After realizing something was wrong, Deng Yuqi immediately started an investigation within the Special Strategy Department. The entire Information Department screened the surveillance footage from that day and confirmed that the “Li Xiang” who had taken the Oddity Sample Data from Cheng Shengnan had indeed walked out of the Research Department building.
When they compared it with the surveillance footage inside the Research Department building, it clearly showed “Li Xiang” walking out of the break room, going all the way to the Logistics Department to submit files, and then returning to his office with the Oddity Sample Data.
After receiving the report from the Information Department, Deng Yuqi specifically watched the footage several times. Looking at the details shown in the surveillance video, “Li Xiang” had lunch with a few assistants, went back to the break room for a nap, but then got up after less than half an hour, went to his office to grab the files, and headed to the Logistics Department.
Deng Yuqi initially thought a shape-shifting oddity had infiltrated the Rong City branch, but it seemed that wasn’t the case at all. It looked more like Li Xiang was “sleepwalking.”
Li Xiang himself couldn’t believe it when he saw the surveillance footage, because he had no memory of doing any of those things.
Liu Jiayi, the current head of the Information Department, looked at the surveillance footage and said, “Look, when Director Li came out of his office, he was even communicating with his assistant. The assistant was the one who gave him those files.”
Li Xiang immediately turned to one of his subordinates and asked, “Where’s Xiao Xu?”
The person replied, “Xiao Xu is off today. I’ll call her right away.”
When the call connected, Xiao Xu said she was resting in her dorm and would get to the Information Department soon. While everyone waited for Xiao Xu, Deng Yuqi couldn’t help but look at Li Xiang and ask, “Could it be that you’ve been under too much research pressure lately, and you’ve developed a sort of ‘workaholic sleepwalking disorder’?”
Li Xiang stared at the computer screen, continuously looping the footage of him going to the Logistics Department and then returning to the break room to rest. He shook his head and said, “Even if that were possible, it couldn’t apply to this incident. Theoretically, people with sleepwalking disorder are basically in a dazed state. Not only can they not hold a conversation, but even their basic actions are severely affected.”
“But look closely. The ‘me’ in the footage, when waking up in the break room, sits on the sofa and rubs his face with both hands, trying to wake up. His consciousness goes from fuzzy to clear, which takes about 30 seconds… but this… this isn’t my usual habit or actions.”
“Usually, after I wake up, I keep lying down until I’m fully awake. Also, I don’t have the habit of rubbing my face to wake up.”
As he spoke, Li Xiang adjusted the surveillance footage and froze it on the part where “he” walked to his desk and flipped through files. “Look again. When the ‘me’ in the footage gets to the desk, he picks up the research reports one by one to look at them. It gives the feeling that he’s never seen these reports before and is trying to find some information or clues from them. Note this: he picked up and looked at all eleven files on the desk.”
“Then, after leaving his office, he talked with Xiao Xu. Based on his expressions and actions in the footage, there’s actually a big difference from how I usually speak. After talking with him, Xiao Xu turned back, went to the desk, and got a file for him.”
“After taking the file, he went all the way to the Logistics Department to submit it. But the strangest part is right here. After coming out of the Research Department building, he even stopped at the entrance for nearly two minutes. You could interpret it as him soaking up some sun, but to me, it looks more like he was trying to figure out where the Logistics Department was.”
“Based on all the above, I can be certain that this person definitely isn’t me. At the very least, the ‘consciousness’ during that period wasn’t me.”
“What I just can’t figure out is, how could someone control my body without my knowledge at all, and also have some understanding of the basic situation within our department?”
“Also, why did he, upon ‘waking up,’ try to go to the Logistics Department, specifically find Director Cheng, and conveniently get the Oddity Sample Data that Shen Tan was going to give me?”
Everyone was silent for a moment, seemingly pondering what Li Xiang had described.
Combining the surveillance footage and Li Xiang’s account, there were only two possibilities. One, Li Xiang was so bored he was playing an inconsiderate joke on everyone. Two, the mastermind behind this could control important figures like Li Xiang without the Special Strategy Department ever knowing.
The first option seemed unlikely given Li Xiang’s personality. The second option… that would be extremely dangerous!
Originally, the idea of an oddity devouring a person and then growing a head identical to that person’s as an infiltration method was already troublesome enough. Thanks to the Rong City branch’s rich combat experience, combined with the detection methods integrated by Little Qi, they could ensure the branch was very difficult to infiltrate.
But now, this new method of conscious control, where the controlled person has no memory of it afterwards, has appeared. If this was used to assassinate some key personnel or steal confidential intelligence, it would be practically impossible to defend against.
After a long while, Li Xiang looked at Cheng Shengnan and asked, “Director Cheng, when that person came to see you, what did you talk about? Did you notice anything strange about him? Or any differences from the usual me?”
Cheng Shengnan thought for a moment and said, “That day, I was handling the follow-up work for a few eerie incidents. You came to the Logistics Department to coordinate with Assistant Xiao Zhang about inputting the research files. While the files were being entered, I started talking with you about Peipei… When he heard the name ‘Peipei,’ he was visibly dazed for a moment… Then he changed the subject by pointing out a keyword that Xiao Zhang was inputting.”
At this point, Cheng Shengnan paused. “I didn’t notice it then, but looking back, aside from ‘Peipei,’ whenever the topic wasn’t work-related, that person would either brush it off with one or two perfunctory replies or change the subject entirely. He would only continue talking with me when the conversation turned to recent eerie incidents or topics related to oddities and strangeness.”
Normally, aside from having a way of thinking that was hard to follow in the research lab, Li Xiang was actually quite an introvert, spending his days cooped up in the lab and rarely socializing.
His only real friend was Shen Ge; everyone else in the department were at best relatively close “colleagues.” So Cheng Shengnan thought at the time that he just didn’t like talking about Peipei at work. But later, after Deng Yuqi pointed it out, she realized there were many inconsistencies.
Now, with Cheng Shengnan’s “confirmation,” everyone could be sure that the person who took the Oddity Sample Data that day wasn’t Li Xiang.
Just then, Xiao Xu came running into the office, out of breath. “Di-Director General, Director, Director Liu, Director Cheng, you, you wanted to see me?”
Cheng Shengnan casually took a cup of water from the nearby dispenser and handed it to Xiao Xu, telling her to catch her breath first. Li Xiang then asked, “Do you remember yesterday afternoon when I came out of the break room, found you, talked to you about some things, and then had you get me a report?”
“Ah?” Xiao Xu was stunned, clearly not understanding why Li Xiang was asking this.
Li Xiang said, “Don’t be nervous. You haven’t done anything wrong. We just need your cooperation for something a bit strange. Just repeat every word I said to you yesterday afternoon.”
Xiao Xu looked like she was racking her brain. Even though it had just happened yesterday, being asked to repeat the entire conversation verbatim was a bit much.
“That’s okay,” Li Xiang said. “Just try your best to recreate it as accurately as possible.”
Xiao Xu nodded and spoke haltingly, “At that time, Director, you came out of the break room and asked me what my schedule was for the day. I said, I said, oh, I said I needed to go to the Logistics Department to submit the latest report on anomalous equipment improvements, then go to the management office to arrange assistant shift rotations, and then confirm the restocking status for the latest batch of research materials. You said, you said that was too much work, and offered to submit the files to the Logistics Department for me. I refused at first, but you insisted on taking the files. I, I really wasn’t trying to slack off.”
Seeing Xiao Xu’s terrified expression, Li Xiang wondered to himself, it’s not like I’m usually some kind of tyrant, why is she so scared?
“Don’t be nervous. I told you, you didn’t do anything wrong, and no one is going to blame you for anything. We’re just investigating something quite strange and need your help. Now try to remember again. Was there anything different about the ‘me’ you were talking to – habits, actions, tone of voice, anything at all? Just say whatever comes to mind.” Li Xiang said.
Xiao Xu thought for a moment and said, “It seems… it was a little different. Usually, Director, you keep a straight face, but you speak quite gently. And because you’re always working overtime on research, you sound tired and listless, like you haven’t rested well. Yesterday’s Director, hmm, gave a very formal feeling. His voice was steady, and his face showed almost no expression.”
“Anything else?” Li Xiang asked.
Xiao Xu shook her head. “Nothing much seems… Oh! When you left with the file, I noticed you kept yawning. You seemed really sleepy, like you were forcing yourself to stay awake.”
“Really sleepy, forcing himself to stay awake…” Li Xiang looked down, thinking.
Liu Jiayi and Cheng Shengnan asked Xiao Xu a few more detailed questions. After reconstructing the situation as accurately as possible, Deng Yuqi patted Xiao Xu on the shoulder and said, “Good job. If you remember any other details, be sure to tell us. Go get some rest now.”
“Oh.” Xiao Xu nodded and left the office.
Deng Yuqi summarized, “For now, we can be sure that the person who went to the Logistics Department yesterday wasn’t Li Xiang, at least not in terms of ‘consciousness.’ Combined with the surveillance footage, it’s somewhat inexplicable that Li Xiang showed no abnormalities beforehand and was just directly controlled. If an oddity organization truly possessed such powerful abilities, then not even the Special Strategy Department, let alone any other organization fighting strangeness in the world, could defend against them.”
Liu Jiayi agreed, “Exactly, I think so too. Moreover, the ‘Li Xiang’ in the surveillance footage didn’t show any ‘dangerous signals.’ He didn’t even try to transfer or transmit the acquired intelligence using any method. Of course, it’s possible he memorized the information and then just let the consciousness return. But that brings us back to what the Director said. If an oddity organization really had this kind of terrifying ability, then forget full infiltration – at the very least, our key personnel would have been assassinated long ago.”
Liu Jiayi wasn’t exaggerating. Take yesterday’s “Li Xiang” situation. If the entity controlling his consciousness was indeed an oddity, it could have easily infiltrated the Logistics Department, assassinated Cheng Shengnan, and then shifted the blame onto Li Xiang.
Or, it could have controlled Li Xiang to kill Deng Yuqi, the “big sister” of the Rong City branch, while submitting documents to her. That would eliminate a department head and cause the loss of a talented researcher.
But the entity didn’t do that. It used this “powerful and bizarre” ability only to steal a few relatively unimportant pieces of intelligence and the Oddity Sample Data that Shen Ge brought back from the Dream World.
Cheng Shengnan said thoughtfully, “I find one thing particularly strange. Why did the mastermind control him at that specific moment, right when I had just received the Oddity Sample Data and was about to give it to Li Xiang? It’s as if they knew I would hand the material over to him yesterday.”
The biggest loss from this “Li Xiang incident” was the disappearance of the Oddity Sample Data that Shen Ge gave to Cheng Shengnan. But it wasn’t a huge deal, because the report was just data. Even if they lost their copy, Shen Ge still had another copy, and it was recorded by Little Qi, making it absolutely secure.
Deng Yuqi thought for a moment and said, “Regardless, this Li Xiang incident serves as a wake-up call for us. Although thanks to the latest monitoring plan, we haven’t had any oddity organization infiltrations for nearly a year, we can’t afford to be complacent. Next, I’ll have the Information Department strengthen monitoring. Personnel at the Deputy Director level and above are prohibited from acting alone. We’ll also arrange for anti-strangeness agents to conduct patrols.”
“I’ll have Captain Yu Tiexiong lead a team to provide 24-hour protection for Li Xiang. One, to ensure your safety. Two, to prevent this situation of being controlled from happening again. Also, don’t go to this Asian Conference on Anti-Strangeness Research. It’s safer for you to stay at the Rong City branch.”
Li Xiang shook his head. “I’m not so sure. To be honest… if this ability to control consciousness isn’t widespread, or requires a huge cost to succeed, then I would definitely choose you, Director, or Director Liu from Information, or Director Cheng from Logistics – positions with more access to classified documents. If they chose Director Cheng, they could have directly taken the Oddity Sample Data without even being exposed.”
“But I feel like they seemed to be targeting me specifically… Or perhaps the mastermind can only control, or the only person they can influence, is me. Otherwise, why wouldn’t they choose a better target, instead of picking a researcher who’s cooped up in the lab all year round?”
“Most importantly, the timing… They specifically chose the moment Shen Ge gave the data to Director Cheng. Don’t you think that’s way too coincidental? It’s almost as if… the mastermind has been monitoring Director Cheng, or even monitoring Shen Ge’s every move.”
“Also, by acting at this time, could they be trying to deliberately raise our suspicions, so that I stay at the Rong City branch? Then, once you Directors leave, they can execute their plan more effectively?”
“That’s why I think I still need to go to this Asian Conference. First of all, Shen Ge is in Dajing. It might be safer for me to be there. Second, as a ‘dangerous person,’ it’s better for me to cause trouble at the Dajing headquarters than to wreak havoc here at the Rong City branch, right?”
