Tian Qiuxian had to handle matters at home by herself. Lu Ning just went with her to buy some necessary medicinal materials to prepare the decoction. It was relatively easy to make medicine here.
After taking care of things here, Lu Ning began to think about the whereabouts of that woman. Now this person is probably the person behind the scenes who is actually executing the plan. Of course, there may be more than one person behind the scenes. Considering this, Lu Ning became more and more interested in tracking down the woman's movements.
She flicked off a cluster of blue electric sparks.
[Desire] Judgment is actually more difficult to use. In the original scene, she was too focused to the point of paranoia when she was separated. Only by clinging to a target can she use it smoothly. However, she is not that stubborn. So far, that woman has not given her any danger that must be resolved.
Of course, after Tian Qiuxian's affairs here were dealt with, the day had almost passed. Lu Ning found a hotel to stay in in a nearby town. Tomorrow she planned to leave directly for the province and city where Mao Yizheng was located to see if there were any traces of these believers' activities there. The symbols on the cover of the book are definitely correct. Mao Yizheng must have come into contact with something related. However, since the characters are not effective, it means they are just imitations.
Silent all the way, Lu Ning used Judgment Day to speed up the entire journey the next day and arrived in the city at around ten in the morning. The place where Mao Yizheng lived was a modern city, at least on the level of a second-tier city, with tall buildings and busy traffic. Lu Ning found the studio where Mao Yizheng worked according to the address. This is a rented apartment. Of course, Mao Yizheng does not live here. He just handles work matters here and also provides a place for his assistant to live. Lu Ning walked around here for a while. At least there were no distortion spots around the studio.
The agreed time was tomorrow, and Lu Ning didn't visit rashly. He just took a look here and left. However, she could still inquire around the apartment. For example, there was a restaurant opposite the apartment building.
This is just an ordinary small restaurant, but that's why it's easier to get some information. While ordering, she pretended to be a fan and asked the boss about Mao Yizheng in the apartment opposite, and the boss told him a lot of things proudly.
"You mean Mao Yizheng? Haha, that's a celebrity around here. He may not be as famous as the stars on TV, but those who know him will know that he is a great painter!"
"Do you recognize it?"
The boss proudly pointed to a photo on the wall: "That guy even came to my place for dinner. Our bacon stir-fry is his favorite, and he has eaten it more than once."
"Give me one too!" Lu Ning showed excitement, "Can you tell me more?"
"Okay, okay!" Lu Ning added another dish and the boss became even more happy. "Teacher Mao, if he usually comes to eat, it will be at noon. He may bring people from the studio with him. He is a very easy-going person. And there is no extravagance and waste, even if there are some leftovers, they will be packed and taken away.”
"Who are the people in his studio?" Lu Ning quickly asked.
"There used to be three, but recently we have a new apprentice." The boss is really understanding. "The female assistant is a very smart person. She was brought here by Teacher Mao. There is a young man in charge of purchasing and program design, and there is It’s the slightly older man who sends and receives works, both of whom were hired after coming here.”
"You know it quite well."
"We had a drink together that day, and the photo was taken at that time, haha." The boss laughed.
"When did you take on this apprentice? Why haven't I heard of him?"
"Oh, Teacher Mao is considered a celebrity after all. Of course, I won't say this kind of thing casually. I guess it took less than a month. I don't know the details. I was the one who came to eat together last time. I only found out after asking Duozuo.”
If it's less than a month, it won't be consistent with Cui Fu's appointment time. Lu Ning thought for a moment and asked, "So will they come for dinner recently?"
The boss paused for a moment and then said: "This may have to be a matter of luck. After all, they don't come out to eat every day, don't you think so?"
Observing his words, Lu Ning already understood that there was some bragging in what the boss just said. Mao Yizheng estimated that he only used this place as one of his selected restaurants, and the number of times he came to eat there was not as many as the boss hinted. The boss's understanding was limited to the few times they came.
In this case, the time range when the young apprentice joined is probably wider. Indeed, since the studio has its own apartment building, cooking is probably not a problem. Even if you don't have time, you can still order takeout. It's not realistic to think about going out to eat every day.
Lu Ning pretended to ask a few more questions, and the boss really couldn't say anything more, so she went to eat with a little disappointment.
=
On the other side, Tang Ling has also arrived in the city where Lu Ning University is located. She was not surprised that there were many incidents related to distortion points here, some big and some small. The traces of someone arranging things behind the scenes were very obvious, but she couldn't find the other party.
"This is really troublesome."
Tang Ling frowned. Her ability was not suitable for tracing. At most, she could turn relevant people into information carriers to read the memory. However, this was actually quite inefficient. After all, there were probably only a few believers. Knowing what they were doing, they were just following the orders and going with the flow.
"Sister Tang, is this the school?"
When passing by a campus, Tong Yang suddenly pointed at the school gate and asked, his expression full of envy. Tang Ling glanced at it and found that she didn't care about going to school. She didn't look forward to campus life from the beginning.
"Yes...it seems like there is something else going on today." She glanced at a few cars parked outside the school gate, "This place is not very peaceful to begin with. If something goes wrong, we'd better avoid places like this - huh? "
She stopped for a moment.
A person got out of a car that had just stopped. Tang Ling happened to know this person and was very familiar with him.
That face that was always a little groggy now had a sad expression on it. He locked the car and walked to the gate of the campus with somewhat frivolous steps. He spoke a few words to the guard, showed his ID, and left. Go in.
"...Want to go in and have a look?" Tang Ling raised the corner of his mouth.
"Ah? Sister Tang, didn't you say you should hide?"
"Nothing, I suddenly wanted to go in. How is it?"
"But, you can't just go into a place like this, right? We..."
"Cut the nonsense."
Tang Ling tugged on Tong Yang's collar and found an uninhabited corner along the campus wall. He jumped over the wall and fell into the campus.
"Camera... Okay, no." Tang Ling scanned the surrounding area, then patted Tong Yang's back, "Come in, you can wander around, just outside, no one will look for you. I'd like to leave beforehand. .”
"Tang...Sister Tang! Don't leave me!"
"Ha, it's too troublesome to take you with me." Tang Ling waved his hand, "Why don't you just have some fun by yourself? Don't stick to me all day long."
Tong Yang was very frustrated, but Tang Ling was not someone who would care about his emotions, so he found a direction and left quickly.
The person she saw was Meng Juan.
Smell is the easiest thing for Tang Ling to track. He could even smell Lu Ning's presence before, but now it was even easier for Meng Juan, who was more familiar with him. She quickly found the building Meng Juan entered, found a random student and copied her campus card, and walked into the building easily.
"Senior Meng Juan~"
Tang Ling's mood improved for the first time since entering the scene.
At the door of the room where the smell was, Tang Ling stopped and pricked up his ears to listen to the sounds in the room.
"...I'm sorry, Mr. Meng."
"I don't want to hear apologies!"
"At the request of the police, we cannot make this matter public yet..."
"Even if you don't ask for it, you won't make it public, right? Suppress this kind of thing if you can. Anyway, it's normal for one or two students to commit suicide in the school every year, right?"
"Mr. Meng, your words..."
"You called me here at this time. Don't you want to discuss this matter? I hope this matter will be suppressed even after everything is over. Don't pretend to be compassionate. You don't care about my sister at all!"
"She is a student of our school, how could we not care!"
The noise in the room was quite loud. As Tang Ling listened, he understood that Meng Juan's condition seemed to be... he hadn't woken up yet?
"Haha, it turns out that when senior was so young and energetic before, I thought he was always lazy." Tang Ling grinned, "It just so happens that when we cooperate with that woman, it is better to find senior to work with, at least it will be more Be more comfortable. I'll wake him up."
The quarrel in the room quickly broke up. Meng Juan slammed the door and walked out of the corridor with an angry face. Then he sighed and walked into the bathroom.
When he came out after washing his hands, he happened to see someone coming out of the bathroom next door.
"Brother Meng." Tang Ling greeted with a smile.
"Huh? You...are you a student here? Do you recognize me?" Meng Juan was a little surprised.
"Although this seems quite interesting, I don't have the hobby of waiting to expose other people's past scars. Is it time to wake up from this not-so-pleasant dream?"
"What did you say?" Meng Juan was a little confused, but at this moment, Tang Ling's fingers had already touched his forehead.
Meng Juan's eyes were blank for a moment, and at this moment, Tang Ling also felt a strange vibration. She hurriedly withdrew her hand and looked around, but she didn't see any changes.
"just……"
"You just woke me up."
Meng Juan's lazy voice came, but this voice made Tang Ling feel much more at ease.
"Brother Meng, are you awake?"
"You may have done something to make it more difficult." Meng Juan smiled and took out his phone, "Oh...it seems like it wasn't even time for me to appear."
"What do you mean?" Tang Ling was confused.
"The second stage has already started because the actors came on stage early. Hmm...Scarlet Snow? Quite a meaningful name, the mission...haha. The murder of fifteen teenagers."
"What?" Tang Ling hurriedly took out his phone, and sure enough, a new notification for the distribution center appeared on it.
[The second stage - the scarlet snow has unfolded.
2-1 Catch the real culprit of the "15-year-old murder case".
2-2 Participate in the Red Snow Ball and survive the end of the ball.
2-3 advances the stage to the third act. 】
Very brief message.
"Tang Ling, Tang Ling, the fourth level is not something you can pass by casually. You have suffered some losses, so you have to pay attention in the future." Meng Juan glanced around with a smile, "Judging from the environment... the school Is that right? I should come out of the office here and wash my face and calm down for a while? Okay, it’s basically clear..."
"Um?"
"Let's find a suitable place to talk. The school corridor is not suitable." Meng Juan took out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his hands. "If we are here at school, the garden is a good place."
Tang Ling naturally agreed.
The two of them found a deserted park lawn nearby and sat down. Meng Juan said, "It's really interesting. Tell me what happened to you."
"Okay." Tang Ling did not hesitate and recounted all his experiences along the way, including meeting Lu Ning and his guesses about the scene.
"That sounds really good. You actually brought a child with you? According to your personality, you would never bring a tow bottle with you, right? This scene evoked a lot of memories from our past."
"Brother Meng, do you have any ideas? To be honest, even our current mission is very difficult, and I have no clue about your mission." Tang Ling said distressedly.
"It's easy to say, I will help you with your mission, don't worry. But my mission is quite interesting..."
"how?"
"Because you woke me up in advance. If I guessed correctly, my time should be at the beginning of winter." Meng Juan laughed.
"Why? Because of the scarlet snow reminder?"
"No, no, no, because... I should be the real culprit of this fifteen-year-old boy's murder." Meng Juan shook his finger, "In the original world, I killed fifteen people and me out of revenge. My sister is a student of about the same age, and the case has been unsolved. Since my target selection was completely random, the police had no way to find out my identity through interpersonal relationships, and no evidence was left at the scene... Haha, but it was all a long time ago But now that I wake up, of course I won’t do the same thing, boring.”
"If I had been earlier..."
"Are you talking about my sister? How can a character in a scene be compared with the real one? My real sister is already dead, long dead." Meng Juan shook his head, "In short, if the murderer is not me, the mission How to accomplish it? With the way the distribution center works, it’s probably another person who has done the same thing.”
"oh……"
"But you also bought me some time advantage. We don't have to worry too much. Just think of it as cultivating some experience for you, Tang Ling. By the way, when you entered the scene, did you choose any ability?"
"The Supreme Flesh, the ability from the previous scene to change flesh and blood at will."
"Okay, that's all. Don't reveal the weaknesses of your abilities, even to close people. As for me... I have to make some preparations for my abilities first. From the looks of it, I have to thank you, Tang Ling."
"Brother Meng, thank you very much."
"Haha, I'm one of you, don't be so polite. When I'm ready, I'll help you solve the task first, and then you will help me." Meng Juan chuckled.
