125: Chapter 125 Weaving a net in silence, waiting for the wind to move.

Ling Ye returned to his apartment without rushing into any direct action. He first carefully re-examined his small apartment, especially the water pipes, electrical circuits, and walls. He carefully "searched" for any subtle, real anomalies that might exist.

Finally, at the pipe connection under the bathroom sink, he discovered a trace of extremely faint, almost imperceptible dampness, as well as an extremely slight metallic vibration that might occur in old water pipes when water pressure changed at night. This was a real, yet insignificant "little issue" that could serve as a reasonable "entry point" for communicating with maintenance personnel in the future. He noted down this detail.

Next, he logged into the Municipal Government public network again, entering the "Dawn City Community Collaboration Platform" as a guest. This time, he didn't just look at Old Zhao's posts; instead, he began to systematically browse the historical posts in the Oak Street Community section, especially those discussions related to "old facilities," "maintenance experience," and "community history."

He searched for keywords like "Old Zhao," "Master Zhao," and "retired maintenance," and carefully checked every reply under the relevant posts.

Hard work pays off. In several old posts about "how to thoroughly solve water leakage in old roofs" and "experience in clearing blocked underground pipes," he discovered interactions between Old Zhao and other residents. From the snippets, some information could be pieced together:

ID "Old Zhao," real-name verified as Zhao Deshun, a retired plumber from the Municipal Government Seventh District maintenance team, with thirty-eight years of service.

Personality traits: Solid technical skills, straightforward, somewhat stubborn, and deeply detests maintenance behavior that doesn't follow procedures or is sloppy. Willing to share practical maintenance tips on the platform, but when mentioning certain "historical legacy issues" or "early construction projects," he is often vague or directly states, "It's hard to say" or "Ask those above."

Active time: Usually comes online to reply to questions on weekday afternoons or evenings; appears less frequently on weekends.

Possible range of activity: Besides near the maintenance team, a resident mentioned having seen him playing chess in the "Xilin Park" (about a ten-minute walk from the maintenance team) senior chess and card corner.

Another important discovery was in a post from two years ago where a resident complained that "a strange smell always drifts from the abandoned factory area in the east of the community." Old Zhao rarely replied with a sentence: "The underground pipe network there is old, there is some siltation, and it is inevitable that the smell will come back up. The root cause was left during the early construction, and it is difficult to fix it thoroughly now." When someone asked, "What is the root cause?" he did not reply again.

"The root cause was left during the early construction" — this faintly echoed the rumor that "something happened during the deep excavation."

Ling Ye silently noted these fragments of information, forming a more three-dimensional portrait of Old Zhao: an experienced, principled old worker who knew some inside information but, for some reason (possibly regulations or concerns), was unwilling or unable to speak clearly.

Meanwhile, Ling Ye also began to collect information more broadly and seemingly casually at the academy during his spare time between classes.

In the cafeteria, he "accidentally" overheard upperclassmen discussing local history topics, mentioning "Early Industrial Layout and Pollution Control in Dawn City." He "unintentionally" joined the discussion, guiding the topic toward "the challenge of reusing the abandoned industrial area in the east of the city."

Some students mentioned having seen a brief record in the open digital archives of the Municipal Library about "the Seventh Machinery Factory (the predecessor of the Old Factory District on Oak Street) moving to a new district fifteen years ago due to technological upgrades and higher environmental standards, with some facilities at the original site being sealed," but there were no further details.

In the library, Ling Ye searched for "Dawn City Local Annals," "City Development Yearbook," and other public materials. The records about the "Seventh Machinery Factory" were similarly brief, only mentioning its main products, its scale during its prime, and the time of relocation. There was no mention of the underground structure of the factory area or early accidents. This was normal; such public archives often only record "results" while omitting "processes" and "problems."

He also noticed that Sun Li seemed to be deliberately avoiding him these days. Even when their gazes occasionally met, she quickly looked away, her face slightly pale, appearing preoccupied. Su Qing, on the other hand, was as usual—attending classes, going to clubs, reading in the library, and occasionally interacting with club members like Zhou Ming, showing no anomalies. Zhou Ming remained active in various physical training and combat technique discussions.

As for Wang Hao, Ling Ye did not take the initiative to dig deeper to avoid causing unnecessary suspicion. But Wang Hao himself took the initiative to chat with Ling Ye once more, complaining that the Security Department didn't look for them again later, and the matter seemed to have been "all thunder and no rain" and just fizzled out. He also said he heard his cousin mention that the Municipal Government seemed to have sent people to circle the perimeter of the Old Factory District again, but still didn't find anything.

"I think it's just a waste of time," Wang Hao muttered.

"Maybe, no news is good news," Ling Ye echoed, but thought to himself: The re-examination by the Security Department and the Municipal Government just showed that they hadn't relaxed, but the investigation had moved to a more hidden stage.

Three days passed in methodical investigation, learning, and Cultivate.

Ling Ye's "Spiritual Sense," in his long-distance analysis of the "sense of disharmony" in the Old Factory District, seemed to have improved a little more. Although he still couldn't "see" the core clearly, that vague feeling of the "texture" of the abnormal energy became a bit more concrete.

It wasn't like pure biological radiation, nor was it like the fluctuations of mechanical operation; it was more like a kind of... "field" that slowly infiltrated and had a certain inert corrosive quality. It was expanding extremely slowly, like ink spreading in clear water, except that this process of "spreading" seemed to have some extremely weak resonance with the alternation of day and night—in the late night to early morning, its activity seemed to have an imperceptible enhancement.

This explained why strange sounds often appeared in the early morning.

At the same time, Ling Ye's control over the flow of his "Qi" was becoming more proficient. He tried to guide a trace of imperceptible "Qi" to the ends of his limbs during physical exercise and found that it not only slightly enhanced his explosive power and endurance but also improved his subtle perception of his own muscle and bone state. This seemed to be a crude external application of the "Internal Vision" ability.

This evening, Ling Ye finished his daily theoretical study and basic physical training, took a shower, and changed into clean casual clothes. He checked the time; it was a quarter past five in the afternoon.

According to Old Zhao's historical active time on the community platform and his inferred habit of playing chess at Xilin Park from other information, this time might be a good "observation" opportunity.

He didn't intend to strike up a conversation directly but planned to go near Xilin Park first to observe the environment from a distance, confirm if "Old Zhao" would appear, what his activity patterns were, and who he interacted with. Mastering these would allow him to design the most natural script for a real contact later.

Picking up the old backpack, Ling Ye quietly left the apartment. Target: Xilin Park, senior chess and card corner.