╭( ) I'm going whether you like it or not!
Just as Annie skipped out of the hotel and headed toward the street, a little over a hundred meters away, inside a newsstand that should have been shut down long ago, an auntie who had been watching videos on her phone pulled out a second phone and quickly dialed a number she had saved.
"Hello?"
"Captain Huang?"
"This is Song Ping from the Psychic Monitoring Group of the Pollution Monitoring Department. I saw Target '3303' leave the Floating Light Hotel."
"Mm, yes, just now. She came out in broad daylight."
"Of course I'm sure!"
"She's wearing a red dress, has blue-green eyes, and has a ferocious plush teddy bear hanging from her waist. She looks basically like the description in the files!"
"Right!"
"She's walking east toward Dongbao Road. Should we take decisive action?"
"Oh..."
"Focus on observation for now?"
"Okay, okay, understood!"
"Don't worry!"
"Captain Huang, I'm only reporting this to you as required. This area's under your jurisdiction... I'm not stupid. What makes you think I'd go looking for trouble with something scary enough to come out in broad daylight?"
"I'm not with the Special Operations Department!"
"Mm!"
"Got it. All right, if there's nothing else, I'll hang up!"
Beep—!
The middle-aged woman hung up without another word, put away the phone she used for official calls, and glanced once more in the direction the little girl in red had gone. Then she picked up her other phone and went back to watching videos.
That was right!
Officially, she was a self-employed vendor who rented the newsstand, making a living by selling outdated newspapers, magazines, drinks, cigarettes, and the like. In reality, though, the newsstand belonged to the Special Pollution Response Bureau, and she had been assigned there