Sudden Incident

"Yes, Number 325 is the most meticulous person. He personally promised to report the latest situation at 9 PM tonight when he sent the pictures yesterday. He absolutely wouldn't forget. If there's no news, there's only one explanation: something happened to him."

"That place can't be located," Chang Ye said. "Finding him would be like looking for a needle in a haystack."

"That's why I want to ask this criminal investigation genius to try and see if he can create a miracle in a hellish place like Laoshan!"

Two pairs of eyes shifted to Lin Xiaosu.

Lin Xiaosu's brow furrowed tightly...

Number 88 said, "The main mission of this operation is to find Number 325. If you can complete it, you'll be rewarded with 300 points. The side mission is to discover the major finding he mentioned. If you can achieve that, you'll receive additional points based on your contribution."

Lin Xiaosu shook his head. "Facing the life or death of a comrade, what's the point of talking about points? The key is... the key is why that place can transmit information but can't be located?"

Number 88 explained the reason.

Laoshan is on the border of Chuan'nan Province. It's extremely mysterious inside, with anomalous magnetic fields. Once you enter Laoshan, all signals become untransmittable, and location is impossible.

To transmit signals to the outside, the person inside must actively seek out special areas with satellite signals, such as mountain peaks, and actively send out information.

It's much harder for people outside to transmit signals to people inside because when you transmit, the person inside is very likely in a signal blind spot and cannot be contacted at all.

"He sent some pictures? Where are the pictures..." Lin Xiaosu asked.

Number 88 smiled faintly. "If you accept this mission, you can see the picture information!"

"Alright, I accept!" Lin Xiaosu agreed immediately.

"Let's go!"

The three of them got up at the same time and stepped out of the library. Just as they reached the flying car, a large monkey fell from the tree. No, Xinyue fell.

As soon as Xinyue landed, she bounced over to Chang Ye's side and grabbed her hand. "Sister Chang Ye, I'm going too, I'm going too..."

"You're going without even knowing what the mission is?" Chang Ye asked.

"Who cares what the mission is, as long as it increases my points!" Xinyue said. "Respected Instructor, will there be points for this mission?"

She was asking Number 88.

In front of Number 88, she was always getting points deducted, so she had learned her lesson and was now trying to be more flattering in her address.

Number 88's face was stern. "The points are sufficiently generous, but you need to make a contribution to earn them."

Xinyue leaped eight feet high and directly got into the flying car. "Great! On one hand, I'll get points and soar to the heavens, and on the other hand, I'll snatch this kid's points and crush him into the mud. It's killing two birds with one stone! Instructor, even if I have to face your deathly pale face the entire trip, I'll try my best to imagine it as the face of an idol star..."

Lin Xiaosu had a sour expression, looking at one and then the other. "Targeting me so openly, will I end up fighting her in the wilderness?"

"Don't worry, I've equipped you with a gun!" Number 88 replied coldly.

Entering the flying car, they looked outside at the sky full of stars.

This was still 101, where secrets were not allowed to be leaked, so everything outside was sealed off.

Number 88 threw a set of equipment to Lin Xiaosu and Xinyue each.

The equipment looked very light, but when Lin Xiaosu opened it, he got excited.

It was standard Qianlong equipment.

A set of clothes, which looked like a tight-fitting suit, but the material was very special. It was insect-proof, moisture-proof, yet breathable. It was tear-resistant, rip-resistant, and extremely elastic. When worn, it couldn't block heavy machine guns or submachine guns, but it could block a few pistol bullets, let alone the thorns and branches in the mountains.

A dagger, with a dragon pattern on its gleaming blade.

A pistol, it was the training firearm he was most familiar with. Unlike the training version, this was a real gun.

There were also hundreds of rounds of ammunition. All the equipment was connected to the suit in the most rational way. As he put it on, Lin Xiaosu felt as if he had been elevated.

Xinyue also put hers on at the same time. After putting it on, she also puffed up her chest, patting Lin Xiaosu's shoulder. "Lin Xiaose, don't get too carried away. You got the gun you're most skilled with, but this grandma's Dragon Armor is bulletproof!"

"Lin Xiao... se? What's so lewd about me?" Lin Xiaosu glared at her.

"You aim your gun elsewhere, not at Grandma's... chest. Aren't you lewd?"

Lin Xiaosu was completely speechless.

Chang Ye and Number 88 were probably used to her unrestrained behavior and were not surprised.

Number 88 lightly tapped the screen, and in the midst of the starry sky, several pictures appeared. These were the pictures sent by Number 325...

It was a strange orchid.

The plant was unusually tall, measured at 1.89 meters.

The orchid on top had eighteen petals, with tendrils like those of a Lycoris radiata.

The entire plant had a very strange color. Instead of the vibrant colors of ordinary flowers, it was a deep green like a leaf. In the dense green ocean of the primeval forest, it would be impossible to find from a distance. Number 325 only discovered it when he got close.

As soon as he found this never-before-seen species, he used the high-precision dedicated camera he carried with him to take a picture and send it back to the base for analysis.

Chang Ye stared at the cluster of flowers. "Is Number 325's 'major finding' really not this mutated flower?"

"It shouldn't be. When he said that, he had already collected a specimen of this flower. If the major finding referred to this, he should have stated it clearly. Since he didn't, it means he only found a clue to the major finding and didn't truly lock it down."

Xinyue's eyes flickered. "Sister Chang Ye, you think this flower itself is a major discovery, right?"

"Yes! From the appearance of the plant, this flower is an ordinary orchid, but its size has inexplicably become so large, and the color of its flowers has also evolved into camouflage. This kind of evolution is rare in the animal kingdom, and even rarer in the plant kingdom."

When it came to understanding plants, Chang Ye could claim to be second to none.

Because she was a Poisonous Person.

Her lifelong mission was to research the various genes in plants.

At the Qianlong Botanical Garden, she was one of the few authorities.

There were very few plants in the world she didn't understand.

Most plants bloom, and their flowers are mostly delicate, eye-catching, and fragrant.

Why?

Plants don't have much aesthetic sense; their blooming isn't about self-admiration.

Their blooming is for the inheritance of life.

Whether the flowers are eye-catching, fragrant, or even stinky, the fundamental purpose is to attract small insects that discover things by smell and sight. These small insects pollinate the flowers, allowing the flowers' life inheritance to continue.

Orchids are no different.

Their small size, vibrant flowers, and fragrance are the result of millions of years of natural selection, because these traits are the most adaptive for the continuation of the orchid species.

But the orchid in front of him had rejected its ancestors' decisions...

The plant was as tall as a tree.

The color of its flowers blended seamlessly with the surrounding environment.

Furthermore, according to the monitoring information transmitted back by Number 325, the flower had no peculiar odor, neither fragrant nor stinky.

This was strange...

It had avoided all the critical points in the chain of life inheritance; it seemed to intend for the orchid to bloom quietly and alone...

Lin Xiaosu stared at the images from different angles inside the flying car, his thoughts also drifting. Botany wasn't just Chang Ye's forte; he was also proficient in it, and he also felt this was a point of suspicion.

"Number 325 cannot be located currently, but can the location where he sent these images be pinpointed?"

His Time Reversal could currently only trace back to scenes from five days ago.

As long as he could find any single point within those five days that Number 325 had been, he could follow that point and track his movements.

How to make the process as scientific as possible was another matter.

The key was that once this point was located, the mission's success was a certainty.

Logically speaking, his statement was also correct.

Number 325 had sent images as recently as last night, and image transmission also had location tracking. Through various high-tech means, it was possible to pinpoint exactly where the signal originated.

However, Number 88 shook his head. "It seems you don't know the peculiarities of Laoshan. Laoshan is called Laoshan because, in a sense, it resembles a prison between heaven and earth. From the peaks of its mountains, one might be able to send a signal out by chance, but the location of the signal transmission cannot be pinpointed."

If it couldn't be pinpointed, what then?

Number 88 laid out the meticulously planned proposal.

Number 325 entered the Laoshan Restaurant a month ago and Laoshan twenty-nine days ago. By retracing his entry point, they might be able to find traces of his entry. After all, Qianlong members were generally trained with the same curriculum, and jungle survival also had common routines.

These routines were immediately recognizable to Qianlong members, such as places convenient for camping or climbing; their internal judgments were largely the same. As long as they found his campsite and inferred his next steps from the traces, it might be possible to find him in the primeval jungle.

This method was crude, and the outcome was uncontrollable, but in places where high technology could not reach, the most primitive methods became the only ones...

Chang Ye and Xinyue exchanged glances, looking a bit bewildered.

Yes, from their positions, they were already accustomed to Qianlong's high technology. The world's people relied on "Dragon Eyes" to search, and worldly affairs were checked online. But where Dragon Eyes couldn't reach, where networks couldn't penetrate, finding someone who entered the mountains a month ago in the vast primeval jungle felt overwhelming to both of them.

Lin Xiaosu let out a soft breath. "It seems it can only be the most primitive method, but I don't recommend your method, as it's too uncontrollable."

Number 88 frowned. "Although my method is uncontrollable, it's the only way!"

"No, it's not the only way!" Lin Xiaosu countered.

Xinyue's eyes widened. "Talking back to the instructor, according to Article 135, Paragraph 1 of the 'Reserve Regulations,' that's a deduction of 20 points! Instructor, why don't you deduct them..."

Number 88 shot her a glare and then turned to Lin Xiaosu. "Explain."

Lin Xiaosu pointed. "For example, these four pictures convey some information."

Number 88's gaze flickered. "Are you referring to this small river?"

Chang Ye's eyes lit up...

It was difficult to find a person in the jungle, but finding a river was relatively easy. Did Lin Xiaosu mean they should find this river?

If this river was found, the search area would be greatly narrowed.