The Ghost Who Ran Away From Home

Jin Rongjia was forcibly woken up from his sleep.

The staff member on duty sounded tense.

Miss Qiu has gone missing.

As soon as he finished speaking, Jin Rongjia woke up completely.

He rushed to the central control room.

They learned that everyone had searched the entire base but had not found any trace of Miao Xin.

"Miss Qiu voluntarily disabled the tracking device on her body and cut off all communication."

Before she disappeared, she left a note.

There is a line of text above:

I'm going out for fun, I'll be back soon, don't worry.

Jin Rongjia stared at the note, his temples throbbing.

"We've already deployed personnel to conduct spot checks on trucks on nearby highways."

The staff on duty continued to report.

Before she left, she took a set of magnetic clasps, a cushion, and a book.

Someone nearby whispered, "We suspect she's planning to cling to the truck and read to pass the time."

Jin Rongjia took a deep breath.

He had a gut feeling that he probably wouldn't find this ghostly aunt who had run away from home, no matter how hard he tried.

"How did Miss Qiu get out?" he asked.

But as soon as the words left his mouth, Jin Rongjia realized his mistake.

"----never mind."

"With Miss Qiu's abilities, leaving here quietly wouldn't be difficult at all."

That's what they say, but the details still need to be investigated thoroughly.

Mending a broken wall is a necessary procedure.

But the result left everyone utterly astonished:

Miao Xin didn't sneak out at all.

She swaggered out!

Initially, she put on a work uniform in the core area, then drove a forklift, followed a group of people unloading goods in the buffer zone, and walked out the door in a blatant manner.

Jin Rongjia's face darkened as he looked at the problem, but he also understood where the issue lay.

The sentries will strictly check people coming in from outside.

As for the workers who go out to work, they are assumed to be one of their own.

The person leading the team was a familiar face, wearing a work badge around his neck and driving a forklift.

Who would bother counting the lines? Isn't there an extra little tail?

"How did she leave the buffer zone?" Jin Rongjia asked, suppressing his anger.

The scene shifts.

Miao Xin drove the forklift away from the group and headed straight for the office area.

Just as the sentry was about to stop her, she stepped forward first, speaking as naturally as if she were there to do business.

"Brother, where is the air conditioner unloading point?"

The sentry was taken aback by her question, so he picked up his walkie-talkie and asked around for her.

The colleague replied that no air-conditioned trucks were coming in.

After hearing this, Miao Xin immediately looked down at her phone and pretended to ask her supervisor for instructions.

When she looked up again, she had a slightly embarrassed and awkward expression on her face.

"The car hasn't arrived yet, I'll wait here."

It's hot, and the sun is shining directly on you.

The sentry noticed she was wearing work clothes and her forehead was covered in sweat, so he called her over to stand under a parasol.

A person in charge passed by and felt that this had a bad influence.

A young woman was squeezed under an umbrella with a sentry at the gate.

"What are you doing blocking the way here? Let's go inside."

"Register her identity."

The security guard registered her according to her name tag and forklift number, and then let her in.

Next, we'll look at the office area.

Miao Xin threw her work clothes onto the forklift, took out a file folder from her person, and put on a pair of glasses.

When she reappeared in the next surveillance video, she seemed to have changed her identity.

She walked gracefully and unhurriedly to the front desk and politely asked, "Excuse me, which floor is the investment promotion office of the Intelligent Manufacturing Industrial Park located on?"

"Director Wang asked me to bring over a document."

"I just went upstairs and looked around, but I didn't see it."

The support base was disguised as a normal industrial park to the outside world.

The front desk customer service representative maintained a standard smile.

"Sorry, this is Taya Pioneer Park."

Then, Miao Xin was politely asked to leave.

She was thoroughly searched before leaving.

They didn't even let her take the file folder she claimed was hers.

Upon seeing this on the surveillance footage, Jin Rongjia's lips turned white with anger.

That girl, she's clearly doing it on purpose.

She's definitely provoking us!

The key issue is that the base's defenses were lax in terms of entry and exit, indicating a clear lack of rigor.

"After the incident was resolved, a comprehensive internal review was conducted across the entire department."

Jin Rongjia spoke with a cold expression.

"Five thousand words of reflection from each person."

"All personnel directly involved must submit an additional 5,000-word self-criticism."

As soon as he finished speaking, the entire base was filled with cries of despair.

****

Ten hours later.

When Ling Wen saw Miao Xin riding a motorcycle and appearing before her with a completely new face, her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

She grabbed the satellite phone, turned off the SOS and location reporting functions, and immediately contacted Jin Rongjia.

"I knew she would go to your place." On the other end of the phone, Jin Rongjia sighed deeply, his tone completely unsurprised.

"----But the question is, where exactly are you right now?"

If the calling end does not actively upload its location, the satellite can only roughly pinpoint the service area beam where Ling Wen is located, which is quite large.

"My operation is imminent, so don't do anything rash."

Ling Wen's voice was low, but her tone was firm.

"I'm informing you now already out of consideration for our relationship."

"If the intelligence is leaked, the fact that all our months of hard work will be wasted is a minor issue."

Do you know the consequences if the "Jackal" escapes?

Jin Rongjia gripped the phone, the veins on the back of his hand bulging.

After a moment, he slowly loosened his grip.

"Take good care of her, at all costs."

I know what's important.

Ling Wen hung up the phone and let out a heavy sigh.

"Thank you, Sister Ling Wen!" Miao Xin brightly.

"Thanks to you," Ling Wen said irritably, "Even if I've done a good job this time, I might not get away with it."

She introduced Miao Xin as a newly joined support team member and led her into the inner room.

"Three days." Ling Wen drew a line for her directly, "I only allow you to stay here for three days."

"----Okay." Miao Xin agreed readily.

"Also, no misbehavior."

"That's hard to say." Miao Xin blinked.

Ling Wen's temples throbbed upon hearing this.

This statement is essentially meaningless:

If Miao Xin hadn't acted recklessly, she wouldn't be here.

"How exactly did you find me?" Ling Wen asked the question that concerned her most.

Miao Xin didn't hide anything and gave a general account of how she got there.

"----I was exposed because of this small detail," Ling Wen sighed.

Subsequently, they shared information about Alituo and Aisaikena.

"Su Ming said he hasn't found more detailed information about Aisaikena's abilities yet," Miao Xin said. "But since she's been following Alituo all this time, she probably possesses tactical abilities that can coordinate with him."

"Understood." Ling Wen nodded.

She spoke calmly, but deep down she wasn't really sure.

Alituo's abilities are too strange.

Aisaikena is completely unknown.

No one can say they can easily defeat this kind of enemy.

But that doesn't mean she's afraid to fight this battle!

In a sense, Ling Wen's decision to keep Miao Xin was also driven by personal motives.

From a combat capability perspective, she really needs her.

Ling Wen sat down at the table and began to introduce her situation.

"We're in Lancheng now, basically just waiting for the rabbit to run into our trap—"

****

Eight months ago.

The "fishing operation" targeting the Jackal Organization, using Miao Xin as bait, has come to an end.

At that time, the Jackal Curse (Alituo) intervened, using the power of "Calamity" to crash the helicopter that was acting as bait.

Chai Zhan was lured out and killed in this battle, but Jackal Curse and another female member (Aisaikena) escaped.

Miao Xin mentioned after the war that she bought several smoked geese at a Spring Festival market.

Those geese bore the same marks of "calamity".

Thus, the manhunt was launched.

Based on the hiding place provided by Miao Xin, Ling Wen immediately led her team there.

It was early spring then, and the chill of winter had not yet dissipated in the north.

The plastic bag was lifted onto the autopsy table. The forensic doctor put on gloves, tore open the bag, and a strong, salty smoky smell immediately wafted out, making people wince.

The geese on the table did indeed look terrible.

The cuts were crooked and uneven, the salt hadn't cured the skin thoroughly, the skin color was patchy, and the smoking was messy; some parts were even charred black, as if it had been roasted over a fire.

The forensic doctor glanced at the papers, looked up, and drew a conclusion.

"Hurry up with the work."

"And it was done in a real rush; normal people wouldn't do it like that."

To be honest, this was the first time he had ever conducted such an examination in his forensic career.

Someone immediately chimed in, "Shall we start our investigation from the market vendors?"

"We can't check from here," Ling Wen interrupted directly.

The Spring Festival market was packed with people.

People from all around flocked there, carrying their local produce, and could sell it simply by squatting down on the ground.

The room fell silent.

Everyone stared at the smoked geese, and they understood what was going on.

Trying to trace back the vendors layer by layer is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

"We're not looking for geese."

Ling Wen looked up and spoke very quickly.

"In fact, these geese were killed by the Jackal Curse using 'Calamity'."

"If that's the case, something must have happened nearby."

"Whether it's a case, an accident, a disappearance, or a strange occurrence—dig it all out!"

At the command, the entire group immediately dispersed.

A group of people went to the countryside for visits.

A group of people were sifting through the files, meticulously reviewing all the cases, accidents, and missing persons records from the entire region before and after the Spring Festival.

The result was strange.

The case file was excessively clean.

There aren't even any serious accidents, let alone murders.

Ironically, the slowest line produced the result first.

As evening fell, a messenger who had gone out to investigate brought back a message: "There's something going on in Songguotun."

"A family living near the mountain had their water pipe burst not long after winter began."

"The temperature dropped those days, reaching minus twenty degrees Celsius at night."

"No one was home during the day, and the whole house was freezing."

Some photos were sent back.

That no longer resembles a normal dwelling.

White ice was hanging everywhere – in the corners, on the doorframes, and beside the stove.

The water flowed down the beams and pillars, and down the walls, freezing halfway down and forming long icicles.

The entire room turned into an ice cave.

"Where is he?" Ling Wen asked.

"They're not in the village," a team member reported. "It's a couple, around fifty years old. Their house was uninhabitable, and there was no way to clean it in this weather, so they went to Lancheng to stay with their children. They plan to come back in the spring."