Chapter 70: 70, The Noise Upstairs

Li Tongyun was with Jiang Xue at this time.

Ever since Kunlun sent out the message, notifying all registered Time Travelers, Jiang Xue had gone to pick up Li Tongyun from school and stayed in the mall.

Thinking of countermeasures.

Moreover, Jiang Xue had specifically bought Li Tongyun a cell phone for easy daily contact.

Nowadays, the world had become more dangerous, having a cell phone would make things much more convenient.

Li Tongyun copied the message sent by Kunlun to Jiang Xue and forwarded it to Qing Chen without any changes.

Qing Chen analyzed every word and sentence, trying to understand what had happened.

In the message, Kunlun specifically reminded everybody that the three missing Time Travelers in Los Angeles City had unintentionally exposed their information online, which could possibly lead to the leakage of their home addresses.

With more than two hundred Time Travelers now in Los Angeles City, nearly one-fifth of them were in danger, and everyone was urged not to reveal information easily and to be sure to pay attention to safety.

Kunlun did not mention providing protection for everyone; it seemed they were also short of personnel.

Qing Chen pondered: He hadn’t expected that so many Time Travelers had been registered, and there must be even more hiding quietly.

Those people had come to Los Angeles City in such a rush that they didn’t have time to investigate more detailed information, so as long as they were not at home, the opposing side wouldn’t be able to find their targets.

For example, they knew Jiang Xue’s home address, so they came to kidnap Jiang Xue.

But if Jiang Xue was not at home, at most they could only kidnap loneliness…

It had to be said that Li Tongyun’s line of thought was completely correct; Qing Chen even wanted to praise her for it.

But… was it appropriate for them to come to his place to stay…?

Now was not the time to think about this. Li Tongyun had already made her request, and they were in a covert collaboration. In the future, they would have many intersections in the Inner World, so he definitely had to help with this favor.

Alright, Qing Chen admitted that even if there would be no future collaboration, he still had to help: “It’s Friday today. I’ll leave early and we can meet at the entrance of the community at 5:40 PM. I’ll go back first to scout the area and make sure there are no suspicious people before we proceed.”

In the afternoon, just before school was about to let out, Liu Dezhu suddenly took the opportunity to send Qing Chen a message: “Boss, I’ve made a breakthrough with the transfer student here. We haven’t talked about the deal in detail yet, but they are willing to pay a gold bar in advance as a show of sincerity… Uh, Boss, I don’t want a cut of the gold bar, but can you improve the life in the solitary confinement room for me? I’m really going to go crazy just sitting there doing nothing.”

Qing Chen found a secluded spot to glance at the message and simply replied with a “Depends on your performance,” before pocketing the communicator and skipping class.

…

Number 4, Xingshu Road, was still quiet, with not many pedestrians around.

Qing Chen, carrying his groceries, walked slowly down the tree-lined path. Early autumn had passed, and the leaves of the plane trees lining the road were beginning to fall—today, Number 4 courtyard was perhaps looking its best.

This time, the nine suspects seemed different from the previous loose soldiers and mercenaries; they were planned and organized, and despite the passing of so much time, they had not been caught.

Such criminal organizations were the most dangerous.

Qing Chen kept his gaze straight ahead but silently took note of all the people he encountered, each one a neighbor he had seen in the community before.

There were no strangers.

He glanced again at Jiang Xue’s balcony out of the corner of his eye, noting that all the arrangements remained untouched and even the creases in the curtains were unchanged from the morning.

There were no ambushes in the house.

Standing in the corridor, Qing Chen sent a message to Li Tongyun, “Come in, the door is ajar, you can just walk in.”

Not long after, Jiang Xue and Li Tongyun, one large and one small, quietly slid the door open a bit and sidled into the house.

It wasn’t until this moment that the young Li Tongyun finally breathed a sigh of relief, looking incredibly cute.

Qing Chen said with a smile, “I’m not a Time Traveler, and even if someone wanted to kidnap the Time Traveler, they wouldn’t find their way here. They are fugitives; they definitely don’t want to cause a big scene.”

Li Tongyun sneaked a glance at him and thought to herself that this brother Qing Chen was really natural at lying, without even a blush or a heartbeat!

Jiang Xue chuckled, “Thanks to you this time, even though I know we could hide outside as well, but being away from home never feels safe. You watch TV with Xiao Yun for a bit, I’ll go cook for you.”

With that, the woman rolled up her sleeves and went into the kitchen.

Qing Chen felt a touch of emotion, Aunt Jiang Xue was always so gentle and tender.

Li Tongyun suddenly said, “My mom is very virtuous, right?”

Qing Chen ruffled her hair and asked in a low voice, “Did you hear about Uncle Li Dong in the Inner World? Can you tell me about it? How does the Consortium view this matter?”

“There isn’t much to say,” Li Tongyun sat on the sofa, her short legs dangling off the edge: “I heard from my sisters in the Inner World that Uncle Li Dong has been out of the picture for many years. His sudden reemergence is bound to cause a stir.”

Qing Chen took a blanket out from the cabinet. Although the room was a two-bedroom apartment, the other room was empty, without even a bed, and still piled up with the miscellaneous items he had bought before.

He said to Li Tongyun, “You and your mom will sleep in my room tonight, squeezing into my small bed, and I’ll sleep in the living room.”

“That’s really embarrassing,” Li Tongyun said politely, but she did not refuse, her eyes curving into joyful crescents: “Oh, by the way, brother Qing Chen, where were you when Uncle Li Dong was dining at Sunlight Pavilion?”

“Me?” Qing Chen looked at her, “I was on the light rail train. I only saw the airship flying towards Eternal Building.”

“Oh,” Li Tongyun didn’t ask anything more: “The Consortium’s view on this matter is very vague, it seems like everyone is waiting to see the reactions of the other families, nobody wants to make the first move.”

Qing Chen asked, “By the way, why was Uncle Li Dong imprisoned?”

Li Tongyun glanced at him and said, “I don’t know, it’s not appropriate for someone my age to ask for his file. Alright, I’ve shared quite a lot of information now, it’s your turn to exchange some information, brother Qing Chen.”

After some reflection, Qing Chen said, “The information I can share is from the Outer World. I think it’s necessary to join the group chat that He Xiaoxiao mentioned. However, before joining, it’s imperative to obtain the Data fortress program from the Inner World. That’s the only way to avoid being located by him. Right now, I suspect that He Xiaoxiao is not an individual but an organization that is systematically rounding up all Time Travelers. Of course, it’s just a guess.”

Li Tongyun cocked her head and said, “Brother Qing Chen, you only share Outer World information because if you disclosed Inner World intelligence, it would be too identifiable and expose you, right?”

Qing Chen smiled, “What do you think?”

However, at that moment, both of them heard… the sound of a chair falling over on the floor above their heads.

The building was so old that the sound insulation between neighbors was very poor, not to mention the noise of something smashing on the floor.

But the problem was, both Qing Chen and Li Tongyun knew very well that there should be no one in the room on the top floor at the moment.