Someone?

At this hour, someone is at the ruins of the secret lab?

Jiang Baimian, Long Yuehong, and Bai Chen exchanged glances, similar thoughts flashing through their minds.

“‘Heartless’?” Jiang Baimian looked at Shang Jianyao and whispered a possibility.

Every night, do the "Heartless" affected by the monster in the secret lab come to the ruins and linger for a long time?

Shang Jianyao shook his head:

"I don't know.

"Want me to ask?"

He then cheerfully sang:

"Friends, oh friends, have you ever remembered me..." (Note 1)

Forcing friendship? Jiang Baimian discovered that since Shang Jianyao explored the depths of his mind corridor and could use singing to complete "thought guidance," he had become even more powerful and difficult to guard against.

She thought for a moment and said:

"Don't rush, let's sneak over and observe."

"Okay." Shang Jianyao was slightly disappointed.

He sincerely said:

"It's a pity that Xiao Hong brought the 'Black Swamp Iron Serpent,' not the 'Chameleon,' otherwise, he could complete this mission alone."

That's not how it works. The "Chameleon" biomimetic intelligent armor can't hide human consciousness. What if they are Awakened ones? Long Yuehong isn't stupid.

Jiang Baimian glared at Shang Jianyao:

"Let's hide our consciousness fluctuations and go see what's going on. Xiao Hong and Xiao Bai will provide support from behind."

"Okay!" Shang Jianyao suddenly became excited, not knowing what he was thinking.

Then, he bent his back slightly and tiptoed toward the lab ruins, sneaking around as if he were playing a prank to scare Long Yuehong.

Jiang Baimian quickly followed to prevent this guy from causing any trouble.

Currently, the "City Smart Network Control Center" has only restored power to the entire ruins, but has not activated the street light system. Therefore, at this moment, where the starlight does not reach is a patch of darkness, very suitable for the "Old Task Force" to secretly approach that mysterious laboratory.

Before long, they arrived at the edge of the destination, quietly entered a building, went up to the third floor, and surveyed the front through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

What the laboratory originally looked like is now impossible to verify. In the eyes of Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao, it is only a large amount of piled-up concrete blocks and jagged steel bars pointing towards the sky.

And the sprayed dust and rocks caused a visible disaster to the surrounding lawns and parking lots.

Further away, the glass windows of buildings and cars were more or less damaged, and some were completely blown out.

At this time, three figures in disheveled clothes, each carrying a canvas bag, were using entrenching tools to dig at a pile of concrete.

Obviously, "Pangu Biology" had already sent people to search here, and there were excavation marks everywhere. The three people chose the most marginal place, the least likely to hide any secrets.

"Not 'Heartless'." Jiang Baimian quickly made a judgment, "Nor are they from the company."

The employees of "Pangu Biology" stationed in the No. 1 Swamp Ruins all belong to a certain action team of the Security Department, and have their own uniforms. They couldn't be like those three people, wearing whatever they could find, cotton-padded jackets with leather pants, warmth first.

Shang Jianyao's eyes lit up:

"Ruins hunters?

"What are they digging for here at this hour?"

Except for Qiao Chu, the mechanical monk Jingfa, the employees of "Pangu Biology," and a few others, ordinary ruins hunters shouldn't know that there used to be a mysterious laboratory here.

So, how could they come specifically to dig for things?

Compared to this place that has been bombed into ruins, the No. 1 Swamp Ruins have too many places to harvest high-value items.

As Jiang Baimian stared intently, the three people dug a pit that wasn't too deep but wasn't too shallow in the concrete pile at the edge of the ruins.

Then, they each took off their backpacks and took out some things from inside.

Under the dim starlight, Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao, who were some distance away from them, couldn't see exactly what it was.

A few seconds later, the three people threw the things in their hands into the pit, and then picked up their entrenching tools again, trying to push all the surrounding concrete blocks down.

Not here to dig up items, but to bury something? Jiang Baimian frowned.

She decisively said to Shang Jianyao:

"Let's go have a 'chat' with them."

"Okay!" Shang Jianyao couldn't wait.

He found a window nearby, jumped to the ground in a few steps, and went straight to the lab ruins.

Before the three people noticed him, he said loudly:

"Don't be afraid, I have no malice.

"I'm just curious about what you're doing, so I came over to ask.

"It's fate that we meet by chance, and when fate brings us together from a thousand miles away, meeting naturally makes us friends."

The three men stopped filling the pit, looked at each other, and their expressions gradually relaxed, no longer so vigilant.

They were all Ashlanders, their hair messy and greasy, their faces unshaven, making it impossible to see their true appearance.

This is the standard image of a wasteland wanderer, perhaps also a ruins hunter.

"You, what are you burying?" Shang Jianyao walked calmly to the three men and peered into the pit in front.

Jiang Baimian followed closely behind.

At this time, the concrete blocks had not completely filled the pit. Through the gaps, the two vaguely saw what was being buried:

They were white, skeletal bones.

Human bones!

"Murder and body disposal?" Shang Jianyao rubbed his chin, his eyes gleaming as he looked at the three men.

At this moment, he seemed like a professional detective.

The tallest of the three men quickly explained:

"Someone else asked us to bury these bones here."

"Someone else?" Jiang Baimian asked.

She was clear that these three men certainly didn't kill the person.

Because the corpse had rotted to the point where only bones remained, it was clearly not a recent death.

And if you wanted to kill someone and hide the body, throwing the body into the swamp would be better than coming to this ruin in the middle of the night to dig a pit, much better.

The man who spoke earlier looked at Shang Jianyao:

"We took a hunter mission.

"At the time, I thought it was strange why we had to carry these bones to the No. 1 Swamp Ruins, bury them in this inexplicable place, and even gave us a route map and a way to bypass the guards, but the reward he gave was really too much."

For some reason, Jiang Baimian suddenly thought of Shang Jianyao's nonsensical idea:

"Deliberately put up a sign that says 'Dajiang City Elite Junior High School' and hang it outside a school at random, in order to mislead people who come to explore."

Could someone really be faking the scene, trying to mislead later excavators? Jiang Baimian looked at the three men and asked in a deep voice:

"What did the person who hired you look like?"

The three men simultaneously struck a pose of recollection.

Then, their expressions became painful.

"Don't remember."

"Forgot."

"Very ordinary, no impression, anyway, a third of the reward has already been given, and the rest is deposited in the guild. We just need to take a few photos and bring them back to get it."

The tallest man patted his backpack.

There was a digital camera there.

This was lent to them by the Hunter's Guild.

"Sure enough, there's something fishy." Shang Jianyao was very happy.

Jiang Baimian thought for a moment, first picked up the walkie-talkie and asked Long Yuehong and Bai Chen to come over, then said to the three men:

"You guys take pictures first, and then dig the things out for us to see later."

"Yes, you came here, dug a pit, buried the things in it, took a picture, and that's the end of the mission. Any further development has nothing to do with the mission." Shang Jianyao patiently persuaded.

What he said made a lot of sense, and the three men expressed their approval one after another.

After taking the pictures, they waved their entrenching tools and dug out the concrete blocks again.

By the time Long Yuehong and Bai Chen arrived, the three men had already picked up the bones and placed them outside the pit.

Without careful observation, Jiang Baimian could confirm at a glance that this was not a complete corpse.

For one thing, the skull wasn't here.

After carefully distinguishing for a while, Bai Chen said:

"An adult, only half a corpse."

The three men responded in unison:

"It's none of our business!"

"We were only given this many bones when we got it."

"We only got these!"

A残尸…埋一具残尸到沼泽1号遗迹实验室废墟究竟是为了什么？Jiang Baimian思索之中，Shang Jianyao突然指着坑洞某处道:

"What is that?"

Beneath a pile of concrete blocks, there was a palm-sized, dark, rectangular object.

The tallest of the ruins hunters looked at it and said:

"The employer gave it to us, told us to put it in the pile of bones when we buried it, and forgot to pick it out just now."

Shang Jianyao quickly looked at Long Yuehong and said expectantly:

"You go get it."

Would it be any different if I went to get it? Long Yuehong muttered to himself.

This was serious business, so he didn't decline, jumped into the pit, bent over and picked up the object.

By the dim starlight, he discovered that it was a soft plastic name tag.

Then, he flipped over the name tag and looked at its front.

Under the transparent plastic film, there was a yellowed certificate.

The certificate surface wrote a name:

"Du Shaochong"

Note 1: Quoted from "Friends" by Zang Tianshuo