Yi Heye looked at him, then laughed and asked, "So I'm starting to have doubts?"
His teasing made Jian Yunxian's awkwardness disappear.
In fact, Yi Heye had considered this issue before—the previous time with Lan Yang, he was still cautiously debating whether to choose to believe him, but this time, he skipped the process of doubt altogether.
Is it because I'm becoming more and more confident in my understanding of him? Or am I just becoming increasingly blind to his true nature?
Unable to come up with an answer, Yi Heye could only laugh helplessly in the end:
"Because I have to keep my word."
"I promised you I would believe in the little lamb."
Author's Note:
Jian Yunxian, you are so lucky!
Chapter 76, number 076
Hearing Yi Heye say those words, Jian Yunxian stood there stunned, staring straight at him.
Luckily, he managed to refrain from touching Yi Heye. He knew he was being electrocuted again—he was now so weak that even without physical contact, just hearing a few words would trigger abnormal behavior.
This is really bad.
At this moment, Yi Heye was also sizing up Jian Yunxian.
Those emerald eyes gleamed with an undeniable light, seemingly far beyond the emotional range expected of an AI.
For a fleeting moment, Yi Heye had a vague feeling that he might actually be a human being, capable of possessing natural emotions and understanding what it means to like and dislike.
But he quickly realized that it all stemmed from Jian Yunxian's "high-class" and "realistic" style, and he also realized that his words were incredibly ambiguous.
So he coughed twice, turned his head and pointed at the tip of his nose: "Believe in Sheep, but that doesn't mean I believe in you. Unless you admit that you are Sheep, you will always be my suspect."
Jian Yunxian, of course, wouldn't admit it, and only pretended to be a gentleman, saying, "Then I'll thank Mr. Yi on behalf of Xiao Yang, but I don't need to."
Yi Heye smiled and quickly brushed the topic aside.
Coming to their senses, and facing the unfavorable situation before them, both fell silent.
It's Thursday, and there are two days left until the online version of Lost Lamb goes live. If they want to stop the damage before it has a huge impact, they must completely eliminate this "toxic source" within two days.
The five-day deadline that Jian Yunxian had mentioned in a fit of pique had now been halved, proving to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. The two of them became tense at the same time.
Together they reviewed the case details, devised a response plan, and the next morning, just as they had anticipated, received a message from their superiors—
Following yesterday's large-scale drug use incident, various district branches of the Security Bureau have received a series of reports of fatalities.
According to the comparison of the personal IPs provided by He Jianyunxian, five of them were directly related to drug-related live streaming.
Zhou Wenkai, who was in charge of the liaison, said: "In these cases, four involved one death, one involved a couple using drugs together, resulting in one death and one arrest, and another involved as many as five deaths..."
Although it was normal for their superiors to provide them with updates on the case, Yi Heye still felt a vague unease when he heard this.
Sure enough, Zhou Wenkai's next words made his head spin: "The case of the five deaths mentioned earlier happened on the eighteenth floor of the underground shopping mall."
Having said that, Yi Heye seemed to have a general idea of what was going on.
"The person who came to report the incident was the owner of the bar on the 17th floor. The complainant said that an underground band had recently been stationed there, and they would make a lot of rehearsal noise every night. But last night, the sound coming from the 18th floor through the speakers was not singing, but terrifying screams and shouts. The complainant felt terrified, and the next morning, he felt uneasy. When he went downstairs and turned on the lights, he found that the five people had died in a very gruesome state, and the other members of the band had all left the scene."
Despite being mentally prepared, Yi Heye's heart still skipped a beat when he heard the last sentence.
He didn't ask about the cause of death, the horrific circumstances, or specific details; his first question was: "What were the genders of the deceased?"
“All five are male,” Zhou Wenkai said.
Yi Heye let out a quiet sigh, his palms sweating.
“We’re telling you the main reason why we’re informing you about this, and I believe you probably already know it,” Zhou Wenkai said. “In your previous reports about your movements, you should have had contact with this group of people. Our idea is to let you, as someone you know, learn about the specifics.”
Yi Heye glanced at Chen Sang's contact information on his phone, then looked up and said, "Okay, I'll do my best."
It was rare for Yi Heye to be so cooperative, and Zhou Wenkai felt a sense of unreality, as if in a dream. The words of persuasion he was about to say suddenly became unspeakable, and it took him a long time to reorganize his words:
"Okay, the security department will focus on interrogating the survivors who have been brought to justice. You can concentrate on gathering intelligence on the band. Jian Yunxian doesn't need to go. He should be ready to enter the live broadcast room at any time. The cyber security department will send elite forces to assist him, and the bureau will be responsible for monitoring and protection. Everyone should do their job and strive to maximize efficiency."
Hearing that he and Jian Yunxian would be splitting up, Yi Heye felt a vague sense of unease, but upon reflection, it seemed there was no more suitable arrangement—the positions of Shan and Sanxi were irreplaceable by anyone else. Given the urgency of the situation, both sides had to proceed simultaneously.
After finishing his call, Yi Heye glanced at Jian Yunxian.
That guy overheard their conversation too.
He stared at Yi Heye with his eerie green eyes for a long time before touching the brain-computer interface on the back of his neck and chuckled, "I'm a little worried about entrusting my neck to anyone other than my superior."
Yi Heye's heart skipped a beat at first at those words, then he found it a little funny—
He doesn't trust the legitimate police officers from the security department, but instead trusts his nemesis who's always plotting to slit his throat. He's insane.
Yi Heye didn't speak, but sent a message to Chen Sang: "Where are you? I went to the rehearsal room to find you this morning, but the police had sealed it off. What happened? Did something happen?"
Two minutes after the message was sent, there was no reply. Yi Heye frowned and dialed Chen Sang's number directly.
After failing to answer once, and then twice, the call finally went through when Yi Heye persistently made his seventh call.
"Hello? Mr. Chen?" Yi Heye's voice was genuinely tense. "Are you alright?"
"Brother Yi..." the other end spoke hesitantly, her voice even more tender and youthful than Chen Sang's, "This is Chen Mu... My sister is in the hospital right now... It's not convenient for her to answer the phone..."
Yi Heye frowned and asked, "Where is it? Do you need my help? I'll be right there."
After hesitating for a long time, Chen Mu finally sent an address and said, "Brother, can you lend me some money... I really don't have any..."
Yi Heye got the address and prepared the money, ready to embark on his journey. Before leaving, Jian Yunxian stood up and said earnestly to Yi Heye, "If you need any help, Xiao Yang will be there for me at any time."
Yi Heye's ears turned red again, but he forced himself to act as if nothing had happened and said:
"Please thank Little Sheep for me."
As he expected, Chen Sang didn't have the money to go to any major hospitals, and instead stayed at a black clinic that didn't even have a sign.
The location here is extremely remote, hidden in a corner almost as secluded as Fen'ai. The surrounding hygiene conditions are extremely worrying. As soon as you enter, the unpleasant smell of disinfectant and the string of patients' mouths and noses make Yi Heye frown.
The conditions were rudimentary, filthy, and overcrowded. Such conditions seemed less like a means of healing and saving lives and more like dragging patients into hell, hastening their death.
Following the room number given by Chen Mu, Yi Heye found the innermost ward. As soon as he entered, he saw Chen Mu looking haggard by the bedside, and Chen Sang lying on the bed with her expression unreadable.
He wanted to walk quietly so as not to disturb Chen Sang's rest, but as soon as he stepped into the room, the girl lying on the bed looked up, forced a smile, and greeted him: "Xiao Ye? What brings you here?"
Seeing that she wouldn't stay still while lying down, her younger sister could only gently lay her down while scolding, "Sister, you're already like this, can't you just behave yourself a little?"
When Yi Heye saw that she was awake, he went to her bedside.
After some time apart, the girl had become so thin she was unrecognizable, shriveled and emaciated like a skeleton clinging to the bed. Her cheeks were sunken, her eyes bulging, and she looked like a dying person.
"..." Although he had prepared himself mentally, seeing her like this, Yi Heye was still unable to say anything for a moment.
Chen Sang forced a smile: "Mu Mu, go out and play for a while. I'll chat with Xiao Ye for a bit."
Chen Mu choked on her words, took a breath, and rushed out the door with tears in her eyes.
After everyone left, Yi Heye dragged a stool over and sat down.
Chen Sang's pupils were unfocused and unnatural, as if they couldn't find their focus. His skin had turned grayish-white, and a grid-like pattern could be vaguely seen under his skin.
Yi Heye looked closely at her face, then sighed—he didn't know how to start the conversation or where to begin.
Chen Sang stretched out her withered, stubble-like hand and patted him: "Don't be like that, cheer up."
Yi Heye forced a smile and asked, "What exactly happened?"
"I've been hitting myself too much," Chen Sang said casually. "When you hit yourself too much, anything can happen. I have to be hospitalized every now and then, but I'm used to it."
Then she sighed and said, "Last night... Awen, Beibei, Monkey, Xiaoqian, and Dake all died."
"Dead...?" Yi Heye asked in a low voice, feigning surprise.
“Awen has a heart condition, it was bound to happen sooner or later. The others might have been beaten to death, I don’t know…” Chen Sang’s smile finally disappeared completely. “I also banged my head against the wall last night, I felt like my brain was about to explode, I hid in the next room and threw up all night, I felt like I was going to throw up my insides, but I actually escaped a disaster, and went to the hospital after I woke up.”
Yi Heye remained silent for a long time, not knowing what to say.
“Actually, I’ve seen this kind of thing a lot.” Chen Sang laughed again. “Anyone who touches this thing is doomed.”
After saying that, she didn't expect Yi Heye to find a topic to talk about, and said, "Xiao Ye, you should break up with your boyfriend soon."
Yi Heye didn't expect that even at this critical juncture, Chen Sang was still thinking about his own affairs.
“I saw him yesterday…” Chen Sang hesitated, “Honestly, things have come to that point, there’s really no saving him. Who knows what he might do to you… Be careful not to get dragged into this by him…”
Yi Heye nodded and said, "Is it that live stream room? He mentioned it to me."
Chen Sang was surprised that he knew about this. Her eyes widened in surprise, then her gaze darkened again: "Yes, we did last night... sigh, really... if only we hadn't gone..."
At this moment, her mind must be filled with thoughts of her deceased comrades. Yi Heye was not good at comforting people's emotions, so he just looked at her sadly.
After a long while, she laughed again and comforted Yi Heye instead: "Don't be afraid. Look how good you are. You haven't gotten involved in any of this and you still have your own job. Take my advice and break up with him. With a face as pretty as yours, you can't get a guy like him."
Yi Heye was amused by her and laughed, then finally remembered his mission.
He asked, "How exactly did you come into contact with this in the first place?"
Previously, Chen Sang was very averse to this topic, but this time, she no longer avoided it.
She sighed and said, "We're all pretty much the same. We get into drugs because we're unhappy with life, because we're bored and want to find excitement, or for all sorts of reasons."
“I was really upset about my failed debut back then, so my manager took me to ‘have some fun.’ At first, I started using heroin, and I quickly became addicted. All my money went into drugs. Later, I became so poor that I couldn’t afford it anymore. Every day I felt like a thousand ants were crawling all over me. I wanted to quit but couldn’t. I spent half of my day thinking about dying.”
"Later, someone told me that there was a new drug that could help with addiction, and that it was still in the experimental stage, and that I could try it for free." Chen Sang said, his consciousness becoming a little hazy. "It's this... lo what is it? You don't need to take it orally or inject it. You just stick it in your head and it can help you quit drugs through electrical stimulation. At the time, I was only thinking that I could quit punk drugs. It was a free drug, so I didn't think much about it and just took it to try. Later, I asked around, and everyone else was brought in like this."
It turns out that Lost Lamb was originally presented as a "drug for addiction treatment," which explains why the test results collected from Tony and Chen Sang both showed that these people had a long history of traditional drug use.
Yi Heye suddenly felt a bit ironic—these people who were trying so hard to find ways to quit drugs were guys who still had the will to live and wanted to make one last struggle, but they were taken advantage of by others who used their yearning for light to completely drag them into the abyss and turn them into real lost sheep.
"To be honest, ever since I got my hands on this stuff, I've never even thought about the taste of fennel again... because this stuff is way more potent than fennel. I don't believe anyone in this world can resist this temptation." Chen Sang lamented. "This stuff is the devil, Xiao Ye, really, don't even touch it."
"Did Mu Mu ask you for money?" Chen Sang laughed. "Don't lend it to me, I'm beyond saving."
Yi Heye hesitated for a moment, then said, "Do you have your previous medical records? I know a very capable doctor who is currently working on this topic; perhaps he can be of help..."
"Really?" Chen Sang's eyes lit up. "Mu Mu should be keeping them. Why don't you ask her?"
The glimmer of hope in his eyes made Yi Heye feel uneasy—this naive guy had already been fooled once before, and when faced with hope again, he still desperately tried to grasp it. What made it even more painful for him was that he didn't know a doctor who could help him.
He just wanted her medical records to confirm something he had always wanted to confirm.