Old-time musicians

Damn, what a coincidence?

Fan Ning secretly thought that it was not good, but when he thought about it carefully, he really couldn't blame himself for procrastinating.

Go to the corridor on the outermost floor, find the location of the mobile phone, put it in a drift bottle, and rush into the sewer of the innermost destruction room. With such a simple operation, I thought it would only take five minutes to complete it.

Who knew that such a bunch of inexplicable things would happen.

Salman left the house early in the morning and could have come back at any time.

"There was some movement on the floor below." Fan Ning frowned. "The movement was not small. I always felt that something might rush up. To be cautious, I hid in the buffer room on the C-level sealing room for a while."

Fan Ning browsed the file records of abnormal situations in the sealing room in the past issues in the information in Vasius's office. It should be said that most of the abnormalities are some vague sounds or smells that the entrants "think". Movements like the ones I encountered today are very rare.

He had no suitable reason to tell Salman that he had been to the lowest level, but this did not prevent him from slightly adjusting the angle of observation of those abnormal phenomena.

The description of the phenomenon itself is based on facts. With Salman's understanding of the contained materials in each layer, he will naturally confirm the authenticity or possibility.

"Anyone who enters the sealing room during this period must not go to the bottom B-level corridor without permission. As long as the last layer of spiritual wall is not removed, there should be no real problems." Salman said after listening. He explained in one sentence, and then asked a few questions about the haunted umbrella, but then said nothing more.

He waved his hand and signaled the attendant to bring over the "two friends" who had sucked half of Fan Ning's blood as usual.

"Captain, how do you record the detention time?" The duty officer held the tweezers holding "Two Friends" in his left hand and a pen in his right hand, showing a hesitant look.

"Of course it's 19 minutes, 40 and 50 seconds." Salman said, "Can't you be flexible with the discrepancy of more than a minute? You should pay more attention during this time." The last sentence was addressed to Fan Ning.

He had great trust in Vasius, his capable deputy.

No matter what the management system is, there are policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom. To report an exposure case of "large pollution risk" to the headquarters, you have to write a lot of things without saying anything, and you have to follow up and close the loop afterwards, which is extremely troublesome.

Just pay attention internally. Sometimes these extra actions take up energy from normal investigation work.

"Perhaps I should have rested for a while after coming out of that bad place." Fan Ning slightly twitched the corners of his mouth and raised his arms at the same time.

The outer hollow bracket of the funnel-shaped container of "Two Friends" began to squirm again, and the dark suction cup touched the skin, causing a slight tingling sensation.

When the other end of the funnel was also filled with blood, there was a gentle sound of glass breaking.

Fan Ning lowered his head and stared at its changes. He saw that the narrow and disconnected passage in the middle of the container was connected by a very thin blood thread. Bubbles gradually began to appear in the blood, and more and more bubbles began to appear.

According to the records of "two friends" in the data, since the blood at both ends of the container was absorbed at different times, when there is a slight difference in the residual spiritual characteristics of the two, it will undergo some changes to intuitively reflect the Level of contamination to which investigators were exposed.

As the balance is broken, bubbles emerge more violently, and the blood seems to be boiling.

The dense and complicated hollow supports on the outside of the container began to twist like burned plastic. There were even breaks in several places, and several dark strips stretched out exaggeratedly in different directions.

What was originally a small cylinder with a regular shape finally turned into a bunch of weird things like dried tentacles with teeth and claws.

The few people on duty who were watching calmly gradually widened their eyes.

"Why such a big reaction!?" Fan Ning secretly thought something was wrong.

He knows that pollution will always exist, more or less problems, let alone staying in a place with mysterious factors like the sealing room for a period of time, even if he just reads a few pages of low- to medium-level mystical literature, the hidden pollution It can't be zero either.

After everyone comes out of the sealing room, some changes will occur in the "two friends". Generally, the overall hollow frame is distorted, the right cylinder becomes an oblique cylinder, or the cross-section is distorted into an ellipse.

But now like this

Fan Ning found that several other people, including Salman, had instinctively moved a little further away from him.

"Damn it, how can this be considered?" Fan Ning took the initiative to pretend to be relaxed and smiled, "Why do I think I'm fine, except for the few sounds I heard that were a little weird?"

Salman looked at several on-duty attendants questioningly: "Who has more measurement experience?"

The person who wrote the pen choked up: "Frankly speaking, the degree of distortion is a bit embarrassing."

He looked at the smiling face of "Vasius" and Salman's gradually frowning brows, and hurriedly explained: "The attachments outside the container are not only distorted, but also have a small amount of fractures accompanied by expansion. This This shows that the pollution level has reached a high value within the normal range, but the overall hollow structure has not completely collapsed, and it is not close to the pollution level that requires immediate emergency measures, well, it is still a little bit short."

Am I already so polluted? Why don't I think so? Fan Ning felt uneasy at this time.

Salman's face remained uncertain for a few seconds: "The length of stay should be recorded truthfully."

"This is an exposure to a relatively large pollution risk, and this entry and exit record needs to be reported to the headquarters," the duty officer confirmed.

"Then repay it."

"Well, the test reaction of 'two friends'"

"Report together."

Salman interrupted him twice.

"You have to be flexible when dealing with it. In this situation, if something happens and you are found to have concealed it, no one present will be able to escape." The hook-nosed gentleman glanced at the crowd coldly, " Also go through the process of checking in and out.”

"Okay, okay." The two of them approached Fan Ning at the same time.

Fan Ning took off his thin black coat, shook it twice, hung it on the shelf nearby, and then opened his arms. The thin "gel membrane" was actually stuck to the inside of the coat under invisible control.

However, the way he operated kept everyone's attention on his own body.

While the staff on duty carefully inspected his shirt and trousers, he took off his leather shoes and put them on again.

Finally, the investigator focused on Fanning's top hat and gave Salman a questioning look.

Salman watched the whole process calmly and said nothing.

Fan Ning stretched out his hand, held the top hat, and slowly opened it until the brim of the hat was almost 90 degrees to the top of his head, but there was always a small part of it against his head.

The space inside the hat faced the investigator, who saw a pure black void, apparently devoid of anything.

During the detailed discussion last night, Sheeran reminded the problem of the "Truth Snake" symbol on the top of the hat, and immediately used needle and thread to thicken a layer of black cloth for Fanning.

Fan Ning immediately put on his top hat again and put on his coat.

So Salman nodded to his right-hand deputy: "Vasius, you go on vacation, pay attention to yourself, stop discussing occult knowledge during this period, stop dreaming, and contact the headquarters if you have any abnormal feelings. Consciously cooperate with relevant requirements.”

After saying that, he took the elevator up first.

"Okay, captain." Fan Ning breathed a sigh of relief and quickly responded to his back.

In fact, there was a layer of haze buried in his heart. On the one hand, Vasius' entry and exit records came into the sight of the headquarters. More importantly, the pollution did not follow a false identity. The pollution actually happened to him!

Is it purely because of this trip? Or has he laid down some bad "foundations" before, and is spiritually unstable, causing what just happened to have a greater impact on him?

Several others finally showed expressions of relief.

Since the captain judged it this way, it seemed that it was a "serious situation within the normal range", but it had not yet broken through the qualitative change line. At least the atmosphere of being facing a formidable enemy was gone.

"Sir."

After watching Salman disappear into the stairs, the investigator on duty sneered and handed Fanning a small cigar.

Fan Ning raised his right hand and almost blurted out "I don't smoke, thank you."

But he immediately realized his current identity, said a faint "hmm", took the cigar and held it in his mouth, then put it to the lighter covered by the investigator and lit it.

"Ahem" After taking a big puff, Fan Ning was choked and coughed. Smoke filled his mouth and nose. "What happened at the paint factory in the west last time" he quickly brought up a topic.

For the next ten minutes or so, Fan Ning forcibly accompanied these people to chat while puffing away their breath. He finally finished smoking the cigarillo in his hand and coughed several times.

Fortunately, the first thing he looked at in Wasius's office was the work files of branch personnel with photos. He had an outstanding memory brought by high-level inspiration, and he deliberately guided the chat topic to the work information he had mastered. Basically, Everything proceeds normally.

Imitating Vasius' gesture, Fan Ning took a deep puff, extinguished the cigar in the ashtray, and walked calmly towards the elevator.

The investigator who had just sat back at the card table suddenly slapped his thigh and shouted something to Fan Ning.

“Is your coffee cup?”

"Damn it, it fell inside." Fan Ning didn't look back, smoke drifted out from the top, and he coughed again, "I forgot about this when I randomly checked a few C-class contained material ledgers, so don't pay attention to it."

He didn't say which floor or room he landed on.

People who go to the sealing room are extremely nervous about time and mood, and will not deliberately search for an insignificant glass in a huge place. Even if someone does remember it occasionally after a long time, I am afraid it will be attributed to mysterious factors. I won't take it to heart.

"Sir, it seems like you have a cold, but since you are so focused on your work, it shouldn't be a big problem." The expressions of the other people became more and more relaxed.

Fanning did not rush to leave, but returned to Wasius's office.

A boss who is about to go on vacation must first do the following: complete the backlog of documents and arrange follow-up work.

He signed a bunch of documents in a matter-of-fact manner and made arrangements for the investigation or aftermath of several important recent mysterious incidents.

By the way, I drafted one more piece of advice on relaunching the investigation into related industries under the name of factory owner Stanley. In his reply, he pointed out some clues and stated that since the matter involved two different strata, he requested that the Guidance School and the Police Security Bureau jointly assist in the investigation.

Fan Ning did not leave the Special Inspection Department branch until around three o'clock in the afternoon, and then boarded the train bound for Fort Santalan at around four o'clock. It was close to midnight when he returned to the imperial capital.

The heart of the Empire's transportation hub was still crowded, but as soon as Fanning boarded the taxi leaving the train station, the popularity quickly dropped to near zero.

On the streets on a dark summer night, there were only teams of police security officers patrolling.

Fanning detoured and changed trains in several places, finally taking off his disguise in a hidden place, and officially set off for Noblewin Parish in the south.

The headquarters of the Guidance School is built adjacent to the Metropolitan University of Santaram.

Compared with the traditional aristocratic public schools that are usually good at theology, arts and humanities, city universities, which have emerged along with the growth of the middle class in the empire in the past half century, are generally stronger in science and technology, economics and finance, or business administration and other majors.

Santa Ramburg City University is one of the best among them. Their jurisdiction, along with non-aristocratic schools such as elementary public schools, workers' skills night schools, free schools for the poor, and women's home schools, all belong to the guiding school.

The carriage passed by the long and dark buildings in the financial center of the Diocese of Norberwein, and finally stopped at the square outside the gate of St. Taranburg City University.

In the corner of the marble school gate with a new-era color scheme, Xilan, who had heard the commotion, poked her head out of the duty room. When she saw Fan Ning's figure, she trotted over with her white skirt in hand.

"What are you doing?" Fan Ning watched in surprise as the girl came up to him and sniffed twice.

"You smoke." Sheeran wrinkled her nose.

"I don't want the stuff to arrive either? If it arrives, you can take it first. It's so late, why don't you rest first?"

"Can I sleep?" Xilan rolled his eyes at him, "I found it in the artificial lake behind the school at about two o'clock in the afternoon, but it was a bit strange, so I didn't dare to open it, thinking that I might wait until you come back. It’s clearer what’s going on.”

"A bit strange?" Fan Ning frowned.

So he followed Sheeran to the school with doubts.

The night breeze was cool and pleasant. After walking on the wide square avenue in front of the main building for a few minutes, Sheeran took Fan Ning and turned into a nearby fork in the road. They took a shortcut through the side door and entered the office area of ​​the headquarters of the Guidance School.

"This tallest seven-storey building is the old library of the City University of Saint-Talambo. Now it only has one and two floors open to teachers and students on weekdays. It is listed as the 'Joint Committee of City Colleges of Tioleon' ”

"The actual offices of the school are on the third to seventh floors, as well as the first, second and third underground floors accessible by mechanical elevators. Of course, it is also adjacent to public facilities such as the travel hotel, academic club, water concert hall and faculty restaurant. So, we’ll stay in the hotel here tonight.”

Sheeran introduced the layout of the neighborhood to Fanning, and she was obviously very familiar with it throughout the day.

Although the size of the university's travel hotel is not as good as the Boethius Hotel, Fanning thinks it is on the same level as Gogol's Great Hotel.

"Click." Sheeran took out the guest room key, opened the door and motioned for him to come in directly.

"You can see for yourself. Although the situation is a bit strange, I haven't found anything unusual after observing it for a while. To be on the safe side, I didn't ask Sir Viadrin to help deal with it."

Fan Ning saw the tightly tied black cowhide bag placed in the corner of the bathroom, and instinctively had a bad feeling in his heart.

And when he opened the cowhide bag and took out the drift bottle, he was completely dumbfounded.

"Why are you so full?"