Qingye Heshi was walking back when the Illusion beside him slowly spoke, "This time, we directly laid our cards on the table and exposed information... but I still can't see it clearly... strange... we must not be careless."
Upon hearing this, Qingye Heshi could only sigh, feeling a bit melancholic: "She finally took that step."
As an outsider, he couldn't do much more; he could only hope this great adventure would have a happy ending.
Not long after Qingye Heshi left, Zheng Fan also prepared to pack up his things and run away.
Upon returning to the Zero One Office, he couldn't wait to throw Cheng Fei's body on the ground and stomp on it a few times: "It's just as you thought; if we boldly take the regular business route of turning black to white, we'll be targeted by that handsome guy."
Lin Yilin sat behind her desk, seemingly reading, and stood up when she saw Zheng Fan return, responding casually, "Also, the huge change in 'Cheng Fei' makes it hard not to think of Phantasms, but conventional methods of detecting Phantasms are useless against Mr. Illusion. Qingye Heshi also came to test the Illusion on me back then. If he connects the two aspects, combined with other clues, it's not hard to come up with a guess; the rest is just verification."
"The keenness of smart people is really a bit sickening," Zheng Fan said bluntly.
Lin Yilin tilted her head, "Thank you for the compliment."
"After today, I probably won't need to go there frequently, right? It seems there are fewer troublemakers, mostly just harassment. After equipping the subordinates with guns, minor skirmishes can be resolved by themselves," Zheng Fan said.
"Yes, things have come to an end, and we can finally rest well. However, relatively speaking, if Su Hongyuan feels it's temporarily difficult to seek revenge on Cheng Fei, her desire to cause trouble for me might resurface," Lin Yilin mused.
She walked over to the coffee machine, took Zheng Fan's mug, brewed coffee, and handed it to him.
Zheng Fan accepted it with a surprised thank you, "He's a major general of a large studio faction, constantly targeting our small office is really beneath him."
"In Dadu, having strong and clear desires is never wrong; only then is it easy to touch upon things beyond imagination," Lin Yilin seemed completely uninterested in all the malice from the outside world.
"Coincidentally, I took on a commission this afternoon. Let's go together," Lin Yilin suggested.
"Oh? All right," Zheng Fan agreed without hesitation.
It was all Cheng Fei's fault; the anomaly points were being consumed too quickly recently, and what they earned from the previous remnants of Kane Tong incident was almost spent. It was indeed time to make some money.
After Zheng Fan rested for a while in the office, finished a cup of coffee, dragged Cheng Fei's body to the back of the office to hide it, and left Toast to guard the house, the two of them finally went out together.
The recent weather continued to fluctuate between clear and rainy, with fog often lingering.
Today, a faint mist enveloped everything on the streets, casting a veil over them.
It didn't significantly affect visibility, but the atmosphere it created might be quite appealing to some people.
"What kind of commission is it?" Zheng Fan asked on the way.
"Shoes."
"Huh?"
"It was something I encountered when arranging work for Banmu's studio. After chatting with someone from that side, something was mentioned."
Lin Yilin scrolled through her phone: "Recently, a type of Phantasm has become popular in the underground black market of Xixikeke, all of them shoes. These shoes have various effects when worn, making people run faster, dance better, move more agilely..."
"Mass-produced Phantasms? Then there must be a source," Zheng Fan said.
"That's right. Currently, there are only a few cases, and the transaction process is unclear. The Processing Bureau hasn't paid much attention yet, but their informants in Xixikeke have still initiated a preliminary investigation commission. After all, it might involve Illusion issues."
"Is it a Processing Bureau commission?" Zheng Fan caught the keyword.
"No, when there's a commission like that, the Processing Bureau always has a bunch of people scrambling to get involved and make connections. I won't compete for that. I took another one. It's not on the official website, but on another private commission website," Lin Yilin said, stopping in front of a shop.
Zheng Fan followed, stopping, and realized it was a shoe store.
However, the rolling shutter was closed, and it didn't seem to be open for business.
Lin Yilin bypassed the front door and went to the residential area at the back of the shop, reaching out to enter a password on the old doorbell. As music echoed, the iron door opened, and she pushed it open and entered.
Standing in front of the inner security door, Lin Yilin said, "Hello, I'm Lin Yilin from the Zero One Office, whom you contacted online. I'm here for the meeting now."
Lin Yilin waited outside, while Zheng Fan directly passed through the door into the house.
As soon as he entered, he saw a figure flash past, quickly unlocking the door, and then running away at a rapid speed to hide on the stairs leading to the second floor of the house.
Abnormal movement speed.
Lin Yilin pushed the door open, poked her head in for a look, and then continued to walk in.
"Stand there and don't come in yet. I need to confirm your identity and safety," the person hiding on the stairs yelled in a suppressed voice.
Unbeknownst to him, Zheng Fan was already crouching beside him, right next to him, and upon hearing the man speak, he nodded obediently and replied, "Of course, we're very safe."
Naturally, the man couldn't see him.
Zheng Fan took this opportunity to size up the man.
He looked a bit disheveled, with messy hair, greasy from not having been washed for a while, bloodshot eyes, and dark circles, indicating insufficient sleep at night. His clothes, however, were changed frequently, but despite being new, they smelled strong, suggesting he only changed clothes without washing his body.
His gaze shifted downwards, excluding the details Zheng Fan wasn't interested in, focusing instead on the pair of shoes on the man's feet.
Completely contrary to the man's own sloppiness, a pair of black, iridescent athletic shoes were worn on his feet. The shoes had sharp, claw-like edges, and the patterns on them were quite wild. The final logo seemed to be a sprawling, sprinting multi-legged creature—a cheetah? A human? Or something else.
These shoes looked somewhat familiar to Zheng Fan.
"Excuse me, are you Mr. Teng Jun?" Lin Yilin spoke from the doorway, pulling something out of her small bag, "I'm Lin Yilin from the Zero One Office, whom you contacted online earlier. This is my business card and ID."
Whoosh!
A gust of wind swept by, blowing Lin Yilin's hair, but her pupils only widened slightly and then contracted, her expression unchanged.
The items in her hand were snatched away in the blink of an eye, but she had more or less memorized the other party's appearance.
The shoes...
Zheng Fan came to her side: "His shoes..."
"They are Phantasms," Lin Yilin finished.
After a long moment, the man named Teng Jun finally got up and came down: "Phew, are you Miss Lin Yilin? You're even younger than I imagined. Isn't it a bit too early to open an office at this age?"
Lin Yilin said, "In fact, I started working in an office when I was in junior high."
..."Alright, please come in. I apologize; due to my own reasons, the house hasn't been cleaned in a long time."
