Chapter 151

Chapter 151: Sample Testing and Archival Records

Yu Sheng felt dazed. The lab staff’s care and caution were far beyond what he expected. Taking the paper scrap seemed normal, but the way they treated the iron lump was clearly different.

[So something from No. 66 Wutong Road can make the Special Affairs Bureau act like this?]

Many thoughts flashed through his mind, but he knew Xu Jiali would not reveal anything. Even if he wanted to, there might be nothing to reveal. After all, the big guy was a seasoned fighter, not someone with access to the deepest secrets.

So Yu Sheng said nothing. Once the lab team carried the items inside, he let out a breath and turned to Xu Jiali: “So I just leave it with them, right? I thought I could watch the process.”

“You can watch, but from the observation room next door,” said Xu Jiali with a grin, “this is a high-spec lab. Getting inside is a hassle. You have to change clothes, discharge static, use a Sanity Blocking Agent, and so on. That takes thirty minutes at least. Only people with special training can work in the operating area. It isn’t worth the trouble.”

He pointed down the corridor at another door and said: “Come with me. From that room you can see what’s happening in the lab. The files you asked for are already there. Also, our Director is waiting for you.”

“Your Director? She came in person again?” Yu Sheng was surprised as he walked with Foxy and Irene toward the next room, adding, “I feel bad. I keep bothering her.”

Xu Jiali only smiled and said nothing more. At the observation room door, he knocked, reported briefly, then stepped back half a pace: “I won’t go in. The Director doesn’t like interruptions when receiving guests.”

Yu Sheng thanked him for the guidance, smoothed his expression at the door, and pushed it open.

Inside was a rectangular room that wasn’t very large. It had a light brown floor, light blue wallpaper, bright lights, and a comfortable temperature. Being an auxiliary “observation room,” it was plain. Besides some unknown control consoles and monitoring gear installed along the wall, there was only one table and a few chairs that looked recently brought in.

A figure in a white skirt suit stood in the center. Everything about her felt drained of color. Behind her was a huge window that almost covered the entire wall. Through the faint blue glow of its unknown material, Yu Sheng saw a spacious lab on the other side. Many people in protective suits were busy inside, and the focus of their work was exactly the “samples” he had just delivered.

“Welcome to the Special Affairs Bureau,” said Bai Li Qing, her cool voice breaking Yu Sheng’s curious stare at the lab. The Director looked like she might be smiling. “I’m sorry our first meeting is in such a simple room, but I imagine you care more about the sample analysis than a comfortable parlor.”

“True. I’m practical, and I really am interested in how these professionals work,” said Yu Sheng, stepping up to the big window.

He watched several technicians place the paper fallen from the Entity Hunter under a machine and spray some liquid onto it. It looked like the very first stage of processing.

Bai Li Qing’s gaze moved to Foxy and Irene. In her colorless eyes there was a hint of curiosity and assessment. Irene was not afraid at all. She climbed onto the nearest chair, planted her hands on her hips, and stared back. Foxy, a bit shy, came to stand beside Yu Sheng and nodded to Bai Li Qing: “Hello.”

“Hello,” said Bai Li Qing with a small nod.

“What about the other sample?” Yu Sheng asked, curious, “the iron lump that looks like it does nothing.”

“The two samples must be processed in separate zones. It was sent to another operating compartment,” said Bai Li Qing as she tapped a terminal on the table. The giant “window” flickered, and half of it changed to show the other area. Staff in protective suits were loading the iron lump into a strange transparent tube container and placing it on a bench, getting ready to irradiate or scan it with some high-power device.

Surprised by how the view shifted, Yu Sheng frowned and looked at Bai Li Qing: “Is that lab really ‘across from us’?”

“Not all of it,” she said with a trace of amusement in her eyes, “it seems you already learned a lot about this building’s special features on the way here.”

“Is that iron lump very special?” Yu Sheng finally asked what he had been wondering. “You all look like it’s a big deal. I even posted about it on Border Communications, and no one knew what it was.”

“After hearing you mention it yesterday, I found your earlier post,” said Bai Li Qing frankly. “To be honest, we do not know what it is either.”

“Uh, you don’t know?” Yu Sheng blinked. “Then why the huge setup?”

“Exactly because we cannot confirm what it is from any source,” said Bai Li Qing seriously, “even after using some unusual methods, we found no matching clue or record. That’s why we are very interested. In a stable Otherworld, the appearance of a foreign object is rare and worth our attention.”

Yu Sheng paused. That sounded reasonable, but then a thought hit him: “If you put it that way, No. 66 Wutong Road often has foreign objects.”

A moment ago she had been calm, but Bai Li Qing suddenly widened her eyes, sharp and focused: “What did you say? There are other foreign objects there?”

Startled by her reaction, Yu Sheng rushed to explain: “Well, I have to go out and shop sometimes, right? Supermarkets and the market and all that. See that plastic bag on the table? I brought it back from the store last time.”

Bai Li Qing was silent.

“Um?” said Yu Sheng.

The room went quiet. No one spoke. Foxy’s fur pricked up behind her ears at once, now that she had shifted back into her usual Demon Fox form inside the Special Affairs Bureau. Irene slid off her chair without a sound and muttered while climbing down: “She’s going to start cursing again.”

“It was my poor wording,” Bai Li Qing said after a soft breath, calm again, “I mean unknown matter that appears out of thin air inside No. 66 Wutong Road. You going out to buy things doesn’t count.”

Yu Sheng thought for a second, kept a straight face, and sat in a chair: “Then let’s talk about the Black Forest first.”

“Alright,” said Bai Li Qing, taking the seat opposite him. She pushed a stack of organized files across the table. “These are copies from the archive vault, including the operation records from back then and basic personnel info. You can skim them. You cannot take them out. Once you leave this room, they will be destroyed. If anything is unclear, ask me now.”

Yu Sheng fixed his expression and cleared his head. Pushing aside stray thoughts, he opened the freshly printed papers whose covers even showed the destruction deadline.

On the first page, big bold words met his eyes:

Operation Codename: Coming of Age.

His gaze changed at once.

Bai Li Qing’s voice followed: “That operation was named ‘Coming of Age.’ From the name, you can guess the idea. From today’s point of view, it had many parts that were immature, reckless, even arrogant. You will see mistakes in the files that could have been avoided. But I must say this: every so-called correct path we know today was tested step by step with the lives of pioneers who made those mistakes.”

“I understand,” said Yu Sheng with a slow breath, growing solemn.

Bai Li Qing nodded slightly. “When the Fairy Tale was first discovered, we knew very little, and its traits were very misleading,” she said, “back then, the Special Affairs Bureau thought it was like a mental prison aimed at minors, a consciousness trap that was limited in strength and slow to take effect. In the early stage of the Fairy Tale outbreak, the destructive power shown by affected children was not very strong. Many just had nightmares. So the Bureau made its first misjudgment, which later proved to be the most serious one. We thought it was not very strong, because based on the cases we saw, even ten-year-old children could resist its mental pollution for a long time…”