Qianlong Changye

To the northwest of the county town lay a place called Huangnifan.

Many years ago, it had been a labor reform farm. "Going to Huangnifan" had basically been synonymous with "serving a sentence." But now, after generations of labor reform personnel... and, of course, mainly thanks to government development, Huangnifan no longer bore the desolate look of a labor camp. It had become a thriving large farm. No more prisoners labored there; it had become Shilipu Village's vegetable garden, supplying Phoenix City with fresh produce.

Few people knew that within the former labor reform farm stood a three-story villa, and beneath that villa was a special basement.

This was the Special Prison, built specifically to hold the most unusual suspects.

Its protective measures surpassed everything else.

An ordinary car drove into the villa. Number 88, Changye, the director, and the deputy director got out at the same time.

After entering the villa and heading down into the basement, they saw the suspect. With his back to them, he lay quietly on a small bed.

Changye's expression abruptly changed slightly. "Something's wrong!"

Number 88 was startled as well. "Open it!"

The room was opened. The two stepped inside, and both their faces changed. Blood was flowing from the suspect's nostrils. There was no question that he was dead.

The director's face changed. "What happened?"

The guard's expression also shifted drastically. "He was fine when we came in. We'd been watching outside the entire time. Absolutely no one came near him. How could he have taken poison?"

"It wasn't poison," Changye said. "The chip in his brain exploded. A chip was implanted in his brain!"

Number 88's face darkened. "Didn't I tell you to block all remote signals?"

A brain chip also required signals to be controlled. By blocking remote signals, they could cut off the transmission, and theoretically prevent the chip from being remotely activated to self-destruct.

"Unless something unexpected happened, it should have been a hacker intrusion that altered the shielding program..." Changye said. "Where's the control room?"

Everyone entered the control room. Changye flicked his finger lightly and entered a program. After tapping a few keys, the answer emerged. Half an hour ago, a hacker had silently infiltrated the system and removed the shielding. At that very moment, the chip had activated and killed the suspect.

The director, deputy director, and three seasoned, highly trained police officers looked at one another, their faces all turning pale.

Having a chip implanted in one's brain was already bizarre enough.

Yet the other side's absurdity was even more unexpected. The police had blocked the signals in advance, but the other side had actually hacked in and lifted the blockade.

Even the senior computer experts stationed in the control room had no idea how the blockade had been removed.

The enemy's methods truly slipped through every crack.

Just one remote exchange had been enough to show how terrifying they were.

This was not something a county-level organization could possibly contend against.

Changye and Number 88 knew this was not their fault. They went up side by side, straight to the rooftop, while the director and deputy director followed behind them like children who had done something wrong, barely daring to breathe.

"You said the person who solved your case today was an ordinary villager named Lin Xiaosu?" Changye exhaled softly.

"Yes!" Deputy Director Li Lisan stepped forward two paces.

"From more than ten li away, across four city blocks, he was able to track the suspect precisely based on nothing more than a trace of the suspect's scent?"

"Yes!"

Changye's eyes glimmered faintly in the night. "Tomorrow, arrange for a female police officer to carry out a mission with me. Don't tell her who I am."

"Yes!"

"Have her come to room 302 of Fengcheng Hotel tomorrow morning to find me!"

"Yes!"

"You may leave. There's no need to concern yourselves with us."

"Leaders, the car is still downstairs. Let us take you both back to the hotel..."

"No need. For such a short distance, we have our own way of getting back," Changye said.

The director and deputy director exchanged a look, then went downstairs together.

The rooftop was cloaked in darkness. From this angle, the county town seemed somewhat distant.

Number 88 exhaled softly. "You're interested in that Lin Xiaosu?"

"Yes. There are quite a few people in the group with scent-related genes, but even Unit 101, known as the Guardian Hound, couldn't find a suspect in such a short time under these circumstances, could he?"

Number 88 nodded. "I'll check whether he has any Genetic Modification records."

He raised a hand and put on a pair of glasses. They were an ordinary-looking pair of gold-rimmed spectacles, yet when he wore them, they somehow gave him a more refined air.

"No need to check. I already did," Changye said. "There are no Genetic Modification records for him, which completely matches his family circumstances. His family is just an ordinary village household. They couldn't possibly come up with millions, or even tens of millions, for Genetic Modification surgery."

"If there are no Genetic Modification records, then if a genetic mutation occurred, there are only two possibilities. First, his bloodline carried genetic mutation molecules. But considering that his parents and elder brother are all ordinary people, that possibility can basically be ruled out. That leaves only the second possibility!"

"An unconscious injection of some Outside World gene," Changye said. "That possibility may be slim elsewhere, but on Tashan, it is possible..."

An unconscious injection of an Outside World gene... What did that mean?

Perhaps some insect had bitten him, or some insect had crawled into his body, triggering a genetic mutation.

Such a thing basically did not exist elsewhere in the Outside World. If a simple bite could cause mutation, then with billions upon billions of people being bitten by all sorts of insects every day, wouldn't genetic mutations be flying everywhere?

But Tashan was extraordinary. Its species were incomparably abundant, and it had long drawn Qianlong's attention.

Qianlong researchers had even conducted studies here for many years.

And just three days ago, a major incident had occurred...

"Changye, I know you want to recruit capable people for Qianlong to resolve the current, most complicated game of forces, but you also need to understand that our position is extremely delicate. Sometimes, when a butterfly flaps its wings, it can whip up a tornado on the western shore of the Pacific Ocean," Number 88 said.

"That's why I asked them to arrange for someone to accompany me in a test tomorrow," Changye said.

"How do you intend to test him?"

"I want to see whether, with his unique investigative methods, he can unravel the mysterious case at Qingyuan Temple three days ago."

Number 88 was greatly surprised. "You still believe 2198's death was a case?"

"2198 was only a numerical code within the group, but to me, he was half a father and half a teacher. I can never forget how, when I stood in the orphanage staring at the sky, he came before me and held an umbrella over me in the cold autumn rain. Nor can I forget what he told me on the eve of my sending him to Phoenix City... He said that genes were a double-edged sword. The outward edge of the sword possessed boundless killing power. What he could do was broaden the sword's spine, so it could protect Daxia's billion people. Before his grand ambition was fulfilled, he would never die!"