Wang Family Information Secret Vault.
After verifying her identity, Wang Wanrou stepped inside and tapped on the bulletproof glass window.
Today, the old man Wang is on duty behind the window, the oldest member of the family, reportedly over 150 years old. As for whether he's rejuvenated through cloning technology or mechanical replacements for aging organs remains unknown.
Nevertheless, despite him using the royal family's high-tech for life support, no one doubts his loyalty to the family. After all, the entire clan has ideological imprints.
"What a surprise, it's actually Wanrou." Old Wang was somewhat surprised. This young girl is usually extremely lazy, hardly ever seen in the secret library all year. Why did she suddenly come today?
"I want all the algorithms for eighth and seventh grades," Wang Wanrou said.
"Oh, so you're already at the eighth grade?" Old Wang turned around tremblingly and began searching among the vast shelves of books.
"They're all here." A few minutes later, he struggled to carry over a dozen books and slowly walked back, pushing them through the gap under the window.
Wang Wanrou silently took the books and placed them on the nearby cart, then wheeled it away.
Leaving the clan's territory, she hailed a taxi at the door and transported all the books to Cheng Jinyang's apartment upstairs, neatly arranging them in the study's cabinets.
Miss Wang stood in front of the bookshelf, silent for a moment, her fingertips brushing over the title page of each book.
To state a command, upon the other party's agreement, constitutes a contract, and immediately enforces it—this is the shallowest understanding of the Mind Steel Seal for outsiders.
In fact, the essence of the Mind Steel Seal has nothing to do with contracts, and even the name 'Mind Steel Seal' itself is not quite accurate.
Its true core lies in the mutual influence between minds.
Through various advanced algorithms, this psychic ability can achieve nearly universal effects akin to a Swiss army knife, such as hypnosis, communication, memory implantation, willpower enhancement, thought control...
Miss Wang can even say disdainfully that, except for the Zheng family whose spirits directly interferes with reality, all the effects of the psychic abilities of the aristocratic families can be achieved with the Mind Steel Seal—it's just that the calculations are a bit more cumbersome than them.
Soon, she took out all the books related to 'Psychic Connection' from the bookshelf and neatly arranged them on the desk according to difficulty level.
The one on the far left is the 'Mind Interface,' another use of abilities. It only requires stating a command for the other party to hear, without needing their consent for it to take effect.
However, the function of the Mind Interface is different from that of the Ideological Stamp; it cannot impose any form of restriction on the target. It simply creates an interface on the surface of the target's psyche, as the literal meaning suggests, to facilitate further mental influence.
For example, telepathy.
The phone on the table suddenly vibrated, and Wang Wanrou picked it up to see that it was her father calling.
"I heard you've advanced to 8th grade?" Wang Maohong asked directly as soon as he answered the phone.
"Yeah," Wang Wanrou said.
"When did it happen?"
"Last week."
"It's much faster than the estimated speed of your genealogy identification."
"That was just an estimate." Wang Wanrou said lightly, "It's normal for it to differ from reality."
"Indeed, that's a good thing after all," Wang Maohong didn't inquire further, "Are you still staying outside?"
"Yes."
"When do you plan to come back?"
"Depends on the situation," Wang Wanrou chuckled softly, "Returning to our clan territory now might be even more dangerous, don't you think?"
Wang Maohong didn't respond. However, silence itself is also an answer, so Wang Wanrou immediately understood that her uncle had openly made a move against Jiankang.
Alas, another war is about to start.
Ending the communication, Wang Wanrou sighed and placed the books back on the shelf, restoring them one by one.
On the other side, in the southern part of Jiangning District in Jiankang City, there is a huge and dense cluster of research institutes and numerous higher education institutions.
It's also the preferred employment destination for university graduates from humble backgrounds in this world. Although it's difficult for scientific and educational workers to become wealthy, their jobs are very stable, with almost no risk of unemployment.
In the hospital in Jiangning District, Cheng Jinyang and Chu Qingqing successfully found the target ward, where they saw Chu Debiao sitting silently by the glass window. Inside, the young girl was still deeply unconscious, restrained by straps.
"Qingqing?" Chu Debiao was somewhat surprised to see his cousin coming to visit, but he quickly regained his composure.
"Cousin, we've come to see you," Chu Qingqing said softly.
"That's thoughtful of you," Chu Debiao smiled wryly, nodding in gratitude, then turned his gaze to the person beside her, Cheng Jinyang. "And who is this..."
Cheng Jinyang introduced himself: a scion of the gentry, hailing from the prestigious Shendu Cheng family, Qingqing's current boyfriend.
Chu Debiao nodded, not showing any displeasure like Chu Qingqing's two older brothers did. He just sighed and said somewhat pensively:
"Oh, Qingqing is a nice girl, but there will be some resistance from the family side. If you two are really determined to be together, you'll have to overcome many difficulties in the future."
Indeed, people from humble backgrounds lack the arrogant demeanor of those from prestigious families, which left a great impression on Cheng Jinyang. Thinking back to his unwarranted suspicion of him as a mole before, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt.
"How's your younger sister doing?" he asked with concern.
"Not good," Chu Debiao shook his head, "We can only try to slow down the deterioration of her condition for now."
"The poison of the puppet demon is not composed of material toxins," Chu Qingqing explained softly. "It is more like an energy field, difficult to observe and interfere with, gradually assimilating normal humans into puppet demons. Once the infection is too deep, it is basically irreversible."
"Mmm..." Cheng Jinyang somehow thought of Su Lili again, inexplicably.
If at that time, Su Lili hadn't been directly consumed by the demon, but merely injected with toxins...
Perhaps by now, she would be confined in a room more like a prison than a special care ward, heavily guarded, relying on various machines to sustain life, struggling on the brink of death as she teeters on the edge of demonization.
And myself, perhaps, is just like Chu Debiao, silently guarding her here every day, outside the tempered glass window, powerless and heart wrenching.
It's too heartbreaking.
"Well, thank you for coming to visit her." Maybe not in the mood for further conversation, Chu Debiao stood up from the chair. "I should go back too."
"He's leaving?" Cheng Jinyang quickly calculated that it would take at least 40 minutes to return to his clan from this side of the hospital. Ah Zhi probably has already finished searching his residence, so there is no need to detain him here.
"Jinyang." Chu Debiao approached the staircase and suddenly turned back, asking, "I remember you also came from humble origins, right?"
"Yeah, what about it?" Cheng Jinyang asked, puzzled.
"No problem, I was just asking," Chu Debiao said with a smile. "After all, I've been through the same. The days before entering the prestigious family were not easy..."
He turned and walked towards the stairs below: "This bastard world. There are so many people, just like garbages, thrown away easily..."
Cheng Jinyang, who had just been thinking about Su Lili, became a little uncomfortable by his words (remembering Su Lili's death). After staring at the glass window for a long time, he let out a long breath.
"Don't take it to heart," Chu Qingqing said softly. "After all, he's a refugee from the north, having endured too much suffering. His personality naturally tends to be extreme. But our Chu family has indeed helped him, so I don't think he would be a mole."
As if to slap her in the face, Xing Yuanzhi's call came in quickly:
"Jinyang! There is something wrong with that Chu Debiao! We found the contact record between him and the Wuchang informant!"