"So Zhao Tianming must want that painting..." Su Yuqing suddenly realized, "Not to destroy it, but to obtain the evidence hidden within!"
Just then, Lin Xiaofan's phone vibrated with an encrypted message from A Long: "Found Teacher Zhou! He's in the Zhao family's private hospital, in a deep coma but still alive. Zhao Tianming wants to use him to exchange for that painting."
"We can't..." Lin Xiaofan began to reply, but Su Yuqing pressed his hand down. "Wait, this could be a trap."
As they argued, Lin Xiaofan's phone slipped from his grasp and fell to the ground, automatically popping up a new notification on the screen:
[Detected key item: Whistleblower Letter]
[Ultimate mission progress updated: 14/1000]
[Note: The respect brought by truth is also a form of prayer.]
Lin Xiaofan froze. He counted the signatures on the whistleblower letter—besides his father and Old Zhou, there were twelve miners' names. Three known pray-ers plus twelve... exactly fifteen people, but the system showed fourteen?
"One is missing..." he murmured, "Who else is genuinely..."
Suddenly, Su Yuqing's phone lit up. After reading the message, her expression became unusually complex. "I found a way to complete the mission... but I need you to trust me completely."
Outside the window came a cacophony of voices. Lin Xiaofan pulled back the curtain slightly and gasped—dozens of people holding makeshift torches were loitering at the alley entrance, with their leader shouting for "alien technology" to be handed over.
"What method?" He turned to Su Yuqing and noticed she had picked up Old Zhou's palette knife without him realizing.
"Reveal everything." Su Yuqing's voice was eerily calm. "Including the system, all your schemes, and your father's matters." She pointed outside, "Let those people see the real you—not some alien host, just an ordinary person chosen by the system."
Lin Xiaofan felt a tightness in his throat. This meant exposing all his flaws: greed, deceit, exploiting others' goodwill...
"And we have 72 hours..." he struggled to say.
"No." Su Yuqing shook her head. "The system is accelerating."
She was right. Lin Xiaofan was horrified to find that the countdown had changed to 71:32:17... time was clearly passing faster than normal!
"It speeds up by a minute every hour," Su Yuqing calculated. "So 72 hours actually leaves us... less than 60 hours."
Suddenly, there was a loud banging on the door downstairs. Lin Xiaofan's phone lit up with one last notification:
[Trust is the ultimate test]
[Choose to deliver: Yes/No]
The firelight from outside flickered through the curtain seams onto Su Yuqing's face as she reached out her hand. "Give me your phone. I know a director of a live streaming platform who can arrange for a simultaneous broadcast across the internet."
The banging grew louder, and the doorframe began to tremble. Lin Xiaofan looked into Su Yuqing's eyes and remembered what she had said in the mine: "Let go." He recalled how she had never truly reported him...
"Here." He placed the phone in her palm, "including those most unsightly records."
Su Yuqing quickly got to work, dialing a number. "Old Wang, I need a live streaming account with the highest permissions... Yes, right now."
The moment the back door was smashed open, Lin Xiaofan grabbed the iron box and a few paintings, stuffing them into his backpack. Su Yuqing pulled him towards the rooftop. "A Long is waiting on the roof of the next building!"
They climbed up the creaking iron ladder to the rooftop. Under the moonlight, A Long was waving at them from across the way, with a narrow wooden plank connecting the two buildings.
"You go first!" Lin Xiaofan urged Su Yuqing.
The frenzied crowd had already surged onto the rooftop. The young man at the front was live streaming with his phone raised high. "Look, everyone! This is an accomplice of the aliens!"
Su Yuqing walked steadily across the wooden plank. Lin Xiaofan followed closely behind but was struck on the shoulder by a flying rock midway. In that instant of losing his balance, his backpack strap snapped, sending the paintings and iron box plummeting into the darkness...
At a critical moment, A Long lunged to grab his wrist at the edge of the building. The iron box tumbled through the air, and the report papers scattered like snowflakes, slowly drifting down in the beam of a searchlight.
Someone below picked up a sheet of paper, and gasps erupted. "It's the truth about the mining disaster! Zhao Tianming caused twelve deaths!"
Lin Xiaofan was pulled up onto the rooftop and turned to see an unbelievable scene—the gathered crowd was passing around those yellowed pages, and some had already begun to bow their heads in prayer...
[Ultimate Task Progress: 87/1000]
[Note: The light of truth is spreading]
Su Yuqing held his hand tightly. "This is just the beginning."
In the distance, sirens grew louder, but this time, they were coming to help them.
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