andy glanced at her and asked, "Is she Yang Shanshan?"

“No…” Wenjie shook his head, his tone revealing undisguised disappointment.

Just now, when he saw that Yang Shanshan wasn't at workstation 18 in section C, his heart sank.

Frustration welled up inside him, and he silently told himself to stay calm, he had to stay calm.

After calming himself down, he went to workstation number 18.

The baby-faced man glanced sideways, looking Wenjie up and down. His gaze lingered on Wenjie's handsome face for a moment before his smile turned sweet: "What kind of service do you need?"

"Excuse me, is there a staff member here named Yang Shanshan?"

After saying that, Wenjie gave the baby a faint smile.

His smile lasted less than a second before it vanished; those who know him well would know how perfunctory that smile was.

“Yang Shanshan…” The baby-faced man lowered his eyes, deep in thought.

After a few seconds, she shook her head: "No, I've never heard of it."

Uh...never heard of it?
Upon hearing this answer, Andy and Awen looked at each other, both full of doubt.

"What about Liu Qingqing?" Andy leaned closer and asked.

The baby-faced man glanced at Andy, his smile vanished, and his expression turned cold.

She turned to look at Wenjie, tilting her chin towards Andy as she asked, "You... were you together?"

Women are truly born jealous; they can't stand seeing other women who are prettier than themselves... Wenjie understood and nodded, meeting her gaze.

The baby-faced man sighed and said, "Liu Qingqing ate something bad a while ago and got food poisoning. She couldn't be saved. We only heard about it from her family later. Sigh!"

The three exchanged glances, and their stories about Liu Qingqing all matched up.

"Thank you!"

After saying that, Wenjie turned and walked out of the hall.

Andy and Awen were stunned for a moment. Awen tilted his head and said, "Let's go, let's chase after them."

"Where is Boss Wen going?"

"Who knows!"

The two exchanged a brief conversation and quickly walked ahead to catch up.

As they approached the door, they saw Wenjie stop and approach the information desk.

"Oh, let's go to the information desk and ask again..." Andy looked enlightened.

Awen slapped his forehead: "This...this..." He suddenly tugged at Andy's sleeve, a little excited, and said, "Andy, the life trajectory you corrected last time saved this person. This person's name is...is called..."

Andy, with his sharp eyes, tiptoed and glanced at the name tag on the information desk: "Oh, Zhao Xiaolong."

"Yes! It's Zhao Xiaolong."

The two were about to say something more when they saw Wenjie dejectedly leave the information desk and walk out of the hall.

They seemed to understand the outcome of the consultation, and they all shut their mouths and silently followed.

Standing outside the hall, Wen Jie gazed intently at the row of large poplar trees in front of the door.

He skillfully pulled out a cigarette from his pocket, took one out, and Ah Wen leaned over to light it for him.

Andy dodged to the side in disgust, fanned his nose with his hand, and pursed his nose to express his dissatisfaction.

Wenjie tossed the cigarette pack to Awen, took two steps to the side, and quietly puffed away, clearly not wanting to be disturbed.

Ah Wen was also sensible and didn't go forward.

Wenjie took a few deep drags on his cigarette, then suddenly remembered something. He pulled out his phone, quickly opened WeChat, and brought up his chat with Zhang Meng.

He quickly typed a message and sent it. Zhang Meng always replied to his messages instantly.

"Huang Dongheng, right? I recognize him, but we're not very close. He runs his own law firm, it's in its early stages, business is slow, just enough to make ends meet!"

Wenjie was stunned for a moment when he saw Zhang Meng's evaluation of Huang Dongheng.

It was quite surprising that Zhang Meng didn't fall in love with Huang Dongheng at first sight.

Soon Zhang Meng sent a string of numbers. Wenjie stared at the number for a while, and finally dialed it.

After the phone rang a few times, a rather magnetic male voice came through: "Hello, who is this?"

Wenjie pursed his lips, frowned, and stared blankly at the phone for a few seconds, his palms sweating as he held the phone... This call made him a little embarrassed.

After calming himself down, he asked, "Excuse me, do you know Yang Shanshan?"

If the workplace doesn't know of Yang Shanshan, they can only start by asking around her social circle...

"I don't recognize you. May I ask who you are? This is Dongheng Law Firm. Are you here to file a lawsuit?"

Huang Dongheng's slightly surprised voice came from the other end of the phone, but his doubts were quickly dispelled by his fluent business introduction.

"..."

Wenjie was stunned again, staring blankly at Awen and Andy, then at the Second Branch Office's business hall behind him... The anxiety in his heart was suddenly replaced by excitement!

A surge of surprise, excitement, and joy welled up within him in an instant. Suppressing the joy in his heart, he whispered, "Sorry, I dialed the wrong number."

After hanging up the phone, he almost forgot about the cigarette butt between his fingers.

The cigarette butt burned down to his fingertips, his hand trembled, and the ash scattered in the wind. He looked at the drifting ashes and smiled.

Andy and Awen exchanged puzzled glances: What's there to be happy about? They didn't even get anything out of him.

Once Wenjie recovered, the uncontrollable joy in his eyes and brows infected them as well. Awen leaned over and asked, "Boss Wen, is there any good news?"

Boss Wen?

Wenjie shrugged: "No, the situation is terrible. Yang Shanshan's life trajectory has been rewritten. We can't find her by following her previous social circle."

After he finished speaking, he looked at Andy and Awen, and said solemnly, "Who is controlling the computer in that alliance? How many people are left? Call them all over to work."

It seems that Old Man Luo has not only entrusted Andy to him, but the entire league...

While Wenjie was still basking in the glory of "Yuan Shikai stealing the fruits of the revolution," Awen cleared his throat and said, "I'm the one controlling the computer..."

Andy smiled awkwardly, "Everyone else is contacted directly by my grandfather, so we can't get in touch with them either."

Wenjie breathed a sigh of relief and stared at Andy: "Who said we can't get in touch? I think the Immortal Pavilion is just a hideout... oh, I mean, a sanctuary."

At this point, he looked at Andy and asked meaningfully, "Andy, do you still remember the Immortal Pavilion?"

Andy didn't understand why Wenjie suddenly asked this, and hesitantly shook his head.

Where is Bai Yu?

Andy's eyes showed even deeper confusion, but he still shook his head.

That's right, once their life trajectory is corrected, their memories will automatically be updated to the corrected version.

It's like having a new version of software; after upgrading, the new version completely replaces the old one.

But he didn't; the fusion of the old and new versions resulted in a chaotic and messy mess.

“But you know Zhao Xiaolong!” Wenjie’s gaze swept over Andy and Awen.

Andy scoffed, "Of course we know. We remember every detail of the system mission, everything you said about Zhao Xiaolong, about Jia Song, about..."

Andy suddenly shut his mouth and looked at them in horror.

Upon seeing this, Awen was taken aback at first, but immediately understood.

"System warning! Are you wondering about the system warning?" Wenjie smiled.

Awen looked at Wenjie in astonishment: "Why? Why is there no system warning?"

"How should I know? It seems like I haven't received any system warnings since exiting safe mode!" Wenjie said, pursing his lips.

"In fact, the system has become unstable since the Li Shiman incident. The appearance of safe mode is a typical signal," Awen said confidently. "Safe mode is not safe for patch carriers; on the contrary, it increases the probability of crashing."

Wenjie and Andy nodded after hearing this.

A thought flashed through Wenjie's mind, and another question came to mind:
How did Yang Shanshan's life trajectory change?
There haven't been any online tasks posted recently?

The online task that Andy completed last time didn't seem to affect Yang Shanshan, did it?
Wenjie frowned and looked at Awen: "Are all network-connected tasks launched by the system independent? I mean, is it possible for several network-connected tasks to be launched at the same time?"

After a moment's thought, Awen carefully chose his words and replied, "So far, online tasks have been released one by one, and there have never been several tasks running in parallel. But I'm not sure about single-player tasks."

“Our previous program used the brainwave resonance and magnetic field resonance between the triplets after the task was issued to receive and transmit data… but standalone tasks can’t track those.” Awen finished speaking, looking somewhat frustrated.

All that hard work in researching was reduced to ashes; no one would be happy in that situation… Andy patted him on the shoulder to comfort him.

Wenjie pondered Awen's words and slowly said, "Find a computer, hack into the public security system, and check Yang Shanshan's current social relationships and social circle."

Awen nodded, seemingly confident.

Seeing Awen's reaction, Wenjie thought to himself: Awen will be more capable than Xiao Liu. Finally, I have a teammate who can do the work.

"The system hasn't even issued a task yet, why are we making such a big fuss..." Andy questioned.

Wenjie raised his hand to interrupt her: "Things are probably not that simple."

You won't easily receive message notifications from "yourself" anymore; last time you messed up, the system went into safe mode and an unstable state.

If this information is messed up again, who knows what will happen!

(End of this chapter)