The old man was in high spirits, looking very happy, babbling something incomprehensibly.
His face was covered in wrinkles like tree bark, yet his eyes were vibrant.
Li Chengyi, standing at the door, recognized the old man's identity at a glance.
'Dongdi Jiajier.'
Those eyes, almost identical to the boy's in the photograph.
"Can he come out for a meeting?" Li Chengyi asked.
"Sure, what relation are you to him? This old man has no family, no relatives or friends, and hasn't had any acquaintances for the many years he's been hospitalized. Not a single visitor, you're the first," the plump nurse asked curiously.
She wasn't worried about any trouble, after all, Jiajier had no assets and was living off the social welfare system. There was no money to be had.
"It's like this, we're conducting a special investigation into the Leiz earthquake that year, and want to delve deeper into this aspect to prepare for a paper later on," Song Ran immediately began making up stories behind him.
Luckily, the plump nurse didn't care about any paper, and after receiving a small tip, she cheerfully brought out Jiajier, even providing them with a small room to talk.
The hospital room was bathed in sunshine, with a metal guard rail fitted at the window, and the scent of flowers and grass blew into the room with the breeze.
Jiajier sat upright on a metal chair, looking curiously at Li Chengyi and Song Ran as they walked in.
"Mr. Jiajier, can we talk about how you were rescued from underground back then?" Li Chengyi stepped closer and asked softly.
"Don't know," Jiajier answered cheerfully.
"Isn't it true that you hid in a crack in the wall and waited a long time to be saved?" Li Chengyi continued asking, not minding how he responded.
"Can't remember," Jiajier said with a smile.
"You can't remember anything?" Li Chengyi frowned slightly.
"Yeah, forgot everything," Jiajier replied in very standard Mandarin, without any regional accent.
"What about this?" Li Chengyi suddenly reached out and took out a V-shaped metal dog tag.
The tag was clearly engraved with a name: Dongdi Jiajier.
"Is this yours?" Li Chengyi stared intently at the other's face, not missing a single minute change.
"Don't know." But to his disappointment, Jiajier was still sitting in the chair, motionless, with an innocent smile on his face.
"Do you remember your parents? How did they die?" Song Ran couldn't help but ask from the back.
"Forgot," Jiajier shook his head, his expression unchanged.
Li Chengyi's eyebrows knitted together.
He had thought that the dog tag he brought might slightly awaken the other's memory, but it seemed he was mistaken.
After some thought.
He suddenly took out his phone and found a clear photo, placing it in front of Jiajier.
"Have you seen this before?"
The image he placed before Jiajier was an enlarged photograph of a dark red symbol, shaped like a twisted M, resembling a crawling person.
But...
"Never seen it," Jiajier replied, his expression unchanged, his eyes clear, showing no response to the symbol.
Li Chengyi exhaled, staring intensely at the man's expression, but unable to discern any trace.
Jiajier had no reaction to the symbol.
Then, he asked many questions about Grecius Parking Garage, but, unfortunately, didn't get any clues.
Not until the nurse came in to shoo them out, as visiting hours were over, did they reluctantly leave the hospital room.
They descended to the courtyard on the first floor.
Li Chengyi, holding the tag they found at Grecius, felt downcast.
He had thought he had found a breakthrough clue but had not anticipated...
"It's okay, no worries, we still have time, just keep looking," Song Ran assured him in a low voice.
"Indeed, there is time, but the problem is, now the lead has gone cold..." Li Chengyi answered.
"If we can figure out how Jiajier managed to escape Grecius back then, and you do the same, it should work. The 'last survivor theory' is a method that has been personally proven effective by people recruited by the boss before," Song Ran reminded.
"I understand," Li Chengyi had also reviewed the material and received advice from the company's think tank; he knew of this method.
"The only thing we know about Jiajier's ordeal is that he was rescued from the crevice, but we don't know what he did inside before that," Li Chengyi remarked.
"It's not my first time in a crevice either, I've been twice already, but both times were useless. Both times escaping Grecius relied on someone else dying."
"Which means, the key is to find out what he did in the crevice before he was rescued," Song Ran frowned as well.
Looking at Jiajier's condition, unable to remember anything, with the intelligence of a child, this was impossible to investigate.
Standing in the yard, the two were at a loss for what to do.
"The night deepens, the night deepens, someone will always be outside your window."
"Who is it, who is it, the plump big fellow."
"You take turns speaking, not afraid of darkness or bears."
"Likes to laugh, can also cry, close your eyes and start to count."
"One two three four five, open your eyes and you'll lose."
Li Chengyi frowned slightly, seeing a bald old man nearby, holding a rattle-drum, swaying to the rhythm, and singing an unfamiliar song.
It seemed to be a nursery rhyme, but this lyric... somehow made Li Chengyi feel strangely eerie.
"What song is this? I've never heard it before," Li Chengyi turned to Song Ran.
"Me neither, first time hearing it," Song Ran shrugged. "What's the matter? Is there a problem?"
"Hold on, I'll search it," Li Chengyi took out his phone, quickly typed the text, and clicked search.
Quickly.
A stream of related information kept popping up.
Most were advertising links, a small portion games.
Li Chengyi stood still, frowning as he flipped through page after page.
Suddenly, his finger hesitated.
"Found it!"
Song Ran was momentarily stunned, then leaned in closer to look at the phone screen together.
'From Gus's nursery rhyme "Kind Bourou", it's said to be one of the lullabies created by the people of the eastern forests of Gus for children who couldn't sleep at night.'
"There's nothing wrong with that, is there?" Song Ran shook his head.
"There isn't anything wrong..." Li Chengyi let out a long sigh, "Maybe I'm just being too sensitive."
He put down his phone and saw Dongdi Jiajier being pushed by a nurse in a cart, comfortably coming out to enjoy the sunshine.
He had thought he finally found a clue, but now he was still stuck at the last step.
'The crack must be the key to escape, what did Jiajier do in the crack to eventually get rescued? Sleep? Hum a song? Daydream? Or carve something?'
According to the survivor theory, the most likely way for him to escape the Blind Spot would be to do exactly what Jiajier did back then.
But now... the carvings in the crack only showed that he had waited a long time inside, closed his eyes, hummed a song... Given the next monster's increased strength, his time to trial and error would probably be very, very short.
'Wait!' A sudden shock went through Li Chengyi's mind. 'That song... We're in Xinshan City, so far from the border, how could a Gus nursery rhyme appear here??'
'The position of the Rez earthquake, the location of the Grecius Parking Garage, are on the border between Gus and Yi Country!'
'How could this be such a coincidence??'
Associations sparked instantly in Li Chengyi's mind.
He quickly stood still, looking towards Song Ran who had taken a few steps ahead.
"Brother Song, did the information reveal where Dongdi Jiajier is from?"
"He's from Yi Country, part of an ethnic minority, what's up?" Song Ran said, puzzled.
"That song just now... that nursery rhyme, its name is Bourou... hold on." Li Chengyi quickly typed in 'Bourou' to search in Gus language.
Quickly, a line of information that made him shiver emerged on the phone.
"This is?!""
*
*
*
New Century Building.
Xindela gently crushed out his cigarette in the ashtray, looking at the man in the gray coat who had just entered the door.
"Please help me check this symbol," he said, passing over a photograph.
On the photo was the mysterious symbol Li Chengyi had previously photographed in Grecius.
"No problem. Others might ignore it, but we have to respect you, Xindela." Hui Fengyi laughed, his entire face hidden under the hood of his coat, revealing only a pale and delicate chin.
It's unexpected to find a Reinforced Human in perfect form here; seems like the Control Committee has been a bit lax," Xindela sighed.
"It's different here from White Star; Reinforced Humans aren't mainstream, Flying Yi are. You haven't been here long and aren't used to it yet," Hui Fengyi said with a smile, "You'll get used to it over time."
"Right, then I'll leave it to you. If only our internal networks were interlinked, it wouldn't be such a hassle," Xindela said.
"How would you maintain autonomy if they were connected?" Hui Fengyi shook his head slightly, "I'm off, the mysterious Reinforced Human will naturally be handled by the Committee's people."
"Are you still in Andu lately?"
"No, I've moved to Chaoyu now. Andu is too rigid and lifeless, bad for business." Hui Fengyi left the office, waving goodbye.
"Come to Chaoyu sometime, it's my treat."
"Sure."
Watching his friend enter the elevator and leave,
Xindela reached into the drawer for his pack of cigarettes again, pulled one out, and was about to put it to his lips.
But he glanced at the ashtray on his desk, which already contained five cigarette butts.
His hand hesitated, then he put the cigarette back into the pack, sighing softly.
Beep beep beep...
The abrupt ring of an urgent phone call interrupted his thoughts.
Picking up the mobile, he glanced at it and quickly answered.
"How is it? Got any results?"
"Boss." It was Li Chengyi's voice on the other end of the line. "Could you help me check if Jiajier's parents were originally from Gus?"
Xindela's eyebrows furrowed and he swiftly connected to the company's AI in White Star through a direct line.
In just over ten seconds, he got the information.
"You're correct, Jiajier's family were originally Gus smugglers who came over as illegal residents, later receiving residency certificates through settlement policies and becoming Yi Country residents," Xindela responded quickly.
"Then it all matches!" Li Chengyi exclaimed, "Here at the asylum, we've found some clues. There's a nursery rhyme that some of the patients like to sing, and I've asked around; it's the same one that Jiajier unconsciously hummed at first."
"A nursery rhyme?"
"Yes," Li Chengyi replied quickly, "I checked it out; the nursery rhyme's name is 'Kind Bourou'! And the word 'Bourou' in Gus language means..."
"Ash-faced monster!"