The young policeman realized he had asked a stupid question and quickly shut his mouth, not daring to provoke this powder keg.
“Let’s investigate in this direction,” Pei Xiangjin said.
With this tip, everyone started their investigation with a spirit of inquiry, and the progress was obviously much faster.
They zoomed in and compared the equipment information sent by Yi Heye again, and this time they quickly came to a conclusion.
“That should be correct.” After careful verification, the technician finally looked up and said, “These devices should be used for information collection. The glasses are disguised iris analyzers, and the pronunciation correction system is for sound collection…”
Simply put, these machines are not used for correcting posture or teaching performance, but rather for continuously collecting the body parameters and information of each trainee, and finally summarizing them to provide the necessary data for these so-called new "idols".
The good news is that the missing people were not dismembered; the bad news is that their facial features and body data were collected and used by ISSAC, and their whereabouts are still unknown.
Upon hearing this news, Yi Heye couldn't help but step out of the cabin—he certainly couldn't expose himself to risk; he didn't want to one day see a stranger with his own eyes, nose, and mouth on some shady advertisement.
He glanced at Tang Ruoqi, who was practicing diligently. The top student was standing inside the cabin, reading aloud the prepared English script with great enthusiasm: "And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited..."
When Yi Heye was in school, he could only get single-digit grades in English. At most, he knew the ABCD and the word "sheep," so naturally he couldn't understand what this guy was reading.
But for some reason, he felt uncomfortable with the sentence.
"And he shall let go the goat in the wilderness..."
As Tang Ruoqi read aloud with great emotion, Yi Heye hurriedly left the practice room. His passive-aggressive behavior naturally provoked Pei Xiangjin, the powder keg, to explode again: "Where the hell are you running to?!"
Yi Heye ignored him, merely turning down the volume of his headset as a formality, and then leisurely strolled to the restaurant.
Seeing that this guy was indulging in hedonism again, Pei Xiangjin's curses almost overflowed from his earpiece. Yi Heye was annoyed by his curses, so he grabbed his earpiece and threatened him with his actions: either shut up or disappear.
Pei Xiangjin swallowed his anger, but he was still furious. Yi Heye could hear that his angry breathing on the other end of the headset was like a Category 8 hurricane.
He had no time to worry about the guy's health, and instead leisurely pushed open the restaurant door.
It was lunchtime, and many trainees were gathered in small groups.
Once back in the public eye, Yi Heye immediately put away his nonchalant demeanor. He didn't know anything about suppressing his aura; he only knew that physically widening his eyes would greatly reduce his aggressiveness. So, he walked into the restaurant with a physically innocent look on his face.
Yi Heye didn't rush to do anything else. First, he innocently took the plate and picked out a full plate of his favorite food. Then, he innocently poured himself a full glass of milk to take away. He waited until Pei Xiangjin was almost out of breath with anger before finally innocently choosing a table with many people to sit down.
Perhaps because they were carefully selected, the students all had good personalities, and they even offered Yi Heye their seats when they saw him arrive.
Yi Heye opened his physics-innocent eyes and, based on his observations, nodded silently—this would most likely make him appear well-behaved, at least in a physical sense.
As expected, Yi Heye, who was very well-behaved in physics, won the trust of the senior students, who lowered their guard and continued their unfinished conversation—
"I'm so envious of Senior Tang. I feel like he's almost at the end of his journey," said a boy in front of him. "If he passes this selection, he should be able to debut, right?"
“He’s so talented, he’ll definitely debut,” another boy said. “Me, I’ll only be eliminated when my term expires.”
Upon hearing this, Yi Heye looked up—the Tang senior they were talking about was clearly the enthusiastic top student Tang Ruoqi, and as for what followed…
"What does 'expiration' mean?" Yi Heye asked while slurping his pasta. "And what kind of elimination process is this?"
The next second, all eyes at the table turned to him, and Yi Heye choked on the half-eaten noodles in his throat, unable to swallow them.
—I think I said something wrong.
A senior student looked at him helplessly and said, "You didn't listen to a word in class."
Yi Heye shut his mouth. How could he possibly listen to the lesson? He was reading "Shaun the Sheep" during class.
Fortunately, the seniors were all very good-natured. Even if a student was unmotivated and had poor grades, they would patiently explain to him: "Although we have many trainees in our company now, each batch of trainees will 'graduate' from the branch office after staying here for a full month."
"In addition to weekly quizzes, there's a final exam every month. These exams, combined with regular performance, determine whether someone can debut. If they succeed, they'll debut in Zone A and get tons of endorsements; if they fail..."
Yi Heye asked, "What will happen if we fail?"
The senior shook his head and laughed, "They'll probably just pack up and go home. I don't know for sure, since we're here and can't contact those people."
At this moment, the most experienced person Yi Heye could contact was a newcomer who had just joined the company a month ago. As for those names that had been on the missing persons list for months, apart from the fused face that appeared in the advertisement, they seemed to no longer exist in this B District company in front of him.
This model reminded Yi Heye of livestock ranches—selecting high-quality breeding stock, then raising them intensively, and slaughtering them when they reach maturity, while a new batch of young livestock enters the ranch again...
From soulless, cramming-style cultivation to the raw, dismantling, and utilization of resources, every step is chilling.
The seniors had almost finished eating, so they patted him on the shoulder and said, "Good luck with your performance in tomorrow's mini-exam!"
Yi Heye nodded, and only after all the seniors had left the restaurant did he belatedly look up.
Huh? Holy crap?
Yi Heye dropped his knife and fork onto the table—tomorrow? A mini-exam?! A mini-exam tomorrow?!
Author's Note:
I only realized I was going to have an exam when the test papers were handed out to me.
Chapter 105, number 105
Yi Heye was completely dumbfounded.
He not only didn't know there was a quiz tomorrow, he didn't even know what the quiz was or what it would cover.
He had never felt like a blank sheet of paper, not in the sense of being a simple blank sheet, but in the sense of being a blank sheet of paper with absolutely no knowledge or understanding, like a blank sheet of paper about to be handed in as an answer sheet during a quiz.
He took a shower in a daze, then went to the supermarket for a revenge-spending spree, buying lots of snacks and baby formula. When he returned to his room, he saw Xia Tian hiding under the covers like a mushroom, withdrawn and isolated.
He sensed something was off about the child, so he went over and patted him: "What's wrong?"
Summer poked her head out from under the covers, looking pained: "Brother, my head is throbbing like it's going to split open. And for some reason, I'm really sad right now, like something's suddenly missing, boohoo..."
Yi Heye frowned—this must be a side effect of “meditation”. After all, it was his first time trying it, so it was normal for him to have a strong reaction.
At this moment, Xia Tian was curled up on the bed, wrapped in a sheet, staring blankly at Yi Heye.
Yi Heye was not good at coaxing people, so he just casually stuffed the towel bear on the table into his arms.
Summer hugged the teddy bear, and like a baby who was crying loudly but was suddenly given a pacifier, her emotions miraculously stabilized.
But Yi Heye was a devil. Seeing that his reaction wasn't so intense anymore, he immediately asked, "Do you know that there's a small test tomorrow?"
Summer's expression immediately turned pained again: "Waaah... I'm going to give up, I'm just a useless piece of trash..."
Ignoring his little mood, Yi Heye reached out and stuffed a Pocky stick into his mouth, silencing his impending wailing. Then he said seriously, "Stop crying, I'm asking you a question."
Summer, whether frightened or comforted, crunched the Pocky stick into her mouth and then timidly said, "...Brother, you can ask."
Yi Heye: "What will the exam be about tomorrow?"
Xia Tian lit another Pocky stick: "Didn't the teacher already say that in class?"
Yi Heye coldly tried to pull his Pocky back: "If I had listened in class, would I be asking you?"
Summer quickly swallowed the Pocky stick in her mouth: "It's mainly two parts—basic ability assessment accounts for 30%, and popularity vote accounts for 70%..."
Upon hearing the first part of the sentence, Yi Heye's face turned pale: "Holy crap? What basic skills assessment? What basic skills do I have to be assessed on?"
Summer blinked: "The teacher doesn't always..."
Yi Heye's face darkened, and he directly took away a box of Pocky from in front of him.
Xia Tian immediately changed her tune: "The first week is the placement test. We choose our specialization based on our strengths—for example, Tang is in the performance class, and two other people in our dorm are probably going for singing and dancing..."
Yi Heye had a very clear understanding of his own position, and became even more nervous upon hearing this: "I'm just a pretty face with no substance. What the hell do I know about singing, dancing, rapping, or basketball?"
Summer silently hugged Pocky back to her arms, crunching away: "Isn't what we produce most here just pretty faces, bro? Apart from those who graduated from their colleges, aren't most of them just useless good-for-nothings like us?"
Yi Heye was comforted by him: "Then...?"
“Looks are a plus too.” Xia Tian munched on a Pocky, clearly in a much better mood. “We can pose for photos and take pictures, there’s always a way—and ultimately it depends on audience appeal, which is all about luck, not something we can achieve through hard work.”
It seems like summer has completely given up, but Yi Heye still feels uncertain and extremely anxious.
After being soothed by the sugar, Xia Tian sat up in bed and said, "I need to call my mom to let her know I'm safe, otherwise she'll worry."
Yi Heye turned around and asked, "Can we still make phone calls? Didn't we take all our phones away?"
Xia Tian said speechlessly, "Brother, you really didn't listen to a single word in class."
Yi Heye put on a stern face, put his hands on his hips, and had a "what the hell am I going to do if I don't listen to the lecture" attitude. Xia Tian couldn't do anything about him and could only say, "Everyone has twenty minutes of talk time per day, but there will be surveillance. If there is any leak, it will be treated as a breach of contract."
Yi Heye then recalled that Ke Yu and Gu Wenwen had always been in contact. Perhaps it was the brainwashing of meditation, the threat of the indecent video, and the constraints of the overbearing contract that kept him from exposing his situation.
Until the very end, he didn't know what happened to him, but he told Gu Wenwen on the phone, "Awei is dead," and then he completely disappeared without a trace.
Thinking of this, Yi Heye felt the weight of responsibility on his shoulders once again. He got up and went with Xia Tian to make a phone call.
All phone numbers are kept at the front desk and can only be retrieved in person.
Yi Heye lined up and took his communicator from the plastic bag.
Contrary to his expectations of real-person surveillance, the company itself did not send anyone to watch them make phone calls. Instead, they placed a confidentiality agreement in each sealed bag, installed a very obvious listening device on the outside of their phones, and added a twenty-minute countdown.
This clearly indicates that everyone's words and actions are being monitored, prompting them to refrain from saying inappropriate things. Yi Heye thought about it and felt that this method was quite wise—allowing the victim to contact their family members periodically would help delay the situation, and by the time they were truly reported missing, everything that was bound to happen would have already occurred.
"Hello? Mommy!...Is Daddy not around?"
While Yi Heye hesitated, Xia Tian had already made the call. In that instant, he forced back his tears and smiled in front of the camera—this was the first time Yi Heye had seen him successfully hold back his tears.
"I'm fine! The money should arrive in a couple of days, just wait a bit!" Xia Tian said with a smile. "Once the money is transferred, you can proceed with my original plan. I'll meet up with you as soon as I'm free to move around here!"
Yi Heye glanced back at Xia Tian—this was the first time he had seen a genuine smile on the child's face. He looked as if he had already gotten the money, taken his mother and fled far away, escaping the clutches of his devilish father.
Yi Heye didn't want to hear any more of Xia Tian's private matters, so he turned around and dialed a number using muscle memory.
Looking down, he realized he had dialed Jian Yunxian directly—damn it, how did I call him?!
Yi Heye felt his phone burning hot instantly. Just as he was about to hang up, the other end answered first: "Hello? Xiaoye?"
These three words were like a giant hand, directly grabbing Yi Heye's throat—damn it, why did he call him Xiao Ye? Help! What was he going to say?!
"Finally have time to call me back? How's your new job going?" Jian Yun asked casually. "You seem pretty busy these past few days, you haven't even replied to my messages."
It took Yi Heye a good five or six seconds to react to this script before he remembered that he was speaking under surveillance. This guy's ability to adapt to changing circumstances was truly unpredictable.
"Oh... I'm still adjusting to the new job." Yi Heye glanced at the monitor on his phone, then hurriedly opened the confidentiality agreement, only to find that the booklet thoughtfully included some lines he could use to lie.
So he chose one and stammered, starting to improvise: "You can't bring your phone in here. I was too tired last night and fell asleep right away, so I forgot to call back..."
Jian Yunxian said, "If you're too tired, come back. It's not like I can't support you. Why suffer outside?"
Yi Heye was taken aback by his unexpected words and momentarily lost his composure, unable to distinguish truth from falsehood. His tongue began to twitch.
He sweated profusely as he scanned the lying booklet, finding no suitable lines to respond to this statement. He could only stammer, "I... I'm a man, I want to be financially independent, I don't want to be a kept man anymore!"