Mental Illness Evolution Manual - Chapter 43

The passage was deep and not very wide, only allowing three or four people to walk side by side.

Every ten meters or so, a wall lamp would light up, emitting a dim yellow light, like a pair of eyes, silently watching every passerby.

Lu Mingqiu didn’t say anything comforting, she didn’t break the silence between the two of them. During missions, she never said anything irrelevant.

She was thinking.

It was clear from the situation inside the base that the people here had already evacuated, and they had done so in an orderly manner, step by step. They had deleted all the data, left a few members to finish up, and the rest had left.

Before entering the passage, she had asked Ger to take a look at the third floor of the bar. They didn’t have to be so careful when leaving, Ger turned into a dragonfly and flew out quickly along the normal path.

Now she had received the news, the third floor was also empty.

The base here had been moved.

The message to Poison Sting was just a smokescreen, a directive action to use a knife to kill someone and give the Resistance some minor trouble.

What had made them abandon their base in Nanjin City?

According to the past history of the two organizations being at odds with each other, they wouldn’t retreat easily after knowing that the Resistance was stationed here.

It was normal to gather people to deal with them, so Lu Mingqiu hadn’t thought much about it, she had organized this action with the intention of eliminating all the people in the base.

But now she had come up empty, what could be more important than confronting the Resistance?

Yan Xianchuan walked silently, the sound of her shoes on the floor was no louder than a snowflake falling.

She walked in front, automatically taking on the role of scout.

But there was really nothing, except for patches of light shining on the concrete walls, there was nothing else in the entire passage.

She stopped again when she passed a square wall lamp, “There’s no way forward.”

That wasn’t entirely accurate.

Lu Mingqiu walked up and looked at the dim sewer network, her face was gloomy.

It wasn’t that there was no way, it was that there were too many ways, she didn’t know where to go.

“Let’s go.” she said.

At this point, the most important thing was to interrogate the few captured prisoners.

This operation was a failure, but Lu Mingqiu wasn’t disappointed or dejected. She knew that not every action would get the expected positive feedback.

Fortunately, the team that went to the wharf didn’t suffer any casualties, only two unlucky souls were slightly grazed by stray bullets on their arms and needed to rest for a few days.

The prisoners were sent to the medical room, they were first stripped of the monitoring chips in their brains, after the anesthesia wore off, they all woke up.

These five people weren’t wearing robes, they only had the eyeless necklace around their necks. Compared to the pendant worn by the priest she had seen in the church, it lacked the wheat that passed through the pupil, leaving only one eye.

Their expressions were like those of a factory-made mannequin, they all had the feeling of being ready to die bravely, to sacrifice their lives for the Mother Goddess. Even when they were captured by the enemy, they didn’t change their expression, they were arrogant, they had a disdainful and ignorant attitude towards the common people who wasted their breath.

Lu Mingqiu didn’t take their resistance seriously at all.

Every person who was captured and interrogated had this look, they refused to reveal a single word. But it didn’t matter, their thoughts weren’t important, this wasn’t kindergarten, they didn’t need to be coaxed and persuaded to speak.

Lu Mingqiu hypnotized them one by one, and handed them over to other people to interrogate separately.

These people were just small fry, they couldn’t provide any useful information. They didn’t know where the other branches were, they didn’t know where these cargo boxes were transported to, they didn’t know what they were for, they didn’t know anything.

They were ordered to transport the boxes, so they transported them. As for what was in these boxes, the few of them didn’t know, they hadn’t asked, they just had to obey orders.

However, one of them did say something useful, he remembered the license plate number on a carriage that came to pick up the goods.

Although the others didn’t say anything, they were still a little discouraged. They had gone through all that trouble, and all they got was a license plate number, what was the difference between that and getting nothing?

No matter how powerful Black was, he couldn’t search the entire city’s transportation network to find out where the car had gone, besides, according to the church’s cautiousness, they might have changed cars along the way.

Lu Mingqiu was still very calm, she said a few comforting words, then she left with Yan Xianchuan.

On the way back, she acted like nothing had happened.

Yan Xianchuan stole a few glances at her face, but she couldn’t see anything.

“If you have something to say, just say it, you’re so hesitant, it’s not like you.” Lu Mingqiu glanced at her while driving.

“You don’t seem very disappointed.” Yan Xianchuan said, “I saw several people outside who were sighing.”

“Is there such a big conflict between the Resistance and the church? They didn’t catch anyone, they looked more upset than if they had missed a meal.”

Lu Mingqiu chuckled, “You know, the church is an underground organization supported by the chaebols, they help them do some shady things, and they also deal with us.”

“The chaebols are all-powerful, they control power, they can do whatever they want, they don’t need to hide it too much, no one can overthrow them, everyone is used to this situation.”

“The first conflict between the organization and the church was seven years ago.” Lu Mingqiu’s gaze drifted into the distance, as if she was reminiscing, “I hadn’t joined yet, but I saw the action footage, it could only be described as tragic.”

“The church often conducts human experiments, they capture homeless people in various ways, no one cares about the life or death of these wandering families, the organization found some clues, they went to rescue them, and they ran into the church people.”

“The Resistance won, but only one in ten survived. As for those poor people, they were used as test subjects, many of them couldn’t even be called human beings…” She paused, her eyes flickered, “They all died in the end, they didn’t live long.”

“From then on, we all knew about each other’s existence. Until now, there are still actions to destroy the church’s laboratories, they’re still going on, it’s just that I haven’t discovered any in my jurisdiction recently.”

“Many members of the organization were rescued from the experimental table.” Lu Mingqiu sighed, “They are very hostile to the church, it’s normal for them to be disappointed after this operation yielded nothing.”

Yan Xianchuan nodded, she had a look of understanding.

But she didn’t really care about the other members of the organization, she was just talking for the sake of talking.

Communication.

In the past, she would take the initiative to speak, mostly to attract the other party’s attention, to show off, to test her reaction, now she spoke, she had no purpose.

But finding a topic suddenly became a difficult thing, when she wanted to say something, she didn’t know what to talk about.

In the end, they returned home in silence.

The night passed, the sky was already getting light, the iron-gray clouds were dyed red and purple by the sunlight from bottom to top. Lu Mingqiu smiled, her eyes were soft as she looked at her, “Go to sleep, you’ve worked hard all night.”

Yan Xianchuan, in a daze, glanced at her collarbone, “It wasn’t hard, you should rest early too.”

She pushed open the door opposite her, she went back to her room, took a shower, and lay back down on the bed.

The thin blanket was soft and smooth, like silk, it was cool, Yan Xianchuan’s arm rested on it, her mind drifted off.

On the other side, Lu Mingqiu returned to her room, but she didn’t rest.

She sat on the chair for a while, then she received a video request, she answered it, and a blurry human figure was projected.

“This car must be tracked.” she said, her tone was serious, “The church’s actions make me very uneasy.”

“It’s indeed very unusual.” The projection said, his voice had been blurred, “I’ll have someone do it, I’ll give you an answer before tomorrow.”

After saying this, his figure flickered and disappeared.

Lu Mingqiu was no longer so tense, but her brows were still slightly furrowed, she was thinking about the church’s unusual behavior.

Even if they wanted to supply the underground branch, they wouldn’t buy such a large amount of compressed food, the church had completely legitimate means of purchasing it.

Take the Resistance as an example, building a branch base, providing weapons and ammunition, various logistical supplies, maintaining the operation of personnel, undoubtedly requires a lot of capital flow, and each of their aboveground industries can be used as a front, there’s no need to go to such great lengths.

The Resistance had this ability, they could make the accounts normal, wouldn’t the church have it?

Unless these foods had to be completely hidden, because they couldn’t guarantee that these industries wouldn’t be infiltrated, so they simply didn’t go through the official accounts, they were carried out in secret.

So the question was, what did the church people want these compressed foods for? They couldn’t be used to feed pigs.

Lu Mingqiu rubbed her temples, she felt mentally exhausted.

She washed up briefly, she forced herself to stop thinking and go to sleep.

She needed to keep her energy up at all times.

At seven in the morning, Guo Cheng was woken up by his alarm clock. He went to the bathroom with a messy head, after the sound of water stopped, he came out, his eyes were wide open, he looked energetic and upright.

Guo Cheng went to the kitchen, he took two sandwiches out of the refrigerator and put them in the microwave to heat them up, he also took out a carton of milk, he sat down at the dining table, he ate the sandwiches in a few big bites, then he drank the milk in the carton in one go, he threw the packaging bags into the trash can.

He ate while watching the floating screen, he brushed through various videos, he would laugh from time to time.

When he finished breakfast, Guo Cheng wiped his mouth, he went to the closet and took out a uniform with a yellow badge and put it on, the round badge had two words printed on it—Transportation Department.

Guo Cheng lived in a dormitory, he took the elevator downstairs and walked a few steps to the administrative building.

There were many people who lived in the dormitory like him, everyone was wearing a uniform, but the badges on their chests were different, some were blue, some were green.

“Hey!” A person with a yellow badge on his chest bumped into him from behind, he said with a grin, “How’s did it go?”

“Not good.” Guo Cheng’s face fell, he looked gloomy.

“That’s not right.” The person scratched his head in puzzlement, “I heard that he’s single, and he’s also good-looking.”

“It’s me who’s not good enough.” Guo Cheng sighed heavily, “He doesn’t like me, I told him I was just a small employee, and he deleted me.”

“Ah, this… this… this, it’s okay! He’s blind, he has no taste!” The person awkwardly chuckled a few times.

“It’s fine.” Guo Cheng said helplessly, “Mingzi, how did you pass the cultural exam?”

“I, I just passed it.” Wan Ming changed the subject, “By the way, did you see the news? There’s work. Team Zheng asked us to check a license plate number.”

The two of them walked into the elevator together, they pressed the button for the twenty-second floor, other people wearing different uniforms came in with them, the elevator was quiet, and the two of them closed their mouths.

The elevator door opened and closed, finally reaching the twenty-second floor, the two of them walked out.

“I didn’t see it.” Guo Cheng said, “Another hit-and-run?”

“It doesn’t seem like it.” Wan Ming said, “He didn’t mention it, it’s probably another private job.”

He deliberately lowered his voice for the last word, making it unclear.

Guo Cheng was a little annoyed, but he couldn’t do anything about it. Working in the system, you had to learn to flatter, no matter what kind of work your superiors assigned, whether it was public or private, you had to do it, if you didn’t, you would be punished.

He didn’t have any connections at home, he got in purely based on his grades, he had been working at the bottom for four years, he watched as his peers climbed up one step at a time, but he was still at the bottom.

After a long time, Guo Cheng had come to terms with it, but he was still a little resentful.

He and Wan Ming pushed open the office, there was already a colleague sitting inside, there were four people in this office, one was missing.

Wan Ming sat down on the chair, he turned on the computer and said in a drawn-out tone, “Ugh, let’s get to work.”

He typed “JDS96681” in the search box, the system started to automatically search for all vehicles in the city, after ten minutes, it finally found it.

“Let me see… last night’s.” Wan Ming’s hand slid across the touchscreen, he opened the road surveillance from last night, “Wenming Street, Lanshan Road, Baihua Road… it left the city.”

Guo Cheng leaned over from his chair to look, “Did you find it?”

Wan Ming pointed to the screen, “A cargo truck, I don’t know what they’re looking for it for. It’s on Provincial Highway 298.”

“Don’t guess what the higher-ups are thinking, just report it.” Guo Cheng still looked a little gloomy, as if his happiest time was when he was eating breakfast and browsing videos in the morning.

“You’re right.” Wan Ming shrugged, he reported it to his superiors.

Their superior, a person called Team Zheng, received the news, he also reported it upwards, and at the same time, he said a lot of apologetic words about how he had been waiting for a long time.

This went up level by level, until it reached a woman in a suit, she knocked on the door, she entered after being allowed, “The license plate you wanted to check this morning has been found.”

“Keep an eye on it, I want to know its final destination.” A cold and stern female voice came from behind the chair, “You’re personally responsible.”

“Yes, Minister.” The woman in the suit replied respectfully, she exited the room.

The next moment, Lu Mingqiu, who was asleep, was woken up by the prompt sound of a special message. As soon as she opened her eyes, she woke up, “Provincial Highway 298… it’s going north.”

As long as they could find it, she lay back down on the bed, the weight on her heart was lifted.

The members who had been temporarily transferred from other places had been in Nanjin City for a day, they had only one day of free time, more than ten people went to see the Holy Healing Church in a group, as if it was a check-in point.

Not only did they look, they also mumbled and talked, attracting the stares of many believers, these people were all thick-skinned, they didn’t care about the damage to their vision.

The Mother Goddess Itaru was still beautiful, she was compassionate and plump, if there really was such a god, she would definitely be a god who loved all beings.

Unfortunately, it was just a pure lie.

In order to fabricate history, they forged murals, forged ancient books, many of the historical records before the Great Purge were lost, besides, history itself could be forged.

As long as you change the content in the textbooks, control all the media, unify the tone, and falsify history, it’s a very simple matter.

The younger generation grew up in this environment, being instilled with false culture, they didn’t know what was real, and no one showed them what was real.

The Holy Healing Church disguised itself as a sect with a history of thousands of years, it was a religious system left behind by the ancient Elara civilization that had long since been extinct, there were many archaeological murals to prove it.

In this era of suffering and oppression, in this era where resistance was useless, people desperately needed spiritual sustenance, they needed a hope to keep them alive.

The church gave them hope, this couldn’t be said to be bad.

But they used this to spread the poisonous idea of resignation and obedience to the status quo to the people, which was a big mistake.

The church was a huge obstacle, the Resistance was not only fighting against the chaebols, but also against the countless people who had been fooled.

It was difficult, but everyone had hope in their hearts, every member of the Resistance was a foolish idealist.

These ten or so people argued and bickered for a day, and the next day they returned to their respective permanent branches.

On the weekend, Yan Xianchuan was curled up on the sofa playing games, Lu Mingqiu called her up, “Pack your things, we’re going on a trip, we’re leaving this afternoon.”

“Where are we going?” Yan Xianchuan was startled.

“Walnut Town.” Lu Mingqiu said.

Yan Xianchuan blinked a few times, she didn’t know anything about this place.

“That’s where those supplies were transported to.” Lu Mingqiu pursed her lips, “Bring a jacket, the temperature there is much lower than here.”

The person on the sofa nodded, her behavior could be described as docile.

It wasn’t that Yan Xianchuan had questioned her instructions before, but she had been very well-behaved recently.

She hadn’t gone out to “exercise” for so long, she could actually stay at home quietly, she didn’t nag and fuss about doing something that would cause bloodshed, compared to her previous state of going crazy every two or three days if she didn’t go out, she was a completely different person.

Unbelievable.

But since this was a good change, there was no need to delve into the reasons too much.

The two of them packed their bags, they had to take an airship to Lipe’a City first, then transfer to a car.

Walnut Town was a small town, although it had a town-level division, in reality, due to population loss, there were only a few thousand people living there, it was strangely small.

The town was very closed off, Lu Mingqiu had searched for a long time before she found any mention of the town, it used to make a living by selling walnuts, that was before the Great Purge.

After the Great Purge, there were no records.

It took six hours to fly from Nanjin City to Lipe’a, the business class had a signal, so it wasn’t too boring, it was just that the food on the airship wasn’t very good, even the supply for the business class couldn’t be called delicious, it could only be said that it wasn’t too bad.

Yan Xianchuan wasn’t picky about food, but since she had been living with Lu Mingqiu, she had been eating and drinking well every day, her taste buds were becoming increasingly picky.

A peach was handed to her, it tasted quite sweet.

It was probably because she was so reluctant to eat that she was noticed.

As soon as they got off the airship, Yan Xianchuan felt the change in temperature. It was autumn, but Nanjin City was still hot, like an oven, it would be a little cooler when it rained, but on days when it didn’t rain, the moisture would turn into steam, the whole city was like a big steamer, trapping people inside and roasting them.

Lipe’a was different, its coolness was almost overwhelming.

Yan Xianchuan looked at the weather, the perceived temperature was only eighteen degrees, and that was indoors.

The two of them were still wearing short sleeves, Lu Mingqiu pointed to the lounge and said, “Go and get your jackets first, otherwise you’ll be cold outside.”

As expected, they put on their jackets, as soon as they went out, Yan Xianchuan was almost blown over by the wind that hit her face.

Looking at the others, they were all bent over, covering their clothes, they were all like ascetics, they were moving against the wind.

Lu Mingqiu had been foresighted and had tied up her hair, she said loudly, “I told you it would be cold.”