After hearing what Qiao Chu said, Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao spoke at the same time:
“I…”
Seeing that the other had something to say, they both shut their mouths, and the scene fell into an awkward silence.
After a few seconds, Jiang Baimian smiled and said:
“You go first.”
Shang Jianyao nodded earnestly:
“I want to go to the toilet first.”
“…Don’t you have any other thoughts?” Jiang Baimian almost choked.
Shang Jianyao didn’t think and replied directly:
“Inspect other rooms along the way.”
“Inspect… Wouldn’t ‘patrol’ be better?” Jiang Baimian habitually asked back.
Then, she nodded with satisfaction:
“Go ahead.”
As soon as she finished speaking, she turned to look at Long Yuehong:
“When resting in this kind of closed room, you must remember to confirm that there are no abnormalities inside.
“This isn’t a problem that can be solved by simply keeping watch at night, because similar environments are narrow and cramped, with many obstacles. It’s difficult to escape and difficult to fight. Even if you can detect unexpected situations in time, it will be quite troublesome.”
Speaking of this, Jiang Baimian subconsciously glanced at Qiao Chu, quite surprised by his carelessness in terms of vigilance.
Is this special envoy from the Eighth Research Institute too confident and not afraid of accidents, or does he simply not have relevant experience?
Qiao Chu didn’t look at her, took off the silver rifle on his back, and pulled a relatively intact brownish-yellow painted chair in front of him.
He then walked to the old coffee table, took out several tissues from a black-packaged box of tissues, and turned to wipe the chair, which was heavily covered in dust.
Seeing this, Long Yuehong didn’t know whether to follow Shang Jianyao to search the room or help Qiao Chu clean the items.
“Just remember it this time, sit down.” Jiang Baimian didn’t make things difficult for him.
Long Yuehong reflexively sat on the sofa, but the once-unknown color of the gray surface suddenly sank, and then tore open with a ripping sound.
This made Long Yuehong unable to sit still and almost fell into the sofa.
Jiang Baimian retracted her gentle gaze, looked at this dusty subordinate, and chuckled:
“Be careful, these are antiques from seventy or eighty years ago, or even longer.
“Moreover, there are unknown numbers of bacteria and viruses in that dust. Although you have undergone genetic modification and are not prone to illness, you still have to be careful.”
“Yes, team leader!” Long Yuehong stood up and responded loudly, just like many times in the past.
“Team leader…” Qiao Chu repeated the term softly in a indifferent manner, not caring much.
He had cleaned the chair and sat down.
Long Yuehong and Bai Chen began to clean up the sofa, chairs, and coffee table, while Shang Jianyao returned to the intersection of the living room and the dining room and walked down the short aisle deeper into the room.
At this time, with the arrival of night, the room was already dim.
The living room area was fine; the French windows were large. Even if there was no moon outside, starlight shone in a little, allowing Jiang Baimian, Long Yuehong, and others to barely see each other’s faces. However, after entering the aisle, Shang Jianyao could only roughly distinguish the outlines of some objects.
Shang Jianyao pulled open the zipper of the camouflage backpack on his back and took out a silver flashlight with a textured exterior.
—He didn’t always hang the flashlight on his armed belt; he would occasionally put it in the Security Department’s standard backpack.
With the help of the orange-yellow beam of light emitted by the flashlight, Shang Jianyao clearly saw the scene ahead:
There were brown-red wooden doors on the left and right sides of the aisle, but they weren’t symmetrical, and their styles were also different: the one on the left was closer to the entrance, with thick glass above that obscured the view inside; the one on the right almost reached the end, with a brass-colored handle that had green rust in some places.
And on the wall at the end, on the far left, there was another brown-red wooden door.
Shang Jianyao first walked to the door on the left side of the aisle because it was the closest.
During this process, he took out the Icemooss pistol to guard against accidents.
Using the palm of his hand holding the flashlight to twist the handle, after pushing open the door, Shang Jianyao wasn’t in a hurry to go in. He shined the flashlight inside for a long time from the outside.
He saw a sink, something similar to a toilet in textbooks, a sliding glass door, and an area that had been divided out and equipped with a shower head.
“Toilet.” Shang Jianyao whispered and stepped inside.
In this place where he could see every angle at a glance, he would sometimes jump up and look at the vents above, and sometimes squat down to check the narrow space between the toilet and the sink, as if he felt that someone could hide there.
In the end, he only found some moss and a few ants in some dark places, but not many.
After completing the inspection, he walked to the toilet and lifted the lid.
There was no water inside.
Shang Jianyao also tried the buttons in different positions on the toilet in a very scientific manner, and found that they were all out of order.
He straightened up, exaggeratedly twitched his nose, and took a few deep breaths.
“No smell…” After a few seconds, he came to the conclusion, his expression not showing whether it was relief or regret.
Next, he tried the shower head, confirming that no water flowed out.
After completing these checks, Shang Jianyao fell into thought, wondering what he was thinking about.
After a while, he put the Icemooss pistol back on his armed belt and reached out to pull out the metal filter plugged in the drain of the sink.
It was too corroded, and Shang Jianyao almost broke it.
After placing this item aside, Shang Jianyao supported himself with one hand, jumped up, and stood firmly on the sink, stepping on one side with one foot, extremely balanced.
He then clamped the flashlight with his chin, took off his pants, and aimed at the drain.
After solving his physiological problem, Shang Jianyao jumped down again and stuffed the metal filter back into its original position.
In the living room outside, Qiao Chu heard the movement, frowned, and pinched his nose. Long Yuehong and Bai Chen successively showed complicated expressions.
Jiang Baimian didn’t hear this small movement and was earnestly distributing compressed biscuits, energy bars, and other foods.
Shang Jianyao left the toilet, politely closed the door, and then, holding a gun in one hand and a flashlight in the other, walked to the end of the aisle.
At this time, there was a door on his right hand side and another door on his left front.
He gestured with the pistol and flashlight and decided to choose the left side.
He was equally careful while opening that door.
The most striking thing inside was a relatively wide bed. The bed was covered with dirty sheets that seemed to be light green and had two pillows with matching pillowcases.
To the right of the headboard was a low cabinet, and to the right of the low cabinet was a row of tattered high cabinets painted in milky white that reached the ceiling.
To the left of the headboard was a table with a large LCD screen and a black metal box on it.
Near the LCD screen, there were also things that Shang Jianyao recognized: a mouse, a keyboard, and something with a honeycomb-like structure and a deep blue bottom.
Further to the left of this table was a wall and a large windowsill. The windowsill was covered with a brown blanket that seemed to have been gnawed with many holes by mice, and there was a small wooden table on the blanket.
Holding the flashlight, Shang Jianyao walked from the aisle between the end of the bed and the wall to that windowsill.
He bent down and searched carefully for a while, but in the end, he could only regretfully say to himself:
“No mouse droppings…”
These words echoed in the slightly empty room, and seemed to carry a hint of doubt.
Shang Jianyao then walked to the table with the LCD screen and picked up different items one by one with the hand holding the gun.
As a graduate of Pangu Biology’s Higher Education Electronics Department, it wasn’t difficult for him to recognize that there was a computer in front of him.
He tried to turn his head and glanced at the camouflage backpack behind him, giving up on the idea of stuffing large objects into it.
Finally, he picked up the thing with a black honeycomb-like structure on its surface.
This was only slightly larger than a palm.
Combining his professional knowledge and what he had seen and heard in the Activity Center’s small trading market, Shang Jianyao quickly confirmed that this should be a small speaker.
A speaker that can play songs.
He quickly unplugged the speaker's cord, completely separating it from the computer.
After cleaning the deep-blue speaker with the sheet next to him, Shang Jianyao took off the camouflage backpack behind him and stuffed it inside.
He wasn’t sure if the speaker could still be used, and even felt that it probably couldn’t, but it didn’t matter; he would fix it, as long as he could find suitable, intact components to replace some things.
After putting the camouflage backpack back on, Shang Jianyao once again held a gun in one hand and a flashlight in the other, inspecting every corner of the room and different items.
He quickly went around to the other side, first bending down to look under the bed, and then opened the bedside table.
This low cabinet had two drawers, one on top of the other. Shang Jianyao first opened the one on top, and the things inside were dazzling, but filled with a stale smell.
“Ultra-thin… aspirin… Baijiahei…” He flipped through the items one by one and put them back.
He then opened the bottom drawer, which was empty, with nothing inside.
Shang Jianyao stared for a few seconds, retracted his gaze, straightened up, and walked to what was probably the wardrobe.
After opening the cabinet door, he saw a black jacket, a white gauze dress, and other styles of clothing that he couldn’t name.
They were neatly hung there, and apart from the somewhat unpleasant smell, they seemed no different from back then.
The reason Shang Jianyao recognized the dress was because some women inside Pangu Biology liked it very much.
This was an impractical thing. In a world where all energy from the environment was directed to the Inner Ecology Zone, leaving only a small portion to the Living Zone, long sleeves and pants were the best choice, which was also convenient for work.
Only women from slightly more affluent families would exchange contribution points for fabric and make a dress based on the styles of dresses worn by some management relatives.
This was one of their most precious possessions, and they would only wear it when watching the year-end report performance, participating in certain group activities, or strolling with their lovers in various corners.
Shang Jianyao subconsciously reached out and touched the white gauze dress.
Perhaps the hanging rod had long rusted, or perhaps it was already in a fragile balance. As soon as Shang Jianyao touched the dress, the rod slid down with a crash, causing many clothes to fall onto the wooden board below.
Shang Jianyao silently watched for a few seconds and retracted the hand holding the Icemooss.
He continued to inspect the drawers in the wardrobe, not finding anything noteworthy.
Soon, he left this room and entered the one on the right side of the corridor.
This room was even smaller, with only a bed that wasn’t as wide, a row of milky-white wardrobes, and a desk with a lamp.
The sheets on that bed were blue, with many small gold stars on them, much cuter than the set next door.
However, it also had many stains on it.
Shang Jianyao searched place by place. Finally, he leaned over to the pillow and shone a flashlight back and forth.
After an unknown amount of time, Shang Jianyao placed the flashlight on the bed, adjusting its position.
He then stretched out a hand and picked up a long strand of hair on the edge of the pillow illuminated by the beam of light.
White hair.
ps: Asking for recommendation tickets~