Apocalypse Survival Guide for a Beta [GB] - Chapter 33

Zhu Liang set down his utensils and asked, “Captain Elena, what exactly are you referring to?”

“Some kind of unsafe electronic device… either something placed on you due to external factors, or something you voluntarily put on yourself,” Elena said, her sharp gaze locking onto him.

Her ambiguous statement made the already tense atmosphere at the table completely freeze.

Lou Tiannan put down his chopsticks and faced Elena directly. “Captain Elena, what exactly is your basis for saying this?”

Elena slowly rolled up her left sleeve with her right hand, revealing a silver bracelet attached to her wrist.

“Is that… a detection bracelet?” Zhou Yu asked hesitantly.

The silver bracelet on Elena’s wrist looked similar to a detection bracelet, but upon closer inspection, it was different. It was smaller, more refined, and lacked a display screen.

Elena nodded. “Yes, it is a detection bracelet, but it has limited functions. Its primary use is to check whether I have any unsafe devices on me.”

Song Yan was confused. “How does detecting unsafe devices on yourself have anything to do with Brother Liang?”

Elena explained, “Although its main purpose is to detect whether I have been unknowingly equipped with any unsafe devices, Vice Captain Zhu is sitting right next to me…”

She raised her hand and gestured to indicate the distance between herself and Zhu Liang. “This distance happens to be within the detection range of my bracelet. And while I was speaking just now, my bracelet was giving me a faint reaction the entire time. That is my basis.”

Elena lifted her wrist, displaying the bracelet. Now that everyone was looking closely, they could all see the slight vibration of the device against her skin.

“I just don’t want any disruptive elements to be mixed in among us.” At the same time, she sincerely added, “I hope this is just a misunderstanding.”

Her reasoning was logical and well-supported. At that point, everyone’s eyes turned to Zhu Liang again.

Understanding the concern, Zhu Liang cooperated fully. He took off his jacket and emptied his pockets for everyone to see.

Paper, a pen, a radio, military-issued firearms—all normal items. Nothing seemed unusual.

Song Yan, who was temporarily acting as the team’s technical specialist, checked each item in front of everyone but found nothing suspicious.

Zhu Liang had already taken off his jacket and was now wearing only a shirt and trousers. Seeing that nothing had been found, he raised his hands and began unbuttoning his shirt, preparing to remove it. However, before he could, Elena grabbed his wrist.

“This cufflink… can I take a look at it?” she asked, noticing that the vibrations from her bracelet had intensified as she spoke.

“Of course.” Without hesitation, Zhu Liang removed the cufflink and handed it to Elena.

The cufflink was made of standard military-grade white steel stone, a durable material that could serve emergency purposes if needed.

As soon as Elena held it in her hand, she didn’t even need to say anything. The constant vibration of her bracelet made the answer clear to everyone.

There was something wrong with the cufflink.

A minute later, after the cufflink was opened, a small vibration-based transmission device was exposed. It was a simple bug, designed to receive signals through wave sources.

“Has anyone else handled this cufflink or your clothes?” Elena asked Zhu Liang.

“A lot of people,” Zhu Liang replied.

He had worn the shirt for a long time. When he stayed briefly with a group of survivors, the shared laundry area was a place everyone passed by frequently. He always checked his clothes after retrieving them, but he hadn’t expected that someone had managed to tamper with his cufflink.

“Could it have been that Blood Bone guy… what was his name? Hu Dingguo?” Wen Xiaxia guessed. “Back at the temporary base, I kept seeing him hanging around where you all dried your clothes. Every time he noticed me watching, he would leave in a hurry, looking guilty.”

Zhou Yu strongly agreed. “It must have been the Blood Bone people! I also found a bug on my clothes before! Those Blood Bone scumbags put it there!”

They had even used that bug to lure out their enemies and successfully dealt with Hu Dingguo and Lisa.

Lu Jia nodded, then suddenly clapped his hands together. “Right! That explains how Blood Bone found us a few days ago! They must have been listening to what we were saying through this bug!”

As the group discussed, they had already pinned the blame on Blood Bone. Zhu Liang was also carefully recalling past events. Suddenly, as if he had remembered something, he glanced at Lin Bai.

He recalled that one night at the temporary base, Lin Bai had picked up his cufflink and returned it to him.

Although it was just a fleeting glance, Elena, who had interrogated countless criminals, keenly caught that fraction-of-a-second reaction. She looked directly into Zhu Liang’s eyes and stated, “Lin Bai also touched your cufflink.”

A statement, not a question.

At those words, the room fell silent.

Zhu Liang, still under suspicion, nodded. “Yes, but it shouldn’t be her.”

The time frame was too short. He had suddenly gone to find Lin Bai and they had only exchanged a few words. Unless Lin Bai had somehow known in advance that he was coming, it would have been impossible for her to swap out the cufflink with a modified one in such a brief moment.

“That’s not for you to decide, Vice Captain Zhu,” Elena said. “I need to know the exact details of how she handled the cufflink.”

No one had expected Lin Bai to be involved in this at all. As everyone turned to look at her, she also seemed a little surprised, but she quickly regained her composure. “Do you need me to do anything to cooperate?”

“No need. Just sit and listen,” Elena replied.

Within minutes, the cafeteria had transformed into an interrogation room.

Lin Bai and Zhu Liang sat side by side, while Lou Tiannan and Elena sat across from them. The rest of the team sat on either side, feeling a bit tense.

To clear himself of suspicion and determine the source of the bug, Zhu Liang fully cooperated. Lin Bai, of course, also cooperated.

Zhu Liang recounted his visit to Lin Bai in full detail.

“She hadn’t eaten because she was bringing food to Captain Lou, so I brought her a roasted potato. As I was leaving, my cufflink fell off. She picked it up and handed it back to me, and then I went to a meeting. The whole interaction lasted no more than two minutes.”

Elena asked for specifics, “Did she know you were coming to see her?”

Zhu Liang shook his head. “No. I didn’t tell anyone beforehand.” At the time, it had seemed like such a trivial matter.

“Did you have any physical contact with her?”

Zhu Liang recalled as he spoke. “No, just got a little closer when handing back the cufflink.”

The entire time, Elena had been questioning Zhu Liang, while Lin Bai sat quietly beside him, playing the role of a mute.

After finishing her questions for Zhu Liang, Elena turned to Lin Bai. “Do you have anything to add?”

Lin Bai shook her head. “No. I don’t remember much from that night, but what Vice Captain Zhu said is basically the same as what I recall.”

Elena silently stared at Lin Bai for a few seconds.

Zhou Yu had seen that move before in the Military Defense Department. After interrogating criminals, Elena would look them directly in the eyes to determine if they were lying. Even if they told the truth, few could meet her gaze. Most would avert their eyes, tremble all over, and be consumed by fear.

Before, he had wondered if people were really that scared. Now, seeing that scrutinizing gaze up close for the first time, he felt uneasy himself. No wonder she was the top adjudicator of the Law Enforcement Department!

As Zhou Yu was still marveling at this, Lin Bai looked at Elena with a puzzled expression. “Captain Elena, have you come to a conclusion?”

“Tsk.” Zhou Yu was a little surprised but not entirely. After all, Lin Bai had once pointed a gun at their captain’s head. It made sense for her to react that way under Elena’s gaze.

Everyone understood the rules of an interrogation; no one spoke during Elena’s judgment. Only when she stood up and said, “It’s over. Both of them are temporarily safe,” did the tension in the room finally ease.

Everyone let out a sigh of relief.

Zhou Yu said, “I told you, it was the Blood Bone people! Only they would do something like this!”

“Definitely!” Lu Jia agreed.

Zhu Liang apologized to Lin Bai. “Sorry for dragging you into this.”

“It’s nothing. I suppose Captain Elena had already suspected me and used this whole setup to confirm it,” Lin Bai said casually.

“Hiss—” Zhou Yu, who was sitting close by, sucked in a sharp breath. He lowered his voice and whispered to Lin Bai, “Hey, don’t say things like that. Elena may seem gentle, but she’s ruthless—cough, cough, cough!”

Zhou Yu abruptly stopped speaking as he saw Elena glance in their direction. He immediately thumped his chest and pretended to choke. “Why did I suddenly choke on nothing? So weird! Cough, cough—”

Song Yan jumped in to change the subject, “Captain Elena, that wristband of yours doesn’t look like something developed by the military.”

Zhou Yu instantly adored Song Yan for the timely interruption and quickly added, “Yeah! That wristband looks really useful. Captain Elena, where did you get it? Did you buy it? Or did someone in your team develop it?”

Half of his question was to steer the conversation away, but the other half was genuine curiosity. If possible, he wanted one himself to prevent anyone from secretly planting bugs on his clothes again.

Elena slowly pulled down the sleeve on her left arm and said, “It was a gift from a friend.”

“A friend?” At her words, those who knew Elena were visibly surprised.

Elena had a mild temperament, but she was also infamous within the Security Bureau for being a workaholic who practically lived in the Law Enforcement Department. If there were eight days in a week, she would spend all eight there. Other than her colleagues, she actually had friends?

In their previous dealings with the Law Enforcement Department, they had never heard of Elena having any friends outside of work.

Most people spend their free time at shopping malls or movie theaters. Her idea of relaxation was visiting the 621 Biopharmaceutical Research Institute and having dinner with her mentor.

It was truly rare to hear the word ‘friend’ come from her mouth.

Elena showed a nostalgic expression. “Yes, I met her by chance while capturing criminals. She was an outstanding person. I once wanted to recommend her to the Law Enforcement Department, but she refused.”

If the idea of Elena having a friend had surprised them, then the fact that she had wanted to recruit that person shocked them even more. For someone to be deemed exceptional by Elena and even recommended for the Security Bureau—most importantly, for that person to have refused—what kind of person could they be?!

“And your friend, where is she now…?” Zhou Yu asked curiously.

“Not long after the apocalypse began, I lost contact with her.”

After Elena said this, everyone tactfully chose not to ask further. In the apocalypse, anything could happen.

But then, Elena added, “I will see her again.”

Where no one else could see, Lin Bai was momentarily startled. Then, she lowered her head, looking at Xi Ya, who had somehow wandered to her side and was now burying her face against Lin Bai’s leg.

Xi Ya used Lin Bai’s pants as cover, hiding her slightly uneasy expression.

That night, she had seen her mother pull off Zhu Liang’s cufflink with a thread.

But she would never say a word.