"She's not in a good state of mind right now, so you need to be careful. Hide all the weapons in the house, and put away kitchen knives and such," Isabelle cautioned. "I don't know what she might do, but try to keep her calm. She should be alright."
Jiang Ye felt a pang of nervousness upon hearing this and nodded emphatically.
Li Nannan was an officer, likely trained in combat and fighting skills. If she lost control and went berserk, she would be a significant threat.
"I'll come over to look after her when I can. If I'm not here, I'm entrusting her to you," Isabelle said, rising and clasping her hands together in a sincere plea. "I've never asked you for anything before. You have to help me this time."
"No problem," Jiang Ye agreed. "Both morally and logically, I have an obligation to take care of her."
"I'm heading back now. There's still a lot of work to do at the express delivery station," Isabelle said as she left.
Jiang Ye walked her to the door and watched her flying car ascend into the sky and disappear.
Going upstairs, Jiang Ye opened the bedroom door a crack and peeked inside.
Fortunately, Li Nannan was sleeping soundly, curled up motionlessly in her blanket.
Jiang Ye closed the door and went to another bedroom to rest.
His mind was a jumble. He sat by the window, gazing out at the snowy landscape, lost in thought.
But after thinking for a long time, he couldn't figure anything out.
He wasn't sleepy for the moment, so Jiang Ye tapped the windowsill.
The smooth marble slab opened, flipped 180 degrees, and revealed a hidden screen.
This apartment had many similar hidden features, some quite interesting, which Jiang Ye hadn't tried out yet. This screen was also being activated for the first time today.
There was still a pile of company resumes to process, so Jiang Ye reviewed them one by one, clicking to approve or reject.
Most of the newly submitted company resumes were related to manufacturing or the catering industry. Jiang Ye was getting a bit tired of catering businesses; it seemed like everyone these days was rushing into food businesses, which was incredibly foolish and uncreative.
However, he still approved a batch of catering companies to set up shop, as Oil City was still a commercial desert and needed some new establishments to inject vitality.
After reviewing the company resumes, he turned his attention to "Build Factories."
There were several new commercial factories, and they were producing quite high-end items.
The Bright Vision Spray factory, which could temporarily improve eyesight with just two sprays into the eyes.
The Mechanical Watch factory, which seemed to be a major brand from this era. The watch cases required manual polishing by artisans, and each factory needed over four hundred foreign craftsmen.
The Hand Cream factory, Lip Balm factory, and Face Mask factory all had shockingly high profit margins.
He approved all of them and then moved on to the Military Factories.
The three newly unlocked military factories still only produced small items.
Jiang Ye was initially disappointed, but after carefully reading the factory descriptions, his mood improved considerably.
The first factory manufactured military wound sealant. When a soldier was injured, they could apply the wound sealant to stop bleeding immediately.
The brilliance of this product lay in the fact that the human body wouldn't reject the sealant. Blood vessels and various tissues would slowly grow over the wound, integrating the sealant into the body, which would then be gradually expelled through metabolism. For most injuries, a simple application of the sealant meant no need for hospital visits.
The second factory manufactured individual exoskeletons. Soldiers wearing them would find walking and jumping much easier.
The third factory manufactured artificial eyes.
When a soldier's eyeball was damaged, an artificial eyeball could be directly implanted.
It featured a picometer-scale photoelectric sensor array, detecting an average of 96 photons per second, with a conductive wire made of co-deposited gallium-indium alloy that sent signals directly to the brain. It also contained formamidinium lead iodide, giving it excellent photoelectric properties and stability.
After implantation, the user would gain vision far superior to that of ordinary people, with higher clarity, the ability to distinguish more colors, and faster reaction times.
The only drawback was its lifespan, which was only 24 hours. However, for battlefield conditions, an extra 24 hours of vision for a soldier was more than sufficient.
The cost for the first two factories was only fifty million, which Jiang Ye invested in without hesitation.
However, the cost of the artificial eye factory had skyrocketed to 2.5 billion!
Jiang Ye was conflicted; this was not a small sum of money.
But after re-reading the description of the artificial eye factory, which stated it could produce 3,000 artificial eyes daily with a profit of one thousand per eye, Jiang Ye gritted his teeth and decided to invest.
With his work completed, he finally checked his basic information.
[Jiang Ye Autonomous Region / Development Index 6410 / Rank 8260]
Account Balance: 22,350,000,000 Yuan
Territory Area: 29,938 square kilometers
Military Personnel: 3,085
Police Personnel: 1,530
Total Population: 69,840
The fluctuations in these figures were not significant, as there hadn't been any major developments recently.
Jiang Ye yawned and collapsed onto the bed, burrowing under the covers.
...
"Don't bite! Let go of me! It hurts!"
"Help! Help!"
Jiang Ye was jolted awake by the shouts. He fumbled under his pillow for his handgun, opened the door, and went out.
At the end of the corridor, Li Nannan was kneeling on the floor, gnawing fiercely on a sweeping robot with her teeth.
She was only wearing her underwear, exposing large patches of skin. However, it wasn't beautiful; her entire body was covered in red, bark-like wrinkles, as if her skin had split open, making her look particularly terrifying.
"Help! Don't bite me! Why are you biting me!" the sweeping robot screamed desperately.
Li Nannan bit a few more times. Drool dripped from her mouth onto the floor, and the robot's outer casing already bore numerous teeth marks.
She suddenly became manic, smashing the sweeping robot against the floor three times a second. Amidst the resounding thuds, the robot's casing shattered, its dustbin exploded, and dust scattered everywhere.
A wave of intense fear washed over Jiang Ye, his heart nearly stopping. Li Nannan's behavior was incredibly bizarre, exuding a sense of mental instability. It was exactly as Isabelle had said; he didn't know what she might do.
Jiang Ye tossed his gun back into the bedroom and rushed forward to embrace Li Nannan, grabbing her wrists from behind.
"What are you doing?" Jiang Ye asked. "Let go, release it."
Li Nannan shrieked, her screams capable of tearing eardrums.
"Don't be afraid, it's me! Jiang Ye!" Jiang Ye shouted, reaching out to pry open her jaw so she would look at him.
Li Nannan's mouth gaped open, and she stopped screaming.
After a moment's hesitation, she dropped the sweeping robot and reached out to embrace Jiang Ye, burying herself in his arms. It was as if a small animal had found a larger kin and sought warmth from it.
"Why were you biting the sweeping robot? Are you hungry? Do you want me to get you something to eat?"
Jiang Ye gently stroked her neck to comfort her. He touched her neck because her skin there was still relatively intact; her other parts were covered in red, bark-like flesh. He was afraid of causing her pain.
Li Nannan trembled for a few seconds, gradually calming down under his soothing touch.
"Because it was moving," she whispered. "I came out to use the restroom and saw it moving there. So I grabbed it and bit it. It felt good, but I couldn't bite through it, so I smashed it. I smashed it open."
Jiang Ye felt a chill run down his spine. Li Nannan's tone of voice was completely unlike that of a normal person, her logic incredibly strange. Her thought process seemed entirely disordered, making her seem like a different person from the Li Nannan he knew before.
If a person's mind is chaotic, are they still the same person?
"There's a restroom in the bedroom, through a small door. I'll take you," Jiang Ye said.
"No need," Li Nannan replied.
Jiang Ye suddenly smelled a strong odor of urine. He looked down and saw a large puddle on the floor.
"I'm sorry," Li Nannan said, tears welling up. "I couldn't hold it. I don't know why, but I couldn't."
Jiang Ye sighed and picked her up, carrying her to the bathroom.