Chapter 70 Bookmarks
It was raining the day Rongyuan returned to school.
The sky was gloomy, and the continuous rain formed a hazy curtain. The cold winter had passed, and the dry branches were quietly covered with gorgeous brocade: clusters of plum blossoms bloomed on the branches, cherry blossoms swayed, white magnolias bloomed gracefully, and strings of purple-blue grape hyacinths drooped shyly. There were also camellias, cherries, crabapples, azaleas and other flowers blooming one after another, covering the entire city A like a sea of flowers and green fields. In the drizzle, the petals dotted with tears became more and more beautiful.
Xiao Xiao, who was sitting by the window, looked up as if sensing something. Through the window, she saw an umbrella with a blue background and white stars "floating" in from the school gate. The person holding the umbrella was walking slowly. Looking from above, one could only see a pair of white sneakers under the umbrella.
Xiaoxiao raised her left hand, and formed a circle with her index finger and thumb, just enough to encircle the entire umbrella, moving with it until it disappeared from sight.
"What are you doing?" The boy next to her looked at her in confusion and asked in a low voice. It was morning self-study time, and the English teacher was sitting in the front row supervising them to memorize words and texts, and had glanced over here several times.
Xiao Xiao put her hand down, smiled softly, and said nothing. The boy couldn't help blushing when she looked at him.
…
Rong Yuan returned to the classroom quietly. He entered from the back door, found his seat, threw his schoolbag into the desk, and lay down to sleep. The student sitting in front of him didn't even notice that there was an extra person behind him.
He and Wandou spent most of the night last night sorting out all the people who had reported missing within a week after September 11. After screening and comparing them one by one, they finally determined the identities of most of the people on the No. 223 bus at that time.
None of them had a police, military or similar identity, which means that no one could possibly be carrying a gun while riding in a car.
——So, where did the bullet casing come from?
Rong Yuan picked up the bullet casing from the wreckage of the bus and analyzed the marks on the casing through a computer, obtaining information such as the number, depth, width of the rifling and the quality of the gun's bore. However, after comparing it with the police's existing archive of traces of fired ammunition, it was found that no recorded gun matched the marks left on the casing.
——Who brought the gun onto the bus? Under what circumstances did he fire the gun? Did the person carrying the gun also die in the fire? Or did he get off the bus before it crashed into the gas station? What about him? He was just an ordinary middle school student at the time. How did he escape alone when everyone else died?
There were too many unanswered questions. But Rong Yuan felt that he was only one step away from the answer. Once he broke through a layer of window paper, the truth of the matter would unfold to him.
Before that, there was nothing to do except wait. With limited clues, the investigation had to remain secret to avoid attracting the attention of certain people.
While sleeping on the table, Rong Yuan suddenly smelled a faint fragrance, very faint but very unique, just like... just like the moist air after the rain, mixed with the fragrance of sunshine, soil, grass and flowers, extremely fresh and comfortable. Something slid across the back of his right hand that was resting on his arm, like soft silk or brocade, cool and smooth, making him nostalgic.
Rong Yuan opened his eyes and saw a strange girl sitting next to him. She held her chin with her left hand and looked at him sideways. Her long black hair hung down and a strand of it fell on the back of his finger.
Rong Yuan sat up and asked unhappily, "Who are you?"
Perhaps because he had lived alone since childhood, he had a strong sense of territory like a solitary wild animal, and hated others invading his territory without permission. Because of this rejection, he was completely indifferent to the girl's bright moon-like appearance.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Xiao Xiao. I just transferred to this class. Please take care of me in the future." Xiao Xiao seemed very happy and kept smiling. The classmates who had always thought that she was a flower on the mountain and difficult to approach could not believe their eyes.
"Hello." Rong Yuan said coldly, still in a bad mood. He turned his head and flipped through a book at random, and it was obvious that he didn't want to continue the conversation.
"I know your name is Rong Yuan, and I've wanted to meet you for a long time." Xiao Xiao continued, as if she didn't understand his expression.
——So the goddess transferred here with a purpose? So she already had someone in her heart? Rong Yuan, this bastard, is so hateful!
The boys in the class who had a crush on Xiao Xiao were gritting their teeth and trying to kill this sure winner in life with their eyes.
——Are you going to confess? Are you going to confess? Oh my god! So bold! So courageous! …I’m so excited, what should I do?
The girls all pricked up their ears quietly, feeling their hearts beating fast, feeling excited and thrilled.
Rong Yuan closed the book and looked at Xiao Xiao, waiting for her next words. He did not feel that the girl's words meant to confess her feelings. When their eyes met, he felt that there were many complicated things hidden in this girl's eyes, which were far from being as clear as those of other girls of the same age.
Xiao Xiao changed the subject and said, "Speaking of which, the library in City A is really big, and the collection of books is beyond imagination. I just took a look around and found many books that I had never read before. Nowadays, knowledge is updated so quickly that people often feel that they will be left behind by the times if they are not careful... Do you like reading?"
"What does it have to do with you?" Rong Yuan asked back.
"Just asking." Xiao Xiao pushed the book in front of her towards Rong Yuan, tapped it twice with her fingers, and said, "If you haven't read it yet, I recommend you to read it."
She glanced down and then back up, with an intimate smile on her lips, but her tone was meaningful.
Rong Yuan took a look and found that this was a book similar to Buddhist scriptures that encouraged people to be good. Nowadays, there are many such inspirational books, most of which have received good reviews, but their sales are not high.
The title of the book is "Speaking of Good: Infinite Merits".
Xiaoxiao's finger just happened to point at the word "merit".
Just when the whole class thought Rong Yuan would say "not interested" to embarrass the beautiful woman, Rong Yuan pulled the book over, flipped through a few pages, and then, as if attracted by the content, his eyes were glued to it. The others couldn't help but get curious and wanted to know what interesting content in the book made him so fascinated. They secretly made up their minds to go to the library to borrow a copy after school.
The bell rang, and Xiaoxiao stood up and returned to her seat. Rongyuan closed the book, suddenly turned his head and stared at Xiaoxiao's back, his eyes full of doubt.
——There is nothing strange about the contents of the book. What is strange is the bookmark that the girl put between the pages.
Rong Yuan closed his eyes and recalled the scene he saw when he opened the book before - when the page with black words on it slid down, a half-flattened paper crane was revealed in it, and his own handwriting was still on the paper.
He clenched his fists under the table in an instant, using almost all his strength to control his expression from changing too much.
——Xiao Xiao? Her last name is Xiao? Could she be...
"Xiao Yuan? Xiao Yuan?"
Rong Yuan suddenly came back to his senses and found Jin Yang waving his hand in front of him. He grabbed it and asked, "What's wrong?"
"You asked me what happened? I should be the one asking you this." Jin Yang looked at him worriedly and asked, "What were you thinking about? I called you several times but you didn't hear me... Also, why are your hands so cold?"
"Nothing, the weather is a bit cold." Rong Yuan looked around and found that there were only two of them in the class. He asked, "Where did everyone go?"
"This is physical education class. Everyone else has gone to the playground, so let's go down quickly too!" Jin Yang pulled him up and said.
When the two ran to the playground, Rong Yuan saw Xiao Xiao standing in the front row of the team. She was doing warm-up , but compared to many people who were perfunctory, Xiao Xiao's movements were much more standard and serious. Under her leadership, many previously lazy students could not help but follow suit and become more serious.
Xiaoxiao seemed to notice Rong Yuan's gaze. She didn't turn around, but an amused smile appeared on the corner of her mouth.
The physical education teacher saw that the two latecomers were Rong Yuan and Jin Yang, so he waved his hand and asked them to return to the team without saying anything. Rong Yuan moved his wrists and ankles casually while observing Xiao Xiao's back in front of him.
He had to admit that he had some very bad thoughts in his mind, but there was a reason that prevented him from acting rashly.
——Xiao Xiao’s merit value is very high.
The world Rong Yuan sees is a little different from the world seen by ordinary people. Because of the heavenly eye, in his eyes, a line of numbers appears above everyone's head, which is the person's merit value. Because these numbers are small and basically black, if you don't pay attention, they look like part of the hair, so although they look a little strange, they basically don't cause trouble to daily life. If you don't look at them deliberately, you may not even notice them.
After Xiao Xiao said something that sounded like a confession preview, Rong Yuan took a closer look at her and discovered that the merit value above her head was the highest he had ever seen in such a long time, a full 153,400 points.
This also means that if he hurts this girl, his own merit points will be deducted miserably.
But what kind of great deeds does an ordinary teenage girl have to accomplish to obtain such a high merit value?
…
"Bang!"
After a dull sound, a thick stack of documents was placed on the table, causing the entire wooden table to creak. Looking again, the four large wooden tables were all piled high with documents that were piled up like a small mountain.
The top sheet of paper trembled and floated down. On the sheet of paper was a photo of a man who looked like a social elite. There was more than one photo, four in total, including a front view, two side views, and a close-up. Just as the paper was about to fall to the ground, a hand reached out and grabbed it.
Jiang Quan put the paper on the top of the pile, rubbed his arm which was sore from carrying it, and said to Shu Qi: "Team leader, these are all the results."
Shao Baoer sat on a chair nearby, looking up at the mountain-like pile of documents, her eyes looking like mosquito coils. Thinking of the miserable overtime days ahead, she felt that life was bleak.
Shu Qi nodded with satisfaction and said, "Thank you for your hard work." Then he said to the other members of the investigation team at the table, "Everyone, these are all the candidates who meet the characteristics selected by the police of City A after investigating and analyzing the 25 million permanent residents. Here, we would like to thank the 1,500 police officers who participated in this work. Without knowing the purpose or the reason, they completed the task within the specified time with guaranteed quality and quantity. The rest is our job - further screening among these 1,082 suspects and narrowing down the suspects to less than 50 people. This is the first step of our Crow Hunting Plan!"
"Yes!" Everyone answered in unison. They only knew the rough outline of Shu Qi's crow hunting plan, but just an outline made everyone convinced of this team leader.
"He Xin, how is the technical team's work going?" Shu Qi asked again.
"The new communication system has been established, but whether it can resist the invasion of crows is still unknown before it is tested in practice. Therefore, I suggest that any modern electronic instruments and communication equipment should be prohibited from being carried and used in important documents and meetings." He Xin said: "In addition, all the planned cameras in the key monitoring area have been paralyzed, accounting for about 3.5% of the total number, and the distribution of monitoring blind spots has been connected into a whole as planned. Moreover, the reasons for the failure of the equipment are all natural, which will not arouse the vigilance and suspicion of the crows in a short time."
"Well, very good." Shu Qi nodded in approval. He knew how difficult this job was. He Xin even made a detailed plan and contingency plan for the scrapping process of each camera. Now, the holes poked in the crow's monitoring system without leaving any trace have been connected into a network, completing the preliminary preparations for the crow hunting plan. He Xin himself has also lost a lot of weight.
Shu Qi stood up straight, looked around at everyone, and said: "My dear colleagues, I know you have completed many difficult tasks before, but now is not the time to relax. Our future work will only be more difficult. Because the targets we are dealing with have unprecedented energy and technical level. This time, we don't want to catch all the crows in one fell swoop, as long as we can catch one of them, we will win. Before that, let me use tea instead of wine to toast you all!"
