The mascot of the wishing shop is a cat.

Chapter 180 Investigation

As night quietly fell and the city's hustle and bustle was gradually swallowed by the darkness, Lin Xiyue and Molos finally returned wearily to the Wishing Shop, carrying the Spirit Flame and a mountain of files.

By this time, the clock had struck seven or eight o'clock in the evening. Winter days are always so short, and darkness has long since enveloped the entire earth.

Looking up, the sky seemed like a pitch-black curtain, with no light able to penetrate its thickness.

The usual bright moonlight was nowhere to be seen, and even the stars seemed to have hidden themselves away, refusing to show themselves. The entire night sky resembled a huge and deep black hole, giving people a sense of inexplicable oppression and unease.

The streetlights lining both sides of the street cast a dim, yellowish glow, like solitary guardians, steadfastly illuminating the road beneath our feet. The light filtered through the mist, forming hazy halos that added warmth and tranquility to the cold night.

However, even with these streetlights, the surroundings still felt unusually deserted and quiet.

"call--"

"We've finally arrived. The atmosphere was weird the whole way, making me feel like something might jump out from the roadside, which made me quite nervous."

Lingyan was such a chatterbox, chattering non-stop the whole way, and even after arriving at the store, she was still talking non-stop.

"Brother Lingyan! You're here too! (??▽?)?"

While Lingyan was still muttering to himself, Anqing's clear childlike voice rang out. She happily jumped into Lingyan's arms, seemingly trusting him completely.

"Oh, Xiao Anqing! Xiao Anqing, I'll be staying at your shop for the next few days, so I'll be troubling you. (?????)"

Lingyan seemed to be very familiar with Anqing. He squatted down and spoke to Anqing with a smile, and even solemnly asked her to arrange a room for him.

"No problem! Leave it to me! (? ? 3?)?"

An Qing was entrusted with an important task, and she happily made a promise, patting her chest vigorously to express that she would definitely do a good job.

"Alright, Xiao Anqing, we're leaving our logistics to you. Once you're done, please help heat up the food, okay? (?′?`?)"

Lin Xiyue also squatted down and patted An Qing's head, smiling as she gave her a task.

"Meow~"

When Moros saw An Qing's watery eyes looking at him expectantly, he couldn't help but call out to cheer her on.

"Oh, it's turned back again?"

Earl saw Meros, who had switched back to power-saving mode, as soon as he came out, and couldn't help but tease him.

"Shut up."

Meros glared at him and haughtily strode to the edge of the already tidied living room.

With a wave of his paw, he spread the documents he and Lin Xiyue had brought back from the archives all over the floor; there were hundreds of documents visible to the naked eye.

"What is this? And there's so much of it?!"

Earl leaned over and peered at the documents.

"The files contain information on missing persons cases from the past year."

Lin Xiyue sat down and continued flipping through the pages as she spoke.

"What?! So many?!"

Earl, who didn't know much about these things, was shocked. In just six months, there were hundreds of missing persons cases. That was too many.

"Yeah, and that doesn't even include the people we've already found. We've looked at so many in the archives, and these are just the ones left over. It's exhausting. QAQ"

Lingyan also sat down on the carpet and continued to examine the files, while complaining to Lanster and Earl.

"Alright, alright, I'll help too. This past year has been thanks to your help, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to keep that stubborn mule Meros in check. Lanster, you come too, stop fiddling with that scale!"

Earl saw that the workload was indeed huge, so he sat down to help and even called Lanster over.

"Hmph, I can come, but let me make this clear first: I'm here to help my uncle, it has nothing to do with you!"

Lanster, despite his reluctance, sat down and began helping to look at the files.

For a moment, the entire wishing shop fell silent as everyone began to help check the case files.

It wasn't until 4 a.m. the next day that all of the hundreds of files were reviewed. Everyone shared their thoughts and found several commonalities in what they had read.

Firstly, the majority of all missing persons are young adults between the ages of sixteen and thirty, while the number of children, who are most vulnerable to abduction, is not very large.

Secondly, the fact that most people's terminals disappeared in the moat between the safe zone and the slums suggests that their terminals were likely thrown directly into the water.

Finally, and most importantly, they are all factory workers. They all work in an industrial park.

Based on the above points, the group concluded that their hideout was likely located near the industrial park.

"Such an obvious thing, how come your psionic center didn't notice it?"

After summarizing, Lin Xiyue looked at Ling Yan with surprise.

"If I told you that if you hadn't come to investigate, no one would have reported these things, and we would have just said that someone had gone missing, would you believe me?"

Lingyan said with a wry smile.

"Then you might need to clean up your personnel. It feels like either your staff are slacking off, or you've been infiltrated by them, which is why this is happening."

Earl patted Lingyan on the shoulder and spoke to him earnestly.

“I know, I’ll report it to the captain and let him handle it. It’s really strange, I only just realized that they left me, who is obviously a member of the armed group, here, and then everyone else left. They’re really careless.”

While complaining, Lingyan reported the discovery to the captain, only to receive a simple "I know" and an order not to move around.

"Ah, this is it?"

Lingyan was filled with questions.

"Oh? Isn't it obvious? They just left you here to fish. Just you wait, they'll be back to clear out the staff in two days at the latest. Come on, let's go eat, I'm starving after not eating all night."

Lanster looked at Lingyan with disdain, patted his behind, got up, and went to find An Qing for dinner.

"Huh?! Is that so?!"

Lingyan watched as everyone headed to the dining table, still looking on incredulously.

"No, no. The captain and the others aren't telling me anything. Aren't they afraid I'll ruin their plans?"

Lingyan looked at her terminal, still unable to believe that she had been excluded from the plan without being told anything, and that everything had been kept from her!

"Did you find it? Stop thinking about it and eat quickly. We need you to call people to check the industrial park later."

Lanster rolled his eyes and told Lingyan to come and eat. He thought Lingyan was overthinking things. If he really told him the plan, he might not be able to catch any fish. With Lingyan's intelligence, he was basically out of the running for scheming.

……