Some things can't be faked no matter how hard you try.
The people in the video are undoubtedly real.
Hearing his subordinate's voice on the phone, Hu Li looked up at the person sitting opposite him.
The person opposite them still looked the same, their expression remained indifferent from beginning to end. They didn't seem to care about listening to their conversation. They stared at their cup for a while before finally deciding to get up and pour themselves another glass of milk.
This person is real. They have a heartbeat and breathe, and their face and voice are exactly the same.
Hearing his subordinate's voice coming from the phone, Hu Li frowned, then looked up at the person still standing by the refrigerator pouring milk and said, "Sorry to bother you, I have something to do, I'll be leaving now."
Jiang Yujin waved to him while holding the milk.
The person who was sitting on the sofa quickly left, the sound of a phone call faded into the distance, and after the door closed, there was no sound at all.
The person standing next to the refrigerator gently closed the refrigerator door and took a sip of milk.
As the car parked on the side of the road drove away, the barber who was still cutting hair downstairs glanced at it, then looked up at the upstairs area before continuing to cut hair.
Shortly after the vehicle drove away, a person wearing a black hat walked past the store.
Jiang Yujin glanced into the shop and saw that there were other people getting haircuts. Without saying hello, he walked straight past.
The barber shop owner looked away.
——
The bright red car sped across the road, and Hu Li returned to the Special Investigation Bureau as quickly as possible.
A group of people still in the office gathered together, still studying what was happening near the Zay Mountains.
The mutants appeared suddenly and were dealt with quickly. While onlookers were still trying to call the local special investigation department, someone had already filmed the mutants being eliminated.
When the footage was transferred from the local Special Investigations Bureau to their location, the branch office there was already on its way to deal with the alien corpse.
With such overwhelming strength and immense pressure, coupled with the white hair, even those who had never met 001 could roughly tell who was in the image.
However, just to be on the safe side, when the subordinate informed Hu Li, he said "suspected 001".
But Hu Li, who had seen the 001 footage, knew that the person in the picture was the other party.
Some people wondered, "How did he end up here?"
The Zay Mountains, a desolate land near the desert, are only tolerated by the local inhabitants and adventurous tourists.
Zai Mountains..."
Hu Li took a plastic bag out of his pocket, casually tossed it to someone nearby, and said, "Throw it away."
The person next to him took the sealed plastic bag, saw the number on it and a white hair inside, and said, "Isn't this the evidence that the deputy captain brought back from the snow mountain?"
Hu Li succinctly replied: "It's fake."
This was just a ruse he used to feign Jiang's suicide. In reality, the person who carried out the attack deep in the snow-capped mountains was brutal, but also very meticulous, leaving no trace at the scene.
The person holding the fake evidence didn't quite understand, but was greatly shocked.
After handing the items over to someone else to handle, Hu Li turned on his computer and brought up the map.
He roughly knew why 001 was in this place.
The Zai Mountains are the closest point to the Latso Desert.
If nothing unexpected happens, Xu Tonggui is in that place right now.
——
After dealing with the alien species, Jiang Yujin picked up his hat, which had been blown off, and put it back on before the others could react.
When the Special Investigation Bureau branch arrived, he only heard people present telling him how dangerous the situation was. When asked what the person who dealt with the aliens looked like, everyone shook their heads.
When the alien species appeared, they all rushed to run away, as far as possible, until they heard something amiss behind them and turned to look.
In that one glance, they saw the enormous alien creature lying on the ground, with a person standing in front of it.
Someone filmed the incident from a distance, and the footage was handed over to the person after the Special Investigation Bureau branch arrived. One of the people in the video saw the man's face clearly.
Jiang Yujin continued walking deeper into the desert.
The weather wasn't great today. There was wind in the desert, blowing sand and gravel into the air, blocking most of the view. We could only see things very close by.
What would be difficult conditions for an ordinary person is not so bad for Jiang Yujin. As long as there is no one else around, his actions will not be hindered in any way.
Instead of climbing up and down the sand dunes step by step, he crossed the hill directly, his black figure appearing and disappearing in the swirling sand.
The location in the photo provided by the barber shop owner is deep in the desert. The Latso Desert is the largest known desert to date. The outer areas are already very dangerous, and tourists often lose their lives there. Few people go to the real depths, and even the local indigenous people who have always lived in the desert would not want to go to this place.
The photo the barber gave him was obtained by chance. The lost tourist was swept into the heart of the desert by a sandstorm, and through a series of coincidences and luck, managed to escape and was rescued.
The desert was vast, and even with Jiang Yujin's slow pace, it took him almost half a day to finally catch a glimpse of green from a great distance.
By the time he reached the vicinity of the interior, the sun had already begun to set.
The sunset over the desert always looks so spectacular, fiery red and huge, reflecting the red of the withered trees as it slowly disappears into the sand ridges.
As the sun sets, tiny points of fluorescence appear in the distance.
Jiang Yujin slowed his pace and cautiously approached the source of the fluorescent light.
He arrived at the place described in the photo.
The once barren hillsides were now covered by yellow sand, and flowers bloomed where the corpses of the alien species lay. Nourished by the corpses, the plants thrived, creating a unique beauty in the vast desert.
But since they are plants grown from the corpses of other species, they can never be ordinary.
Using a dry twig he had picked up earlier, Jiang Yu cut off the tendrils of the plant that had silently extended behind him, and continued forward.
The tendrils of the severed plant ooze a scarlet liquid, which drips onto the ground, and a small sprout quickly grows.
The instance is still the same instance, but over time it has become the domain of plant mutants.
The vast expanse of vegetation stretched as far as the eye could see. Jiang Yujin continued walking forward, passing the large crater previously created by the alien species, and the ravine he himself had created.
He saw the place emitting fluorescence.
That was the long ladder that Shi Bu had built leading to the sky, but it had been crushed by the alien creatures, leaving only half of it extending into the air. The ladder, once piled high with alien corpses, had now become fertilizer for plants. Fluorescent plants grew on it, their flowers constantly emitting a white glow. Under the clear desert sky, they shimmered like stars, creating an unreal, surreal effect.
Further on, he saw plants scattered on the ground, cut in half. Someone had been here before, and not long ago.
The plants here are nourished not only by dead species, but also by stray animals and people.
Jiang Yujin saw the corpses on the ground. Judging from their clothing, they were likely lost tourists. The tourists lay on the ground, purplish-red leaf buds sprouting from their upturned mouths. After wandering in the desert for days, they finally saw most of the greenery. They thought they had found hope and died joyfully in this land of hope.
Jiang Yujin pulled his hat down and walked straight toward the giant pit where the abyss had appeared.
The plants in this area are still alive, without any signs of human destruction, and there are no animal or human corpses—these animals usually don't even make it this far before the plants bear fruit and take their lives.
In the distance, a huge plant swayed in the evening breeze, its leaves layered upon each other, adorned with beautiful fluorescent patterns.
That must be the best-growing plant here. Jiang Yujin saw it, but didn't pay much attention and walked to the edge of the giant pit.
Near the giant crater, the ground was scorched black, barren of vegetation, and covered with footprints. These footprints were from long ago, buried by yellow sand, only to be revealed after the wind blew them away.
After so many years, the giant pit seems to have grown larger and deeper, and no light can penetrate it; it is pitch black at the bottom.
Without the slightest hesitation, Jiang Yujin flipped over and jumped down.
He felt a sharp drop; not long ago, his hat had been blown off. He reached out and held his hat down to avoid losing his equipment again.
The abyss did not reappear, and when he felt the ground beneath his feet again, he was already standing at the bottom of the pit.
The bottom of the pit was completely dark, so Jiang Yu could see clearly that no light had been turned on.
This place had clearly been explored long ago; there were layers upon layers of footprints, and the rotting corpses of aliens had been turned over and over before being piled up in a corner.
The place had been thoroughly searched inside and out, and it seemed to have no value for further investigation, but Jiang Yujin did not leave and continued to wander around inside.
He's looking for something that has an extremely low probability of existing, or may not exist at all.
The glass block that can record images may or may not exist somewhere in the copy. He seemed to have seen something like this when he was strangling the aliens here last time.
However, that was too long ago, the terrain has changed, and it has been disturbed by people. Such a small piece of glass may have already broken.
Using a dry branch, Jiang Yu pried open the alien corpse, then plunged the branch into the yellow sand. Beyond the sand was a mountain; the branch squeezed in, but it didn't feel like it was piercing the soil—it felt more like it was hitting some kind of fiber.
With a little more force, a large gap appeared in the fiber, revealing the yellow sand and other things that had been swallowed and expelled inside.
The ground here is not the ground, but the ground of living beings—or at least once lived, and they also have the need to eat.
Unfortunately, it appeared deep in the desert, a place where no living thing could survive. The corpses of the alien species were not enough for it to consume, and it could not find any other nutrients. For several years in a row, all it swallowed was yellow sand. It died silently, and its body became a paradise for plants.
Jiang Yu searched through the yellow sand he had swallowed, but found nothing but shriveled animal carcasses.
So he opened another gap, and another gap.
When I applied more force to the branch in my hand, I heard a sound coming from above, along with the tremendous stretching sound of the plant.
Someone has started clearing out the alien species.
At this location and at this time, there is only one person who will go to clear out the alien species.
Xu Tonggui will probably arrive here soon.
He quickened his pace, and another opening appeared. He circled the stick a few times in the yellow sand, when suddenly something stuck to his throat.
He peeled away the yellow sand with his hands, bent down and looked down, and saw a piece of glass stuck in the plant fibers.
Even now, the glass block is intact, with only slight wear and tear.
Jiang Yujin tossed the dry branches aside, reached for the shard of glass, and with a slight pull—
The glass didn't break; he stopped his force at the last moment.
Looking down at the cold, transparent glass in his hand, he slowly sat down on the ground.
The flapping of the alien leaves above gently tapped against my eardrums, and the roars of the alien seemed to still echo in the giant pit.
The flashes of fire and the light of exploding weapons seemed to keep passing by, while the surrounding stench of decay and the slimy, unidentified creatures in the abyss overlapped.
The fiery red sun reflected in the dull, iron-gray pupils, the blood that soaked through his clothes, and his gradually cooling body.
Reality and the past overlap, and memories that I thought would gradually fade away are still deeply etched in my mind.
There was no movement at the bottom of the dark, cold pit for a long time.
The sounds outside disappeared.
Slowly clenching the glass shard in his hand, Jiang Yujin leaned against the wall and stood up.
In the darkness, the glass shards eventually returned to their original place intact, and the person disappeared into the darkness.
The desert is cold at night.
After dealing with the alien species on the ground and confirming that there were no other major threats, Xu Tonggui began to venture deeper into the area.
He discovered a huge crater in the very center, where the areas not covered by yellow sand were charred black.
There was a big fire here before, and there are bullet holes in the ground. Something must have happened here.
As I looked into the bottomless pit, something seemed to flash through my mind, causing a dull ache.
He tumbled down into the deep pit, and when his feet touched solid ground again, the smell of decay filled his nostrils.
Without paying any more attention to the already dead alien species, Xu Tonggui turned on the lights.
The ground was covered with a layer of yellow sand with footprints on it, but many of them had been blown away by the wind, leaving only a small portion that was gradually fading away.
There was someone here just now. The crater was huge, and he couldn't see the whole thing at a glance, but he could sense that there was no one else here besides him.
The people who had just been here were gone, so blatantly yet so quietly. In that short time, the footprints that were still on the ground were completely blown away by the wind.
With his head still throbbing, Xu Tonggui glanced at the alien corpse on the ground and the mismatched sand piles nearby, then turned the corpse over.
Behind the corpse were fibers that had been slashed open, and not just in one place. He searched every spot, leaving nothing out.
Continuing along the wall, he passed another gap and used his dagger to pry open the pile of yellow sand.
Inside is a piece of transparent glass that looks quite ordinary.
——
Early in the morning, a passenger wearing a hat appeared at the station in a small town near the Zay Mountains. The sun is strong here, and residents need to cover their exposed skin when they go out during the day; he didn't stand out, remaining quiet and silent.
Near the station, there were people in special investigation team uniforms, holding cell phones, seemingly asking someone for information. He glanced at them and then looked away.
It takes several hours to get from the town near the Zay Mountains to the nearest transfer station. Without a mobile phone, Jiang Yujin occasionally opened his eyes to look at the yellowish scenery, but slept most of the time.
From the transfer station to the airport, and then from the airport to City A airport, when he got off the plane, Mr. Jiang stood facing the wall for half an hour before he could slowly suppress his nausea.
This time, instead of forcing himself to take the bus, he took a taxi directly from the airport to his apartment building.
When he got back, the barbershop was still open, and there was an auntie admiring her new hairstyle inside. He stood at the door, smiled, and called out, "Auntie Zhang, your new hairstyle looks great!"
He seemed to be praising her sincerely, which pleased Aunt Zhang. Her smile didn't stop as she left the shop.
The barber shop owner glanced at the person standing in front of the shop, his gaze sweeping over the small tuft of white hair peeking out from under the brim of his hat, and his eyes twitched violently.
He pulled the door down, ready to punch someone, when Jiang Yujin urgently called out, "Wait a minute!"
In that brief two-second pause, the person wearing the hat made a quick getaway.
The barber shop owner's temples throbbed, and he just stood there waiting.
Two minutes later, the person who had made the escape finally came downstairs again.
The door was closed, and the business was temporarily suspended. The barbershop owner pulled up a chair, sat down, and asked patiently, "What exactly happened?"
Jiang Yujin took off his hat, revealing a head of striking white hair.
"..."
The barber shop owner, who had just sat down, stood up again, took a cigarette from his cigarette case and put it in his mouth, then went to the cabinet to get hair dye.
The phone was back in his hand. Jiang Yujin spun it around and began to explain slowly.
He was still a little bothered by the photo he'd seen before, so he decided to go to the desert. But then he realized that Hu Li had been keeping a close eye on him lately, so he found someone to put him there to deal with the situation while he went to the desert himself.
He made it sound so simple, as if it didn't require much thought.
The barbershop owner asked him, "Where did this person come from?"
After meeting the person above him last time, he realized that the other party was an imposter, but he never expected that this person would find someone with the exact same face and voice.
"You've seen it too."
Jiang Yujin took something out of his pocket.
A scale, shimmering with a warm, rippled light, was very beautiful. The barber recognized it; it was a mermaid king's scale.
The mermaid king's scales can transform into the voice of anyone it has ever seen.
Before the barber shop owner could speak, Jiang Yujin said first, "I never said he was dead."
Everyone assumed he was dead after seeing the crack in the seabed, but he never said it himself.
The barber shop owner's lips twitched.
"Didn't I tell you before that I went to the aquarium?"
Jiang Yujin smiled and said, "He works as a zookeeper there and is doing quite well."
The little fish may not be very smart, but they have a deep-seated awe for the king of the ocean. They eat whatever the king gives them, and their daily task is to swim and play well, without daring to slack off in the slightest. Everyone praises him for raising fish so well, saying they grow more and more energetic and have a remarkable sense of organization and discipline.
The barber shop owner vaguely remembered that he had previously received a lot of photos of ugly fish from this person.
"But it's a different species, and when the zookeeper needs identification and..."
The barber stopped mid-sentence, then lowered his eyes and said, "Liu Cheng is still alive."
Jiang Yujin praised, "Truly clever."
Then he got a slap on the head.
The barber shop owner had a change of heart after withdrawing his hand from hitting the person.
The Mermaid King needed an identity to infiltrate human society, and among the people they knew, the only one capable of forging an identity without any flaws was the information broker Liu Cheng. He could buy and sell information, and he could also forge information.
Yuan Sanshui asked, "Where is Liu Cheng now?"
"A convenience store opened a few blocks away," Jiang Yujin said. "The things I told you about are cheaper there than elsewhere."
It was also the place where he bought wigs before.
Everyone wanted to get involved in finding Liu Cheng and uncovering all the secrets he knew, so for the sake of convenience, they had no choice but to make him a dead man.
To completely evade the investigation of others, one must pay a price, and Liu Cheng's price was his arm. To better fabricate a death scene, having his body at the scene would be more convincing.
As long as he evaded the pursuit of others, Liu Cheng had his own way of surviving. He changed his face and opened a convenience store in this most dangerous yet safest place.
"By the way, Hu Li was able to suspect me because of Liu Cheng."
Hu Li found Xu Tonggui's amnesia very strange. Long before Lu Yiyi bought information about him, he had already bought information about Xu Tonggui and knew about their relationship. Therefore, he deduced a series of speculations based on the hotel incident.
The Special Investigation Bureau had previously searched for people who had dealt with Liu Cheng but couldn't find them, and Hu Li was also involved. Finding one person would lead to a whole string of others; he didn't seem to want his dealings with Liu Cheng to be exposed.
Everything connected. The barber shop owner realized something, looked down, and asked, "You've been planning this for so long?"
Mr. Jiang didn't say anything, but took out his phone, which he hadn't had for several days, and opened the match-3 game.
In an instant, the faint smile on his lips vanished, and the barber shop owner asked him what was wrong.
"I'm going to kill that giant fish monster."
Jiang Yujin gripped his phone, his brows twitching with anger. He turned to the barbershop owner and complained, "He made me play over a hundred levels!!!"
"..."
The citizen Jiang was punched in the head again, and he finally behaved himself.
The barber asked him, "So what did you do in the Latso Desert?"
"I didn't do anything." Jiang Yujin said without pausing his hand on the match-3 game, "I've decided to give him the choice."
The barber shop owner looked down at the smelly white hair.
Everyone else thought Xu Tonggui was the most reserved, but actually the person in front of him was the one who was best at hiding his emotions.
He's the one who speaks so casually now, but he was also the one who spent years searching the world for a dead person.