"No?" Jiang Cheng was momentarily stunned. "What do you mean?"
The Middle-aged man stared into Jiang Cheng's eyes without changing expression, as if he wanted to glean something from them too. "No means no. I mean exactly what I said, Mister Jiang."
"But I learned from Shao Tong that there was a base specifically for raising second-generation Deep Red members. He asked me to come here and rescue them." Jiang Cheng suddenly grew tense. The image of Shao Tong in his mind began to grow faint, almost unreal.
"Don't get worked up, Mister Jiang. I believe you completely, and so does everyone above me. But there's no doubt that something has gone wrong here." The Middle-aged man instead tried to reassure Jiang Cheng.
"When did you discover this?" Jiang Cheng asked.
The Middle-aged man paused. "This morning—about four hours ago, to be precise. Once we noticed the discrepancy, we realized something was wrong, so we checked the records again. The result was the same."
Gradually, Jiang Cheng calmed down as well. After thinking briefly, he continued, "Can you confirm the identities of all the other Deep Red members besides Shao Tong? I mean everyone currently in this guesthouse."
"We've checked. We can trace every one of them. The information in the records isn't very detailed, but it's enough to identify them." The man pointed at the kraft-paper folder on the table and said very seriously, "That includes Mister Su An. According to the records, he was brought here by the Night Watch most recently."
There were records for Su An, but none for Shao Tong. Something was clearly wrong. And what terrified Jiang Cheng most was the feeling deep inside him that Shao Tong, someone who had once been alive and real, was somehow growing more distant.
Jiang Cheng stood