Bei Jiang was not at the Du Store Hua. She only received news that Xu Chuyao and the others had arrived in Yingxunsi City, saying that she would not be able to make it until tomorrow, while Si would be able to arrive in the afternoon.
“Then take your time coming. Tomorrow, during the day, I have to go to the review office to handle some official matters.”
After hanging up the phone, Li Yao went straight to bed.
Since everyone had their own single room, Shen Ning sat alone for a while. Under the constant pressure of her personality, she felt a slight urge to go and knock on someone’s door.
But the image of a crumbling shadow reminded her: this time, it was a team-building activity with Teacher and classmates. Everyone was staying just next door, and if anyone saw or heard her, it wouldn’t look good.
So the young girl silently gave up on the idea.
Although her personality’s shadow kept murmuring in the hotel, saying things like, “Li, on the plane, you stared at her chest like you’d never seen one before. You might as well just sneak into her room at one in the morning. Have you never watched ‘Journey to the West’ or what?”—but Shen Ning pretended not to hear. After all, she felt that even if Li really did look at her, it was most likely just to find an excuse to mock her for a long time.
Better to sleep. Zzzz…
Across eight time zones, in Yingxunsi City, dawn arrived.
As a political center, Yingxunsi City’s prosperity and bustle had little to do with the locals. When there was nothing important going on, it seemed especially cold and quiet.
Xu Chuyao clearly remembered the day she attended the Hearing. The main roads leading to the venue had been packed tight with people, and crowds of onlookers from other countries had gathered outside the gates. But today, the way was completely clear and unimpeded. The Zhou Nation was peaceful and quiet.
But this time, she was not going to the central assembly hall, but to a side annex—a building said to be used for private questioning and recording.
Shen Ning had been here before. The last time Li Yao participated in a Hearing, Shen Ning had reported her own experiment experience in a small room right next door.
“There’s nothing special about it—just a small room for questioning, a bit musty, and the people there don’t like turning on the lights. They just use a low-watt bulb,” Yao had told her girlfriend.
Xu Chuyao, of course, knew that the people at the review office didn’t dislike lights. They were just trying to set a mood, to intimidate those being questioned. But that didn’t matter—Chuyao wasn’t afraid.
“Just wait for me in the hall. I’ll be out in a bit.”
Yu Yan, Cheng Chen, and Shen Ning, three Third Rank Peak practitioners, stood guard at the door of the small house, watching Xu Chuyao walk in alone. Xiao Si Nuo had gone to buy breakfast for everyone.
Footsteps. A switch clicks on. Just as her girlfriend had said, only a snake-yellow bulb lit the room.
“Name?”
“Xu Chuyao.”
“Age?”
“Seventeen, eight steps.”
“Gender?”
Xu Chuyao didn’t want to answer—not because she had been a boy four years ago (though that was part of it), but mainly because the question itself was so unnecessary.
“Why aren’t you answering?” The interrogator raised her voice. “I’m asking you a question. Please cooperate properly!”
The other party was a woman in her thirties—not young, not old. At this age, in this position, she was just stuck in the middle. It wasn’t easy for her to finally get a distinguished adult to question in person today, and she was clearly seizing the chance to make a name for herself, launching into the interrogation with unusual vigor.
Then she saw the dazzling woman across from her pull out a badge from her pocket, with three golden stars engraved on it—unmistakable.
“I suggest you think this over carefully. Your immediate superior is retiring in a few days,” Xu Chuyao twirled the badge in her agile fingers as if it were a pen from her student days. “Do you want to speak properly or not?”
This got the point across to the woman.
“You, you…” The woman quickly looked at the notes she’d prepared that morning, asking stiffly, “Someone reported you for conducting unauthorized experiments in private. How do you explain that?”
“How did he report it? Does he have evidence?” Xu Chuyao countered.
The woman glanced at the holes in her notes, hesitant to speak.
There were originally some harsher phrases written for use during the interrogation—normally standard—but looking at the powerful girl’s badge spinning in her hand, she simply couldn’t utter the words, “How could someone with no evidence report you?”
“So you didn’t do it?”
“Of course not,” Xu Chuyao waved her small hand. “Anything else to ask?”
There was more she wanted to ask, but the woman had been intimidated by the powerful girl’s presence and felt unable to be aggressive. In the end, she simply wrote in the record: [Miss Xu Chuyao denies all experimental charges, firmly stating she never did such things.]
She just wrote that, without even asking further.
“Can I leave now?” Xu Chuyao asked directly, seeing the woman had finished writing.
The woman hesitated and said, “You can go for today, but… you can’t leave Yingxunsi City.”
“What?”
“Orders from Lord Jun Lier. Others will be looking for you later—there may be more questions.”
Xu Chuyao frowned, thinking of Yaoyao.
She didn’t know what Monroe was looking for, but being forcibly kept here was definitely not an option she could accept.
Leaving the small house and returning to the group, Yaoyao voiced her concerns.
“Does he think that as long as he keeps you here, you won’t be able to continue the fossil experiment, and his own research institute will have the chance to catch up?” Xiao Si Nuo said.
Xu Chuyao shrugged.
“So, was my guess just too naive?”
“No, your guess is probably correct. It’s just too straightforward—I just didn’t think of it for a moment,” Shen Ning replied.
Shen Ning silently looked out the window and yawned.
Would staying here really mean no more experiments? Unbelievable. Luo Tu had been in situations like this before, smashing heads with an old pickaxe in dreams, on and on.
But Xu Chuyao felt that staying here would indeed have an impact on her experiments. For one, once Li Ning left, coming back wouldn’t be easy—she didn’t bring any crystals.
Unless someone local could get a bit for her.
After taking a car back to the inn, before even entering, a small golden-haired figure rushed over.
“Xu Chuyao, you finally made it,” Bei Lian said anxiously. “Quick, let me tell you about Mei Sui.”
Following behind her was an older man—an uncle she had seen once at the last Hearing—indicating that this was not just Bei Lian’s doing, but the whole Holmes Family wanted to know.
Compared to the impatient Bei Lian, the uncle was much more composed.
“Miss Xu, please forgive us—Bei Lian is a little excitable. Please, come upstairs, let’s talk slowly.”
.
Xu Chuyao and Shen Ning followed them upstairs, while the others didn’t find it convenient to come along—after all, from a certain point of view, this was the Holmes Family’s personal business.
Cheng Chen held back the eager Xiao Si Nuo, dragging him to the hotel restaurant to get breakfast.
“What’s the point of gawking? With your current level, you’re still trying to learn how to gossip from others? Just eat your food.”