Artifact Report

Chapter 301 Fu Tai Lan - Breaking the Law, Messages and Phone Calls

Within the security system, "Fu Tai Lan" still retained his authority as the hunter supervisor, so the door lock opened with just a light touch of his finger on the sensor.

Before entering Morgan's waiting room, Fu Tailan thought for a while about where she was and what she was doing in the early hours of the 16th.

For someone who is perpetually plagued by "nest dissociation syndrome," memory is never very reliable; he can remember important events clearly, but if you ask him what he was doing at a certain time ten days ago, Fu Tailan is not sure.

...This is really troublesome.

He not only had to completely avoid his past self, but also had to avoid everyone who interacted with his past self—otherwise, if someone told his past self, "I saw you at such and such a place," the past Fu Tai Lan would definitely become suspicious and take action.

The fate that Nest Hospital had ordained for him did not allow his past self to discover his present self.

Therefore, if the former Fu Tai Lan took actions different from those in history, it would also be regarded as "attempting to change fate".

If one tries to change the nest's predetermined fate, one will inevitably suffer unimaginable punishment and pain, only to find that it is all in vain and nothing can be changed in the end—a point he had already understood when he first visited the nest hospital at the age of fifteen.

The two prefectures are too blue; they need to follow two completely parallel lines of action within the same amount of time...

Unexpectedly, just ten days ago, when I thought everything was going smoothly, a version of myself from the future was lurking in the shadows beside me.

Since his memories of the past ten days were exactly the same as the Nest's predetermined history, it meant that he was indeed unable to resist the power and will of the Nest Hospital—the Nest Hospital had gotten what it wanted.

Next, all he could do was try to avoid the punishment of "changing his fate" while simultaneously taking advantage of the illusion.

Fu Tailan let out a soft breath and walked into the waiting hall.

To his utter surprise, the receptionist was sitting silently in the dark—when he turned on the light, they were both startled and jumped at each other.

"Supervisor?"

The receptionist—what was her name again?—had her hair plastered to her face, dripping wet, and was stammering, "Um, I thought you...you went home?"

Oh, was I at home in the early hours of the 16th?
"What are you doing sitting here silently?" Fu Tailan never expected that her efforts to avoid people would fail from the very beginning: "You startled me—why are you soaking wet?"

The receptionist opened her mouth, as if she had something to say but couldn't.

Fu Tailan walked over and glanced around, noticing a bucket and a pair of scissors next to the front desk. In addition, the receptionist was wearing two pairs of shoes, one on her feet and the other in her hand.

"...Are you testing the pathway?"

If it's not for this reason, then only schizophrenia remains.

The receptionist's face turned bright red.

"I'm sorry... I've heard that if someone has an intuitive feeling about something strange, it means it might be their own pathway... And it's midnight now..."

“The nest isn’t a ghost story, what does it matter if it’s noon or midnight?” Fu Tailan couldn’t help but say. “Those rumors are inaccurate, they’re all just psychological. If the pathway could be sensed, how could someone live their whole life without ever knowing they had a pathway?”

The receptionist, unable to hide her embarrassment and disappointment, still wouldn't take off the leather shoes she was wearing, as if wearing them a little longer would prove him wrong. "I see..."

Fu Tailan's heart stirred.

“Logically speaking, you shouldn’t still be at the company at this time.” He saw the receptionist suddenly raise her head, then softened his tone and smiled at her: “But I understand how you feel. Don’t worry, I’ll pretend I didn’t see what happened tonight, and I’ll forget about it by tomorrow. You don’t need to come looking for me about this.”

"Okay," the receptionist said, feeling a little embarrassed. "Thank you, manager."

She shouldn't have lingered, and she couldn't bring herself to ask her supervisor what he had to do back at the company in the middle of the night; it was Fu Tai Lan who took the initiative to explain, "I've come to borrow a few fakes," and was about to walk inside when she suddenly stopped.

“…I haven’t saved your phone number.” Fu Tailan looked at her thoughtfully.

The receptionist stared at him blankly—clearly, her thoughts had wandered off to a completely different level, a new blush rising on her face for a completely different reason: "Ah, ah, yes, we haven't exchanged numbers. Well, but, actually, I'm already twenty-six..."

Is it because of my age that I'm not popular with girls?

"What does it matter? I really like big sister."

Fu Tailan deliberately deepened her misunderstanding, smiled at her, and stretched out her hand. "I want to borrow your phone to send a message, okay? My phone is dead."

The receptionist hesitated for a moment, seemingly torn between "breaking the law" and "the beautiful manager," before finally taking off her shoes and handing him her phone.

Fu Tailan entered her phone number, thought for a moment, and began writing a message.

Hello, you still have $506.4 in cash in your Amazon account, which will expire in two days. Our recent policy changes may have caused us to mistakenly charge you too much last year. Your Automatic Savings program has now been restored, please withdraw the cash from your account as soon as possible.

...I receive these kinds of fraudulent spam messages at least three to five times a month.

Fu Tailan pressed send.

The message was sent successfully; but after waiting for a while, his phone in his pants pocket remained silent, without even vibrating.

"Okay," Fu Tailan handed the phone back to the receptionist and said, "I've deleted the one I sent."

Otherwise, there's really no way to explain it.

"Huh?" The receptionist was taken aback. "O-okay..."

“I don’t know if you’ll recognize me then,” Fu Tailan said softly, changing the subject: “Be careful when you test the pathway. It wouldn’t be good to catch a cold, so go home early.”

"Okay, okay, I will. I'm about to go home anyway."

After the receptionist left, he took out his phone and glanced at it again. Nothing... The latest message still showed as being from November 26th.

In other words... there is not only a distinction between "16th Prefectural Blue" and "26th Prefectural Blue"; there is also a distinction between "16th Mobile Phone" and "26th Mobile Phone".

The message sent to "Fu Tai Lan's number" on the 16th will only be sent to "Fu Tai Lan's mobile phone on the 16th".

He himself couldn't remember whether he had received such a spam message in the past ten days—now it seems he probably did, and then just glanced at it and closed it.

Fu Tailan is very lazy when it comes to mobile phones; he's too lazy to explore any of the new phone's functions, only using the most basic ones. As for all sorts of junk messages, which can pile up to a hundred or more, he doesn't bother to deal with them.

As he thought about it, he quickly slid down.

As he scrolled down to the messages from November 16th, he indeed saw the spam text message he had just sent, which he hadn't even opened—it was from an unfamiliar phone number that he now knew belonged to the receptionist.

Hmm...that's quite interesting.

While he was thinking, his hands were already busy, and he had already opened the safe door with his supervisory authority—fortunately, he had the same fingerprints and irises on the 16th and 26th.

While called a "safe deposit box," it's actually more like a bank vault, complete with a giant round door made of several layers of special bulletproof and explosion-proof metal; both the door and walls are ten centimeters thick. Not only is the door taller than the Fu Tai Lan vault, but the interior of the "safe deposit box" is also large enough to comfortably accommodate three or four people.

He stepped inside, his gaze sweeping over the shelves inside the box.

On the shelves sat various decoys hunted from the lair by the Morgan family hunters; some were bought by the Morgan family, while the rest were waiting to be sold—some had only recently entered the world, while others had been on the market for months without being sold.

On the 26th, Longzhen walked into the vault and retrieved the ticket in the same way.

In the half year since Fu Tailan entered the Morgan family, she has entered and exited the safe countless times, and she knows exactly what is on the shelf.

He carefully looked at them again, still preoccupied with the phone.

...If he calls his own number, then without a doubt, it will be busy and he won't be able to get through.

What if you call someone else?
Can I use a phone number from the 26th to call someone from the 16th? Will the other person notice anything different?

It seems like I should give it a try... but I need to carefully consider who to call.

Calling a random stranger's number online might work, but it's not ideal; because if the person doesn't know Fu Tai Lan, even if they can't see the number, they'll assume it's a scam call with the number obscured—if they don't notice anything amiss, they can't provide any valuable information.

That person must be someone who lives far away from Fu Tai Lan, yet cannot be completely unrelated to her.

The other party would not find it strange to receive his call, and after hanging up, there would be no chance to meet him or mention the call to the prefectural governor of Talam on the 16th.

Fu Tailan thought for a while, then stopped and took out her phone.

...Isn't there a ready-made guy?

If he can call and harass me, why can't I call and harass him back?

After ringing four or five times, the ringtone was replaced by a hesitant male voice.

"Fu Tailan...?"

George Green seemed surprised to receive another call from Fu Tailan just a few hours later. "What do you want? Is it still about that train ticket?"

He seemed to think that Fu Tailan was still unwilling to give up and wanted to sell him the train ticket.

So it seems he didn't notice anything unusual from the call?

Before answering, Fu Tailan held her breath and listened.

The other party was in a quiet environment, but not entirely silent; there was a faint sound of wind, like an air conditioner running... The next second, a familiar, rhythmic low sound suddenly rang out, "tap, tap."

...turn signals.

George Green is driving.

It was confirmed after his death that Vecchira had been at his estate in Upstate from the night of the 15th to the early morning of the 16th... Was his personal secretary, George Green, on his way to the estate at that moment?
If this is the case……

Fu Tailan remained silent, then reached out and grabbed a porcelain doll from the shelf—it was part of a series of illusions, and the doll he picked up had only a mouth painted on its face.

Besides the "Mouth Doll," the Morgan family also has an "Ear Doll" and an "Eye Doll" whose whereabouts in their lair remain unknown.

Fu Tailan grabbed the mouth doll and slapped it against the phone screen, making a muffled sound.

"Hello? Mr. Green?" Secretary Green called again. "Did you hear me?"

...The timing was perfect.

Fu Tailan remained silent—he could no longer speak—only tapping the screen a few times to create some indistinct sounds.

Sure enough, a short while later, Secretary Green complained.

"Seriously, did you dial by accident?" he muttered under his breath. "The call ended."

Fu Tailan stood in the now silent vault, a smile appearing on her face.

(End of this chapter)