In the temporary conference room beneath Headquarters, the Oracle Tower's probe footage had been replayed more than a dozen times.
The instant the door cracked open, snow-white light flooded out of the screen, and vast patches of noise appeared in the video data. The Technical Team repaired the footage frame by frame and finally extracted a blurry image.
The image showed a tower.
The tower had no windows, only white stairs winding upward, level upon level. A Bronze Bell hung at the entrance on the lowest level, with two words carved beneath it.
Hear the Bell.
The Director stood before the conference table, his expression grim, saying nothing for a long time.
Song Zhixia projected Xu Zhihan's monitoring results to one side.
"He can't go in now."
Xu Zhihan sat in a chair with his coat draped over him, his untouched medicine beside his hand.
Lu Wenchuan sat diagonally across from him, his right wrist thickly bandaged. Holding a pen in his left hand, he wrote several numbers along the edge of the Oracle Tower's structural diagram.
The Director looked at Lu Wenchuan.
"You can't go in either."
Lu Wenchuan looked up. "I didn't say I was going in now."
Song Zhixia said coldly, "Every time you say 'now,' you mean 'in a little while.'"
Lu Wenchuan put down his pen and smiled. "You understand me better and better, Doctor Song."
Song Zhixia stared at him.
Lu Wenchuan quickly fell silent.
Xu Zhihan picked up his medicine cup and drained it in one gulp, his brow shifting slightly.
Lu Wenchuan saw it and pushed the candy over.
Xu Zhihan didn't look at him, but his hand took the candy.
Everyone else in the conference room kept their heads down over the documents. No one spoke.
The Deputy Captain placed the