Irene's tears hadn't even dried when her father's body was hastily sealed in a coffin.
Due to the witnesses and the professor's suicide note, the sheriff took one look and closed the case as a suicide.
Even the so-called memorial service seemed incredibly rushed.
Besides a few groups of academy-level mechanics, the only people present were their students.
Irene, her face haggard, crouched in a corner, her trembling eyes scanning the suicide note again and again, yet she couldn't understand why her father would commit suicide.
Not far away, “Eric” secretly glanced at Irene with a complex expression.
The emotions in his eyes contained both guilt and confusion.
The guilt was for being unable to comfort his daughter; the confusion was over why he had committed suicide and why he had become Eric.
Irene's hands, clutching the suicide note, trembled incessantly.
The last line of the suicide note constantly stung her nerves.
【Irene, Dad is sorry...】
“Why… why apologize…”
“Dad, what does this mean…”
Irene murmured distractedly, and just then, a smooth calf appeared in her field of vision.
She stiffly looked up and saw it was Jasmine… that very beautiful but extremely cold-hearted genius junior.
Irene had taken great care of this junior before, as she had learned from her father that the other party had suffered a serious illness, and her emotions had become so cold after waking up.
But at this moment, Irene's emotions were out of control.
Looking at Jasmine's cold expression, a hint of anger actually rose within her!
Irene grabbed Jasmine’s shoulder,
“Tell me!! Why did Father jump?! He mentioned you in his last words!!”
However, Jasmine merely shook her head, extended her hand, and opened her palm.
“A stone?”
Irene froze, a guess flashing through her mind,
“Did Father leave it for me?”
Jasmine did not answer, but simply said in a calm yet undeniable tone:
“Keep it on you at all times.”
Irene dazedly took the stone, her eyes growing even more bewildered.
So much so that she completed the subsequent procedures in a daze.
She was even unaware when her father's coffin was lowered into the grave in front of her.
【As the setting sun faded, with a shovel of earth thrown onto the coffin】
【All truth seemed to be buried forever】
【But has the story really ended?】
【No, the story has just begun…】
Inside an office, a gray feather pen was writing rapidly.
Its slightly trembling tip revealed how excited it was at that moment.
Compared to when it was in Reirfu's hand, the Witness's Pen, after being calibrated by Li Andy, produced exceptionally vivid writing.
It even marked key names and places with different colors.
The only drawback was that there were more verbose narrations and it wasted more paper.
“Besides Irene and Eric, Jasmine and two other students are also being targeted at this time.”
“Is it someone from the academy? Or infiltration from other organizations?”
Li Andy gently tapped the armrest, looking at the content on the paper and pondering the relationships within it.
“It seems I need to inform Mrs. Harveys and have Jasmine stay at the office for a few days…”
Night fell.
The mourners gradually dispersed, and Jasmine, accompanied by Sophia and Youxi, boarded the carriage home.
Irene knelt before the grave, only coming to her senses when the night wind brushed her neck.
By then, there was no one else around.
Her home was nearby, just a few steps away.
The residential area in the distant suburbs was particularly desolate at night.
She held a pale, yellowed bouquet, a solitary figure walking alone.
Halfway there, she suddenly stopped, pulling out a small knife hidden in the bouquet.
“Come out! I know you’re there!”
A familiar figure appeared, making her freeze for a moment,
“Eric?”
Eric's expression was complex:
“Irene… I…”
Just as he was about to explain something, he suddenly noticed two tall, burly figures appearing behind Irene, quickly covering Irene's mouth!
“Irene!”
Eric's eyes widened in horror, and he immediately lunged forward, only to be punched back, falling to the ground with blood at the corner of his mouth.
“Eric!!”
Irene bit hard into the tiger's mouth of the hand covering her mouth, and the latter, in pain, immediately let go.
Irene tried to seize the opportunity to break free, but her hair was grabbed, and she was pulled back again.
Just as the two masked kidnappers thought they had succeeded, the surroundings suddenly lit up.
Several gas lamps with spotlight effects were aimed at them.
Several people dressed in academy mechanical instructor uniforms emerged from the shadows.
“You are surrounded! Tell us, who sent you?!”
The masked kidnappers froze for half a second, then immediately seized Irene, pressing a sharp knife against her neck:
“If you don't want her to die, get out of the way!”
The people from the academy immediately frowned.
As both sides fell into a stalemate, Eric crawled up from the ground:
“You let her go! She doesn't know anything!”
“The research… all the research data is with me! I'm the key person!”
“Youge expelled me because of this!”
“You… let her go, let me be the hostage!”
The two kidnappers frowned, exchanged a glance, pretending to exchange hostages, but in reality intending to control everyone.
“Eric?”
Irene looked at her ex-boyfriend blankly, also realizing the kidnappers' intention; she was about to speak up to warn them, but saw Eric silently say:
“Lynn, don't be afraid of thunder…”
In an instant, she instinctively closed her eyes.
“Buzz—!”
A strong light suddenly flared, instantly blinding everyone whose gaze was focused on Eric.
Irene immediately felt her back lighten, and opening her eyes, she saw that Eric had tackled the thugs.
“Lynn, run!”
In a trance, Irene seemed to truly see her father.
A distant memory flashed through her mind; during the fire that killed her mother, her father had also called her by her nickname, blocking a falling beam, and letting her rush out of the flames first.
“Run!”
Another heartbreaking scream instantly blurred Irene's eyes, and her legs unconsciously began to run.
At the same moment, Eric was knocked out by a thug's punch.
“Bang—!”
A gunshot rang out from somewhere, and the scene became chaotic.
“There are more than two of them! Beware of attacks!”
The academy's machines began to hum, preparing to counterattack.
Suddenly, a medicine bottle fell into the center of the field.
The smoke billowing from the bottle's mouth instantly engulfed the battlefield.
Following that were chaotic gunshots, footsteps, and the sound of carriage wheels entering.
“Bang!”
“Rumble—!”
Chaos surged with the smoke, some rushing in, some leaving, some falling!
A melee thus began.
Fortunately, the night wind was strong, and the smoke came and went quickly.
After the smoke cleared, the academy's mechanical security team reassembled and entered the battlefield.
However, the criminals had already departed.
They only found a few pools of blood and Irene, curled up on the ground, constantly murmuring “Dad” and sobbing uncontrollably.