322: New Organization 2

The slight sense of relaxation from carrying the game console out of the mall had long since been cast to the back of their minds. Wei Ziqing and Lu Jianchuan walked side by side on the outskirts of a slightly desolate neighborhood slated for demolition. The police cars and ambulances had already departed, and the surroundings had returned to a dilapidated calm, with only a few stray barks from dogs in the distance.

After walking for a while, Wei Ziqing looked at the maze-like narrow alleys and vacant old buildings ahead, unable to resist breaking the silence. "Brother Lu, where... are we going to look?" He looked around. "Where are the clues?"

Lu Jianchuan had his hands in his jacket pockets, his sharp gaze scanning every potential hiding spot along the way. He didn't stop walking as he answered succinctly, "I don't know."

"..." Wei Ziqing's footsteps faltered. He turned his head to look at him, his face expressionless, but his eyes clearly conveyed the sentiment of "Are you kidding me?"

Lu Jianchuan seemed to sense this silent questioning. He rubbed his nose and added, "The case was just discovered. Those few people were only on the periphery and are incredibly tight-lipped. Aside from muttering some crazy talk, I couldn't pry much useful information out of them. I don't have a lead either."

The two continued walking in silence for a while, the atmosphere becoming somewhat subtle.

Wei Ziqing suddenly spoke up, his tone carrying a tentative, even somewhat absurd, seriousness. "Then... how about we go look for places giving away free eggs?"

Lu Jianchuan stopped abruptly and turned to look at him, his face a literal question mark. "...Huh?"

Wei Ziqing explained, his expression remaining calm as if discussing some kind of tactic. "I mean, for cults that specifically target ordinary people—especially those that might attract the elderly—don't they often use 'join and get free eggs' or 'attend a lecture and get free oil and grain' as bait? If we follow that trail, we might stumble upon a place where they're holding activities or recruiting members."

As Lu Jianchuan listened, the question mark on his face gradually turned into contemplation, then realization, and finally, he actually nodded. "...That makes sense. A very grounded way of thinking."

He started walking again, his direction more purposeful this time. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go find some eggs. We'll check the wet markets, senior activity centers, park entrances... places like that."

The two of them wandered around the outskirts of several parks and wet markets where seniors often gathered for nearly an hour. Forget free eggs—they didn't even see a single suspicious lecture flyer.

"...As expected," Wei Ziqing sighed, looking at the empty small plaza of a community activity center. "The kind of plot in TV shows where you find what you're looking for immediately just doesn't happen in reality."

Lu Jianchuan raised an eyebrow and turned to look at him. "Ha? So this 'find the cult through free eggs' trick was something you learned from a TV show?"

"How else?" Wei Ziqing countered as if it were obvious. "Where else would I learn this kind of 'folk wisdom'?"

Lu Jianchuan was stunned for a moment, then chuckled, reaching up to rub the back of his neck. "Fair point. Let's go."

The trail seemed to have gone cold, so the two had no choice but to continue wandering aimlessly through the blocks, their eyes scanning every corner for potential anomalies. Searching for a deliberately hidden illegal organization was undoubtedly like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Just as they passed the back gate of an old residential compound, a heated argument caught their attention.

"It's just a kitten! What does it know? It's hungry! Don't you people have any compassion!" a young woman in her early twenties, wearing a T-shirt with an exaggerated cartoon cat print, shouted shrilly. Behind her stood three or four other young men and women, also wearing jackets with various animal logos, looking agitated. They were surrounding the entrance of a small supermarket.

The supermarket owner was a middle-aged man, his face flushed with anger as he pointed at a knocked-over bag of cheap cat food and cheap sausages scattered all over the ground. "Compassion? This stray cat comes here to steal food every day! I can't even chase it away! This bag of cat food was shredded by its claws! These sausages are ruined too! I'm running a small business; how can I afford this daily theft? If you're so compassionate, why don't you take it home and raise it? Or pay me for the goods!"

The woman became even more agitated. "Pay you? This is extortion of life! It's a part of nature; taking a bit of food is its right to survive! How much natural space have you humans encroached upon, and how much of the ecology have you destroyed? And now you're being stingy over a little bit of food! Lowly! Selfish!"

Her companions chimed in one after another. "Exactly! Humans are the cancer of the Earth!" "You only care about money; you have no respect for other lives at all!" "We are fighting for the survival space that these animals, who cannot speak for themselves, deserve!"

The owner was trembling with rage at these "lofty arguments," and it looked like the conflict was about to escalate.

Lu Jianchuan frowned deeply. He exchanged a look with Wei Ziqing and walked over.

"Alright, alright, that's enough from everyone." Lu Jianchuan stepped between the two parties, his voice not loud but carrying a weight that made people instinctively want to listen. He first looked at the owner. "Boss, how much for the goods? The loss is on me." Then he looked at the group of agitated youths. "It's a good thing that you want to protect animals, but it's not easy for people to run a business either. You can't let them suffer losses for no reason, right?"

The owner quoted a figure, and Lu Jianchuan simply scanned the code to pay. Seeing this, although the young people still looked indignant, they stopped loudly berating the owner.

However, it wasn't over. After paying, Lu Jianchuan tried to ease the atmosphere and said to the leading woman:

"Young lady, since you're so caring, it's not a solution for this cat to keep stealing food here; something bad might happen. Why don't you see if any of you can take it home, or contact a reliable rescue organization to find it an adopter?"

The woman turned her face away, her tone stiff.

"We are only responsible for fighting for their rights and survival space; we are not responsible for specific adoptions. Every life is free and independent; they shouldn't be 'penned in' by humans. As for how to solve its food source... that's a problem for humans to reflect upon and use to compensate nature. It's not our problem."

Her words carried a sense of superiority, even a hint of self-loathing. "We just... we just can't stand the arrogant posture of lowly creatures like humans taking whatever they want from other lives. Even we... as humans ourselves, feel pathetic."

Her words were met with the silent agreement of her companions. Their gazes toward Lu Jianchuan, the owner, and even the occasional passersby who stopped to watch, were filled with a complex emotion of pity mixed with contempt, as if everyone before them, including themselves, belonged to some erroneous and inferior species.

Wei Ziqing had been watching coldly with his arms crossed, but when the woman said "Even we... as humans ourselves, feel pathetic" with that mixture of self-loathing and condescension, a ripple of coldness finally appeared in his indifferent eyes.

He took half a step forward, his voice clear and direct as it cut through the lingering, bizarre atmosphere. "What gives you the right to be so self-righteous?"

The woman and her companions were stunned, all looking at this young man who hadn't spoken until now.

Wei Ziqing's gaze swept over them, finally landing on the woman's face.

"You say humans are lowly, destructive to nature, and selfish. Fine, let's say part of what you're saying is a fact."

He pointed to Lu Jianchuan's phone, which had just made the payment, and then to the cat food that had been properly cleaned up on the ground. "So now, this 'lowly' human has paid the money, solved this cat's immediate problem, and compensated the owner for his loss. What have you done?"

"We..." The woman tried to argue.

"Aside from standing on a so-called moral high ground and pointing fingers, aside from using hollow slogans to hijack other people's sympathy and wallets, what have you actually done?"

Wei Ziqing interrupted her, his tone not aggressive but every word clear. "Protecting animals? Where is the concrete action? Did you pay to settle it, or do you have the ability to ensure it won't go hungry, be beaten, or encounter danger afterward?"

"Your so-called 'fighting for survival space' is just being generous at someone else's expense and then walking away, leaving the problem to the 'lowly humans' you criticize?"

"What do you know!" The woman's face turned red then pale from these blunt words. She shrieked, "We are awakening people's consciences! We are fighting against the tyranny of anthropocentrism! Specific adoption is just treating the symptoms, not the root cause. What we want to change is the mindset! It's systemic oppression!"

Several of her companions also became agitated, speaking up one after another. Their words became increasingly extreme and biased, their denial of human civilization reaching a point of almost total rejection.

Amidst the noise, a similarly agitated young man blurted out to refute Wei Ziqing:

"There's no talking sense into an Old Human like you who's been blinded! Once the 'Day of Sublimation' arrives, we will all be able to shed these inferior shells and evolve into more—" Halfway through his sentence, he suddenly realized his slip of the tongue, and his face instantly turned deathly pale.

"Shut up!" An older companion beside him had a drastic change in expression. He scolded harshly and firmly covered the man's mouth, his eyes filled with panic.

"Go! Let's go!" The leading woman also realized what had happened. She glared fiercely at Wei Ziqing and Lu Jianchuan, having no intention of continuing the argument, and whispered urgently to her companions.

The group was like startled birds. No longer caring about the cat or their "ideals," they turned around in a panic, pushed through the few onlookers, and quickly ducked into a nearby alley, disappearing from sight. The young man who had let the secret slip was practically dragged away by his companions, the lingering fear still visible in his eyes.

The supermarket entrance, which had been filled with the sounds of quarreling just moments ago, suddenly fell silent. Only the owner remained, looking a bit dazed, along with the stray cat on the ground, which was cautiously licking the cat food, oblivious to what had happened.

Wei Ziqing and Lu Jianchuan stood where they were, neither of them immediately giving chase.

They looked at each other, both seeing a clear, sharp light in the other's eyes.

"'Evolution'... 'Higher lifeforms'?" Lu Jianchuan slowly repeated those two keywords, a cold arc curling at the corner of his mouth. "Heh, it seems we didn't find any 'eggs,' but we accidentally stumbled upon a group that might have taken some other kind of 'bewitching drug.'"