The Third Rebirth (REBIRTH)
After hearing Ling Chen's words, Ye Xiao felt a tingling sensation in his ears. He quickly kissed Ling Chen's neck, and his own ear tips turned completely red.
Ling Chen clicked his tongue and laughed, "Are you feeling shy?" He jostled Ye Xiao a couple of times in his arms, "Has our Ye Xiao lost weight? You feel a bit lighter."
Ye Xiao shook his head, "I haven't lost weight, I've been eating a lot of meat!"
Ling Chen was reluctant to put him down and continued holding him as he spoke with his voice filled with laughter, "That's true. Every time the chef in the dining room sees you, he first gives you a look of pity, thinking 'those thin arms and legs are too skinny,' and then he sighs and scoops three big spoonfuls of meat for you."
He loved seeing people treat Ye Xiao well. His Little Fuzzball had endured too much hardship in the past, and he always felt that his own care alone was never enough.
"Right," Ye Xiao's eyes curved into a smile, "I finish it all every time!"
"That impressive?" Ling Chen raised an eyebrow before finally setting Ye Xiao down. He then pulled a milk candy from his pocket and fed it to him, "This is your reward."
Ye Xiao put the candy in his mouth and smiled at Ling Chen.
Their voices were low and drowned out by the sound of rushing water in the passageway. Jiang Cancan was diligently sweeping the area with a military flashlight. Under the beam, they could see the dusty walls covered with tangled wires, broken monitoring equipment, and ventilation devices coated in grime.
Jiang Cancan vaguely heard Ling Chen mention that Ye Xiao had lost weight and couldn't help but comment on his own weight, "Can Ye seems to have lost weight too, the muscles on my arms have shrunk a bit!"
Jian Lan mocked him, "Isn't that just because you've been lazy? Right before we left, you devoured five big meat pies in one go. Losing weight? That's just an illusion."
Jiang Cancan thought carefully, "Really? I don't remember that. Anyway, I definitely lost weight. Next time, I'll eat six pies..." After muttering to himself for a while, Jiang Cancan started singing a fitting tune, "By the pond, under the willow tree, hides a little frog..."
The song echoed through the passageway, but after just two lines, he suddenly stopped, "The water's gone up ahead! Brothers, we've finally reached the other side!"
At the end of the passage was a platform slightly elevated above the ground, untouched by the water.
After stepping onto it, Jiang Mu surveyed the surroundings and confirmed, "This is the first floor of the testing site. The control room and main server room are on this level."
Jiang Cancan took off his shoes and poured out the water inside. Hearing this, he looked around, "Speaking of which, why was this testing site built underground? Without electricity, there's no light at all, and groundwater seeps in."
Ling Chen answered his question, "If harmful gases were to leak and couldn't be cleared, the entire testing site could be sealed underground."
Jiang Cancan paused while tying his shoelaces, "Chen Ge, now that you mention it, I'm having some not-so-pleasant thoughts."
Jian Lan kicked him in the shin, "Stop blabbering!"
Jiang Cancan, wary of Jian Lan's earlier threat to "cut off his little thing", quickly covered his mouth and instinctively moved closer to Jiang Mu.
After determining the direction of the main server room, the five of them moved forward. There wasn't a single sound around them, but they remained on high alert.
They made it to the main server room without incident.
Pushing the door open, Ling Chen propped up the flashlight and carefully inspected the area, "No one's been here. Let's go upstairs."
As they walked up the stairs to the third floor, Jiang Cancan sneezed. He rubbed his nose and said, "Is it just me, or does anyone else smell something weird? It's making my nose itch." He sneezed again.
As if it were contagious, Jian Lan also sneezed twice.
Jiang Mu explained, "It's not your imagination. It's the smell of chemical agents. The ventilation system isn't working, and since we're underground, the smell can't dissipate."
By then, they had reached the third floor.
The corridor was lined with tightly shut metal doors, each bearing a numbered plate. As the flashlight beam swept across, Jiang Cancan, still rubbing his nose, asked in confusion, "How are we supposed to know which room is the archives or the data center? Are we just going to check each one?"
Jian Lan suddenly spoke up, her tone alert as she scanned their surroundings, "Do you... hear something?"
Jiang Cancan immediately shrank closer to Jiang Mu, his voice trembling, "Jian Lan, don't scare me like that!"
Ye Xiao closed his eyes before focusing intently. "It sounds like... someone banging on a wall?"
Jian Lan's eyes lit up. "Yes! That's exactly what it sounds like!" She turned to Ling Chen and asked, "Chen Ge?"
Ling Chen nodded. "Let's check it out."
They followed the corridor until they reached a wall.
The wall was made of an unknown metal with its surface a seamless silver with no visible switches or mechanisms nearby.
Jiang Cancan frowned. "Dead end. Could the sound be coming from inside here?"
The five of them fell silent, but aside from their breathing, there was no other sound. The light in Jian Lan's eyes dimmed. "Maybe Little friend and I misheard."
Just as she finished speaking, a dull "thud" echoed again. Ye Xiao tapped the wall with the tip of his scabbard and confirmed, "The knocking is coming from here. There's definitely someone inside."
Ling Chen nodded. "Step back, everyone."
Once Ye Xiao and the others had moved back, Ling Chen raised his gun, loaded it, and fired several shots in quick succession, with varying intervals between each shot. The bullets struck the metal wall, leaving a series of dents.
Jiang Cancan explained to Ye Xiao, "That's code. Chen Ge is telling them to move to the farthest corner because he's going to break in forcefully. If General Jian and the others are inside, they'll understand."
Sure enough, shortly after the gunfire ceased, a few knocks came from inside the wall. Jiang Cancan translated, "They're saying we can start in twenty seconds."
As Jiang Mu began counting down, Ling Chen took the gray heavy sniper rifle handed to him by Jian Lan. He set up the tripod, knelt on one knee, and aimed the barrel at the center of the wall. Ye Xiao and the others took a few more steps back.
"...Nineteen, twenty!"
As soon as the countdown ended, a deafening "boom" rang out as an armor-piercing explosive bullet was fired. When the smoke cleared, a large hole had been blasted into the metal wall.
Ling Chen holstered his gun and called out, "Ling Chen from the Second Division. Who's in there?"
"You actually used armor-piercing bullets? You really don't know the value of resources until you're in charge!"
Ling Chen chuckled in response. "I'll write a 500-word self-criticism when we get back. But since you sound so lively, I take it you're not injured."
A minute later, all the people trapped inside crawled out through the violently opened breach. Seeing Ling Chen still looking inside, Jian Yun said, "Stop looking, there are only thirteen of us. We split into three groups this time. Your father took eight people with him, and my father didn’t come to the testing site. He took thirty people and went somewhere else."
Ling Chen sensed something was wrong, "Uncle Jian, when were you trapped inside?"
Jian Yun recalled, "It should have been the 30th. We arrived here," he pointed in the direction of the cave entrance, "and the metal door suddenly descended. Fortunately, we had brought enough supplies—nutrient solutions and oxygen supply equipment—otherwise, we would have either suffocated or starved to death inside."
Ling Chen: "On the night of the 30th, my father contacted the temporary base, but the signal was cut off after just a few words, and we haven’t been able to reach him since."
Jian Yun, at fifty years old, bore some resemblance to Jian Lan, though his features were more rugged. His brows were deeply furrowed, leaving a deep crease between them.
He lowered his voice, "After we entered through the ground passage, I was responsible for going to the third floor to find the document room and data center. Old Ling said he would go to the mainframe room on the first floor, and we agreed to meet at the stairwell on the second floor."
Unexpectedly, one was trapped in a sealed room, and the other was missing.
Ye Xiao was listening intently to their conversation when suddenly, Noah's electronic voice sounded in his ear, "Ye Xiao, hello."
Startled for a moment, Ye Xiao responded, "Hello, is there a mission?"
Noah spoke with its usual brevity, "Yes. There’s only one task for now: within one hour, kill Li Su."
One hour?
Ye Xiao asked, "Where is Li Su?"
"On the basement level, with Ling Dingnan."
"Understood."
Ye Xiao took advantage of Jian Yun talking to Jian Lan and tugged on Ling Chen's sleeve. When Ling Chen looked over, he leaned in and whispered, "Your father is on the basement level."
Ling Chen's eyes darkened.
He stared at Ye Xiao for five seconds before ordering, "Jian Lan and Can Can will take them back to the surface. Xiao Mu will come with me to find Professor Ling."
Jian Yun wanted to say something, but knowing Ling Chen was decisive and never acted recklessly, he pondered for two seconds and agreed, "Then we’ll go up first. Be careful. If the data really can’t be retrieved, forget it. Your lives are more important."
He paused for two seconds, "I don’t know if I’m overthinking it, but I believe this testing site might not be as simple as we thought. With the power equipment missing, how did that metal door descend? And how did it trap us all inside at such a precise moment?"
His implication was that he suspected someone had deliberately trapped them in the sealed room.
Ling Chen nodded, "I understand."
Five minutes later, the figures of Jian Lan and the others disappeared, and the sound of splashing water gradually faded into the distance.
Ling Chen looked at Ye Xiao, "Little Fuzzball, are you sure Old Ling is on the basement level?"
Ye Xiao nodded, "Yes."
Ling Chen: "The map doesn’t show a basement level. If there really is one, we need to find the way down first."
Ye Xiao hummed in agreement.
He could sense Ling Chen’s doubt, but he couldn’t explain how he knew, so he just kept his head down and remained silent.
The three of them patiently searched the first floor but found no trace of a staircase. When they reached the end of the corridor, Ling Chen suddenly said, "Should we give it a try?"
Jiang Mu understood his meaning, "You suspect that this place is the same as the situation on the third floor, with space behind the wall?"
Ling Chen looked at the wall, "Yes."
Jiang Mu pulled out a bomb that was no bigger than the palm of his hand, "Then let's try it."
After retreating to a safe distance, Jiang Mu pressed the detonator. With a loud "boom", a large hole was blown open in the corner of the wall.
It was hollow inside; they had guessed correctly.
After ensuring there was no danger, the three of them bent down and entered before discovering that it wasn't a sealed space but, as they had suspected, there was an elevator and stairs leading to the basement level.
With the power system damaged, the three chose to take the stairs down. Ling Chen naturally took Ye Xiao's hand, "Be careful not to fall when going downstairs."
"Okay," Ye Xiao followed Ling Chen for a few steps, hesitated for a moment, then whispered, "Captain, I have to kill someone named Li Su later. He should be with your father."
Ling Chen stopped in his tracks, paused for a while, then softly asked, "Is there a time limit?"
Ye Xiao answered honestly, "Within an hour. Twenty-nine minutes have already passed, so there are thirty-one minutes left."
"Is it a mission?"
"Yes."
In the darkness, Ling Chen tightened his grip on Ye Xiao's hand.
He remembered when he first met Ye Xiao, Ye Xiao had told him there was a mission to be done, but because protecting him was more important, Ye Xiao only left to do his own mission when he was about to leave D Zone.
Later, at his home, he asked Ye Xiao if the mission was completed, and Ye Xiao replied no, with three months left on the deadline. But along the way, Ye Xiao had hardly been apart from him.
Wait, they had been separated for three days, and during that time, Ye Xiao had killed Xia Yunfeng—was that the mission?
And now, Ye Xiao, without any access to the test site map or the list of personnel on the mission, suddenly confirmed that there was a basement level in the test site, and also confirmed Ling Dingnan's location, and that there was a person named Li Su by Ling Dingnan's side.
At this moment, the doubts in Ling Chen's heart surged again—who was it that issued the mission to Ye Xiao?
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