Yi Heye was stunned for a moment, then roughly understood what he meant—the previous two attempts to frame Fang Chunyang were very obvious. Fang Chunyang was acting like a sheep in the public eye, and the live broadcast room directly used its images to fill in the gaps.
However, this time, if Chen Mu hadn't swallowed the coin, it would have been taken away along with Chen Sang's belongings. If Xiao Yunduo hadn't discovered the little treasure through the crack in the bed, no one would have paid attention to the coin layer afterward.
“Open your minds, friends!” SHEEP said. “This coin is obviously some kind of mark—why don’t we first check if Ke Yu has ever died before, or if this was among the belongings of the boss of ‘Doomsday Wheel’?”
Everyone present understood what he meant.
Although he really didn't want to obey this guy, what he said did coincide with his original plan. Pei Xiangjin frowned, preparing to arrange for people to investigate these two matters immediately after receiving a reply.
"And here's a little gift for you too." SHEEP tapped the air twice with her cane, and then a document appeared out of thin air in front of her.
“This is Awei, whom you can’t find, who is already ‘dead’,” SHEEP said. “I’ve obtained his information and some of his activity locations before he went missing—which might be helpful to you.”
At this point, SHEEP's body began to flicker abnormally again.
"Looks like I have to go now," SHEEP sighed. "My old friends in cybersecurity don't really want me to finish what I've got to say all at once."
Hearing this, Yi Heye, who had been quietly waiting, couldn't help but feel disappointed again—was he leaving again after just arriving? When would he see him again?
This is so annoying. This is the first time he has felt resentful towards his good friend Song Zhouzhou.
"But don't worry~" Seemingly sensing his dejection, SHEEP turned around and gently touched Yi Heye's cheek comfortingly. "As long as you miss me, I'll appear~"
Before Yi Heye could react, the guy vanished into thin air—everything happened so fast that he seemed not to have realized the guy had returned, and was quite dazed by his departure again.
Just then, there was a knock on the office door.
They thought it was reinforcements arriving, but when they opened the door, they found it was just a small delivery robot.
"This is Mr. Yi Heye's private letter." The little robot raised its hand—
It was a rose, and on the signature on the card was a hastily drawn little sheep.
Author's Note:
Yu Yili: I understand now, this must be a new provocative tactic!
Chapter 90, number 090
Yi Heye took the rose in front of him in a daze, and it took him a long time before his ears belatedly turned red.
Huh? Roses? What does that mean? Is it what I thought it meant?
After all, that guy wasn't human, so he didn't dare to have too high expectations. What if he didn't even know what a rose meant?
Moreover, with several pairs of eyes watching nearby, Yi Heye dared not make any inappropriate reactions, even if he meant something.
Under the watchful eyes of the other two, Yi Heye composed himself, then gave a cold laugh as if he were a drama queen, and casually stuck the rose into the wool of the little cloud. To prevent it from actually eating the rose, Yi Heye deliberately chose a spot where it couldn't rub against or pick it up.
The little cloud immediately twisted its head and wiggled its bottom in pain and anxiety, devastated by the food that was so close yet so incredibly fat.
Behind him, Pei Xiangjin, who had witnessed the entire event, felt deeply confused.
"What do they mean by this?" he asked Yu Yili in a low, wary voice. "I'm a little confused...?"
"Are you stupid?! Can't you see something so obvious?" Yu Yili said, exasperated. "SHEEP is provoking the cheetah!"
This conclusion was clearly beyond Pei Xiangjin's comprehension: "Provocation?...Provocation with roses?"
“Oh, think about it!” Yu Yili said, “What’s on the stem of a rose?”
Pei Xiangjin: "...A thorn?"
Yu Yili: "What color are roses?"
Pei Xiangjin: "...Red?"
Yu Yili: "What color is blood?"
Pei Xiangjin: "Red, red?"
Yu Yili: "Don't you understand? SHEEP is clearly indicating that it's meant to be used to assassinate the cheetah, making it bleed bright red!"
Pei Xiangjin's eyes widened in shock.
Yu Yili pointed at Yi Heye again: "Look at his expression. His ears turned red briefly, which was obviously because he was angry, but he quickly pretended to be calm and casually threw the flowers at Little Sheep. What is this? This is expressing his insult to SHEEP through some contemptuous and disdainful behavior."
After saying that, he remarked with lingering enthusiasm, "They were truly two people who went back and forth, neither willing to give an inch!"
Pei Xiangjin opened her mouth, seemingly wanting to refute something, but was then impressed by his strong, self-consistent, and bizarre logic.
—That actually sounds pretty convincing.
After a brief moment of distraction, Pei Xiangjin immediately arranged for people to investigate SHEEP's intrusion and urgently contacted the cybersecurity department.
The other party had obviously noticed something was wrong, but unfortunately for them, they had surrounded themselves with an impenetrable wall. The cybersecurity officer listened to their private chat for so long without making any progress.
Shortly after, Yi Heye also received a text message from Song Zhouzhou. After being blocked by SHEEP's firewall for nearly twenty minutes, he said with unprecedented frustration: "Xiao Yi, I feel like I'm a useless piece of trash. Am I just not cut out for this line of work...?"
This legendary young man, hailed as a genius by cybersecurity experts, sacrificed his social skills to shoulder the heavy responsibility of fighting SHEEP, only to receive such an outcome, which naturally saddened him greatly.
Yi Heye didn't know how to comfort people, nor was he sure which side he hoped would win. He edited and deleted the message repeatedly, finally sending only two words: "Good luck!"
Meanwhile, Pei Xiangjin quickly formed a special task force to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the relevant materials sent by SHEEP.
Consistent with the information they had previously gathered, Ke Yu was 29 years old, born into a working-class family in District C, and dropped out of school at 16 to become a truck driver.
A year ago, he fell in love with Gu Wenwen, a cashier at a supermarket. Their income was at a normal level in Zone C, barely enough to maintain their basic needs and dignity in the area.
Six months ago, the two got married and bought a house on the edge of Zone C. Despite the small size and poor location of the house, it still plunged the young couple into a financial crisis.
According to SHEEP's search history of Ke Yu over the past six months, after accumulating a substantial mortgage debt, this young man began frantically searching for good part-time jobs online.
During this period, he worked as a bricklayer on construction sites and as a car washer. It seemed that he tried every job he could find that did not require a specific educational background.
But after all, this is an era where knowledge creates wealth. Without a degree, Keyu could only find the lowest level of manual labor. He worked day and night, but didn't earn much money. Instead, he ruined his health, went to the hospital, and spent all his earnings from that period.
During this period, Ke Yu posted a large number of blog posts on his social media platforms about income issues, including complaints, inquiries, and expressions of helplessness.
Awei and Keyu first made contact under a question about "how to make money quickly".
“A project is hiring, do you want to give it a try?” This was the message Awei left for Ke Yu.
Due to time constraints and the fact that the other party had technical expertise, SHEEP did not provide a clear answer as to who "Awei" really is.
However, he brought Pei Xiangjin some of the chat logs between Awei and Keyu during this period—the security department had already applied to the cyber security department for assistance in investigating these logs, but in such a short time, they were indeed not as fast as SHEEP in recovering the deleted encrypted data.
“You were personally selected by our boss. You are excellent in every way, so your treatment will definitely be better than others.”
"Food and lodging are all included, but you need to undergo training first. You will also receive a salary during the training period to ensure your wife's normal life."
"Believe me, as long as you achieve results, the returns will definitely be high."
Pei Xiangjin carefully studied his words and did not seem to see the typical rhetoric of a pyramid scheme—they did not ask him to develop downlines, nor did they ask him to pay an entry fee under the pretext of purchasing goods or paying qualification fees.
On the contrary, seemingly in order to keep Gu Wenwen in check, they even send her a considerable "salary" every week.
Although the information revealed in these few words was very limited, based on his many years of experience in handling cases, Pei Xiangjin still felt that this case should not be a "pyramid scheme".
This looks more like a "fraud," but their victims don't have any money, so they obviously aren't after money.
Pei Xiangjin remembered what Yi Heye had said—they all seemed to be quite good-looking.
He frowned, thinking, if it's not for money, then it must be for people. Even if it's organ trafficking, there's no need to find handsome men for all of them—could there be some kind of sex industry behind this?
Why look for handsome men who have no criminal record, no moral issues, and are "clean" on a moral level?
Does being a male prostitute nowadays mean one must be morally pure?
He then thought of the coin—could this also be related to the "consciousness reconstruction surgery"? Is Ke Yu really, as SHEEP said, someone who has been dead for a long time?
Just as he was grappling with this issue, another investigation team hurriedly reported its latest findings.
"Captain Pei, after investigation, we did find a ram's head coin with the same pattern among the belongings of the owner of 'Doomsday Wheel'," the investigator said. "This coin was given to his wife a week before his death, and she has kept it until now. It must be temporarily handed over to us for investigation."
Upon hearing this, Pei Xiangjin's eyes suddenly lit up—it seemed that SHEEP's direction was correct, and this coin was indeed related to the surgery.
But soon, the investigator's next words poured cold water on his hard-won hope.
“However, we can basically rule out the possibility that Ke Yu was ever dead,” the investigator said. “Since he started working 13 years ago, Ke Yu has been driving a truck on the road almost every day. The traffic bureau’s video attendance records can prove this. His longest break was no more than five days. He simply did not have time to undergo such a major operation.”
The feeling of seeing a clue only to have it instantly extinguished made Pei Xiangjin's emotions begin to surge into a rage: "He's never died? Then why does he have this coin? Why?!"
The investigator dared not speak; this was a question he certainly couldn't answer.
Pei Xiangjin quickly realized he had lost control. He pinched the bridge of his nose, forcing himself to calm down: "Could it be his wife's? Have you investigated Gu Wenwen? Is there any record of her suspected death?"
"We investigated, and there was nothing wrong. She's a model worker who's never taken a day off in over ten years of work," the investigator said cautiously. "In fact, both of them underwent very rigorous premarital medical examinations before getting married, and no abnormalities were found—if they had this surgery, it would have been impossible to hide it from the medical report."
Pei Xiangjin's mind went blank for a moment.
This was the first time in all his years of handling cases that he had felt completely lost and directionless.
He habitually makes guesses based on his experience when handling cases, and then looks for evidence to confirm his guesses. But this time, all the possibilities he could think of seemed to have been refuted by reality one by one.
It's not a pyramid scheme, Ke Yu never died, and it wasn't his wife's coin, so what the hell is going on?
He glanced at the last clue SHEEP had left him—a set of coordinates where "Awei" had appeared frequently before.
If he can't find a clue, he might really break down.
He sighed, tossed the thing to the tech team for analysis, and then went outside to take a short break.
As soon as he stepped outside, he saw Yi Heye.
The guy was sitting on the bench in the corridor, and it seemed he was so bored while waiting that he used the little cloud as a cushion and fell asleep with his head tilted to the side.
The rose that he had casually tucked into the wool earlier was now held in his arms.
The little cloud he was leaning against was trying to break free from the obstruction of its fat, wanting to stretch its head out and taste a petal of the rose.
Pei Xiangjin's opening of the door woke Yi Heye. He opened his eyes and witnessed the scene of Xiao Yunduo's attempted crime.
Then he slapped the sheep on the head and tucked the rose behind his back.
At this moment, Pei Xiangjin was still troubled by the case from earlier—he had to do something to prove that he still had some intuition left.
He stared at Yi Heye, and Yi Heye stared back at him, because the little cloud he hadn't eaten was also glaring at him with its beady eyes, radiating resentment.
Finally, he slowly raised his gaze from the roses and coldly asked, "Mr. Yi?"
"Hmm?" Yi Heye also stared at him coldly.
"I've been wanting to ask this for a while now—you and SHEEP are dating, right?"