Chapter 143: True or False

The three of them walked for about half an hour, and a dilapidated building gradually appeared ahead.

The building's outer walls were peeling, the windows were shattered, and it looked as if it had been abandoned for a long time. Zongfang stopped in his tracks and turned to look at Qiao Suisui and Ka'er.

"We've arrived," he said in a low voice, "This used to be a post station in Dadeline Cun. I discovered some documents and materials here before; although most of them have been damaged by moisture, perhaps there are still some useful things left behind."

Qiao Suisui stepped into the post station; it was filled with the smell of dust and dampness. Some blurred maps and faded photos still hung on the walls, and some documents were scattered on the table, clearly showing traces of life from a long time ago.

Qiao Suisui looked around, while Ka'er stared out the door through a window to ensure no one was following them.

"There is a log here; it looks like the notes of some researcher." Zongfang's voice drew Qiao Suisui and Ka'er over, and they saw that it indeed contained handwriting regarding "enhancing the mental power of Beastmen."

Qiao Suisui reasoned: "There were also experimental files in the Underground Experimental Base. If I'm not mistaken, the Federation wanted to research a serum that could render Beastmen devoid of thought and consciousness, while maximizing their mental power and talents."

Upon hearing this, Zongfang had no reaction, while Ka'er gasped and shook his head, sighing: "That's fucking perverted."

"There's something even more perverted." Qiao Suisui flipped through the notes, pointed out a few pages to them, and said: "This page, this page, and these few pages—what do you notice?"

Ka'er read as he looked: "'How much is this,' 'Please pass that to me,' 'The matter from last time has been settled.' Nothing special, just some daily conversation."

Qiao Suisui asked: "Does daily conversation need to be written down on paper?"

Ka'er was stunned, then turned back to carefully flip through the entire notebook. He discovered that many perfectly ordinary phrases were presented in written form, and some pages even had responses in different handwriting from different individuals, all communicating about one thing.

"This person can't speak?"

Qiao Suisui said in a deep voice: "Perhaps they cannot speak. If such a cruel experiment was truly initiated by the Federation, the security clearance must be extremely high, and ordinary confidentiality agreements would no longer satisfy the security level for such explosive inside information. So... perhaps every staff member at the Underground Experimental Base has been rendered unable to speak."

Ka'er instantly recalled a rumor he had heard while he was in the Federation: there was a department that had disappeared long ago where everyone had had their tongues cut out. He had thought it was absurd at the time and hadn't taken it to heart, but looking back now, it was terrifying to think about.

Zongfang, who had been silent all along, spoke up: "Look at the last page of this notebook."

Qiao Suisui picked it up and turned to that page, which recorded some daily work content. Her gaze stopped on an unfinished sentence in the notes; the sentence ended abruptly, clearly because the owner of the notes had suddenly left to do something else. She looked back and forth three or four times, but found nothing more.

"What's wrong with this page?" she asked.

Zongfang said: "The time."

Qiao Suisui immediately looked at the time recorded at the very top, and Zongfang's emotionless voice reached her ears: "This day is the day Dadeline was bombed."

Upon hearing this, Qiao Suisui looked at him abruptly, a flash of suspicion in her eyes. She and Ka'er exchanged a glance, both seeing doubt in the other's eyes.

Ka'er was from the Federation, and even he didn't know the date Dadeline was bombed. Neither of them showed any change on their faces, listening as Zongfang continued: "Although this notebook isn't particularly important, the Federation has regulations that paper documents related to work content cannot be disposed of at will. So, if this researcher is alive, they would definitely come back to retrieve the notebook. But this notebook was left here, which means that after this day, no one survived here. As long as we find a way to figure out exactly what happened on this day, everything will come to light."

Qiao Suisui actually knew what happened on that day. According to the Archbishop's account, it was on this very day that they were sent to Dadeline, and then the Federation's warships bombed the place, casting them and the local residents into a sea of fire. But she had never mentioned this to anyone; she hadn't even told Ka'er. Except for Sang Yan, those who knew were either from the Rebel Army or the Federation. Why did Zongfang know the date so clearly, and why had he been trying to lead them toward something?

She asked calmly: "Then what should we do next?"

Zongfang smiled gently at her and said: "We can go to the scene of the incident at that time; perhaps we'll find something."

Ka'er, however, frowned and objected: "It's too dangerous there, Sui Sui, don't go."

This scene turned Qiao Suisui's doubts into an almost certain conviction—the Zongfang before her was different from the Zongfang in her memory who always put her safety first.

She steadied her heart, which was pounding from nervousness, and tried to keep her expression natural.

"I'll listen to you. Then when shall we set off?"

Zongfang gave the two of them a brief deployment. During this time, Ka'er wanted to object but was secretly pinched on the palm by Qiao Suisui. Ka'er's back stiffened, so he stopped talking and began to pay close attention to Zongfang's every move.

The three of them searched in Si Gu Qiu for several days, but found nothing except corpses. On this day, Zongfang's arm was accidentally scratched. After Qiao Suisui saw it, she stood there in a daze, then quickly lowered her head, pretending to take medicine from the medical kit to mask her expression.

While applying medicine to Zongfang, she mentioned as if casually: "The thing I had Ka'er give you last time—after you finished reading it, do you have nothing to say to me?"

Zongfang lowered his eyes, remained silent for a second or two, then smiled and took her hand, saying softly: "Of course I do, but I want to wait until we get out together before I tell you."

Qiao Suisui pretended to be shy and pulled her hand away, saying: "I wrote that letter for a long time, deleting and revising it, but it was all what I wanted to say to you in my heart."

Zongfang stroked her cheek and whispered: "I know, Qiaoqiao, I have received all your feelings." After saying this, he hugged her, looking as if he were deeply in love.

"As long as you received it," Qiao Suisui responded, her fingertips trembling.

After she finished bandaging Zongfang, she made an excuse to leave. When she turned around, the shy smile she had worn vanished instantly, replaced by a cold sharpness.

She had never written a letter to Zongfang.

She had also long since returned his talent to him, but the wound on this Zongfang's body had no Self-healing at all.

In the following days, Qiao Suisui and Ka'er developed a tacit understanding: on one hand, they needed to remain vigilant against Zongfang while pretending on the surface that they hadn't noticed anything, acting as usual; on the other hand, they secretly observed, wanting to see what this "fake Zongfang" was really after.

(End of this chapter)