Abnormal crossing

Chapter 185 The Truth (Part 1)

With Ophelia's disappearance.

The vibrations in the state banquet hall, or rather the entire palace, suddenly increased significantly.

Rumbling--

On the walls of the main hall, the intricate and ornate bas-reliefs began to crack, with fine cracks spreading like a spider web, and stone chips flaked off.

The silverware and wine glasses on the table jingled and trembled, and the scarlet wine spilled from the stemmed glasses, meandering like blood on the white tablecloth.

The starry sky projection on the dome was also distorted and deformed in the flickering light. The originally peaceful scene seemed to be caught in a vortex and spun rapidly, looking down menacingly at the scene below.

Suddenly.

Snapped--

With a loud, crisp sound, the floor in the middle of the avenue suddenly cracked open, and a bottomless fissure opened like a giant mouth, instantly extending from the entrance to below the platform.

"Ophelia!!!"

Adele, who only came to her senses at this moment, stood up abruptly. The gilded chair crashed to the ground with her violent movement. However, just as she was about to rush to the spot where Ophelia had disappeared, Jin grabbed her hand first.

Adele struggled a couple of times, but finding she couldn't break free, she looked at Jokowi in panic, her tone completely devoid of her previous elegance and composure: "Brother, what happened? Where is Ophelia?"

"Don't worry, Ophelia will be alright," Jokovin said, patting his sister's shoulder as he approached her. He then turned his gaze to Samantha Sek, the head of the Herald Academy: "Ms. Samantha, it seems you really are the third mastermind?"

Upon hearing Jokowen's words, the elderly Samantha Ya Seik disregarded the shaking hall and her gaze instantly sharpened: "What do you know?"

As Samantha Yasek spoke.

Swah——

Everyone present seemed to be controlled by some kind of program, and suddenly stood up from their seats.

“I don’t know much, but I can tell you if you’re interested,” Jokowen said, shrugging his shoulders as if he hadn’t been frightened at all. “Any normal person could tell that Boko III has a problem at a glance. It’s just a matter of whether it’s a natural illness or a conspiracy behind it. Actually, this problem didn’t last long. When I first met Boko III, our communication equipment was attacked by a wave packet attack. From that moment on, I knew that Boko’s anomaly was definitely not a coincidence.”

Samantha remained silent.

Qiao Kewen flicked away a small stone that had landed on his shoulder and continued, "Since then, I have been looking for suspicious targets. The first one I locked onto was, of course, the director of the Royal Power Research Institute—after all, this position is too special and too conspicuous. After the existence of the conspiracy group was confirmed, he was practically an open card."

"As for the identity of the second mastermind, I hesitated for a while, unsure whether it was Lynn or the Chief Constable."

Speaking of it.

Qiao Kewen looked up at the other side of the hall, where the Chief of Internal Affairs, Lin En, was staring at him indifferently.

As Jokowen said, given the known conspiracy and the fact that there are multiple people involved, besides the director of the Royal Institute being an open secret, there must be one or more moles among Jokowen's close associates.

Given the structure of the Bosca royal family, the most likely candidates would be the Minister of the Interior, Lynn, and the Chief of Staff.

The former is the chief steward of the royal family, whose job covers the daily expenses of the monarch and other members of the royal family.

The chief attendant's function and status were relatively low, but he served only the monarch of Persia, and his contact time with the monarch was even longer than that of the former.

In addition to Lynn's previous performance and the news that another squire had been killed by Boko III a few months earlier, it did make Jokovin, or rather, Hibiscus and Milo, hesitate for a while.

After all, this kind of thing can't be deciphered through networks or archives.

Da da da.
Lynn, dressed in the robes of the royal steward, slowly walked to the left side of the platform, looked at the crack in the middle, and then looked up at Joe Cowen: "So how did you finally determine that it was me? — I believe that I performed without any mistakes."

“You certainly don’t have any problems within the palace, otherwise we wouldn’t have hesitated for so long,” Jokowen sighed, a complex expression on his face. “But earlier on… do you remember what you said to me when we first met?”

Lynn frowned: "What did you say?"

Qiao Kewen pointed to his sideburns: "You said back then that with the passage of time, not everyone can be like me, just with some black hair at the sideburns."

Before Lynn could speak, Joe Cowen continued, “At first glance, there’s nothing wrong with this statement, so when we first met, I didn’t feel anything was off at all—not many people can be that sensitive or picky about words, not even the most elite seventh-level detective in the Starsea Alliance Police Department.”

"But when you start to doubt someone and start to analyze their words and actions back to the beginning, some details that were previously overlooked will resurface."

Speaking of it.

Joe Cowen extended his index finger and tapped his forehead: "Let me remind you, Chief of Internal Affairs Lynn, things are different from fifty years ago. The Joe Cowen standing in front of you is a cunning veteran of the Star Sea—I gave myself a brand new Kunku alien skin many years ago."

"Apart from Adele, who has been in contact with me through the Starsea Internet for many years, even Ophelia, whom I just met, did not recognize me, let alone see through my original appearance under this skin."

Lynn was taken aback for a moment, then fell silent.

Joe Cowen then raised his hand and made a gesture representing the number two in Persian culture: "The fact that you can say that when you meet someone can only mean two things."

"First, you possess some kind of technology that allows you to see through my skin, which is quite strange to be honest—although this kind of skin isn't very valuable in the Star Sea, and is mainly used to fool the other party with the help of an AI during video communication, it's still something that an early-stage fourth-tier civilization can see through."

"As for the second thing, well, that's naturally it."

Qiao Kewen paused, and then remained silent for a few seconds:

“You saw me before, fifty years ago.”

Note:
We're at the best hospital in the province. I'll have another 24-hour Holter monitor test tomorrow. I'm quite nervous. I previously had mitral regurgitation, myocardial hypertrophy, and tachycardia. The first two weren't particularly serious. I didn't investigate the cause of the tachycardia thoroughly; I just controlled it with medication. I didn't realize it was related to premature ventricular contractions (PVCs).
According to another doctor who spoke to me before I came, although I don't have heart failure, it's not far off if I don't get treatment. People may not know how serious heart failure is. The survival period for this disease is only 5-10 years, and even the mild cases are only about 20 years. Anyway, let's see how the test results are this time. I really can't guarantee updates in the next few days.
(End of this chapter)