NOVEL ONLINE FREE 3: Happy Valentine's Day
A severe factory accident occurred due to machine malfunction, resulting in one worker on the assembly line being permanently disabled and several others injured.
Unsatisfied with the compensation, they came into conflict with the factory management.
Some people banded together to seek other means, which proved unsuccessful. Meanwhile, they were attacked by thugs, with many being beaten.
Unable to afford the high medical costs, the disabled worker’s condition worsened due to inadequate care, ultimately leading to his death.
Wu Guihua, not being in the same workshop or from the same village, wasn’t a direct witness, so she didn’t know the full picture of the incident, only a general outline.
“Do you know the specific process of their attempt to find other means?” Bai Ling asked.
This was the main information she wanted to know. In her childhood memories, her parents had intersected with Cloud Sea Company at this juncture.
Unfortunately, Wu Guihua shook her head: “I’m not very clear about that.”
As expected, Bai Ling was slightly disappointed: “Then do you know who else might be informed?”
“I don’t know. Most of the people involved in that incident are no longer in the village. They might be in the city or have gone elsewhere.”
“…Alright.”
Although she didn’t gain much substantial information, Bai Ling still left the “interview fee.”
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“Uncle He, just call me Uncle He.”
Yuan Xiaoning thought the sudden power trip might have been caused by Uncle He’s special ability, aiming to save her.
For such good intentions, she had to at least treat him to a milk tea.
Uncle He wasn’t used to those trendy drinks young people liked, so he just asked for a cup of tea.
“Uncle He, how long have you been working at Tianhai Tower? Are you familiar with the place?”
“It’s alright. I came to the city to find work, often doing repairs in the tower,” Uncle He showed off his maintenance worker uniform. “I’m quite familiar with it.”
Yuan Xiaoning’s eyes lit up: “Then can I ask you for help if I have any questions in the future?”
Gathering intelligence requires informants.
“No problem. If I know, I’ll definitely tell you.” Uncle He was very generous.
“Then let’s add each other as friends,” Yuan Xiaoning took out her phone. “Do you use WeChat or QQ?”
Uncle He was stunned for a moment: “I don’t really use those online apps… I used QQ before, but that was a long time ago.”
But he still gave a QQ number.
Yuan Xiaoning searched for friends on her phone and paused slightly: “Uncle He, you seem to have remembered it wrong.”
“No, it’s this one.”
“…This one?”
“Haha,” Uncle He laughed heartily. “Alright, I need to get back to work now. You should head back too.”
“Um… take care.”
Yuan Xiaoning withdrew her gaze, looked at her phone, and revealed a complex expression.
Uncle He’s QQ name was—LockLove’sFlame
Yes, in stylized text.
Looking further into his QQ space, wow, it turned out Uncle He was once a scene kid, wearing a red headgear, looking very spirited.
The latest status update was from ten years ago, and he hadn’t posted anything since.
Just as Yuan Xiaoning was about to look further, her phone suddenly buzzed with a new message.
[Bai Ling: Don’t return to the villa.]
Hm?
[Ning Ning: Why?]
[Bai Ling: It’s been cordoned off with police tape. They must have discovered it.]
Yuan Xiaoning thought, didn’t you already handle that? How was it discovered so quickly? But there was no time to dwell on this now. A more important question was-
[Ning Ning: Then where should I go?]
[Bai Ling: The place I first took you to, remember?]
[Ning Ning: Oh, that retirement community, right? Of course I remember.]
[Bai Ling: You can directly…]
[Ning Ning: How do I get there?]
[Bai Ling: …]
[Bai Ling: Just go to the school instead.]
And so, after five days, the most dominant campus beauty queen in Tianhai University’s history arrived at her loyal broadcasting department classroom.
“Xiaoning, you actually came,” Gu Hui expressed surprise at her appearance. “We thought you were going to rest for another couple of days.”
Yuan Xiaoning was slightly taken aback: “Why would I rest for two more days?”
“Because you bragged so much to us last night,” Qiao Lili said. “We thought you had gotten carried away and wouldn’t be able to resist showing off in front of Bai Ling.”
“Heh,” Yuan Xiaoning sneered, “I’m not that stupid.”
Feeling that this statement wasn’t quite right, she quickly added: “Besides, I wasn’t bragging. It was all true.”
“Mm-hmm, true, true.” Gu Hui said sincerely, “We all believe you.”
Yuan Xiaoning puffed her cheeks, thinking it really was true, she indeed only did it for half an hour.
“You can’t run off like this next week,” Qiao Lili said at this point. “We have a thesis topic to work on together.”
“What topic?”
“It’s not easy to explain. I’ll send it to you when we’re back in the dorm tonight,” Gu Hui smiled and said. “Anyway, you’re definitely going to run off again tomorrow.”
“Why would I run off tomorrow?”
“It’s Valentine’s Day,” Qiao Lili jumped in to say. “Aren’t you going to prepare a small gift for Valentine’s Day and go on a date with your Bai Ling?”
Is there such a thing? She hadn’t noticed at all.
“It doesn’t matter,” Yuan Xiaoning said righteously. “People from Liyue don’t celebrate foreign holidays.”
Gu Hui burst out laughing: “It’s not a foreign holiday. It’s a homophone holiday for 520, like Singles’ Day and such.”
Qiao Lili: “It’s a Liyue-style Valentine’s Day.”
Yuan Xiaoning’s mouth twitched: “Alright, then that’s fine.”
After the boring class ended, she ran to the side of the sports field to wait for Bai Ling. A few male students by the field whistled at her, but after someone went over and said a few words, the boys quickly ran away.
Yuan Xiaoning only heard a few scattered words-
“She’s in a bad mood today, don’t provoke her girlfriend, be careful she might take it out on you.”
“It’s really not good, she’s burst several punching bags.”
“Extremely terrifying, bro.”
After a while, Bai Ling came out too, her slender body dressed in the sportswear of the athletics department, but without a single drop of sweat.
“Bai Ling, you’re done with class,” Yuan Xiaoning greeted her. “Um, about those bodies in the cemetery… I remember you went out early in the morning to bury them.”
She knew it wasn’t good to ask about this now, but she couldn’t help her curiosity.
As expected, Bai Ling’s face darkened: “A small oversight. Don’t ask.”
Actually, she had gotten used to the pace of the later stages of her previous life. Back then, ability users often engaged in violent conflicts, and when someone died, they could just be buried on the spot. It’s different now, and she had forgotten this point at the time.
Yuan Xiaoning carefully observed her expression and asked: “Your actions today weren’t very successful?”
Bad mood, this was the only possibility.
“The time span is too long. The vast majority of relevant personnel can’t be found,” Bai Ling replied briefly.
She was indeed very troubled now. Although the clues hadn’t been cut off, how to find the next link seemed to be an unsolvable problem.
Directly storm Tianhai Tower? That would mean facing half of Tianhai City’s ability users at once. Bai Ling hadn’t forgotten how she died in her previous life.
“In that case, why don’t we change the mood?” A soft female voice came to her ears.
“What?”
Bai Ling looked up to see Yuan Xiaoning standing vivaciously before her. Her graceful figure stood tall and straight, the JK-style uniform bulging at the chest, and a pair of white legs smooth as water beneath the short skirt.
Golden hair strands were blown up by the wind, revealing her cute and sweet profile.
“I said, since you don’t have a breakthrough for now, and you’ve just been through a killing spree, there’s no use rushing. Why not take advantage of Valentine’s Day tomorrow to go out and relax?”