Chapter 103

The sound of the factory area iron gate being pushed open hadn't faded yet, Zhao Jianguo was already crouching beside the monitoring box. He didn't turn his head, and the screwdriver in his hand gave a "click" as he unscrewed the last nail; once the power cord was connected, the screen flashed twice and lit up.

Dong Xu came running from the end of the hallway wrapped in an overcoat, his shoes thudding on the concrete floor. "Who? Did you see his face?"

"The footage hasn't been adjusted yet." Zhao Jianguo slid his finger across the buttons, "But whoever can get into this courtyard is either familiar with the place or is after that piece of iron."

The image popped up, timestamp showing 3:17 a. m. The camera shook slightly, a figure walked close to the enclosure wall, moving slowly but each step avoided the area directly under the streetlights. When he reached the outer wall of the laboratory, he stopped, lifted his head to glance at the window, then lowered his hand to touch his wrist.

At that instant, the metal sheet in the wall crack emitted a faint blue light, flashing for half a second like a brief nap.

"Damn!" Dong Xu leaned forward, "It actually glows?"

Zhao Jianguo said nothing, freezing the image at the moment the person lifted his head. Although his face was hidden under the brim of his hat, that hand—wearing a watch with the face turned inward, a fine line along the edge clearly visible.

"It's him." Zhao Jianguo whispered, "Chen Jianguo's watch."

"What? He just left!" Dong Xu glared, "He came back to steal his own stuff?"

"No." Zhao Jianguo shook his head, "This person's gait is wrong. Chen Jianguo usually steps with his left foot first, but this one starts with the right foot, and..." He enlarged the footprint section, "The sole has some grayish-white powder on it, like magnetic powder."

He pulled out the small detector he carried, pressed it to the ground, and the needle twitched slightly. "Indeed. This magnetic powder is normally used in the anti-interference layer of high-precision instruments; ordinary people wouldn't step in it."

Jia Dongxu listened, startled, "You mean, someone wearing special shoes, specifically comes here to steal a broken metal piece from the wall socket?"

"It's not theft." Zhao Jianguo turned off the Screen, "It's signal reception. That blue flash just now might have been a fragment sending a Coordinates verification outward. Someone is collecting the packet at a fixed point."

He stood up, brushed the dust off his trousers, and said, "Let's go, call Chen Jianguo."

When the call connected, the other side was full of static. Chen Jianguo's voice was choppy: "…What did you say? Magnetic powder? Hold on, let me link to your system port…"

A few seconds later, his voice changed: "Damn. That kind of magnetic powder was the sensing material my era used to track 'living beacons.' If someone in the outskirts of the capital used this, it means they've built a relay station."

"Outskirts of the capital?" Zhao Jianguo raised an eyebrow, "Can the exact location be locked down?"

"Can't pinpoint directly, but we can reverse‑engineer the signal reception frequency. Send me the Energy Fluctuation data from that video segment."

Zhao Jianguo complied. In under a minute, Chen Jianguo replied: "The system back‑calculated—Xu Da Mao's old grain depot warehouse in the countryside, about eighty percent likely the nest."

"Xu Da Mao?" Jia Dongxu almost laughed, "The same Xu Da Mao who flips eggs every day and is so scared of his wife he hides under the bed? He can handle high tech?"

"He personally couldn't," Zhao Jianguo squinted, "but in his early years he speculated and amassed a lot of black warehouses; some places even the local police don't know about. If someone used his shell as a relay station, it would indeed be untraceable."

Chen Jianguo warned on the phone: "Don't underestimate that place. I checked the records; when the warehouse was built in '58, it was briefly assigned to the Shanghai Temporary Supplies Allocation Unit. It was later abandoned, but the underground pipelines remain. If someone taps the external power and signal tower, it could serve as a secret node."

"Alright." Zhao Jianguo hung up, "Let's set a trap for him."

The plan was simple: Zhao Jianguo and Chen Jianguo collaborated to make a fake magnetic disk, packed with forged "spacetime encrypted files," and deliberately left several anomalous access logs in the system journal, as if they had accidentally left a trace.

"As long as the other side is truly watching us, they'll eventually go rummaging through the Garbage Rule pile," Zhao Jianguo placed the magnetic disk into a waterproof bag, "From now on, it's a matter of who makes the first move."

The task was handed to Jia Dongxu. During the day, he used "checking for aging wiring" as a pretext to enter the warehouse, and quietly slipped the magnetic disk into the Electric Box's compartment.

"Just leave it like that?" he called Zhao Jianguo, "What if a rat snatches it?"

"It won't," Zhao Jianguo replied, "Real rats won't eat this; only a fake rat would take the bait."

At eleven that night, the two hid behind the junk pile opposite the warehouse, wrapped in military coats, gnawing on cold mantou.

"Do you think they'll drive over?" Jia Dongxu chewed on the dry bun, "Bring a crane, bang— and push the wall down?"

"That's too stupid," Zhao Jianguo stared at the warehouse doorway, "This kind of job demands a clean, swift finish, leaving no trace. The intruder will be a single person, lightly equipped, with a reader, in and out within five minutes."

As soon as the words ended, a faint red dot flickered beyond the Courtyard wall, resembling a wisp of smoke but without flame.

Then a dark silhouette flipped in from the side, landing with knees slightly bent, moving deftly. He rushed straight to the Electric Box, opened its casing, and reached inside to feel around.

"He's here," Zhao Jianguo held his breath.

The person quickly felt the magnetic disk, took it out for a glance, confirmed the model, then pulled a palm‑sized reader from his chest and inserted the disk.

The moment he pressed the start button, the old overhead support frame let out a "creak," and a rusted thousand‑kilogram jack suddenly gave way, dragging an iron chain that slammed down, missing his head by about six inches, "clang" hitting the floor and making the whole house buzz.

The man in black leapt back, knocked over a Toolbox, turned to flee. But as he lunged for the doorway, he found the door had been locked from outside at some unknown moment.

He glanced back toward the Electric Box, his eyes cold, raised his hand and hurled the magnetic disk onto the floor, crushing it underfoot.

Only then did Zhao Jianguo lead Jia Dongxu out from the shadows.

"You didn't tell me earlier that you locked the door?" Jia Dongxu muttered as he walked.

"I told you, and you still dared to hide here?" Zhao Jianguo chuckled, "What if he's armed?"

As they approached, the man had already escaped through a window, leaving only a half‑broken read‑head lodged in the magnetic disk slot.

Zhao Jianguo picked it up, examined it, and handed it to Jia Dongxu: "Take it, this is evidence."

"What can this thing reveal?" Jia Dongxu pinched the small metal piece, "It can't even verify fingerprints."

"No need to verify," Zhao Jianguo said, looking at the dark fields in the distance, "The head's material is special, containing a rare alloy that local factories can't produce. The system is analyzing; once the result comes, we'll know exactly where this person came from."

Back at the Siheyuan it was already dawn. Zhao Jianguo sat under the lamp, placed the head into the detector. Numbers flickered on the Screen, the progress bar advancing slowly.

Jia Dongxu lay on the table, nearly asleep, murmuring groggily, "Do you think… Xu Da Mao knows his warehouse has been used as a thief's nest?"

"He might not know," Zhao Jianguo stared at the Data Stream, "But it's also possible he knows and is just playing dumb."

Outside, the wind howled, and the laundry line in the Courtyard swayed violently. Zhao Jianguo suddenly looked out the window toward the distant outskirts of the capital; a single red flash flickered in the deep night before vanishing.

He didn't move, continuing to stare down at the Screen.

At the moment the completion prompt popped up, his finger paused.

【Material match: Shanghai 798 Research Institute special‑issue reading component, serial suffix -042】

He slowly closed the instrument, and casually placed the head into the bottom of the drawer.

Just as he locked it, the telephone on the table rang suddenly.

He stared at the ringing, not answering right away.

When the bell rang the fifth time, he finally lifted the receiver.

"Zhao Jianguo," the voice on the other end was Chen Jianguo, his tone low, "Don't keep that head for too long. I just remotely checked the system journal— the data packet you received was forwarded once."

"Forwarded to whom?"

"The IP address was spoofed, but trace remnants show the destination is the old frequency band of the Shanghai Machinery Bureau." Chen Jianguo paused, "Listen, if anyone later comes to you under the pretext of 'superior inspection,' don't open the door, and don't acknowledge anything."

"Including you?"

The other end of the phone fell silent for a few seconds.

"Including me."