Doomsday Wonderland

Chapter 1324: Husband and Wife's Reunion

'Today is June 10th.' Lin Sanjiu remembered that the morning she had her first and last phone call with Han Jun was on June 5th.

Han Jun was already on the run by himself and even took his wife's phone.

'Then why doesn't the time on this missing person's notice match?'

She took out Han Jun's phone and compared the "Where are you, husband?" message with the missing person flyer in front of her—the contact number was the same. The notice stated that Han Jun's wife, surnamed Deng, owned the number.

"Is it a trap?" Mrs. Manas, who had appeared less frequently to conserve energy, was stirred up again by her heavy suspicion, saying, "Perhaps they already know that the item wasn't taken by Han Jun; they think you are an accomplice, so they're using this method to lure you out? Or maybe they got the timing wrong, and this is their slip-up."

The same few pieces of evidence could be pieced together to tell different stories. With so many possibilities in these scattered clues, she could only guess and speculate, which was quite frustrating. Lin Sanjiu gritted her teeth and opened her phone again.

She dialed the number on the missing person's notice, and it was answered after just one ring.

"Husband?" A woman's urgent voice came through the phone. Her voice almost cracked, and it trembled. "Where are you? Didn't you lose this phone?"

Lin Sanjiu opened her mouth but said nothing.

"Hello? Husband, speak, please," the woman's voice quickened, pleading with a nasal tone. "Where are you? I'll come and find you!"

If this was acting, it was justifiable to be deceived.

"I... I am not your husband." Lin Sanjiu cleared her throat, lowering her voice.

There was sudden silence on the other end of the phone.

"W-what?" The woman was stunned for two seconds, then a hint of vague anger emerged from her despair. "Who are you? How did you get my husband's phone? Do you know where he is?"

How could she extract information from a woman who seemed on the verge of an emotional breakdown? Especially when the first sentence had to be deliberated. As expected, Lin Sanjiu looked around and found four or five surveillance cameras within twenty meters; she strode towards the pedestrian green belt, bent over, and slipped into the bushes, sitting on the edge, hidden by the thick foliage.

Once shielded from the outside gaze, she calmed down a bit. As a posthuman with acute senses, being in an environment under comprehensive surveillance had a much greater impact on her than an ordinary person.

"Why aren't you saying anything?!"

"I saw the missing person flyer you posted," Lin Sanjiu said, trying to calm her down. "I just realized I picked up this phone, which belongs to your husband."

"Picked up?" The voice on the phone sounded almost confused, "Where did you pick it up? When did you pick it up?"

"Near the museum," Lin Sanjiu said, giving meaningless details about the time and place. "On the morning of the 5th."

The anger and hope on the other end of the line instantly dissipated.

"But that's no use; he was already working at the museum and left home on the morning of the 5th... You're returning his phone to me, right? There might be clues in the phone. Thank you; just tell me your price—"

"Do you know where he was going on the morning of the 5th? Tell me the details."

Han Jun fled with the stolen goods on the 5th. Was he deceiving her?

The wife on the other end of the phone paused, apparently not expecting to hear this response, and instinctively replied, "I don't know... After he finished his night shift the night before, he told me he had lost his phone and had taken mine. I didn't contact him on the 5th. After I got off work and returned home, he still hadn't returned... He called my workplace the next day, on the 6th, to tell me he had to go out for something. Wait, why are you asking about this?"

Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath. "I will return the phone to you, and you don't need to pay me. I just want to ask you some questions."

"Really? But... what do you want to ask?" The woman seemed wary amidst her confusion, saying, "We don't have much money, and I've already reported it to the police... Did you just happen to find the phone?"

"What did the police say?" Lin Sanjiu ignored her question.

"They... didn't say much... just told me to wait at home for news."

This wife was full of anxiety and unrest. Even if she seemed suspicious, she was the only driftwood she could catch in the torrent. Without giving her too much time to think, Lin Sanjiu continued, "What did you and your husband say when you spoke on the morning of the 6th?"

There was a moment of silence on the phone.

"Why are you asking this?" the woman asked.

"Finding the phone was a coincidence. Maybe I can help a bit," Lin Sanjiu also knew that she was essentially deceiving this desperate wife—but at least it was a white lie, harmless.

"Really? But... even if I tell you, it won't be useful. Most of the conversation had nothing to do with finding someone." The woman still didn't fully trust, saying, "He explained the situation to me, and we agreed to meet at the Copper Harbor Pier. But when I went, he wasn't there. I've been calling and messaging my number these past few days... oh, I accidentally sent a message to this number once! Did you receive it?"

'So that's how it happened?'

Lin Sanjiu pondered whether she should tell her the truth.

Does this woman know about the stolen goods? If not, how should she phrase her words to appear less cruel?

"I'll return the phone to you. Think of a place for the handover, but I won't show up. Are there lockers in the station lobby?" But she had to leave the SIM card—after all, the number was printed on so many advertisements for posthumans.

"Huh?" the woman said, surprised. "What station lobby... I don't know, there isn't one, right? Why don't you want to meet me? Even if you find a locker, you'll have to leave personal information, so what's the point?"

It felt like two channels had lost connection during the call. Since she was unwilling to show her face, she wouldn't leave any registration information unless...

"Do you have to leave personal information to use a locker?" Lin Sanjiu was constantly amazed by the modern world. Shouldn't personal information be very important?

"I don't know where there are publicly accessible lockers, but they're everywhere, right?" The woman sounded even more surprised than her. "They're needed everywhere."

"Then I'll leave it in the flower bed." Lin Sanjiu quickly decided, ignoring the urgent tone from the other end of the line, "Come and get it after midnight."

Now wasn't the time to leave a newly designed phone out with so many people around during the day.

"A flower bed? Where's the flower bed?"

Lin Sanjiu reported the name of the bus stop where she got off and the name of the road where she found the missing person's notice. "Next to a blind alley, there are several broken bricks on the blind alley. Next to the broken bricks is a flower bed."

Before she could finish her words, the breathing on the other end of the phone suddenly became heavy, and the wind accompanied the sound of the woman's footsteps pouring into the phone. "Wait! Wait!"

Lin Sanjiu was stunned, and then she realized.

Damn it—she had just thrown Han Jun's missing person flyer on the road. She cursed silently, jumped up, and hung up the phone.

Who would have thought his wife had just posted this missing person flyer, and she hadn't gone far yet?

Lin Sanjiu looked around, and sure enough, she saw a figure in white clothes running towards her from the end of the sidewalk, sandals clattering loudly on the road, each step echoing loudly. Pedestrians on the road avoided her and stood aside; under their sidelong glances, the woman continued to shout, "Hey! Wait!"

Han Jun's wife saw her, and fortunately, she still had her appearance from last night. Even though she had no mask, she still looked like a man from a distance.

No matter how fast an ordinary person ran, she posed no threat to her. Lin Sanjiu lowered her head, turned around, and walked away briskly— even walking, her speed far outstripped the woman's running. After just a few turns, Han Jun's wife disappeared completely from behind her, and even her shouts couldn't be heard; when she stopped on the pedestrian sidewalk between two buildings, she realized that she had instinctively slipped Han Jun's phone into her pocket.

It was for the best. After all, she didn't have the leisure to remove the SIM card.

Lin Sanjiu sent a text message to Han Jun's wife, telling her to come back at the same time tonight to the same place to pick up the phone, and then turned off the phone temporarily. Even if his wife kept waiting near the flower bed for her to show up, she had a way to secretly throw the phone into the bushes without anyone noticing.

The rest of the day passed quietly.

At 11:53 PM that night, Han Jun's wife appeared as promised by the flower bed.

She wore her daytime clothes—sandals, jeans, and a white T-shirt. Her hair was disheveled, her eyes swollen, and her face pale. She held a phone in her hand, turned on the flashlight, and looked down as she walked, searching the ground.

When she finally found the broken bricks in the blind alley, she breathed a sigh of relief, quickly crouched down, and reached into the bushes. Her fingertips first touched something like a plastic bag, but it was too big and hard—not like a phone but more like trash someone had casually thrown in. Her fingers then explored the cold metal surface on the ground.

She shined the flashlight inside, and sure enough, she saw a familiar phone.

Instead of reaching out to pick it up, she slowly moved the flashlight away from the phone and into the depths of the bushes.

In the illuminated bushes, Han Jun's blood-blackened face protruded from the tightly bound black plastic bag, lying on the ground motionless, staring at her.