I'm being held captive by a monster

Chapter 186 Fish and Poetry? Coffee Shop?
"Li Lu, come to my room now and let's talk."

After Zhang Guang finished speaking, he hung up the phone.

Then he took a breath.

An unprecedented seriousness appeared on his face.

Taoyuan and the Coordination Department have had exchanges...

He sat on the sofa and closed his eyes.

Ten minutes later, there was a knock on the door.

"Enter!"

Zhang Guang nodded to Li Lu.

"Li Lu, are you sure now that the Coordination Department and Taoyuan have communicated?"

After closing the door, he asked directly.

Li Lu handed the picture that Ke Ke sent her to Zhang Guang.

There is no text on it, just a bunch of code.

"I don't understand, just tell me directly."

Zhang Guang glanced at him and waved his hand.

"Yes, I can confirm it, but I can't tell you what exactly it is."

Li Lu adjusted his glasses and nodded affirmatively.

"sit."

Zhang Guang gestured for her to sit down, then poured Li Lu a glass of water.

"When did this communication begin? Who initiated it? Taoyuan or the Coordination Department?"

“How often do you communicate?”

He asked after taking a sip of water as well.

Li Lu was silent for a moment. "Minister, Taoyuan has deleted most of the data. We are not sure in what order he deleted it."

"If Taoyuan deleted the messages in chronological order, from earliest to latest, then this communication may have taken place in the past few years. Of course, it's not ruled out that they may have communicated earlier."

"If Taoyuan deletes messages based on their length, then we can't tell when they were communicated."

"But from what I know about Taoyuan...he deletes data...probably based on the importance of the information."

Li Lu said as he looked at the pictures.

"How important?"

"Yes, Taoyuan will definitely classify all the information he has stored."

"In other words... Taoyuan thinks his communication with the Coordination Department is relatively unimportant?"

Zhang Guang asked with a frown.

Li Luze didn't know how to answer for a moment.

"Minister, before we destroyed Taoyuan's mainframe, the amount of data copied was only about... 2 to 3 percent."

"Taoyuan has destroyed more than 95 percent of the information."

"So... Taoyuan probably really thought that his communication with the Coordination Department... was very unimportant."

Li Lu organized his words and said.

"Could it be a trap? Did Taoyuan deliberately falsify his communication with the Coordination Department so we could discover it?"

"It's possible, but... return to North City. Give me a day and I can decipher these communications. We can see exactly what they said."

"I can see what was said..."

Zhang Guang closed his eyes and pressed his eyebrows.

"Then... was it Taoyuan who contacted the Coordination Department first, or was it the Coordination Department that contacted Taoyuan first..."

"I won't know all this until I return to North City."

"But Minister, we have only captured a portion of their chat log, and this chat log could actually be very long."

"So... even if I could decipher what they were saying, there would still be a lot I couldn't tell."

After Li Lu finished speaking, the room fell into silence.

Zhang Guang closed his eyes, not knowing what he was thinking.

Just the expression was more serious than ever before.

"Bumi, do you want me to go back now? I'll stay up all night to crack this?"

"Need not!"

Zhang Guang opened his eyes and said, "If the Coordination Department really has something to do with Taoyuan, going back now would only alert the enemy."

"Then let's..."

"……let me see."

Zhang Guang pointed his finger at the table.

"If the Coordination Department is really colluding with Taoyuan, then some things can really be explained clearly..."

He narrowed his eyes.

Li Lu beside him also nodded silently.

Taoyuan has never launched any substantial attack on the Coordination Department.

From the time he returned from Taoyuan until now, all his actions were aimed at the siege and killing team, making them miserable and making it seem that the overall planning department's defense was good.

Based on this, the Coordination Department mocked and suppressed the Siege Department in various ways.

At first, Zhang Guang and everyone in the Siege Division believed that Taoyuan was only targeting the Siege Division because the Siege Division posed the greatest threat to him.

but now……

What if Taoyuan has some deal with the Coordination Department?

What if Taoyuan's constant harassment of the Siege Division is a tactic of the Coordination Division...?
The purpose is to suppress the siege and killing team and deprive them of their privileges?

"hiss……"

Zhang Guang suddenly thought of something.

At that time, it was revealed that the Coordination Department had secretly changed the probability of the human-animal lottery.

This incident was originally a huge mistake in principle, but in the end it ended up removing the hats of several leaders of the Coordination Department.

An important reason is that after this incident was exposed, Taoyuan’s leaders and their livestock launched an attack on a small stronghold of the siege department.

This forced Zhang Guang to devote himself to the search and pursuit of Taoyuan, and he had no time to pay attention to the Coordination Department.

After dealing with Taoyuan, the matter of the Coordination Department was also left unresolved.

"Taoyuan launched an attack at that time..."

"Is he trying to help the Coordination Department divert attention?"

Zhang Guang's breathing quickened little by little...

A terrifying feeling made him shake his head quickly.

"Minister, if the Coordination Department is really colluding with Taoyuan... that would be terrible..."

Li Lu also shuddered and clenched his hands in fear.

"If the Coordination Department wants to communicate with Taoyuan, it will definitely let Taoyuan actively access our network."

"They also have a technical team and protective measures, but Taoyuan is not something we can defend against just because we want to."

"In other words... the communication between the Coordination Department and Taoyuan will lead to the leakage of various information, including the abilities and weaknesses of the committee members, and even..."

The more Li Lu spoke, the paler his face became.

"It shouldn't be that exaggerated..."

Zhang Guang shook his head thoughtfully.

Because judging from Liang Dehai's performance just now...

Lao Liang probably doesn't know about this.

If the Minister of the Coordination Department doesn't know about this or is even unaware of it, then the situation shouldn't be too bad.

"Minister, have you told Minister Liang that some of the Taoyuan mainframes are still in the Coordination Department?"

Li Lu suddenly asked as if he had thought of something.

"He said, he should be talking to the people below now."

"That……"

"It's ok."

Zhang Guang naturally guessed what Li Lu was worried about.

There was a hint of contemplation in his eyes.

"If there is a connection between the Coordination Department and Taoyuan, then we will tell Minister Liang, which will prove that we are unaware of the connection between them."

"This will actually help us observe secretly."

"Besides, didn't you tell me that when we were copying the South City data, Taoyuan's mainframe in the North City was also destroying the information, so we couldn't get it in the first place."

"So don't worry."

Zhang Guang said calmly.

"Go back and rest first. Don't tell anyone about this for now."

After another moment of silence, he waved his hand and said.

"……it is good."

Li Lu nodded and said nothing more.

After Li Lu left, Zhang Guang frowned again.

He was thinking, the reward for killing Taoyuan is obviously greater, is it really necessary for the Coordination Department to cooperate with Taoyuan to encircle and kill them?

Or... do they have other purposes?
"Tsk."

After thinking for a long time without any clue, Zhang Guang simply gave up.

If only Lin Xing'an were here at this time...

He put boiling water in the bathtub and couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

"……never mind……"

After putting some boiling water in the bathtub and lying in the rising steam, Zhang Guang wanted to call Xu Zhe over to chat.

But in the end I put my phone down.

Xu Zhe is probably dealing with household chores right now...

He closed his eyes and emptied his mind.

……

South City Railway Station.

In the office of the platform building, Xu Zhe crossed his fingers, and the rings on his fingers made crisp sounds as they colliding.

Opposite him was the Mirror Ghost, who was wearing a red dress and whose face was still unclear.

The two of them were only separated by a table that was less than one meter wide, but it felt like there was a huge chasm between them.

In the silence where no one wanted to speak first, the atmosphere in the office was extremely strange.

"Xiaoye will soon become an adult."

In the end, it was Xu Zhe who spoke first.

His voice was a little gloomy.

"She is the first child my mother gave me."

"And you destroyed her with your own hands."

After a long time, Mirror Ghost said.

There was a hint of resentment in her voice.

"I don't want to talk about whether I was wrong or not. Now..."

"Don't want to talk about it? If it was my fault, you'd be dying to talk about it all the time, right?"

Mirror Ghost sneered.

Her red figure appeared on all the reflective mirrors in the room.

"You know you're wrong. You've ruined our child's life. It's too late to talk about it now!"

All the reflections in the mirror slammed the table!
Xu Zhe closed his eyes, his breathing became heavier and heavier, and the blue veins on his forehead kept throbbing.

"I'm not wrong. My way of education is not wrong."

"She just couldn't bear it."

His words made Mirror Ghost's body tremble.

"...Yes, you are right, Xu Zhe. You are amazing. It is me who is blind, stupid, and foolish."

"It's all my fault. I shouldn't have known you. I shouldn't have given the child to you!"

Mirror Ghost stared at Xu Zhe and said with gritted teeth.

Xu Zhe also took two deep breaths and opened his eyes.

"What? Don't you know? What are you pretending for?"

"Don't you know how I train my children? Didn't I tell you? Didn't I ask for your permission?"

"If you felt there was a problem, you could have stopped me, but you didn't because deep down you actually agreed with it."

"If something went wrong later, you could have taken the child back, but you didn't."

"You haven't even seen your child once in twelve years. What can you blame me for?"

He retorted without mercy.

"You want your child to have a bright future, but you don't want to bear the responsibility if they fail, right?"

"..."

As he listened to his words, two lines of tears flowed down Mirror Ghost's face.

She had forgotten how she felt when she heard that Xu Ye had to wear only a single layer of clothing and be placed in an environment of minus 20 degrees Celsius every day to stimulate his abilities, and was frozen to the point of fainting every day.

She also forgot the pain she felt when Xu Zhe casually told her that Xu Ye was disabled and his legs were frozen.

Yes, she was not unaware.

She's just...cowardly.

He was so cowardly that after knowing that Xu Ye had suffered so much pain, he didn't dare to face Xu Ye again.

I dare not bear Xu Ye's gaze anymore...

"Forget it, I'm not here to argue with you this time."

Xu Zhe waved his hand.

"We are all failed parents, and the root cause of our failure is Xu Ye."

"Xu Ye is our stain. Her existence is a constant reminder of the mistakes we made."

"Xu Ye is about to turn eighteen, and we have fulfilled our obligation to support him."

"What I mean is, let her go free and let her survive on her own. A new cycle will begin soon, and we can ask our mother for another child."

"We still have a chance to be parents again, we still have a chance to make amends."

He looked at the mirror ghost in front of him, and his voice softened a little.

But the mirror ghost in the red dress shook her head.

All the mirror images around slowly disappeared.

"I won't have another child, Xu Zhe."

"We clearly made a mistake with Xu Ye, and we can't make up for it in this lifetime."

The reflection of her face kept changing.

It's like the emotions are fluctuating violently.

"Row."

Xu Zhe was silent for a long time, and then didn't say another word.

"Then do it my way and let her go."

"...You can keep her on the committee. You have the ability..."

"Yes I have."

Xu Zhe nodded without disguising, "As long as I give the order, there are plenty of people of the right age in the committee willing to marry her and let her stay in the committee as his wife."

"But you also have the ability. You also have the ability to bring her to South City and let her live a more comfortable life there than in the committee or in North City, right?"

A hint of sneer and irony appeared on his face.

The Mirror Ghost just remained silent.

"You are still so hypocritical, just like your mirror image, everything reflected is fake."

"You clearly believe deep down that Xu Ye is a stain on our lives, but you can't bear to admit it."

"You are also unwilling to help Xu Ye, because once you help her, it proves that you think you owe her something, which is equivalent to admitting your mistake."

"I'm different from you. I didn't help her because I never felt I was wrong, and I didn't feel I owed her anything. So why should I help her?"

Xu Zhe spread out his hands.

Although they were in South City where it was spring all year round, his voice was so cold.

"You are such an indecisive person, you are really not worthy of being my wife."

"Now in my eyes, you are just like Xu Ye, a stain on my life, Xu Zhe."

He looked at the mirror ghost and spoke calmly, enunciating each word.

"So be it."

Xu Zhe didn't give Jing Gui a chance to speak. He waved his hand and left the office.

There was a hint of relief on his face, as if a knot in his heart had been untied.

But this is just a knot in the heart.

"The next place..."

Xu Zhe took out Tian Ming's notebook from his arms.

[Disappearance of the "copy" ability]

【Xingfu Garden Community】

He looked at the key words in the book, narrowed his eyes slightly, and prepared to send a text message to Liu Xu.

But as soon as he took out his cell phone, a text message from Liu Xu came.

There is no content, it’s just a positioning.

"...Fish and Poetry? A coffee shop?"

(End of this chapter)