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The convoy drove on the suburban road for about thirty minutes before Lin Qing once again saw the experimental factory built beside the abandoned barn.

Compared to its original simplistic steel frame warehouse appearance, its size had expanded significantly, with the exterior wire fence replaced by high yellow walls. Inside, seven or eight buildings were vaguely distributed, each maintaining about three stories high. From afar, it didn’t appear too obtrusive while still accommodating the space requirements of large machinery.

"The expansion is pretty quick," Lin Qing remarked.

"Father has always considered this a key family project. Whatever Dr. Wei wants, he gets. Before his health issues, he spent most of his time here." Long Lan’s tone was slightly helpless, "Perhaps it’s precisely because Father worried too much that he suddenly fell ill."

He paused for a moment, suddenly lowering his voice, "Miss Lin, this factory... it should be fine, right?"

Lin Qing looked at him with puzzlement, "What do you mean?"

"I just heard... occasionally strange things happen in this factory. For example, workers notice that some materials inexplicably disappear from the workshop, and sometimes strange objects appear on the conveyor belt. The most outrageous was half a month ago when a packaged corpse was directly transported out of the shipping workshop..."

Lin Qing could see he was already trying hard to conceal his intention to probe.

"Did you ask your father?"

"I did, but he said nothing, only told me not to pay attention to employees’ rumors."

"Then my advice is to do as your father says," she replied succinctly.

Long Lan didn’t question further, but a hint of disappointment was evident in his eyes.

This small change did not escape Lin Qing’s notice. Perhaps in the past, Walter relied on his prestige and tactics to suppress other family members. Now that he suddenly collapsed, the suppressed forces naturally rebound without the weight.

She remembered how Walter used to value his eldest son, Gio Vis, so highly. Had it not been for his betrayal of the family, Long Lan wouldn’t have stepped into the forefront.

Not yet, it can’t be let go of old Walter completely, Lin Qing thought, at least not until Chen Xuan returns.

The convoy turned a corner and entered the inspection area along a private road.

The security guard at the door dutifully verified the driver’s identity before allowing the vehicles to enter the factory premises.

Once inside the factory premises, the security measures were equally stringent, with watchtowers and automatic weapon stations all present. If someone unaware accidentally entered this place, they might mistakenly believe they’d stumbled into a military restricted zone.

"Where would Miss Lin like to visit?" Long Lan inquired, "The production workshop or the product workshop? Or do you need to meet with Dr. Wei first?"

"No need, just drop Liuli and me off here," she replied.

"Alright." He promptly called the driver to stop and opened the car door, "Then I shall recommend myself as your guide then."

"No," Lin Qing said straightforwardly, "I mean only Liuli and I get off here. Mr. Long Lan can go about his business."

Long Lan was stunned.

He blinked and took a moment to respond, with a somewhat stiff smile, "How can that be? You are an esteemed guest, it’s unreasonable to leave you unattended. Moreover, the factory has access controls everywhere, and your identity information hasn’t been entered, so it might be difficult for you to move around..."

"It’s okay, I have my ways," Lin Qing interrupted him, "If it were your father, he wouldn’t insist, because he knows some secrets are better left unexplored."

Long Lan’s unfinished sentence was swallowed back.

He could only nod and respond, "Then... I’ll wait for you in the guest room of Building A1. You can find me anytime should you need anything."

Once the convoy had driven away, Lin Qing turned to Liuli, "Alright, shall we head inside now?"

The factory had constructed many new buildings, and she didn’t know where to find N959, but as long as Liuli was around, it wouldn’t be an issue.

Liuli sighed, "Follow me."

Despite it being her first time at the factory, she seemed to know the way better than Lin Qing. The two walked about five hundred meters along the road, turned two corners to the left, and finally arrived at a side door of a building. The signage read Building A6, Equipment Maintenance Room, Exit No. 9.

Of course, the door was locked.

"Is it here?" Lin Qing asked curiously.

"It can appear anywhere in the factory, but the scent of oddity is strongest here," Liuli raised her head and stared at the camera above the door, "Open the door, I know you’re watching, don’t overestimate my patience—"

Before she could finish speaking, the electronic lock clicked open.

...

Meanwhile, Long Lan was also closely watching the movements of the two ladies on the screen.

He did not head to the guest room as he had said, but instead went to the security center’s surveillance room to watch their paths in real-time.

Were they to turn towards Building A1, he’d be confident enough to reach the guest room ahead of time.

Long Lan didn’t want to offend the family’s most important partner.

But he also didn’t want to remain ignorant about the family’s pillar industry, especially after Walter suddenly fell ill. The anxiety and feeling of insecurity had been lingering in his mind.

Does Father really trust him?

Even if he trusts him, Father is, after all, getting old. If something unexpected happens without any chance to settle matters, how is he supposed to take over the family business?

Long Lan was aware of Miss Lin’s significance, which was why he hoped to obtain information on artificial body production from her, as well as a blueprint for future cooperation... however, judging from the current interactions, this attempt was not very promising.

"Equipment Maintenance Room?" Monitoring Director Rog frowned, "Why are they going there?"

"What is done there?"

"Newly purchased machines are sent to Building A6 for inspection first, and maintenance and dismantling of old machines are completed there," Rog explained, "Overall, the Equipment Maintenance Room is largely unrelated to the production line. Besides a few mechanical engineers, almost no one goes there."

Is it possible... that there are some unknown secrets hidden in this building?

"But Building A6 also has access control, right?" Long Lan asked.

"Of course, every workshop in the factory has its own independent access control system. Even with my magnetic card, the maintenance room door can’t be opened!"

Before the monitoring director could finish, Lin Qing had already pushed the door open.

"Huh?" he gaped.

If the access control failed, wouldn’t the monitoring room receive an alert?

"Stop dawdling and switch to the indoor cameras now," Long Lan urged.

"Y-Yes." Rog hastily complied.

Yet, an even more astonishing thing happened, as there was no sign of anyone in the surveillance footage closest to Exit No. 9!

He switched through several more camera positions, but the result was the same.

No single camera caught sight of the two people who had entered the factory.

"What the hell!" Rog picked up the radio, "This is the monitoring room, calling the patrol team—"

As he spoke halfway, Long Lan suddenly pressed the radio, "What are you doing?"

"Boss, it seems there might be an unusual malfunction in the surveillance system, I want the patrol team to confirm the situation on-site."

"Has this problem occurred before?"

"No... it’s always been fine, this is the first time I’ve encountered such a malfunction..."

Long Lan couldn’t help but sigh deeply, "Forget it, this isn’t a malfunction, let them go. It’d be our fault if a big commotion bothered Miss Lin."

Rog was greatly confused, wasn’t it the boss himself who ordered the guests’ movements to be monitored? Why doesn’t he care now?

And what does it mean that this isn’t a malfunction?

If the people who entered could disappear, that clearly constitutes a major breach of security protocol.

But a boss is still a boss, although he didn’t understand, he chose to comply.

For a while, Long Lan only felt a lack of interest.

He slowly walked outside and lit a cigarette.

Many incomprehensible strange phenomena in the past factory slowly began to connect in his mind now.

Those strange and bizarre rumors might not have been accidental occurrences but were perhaps genuinely controlled by an unseen hand behind the scenes in this factory.

This hand didn’t belong to the production general manager, nor Dr. Wei, nor Father, and it even didn’t belong to the Walter family.

It always belonged to the other side of the cooperation: Miss Lin, and the enormous organization she was part of, the Dimensional Limit Mechanism.

Thinking that after reaching the secret factory, their counterparts had essentially entered Walter family turf? Long Lan took a deep drag of smoke and laughed at himself. Now he knew, perhaps he was the guest here.