Saving Unpermitted

Chapter 80: City Lockdown

“Sir!” As Zhu Yanchen reached the exit of the building, his assistant, who was waiting outside, approached him. “Rest assured, the election is not over yet, and we won’t resort to violence easily.”

The Reunion Festival unrest disrupted the normal announcement of the election results. It had been too long, and the vote counting lost its effectiveness, requiring a restart. The Tang family saw this as an opportunity and sent people to the command center every few days to cause trouble, using it as a chance to make some mischief.

After all, Marshal Zhu’s position was high enough that it wasn’t easy for him to come out and meet people. The media added fuel to the fire, ready to throw countless accusations.

The Zhu family didn’t pay much attention to these behind-the-scenes maneuvers. Marshal Zhu’s reputation was already bad, and with so many fleas, what was a few more fabricated stories?

A pregnant woman showed up the day before, claiming that Marshal Zhu was the father of her child. Yesterday, a little boy with a Zhu family custom tie clip came and shouted “Dad” at Zhu Yanchen’s room. Compared to these people, although the old man this time was a bit crazy, he could be considered cute.

The guards at the entrance, seasoned from their experiences, looked at Marshal Zhu with sympathy in their eyes.

“Do you want us to drive him away for you, or just meet him casually?” The assistant carefully chose his words.

Recently, Zhu Yanchen either went out or hid in his room without being seen. Today, it was rare for him to appear, probably because he was tired of the harassment.

“Since I’m heading out anyway, I’ll just meet him casually,” Zhu Yanchen replied simply. “Do you have pen and paper?”

He took out a folded envelope from his pocket and quickly wrote a note on a piece of paper, then put an electronic wallet inside it. “Come with me. After I leave, give this envelope to the old man.”

Marshal Zhu put away the pen and looked at his assistant. “You know what to say.”

The assistants around the marshal were all experienced, so naturally, they understood Marshal Zhu’s intentions—use money to silence these people without being seen giving the money, to avoid being accused by the media.

“Understood, I won’t mention that it’s your money.” The assistant saluted. “I’ll find someone to distract him and handle it properly.”

“Mm.”

Strangely enough, the strange man didn’t show much excitement when he saw Zhu Yanchen appear.

Marshal Zhu reprimanded the man briefly, using official jargon. However, unlike the previous troublemakers who would lie on the road and make a scene when confronted with Zhu Yanchen’s “I don’t know” or “I don’t recognize” answers, the old man remained calm.

“Oh, then I must have found the wrong person.” Seeing Zhu Yanchen leave in a car, the old man’s emotions were unusually stable.

Two hours later, in an underground bar on the outskirts of Y City.

“…You’re indeed someone from ‘Marshal Zhu’s’ side.” The old man took a sip of the warm wine and let out a long exhale. “Ha, refreshing!”

“Your way of finding people is quite unique as well.” Zhu Yanchen had already disguised himself as “Smoke” in his usual appearance, sitting on the other side of the table.

“I may be old, but I’m not senile. I wouldn’t really think that such a genius could come from a settlement.”

The old man crunched a few beans and poured himself another cup of wine. The pungent smell of alcohol mixed with the heat caused the eyes to sting.

“To come up with a weapon completely different from the purifiers, one needs to have an understanding of the Erosion Swamp and solid research experience. Not to mention Y City, there are only a few places in the entire continent where such a person can come from—the self-built laboratory of the Tang family, the group of scholars raised by the Xia family, and the command center controlled by the Zhu family. I’ve caused quite a stir in all three places.”

The old man shifted his gaze and smiled at Zhu Yanchen with narrowed eyes.

“In the first two places, nothing happened after I caused a commotion. As for the command center, someone just dragged me into an alley a moment ago, shoved an envelope at me menacingly, and it even included the time and place of this meeting… But to be honest, I’m not surprised.”

Zhu Yanchen hadn’t touched his drink, but seeing the old man enjoying himself, he ordered a plate of meat.

The dim lights of the underground bar couldn’t conceal Zhu Yanchen’s discerning eyes. Not only himself, but the old man also wore a layer of disguise on his face. Serving the Old Fourth for so long, this old man was obviously not an ordinary person.

According to the rules of the Old Fourth, it was quite impolite to inquire about the other party’s background during a transaction. Zhu Yanchen wasn’t sure why the old man was breaking this rule, but the improved plan for the “Suppression” weapon was indeed in the old man’s hands.

He could only play along with him.

“Not surprised?”

The sauce-drenched meat slices quickly arrived at the table. Zhu Yanchen crossed his arms and continued calmly.

“Elder, you violated two taboos on this trip—as a researcher, you shouldn’t personally bring the merchandise. Second, you shouldn’t inquire about my identity either.”

“Why should I care about those rules? Now, I’ll do as I please.” The old man picked up a piece of meat with his chopsticks and waved it in front of Zhu Yanchen without courtesy. “I can see that you have something important to discuss! I’m not quite sure about some details of the weapon you made, and I can’t just guess them myself. As for the second thing…”

He coughed and raised his cloudy eyes. “I just wanted to confirm whether that kid Zhu Yanchen left behind any living legacy.”

Zhu Yanchen pursed his lips.

The old man leisurely drank another cup while his gaze turned sharp like an eagle. “Now it seems that you’re probably someone left behind by Zhu Yanchen, whether it’s an assistant, apprentice, or trusted subordinate… I don’t care who you are. I just want to know. Besides you, is there anyone else?”

Who is this old man?

“No, there isn’t.” Zhu Yanchen didn’t deny it.

“Hmm? What about that Gray Claw and One Eye? Aren’t they the same kind of people as you… Haa, what a pity.” The old man sighed. “I was thinking that if all of you had researched these things, we could have exchanged ideas and inspired each other.”

After speaking, he spread a blueprint on the table, not minding the greasy stains on the surface.

“Your previous design pursued perfection too much, the cost was very high, and the complex components inside are difficult to make.”

The old man tapped the paper, which still had soup stains on it.

“I made a few modifications for you. The power of this thing will be reduced by 20%, but the cost can be lowered to one-tenth of the original. Take a look and see if there’s anything that can’t be changed.”

Zhu Yanchen glanced at the densely packed calculation notes on the edge of the blueprint, and his heart skipped a beat.

This old man had real skills.

Zhu Yanchen knew firsthand the effectiveness of the “Suppression” ability from his acquaintance with Shu Jun. Only then could he understand its principles from the bottom of his heart. The old man, without any preparation, touched the new system and made changes without any issues, clearly having thoroughly grasped his train of thought.

Although Ai Xiaoxiao was able to operate outside the regular system with the tacit approval of the command center, suggesting that she was involved in the gray market, this old man was different—clearly possessing such talent, yet only working for the Old Fourth that managed the border markets…

He brought the blueprint closer and carefully examined the old man’s calculation methods and handwriting. Suddenly a sense of familiarity suddenly arose.

…Tang Heyu’s <Observation and Geographic Distribution Speculation of Dispersed Erosion Pathways> once included some manuscripts. The way the numbers were written, and the calculation habits were almost identical to those on the blueprint.

So that’s it.

This was truly an unexpected gain. Zhu Yanchen composed himself. “Let’s talk inside the private room.”

“Hmm? This is the Old Fourth’s territory, and there aren’t many people here now, so it shouldn’t be that sensitive.”

“Just in case.” Zhu Yanchen stood up. “I’ll have to trouble you.”

“Hmph.”

The two entered the private room, and Zhu Yanchen immediately locked the door and set up a disturbance device on the table to ensure that there wouldn’t be any audio or video recording.

“Young people are so fastidious these days.” Tang Heyu held a bottle of wine and burped. “Speak up. What modification needs to be kept this confidential?”

“Mr. Tang, long time no see.” Zhu Yanchen took off his mask and smiled slightly.

At the same time, in a distant settlement.

“Oh, when did you two go out?… Oh my, what happened to Brother Smoke? Why are your eyes bruised like this!”

Uncle Pan’s tumor on his head trembled, almost causing him to drop the pastry in his hand. “Do you want me to get some medicine? I got a good batch recently; I can give you a 30% discount—”

“We had a little conflict—a minor scuffle.” Shu Jun’s voice carried a hint of amusement.

Xia Yufeng had a swollen nose and bruised face, unable to speak in anger.

“Okay, but why resort to violence?” Uncle Pan frowned and his tone became serious. “Listen to your older brother. No matter the situation, when a couple is living together, no matter how angry you are, resorting to violence is unacceptable. Go back and apologize to Brother Smoke. Do you hear me?”

A trace of grievance appeared in Shu Jun’s joy. Unfortunately, the situation was sensitive, and he couldn’t implicate Uncle Pan, so he could only relent. “Uh, okay.”

He had inquired about the situation from Xia Yufeng. That group of elites had also been interviewed—all of them missed the spectacular scene of Shu Jun undergoing erosion transformation, so they only thought of Shu Jun as an exceptional synthetic human.

According to the soldiers, they were aware that Zhu Yanchen was a counterfeit, but they didn’t really care. In the eyes of the elite soldiers, replacing Xia Yufeng with Zhu Yanchen was like replacing non-recyclable garbage with recyclable garbage; fundamentally, there wasn’t much of a difference.

They simply followed Zhu Sheng’s orders and made themselves available to Xia Yufeng. This attack was also launched by Xia Yufeng under the pretext of “investigating the traces of synthetic humans”.

Knowing that these people were far from the truth, Shu Jun didn’t bother them further, only asking routine questions.

However, since they knew he was in this settlement, he couldn’t just let them go. The settlement had no shortage of experts, so he would keep them detained for a while and release them when the time was right. Shu Jun directly sent them to the synthetic human underground base, where Hu Yan would keep an eye on them.

As for Xia Yufeng, after extracting the information from him, Shu Jun really wanted to package and send this guy back to Y City. Unfortunately, it was already late in the day, and without the elite soldiers by his side, if Xia Yufeng encountered any trouble, he wouldn’t be able to explain it to Zhu Yanchen.

Captain Shu could only lock him in a cloakroom and secure the small door properly.

Having witnessed Shu Jun’s inhuman form, Xia Yufeng became much more obedient. He didn’t even dare to curse and wished he didn’t exist.

At midnight, Zhu Yanchen’s mutant beast messenger finally arrived. It entered through the window, stretched its eight legs as usual, and returned to its original position.

The Erosion Storm had just passed, and the concentration of erosion substance was higher in various areas, causing this creature to fly slower, resulting in a one-day delay in delivering the message.

Marshal Zhu didn’t send electronic messages and still used handwritten letters. The handwriting was beautiful and powerful as each stroke was carefully crafted. The content, as always, was concise and to the point—

[Obtained the plans today. Everything went smoothly. The vulnerabilities around me have been taken care of. Feel free to fix them as you wish. The new election is approaching, and the atmosphere in the city is tense. The leader may make significant moves in the near future.]

[You have a heavy workload over there. Don’t forget to rest and eat on time.]

“So long-winded.” Shu Jun muttered with a smile. “Is that okay, Marshal? Every time it’s the same sentence—at least change the wording.”

But today’s letter was different from the previous ones, as there was an additional line below. Zhu Yanchen was always meticulous, and this was the first time Shu Jun saw evidence of alterations in his letters.

The sentence [I miss you.] was crossed out and changed by Zhu Yanchen to [I will try to come back early.]. Then, [I will try to come back early.] was crossed out again and changed back to [I really miss you.].

Unfortunately, though Marshal Zhu had crossed them out carefully, he couldn’t escape Shu Jun’s sharp eyes.

The final alteration was forceful, although the handwriting was a bit soft, probably because Marshal Zhu was not accustomed to expressing himself in this way. Shu Jun shook his head with a smile, carefully folded the letter, and placed it in the deepest part of the bedside table. Then he took a pen, unfolded a piece of paper, and happily began drafting the contents of his reply.

However, things took an unexpected turn.

At the crucial moment when the election was about to be resumed, Zhu Sheng made an unexpected move—

Y City went on lockdown. Starting from today, no one could leave the city.

The author has something to say:

Shu Ge: ? Why are there still people going to visit the command center to touch porcelain? Monday, let’s go and call Dad!

Monday: ?

Marshal: ?