Artifact Report

Chapter 58: Fu Tailan·Yellow Bird…More Than One

Long Zhen put one hand on the steering wheel and glanced at Fu Tailan with the corner of her eye when he got into the car.

That slight hint of coldness disappeared without a trace as she drooped her eyelids - she was a very professional person, and even if she had doubts and reservations, she would not show them on her face in front of her new boss.

Long Zhen simply leaned forward to glance at the road ahead and said, "Mr. Fu, there are no surveillance cameras around here. Without them, how can we know where they're going?"

"Don't call me Mr. Fu, I'm not."

Fu Tailan opened the map on his phone and replied, "Even if there is surveillance, it will be too late by the time we retrieve it. We can't count on it anyway."

"Then, can I call you Tailan?" Long Zhen paused, finally unable to hold back her anger, and added, "...just call your father Mr. Fu?"

An eleventh-grade student, relying on a title, was airborne into the position of Hunter Supervisor, not to mention that he also brought a father with him into the family faction - Fu Tailan. He was just young, not stupid, and he knew very well what people would say behind his back.

"It doesn't matter what you call him."

Every passing second was crucial, but Long Zhen was in no hurry to drive. She threw a question at his feet: "Where are we going now?"

Although the accident happened not long ago, tracking down Vesile's false image was still a very tricky task - apart from anything else, the team immediately broke up and went their separate ways when the incident occurred, and they had to guard against being caught up.

What's more, apart from knowing that "Wesile was on the way twenty minutes ago", they had no other information. How could they start chasing him?

"We don't know his destination, nor do we know who he will meet with or when..."

Long Zhen listed the disadvantages one by one, almost saying, "Catching them is impossible." "I don't understand why we have to follow him to receive the fake image. If we get caught, it will be a huge offense to him."

Carter Morgan's plan would naturally not be announced to the family faction - what was rare was that Long Zhen, without knowing Carter's intentions, still informed Fu Tailan of what happened tonight in a timely manner.

She is a very capable and perceptive person. No wonder she is not a hunter but can be a hunter HR; no wonder she has always been observing Fu Tailan with a cold eye.

Fu Tailan looked at the map.

In fact, Long Zhen was right; using ordinary methods, it was impossible to judge which direction Weisilai might go.

"Did you talk about a hunter who can detect artifacts?" he asked suddenly.

Long Zhen was startled and looked at him.

"Yes, her name is Huangli Roslin. Because her detection range is too large and very inaccurate, I had a meeting with her, but we haven't made a decision yet."

"A large area has its advantages," Fu Tailan closed the map and said, "Call her. It doesn't matter what conditions she asks. Just ask her to come over now."

Long Zhen frowned and didn't move.

"The mansion... that's too blue. We can't drive her around town looking for artifacts. Without knowing the destination, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack."

"Who said we have to search street by street?"

Fu Tailan did not urge her to call. Instead, she picked up her phone and looked at the text message that had just come in. It was from Carter Morgan.

"Isn't it easy to find out where Vesile is?"

"How to find it?" Long Zhen looked at him intently.

Fu Tailan had already put the phone to his ear; when the call was connected, he smiled at Long Zhen and motioned for her to listen too.

"...Mr. Green?"

He reclined his chair, curled up his legs, and said into the phone, "I'm Fu Tailan, the Morgan family's hunting supervisor. Mr. Morgan should have greeted you just now, right? Could you please transfer the call to your boss? I have an emergency and need to communicate with Mr. Wei immediately."

Long Zhen opened her eyes wide - Fu Tailan set the phone to speakerphone.

"What's going on?" Secretary Green on the other end of the phone was a little hesitant, but did not say that he was not with Vesile.

"Tell him it's about 'time.'" Fu Tailan added, "This matter is urgent."

While waiting for Secretary Green to answer the call, he had just pressed the mute button when Long Zhen immediately asked, "What are you going to do? Is the method you mentioned -"

"Yes, if you don't know where he is going, why not just ask him in person?" Fu Tailan said as a matter of course.

Vesile had no idea that Carter Morgan was secretly planning to take advantage of the situation.

Long Zhen stared at him blankly. "This... is ridiculous! Where do we get any information about the 'time' artifact?"

She was quite honest - to tell the truth, sometimes it might not be convenient to tell; making up a so-called emergency message, wasn't that just up to him to use his imagination?

Weisilai couldn't go into the nest to verify it himself.

As for his special ability, Fu Tailan thought it was his ability to make a seemingly unfounded event sound incredibly convincing. Even Wei Xilai, who was clearly about to handle a fake event, hesitated after hearing this. "...Now? I'm on my way, so it's not convenient."

"It doesn't matter,"

Fu Tailan said very considerately, "You might as well give me a place and I'll wait there. If Mr. Wei can stop on his way back and give me five minutes, it will be enough for us to determine the next step."

The last half of the sentence is not a lie.

Vesile was indeed very cautious - even the cooperating Hunter family could not get him to reveal his current location. Perhaps it was because a guard vehicle had been attacked inexplicably before, which made him alert.

But even after being frightened, he was still determined to make the deal tonight, which was enough to show the importance of the fake image.

"I'll have Green send you an address. In thirty minutes."

When Vesile said this, someone beside him seemed to whisper something to remind him, and he changed his words: "No, I will be there in one or two hours."

Fu Tailan felt that the person in the background seemed to be saying "need to verify".

Verify what?
It seemed that the only thing that needed to be verified was the fake image that he was about to obtain.

In other words, he hasn't got the pseudo image yet, so he has to set aside some time to verify the pseudo image... and the time required to verify it is likely to be much longer than what Vesile initially estimated.

As long as you have an address, the rest will be easy.

"Using this address as the center and a thirty-minute drive radius as the surrounding area, immediately send a helicopter to circle several times to find his security team and find where there is heavy security. We will also drive there."

Fu Tailan's order this time was quickly carried out by Long Zhen - although she still didn't know why the hunter manager wanted to follow the client.

"So, what about Huangli Roslin?" After dispatching the helicopter, Long Zhen took the initiative to pick up her phone and asked, "I'll call her right now. What should we do with her?"

"She's just a backup, let her come." Fu Tailan said this, not realizing he'd made a mistake. "Even if we don't use her tonight, our family will need someone like her in the future."

Long Zhen answered the phone quickly and conveyed Fu Tailan's words one by one. He also specifically mentioned, "You are the hunter supervisor sent by our family, and we are particularly optimistic about you" - as the saying goes, flattery never wears out, no matter how many holes there are.

"Hmm? Yes, we can meet your conditions... Yes. Even if it's doubled, we can still do it."

Long Zhen emphasized, "But our requirement is that you come to our side within 30 minutes. We have a situation that may require you."

Huangli Roslin's always cheerful voice rang out from the speakerphone in the car. "What's the address?"

Long Zhen glanced at Fu Tailan, thought about it, and nodded.

After she reported the location, there was silence on the line for two seconds, and then Huang Li said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I can't make it."

Long Zhen immediately frowned. She honked the horn at the car in front of her before saying into the phone, "Where are you now? I can send a helicopter to pick you up."

"Ah, sorry, I really can't spare the time here," Huang Li paused, as if regretting, "...Does the recruitment matter have to be tied to tonight?"

Before Long Zhen was about to speak again, Fu Tailan put a hand on her arm.

She turned around, and Fu Tailan shook her head at her and mouthed, "Hang up."

"What's wrong?" Long Zhen hung up the phone in a hurry and asked.

Any hunter who can survive in the nest must have the ability to receive warnings and hints from clues - this ability, from the initial thinking and analysis, has gradually been refined into an intuition; the better the hunter, the less likely he will ignore even the slightest strange feeling.

"There's someone next to her." Fu Tailan said it almost decisively.

Long Zhen was stunned. "...How did you know?"

It's hard to say.

Feeling is something very drifting and vague, like mist that dissipates as soon as you touch it. It is difficult to pin it down in words and then analyze it in detail.

It is possible that Huang Li paused before answering both times; it is possible that she hesitated for a moment and did not reveal her location.

It is also possible that Fu Tailan heard the subtle sound of her collar when she turned her head, as if she was looking at someone - but all these illusory clues may have been caught by him subconsciously, and if he really brought them to the surface, it seemed a little far-fetched.

"...Because I'm a good liar," Fu Tailan finally responded, "So I feel like she wasn't telling the truth either."

He didn't know whether this statement convinced Long Zhen, but she accepted it for the time being.

"So what do we do next...?"

"It's okay, just keep going."

Fu Tailan, still like a large cat, curled up in her seat, her voice floating loosely, "Someone might not be so sure. Let alone those of us in this line of work... Living in this world, you never know what's happening in the outside world, or what might come knocking on your door and turn your life upside down. But it doesn't matter. If an enemy comes, we'll fight him; if a flood comes, we'll block it with earth."

Long Zhen was silent for a moment, then suddenly gave a wry smile: "You... really don't look like someone your age."

"is it?"

Fu Tailan raised his head and smiled at her profile. "They say a person's brain isn't fully developed until they're 25. Maybe I'm still a fool now. Do you want to see me at 25? If you do, you can't quit your job."

Nearly two months after joining the company, it was the first time he saw Long Zhen laugh from the bottom of her heart.

"You know what," she said as she drove, "I actually have access too."

"Oh?"

Long Zhen spoke in a tone like a friend chatting, "But I'm different from you. I only took one look at the nest and I knew I couldn't be a hunter. I fear the nest, I hate it, and I don't have the confidence to come back alive next time, so I choose to only work in Blackmore City.

"...This world is really strange." She sighed, "Things like the passageway aren't necessarily given to those who deserve it."

Fu Tailan couldn't help but think of Weisilai - and his request to pay a premium to acquire the channel, which he had not yet made.

No matter what Carter Morgan planned, Vesile was still the Morgan family's most important client; he was also the person in Blackmore City who should not be provoked.

Even if he found the location of Weisilai, it did not mean that Fu Tailan could take action or even intercept the transaction - the timing was far from ripe.

But if you just want to know what he bought and what it is used for, it is not impossible.

To find out, one need not even alert Vesile himself.

After all, there are two insiders in a transaction.

"found it,"

The helicopter pilot's reply came through Fu Tailan's earpiece over ten minutes later—so quickly it startled him. "Wesile went to the private dock where his cruise ship is docked."

If it weren't for tonight's transaction, which was leaked as if by someone, this trading location would be very safe and convenient - I almost forgot that billionaires have their own world.

"No need to follow him," Fu Tailan checked the time on his phone and said, "He should be doing the transaction on the cruise ship. Place a few people on the road outside the dock and see who enters after him. Tell me the license plate and model of the car."

If nothing unexpected happens, the other party to the transaction should be the first to get off the cruise ship.

In other words, as long as Fu Tailan waited outside the dock, he would be able to see the hunter leaving after making a deal with Vesile - after confirming the other party's identity, he could rush to the place agreed with Vesile in advance and continue to make up stories for the billionaire.

Fu Tailan got out of the car and pulled up the hood of his hoodie, the shadow covering half of his face.

He sat on the hood of the engine, looking at the rolling high-rise buildings and lights of Blackmore City on the other side of the sea. White smoke curled between his fingers and dissipated into the night.

The next step is to wait.

But Fu Tailan didn't expect that the first person who came was not the one he expected.

When another black Mercedes slowly stopped in the middle of the road beside him, Fu Tailan just turned his head to take a look, and didn't even have time to see clearly the person who had just opened the car door - but he seemed to have an instinctive physical disgust, like an electric current, which made his eyebrows jump.

A tall figure in a suit stood up from outside the car door and slammed the door shut.

Chase Monroe stood in the dark, looking at the distant pier, without even glancing at Fu Tailan, and smiled gently.

　I posted this chapter early today! I wrote it till midnight last night. I don't know how people who write over 10,000 chapters a day manage it. 4,000 is killing me...

　　Yesterday I tricked someone into giving me a subway ticket and milk tea. I plan to save them all and put them in a "pseudo-report field trip fund" so that I can be on the bushi by the end.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)