Chapter 23 - Clue [OW]

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The police officer used some devices to scan around the villa for a long time, but they didn’t find any abnormalities. After they left, the three returned to the spiritual plant room again. The spiritual plants were still trembling, and Su Ling finally managed to calm them down after quite some time.

Darry harvested the Redthorn ball liquid and left. Su Ling pointed towards a villa that is located on lower ground and asked Gu Liheng, "Do you know the owner of that villa?"

Gu Liheng knew what he wanted to ask and gave the answer that he wanted to know, "Not a nonsense person."

Su Ling frowned slightly and moved his gaze from the spiritual plants to Gu Liheng, "Maybe there is a problem because they don’t look right."

Gu Liheng nodded, obviously thinking the same thing and said, “It’s impossible to not leave any traces at all."

Late at night, in the room on the second floor of the villa, Su Ling and Gu Liheng were sitting on the sofa, looking at the holographic screen in front of them. On the holographic display is the real-time monitoring of all parts of the villa. It was arranged in the form of nine square grids, with the spiritual plant room in the middle. Domi didn't sound the alarm the night before, so they decided to observe the situation for themselves. Each grid looked calm, and it has been like that since 9 pm. The three spiritual plants were also quiet. Their flowers and branches remained still, unlike their usual waving movement during the day.

Su Ling brought his legs up and rested his chin on his knees, while his eyes are still fixed on the screen.

Gu Liheng tilted his head to look at Su Ling and said, "Go to rest first."

Su Ling shook his head, and his voice carried a slightly tired tone, "No, I'm curious about what happened."

Gu Liheng: "I’ll call you if something comes up."

Su Ling smiled at him, "It's okay, I have nothing to do tomorrow. I will take a nap in the afternoon to make up for it."

His gaze fell on the screen again, then his back straightened suddenly. Pulling at Gu Liheng's sleeve, Su Ling whispered, "The spiritual plants are reacting."

Initially, their branches and leaves were swaying slightly. Then the movement became frantic, and they looked panicked. Gu Liheng expanded the monitoring screen of the spiritual plant room and its surroundings and observed carefully. Su Ling also stared intently at the screen. One minute passed, but there was no change in the rest of the area except for spiritual plants swaying like they suffered from a manic episode.

After a while, Gu Liheng frowned: "The nutrient solution has become less."

Su Ling immediately looked at the lower right corner of the spiritual plant room, where a transparent container with a diameter of more than 1 meter was placed. The bucket was filled with light blue nutrient solution, which would be used on to the spiritual plants every morning.

Growing a low-level spiritual plant is very simple. It can grow to maturity through handling by automated machinery, but a high-level spiritual plant cannot be cultivated by the same method. The nutrient solution watered everyday needs won’t be the same each day because it needs to be adjusted according to the situation of the spiritual plant at that time. These nutrient solutions were specially prepared for the three spiritual plants.

Su Ling stared at the height of the nutrient solution and soon found that the nutrient solution is gradually decreasing. He glanced around the container and found no holes nor water stains on the ground.

Gu Liheng got up, "I'll go and see."

Su Ling immediately put on his shoes and followed behind Gu Liheng. When the two arrived in the spiritual plant room, Gu Liheng walked to the nutrient solution container and lifted the entire container up. An unpleasant smell came out instantly, like rancid meat, mixed with the smell of rotten eggs.

Su Ling pinched his nose, knelt down and looked at the bottom of the container. A thin black line is connected to the edge of the container from the floor. The end of the thin black line is opened up like a morning glory; which was stuck to the bottom of the container. The next second, the black line shook and suddenly detached from the container, then dropped to the ground flexibly.

Everything happened at the blink of an eye. Su Ling was startled and subconsciously backed away. His center of gravity was unstable and almost causing him to fell down. Fortunately, he managed to support himself on the floor with his hands in time. Liquid flowed out from where the ‘black line’ was initially stuck at the bottom of the container.

Gu Liheng looked at him, "Are you all right?"

Shaking his head, he told Gu Liheng what he had just seen.

Gu Liheng placed the container aside and checked the floor where Su Ling said the black line left. Su Ling also leaned forward to see. There was a fingertip-sized black hole on the floor, which was very conspicuous on the white floor tiles. Frowning, Gu Liheng asked Domi to change the container of the nutrient solution. Then he called someone to come over to deal with the hole on the floor. A professional came and took the measurement of the hole. After that, he cut into the floor around the hole and packed it in a special bag. "There is strong corrosive liquid left in the ground, which requires laboratory testing to know further."

The other personnel dug the hole a little deeper, took the soil from the ground, and temporarily sealed the hole. After the person left, Gu Liheng looked at Su Ling and said, "The result should be out tomorrow morning, so go and rest now."

Nodded, Su Ling also knew that it is useless to stay up, and went back to the room to sleep. He got up late in the morning. When he went to the dining room, Gu Liheng had already eaten. He went to the living room after breakfast, and heard someone reporting to Gu Liheng, "It is getting deeper and deeper, the workload is huge, so the progress is slow."

The holographic screen in front of Gu Liheng was a map of the villa area with a bright red line. He glanced at it and said, "Continue."

The man nodded and walked out of the living room.

Su Ling propped his hand on the sofa behind Gu Liheng, and asked curiously, "What is this?"

Gu Liheng: "The trail from the hole found last night."

"So long?" Su Ling was surprised, "Did the result come out? What is that?"

He was standing behind Gu Liheng, and he leaned his head forward in order to see the map clearly. Hence, his breath swept the side of Gu Liheng's neck when he spoke.

Gu Liheng’s fingertips twitched. He tilted his head slightly and pointed to the sofa, "Sit down and talk."

Su Ling went around the sofa and sat down beside him.

Gu Liheng: "It’s a spiritual plant. Some spiritual plant cultivator speculated that it might be Grade S," he looked at Su Ling before continuing, "The residual trace detection result showed that it was similar to the round particles found on the three Grade A spiritual plants previously."

Su Ling immediately understood what this meant, and asked, "Doctor Ni An checked it?"

Gu Liheng nodded, "Grade S, and it appeared in the spiritual plant room, caused the Grade A spiritual plants panic, and... the smell, I think this may be related to Xian Mo Yu. So I asked Doctor Ni An to help."

Su Ling recalled the smell of last night. It was indeed similar to his current pheromone smell. He looked at the map and found that the red line had reached the back mountain of the villa area. The back mountain was not very high, but it was wavy and uneven. The entire location was vast as well.

He suddenly realized one thing, "Can the Grade S spiritual plant move?"

Gu Liheng: "Yes," he said calmly, "it could move, but it's fine. Since it has appeared, we will definitely find it."

Su Ling knew that Gu Liheng said that to comfort him. Although he couldn’t be sure whether it is Xian Mo Yu or not, he still smiled; at least they have progress.

Gu Liheng has arranged for someone to track the spiritual plant along the trail. However, the track was lost 3 days later, and the hole suddenly disappeared.

It crossed Su Ling’s mind before about taking the spiritual plants and nutrient solution to ‘fishing’ where the trace disappeared. However, there is no access road in the back mountain, and it is a long-distance too. If he really went for it, he won’t be able to return within a day. The Redthorn Ball was startled, and Darry couldn't get the ball liquid without him. Since they won’t be needing the liquid anymore in a few days, Su Ling pressed down this idea and decided to set out in a few days. He was looking at the map of the back mountain when he received the Lin Meng’s call.

Lin Meng said in a brisk tone, "Ling Ling, I have filled it out my form. Saint Rose, now we can continue to be classmates!"

Su Ling smiled, "Great."

The two chatted for a while, then Lin Meng asked, "By the way, have you seen Zhao Qi?"

Su Ling raised his eyebrows, "What happened to him?"

Lin Meng: "He had a car accident a few days ago. He and his brother went to the racing track together. Then he got into an accident. Many classmates have visited him already."

Su Ling thought for a while, and said, "I won't go, as I will affect his mood."

Lin Meng laughed, "I'm not going either. He definitely doesn't want to see me. By the way, you said before that you can't attend the graduation ceremony. What about now?"

Su Ling: "I can go now."

…

The graduation ceremony was on the last day of June, which is also a day for students to exchange their opinions with each other before filling in their university application form. Su Ling was dragged around the school by Lin Meng to take pictures for memories. In the end, both of them were a little tired from all the running around.

Lin Meng's bracelet rang. After reading the message, his face turned red, but the corners of his mouth couldn’t stop curving up. "Ling Ling, sorry, I have something to do."

Seeing him like this, Su Ling thought of the male lead who is going to graduate at the same time, and instantly understood, "Go ahead, we have finished taking the photos anyway."

After Lin Meng left, Su Ling slowly headed outside the school. He has already filled it his form and didn't need to discuss it with anyone. When approaching the school gate, he caught a glimpse of Zhao Qi walked towards him. Zhao Qi was walking very slowly and seemed to be a little uncomfortable. Su Ling glanced at him, then retracted his gaze and continued walking. But a few steps later, Zhao Qi blocked in front of him. Zhao Qi was frowning, and his eyes were much more restrained than the blatant disdain before, but he is still unfriendly. Su Ling tried to get around him but stopped on his track by his(ZQ) words.

"Aren't you supposed to be dead?" Zhao Qi stared intently at him.

The author has something to say:
Thank you for your support (づ￣3￣)づ╭?～

Su Ling: Wot? I’m well and alive!

Thanks to the little angel who voted for me or irrigated the nutrient solution~
Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!

Raw word count:  2521

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