Half-Sweet Coffee
Tang Wulin did not answer immediately.
He held the cup of tea, which had gone cold, his gaze fixed on the tiny, almost invisible ripple on the surface of the tea, and remained silent for a long time.
The hustle and bustle of Heaven Dou City outside the window gradually intensified, with the sounds of carriages, people, and distant clocks surging in wave after wave, yet seemingly blocked by some invisible barrier outside this teahouse.
After a long while, he raised his head, looked at Yun Jingheng, his lips moved slightly as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he did not make a sound.
He slowly put down the teacup, ran his index finger lightly around the rim, and then, as if he had made up his mind, nodded very slightly.
The shadow was very faint, almost as faint as the shadow cast on the table by a bird flying past the window.
But Yun Jingheng understood.
Ye Xinglan understood as well.
She didn't say anything, but simply pushed Yun Jingheng's teacup closer to him.
Go and prepare.
Yun Jingheng stood up first and said to Tang Wulin, "You two need to wear disguises. Wulin, your figure is too conspicuous, change your jacket into a loader's T-shirt."
The three of them went their separate ways.
Two hours later, Tang Wulin and Ye Xinglan arrived at the room one after the other.
Yun Jingheng was sitting by the window, working on the debugging device.
He looked up at the sound, his gaze first falling on Tang Wulin, then shifting to Ye Xinglan. His eyes swept back and forth between the two of them twice, his lips slightly parted as if he wanted to say something, but he swallowed it back.
The Tang Wulin before my eyes has completely changed.
His originally slender and elegant figure was completely covered by a set of dusty stevedore clothes, with the cuffs and trouser legs tied very tightly. He wore a pair of worn-out thick-soled ankle boots, his hair was wrapped in a dark cloth, and his face was covered with something that darkened his complexion. Even the outline of his brow bone was altered by some subtle shadows, making him look less like himself.
If Yun Jingheng hadn't known it was him beforehand, he would have truly thought it was some temporary worker who had just finished work at the docks.
Ye Xinglan's disguise was even more thorough.
She changed into a slightly worn, bluish-gray cloth dress, with a matching coarse linen short jacket over it. Her hair was wrapped in a headscarf like that of an ordinary woman, and her face was covered with a thin, almost invisible layer of face cream, which softened her eyebrows and cheekbone lines by three points.
She stood there, looking exactly like any young woman you'd see in Heaven Dou City, heading out to buy groceries in the early morning.
Yun Jingheng stared at her for a long time, finally managing to utter only, "Who are you?"
Ye Xinglan glared at him lightly, without responding, but the tips of her ears turned red again.
Even a disguise can't hide it.
"At least I can't see it with the naked eye at all."
Yun Jingheng stood up, circled the two of them, and said seriously, as if he were appraising two newly made disguises, "Wulin, this isn't just a disguise, it's like you've completely changed your race. Xing Lan... Xing Lan, if it weren't for the way you walk, I really wouldn't recognize you."
Yun Jingheng calmly picked up two tiny, rice-grain-sized transparent patches from the table and handed them to the two people.
"These are hidden earphones; they simply stick to the inside of the ear canal and are practically invisible unless you get very close."
"Invisible communication is just its basic function. More importantly, it can connect to my control terminal. Once you get close to the detection range of the East Suburban Communications Station, I can remotely control the secondary nodes to achieve optical and acoustic invisibility for you."
"On the condition that you are no more than 30 kilometers away from my control terminal."
Tang Wulin took the earpiece, glanced at it briefly with his fingertips, and deftly inserted it into his ear.
Ye Xinglan followed suit, her movements a little clumsy, but she quickly adjusted her position.
"Can you hear me?" Yun Jingheng asked.
"Very clear."
Tang Wulin's voice came from the controller next to Yun Jingheng, while Ye Xinglan's very soft response came from the small speaker on the other side. "Mm."
"Don't take the same route after you leave. Wulin should exit through the side door, while Xing Lan should take the main street."
Yun Jingheng sat back down at the table, his gaze lingering on each of them for a moment. "Maintain communication at all times. Use the coded signal to announce your location once you reach the designated spot."
Tang Wulin and Ye Xinglan exchanged a glance, said nothing more, and turned to leave.
The footsteps, sometimes light, sometimes heavy, were quickly swallowed by the wind at the end of the corridor.
Yun Jingheng did not act immediately.
He walked to the window, pulled the half-closed curtains shut, locked the door from the inside, and then took out a completely black laptop and two monitors with ports from his Storage Soul Tool.
That computer was much thicker than the common models on the market, with sharp edges and corners, and dark silver metal corner protectors around the four corners. There were also several soul guide patches with unknown purposes on the surface.
He placed the computer on the table, flipped open the screen, inserted the two monitors into the sides of the main screen, and pressed the power button on the side.
The keyboard lit up with a very faint blue light, and a few lines of startup code flashed quickly across the screen before finally settling on a simple black background with blue text interface.
He put on a single earphone, tapped a few keys quickly on the keyboard, and then spoke, his voice not loud, but extremely clear:
"Half-Sweet Coffee."
A line of extremely thin ripples appeared at the bottom of the screen, as if responding to his call.
Then, a gentle, mechanical female voice came from his headphones. The voice wasn't loud, and it had a slight electrical background noise, but listening to it for a while inexplicably made him feel at ease.
"Voiceprint confirmed, facial recognition confirmed."
"I'm here, Master. Welcome back."
"The core system has completed its self-test. All modules are operating normally. The encrypted communication channel has been connected, and terminals one and two are online. Please advise."
"Prepare to execute 'Paralyze Skynet ' plan."
Yun Jingheng said, his gaze falling on the slowly rotating 3D map of Heaven Dou City in the center of the screen, "Lock the real-time coordinates of the current USB flash drive, establish a dynamic trajectory model, and at the same time open the control panels of terminals one and two to bring up satellite images of Heaven Dou City."
"Received. Locking the USB drive coordinates, opening the terminal control panel, and retrieving satellite imagery of Heaven Dou City."
The voice of the Half-Sweet Coffee was steady and clear, like a handful of sugar slowly falling from mid-air. "Coordinates locked. The USB flash drive is currently 2,400 meters from the target access point, moving at a speed of 3.01 km/h."
"Satellite images have been displayed on screen one; the terminal control panel is on screen two."
The main screen displays a 3D map of Heaven Dou City, with densely packed blue dots marking real-time signal nodes. The East Suburban Communications Station is marked by a pale red halo, which slowly flashes as the USB flash drive's coordinates approach.
On the left-hand split screen, satellite images are being reorganized at almost real-time speed. Beneath the clouds, the streets, rooftops, rivers, and vehicles of Heaven Dou City are all compressed into a gray-green interlaced planar map.
On the right-hand split screen, two terminal panels are displayed side by side, showing Tang Wulin and Ye Xinglan's heart rate, body temperature, movement speed, and coordinates respectively.
Yun Jingheng put on the other earphone and quickly tapped a few keys on the keyboard, adjusting the resolution and contrast of the satellite image.
The outline of the East Suburban Communications Station gradually became clear: a square courtyard surrounded by three-story gray-white buildings, with a watchtower at each of the four corners. To the north, there was a low-rise warehouse area, and beyond that warehouse area was the entrance to the abandoned underground sewage pipe.
Outside the main gate of the courtyard is an east-west gravel road. There are almost no people on the road, except for a few parked military soul guidance vehicles, whose cannons cast long, thin shadows in the sunlight.