Chapter 597 - Eaten (1/2)

“That’s a little strange then.” The Public Order Division employee named Wang Zhongrui wondered, “Don’t you find it odd? They weren’t living together, yet they all went missing at the same time. What was their work performance at the factory like? Did any valuable items go missing at your factory recently?”

Wang Zhongrui thought of a possibility. Could the workers at the factory have run away after stealing some valuable items?

Such things had happened before. However, the criminal was unlucky that time and got discovered by the artificial intelligence even before they could escape the stronghold.

“The most valuable things in our factory are the mechanical equipment and raw materials. However, they can’t steal those. Even if they could, there’s no avenues for them to fence them.” The manager rejected this hypothesis.

“In that case, we can only go to the place they lived to take a look,” Wang Zhongrui said.

The creeper vine had grown to cover a very large area by now. The location mentioned by the garment factory’s manager was where the creeper vine was initially reported by Hope Media’s newspaper to have originated.

Many families in the stronghold who could afford a camera even specially went to this place to take pictures with the creeper vine in the winter.

However, the creeper vine had grown much more since that time. When Wang Zhongrui drove to the area where the creeper vine was growing, he asked the garment factory’s manager next to him in the passenger seat, “There’s creeper vines growing everywhere here. Where are their homes?”

The garment factory’s manager said, “Turn left, then turn right, and we should be there. Eh, this is strange! Why has the creeper vine grown so much? Sir, do you see that apartment on the left? From what I remember, the vines had not spread there yet as of yesterday, but it looks like it’s already covered the entire apartment today. To be honest, if I weren’t incredibly familiar with this area, I might’ve lost my way.”

The lush creeper vines had grown so dense that even the address number on the apartment got covered.

At first, the residents thought it looked really beautiful. But now, the creeper vines were starting to affect everyone’s daily lives. The pedestrians walking down the street were also mostly unhappy about the creeper vines’ overgrowth.

As Wang Zhongrui looked at the creeper vine, he got a niggling feeling that something was not right. However, he could not pinpoint what the problem was.

“We’ve arrived. It’s here.” The garment factory’s manager said, “One of the workers’ homes is on the first floor of this complex.”

After parking the car, Wang Zhongrui walked into the hallway of the building and asked, “Eh, do creeper vines usually grow into the hallways? Don’t they grow in places where sunlight can reach?”

Wang Zhongrui saw that the hallway in front of him had been invaded by the creeper vines, and the originally white walls were no longer visible. However, Wang Zhongrui did not feel that these creeper vines were beautiful. Instead, he felt a chill running up his spine.

But how could a Public Order Division employee get so easily frightened by some creeper vines? As such, he braced himself and walked in.

But strangely, they found the door of the worker’s residence had been left open. Wang Zhongrui asked, “Were you the one who opened the door?”

“No,” The garment factory’s manager replied, “it was already open when I came here yesterday. I was also wondering why they would leave their doors wide open when they left their home.”

Wang Zhongrui stepped into the apartment. There were no traces of fighting in the room as he had imagined, nothing at all.

However, Wang Zhongrui was much more experienced than the manager of the garment factory. Although their Public Order Division had mostly stopped following up on reported cases manually and mainly relied on the artificial intelligence to crack them, the Public Order Division’s employees were still professionally trained.

Right as they entered the house, Wang Zhongrui sensed something was amiss. There was a sweaty handprint on the door frame that was not particularly noticeable, but it looked very strange indeed.

The handprint that was left behind seemed to suggest someone had just opened the door when they were suddenly pulled out of the house by something. The person probably tried to grab ahold of the door frame immediately but failed to do so.

Thinking of all this, Wang Zhongrui turned to look behind him as a chill ran up his spine. However, he saw nothing behind him.