Chapter 646

In the old bookstore, the oil lamp was lit.

Jie Ming sat on a rocking chair, holding a newspaper in his hand.

His posture was exactly the same as usual: leaning back slightly, feet crossed, the newspaper covering most of his face.

Hearing the door sound, he put down the newspaper, revealing that ordinary, inconspicuous face that looked less than thirty years old.

His gaze swept from Harding to Dirk, and then swept back from Dirk, without any extra expression.

"You can look around as you like." He said, his voice neither cold nor hot.

Not surprised, not nervous, not curious.

Just like seeing two ordinary customers walk in.

However, this attitude made Harding believe his inner guess even more.

After all, they came in uniforms, and the other party did not have much reaction when seeing them, which meant they had expected it long ago.

Harding did not go to flip through the bookshelf.

He walked to the rocking chair and sat down on the stool opposite Jie Ming.

Dirk stood at the door, hands hanging by his sides, his posture relaxed but his eyes had never left Jie Ming's hands.

"We are not here to read books." Harding went straight to the point.

Jie Ming looked at him without speaking.

"The improved gene potion on the black market was made by you."

Harding's tone was very flat, like stating a fact he had confirmed countless times.

Jie Ming's expression did not change at all.

He neither denied nor admitted it.

Just folded the newspaper, placed it on the table, and then leaned on the back of the rocking chair, hands crossed on his abdomen, looking at Harding calmly. "This shouldn't be against the law, right?" He said.

Harding was a bit surprised by his reaction, and could not help but look at Jie Ming carefully.

His expression looked exceptionally relaxed in the orange-yellow light of the oil lamp, as if chatting with an old friend.

The corner of Harding's mouth moved slightly, not knowing whether he wanted to laugh or frown.

"Generally speaking, gene improvement experiments without a license are illegal." He said, "But your situation is special."

"Special in what way?"

"Special in that the potions you improved indeed had an increased success rate, and there was no increase in side effects." Harding's tone became more serious, "The Association's laboratory has tested it, and your improvement plan is theoretically established. Although we don't know how you did it, the results are there."

Jie Ming nodded, still not speaking.

Harding paused for a few seconds, as if organizing language, and then directly stated the purpose of this trip.

"The Spirit Medium Association hopes to recruit you. Full-time, generous treatment, and the Association can help you deal with all historical problems... no matter which city's wanted order it is, the Association can settle it."

Jie Ming's eyebrows moved slightly, as if he was moved by the conditions Harding said.

"If you are not willing to be recruited." Harding continued, "The Association also hopes to cooperate with you. The specific form can be discussed, but the core content is very simple: the Association provides the resources and protection you need, and you provide your technology and research results."

Jie Ming did not answer immediately.

He leaned on the rocking chair, his gaze moved away from Harding's face and fell on the light bulb that was not turned on on the ceiling.

The silence lasted for about five seconds, and then he looked at Harding again.

"I choose to cooperate." He said, "I need anomalous materials. All levels, complete or fragments are fine. I also need the Association's internal research data... not too core ones, mainly those raw data about anomalous characteristics that are not open to the public."

Harding's expression did not change, but a trace of satisfaction flashed in his eyes.

"Materials and data can be provided. In exchange, you need to improve and strengthen gene potions for the Association, and assist in researching some difficult research tasks."

"Can."

Jie Ming's answer was very crisp, so crisp that even Dirk was slightly stunned.

Harding looked at Jie Ming, as if confirming whether he was perfunctory.

But Jie Ming's eyes were very stable, without any flickering.

"Then it's settled." Harding stood up, took out a folded piece of paper from the inside pocket of his uniform, and placed it on the table next to Jie Ming. "This is a template of the Association's cooperation agreement. You can change the terms, and after changing, hand it to Dirk. He will transfer it to the Association's legal department." Jie Ming picked up the piece of paper, unfolded it, scanned it quickly, then folded it again and put it in his pocket.

"Three days later." He said.

Harding nodded and turned to walk toward the door.

Dirk followed behind him, and when he reached the door, he looked back at Jie Ming.

Dirk did not expect this time to be so smooth, feeling that it was not them looking for Jie Ming, but more like Jie Ming looking for them.

The wooden door closed.

The creaking sound of the door axis echoed in the quiet room for a few seconds, and then dissipated.

Jie Ming sat on the rocking chair, not picking up the newspaper again.

He closed his eyes for a moment, and a smile with a trace of smugness appeared on the corner of his mouth: "My acting is indeed perfect."

As for the cooperation between the two sides, it had long been in Jie Ming's expectation, and there was nothing to be smug about.

Even the actions of the two, he had already received news through the Eye of Micro-Light.

It could be said that everything was under control.

Two months ago, he came to this city.

In two months, he did a few things: study anomalies, collect materials, renovate the Eye of Micro-Light, capture the Shadow Thief, synthesize the Shadow Anomaly. But another thing he did started from the first day he came to this city: layout.

Trading improved gene potions with black intermediaries was not a whim, but a deliberate arrangement.

He needed to attract the attention of major forces, needed to let those people in this city who had strength and resources know that there was a researcher here who could improve the success rate of gene potions.

Even the success rate number he improved was carefully arranged by him.

If it was too small, no one would pay attention, and if it was too big, it would arouse unnecessary vigilance.

5%, just between "worth paying attention to" and "acceptable."

He originally thought the Spirit Medium Association would come to the door earlier.

But the appearance of those black-robed cultists disrupted the rhythm, and the Association people were busy chasing the internal ghost, shelving this matter.

But it's not bad now.

Successfully connecting with a big force, and it was the strongest official force in this plane, which meant that his research material supply problem was no longer a problem from today.

The Spirit Medium Association had a hundred years of accumulation, had an intelligence network covering the entire plane, and had a systematic anomalous collection and classification system. Those fragments he spent a lot of effort to find from the black market, those complete anomalous samples that were hard to find, were just inventory in the warehouse for the Association.

As a "cooperative researcher" recognized by the Spirit Medium Association, as long as he could produce enough results, he would naturally not have to worry about the material supply problem later.

Jie Ming stood up from the rocking chair, walked behind the bookshelf, and pushed open the door leading to the basement.

Silver-white light surged up from under the stairs, pulling his shadow very long.

Now, he needed to prepare a modification plan for the cooperation agreement.

In addition, he also needed a list of research results that could prove he was "worth cooperating with."