Chapter 274 - Chapter 274: Chapter 274 Temporary Team (1/2)
Chapter 274: Chapter 274 Temporary Team
Translator: 549690339
At seven in the evening, Fang Pingfang sat in the departure hall of Bao Wang City Airport, waiting for her flight.
When “Mr. Liang” told her last night that there was an unusual situation in Haixi Province and asked her to check it out, although he didn’t specify a departure time, she still packed her things that night based on her previous experiences and the mission content described by “Mr. Liang”. She briefed Dr. Yang and prepared herself to be ready at any moment.
As expected, she received a call with flight and travel arrangements the next morning, and she would fly to Jianzhou City in Haixi Province in the evening.
Since joining the secret department of Divine Technology, Fang Pingfang has gone on field explorations more than once, but she could tell that this time was different from all the previous ones. Apparently, this was a last-minute decision made by “Mr. Liang.”
She realized that because of the trip to Qinling Uninhabited Area and the situation she discovered the night before last and the report she made last night, “Mr. Liang” seemed to be ready to let her in on more secret department research projects and classified information.
If this were before, Fang Pingfang would be very excited. The exploration of the mysterious and unknown was the reason she joined Divine Technology.
But after the incident on the night before last, her attention and curiosity were entirely drawn to the rabbit wood carving and the possible entities or phenomena hidden behind it.
For the past day longer, she’s been thinking and reasoning about the possible causes of those strange phenomena. In addition to the guesses she reported to “Mr. Liang,” she had a few new ideas. Still, she lacked practical observations and experimental evidence. Hence, she was very much hoping to return to D2, go back to Laboratory No.9, and assist “Mr. Liang” in dealing with the wood carving.
Even if she was not allowed to participate, watching how “Mr. Liang” handled it would also be a good choice.
But it was clear that, whether for safety or other reasons, “Mr. Liang” didn’t seem to want her to get involved.
By the time Fang Pingfang arrived in Jianzhou City, it was already midnight. A short, young man from the secret department of Divine Technology picked her up at the airport. Still, he didn’t take her away immediately. Instead, he continued to wait at the airport because other people would arrive later, and everyone was to leave together.
By around midnight, looking at the newly arrived four people, Fang Pingfang laughed. Just as “Mr. Liang” said, the members of the interim team indeed included her “old acquaintances” — two of the four people were familiar to her.
One was Team Leader Li, Li Shibao, who had visited the Qinling Uninhabited Area with her previously. The other one was Zhou Rui, a member of her team in QiCheng City, and technically was her subordinate.
The other two, one man and one woman, just briefly introduced themselves by name. It was a common practice within their department during cross-regional collaborations.
But Fang Pingfang still managed to glean some information. A man named Gao Shu, tall and robust with a resolute demeanor, likely was a security or field operator like Li Shibao. The other one, a young woman with short hair named Chen Tianhua, looked like an executive, but from the smallest details, such as her fingers, makeup, and posture, Fang Pingfang could tell at a glance that she was a technical professional.
The short, young man who was in charge of picking them up drove them away from the airport in an MPV. After a journey of more than an hour, he led them to a secluded villa area on the outskirts – rather than booking a hotel for them, he rented a stand-alone villa.
Upon arriving at the villa, everyone left their luggage in the living room on the first floor instead of settling in their rooms. They sat around nibbling on the soup noodles the young man brought back from the road while listening to his briefing on the situation.
“Yesterday morning, between nine and nine-thirty, an accident occurred at Wushu Mountain Scenic Area, where two tourists were attacked and frightened by an unknown bird species, falling off the cliff. Based on my on-site investigation today, inquiries to the witnesses, and the collected video information, the specific situation seems to have started with a bird-like insect, about twenty to thirty centimeters in body length, flying into the crowd causing a stir. Following this, a large bird of prey swooped into the crowd to attack the ‘small bird’, causing further panic within the crowd; this would be when the two tourists fell off the cliff. Both the ‘small bird’ and the ‘bird of prey’ flew away soon after, with their whereabouts unknown. From some of the tourist videos shot by other tourists in different areas at the time, and from the footage of two surveillance cameras in the scenic area, we can vaguely see the ‘bird of prey’ parting scene. Even though the clarity is poor, we could roughly estimate the wingspan by referring to surrounding objects for comparison…”
The short young man was earnestly reporting the information he had gathered. As Fang Pingfang listened, she put down her chopsticks without realizing she had stopped eating, and thought hard as she listened, her eyebrows inadvertently furrowing.
Watching the small young man playing a few video clips through the simple projector in the living room, and listening to his analysis scripts and image materials along with his explanation, Fang Pingfang quickly understood the purpose of their trip to Jianzhou City, and the term “abnormal situation” that “Mr. Liang” mentioned last night.
No wonder the young man arranged for them to stay here; this villa area is very close to the Wushu Mountain Scenic Area.
Fang Pingfang knew that in the secret department of “Divine Technology”, led by “Mr. Liang”, in addition to a large number of field teams and supporting facilities, secret research centers and research bases, there is a team specifically dedicated to collecting and analyzing various kinds of information on the Internet.
She was not exactly sure what the full name of this functional team was or where it was located. When they get in touch and contact, their members do not provide a full self-introduction. They usually just discuss task-related information without unnecessary talk. In the absence of fieldwork, even those in the secret department do not know about these teams.
The people who join the “secret department” do not have a clear and intuitive understanding about their department’s organizational structures, unlike the people from other divisions or branches of “Divine Technology”. The information they know varies according to different levels of confidentiality, but most of it is limited to their specific projects.
However, judging from Fang Pingfang’s past interactions with these people, they are spread around the country and even the globe. The investment in related hardware and technology must also be significant, and it wouldn’t be inferior to the resources invested in research centers and laboratories, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to achieve such effective information collection.
Similarly, the team members’ confidentiality levels aren’t low either.
However, Fang Pingfang believed that based on “Divine Technology”‘s consistent style, the things they know may not be much more than what she and Dr. Yang, these researchers, know, only differing in perspective and direction. As for the real purpose and the ultimate goal of “Divine Technology” in establishing this “secret department”, they are also likely to be uncertain.
Just like these researchers who are immersed in the laboratory all day, the direction and depth of their research are entirely controlled by “Mr. Liang”. Many of them even don’t understand what the use of their work is or why they are doing it.
Fang Pingfang was certain that the short young man introducing the situation to her now, named “Ye Chong”, is from those information collection teams. His way of doing things is exactly the same.
From what the small young man said, “Mr. Liang” had just roughly learned about the accident at Wushu Mountain Scenic Area when he contacted her last night, and immediately defined it as an “abnormal situation”, and asked her to “read up on it” immediately.
The small young man was also ordered last night but he rushed over immediately, started the investigation today and a lot of the later information resulted from his investigations today.
Fang Pingfang also knew that although he looked like a lone operator, there was definitely a team support and collaboration behind him in technical and other aspects. The information wasn’t collected by a single person’s investigation.
What she was more curious about was what information “Mr. Liang” had based on when determining the accident at Wushu Mountain Scenic Area was an anomaly worth “reading up on”. Keep in mind that this young man had not yet been dispatched for a field investigation at the time, the information that “Mr. Liang” could have obtained was not much, nor necessarily accurate. There must have been some key piece of information, or some background knowledge she was unaware of, that allowed “Mr. Liang” to make a quick judgment.
After Ye Chong roughly introduced the situation and handed the tablet containing the information directly to Fang Pingfang, he told her, “According to ‘Mr. Liang”s instructions, the Wushu Mountain investigation team will be led by Dr. Fang. I’ll provide logistics and information support. Any equipment, tools or funds that are needed, you can tell me directly.”