บท 172: Coincidence

The time was February 19, 2222. Unknowingly, Zhang Jue had been in the SCP world for more than a year. But he still has a vivid memory of what happened just after he arrived here.

The SCP-682 termination attempt failed, and he suggested that Shirley help with the containment. The plan was successful, but he was pushed into Shirley's side by someone. He always thought that Dr. Li did it. But before he died, Dr. Li denied the accusation.

He recovered the surveillance video with the help of Simmons. In the video, only Yang Xue was closest to him. There was no possibility of anyone else committing the crime. Zhang Jue had some doubts about the video's authenticity for a while because he had spent the longest time with Yang Xue.

It was easy to fool a person for a while, but if Yang Xue could keep deceiving him. It could only mean that the clever mind he thought he had was a joke.

Eliminate all impossibilities and what remains, no matter how unbelievable it is. It's still the truth.

Zhang Jue, who believed in this saying, wanted to find Yang Xue to confirm the situation the first time he saw the video. But he knew that it was useless to ask. Because even if it was really Yang Xue who did it, would she admit it?

But he came to her anyway. The intervention of the Chaos Insurgency gave him the chance to learn the truth. At this time, Yang Xue's consciousness was blurred, and she would answer truthfully to everything she knew.

He had always regarded Yang Xue as a friend, so he hesitated for a moment. But strong curiosity drove him to ask the question that he had been struggling with for a long time, "Dr. Yang, was it you who pushed me toward Shirley at Site-14?"

Yang Xue's expression was dull, still as mechanical as ever. She said only three words.

"It wasn't me."

Zhang Jue sighed in relief. It looked like her brain was still normal.

Zhang Jue continued, "Then who is it?"

"I... don't know." Yang Xue replied.

Don't know? How could Zhang Jue not have expected this answer?

He remembered it very clearly. In that video, the hand that pushed him was not caught. But with Yang Xue's position at that time, she would definitely see it. How come she didn't know it? Could it be that Yang Xue was mind-controlled by others at that time? There are so many probabilities.

Zhang Jue pinched his chin, once again in deep thought. Yang Xue's answer relieved him, but it also threw that question back at him at the same time.

If it's not Yang Xue, not Dr. Li, then who the hell had pushed him, Satan? The red mist gradually dispersed, and the energy of the spell gradually disappeared. All the staff, including Yang Xue, fell into a coma.

Although they still had not regained consciousness, they seemed to be much better than before. The door creaked open, and Smith walked in covered in mud, carrying the SCP-127 given to him by Zhang Jue.

"How was it? No injuries, right?" Zhang Jue looked up at him.

Smith shook his head, "I led those people in circles inside the city. They couldn't find me. Ten minutes ago, they retreated before I rushed back, and now there's no one outside. It was probably because of your doing, I guess."

Zhang Jue nodded, "It's the Chaos Insurgency. They captured the Foundation staff and are here for interrogation. Their leader has been driven away by me."

Smith looked around, and from the traces of the scene, he could tell how thrilling the battle had just been here. Zhang Jue had barged into the enemy's back with only himself and had not been injured at all. His strength was truly unfathomable.

"Anything else you found?" Smith asked.

Zhang Jue shook his head and pointed at the captured staff, "They are under a mental influence. All of them are in a coma. They need to wait for the Foundation to come to the rescue before they can be rescued."

"I just saw someone flare in the distance. It looks like the Foundation's work. I think they will be able to find this place soon."

Zhang Jue glanced at Yang Xue, who was in a coma, and said, "I hope so."

...

Half an hour later, an MTF squad finally arrived at the church and quickly surrounded it.

A captain-like man shouted, "Listen, those who were inside. You have been surrounded. You are given five minutes to surrender your weapons."

He shouted twice, but there was no response from inside the church. He recruited his two lieutenants and prepared to give the order for an attack. The door of the church was pushed open with a creak. A man dressed in the armed uniform of the Foundation came out from inside.

"Which squad are you?"

All MTF members pointed the guns in their hands at him.

The captain asked, "Who are you?"

Smith held his credentials high in his right hand.

"I am the Special Assistant to the Special Advisor of the SCP Foundation, Will Smith. Which squad are you guys?"

"We are the 'Wombat' squad, Assistant Smith. Please drop your weapons and step out of there. We'll take over from here."

Smith didn't seem to hear that captain's words and continued to shout, "Advisor Jue Zhang is also here. He wants to see Lei Shui."

"The mission I received was to come here to look for those missing Foundation staff. What you said is not within my purview, and I cannot contact Mr. Lei Shui directly."

Smith seemed to have expected the other party to say that, as he continued to shout, "Advisor Zhang's original words were 'If I can't see Lei Shui, no one in the church will be taken away. If anyone dared to come in, they would be dead doing so."

The wombat squad was under the orders of Lei Shui. They were the ones who had confronted Zhang Jue outside that water plant at that time. This captain was well aware of the beef between Zhang Jue and Lei Shui. He also knew how arrogant Zhang Jue had become.

Zhang Jue did not retreat one step, faced with dozens of submachine guns and several sniper rifles. Even if Mr. Lei Shui himself came here, I'm afraid he wouldn't be able to win. The captain pondered for a moment and called Lei Shui through his personal phone number.

When the call was answered, it seemed that Lei Shui had expected this to happen and said, "Give them the phone."

The captain tossed the phone to Smith. Smith caught it steadily, then opened the door and walked in. Zhang Jue was sitting in a chair with his eyes closed. When he heard Smith walk in, he reached out and took the phone. It seemed that he had expected such an outcome.

He and Lei Shui were like the same person.

"Mr. Zhang Jue." Lei Shui's voice came from the other end, "It's been a long time."

"I really don't want to see you." Zhang Jue said lazily, "I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to stop and let Lei Shan lose a brother for nothing."

The pair of brothers, Lei Shan and Lei Shui. Zhang Jue had a very good relationship with Lei Shan but had a very poor relationship with Lei Shui. Probably he didn't like the kind of people who played with him, as he didn't like others to mess around with him.

"Advisor Zhang, what exactly do you want me to talk about?" Lei Shui's voice didn't rise or fall at all as if he hadn't even heard Zhang Jue's provocation.

Zhang Jue was also too lazy to play fast and loose with his words and cut straight to the point. "That hospital outside the town. You were the one who led the MTF team, right?"

His words were a question, but the tone used was really that of a declarative sentence. It was because he already knew the answer before Zhang Jue asked the question.

"It's me." Without the slightest pause, Lei Shui admitted it graciously.

"Then I suppose that patient inside had also been escorted."

"That's right."

Zhang Jue's eyes narrowed slightly, and his tone was icy, "Since most of the security forces have been taken out. Why did you leave Yang Xue and those medical staff there to die?"

On the other side of the phone, Lei Shui's voice was still terrifyingly calm, "Advisor Zhang, you are a Special Advisor of the Foundation. There are some things that I am not obligated to report to you. If you have an opinion about my actions, you can raise an objection to the headquarters or directly to the O5 Council, and they will naturally send someone to review it." Lei Shui was bold.

Zhang Jue knew that he dared to do so. There was naturally someone who backed him. If he remembered correctly, it should be O5-10. Zhang Jue paused and gave Lei Shui an ultimatum.

"With the hospital destroyed and the patients moved by you, there is no longer any need for those medical staff to continue to stay here and risk their lives. They are now in some kind of evil spell and unconscious. I'm handing them over to your squad, Lei Shui. I don't care who you take orders from, but you screwed them over again, and I find out about it. You better watch out for me ripping your guts out. I'll do what I say."

....

Zhang Jue handed over all the medical staff to the Wombat squad, except for Yang Xue. After all, to Zhang Jue, Lei Shui was not a trustworthy person. For now, Yang Xue was the only lead he had. He would not dare to hand this woman over to someone else.

Zhang Jue and Smith took Yang Xue to a service area nearest to the town to rest and then moved to a hospital. After some detailed examination, Yang Xue's brain was not seriously injured. The most likely reason why she was unconscious was that her brain cells had been in an abnormal state of excitement for a long time and needed to be fully rested.

In this way, Yang Xue was in a coma for three days and nights and finally opened her eyes one afternoon. She got up with difficulty, let herself lean on the head of the bed, and surveyed her surroundings.

This was a hospital, and through the window, she could see many patients and doctors walking around outside. She had probably been saved from those intruders.

Yang Xue sighed.

Since that night, Lei Shui took all the patients and the MTF squad away. She had always had a bad feeling. Sure enough, the infiltration happened in the latter half of the night. As the manager in charge, she commanded the crowd to flee through that emergency passage.

The two MTFs were evacuated one after another, leaving only the next security team, which could not resist the enemy's attack. They managed to reach the town of Chlamydia, but the enemy eventually caught them.

She was knocked unconscious, and what happened afterward was unknown. Yang Xue leaned her back against the bed, probably because she had been unconscious for too long and felt a little pain in her head. But she did not care in the least.

She felt that the whole thing was revealed to be bizarre. It was a little hard to explain, especially Lei Shui's role in it, but she couldn't even think about it now.

Yang Xue sighed. If only he was there. That person was best at pulling this kind of complex situation. But Yang Xue also knew that it was impossible. He should be millions of miles away now.

He is probably living a life of sleeping with his character until he wakes up naturally. Yang Xue was thinking, and then suddenly, there was a loud noise from outside the corridor.

"What the hell? This month's salary is delayed? Please connect me to Site Director Huang. Don't worry. I will not scold him! Son of a bitch, dare to delay my salary. Is he tired of living?"

Chinese. His voice and tone are very similar to her. Yang Xue knitted her brows.

He came? Impossible. Probably she was just hallucinating.

Yang Xue sighed.

However, the door was opened. A familiar figure walked in. In his hand, he was holding a bouquet of flowers. The man was a little happy to see that she had sat up.

"Awake?"

"Mhmm." Yang Xue nodded her head.

The man put the flowers in his hand in the vase on the table. He said, "Huang Xingwen, that old boy, how dare he try to delay my salary. Telling me that there are no people on Site-14. See if I can go back to take care of him up."

Rambling. But in Yang Xue's ears, it was an incomparable kindness. Hearing this voice ringing in her ears made her relieved. As long as he was there, all the problems were not problems.

Zhang Jue finished and poured a glass of water for Yang Xue, "How are you feeling?"

"I'm… fine." Yang Xue took the glass of water but did not rush to drink it. She asked in a hoarse voice, "Why are you here?"

Zhang Jue shrugged, "Originally, it was to ask you something, but seeing that you guys seem to be in trouble. I just stopped by to help you guys out. Hey, you're not that strong alone anyway."

"Bragging, as usual. You came just to see me, right?" Yang Xue joked with him as usual but suddenly coughed violently.

Zhang Jue immediately patted her back to smooth her breath. Yang Xue coughed for a while before she got better.

"You should rest first." Zhang Jue said, "We'll talk about it some other time."

"No." Yang Xue insisted, "I can do it now."

She was a very stubborn person, which Zhang Jue had already learned. Since she insisted, Zhang Jue didn't object.

He said, "Let's talk about you first at that hospital. What's going on?"

"There seems to be a problem with Lei Shui…." Yang Xue was brief and concise. At this time, she no longer cared about the Foundation's confidentiality clause.

"After he left, the intruder cut off our contact with the outside world."

Zhang Jue frowned, "Are you saying that Lei Shui is trying to kill and silence all of you?"

"I don't know." Yang Xue shook his head, "Maybe it's just a coincidence. But one thing is for sure. It seems that Lei Shui and the one who gave him the order had no intention of saving that patient."

Yang Xue always kept himself in an objective and neutral position. However, Zhang Jue didn't think so. Lei Shui had just left with the MTF squad, and that patient first and then continued by Chaos Insurgency sent someone to infiltrate the hospital.

If this could be explained by coincidence, then he would go buy a lottery ticket tomorrow. The only suspicious thing is the purpose of Lei Shui doing so. If he wanted to kill Yang Xue, there are many ways he could have used. There is absolutely no need to go to such an extent.

I can only say that he has too many twists and turns in his head that is up to no good. Probably only God knows what he wants. The identity of Lei Shui is confidential. Not even Zhang Jue knows about it. Though this doesn't really important at all right now.

Yang Xue simply stopped thinking about it and asked, "What about you? You came here to find me. What's the matter?"

With Yang Xue's understanding of Zhang Jue. Even if the sky were to fall, he wouldn't necessarily panic. He had actually taken the initiative to come here this time. It must be for something particularly important.

Sure enough, after this question was asked, Zhang Jue paused for a moment. You know, the two of them used to talk to each other without hesitation. Yang Xue sensitively perceived Zhang Jue's change.

A few seconds later, Zhang Jue chose to believe Yang Xue. He asked his question again, "Do you remember the incident after SCP-682 containment when someone pushed me towards Shirley? I went to see the headquarters some time ago and met Dr. Li, who said he didn't do it."

"I watched the video of that time, and the closest one to me at that time was only you. I wanted to ask if you still have any memory of this incident."