Artifact Report

Chapter 94 Jin Xueli: The Light Goes Dark Again and Again

According to the police officer's confession, Ashley Page was promoted to chief of the Central Police Station just over a month ago.

"I heard she has some powerful connections and has helped some important figures solve many problems." The police officer was just as Shuiyin had said, extremely cooperative, even proactively providing information that Chai Si hadn't asked for. "Even though she's not someone's private army, being a police officer sometimes means doing dirty work for the higher-ups. That's probably how she got promoted..."

"okay."

As soon as these two words came out, the policeman immediately fell silent.

Chai Si took a deep breath, turned his head, and said to Mercury, "Tell your men to look for her among those invaded by the residents according to this description."

Mercury's eyes flickered slightly, and then he smiled. "I see. Of course... you know me."

It felt like they both understood what the other hadn't fully said; the only person who was still confused was Jin Xueli herself.

"How long do we have?" asked Chai Si.

Mercury checked the time on his phone and said, "There are only thirteen minutes left until the call ends."

Chai Si nodded: "It's still in time."

This time, Jin Xueli understood. The "Nest Communication Network" was indeed limited in time, and they were running out of time.

This meant that as long as she was careful and cooperative for another thirteen minutes, she would have a chance to escape when the "Nest Communication Network" was shut down...

Once you get out, this day can be overturned and started over again.

After the overthrow…Chai Si never knew her again.

However, having someone like this owe her a favor was certainly a good thing. Rewriting today inevitably made her feel a little regretful—but she still had to do what she had to do.

There was no way she was going to allow her fingerprints to be entered into the police database.

"I'll help you find it too,"

Jin Xueli saw the opportunity and followed Chai Si's footsteps, went up to the second floor, and asked, "How did you find that there was something wrong with the director's photo?"

Several mercenaries on the second floor were searching the hallways; a dark-haired woman even greeted them. Every door was wide open, and some had even been removed from their hinges, a move clearly expert at first glance.

"Process of elimination,"

Chai Si swept the narrow interrogation room with his flashlight and saw that it was empty, so he strode towards the next room.

"The Director is still in the building, but he's not one of the people who weren't invaded, nor is there a hiding place for him in the building. The only ones left who haven't been carefully examined are the ones who were invaded by the residents."

Perhaps he had a clue and was in a good mood, so he was more patient in explaining. "If one of the invaded people was the director, Mercury would have been the first to get the news from the residents. So from the beginning, the 'invaded people' were not the first targets I paid attention to. It's very likely that the director was hiding among them."

"Then why didn't you suspect there was something wrong with the mercury?"

Chai Si smiled silently.

His flashlight fell on the face of a policeman standing in the room, then moved away. The man's face was completely disfigured, but he was still a man, and it couldn't be Chief Ashley.

"Because Mercury would never help a policeman," he whispered. "Knowing the target was the Central Police Station, she would have come anyway even if I hadn't paid."

One can vaguely feel the overwhelming hatred in the silhouette of a sentence.

"Did Frye's appearance alert you?" Jin Xueli speculated. "You realized that the director might have been hacked, but the residents couldn't control him, so Mercury didn't know?"

"Yes," Chai Si said briefly, "but that fat man doesn't look like someone who can resist the control of the residents."

She kind of gets it.

Although it's not always right to judge a person by his appearance, the previous director looked hollow, bloated and weak, and certainly didn't seem like someone that residents would bump into.

This naturally makes people suspect that there is a trap somewhere in the process.

Ashley was really quick-witted. I'm afraid that as soon as he realized that something was wrong, he immediately changed the photo that he had just changed. The Central Police Department has always had a tradition of hanging photos. In front of such a large photo, people on Chase's side would naturally think that the director was the fat man in the photo, and they would have no reason to verify it unnecessarily.

In addition, the name "Ashley" is unisex, so she didn't even need to change her name tag; her trick of "hiding the truth under the lamp" was quite clever and bought her 20 to 30 minutes.

Unfortunately, Ashley was unlucky. Although he had persisted for so long, his truth was exposed when he had only ten minutes left to escape from the "Nest Communication Network".

Jin Xueli thought about this, pretended to be nonchalant, and asked the question she really wanted to ask: "What will happen here after the time limit is over?"

Chase turned his head and glanced at her over his shoulder.

The one or two seconds between her words and his opening were so long they made him nervous; Chase must have sensed that she was trying to find a way to escape. "You'll see."

Since he didn't say anything, Jin Xueli didn't ask any further questions.

No matter what changes will happen here when the "Nest Communication Network" is withdrawn, one thing is certain: she must find an excuse to separate from Chai Si before that moment comes.

Only in this way will Jin Xueli have a chance to escape.

She just didn't expect that this excuse would surface on its own five or six minutes later.

Mercury brought ten mercenaries this time, plus Chai Si and Jin Xueli, a total of thirteen people, to search for a director who was invaded by residents on the fifth floor. No matter how hard they looked, they could not find him.

Every person invaded by the residents was pulled under the flashlight, clearly illuminating their nightmarish faces; but none of them matched Chief Ashley's description of their appearance.

Even Chai Si, who was usually calm and composed, seemed to be feeling a kind of anxiety that was difficult to suppress.

"Let's split up and search carefully," Jin Xueli suggested. "After all, we don't have much time left. If I find her, I'll lock her up and call you back."

He just uttered a "hmm" in his throat.

The shadows in the police station building seemed to have seeped into Chai Si's eyes, and even just standing next to him made people tense their backs.

It made no difference to Jin Xueli whether Ashley could be found or not, but as Chai Si had been looking for him for so long, she couldn't help but feel a little concerned - after all, he had helped her twice from the residents, and she didn't want to see him fail.

Besides, isn’t it frustrating to have a mystery right in front of you but not be able to find the answer no matter what?
It can't be that the policeman who is particularly afraid of death suddenly decided to lie about this matter, right?
Jin Xueli walked alone in the dark corridor on the fifth floor, her ears perked up, not daring to miss any movement.

When footsteps sounded from the front of the corridor, she immediately shone the flashlight straight up - it was a mercenary, whom she had just seen once on the third floor.

"Are there any invaders ahead?" Jin Xueli asked.

The woman had short hair, side-swept bangs, narrow eyes, and a capable look. "There are three, but none of them are the target."

"That's strange," Jin Xueli sighed. "That director is really amazing. There's obviously only a limited amount of space, so where could he hide? Could there be some kind of tunnel or hidden cave in this old mental hospital building?"

The mercenary smiled upon hearing this and said, "She's only been in office for a month. Even if there was, she wouldn't know about it."

"That's true." Jin Xueli nodded. "I'll go take a look ahead."

"Then I'll go downstairs."

Jin Xueli planned to go over the situation in her mind one last time. If she still couldn't find the director, then she could just give up - she should also find an exit and hide in advance.

At the beginning, Mercury brought mercenaries and gathered together all the people who had not been invaded by the residents; among this group of people, no one met Ashley's description of appearance.

The mercenaries were very careful in their work, almost turning over the carpets in the building to check. If Ashley had not been invaded by the residents, then she would have either been discovered long ago or had blended in with the mercenaries - but the second point was impossible.

Mercury said that when she captured normal people, she personally led the team to capture them one by one. How could she not even notice that there was a stranger in her team?
After arresting the people, the only people left in the building were eleven mercenaries including Mercury, Chai Si and Jin Xueli, as well as those who lost their consciousness after being invaded by the residents and were wandering around the police station building.

If we say that we missed the group of people who were invaded just now, it is quite possible that Ashley is hiding among them; but now we have checked every person who was invaded, but still can't find Ashley. Did the director disappear?

How could a living person just disappear out of thin air?
Jin Xueli let out a long breath and had to remind herself that whether or not she found Ashley had no bearing on her. While the feeling of being left hanging and without an answer was unpleasant, she couldn't waste any more time searching. She had to go downstairs.

She turned and strode back in the direction she had come from—after the power outage, the only way up and down the stairs was by foot. The mercenary had also been heading in the same direction.

Looking at the other person's back, Jin Xueli was suddenly stunned.

That police chief named Ashley...seems to be very good at plotting "under the lamp". But who said she can only use "under the lamp" once?
Probably having heard Jin Xueli's footsteps catching up, the mercenary turned around and asked, "What's wrong?"

The side profile of her face that was exposed was clean and normal, without the characteristic eye mutation after being invaded by the residents.

"You..." Jin Xueli stared at her closely and whispered, "Shouldn't you know that the director has only been in office for a month?"

The police officer was on the first floor when he gave the information; there was no one around them at the time. It seemed even the mercenaries were reluctant to approach Mercury and Chai Si unless necessary.

The mercenary looked at her and didn't answer for a moment.

"Now that I think about it...there seems to be only one way Chief Ashley keeps avoiding searches." Jin Xueli took a deep breath and said, "Pull your bangs behind your ears and let me see your other eye."

　You should know from my update time that I've been reversing my days and nights lately... Since I've already reversed my life, I have to endure a little longer every day and try to reverse it again...

　　Sometimes when writing, unexpected developments occur. For example, recently, while writing, I realized, "Hey, Police Chief, you're actually a tough character! I thought you were just cannon fodder!"

　　It’s so strange, I feel like I’m slowly exploring the world of artifacts.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)