"Why don't you ask your boyfriend to come along?"
"With him here, we could be more efficient."
Li Ran glanced at Xia Sanghuan, who was dressed in a set of dirt - resistant brown clothes, and asked with a puzzled look.
Hearing this, the girl felt a twinge in her heart. It was bad enough that the news of her relationship with Leng Chuanjin had spread among the students. How did even the principal of Fernos College know about it? And was it really appropriate for the principal of Fernos College to be so interested in students' gossip?
"He's not very convenient."
The girl replied in a low voice while adjusting the equipment on her body.
Seeing her like this, Li Ran more or less understood. She didn't want Leng Chuanjin to know about Old Cui, or rather, she didn't want him to know that she was Old Cui's apprentice.
"Let's go."
He showed his understanding and didn't pursue this question any further.
To prevent Leng Chuanjin from getting suspicious, they even specifically chose a weekday to come to this place, and it was during the daytime.
Li Ran couldn't help but feel a headache. Although they had the right to enter the abandoned factory at will, their outfits and actions made them look like suspicious people no matter how you looked at it.
However, the girl led the way with the map in her hand without a care. Maybe because the roads in the western suburbs had been renovated recently and the map was drawn a year ago, they walked around twice but still couldn't find the factory.
Finally, it was Li Ran's assistant who climbed onto the wall to confirm the exact location of the factory, and then they managed to get there.
"Cough, cough, cough."
Before they even got close to the factory gate, the girl's eyes were stung by the dust suddenly kicked up by the wind. She closed her eyes slightly, waiting for the tears to wash out the sand.
"This place has been abandoned for too long, hasn't it?"
One of Li Ran's assistants stepped forward and looked at the spider webs on the gate. There were three in total. One of them was particularly large but already broken, fluttering gently in the wind.
When they walked through the factory gate, they were still worried that the spider silk might suddenly fall and get caught in their hair.
The further they went inside, the more dust there was. Tiny particles were almost floating in the air. The girl couldn't stand it anymore and put on a mask.
"Did that person tell you anything more?"
Li Ran put on rubber gloves and started to prepare for the search.
"No."
"Maybe something happened at that time."
Because of the mask, her voice sounded muffled and slightly low.
Since they didn't want to attract attention, Li Ran didn't bring many helpers this time. And this factory was much larger than they had imagined.
The things on the cabinets had been emptied, and even the medicine in the remaining medicine bottles had moldered to the point that it was unrecognizable.
It took them almost the whole morning to search the front - area of the factory, and as expected, they found nothing.
"Then there's only this place left."
The girl took a bite of the bread that Leng Chuanjin had stuffed into her bag this morning. Since she was in a hurry to meet the principal, she hadn't had time for breakfast.
She walked up to an iron gate that had caught her attention as soon as she came in. The doorknob was rusty, and the iron sheets on the door panel had almost fallen off.
"Don't open it yet."
She stopped the assistant who was about to turn the doorknob.
"There's a combination lock here."
She knocked on the wall, and a display screen covered by wall dust appeared. Although it was very inconspicuous, it was still on, which meant that the combination lock was still working. If they opened the door rashly, the lock might lock up directly.
"This is going to be difficult."
Li Ran came over.
"We don't have any information about the combination lock at all."
"Let's look around here some more."
The girl pondered for a moment.
"If we really can't find it, just break the door down."
"What if we can't break it?"
"Then smash through the wall."
Looking at her serious expression, Li Ran couldn't help but sigh inwardly. She was truly worthy of being Old Cui's apprentice. Their personalities were really similar in some aspects.
Just now, out of consideration that she was a girl, they hadn't let her help when searching this area. But maybe because she didn't trust these people, she decided to search it herself.
One of Li Ran's assistants wanted to persuade her, but when he saw the girl lying down on the dusty floor without hesitation, he suddenly felt it was unnecessary.
Xia Sanghuan frowned slightly. The smell under the medicine cabinets made her feel a bit uncomfortable. It was as if something had rotted and smelled bad. Even though it had been cleaned, there were still traces left.
"Miss Xia, I think you'd better stop looking."
One of the assistants sat tiredly on an empty bucket.
"We've been at it for two hours and found nothing, haven't we?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the girl fished out a dusty notebook from a gap behind a table.
"I found it."
She held up the notebook. The assistant immediately shut his mouth.
She opened the notebook and started to read it carefully. The cover of the notebook was falling apart, and the content on the first few pages was so blurred that it was impossible to make out. She had to start reading from the last few pages.
"Today is the fourth day since I was brought here."
"The people here all look so numb. They seem like puppets being manipulated. Only when he comes do they show a creepy fake smile."
"I have to get out of here."
Looking at the familiar handwriting, the girl was stunned for a long time. This was her master's diary. Realizing this, her hands couldn't help but tremble.
"Today is the seventh day since I was brought here."
"He said that as long as I cooperate with him, he can ensure that I'll have enough to eat and wear in my old age."
"But he never thought that having enough to eat and wear is not important to me. What's important is that I can't violate my medical ethics."
...
"Today is the nineteenth day since I was brought here."
"I still don't know how he found me, nor do I know his name."
"He said he would take me into the core laboratory today. Although he deliberately blocked the password of the combination lock, my eyes are not so deteriorated that I can't see through such tricks."
There was a string of numbers scribbled after this paragraph, indicating that the situation at that time was very urgent. It seemed that this was the password.
The girl's face darkened. Seeing that she didn't say a word for a long time, Li Ran stepped forward.
"So, is there any information about the password in it?"
"Yes."
The girl nodded.
She put the diary into a sealed bag she carried with her, and then walked to the combination lock. She deftly pressed a few buttons with her fingers, and the iron gate beside them emitted a hoarse ringing sound.
"It's about to run out of power."
One of the assistants said.
"It seems our luck is pretty good."
The girl walked to the door and put her hand on the doorknob.
"If we had come a few days later, this door would have been completely locked due to lack of power."