Chapter 122-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World
Chapter 122 Exchange
Zhu Ning's first reaction was to step away, to give Xu Meng a moment alone.
Freight trains rumbled overhead. Zhu Ning quietly moved off to the side. She'd demolished most of this section—the whole unfinished building looked like it could collapse at any moment.
It was silent from Xu Meng's direction. Feline creatures were like that—utterly quiet in whatever they did.
About three minutes later, Xu Meng collected herself. She turned around and found Zhu Ning standing in a corner, her back turned, doing who-knows-what.
Weren't they negotiating?
What happened to that assertiveness from before?
The black slime on Zhu Ning had completely retracted. From behind, she looked like nothing more than a kid.
Xu Meng asked: "What are you doing over there?"
Her voice came out a bit muffled.
Zhu Ning: "I figured you needed some quiet time. I'm not great at comforting people."
Xu Meng wasn't Lin Xiaofeng. She didn't need hugs. Any comforting words would feel hollow. Offering a tissue would seem redundant.
Xu Meng: "......"
A moment ago, Zhu Ning had been acting like a villain—revealing a body full of black slime, appealing to both emotion and reason. Now she was standing in a corner like a mushroom.
Xu Meng had been thinking about Cheng Mofei, but Zhu Ning had inexplicably diverted her attention. Xu Meng: "What are you doing?"
Zhu Ning: "I'm thinking about what to have for dinner."
Prometheus's plans for her weren't finished yet. She wanted to check what today's dead post mission was.
Xu Meng: "......"
Xu Meng let out a pfft of laughter. No matter what Zhu Ning was like, in Xu Meng's eyes she really was just a kid.
A kid who'd been strung along by Prometheus, hunted by Eternal Pharma, and now discovered she was an experimental subject.
Zhu Ning probably wasn't having a great time either.
At this thought, Xu Meng frowned. Feeling sorry for your enemy was usually the start of bad luck. She'd really been thrown off track.
Xu Meng stood shoulder to shoulder with Zhu Ning, gazing into the distance. She asked softly: "You didn't finish your story. So after you disturbed Chu Qing's experimental subject, you've been hunted by Eternal Pharma ever since?"
If the earlier exchange had been tense and confrontational, things had now eased considerably. Their tone was relaxed, like ordinary friends chatting.
Zhu Ning sensed that Xu Meng was feeling better, and only then said: "Yes."
Xu Meng asked: "How did you find out you were an experimental subject?"
This question was a bit complicated. Zhu Ning thought about it and said: "I had a dead post mission at The Ant Nest. The father of the Contamination Source inside was a researcher at Eternal Pharma. I found his notes."
Xu Meng frowned. The Ant Nest? Zhu Ning was connected to the Ant Nest incident?
Bold indeed. Very much Zhu Ning's style.
Zhu Ning: "I've been stumbling along under Prometheus's guidance this whole time. I've only managed to piece together part of the truth."
Xu Meng: "And you still dare to keep taking his missions?"
Zhu Ning: "I don't have a choice. I'm already on this path—might as well walk it to the end."
From the day she entered the Sanitation Center, there had been no way back.
Xu Meng glanced at her. Damn—she was actually starting to feel sorry for Zhu Ning.
Just a tiny bit.
Xu Meng: "I'm going to disappoint you. I don't know Cheng Mofei's wristband password."
Xu Meng hadn't been Cheng Mofei's superior on that mission. She'd never opened his Employee Wristband.
They hadn't been close enough for that.
Zhu Ning had worried about this, but she wasn't disappointed. She believed Xu Meng could guess the password. Teammates who'd worked side by side might be able to figure out a few number combinations.
Xu Meng knew Cheng Mofei better than she herself realized.
Zhu Ning: "I think you should give it a try?"
Zhu Ning handed the wristband to Xu Meng. Xu Meng froze. Cheng Mofei's keepsake was right before her eyes, yet she couldn't move. "You trust me just like that?"
Zhu Ning couldn't open the wristband. Keeping it was pointless. It would be far more valuable in Xu Meng's hands.
Zhu Ning: "Just let me see the data after you open it. Besides, this thing belongs to you."
That was the deal. The wristband would go to Xu Meng. Zhu Ning wanted to see its contents.
Xu Meng accepted Cheng Mofei's wristband. After nine years, this wristband had finally returned to the right person.
Zhu Ning felt a sense of something being restored to its rightful owner.
Xu Meng gripped the wristband tightly. The metallic texture dug into her palm.
Zhu Ning: "Pleasure doing business?"
At this point, Xu Meng had no reason not to cooperate with Zhu Ning.
Zhu Ning was right. Cooperation was the only way forward.
Xu Meng: "Pleasure doing business."
"Here's my story." Xu Meng began. Zhu Ning had finished her part. As an information exchange, it was Xu Meng's turn.
Zhu Ning listened intently. Xu Meng gazed into the distance: "Cheng Mofei was chosen for a secret mission. After he left, our entire squad was forced to stand down. For one month there was no news whatsoever. At the time, everyone thought it was normal."
After all, it was a secret mission. They'd agreed beforehand that there would be no contact.
"One month later, I asked about Cheng Mofei's whereabouts for the first time, but got no answer. By then, everyone could feel something was off. Despite inquiring everywhere, there wasn't a shred of information. We knew nothing about his mission and couldn't even assist."
Zhu Ning listened quietly. Xu Meng's voice was very soft. "During this time, our entire squad was suspended, waiting for news at home. I asked multiple times with no results. Three months after Cheng Mofei's departure, we received the first message from the Center—his death notification."
Cheng Mofei, confirmed dead.
Xu Meng: "At first we didn't believe it. But the data showed Cheng Mofei's Employee Wristband hadn't detected any vital signs for over a month. Cheng Mofei was posthumously awarded Third-Class Military Merit. He had no family. Win or lose, the mission had a bonus, so according to the agreement Cheng Mofei had signed beforehand, the bonus and pension were split equally among all of us."
Zhu Ning was taken aback. For a mission of that caliber, even split four ways, the bonus would be astronomical.
So the other members had done nothing and gotten a windfall?
Xu Meng guessed what Zhu Ning was thinking. "That's not all. Our entire Cheetah Squad got a tenfold points multiplier."
Every employee at the Sanitation Center had points. Year-end bonuses were calculated based on points, and points were a crucial metric for promotion.
So the other Cheetah Squad members not only got money but also promotion opportunities?
Xu Meng: "I filed multiple requests to investigate the truth of Cheng Mofei's death, but every one was rejected. The company's message was blunt: we had to accept it. We couldn't determine whether the news was real or fake, and the team had differing opinions. Lynx was convinced Cheng Mofei wasn't dead and proposed continuing the search privately. Because the entire squad's points had been multiplied tenfold, everyone qualified for promotion to management. Those tenfold points were bought with Cheng Mofei's life. Nobody wanted to become management—except Xie Jiazu."
Zhu Ning had already guessed that Lynx was a Cheetah Squad member. Hearing about Lynx wasn't a shock. But Xie Jiazu?
It actually took Zhu Ning a moment to realize this was her own department head.
He was a member of Cheetah Squad?
Xu Meng: "A few years later, Xie Jiazu got his promotion opportunity and entered the Sanitation Center's management. He started as deputy to the Cleanup Department head. With the former head's mentorship, his own drive, and massive personnel changes at the time, it only took him three years to climb to the department head position."
Hearing this, Zhu Ning felt uneasy. A teammate had died, yet someone could take the money with a clear conscience and climb the ladder. That path was supposed to be Cheng Mofei's.
Her instincts told her Xu Meng and Xie Jiazu probably weren't on good terms now.
Xu Meng: "Eventually, with only three members left, Cheetah Squad was dissolved. 'Dissolved' is generous—it was more like a purge. I was forced into retirement. The other members were all transferred out of District 103."
Xu Meng: "At the time, I hadn't accepted it but couldn't find any leads either. I thought maybe I'd just retire—I wasn't hurting for money."
Xu Meng paused, then laughed bitterly. "On the day I was processing my retirement, I'd already handed over all my weapons and documents. My final step was to change into my own clothes and walk out of the Sanitation Center. But when I opened the locker, there was a slip of paper tucked inside."
Xu Meng looked Zhu Ning in the eye and said slowly: "There was just one sentence on it: He was investigating Eternal Pharma."
No names were mentioned, but Xu Meng knew it referred to Cheng Mofei.
Zhu Ning asked: "Who left the note?"
Xu Meng shook her head. "No idea. I later had someone check the surveillance. The footage showed no one had approached my changing room."
No one had approached. The note had appeared out of thin air.
Zhu Ning's first thought: "Prometheus?"
The only thing that could alter surveillance was an AI.
Xu Meng: "Uncertain. Prometheus is strictly regulated by the Sanitation Center and isn't allowed to communicate privately with employees. If it was him, it means someone was helping him."
The disadvantage of an AI—one mind, no hands or feet. It needed a human body to act through.
If someone was helping him, who was that person?
Xu Meng: "I shared this privately. The remaining two squad members joined me in investigating. We spent three years barely scraping together some leads."
A secret mission, with the investigation target being Eternal Pharma—at first, their little team had almost nothing to show for it. And they quickly ran into obstacles.
Lynx had drawn Eternal Pharma's attention. Assassins were constantly after him, and he had no choice but to go into hiding.
Xu Meng: "I don't know who Cheng Mofei's direct superior was. The mission was handed directly to Cheng Mofei."
Right—there was a missing link in Cheng Mofei's story. His superior had never appeared.
Before dying, Cheng Mofei had sent the mission data to his superior. That superior also knew the wristband password.
Xu Meng: "To find out who the superior was, I returned to the Sanitation Center. With Xie Jiazu's help, I got into the Cleanup Department. I'd originally planned to investigate quietly, and then I met you."
Zhu Ning and Xu Meng had crossed paths.
At this point, Xu Meng's account mostly aligned with Zhu Ning's. They'd filled in each other's missing pieces, though many details hadn't been shared, and neither had mentioned their investigation progress.
Zhu Ning didn't want to pry too deeply. She asked: "What happened at the Eternal Pharma Foundation that day?"
Zhu Ning had originally gone to the foundation looking for leads. She'd spotted Xu Meng at the scene, and then Xu Meng vanished.
Both of them had been pulled away by the Sanitation Center and ended up at the Mechanical Oceanarium mission site.
Xu Meng: "After nine years, I received the same type of note again. This time the message was equally simple—it said if I wanted to know the truth about Cheng Mofei's death, I should go to the Eternal Pharma Foundation that day."
This behavior felt very familiar. Zhu Ning was being led by Prometheus's dead posts; Xu Meng was being led by a stranger's notes.
Over nine years, two people had been guided by two separate threads to the exact same location.
Xu Meng: "I chose to trust it, because nine years ago it was the same person who gave me the information about Cheng Mofei."
Xu Meng: "After I arrived, I began investigating. But midway through, I received a mission notification from the Sanitation Center."
Zhu Ning had received it at the same time. They'd both been pulled away.
Xu Meng: "I was torn between continuing the investigation and going to the Mechanical Oceanarium mission."
In the end, Xu Meng had chosen the latter. Compared to an unverified tip, she needed to protect her cover and find Cheng Mofei's superior.
Zhu Ning felt something was off. She'd previously speculated that the Mechanical Oceanarium might have been a diversion for whatever was really happening at the Eternal Pharma Foundation.
That meant something even more valuable had happened at the foundation that day.
Zhu Ning: "Is that all?"
"No, there's more." Xu Meng: "I immediately messaged Lynx and told him to keep watch."
Zhu Ning was alone. Xu Meng had a three-person team.
"Lynx took over. After the foundation event ended—after we'd all been pulled away—some people left the foundation carrying a crate, as if they were transporting something."
Xu Meng showed Zhu Ning several photos. They were very blurry—Lynx must have been taking covert shots from a great distance.
The photos showed roughly five or six people wearing black cloaks, their faces fitted with anti-surveillance devices. Their features were completely unidentifiable—the photos automatically blurred into smears of light. High-tech auto-censoring.
Two of them were carrying a black crate, equally blurry with no visible details. Later, the group boarded a flying vehicle.
Zhu Ning's first impression: cultish.
Xu Meng: "They disappeared near a dense forest. I'm still investigating what happened next."
If Zhu Ning had never been on a mission beyond the wall, this information would have seemed unremarkable. But knowing the true colors of this world, it was hard not to read more into it.
Were the people at the foundation that day the same kind as Zhu Ning?
Author's Note
While revising, I wanted to explain about Xu Meng and Li Nianchuan's names. I chose them deliberately. Li Nianchuan sounds like an important character, but he's actually a puppy. Xu Meng's name sounds more ordinary, so early readers following the protagonist's perspective would also overlook her existence. Li Nianchuan's name came from a Sichuan restaurant near my house called Nianchuan Ju that later closed down—I decided from the start that he'd open a restaurant. Li Nianchuan was a red herring I planted while laying Xu Meng's hidden storyline—like a multiple-choice distraction. Li Nianchuan misleads you; Xu Meng is the correct answer tied to the main plot. I also really like the character 萌 (meng)—it has a feeling of quietly sprouting.
I caught a cold today so I wrote a bit less, sorry! The dungeon arc is coming up and I'll try to get to it quickly.
There are way too many nutrient solutions—I can't keep up with the bonus chapters! Putting 60k, 70k on the tab for now. Please stop watering, rich ladies! I'm getting scared!
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