Chapter 361 - Reenactment (1/2)

Chapter 361: Reenactment

The woods in the suburbs had interlocking branches and leaves. Sunlight could only filter through the gaps, making the place appear dim and quiet.

Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao were in no rush to go deeper. They came to the spot where Bai Chen and Long Yuehong had parked their cars in hiding. With this as the center, they searched their surroundings bit by bit.

During this process, they took out flashlights, snapped tree branches, and pushed aside the grass to search for traces.

Jiang Baimian was still relatively relaxed. As she searched seriously, she laughed. “Those who often hunt in the woods will use a thin wooden stick or branch to hit the bushes and shrubs in front of them. Just like what we are doing now, their goal is to scare away the poisonous snakes and insects that might be lurking so as to prevent themselves from accidentally stepping on them and getting bitten.”

“Why scare them away? They can be used as food after scaring and capturing them.” Shang Jianyao—who was monitoring the surroundings—expressed how wasteful it was.

Jiang Baimian nodded slightly. “Starving humans can do anything, and they have ideas and tools. I’ve always said so. Apart from a few species that have mutated into monsters, the most dangerous creatures in the Ashlands are humans. Uh, Superior Heartless are also considered humans.”

As she spoke, she suddenly squatted down and shone the flashlight beam at the ground ahead.

“There are indeed footprints,” Jiang Baimian said calmly. She then reminded Shang Jianyao, “Be careful when you come over. Don’t destroy any other traces. Also, don’t relax your observation of the surroundings.”

Shang Jianyao immediately lightened his footsteps and slowly approached Jiang Baimian.

Jiang Baimian looked back and estimated. “It’s about five meters away from Little White and the others. Little White’s related memories have indeed been tampered with or blurred. From the looks of it, Father’s abilities haven’t improved that much compared to when we were in Weed City. He probably hasn’t had a qualitative breakthrough and hasn’t entered the Mind Corridor.

“Sigh, I didn’t warn Little White and Little Red previously. I should’ve gotten them to draw their guns and aim the moment they find someone entering a ten-meter radius, warning the other party not to approach. I also didn’t expect the real Father to target us like this. There’s no need for him to personally dig a trap for the capture operation.”

Shang Jianyao came to Jiang Baimian’s side, squatted down, and smiled. “I think you look down on Little White too much.”

Jiang Baimian turned her head and glanced at him. “You mean that Little White—who knows that the real Father needs to close the distance to ‘hypnotize’ or ‘tamper with memories’—won’t let others enter within ten meters of her? She didn’t draw her gun to warn him because she was affected by some other influence?”

At this point, Jiang Baimian came to a realization. “The real Father chasing the rabbit they saw was actually an illusion, just like what we encountered previously. The real Father took this opportunity to sneak to their side. Once the illusion ended, he hypnotized them. Yes, this was how Xu Liyan was hypnotized back then. Yes, since the illusion and reality happened in succession, and Little White and Little Red were affected, some memories became blurry. Therefore, he mixed the hunter and Hypnosis together and established a causal relationship.

“It’s no wonder Little White said that the hunter was about ten meters away from them or even further. She was likely prepared to draw her gun and warn the hunter if they dared to approach any closer. Therefore, her impression of this wasn’t that vague.”

Jiang Baimian suddenly gritted her teeth. “The real Father is indeed cunning. I hope he uses this against me now!”

In such an illusion, the real Father seemed to be able to hide his human consciousness or use other means to hide from the Awakened present. Zen Master Jingnian didn’t discover it back then, but Jiang Baimian believed that the real Father—who definitely didn’t study science or pursue cutting-edge technology—was unlikely to hide his bioelectric signals.

When the time came, Jiang Baimian would give him a surprise and let him know what a blind snipe was.

Shang Jianyao didn’t respond to Jiang Baimian and suddenly sighed. “I really want to see Father catch rabbits…”

Jiang Baimian imagined the scene and found it rather strange. An infamous villain—who was known for his cunningness and good planning—painstakingly catching rabbits in the forest.

It was funny.

“Search for traces!” Jiang Baimian stopped her train of thought. She then aimed the flashlight at the footprints and did a simple measurement.

Finally, she made a vague estimate. “The traces are relatively fresh… He’s between 1.75 to 1.80 meters tall… Male… He’s relatively light and should be lighter than me. The specifics have to be calculated based on the soil situation. I’ll get Old Ge to come later and extract the micro-clues, take photos, and store a copy… The front foot is heavy, and the back foot is light. His gait tends to lean forward… I can’t confirm that the patterns on the soles are commonly seen in First City. The wear is relatively serious…”

Jiang Baimian then shone the flashlight’s beam not far away and searched for the second footprint.

Due to the heavy spring rain, the soil in the forest was relatively soft. She and Shang Jianyao quickly found a series of footprints—the footprints that approached Bai Chen and Long Yuehong.

After Jiang Baimian stored the trajectory into her auxiliary chip, she frowned slightly. “The real Father’s gait is a little weird, but it doesn’t look like drunken footsteps.”

Normally speaking, as long as one’s eyes weren’t blindfolded, they would generally maintain a certain level of speed when advancing alone. They would only adjust their direction when they needed to make a turn.

However, the footprints on the ground sometimes veered left, sometimes right, sometimes deep, and sometimes shallow. It gave off the feeling that the target was staggering slightly.

If these changes were relatively disparate, it could also be explained as the real Father avoiding Bai Chen and Long Yuehong’s attention or that he was drunk. However, the deviation in all the footprints was relatively small.

Shang Jianyao nodded seriously. “It seems like he’s also a dance enthusiast or likes to jump around.”