“Press the button and then turn on loudspeaker”.
Moran’s voice echoed in the aircraft cabin.
“Are you still at the Technology Tower?” Moran asked. “Your location has been the same for two to three days.”
“The Technology Tower has over a hundred floors, and I’m still searching for clues floor by floor,” Shen Siwei said,
“Have you found any clues?” Moran asked again.
“No,” Shen Siwei pretended to be reluctant. “It seems like the trail has gone cold.”
“Then come back,” Moran’s tone conveyed a sense of ease. “I told you earlier that the hope of finding Amor is slim.”
Shen Siwei sighed slightly and said, “Alright.”
Moran then informed Shen he would send an aircraft from the Tree of Life to pick him up, the speed of the aircraft was several times faster than that of their aircraft. So when Shen Siwei and Klet arrived at the Technology Tower, the aircraft would arrive around the same time.
“He doesn’t seem suspicious,” Klet raised the engine to maximum power.
Shen Siwei adjusted his posture and said, “He’s not a very detailed person.”
“Isn’t he your superior?” After setting the autopilot, Klet freed his hands temporarily. “To have that top position in the military, one should have some skills, right?.”
“He comes from a wealthy background,” Shen Siwei hinted. “His elder brother is a three-layer political figure.”
Shen Siwei’s mother was a designer at the power station, which sounded impressive, but she had no connection to the world of fame and wealth. She was just an ordinary person with a slightly higher social status.
“I see,” Klet wore a pensive expression.
Although he didn’t explicitly say it, Shen Siwei could tell that Klet seemed relieved to hear that Moran wasn’t that detailed and smart.
Before sunrise the next day, Shen Siwei and Klet arrived at the Technology Tower ahead of time.
The aircraft hadn’t arrived yet, and Amor and Li’s aircraft was still parked there.
To avoid raising suspicion from the military aircraft pilots, Klet parked the aircraft in the adjacent building. Shen Siwei went back to his mother’s office, returned the identity information card into his wrist, then met up with Klet and waited on the rooftop for the aircraft to arrive.
Time passed slowly, and the vast sea presented itself in a deep black, seemingly distant like an abyss. But not long after, the sea near the horizon began to shimmer with specks of golden light, and the sun gradually peeked out from below the horizon.
In an instant, the dark sea suddenly became bright, birds circled in the air, and fish leaped out of the water.
Shen Siwei sat on the edge of the rooftop, the sunlight sprinkled on his black hair, adding a warm filter.
He leaned back, resting his forehead against Klet’s neck, and murmured, “It’s beautiful.”
Klet held Shen Siwei tightly and whispered, “There are even more beautiful places. I’ll take you there in the future.”
“Mhm,” Shen Siwei lazily responded, lifting his chin to look at Klet. “I have to go now.”
Klet lowered his gaze slightly. “I know.”
Shen Siwei took off his oxygen mask. “Don’t you want to–“
Before he could finish his sentence, Klet’s lips had already covered his.
The parting kiss lacked a bit of aggression, carrying a strong sense of reluctance and sadness. Klet was usually easily impatient, but it felt like all his tenderness was poured into the kiss.
Shen Siwei didn’t want to interrupt the kiss, so he endured being kissed until his head spun, until he saw stars in his eyes, but he still persisted.
Fortunately, Klet noticed Shen Siwei becoming drowsy. He let go of him and asked, “Are you okay?”
Shen Siwei put his mask back on, weakly nodding.
Klet frowned slightly, a hint of worry flashing in his eyes. “How can we do other things in the future if you’re like this?”
Shen Siwei replied “Other things?”
Before Klet could reply, the sound of engines suddenly roared from the sky.
Shen Siwei’s expression changed. “They’re here.”
The two immediately left the rooftop and came to a secluded hallway. Klet hid in the hallway, holding onto Shen Siwei’s wrist and not letting go. “You must come back.”
“I will,” Shen Siwei assured, looking up at the sky. The silhouette of the aircraft was faintly visible.
“I’ll be waiting for you to come back,” Klet’s face turned serious.
“I know,” Shen Siwei nodded, then transformed back into his chestnut-haired, green-eyed form.
The aircraft’s speed was extremely fast, landing directly above the Technology Tower in less than two seconds. It slowly landed at the center of the rooftop, and two pilots alighted.
“Captain Shen, we were ordered to pick you up,” one of them said.
Shen Siwei nodded slightly, calmly walking into the aircraft. The two pilots then returned to their seats, and the still-running aircraft headed straight back to the Tree of Life.
As the aircraft flew away from the Technology Tower, Shen Siwei casually looked out the window, and there he saw Klet hiding in the hallway, his gaze always following the direction of the aircraft.
A large piece of his heart seemed to be forcefully ripped out, and a feeling of reluctance swept over Shen Siwei in an instant. He forced himself to avoid his gaze, calmly looking straight ahead.
The two pilots communicated with each other but later remained silent, showing no intention of conversing with Shen Siwei, perhaps because of Moran’s instructions.
Shen Siwei intended to close his eyes and rest, but at that moment, his communicator suddenly rang.
Seeing that it was Leizhe calling, Shen Siwei was startled and quickly ended the call, sending a message instead.
[Shen Siwei: Not a good time.]
[Leizhe: Captain, I just found out that you’re going back.]
[Leizhe: Are you going back to Moran’s side?]
After disabling message notifications, Shen Siwei calmly replied.
[Shen Siwei: Yes.]
[Leizhe: I have a favor to ask. I have a partner named Avis. He voluntarily went undercover by Moran’s side to find that agreement, but I haven’t heard from him in a while. Since you’re going back, could you help me find him?]
Avis?
Shen Siwei recalled what Klet had mentioned before about Avis who was a hacker and couldn’t find that agreement anywhere on the internet.
[Shen Siwei: Alright.]
[Leizhe: Please be careful.]
After Shen Siwei deleted the call and message records, he raised his gaze lightly. At this moment, he suddenly noticed that the two people sitting in front of him were slightly tilting their heads, clearly paying attention to his actions.
It seemed that Moran had instructed the two to observe Shen Siwei for any strange behavior.
Shen Siwei had wanted to find an opportunity to talk to those two people, and now was the perfect time. He decided to speak up, “Which unit do you belong to?”
Both of them simultaneously straightened their heads, looking straight ahead without any intention of responding.
Shen Siwei waited for a moment and then said sternly, “Are you sure you are here to pick me up?”
His tone revealed a strong sense of alertness, as if if no one replied, he would take action to verify their identities.
The person in the copilot seat quickly said, “Captain Shen, we are both members of the operational team.”
Shen Siwei remained cold-faced, “Is it that difficult to answer my question?”
“No,” the person looked embarrassed, “You’re too legendary, I’m a bit hesitant to talk to you.”
His words seemed sincere, but Shen Siwei knew clearly that their lack of response earlier was a sign of not wanting to defy Moran’s orders, not admiration.
He casually continued the conversation, “What makes me legendary?”
“Just… incredibly strong combat and fighting abilities,” the co pilot said, “we wouldn’t do anything to offend or anger you”
It still sounded like flattery and pleasing words, but Shen Siwei immediately sensed something was wrong.
“We are all members of the same unit,” he said, “What could you say that would anger me?”
Shen Siwei wasn’t an unreasonable person. If it was just a normal conversation, how could he then get angry for no reason?
In that case, Moran’s instructions to those two must have been to not speak unnecessary words to Shen Siwei, and they chose to remain silent to avoid slipping up.
The copilot seemed to realize that he hadn’t answered well, and exchanged a glance with the driver.
The driver then took over the conversation, “After all, we are not very familiar with you and don’t know your nature.”
Shen Siwei decided to stop there and didn’t continue to press the matter.
He changed the topic, “Have you been to the Southern Ruins before?”
The driver responded in a straightforward manner, “Yes, we have.”
“Did you go there on a mission?”
Finally, Shen Siwei asked the question he wanted to ask the most.
He was actually trying to extract information about Amor from them through their conversation, but now the two in front didn’t respond again.
The driver slightly lowered his chin, his gaze seemingly focused on his hands, not knowing what he was doing.
Shen Siwei discreetly observed the situation, but just then, his brain received a command to “sleep.”
—It was Moran forcing him into sleep.
This situation occurred earlier than Shen Siwei had expected. Was he really too impulsive?
In any case, he had no choice but to follow the command, closing his eyes and pretending to fall asleep against the backrest.
“That was close,” the copilot let out a sigh of relief, “I was afraid he would destroy the aircraft with his bare hands like last time.”
“Last time, was tragic. It should be fine this time,” the driver said.
“But he asked if we had been on a mission,” the copilot approached Shen Siwei, “Don’t you think he might have already figured out that we took Amor away?”
“If he was asking he didn’t have any valuable information, probably just based on suspicion,” the driver said, “As long as we get through this journey, we won’t have any problems.”
“This is the riskiest mission I’ve ever done,” the copilot removed Shen Siwei’s oxygen mask, “I fucking felt like I was sitting next to a time bomb.”
“Now there’s nothing to worry about,” the driver said, “I told Colonel Moran that he was talking to us all the time, just in case, it’s better to let him sleep.”
“There’s this thing too,” the copilot tossed the oxygen mask up and down, then returned to his seat, “Now there should be no problems.”
Shen Siwei had considered that maybe when he returned to the third-floor laboratory, he could directly kill Moran and retrieve his memories from the central control console.
But that desperate approach carried risks. First, he wasn’t sure if his memories were actually stored in the central control console. Second, he had to consider Amor’s situation. If he killed Moran, he might never find Amor again.
Of course, he could inform Miller about Amor’s situation and let Miller find him on his own.
But what Miller’s reaction would be to him killing a Colonel in the military was still unknown. This added to the uncertainty.
After all, Shen Siwei still had the weakness of needing to breathe. If Miller had some unknown means to demagnetize his mask, it would be troublesome.
So, after much thought, the safest approach was to stick to the original plan.
Even if Shen Siwei’s mask was removed, since he was no longer under chip control, he had a lot of room to escape in any situation.
However—
Shen Siwei still didn’t expect that his mask would be removed so soon.
Retrieving his memories, finding Amor, and now having to find Avis, this return seemed much more complicated than Shen Siwei had imagined…
