Chapter 15 Visit
Chapter 15: Visit
The off-road vehicle stopped at the entrance of Senma Town, parked alongside other armored off-road vehicles.
Crow glanced at Zhou Ming, and as if sensing his confusion, he explained, "Vehicles are the homes of Wanderers.
Making their homes sturdy and reliable is the most important thing for them."
After speaking, Crow took his large box from the car's trunk, slung it over his back, and swaggered towards the entrance of Senma Town.
His rectangular box was almost as tall as a person, like a coffin.
Zhou Ming also picked up his luggage and silently followed behind him, feeling very troubled.
He might have subconsciously sensed the cruel reality Crow had just spoken of, but hearing it firsthand still felt different.
Entering Senma Town, they walked two hundred meters along the dusty main road before Crow led him into a weapon shop.
A sweaty, middle-aged bald man sat behind the counter, the wall behind him covered with AK47s and other unnamed firearms, along with a few slightly damaged swords.
"Oh! Crow, you're here.
Here's all the information."
Tian Jianzhong saw Crow and pulled a stack of papers from under the counter, handing them to him.
"How have things been here lately?" Crow asked in a soft, feminine voice.
When he wasn't swearing, Zhou Ming actually found his voice quite pleasant.
"Well, how should I put it?
It feels like the people here are finished.
People keep disappearing, and everyone's minds are a bit off.
It's been going on for three months without a solution, and I suspect the Administrator is no longer here," Tian Jianzhong sighed.
"What a pity.
If no new Administrator appears after this, this town will be finished."
"If it just ends like this, it truly is a shame, but there's no other way… this is the wilderness."
Crow briefly scanned the information and then tossed it to Zhou Ming.
Zhou Ming carefully flipped through the pages, one by one.
The first page was a list of disappearances.
The following pages contained introductions to the missing persons, their addresses, and details of their disappearances, but nothing else.
"Why is there no analysis?
Didn't you say they were mentally unstable?"
Crow and Tian Jianzhong's conversation suddenly stopped, and both turned to look at Zhou Ming.
"Is this your new recruit?" Tian Jianzhong lit a cigarette and observed Zhou Ming with narrowed eyes.
Crow didn't answer Tian Jianzhong, instead turning to Zhou Ming: "So you really are stupid.
Tell me, do you think the government would station professional analysts in this godforsaken place?
The liaisons are all local residents chosen by the government; they can only, and will only, collect the most basic information.
Analysis… you have to use your own muddled brain to figure it out, understand?"
Zhou Ming fell silent.
Although he wanted to retort, Crow's logic was sound.
Crow had a rhythmic way of insulting people.
He never swore outright but used a mocking, contemptuous tone to ridicule others, as if looking down on them.
Behind this tone, his emotions were always calm and collected, which would give the person being insulted the illusion that the other person truly considered them an idiot, making them feel like an idiot themselves.
And as a transmigrator, a person with a fake academic background, Zhou Ming was indeed an idiot in this regard, so he appeared extremely humble.
"Oh, I see," Zhou Ming said earnestly.
Crow was taken aback for a moment, clearly not expecting Zhou Ming to be so thick-skinned.
But he quickly returned to normal and mocked again, "Then why are you still standing there?
Waiting for me to spoon-feed you?"
"Start now?" Zhou Ming cautiously confirmed.
"Do you think I brought you here to be a spectator?
Did you waste three years of classes?
With this information, won't you do something?"
Zhou Ming fell silent, taking a deep breath to adjust his mindset, and then took out his phone to photograph the documents.
After taking a few photos, he immediately turned and ran out of the weapon shop.
Tian Jianzhong looked at Zhou Ming's retreating figure with pity and sighed, "Why are you so harsh on him?
He's just a kid."
"Hmph, Old Tian, is your brain not working either?
Do you think our line of work is playing house?" Crow sneered.
Tian Jianzhong obediently shut up.
He knew Crow's temper; although Crow wouldn't curse at old acquaintances like him, he still couldn't stand his sarcastic way of speaking.
Within a few seconds, Zhou Ming ran back and asked, "May I ask, what were the symptoms of those people who went mad?"
Tian Jianzhong narrowed his eyes at this, slowly shaking his head: "I'm not entirely sure.
You can ask many people, perhaps they went mad, or perhaps we did… Go ask the families of the people marked with an asterisk on the missing persons list, and then you'll understand."
Zhou Ming nodded, and with Crow's disdainful gaze upon him, he exited the weapon shop once more.
Crow's words made Zhou Ming deeply realize that he truly was an ignorant rookie.
This mission was different from the last one in the air-raid shelter; last time he still had the combat instincts left by the original owner, but this time all he could rely on was the investigative common sense he had learned on the fly.
Zhou Ming took a deep breath, looking down at the information on his phone: "I need to complete the current task more carefully, more meticulously."
Since he had to investigate, he couldn't be swayed by emotions.
Someone once told him that when analyzing anything, one must first discard intuition and instead find the patterns hidden within.
Now, he had to find that pattern; patterns often led to the truth.
"Yes, first find the pattern," Zhou Ming told himself, his agitated heart calming in an instant.
…
At night, Zhou Ming began his investigation at the home of the last missing person.
The windows inside the house rattled loudly from the strong wind, and yellow sand pelted the glass like buckshot.
A dim candle flickered on the table.
The woman, holding her drowsy child, complained to Zhou Ming across the table about the recent troubles in their home.
Zhou Ming's shadow twisted on the wall with the flickering candlelight, as if echoing the woman's complaints.
While listening to the woman's narration, Zhou Ming observed the dimly lit interior of the house.
Although the house was simple and the hostess polite, certain details revealed that this family was not ordinary.
To be precise, every family Zhou Ming interviewed was unusual.
For example, the table in front of Zhou Ming had traces of knife and axe chops, with dark red grime deeply embedded in the cracks, which had long since become an unwashable stain.
The window on the adjacent wall had movable steel plates that could be pulled down in an emergency, turning the room into a makeshift stronghold.
Just as Teacher Crow had said, living in the wilderness was extremely dangerous, and even an ordinary family struggled significantly.
However, now was not the time to be concerned about the social environment of the wilderness; he needed to focus his attention on this strange conversation.
Among the families marked with an asterisk by the liaison, this was the only one that accepted Zhou Ming's investigation, and it was also the last.
The husband of this family was on the missing persons list, and after his disappearance, his wife was raising their son alone… This was a seemingly obvious fact, but after an hour of questioning, Zhou Ming began to have some doubts about it.
"I've told you everything.
Why do you keep asking?
Isn't he sitting right here, perfectly fine?
Why do you keep saying he's missing?" The woman yawned, her words clearly showing impatience.
It was natural for the other party to grow impatient after a long period of questioning; rather, it was a miracle that she had talked to him for so long.
Zhou Ming felt that if her "husband" hadn't been there to persuade and cooperate, the hostess's patience would have run out long ago.
But the problem lay precisely with her husband.