Void Jigsaw Puzzle

Zhong Chenmu tiptoed out of the alley and found that he could still hear the three people talking. The volume and fidelity had not changed at all, as if he had placed a bug in the backyard.

Along with this, there are green numbers flashing in my mind.

About a minute later, "11000" became "10111".

"Every 60 seconds, the binary number decreases by one... That means the number I just accumulated is enough for 24 minutes of listening, but now there are only 23 minutes left!"

Zhong Chenmu reacted immediately. He did not dare to delay and crossed Jingqi Road and came to a bicycle shed diagonally opposite the shop. He hid in the darkness, observing the movements in front of the door while continuing to listen to the conversation between the three people.

Although he didn't know why he was able to do this, he couldn't help feeling lucky.

However, the more he listened, the less he felt lucky. Instead, he became increasingly confused. If he had often felt that many areas in his memory were shrouded in thick fog, making it completely unclear, now the fog spread even further, and for a moment, he even felt as if he was having difficulty breathing.

He listened with eyes wide open, and before he knew it, just over 20 minutes had passed. When the green number in his mind cleared to "00000", Zhong Chenmu felt that the surroundings had become quiet again.

The temporary remote eavesdropping capability granted to him by the system failed.

All the sounds that were so close to me just now disappeared, and what came to my ears was the chaotic noise on the street again, even though there were not many vehicles and pedestrians on this road.

Zhong Chenmu stayed where he was, unable to move, as if possessed by another body.

Although he was unable to continue listening, in just over 20 minutes, he had completely grasped the main points of the conversation between the three people - mainly Pierce and the silver-haired man. Of course, he only understood it literally. There were so many points that made him suspicious that he could not understand the reasons at all.

"But if that's the case, what can I do..."

However, he never relaxed his observation of the door of the shop diagonally opposite.

Not long after, the low-key door opened and two people quickly appeared from behind the door.

Pierce and Portugal Moon.

Judging from their postures, they seemed more relaxed than before, no longer particularly vigilant of their surroundings. Instead, they walked down Jingqi Road. When they reached a fork in the road, Zhong Chenmu saw from afar Pierce squeeze Pu Yue's round buttocks and then burst into laughter. Pu Yue was not annoyed, but instead burrowed into Pierce's arms. The two of them continued walking, hugging each other, until they disappeared from Zhong Chenmu's sight.

Zhong Chenmu's mind was already full of questions: "After such an embarrassing conversation just now, they are still thinking about this? The upper body was humiliated, and the lower body is here to make up for it?"

He remembered Guo Ling saying that Pierce's twelve apostles were all women whose husbands had disappeared, which naturally included Pu Yue. But it was clear that Pu Yue's relationship with Pierce was more than just a superior-subordinate relationship. And if that was the case with Pu Yue, what about the other eleven?

In just half an hour, Zhong Chenmu felt that he was becoming less and less able to understand Pierce. The once dignified retired professor was becoming more and more of a mystery.

At this time, the feeling of hunger in my stomach jumped out again.

"Cuckoo..."

Only then did he remember that he had originally planned to walk to the Riverside Square for dinner.

So he turned sideways and walked out from behind the bicycle shed.

Suddenly, he felt a gust of wind blowing from behind him, and he quickly turned around, his whole body tense, ready to deal with any possible encounter.

There was no attack coming towards him, but he noticed that there was a person standing where he had just stood.

He was pale, thin, with silver hair and a slender figure. He looked half a head taller than herself.

It was the person who just talked to Pierce and Pu Yue!

Zhong Chenmu took a breath of cold air, because he realized at this moment that this person was actually floating with his feet off the ground.

"Hmph... no wonder he looks taller than me, turns out he's floating in the air. That's cheating."

He complained inwardly, not trying to hide his feelings. He hadn't expected this sentence to become the opening line of his conversation with the silver-haired man in front of him.

"......"

The silver-haired man didn't expect Zhong Chenmu to say this as the first sentence to him. Without moving his mouth, he composed a sentence in his mind: "I know who you are. To be fair, let me introduce myself. My name is Qingnian, and I come from... outside Wuming City."

Zhong Chenmu heard this sentence very clearly, and two questions popped up in his mind in an instant.

"I didn't see him move his mouth, could he possibly be able to transmit sound through the air?!"

"If he can transmit sound through the air, in the opposite direction, can he also read minds?"

The silver-haired man's mention of "outside Wuming City" shocked him immensely: "Could he be from an external civilization?"

However, he quickly focused on the communication method at hand and subconsciously thought carefully to avoid being "read" by the silver-haired man.

"Could it be that I was able to hear their conversation just now because he used this ability to let me hear it? No, that's not right. Even if he has this ability, the fact that I was able to hear their conversation should be the result of my system itself..."

"We don't need to use conversation, a low-level communication method that's neither efficient nor confidential. Conversation requires first placing information on a sound carrier, transmitting it through sound waves, and encrypting it with language. The recipient then has to decrypt it. If the languages ​​are different, a translation is needed... Throughout the entire process, if any link is disrupted, communication cannot be completed, or it cannot be completed safely and confidentially. For example, sound waves cannot propagate in a vacuum, and eavesdropping during the process is not difficult... But now, we can transmit information directly to each other without any intermediaries." Qingnian didn't seem to read Zhong Chenmu's mind, but only noticed Zhong Chenmu's astonishment, and explained, "That's why I'm looking for you now. You are the only person in the entire Wuming City with this ability."

"So... you knew I was eavesdropping on your conversation just now?" Zhong Chenmu asked subconsciously, without even having time to think about what he meant by "the only person with this ability".

"Yes, although I don't know what means you used, I felt you."

Zhong Chenmu breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed his speculation was correct; it was all thanks to his system. However, since Qingnian could sense his eavesdropping, he probably misled him by deliberately misleading him during their conversation with Pierce. Now was a good opportunity to test it out.

"Who are you? What do you want? Since you said those words to Pierce just now, why are you looking for me now? What do you want to achieve? I don't want to beat around the bush." ​​Zhong Chenmu decided to get straight to the point.

Qingnian smiled faintly. "We are your saviors. Without us, you wouldn't exist. We're looking for Pierce because he seems to have discovered our existence, and we hope you can repay our kindness. Don't you have a saying that goes, 'A drop of water should be repaid with a spring of water'? I didn't expect that this old man is so stubborn... As for looking for you, it's because you are the only one qualified to talk to us - using this efficient and absolutely confidential method. If anything happens in the future, at least we can contact you first."

Zhong Chenmu said coldly, "Why are you being so vague? I don't understand a single thing."

"It's okay, you'll understand slowly. Also, you should know that we can find you at any time, no matter where you are in Wuming City."

After saying that, Qingnian disappeared behind the bicycle shed without giving Zhong Chenmu any chance.

Zhong Chenmu opened his eyes wide and rushed forward, but there was no trace of Qingnian.

Only the breeze remains.

He felt a chill in the breeze. The last words of the man called Qingnian had undoubtedly sent a chill down his spine.

"No wonder I feel like I'm being watched from time to time. It seems it's not just because I'm overly sensitive..."

However, Zhong Chenmu no longer had the energy to think further. The green number in the system in his mind had just been reset to zero, coupled with the energy he had exerted from climbing the stone brick wall in the alley earlier, had already made him extremely tired, not to mention that he had not yet had dinner.