Chapter 494: Hide

Chen Ling glanced sideways and saw this embroidery, freezing in place.

《Red Dust》??

Seeing Chen Ling suddenly stop, Yang Xiao and Su Zhiwei both turned back in confusion, just about to ask something, but Chen Ling spoke first:

"Dr. Su, this embroidery... can I take a closer look?"

"Of course."

Su Zhiwei didn't hesitate and handed the exquisitely framed embroidery to Chen Ling. The latter narrowed his eyes slightly, carefully observing every detail on the picture... the stone-paved road, white walls and gray tiles, cooking smoke, willow trees, and the curling smoke appearing and disappearing in the distance.

Everything on the embroidery gradually overlapped with the Red Dust Domain in Chen Ling's impression. Of course, it wasn't the bustling, dazzling Red Dust main city, but Willow Town.

It's similar... too similar.

Everything on this painting was practically a miniature of the Red Dust Domain, and combined with the title "Red Dust" in the inscription, Chen Ling's brain couldn't help but run at high speed!

What Su Zhiwei liked most was this kind of Jiangnan-style scenery. Presumably, Yao Qing knew this, so he spent a great deal of time and energy embroidering this "Red Dust" picture, and everything on it was extremely similar to the Red Dust Domain... All of this seemed to point to Su Zhiwei's identity.

Su Zhiwei is the Lord of Red Dust?!

At this moment, a detail Chen Ling had previously overlooked flashed through his mind.

"Dr. Su," Chen Ling suddenly spoke. "Back at Shennongjia, you once briefly introduced 'String Theory'... I remember you saying that the higher-dimensional something is, the more likely it is to be hidden in a tiny place?"

Although Su Zhiwei didn't know why Chen Ling suddenly brought this up, she still nodded:

"That's right. For 'String Theory,' dimensions change based on the method of observation and the angle. The smaller the world, the higher the dimension. If there are high-dimensional beings like gods in the world, they might very well exist in a floating speck of dust, or in the inconspicuous cells within our bodies. So, in some religious theories, there is a saying called..."

"A world in a flower, a Bodhi in a leaf!" Chen Ling finished the second half of the sentence, his eyes as bright as stars!

That's it!

A world in a flower, a Bodhi in a leaf... No wonder the entrance to the Red Dust Domain was in a patch of flowers in the Gray Realm, inside the most inconspicuous flower. Strictly speaking, that wasn't "the entrance to the Red Dust Domain," but "the Red Dust Domain was hidden inside that petal!"

Su Zhiwei, the Lord of Red Dust, had "hidden" the Red Dust Domain!

All the clues intertwined at this moment, and Chen Ling suddenly understood... He stood there for a long time, took a deep look at Su Zhiwei, and returned the embroidery.

"Why did you suddenly ask about this?" Su Zhiwei asked in confusion.

"Nothing, just remembered some things... Anyway, let's leave here first and talk about it later."

The three of them walked to the entrance of the street. Yao Qing had already started the car and seemed to have been waiting for a long time.

Chen Ling had originally planned to sit in the passenger seat, but after seeing Yao Qing's face, which was as dark as the bottom of a pot, he sighed in his heart and chose to sit in the back with Yang Xiao, leaving the passenger seat for Su Zhiwei.

"Sister Zhiwei, look, I just got my driver's license this year! I passed everything in one go, no retests."

As soon as Su Zhiwei sat down, Yao Qing excitedly showed his driver's license to her while skillfully starting the car and driving onto the road.

Su Zhiwei took the license and smiled slightly. "Mm, very impressive... knowing how to drive already makes you an adult."

"Let me tell you, the instructor at our driving school was especially fierce..."

As the vehicle drove along the road, Yao Qing seemed to have opened a chatterbox, constantly sharing things from his past year with Su Zhiwei, from selling an embroidery piece for six figures to the face of the driving instructor hinting for cigarettes and gifts—he went on and on.

……

As the vehicle drove away, in an abandoned building a few hundred meters from the Su residence, a figure slowly lowered their binoculars and dialed a number.

"You guessed right, three men took Su Zhiwei away."

"Three?"

Nie Yu's voice came from the other end of the phone, and harsh police sirens could occasionally be heard in the background. "How could it be three... Did you note their characteristics?"

"One wearing a brown trench coat, one wearing a white jacket... These two entered the Su residence and stayed for a while, then Su Zhiwei packed her luggage and left with them. There's also a college student-looking boy who seems to be there to meet them."

"Brown trench coat, white jacket? It really is them."

Nie Yu let out a cold snort. The next moment, a loud bang came from the phone, and the wailing sirens seemed to be smashed by something and stopped abruptly.

A moment later, Nie Yu spoke again:

"Have all the men been gathered?"

"According to your request, all the men around Gusu have been transferred. But the time was too short, so only the first batch has arrived, about seven or eight people... The second batch has a dozen more, and they should arrive before dawn tomorrow." He paused and added, "These people's equipment and skills are quite good. A few are very famous killers, and they are very expensive... Can you really afford it?"

"I said, the thing I'm least short of right now is money," Nie Yu's voice was icy. "I'm about to break out of the encirclement and will definitely arrive before tomorrow morning. You have the first batch follow them and see where they're going."

"Alright."

"Don't follow too closely, hide well... That guy in the brown coat is not an ordinary person, don't let him discover you."

"Rest assured, they are all experienced hands, they know what they're doing."

The man hung up the phone. A moment later, several inconspicuous vehicles drove out from various intersections on the surrounding roads, merged into the heavy traffic, and slowly approached the vehicle Su Zhiwei was in...

……

Chen Ling sat in the back seat, Yao Qing's chattering voice in his ears, his gaze fixed out the window.

They were currently in the downtown area of Gusu, where there were many vehicles, and they could only move forward slowly along the road. At this speed, it would take at least another half hour to get out of the city.

"I thought you would take the initiative to drive," Yang Xiao said beside him.

"I don't know the way," Chen Ling glanced at the time on his flip phone. "And, I might need to rest for a bit when the time comes..."

It was almost twelve hours since Chen Ling entered the Era Archive, and he would soon be forced to log off. Of course, this log-off and reconnection should be seamless within the archive.

Yang Xiao didn't understand what Chen Ling meant and nodded slightly.

"You haven't closed your eyes since Shennongjia; you really should get some good rest."

Chen Ling gave an "mm," closed his eyes, and leaned back in the seat as if he had fallen asleep... About two seconds later, he opened his eyes again.

[ID 129439]

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