Embers Ad Infinitum

As the fuzzy memory became clear quickly, Long Yuehong shuddered and blurted out:

"I remember, I remember, someone put this box in the trunk of our Jeep!"

Remember? No need for Long Yuehong to explain in detail, Jiang Baimian instantly had a rough guess in his mind:

"The person in room 214 blurred your memory?

"When was that?"

Long Yuehong said with obvious fear:

"That's when you followed Captain Ding to meet Commissioner Huang.

"Me, Xiaobai and Laoge, didn't I take turns guarding the window to monitor the situation around the jeep to prevent anyone from stealing the materials inside? I saw someone pushing a cart over at that time and put the box on the car. I put on a disguise, but this memory was blurred, leaving me with a memory where nothing happened. I didn’t remember it until I saw this box just now.”

Hearing this, Shang Jianyao laughed:

“It’s very similar to the person in room 214.

"And I know that persimmons are soft when you pick them."

Hey... Long Yuehong held back, not wanting to take the topic astray.

Jiang Baimian subconsciously wanted to nod along, but reason returned and he controlled himself:

"The question now is, what is the purpose of the person in room 214 doing this?"

"I am separated from the nuclear warhead so that I can escape from Wubei?" Bai Chen tried to guess.

Jiang Baimian's heart moved when he heard this.

She made a downward movement with her right hand:

"Let me think about it, let me think about it:

"The guy in room 214 has a badge and his ability is 'Telephone', which means he can hear all the conversations between us. It just depends on whether he is maintaining the effect and whether he wants to listen or not."

"No wonder he knows that Xiaohong is a soft persimmon!" Shang Jianyao suddenly realized.

Jiang Baimian glared at this guy and continued:

"We went to see Commissioner Huang because Ding Ling personally invited us. Well, I remember Ding Ling said that Commissioner Huang was in charge of statistics and distribution of military supplies."

"Ding Ling didn't directly say it was Commissioner Huang, she just said a member of the Wubei Materials Coordination Committee." Among the people present, Gnawa, who had the most outstanding "memory", made the correction.

Jiang Baimian nodded:

"It can be inferred from the areas of responsibility that the committee members who meet us will most likely be responsible for the search for nuclear warheads, and the fact that we can get an invitation shows that we have a certain relationship with the other party.

“This is a conclusion we can easily draw from our conversation with Ding Ling at that time.

"So, if person 214 did hear such a conversation, what would he think?

"He will probably think that even if he creates an atmosphere that requires evacuation as soon as possible, leaving Wubei with a nuclear warhead is a very high-risk thing. After all, it is impossible for the 'Salvation Army' not to conduct certain checks on people leaving the city, and will To guard against interference from the abilities of certain awakened people, Commissioner Huang is an expert in abilities in the field of 'last people'.

"And by hiding the nuclear warhead in our car, we might be able to escape inspection by virtue of our special relationship with Commissioner Huang and take the items out of the city. He would then leave without any problems and follow us quietly. Secretly retrieve the nuclear warhead.

"Well, he is an excellent hacker. He can hack into the Wubei broadcasting system without leaving any trace. It is probably just a piece of cake for him to open the trunk of the Jeep without triggering the alarm."

The Jeep of the "Old Tune Team" is an electric vehicle, and the closing and opening of the doors rely on a control system.

Bang bang bang, dang dang dang, Shang Jianyao and Gnawa applauded Jiang Baimian's guess at the same time.

This is the most logical and human reasoning.

"But isn't he afraid that when we put the military exoskeleton device and bionic smart armor back into the car, we will find an extra box..." Long Yuehong became quieter as he spoke, because he could answer this question himself.

That person will definitely be prepared to blur the memories of the corresponding members of the "Old Tune Team" as soon as possible.

"At that time, he should find a way to transfer Lao Ge and prevent him from being responsible for carrying items." Jiang Baimian helped Long Yuehong plug the loopholes.

Gnawa's memory will not be blurred.

"It may also be possible to rely on hacking methods to use wireless signals to invade Lao Ge's body, causing him to have a certain 'hallucination' and ignore the existence of extra boxes." Shang Jianyao proposed another possibility.

Gnawa moved his metal neck up and down:

"I'm leaning toward the latter possibility, because the guy in room 214 doesn't seem to be able to access his memory accurately at the moment. He most likely doesn't know that I'm a real intelligent person from 'Machine Paradise', and can easily treat me as an ordinary robot. With the technical ability he has shown, coupled with the means he may have to influence electromagnetism, he can indeed interfere without anyone noticing and achieve the desired goal."

Bai Chen followed and said:

"The reason why he listened to our conversation with Ding Ling is because the fact that a captain of the Salvation Army went to the Gray Earth Hotel to meet outsiders deserves attention."

"Yes, things are almost straightened out." Jiang Baimian said "hmm".

"I have another question." Shang Jianyao raised his hand.

Jiang Baimian turned his head and looked at him:

"what is the problem?"

Shang Jianyao pointed to the box:

"Try its weight, with your right hand."

Jiang Baimian walked over thoughtfully, leaned down, and pulled out the box containing the nuclear warhead with his right hand.

"This must be more than a hundred kilograms." Jiang Baimian first thought this thing was really heavy, and then sighed, "It's only over a hundred kilograms!"

This kind of weapon of mass destruction that can blow up Wubei only weighs more than 100 kilograms!

Old world technology is truly amazing.

This can be seen from the "Immortal Man" project, the existence of "Source Brain", to the current nuclear warhead.

Shang Jianyao immediately smiled and said:

"My problem is that with the physical condition of the person in room 214, it seems impossible to move such a heavy box into our trunk."

"He just has high blood pressure, not physical weakness!" Jiang Baimian laughed and scolded, "If I were him and there was such a price, in addition to using medication to control it, I would definitely try my best to improve my physical fitness, such as getting... Try some genetic improvement potions. Although the effect is not as good as those of us who have been optimizing since the mother's womb, it is better than nothing.

"Such a man in his prime can still move more than 100 kilograms of things into the trunk with hard work."

"But won't this induce his high blood pressure?" Honest Shang Jianyao asked.

"He is taking medicine, so he will not be so fragile..." Jiang Baimian said, casting his eyes on the nuclear warhead, "The question now is, how to deal with it?"

"Of course, return it to the Salvation Army!" Shang Jianyao, who represents justice and noble character and takes saving mankind as his own duty, replied without hesitation.

"Yes, yes." Long Yuehong also felt that there was no doubt about this.

This is not an ownerless thing.

Besides, there is no point in having such a big firecracker in the hands of the "Old Tune Team". The probability of "Lighting" throwing it out and covering itself is 100%.

Bai Chen thought so too, so he agreed with Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong's opinions. Gnawa was busy analyzing other factors and did not speak for a while.

Jiang Baimian glanced at the silver-gray nuclear warhead with its own detonation device and the corresponding password, and said thoughtfully:

"Don't you think this whole thing is too much of a coincidence?

"After 214 went out, the antihypertensive medicine he placed in his room happened to be stolen by a very disappointed ruin hunter who planned to leave Wubei. This caused him to have a high blood pressure attack and was sent to the hospital for rescue. The nuclear warhead was stranded in Wubei;

"This incident happened to be heard by Mr. Zhang who often came to the "Huitu Hotel", and we learned about it;

“On the first day of martial law, Commissioner Huang happened to want to see us, which made him think about hiding nuclear warheads in our cars and took action;

"And because I was a fool, I mistakenly found the room in the first place and didn't immediately notice that there was someone in 214. I happened to paralyze that person and made him significantly less vigilant in the future;

“When he was ‘deprived of consciousness’ and fell down, he happened to hit his head somewhere, causing sudden death on the spot. There was no evidence of his death;

"The 'Doctor's' surprise attack caused the 'Salvation Army' to basically give up on checking those who left the city.

"The result of all these coincidences is that the nuclear warhead fell into our hands without anyone else knowing about it."

Long Yuehong's face changed after hearing this.

Before he could clear his thoughts, he heard Bai Chen say:

"Who deliberately arranged for us to obtain this nuclear warhead covertly?"

Jiang Baimian nodded slightly:

"This is the same as 'Yougu' quietly injecting a little breath into the Little Jade Buddha with the help of the Red Stone Gathering Conference, but one is direct and the other is tactful."

Shang Jianyao rubbed his chin:

"Does that person think that one day in the future, we will need to use this nuclear warhead, just like we did against the 'Doctor' today?"

Jiang Baimian said "hmm".

Shang Jianyao "helped" her to say the following words:

"When we want to destroy a certain Buddhist holy place in the future, ordinary methods will not work. We must install this nuclear bomb and detonate it remotely?"

Why should "destroy" be connected with the Buddhist holy land... Jiang Baimian retorted feebly in his heart.

Bai Chen approved this guess:

"It seems we have to keep this nuclear warhead."

"Well, from another perspective, if we return it, something bad might happen, whether to us or to the Salvation Army. The person who arranged the coincidence will not have not considered returning it. This point." The vicious Shang Jianyao tried to convince the members of the Democratic Consultative Committee.

"Do you want to report it to the company?" Long Yuehong asked.

Jiang Baimian was stunned for a moment and shook his head slowly.

After voting, except for Shang Jianyao, all other members of the "Old Adjustment Group" believed that this nuclear warhead should be retained. Anyway, the "Salvation Army" has more than this one, and the "Old Adjustment Group" cannot use it to deal with the "Salvation Army" .

Shang Jianyao didn't insist, he just turned his back and muttered:

"This incident led to the sacrifice of Commissioner Huang and Mr. Zhang..."

"Sooner or later, we will get it back!" Jiang Baimian patted his shoulder, and then said to Gnawa, "Seize the time to modify the detonating device and reset the command to prevent anyone else from being able to remotely detonate it."

While Gnawa was busy and Shang Jianyao was watching, Jiang Baimian and others packed the trunk and exchanged bills for some supplies at a nearby forest farm-type settlement.

In the evening, they camped in an open space outside the settlement.

According to the team manual, after leaving the company and arriving at Huitu, they needed to go to the toilet together, so Jiang Baimian took Bai Chen with him and walked into the nearby woodland.

After untying his hands, Jiang Baimian glanced at Bai Chen, suddenly cleared his throat, and said seriously:

"Xiao Bai, what do you think of Xiao Hong?

"You also heard what Ding Ling said. If you really have no idea, tell him clearly as soon as possible, stop his thoughts, and let him stop thinking about going out after returning to the company."