The air still held the lingering scent of YiYi and Yang Yang, a pure fragrance like a blend of milk and lilies.
Qing Chen picked up the notes they left behind. The first was from Yang Yang: I'm going back to the wilderness settlement. Chen Family's army might find us, and they still need me there.
The second was from YiYi: I'm heading back to Fire Pit. Everyone has hidden in the southwest snow mountains; I need to meet up with them.
Both notes were exceptionally concise, without a single unnecessary word.
It seemed they had made a pact to leave this battlefield together, each to fulfill their current mission, leaving everything else until their shared goal was accomplished.
Only, YiYi seemed to have been careless, as Yang Yang was still in Outer World with Qing Chen; the two had just arrived at the foot of the north slope of Pearl Peak (Mount Everest)...
In 16 hours, she and Qing Chen would return to Outer World together.
Yang Yang left, but not entirely.
Qin Yiyi didn't know about this, so she was subtly outmaneuvered by Yang Yang.
In terms of cunning, Yang Yang seemed to have a slight edge.Qing Chen picked up the two notes and burned them. But as he burned Qin Yiyi's note, some powder seemed to drift from it.
As the fire consumed it, Qin Yiyi's translucent form suddenly appeared before him, giving Qing Chen a tight hug.
Then, the white light dissipated.
Well, the cunning of the two women combined would amount to eight hundred tricks; neither was inferior to the other.
Qing Chen glanced at the time and then at his phone, where he received a message from Qing Ji: "All suspicious accounts in the Ginkgo Bank under the Qing Family have been compiled and sent to you. Please check. The files are top secret and must not be leaked."
Qing Chen opened it and saw 1201 accounts, with even the suspicious points clearly marked. The first suspicious account could be traced back to several hundred years ago, involving two unrelated elderly people and eighteen unrelated young people. Every month, they would deposit their salaries and pensions into an account, and almost as soon as they received the money, it was transferred to this suspicious account.
This made Qing Chen suspicious. The detail of this information far exceeded his expectations.
He had made this request to Qing Ji less than 24 hours ago, yet the other party was able to prepare so thoroughly?
After all, the Qing Family bank has stood for hundreds of years, with tens of billions of accounts created and transactions and consumption information as vast as the starry river.
Even if he and Yi worked together, they couldn't have organized it this quickly.
Therefore, there was only one possibility: the Qing Family had already started tracking this clue; someone had already discovered the existence of the Puppeteer and conducted a secret investigation! Moreover, the other party had chosen the same method as he had, using basic simple identification!
Qing Chen continued to read; these 1201 accounts involved 390,000 people, and these 390,000 people basically disappeared in the river of time through birth, old age, illness, and death.
The closer to modern times, the fewer suspicious accounts there were.
Until recent decades, similar suspicious accounts could no longer be found.
This shows that Zong Cheng had become increasingly cautious over the years, constantly patching up the loopholes he had left in his younger years due to naivety.
Such a constantly growing and evolving Puppeteer would indeed be difficult to find again.
But the question is, someone within the Qing Family was also investigating this Puppeteer?
Who? The head of the family on Ginkgo Mountain?
Qing Chen replied to Qing Ji: "You've been investigating this clue for a long time, haven't you?"
Qing Ji replied: "Eight years."
"Who discovered this person?" Qing Chen asked again.
Qing Ji: "To know more, come to Ginkgo Mountain and ask Old Master yourself."
Qing Chen thought for a moment and asked, "What's the arrangement for today?"
Qing Ji replied: "Pick you up to Ginkgo Mountain tonight for a banquet."
"Can I not attend?" Qing Chen asked.
Qing Ji directly called him, calmly saying on the other end, "We cancelled the subsequent blind dates because Chen Yang Yang and Qin Yiyi came, but they came to Ginkgo Mountain in the morning, met Old Master, and then left. You guys came to swindle the Forbidden Artifact, right? Like a worldly son who brings a girl home to swindle red packets to trick Ling into spending money. Is that how it is?"
Qing Chen: "???"
What the hell happened while I was asleep?
YiYi and Yang Yang actually went to see the Head of the Qingshi Clan together?!
Although Qing Chen didn't want to admit it, in a sense, these two had met the leader.
Qing Chen asked, "Is there anything else I should know, but don't?"
Qing Ji said, "No."
"What did the head of the family say to them?" Qing Chen asked.
"I don't know. They just had an extra bowl of congee for breakfast, indicating a good mood," Qing Ji said indifferently. "You can't even keep two girls. It seems you should accept our arrangements. Don't forget, this is our deal."
Qing Chen was silent for a moment: "...Okay."
It was still early. He planned to go out and see what Outer World characteristics City 5 had, the little easter eggs his brother had prepared for him.
However, as soon as he went out, Qing Chen ran into the neighbor girl from last night and her mother, walking out of the door together.
The girl was whispering, "Mom, believe me, the guy next door is really problematic. He actually brought two beautiful girls back to stay overnight..."
Her voice stopped abruptly. The girl looked at Qing Chen awkwardly.
Qing Chen smiled and took out his phone from his pocket; it was the one he helped repair at the phone store yesterday. He smiled at the woman and said, "Auntie, your phone is fixed."
"Oh, thank you so much. I just made some mung bean porridge this morning. I'll give you a cup," the woman patted her daughter's shoulder. "Go to school, honey. Little Qing, come with me. My mung bean porridge has rock sugar; it's very delicious."
The girl looked back three times in the corridor, curiously examining Qing Chen, as if he were some rare treasure.
Qing Chen followed the woman into the house and closed the door.
The woman returned with a bowl of mung bean porridge. Seeing that Qing Chen had closed the door, she didn't say anything, but continued to hand the porridge to Qing Chen: "Here, drink it. It's very refreshing."
Qing Chen smiled, "Thank you, Auntie Zong Cheng."
The woman's pupils constricted for a moment, then quickly returned to normal.
But that moment was still caught by Qing Chen.
Qing Chen was originally trying to bluff, but he unexpectedly succeeded.
The woman put the mung bean porridge on the table, sat down, and smiled, "Young man, what are you talking about?"
Qing Chen thought for a moment and said, "I'm curious why all the more than 10,000 androids underground are dead, but only you can climb out of the glass container? Everyone else has turned into a pile of bones, but you can continue to wreak havoc on the world? Now I'm sure it was you, Zong Cheng, who killed my sister-in-law."
The woman's pupils constricted again slightly.
Micro-expressions are difficult to control, especially when subconsciously judging dangerous information. Pupil constriction is the best evidence.
Even Qing Chen couldn't completely control his emotions or the subtle changes in his pupils, unless he used the Forbidden Artifact ACE-005Da Fu.
Qing Chen knew why Zong Cheng set up a puppet here; it was because Qing Zhun's former residence was opposite, and those who could come here were either Mute servants, Qing Ji, or the Head of the Qingshi Clan.
In short, anyone who came to visit the house opposite must be rich or noble. Even creating a puppet among the Mute servants would yield infinite benefits.
Therefore, waiting here is Zong Cheng's best choice.
If it were Qing Chen, he would do the same.
Since the battle with Shendai Qianchi, Qing Chen has become accustomed to putting himself in the enemy's shoes to consider what would be the best solution if he were the enemy.
Thank you, Shendai Qianchi. While the enemy is growing, Qing Chen is also growing through experience and lessons.
The woman smiled, "Whether you're bluffing or you really know my identity, the fact that you can talk about the situation underground shows that you've really been there and found relevant clues. But I'm also curious, I've already torn off the nameplate, how did you verify my identity information? All information related to me has been burned, and the hard drive wouldn't be able to recover information after being left there for hundreds of years...it's amazing."
Qing Chen shook his head, "You don't need to know how I found you out. You just need to know that I will find out all your puppets one by one and then kill them all."
The woman smiled and shook her head, "Can you do that? I have millions of puppets. How can you find my puppets?"
"Don't brag," Qing Chen sneered. "If you had millions of puppets, you would have unified the Federation long ago. Why would you bother talking to me here? I've already started tracking you, and I'm sure I'll find all your puppets soon."
The woman smiled, "Then try."
"Haven't I already killed two of your A-Class puppets?" Qing Chen responded with a smile.
The two exchanged smiles that didn't reach their eyes, neither telling the truth. It was merely a round of verbal sparring between two opponents meeting for the first time.
The woman pointed at herself and asked, "But how did you discover this puppet?"
Qing Chen shook his head, "A wild guess."
Sometimes Qing Chen felt that this Puppeteer wasn't very smart.
First, Zong Cheng's original body, not yet fully developed, dared to provoke the god Ren Xiaosu, and was eventually killed by Li Shentan.
Then, Zong Cheng's android, not yet fully developed, went under the alias Liu Yue to try to control the Federation's army.
Also, the capital chain revealed by the Qing Family's investigation showed that it took the other party hundreds of years to gradually realize that this way of transferring money might be problematic.
Only then did he start to cover his tracks.
If it were Qing Chen, he wouldn't need hundreds of years. He wouldn't do such a stupid thing from the beginning.
Now he's using a question from Zhihu as an example: If you have 100,000 loyal soldiers, what would you have them do? Have them work in electronics factories, tightening screws and earning wages.
This is a very humorous and satirical answer, but Zong Cheng actually did it!
He really used puppets to work and earn money for himself...
He even used the pensions of retired people...
Unbelievable.
Therefore, Qing Chen could only say that Zong Cheng's original body's genes lacked intelligence. Compared to the ancestors of the Qing Family, the difference was not just a little bit.
If Zong Cheng didn't have extraordinary abilities, if Zong Cheng didn't have hundreds of years of sneaky development, Qing Chen wouldn't have been afraid of him.
If Qing Chen had lived in the era when Liu Yue was causing trouble, or in Ren Xiaosu's era, he would have killed Zong Cheng long ago and wouldn't have let him continue to develop.
The woman looked at Qing Chen and smiled, "So, you think I only have one puppet in this building? You think that's all I've prepared? Coming to this building is your biggest mistake."
At this time, the woman took out a remote control and gently pressed a button.
The expected explosion of the building did not occur, there was no roar, no heat wave, nothing.
Qing Chen smiled, "Are you talking about the bombs you placed on the load-bearing walls on the 11th and 24th floors? You don't even have the habit of checking the explosives you've placed every day, and you still try to play a reversal?"