Chapter 1740: No Clear Direction
Even if the 019 District Government and the Mining Group had done a good enough job with their confidentiality, too many people were involved, making it hard to say where a leak might occur. People like Pu Hui and Mr. Wei were certainly not few in number. Most of them were caught up in the situation and couldn't reveal anything to outsiders, but there were plenty of ways to find out information—otherwise, there wouldn't have been a player riot.
It was just that too much time had passed. As for the messages on the Message Collection Terminal, as long as the 019 District Government didn't want them to exist, they could disappear as if they had never appeared. And among those who were still alive and involved, regardless of whether there was substantial evidence, most people would be forced to let it go over time.
Of course, this matter didn't come to an end a hundred years ago. After the accident, there were always people seeking revenge. The changes in personnel within the Mining Group were proof of that. However, such incidents should have been rare in recent years, not only because of the passage of time but also because of the technological development in the 019 District, which had minimized the possibility of ordinary people committing crimes. As for players, if they had lived from a hundred years ago until now without intervening in this matter, they were basically unrelated to it.
Regardless of whether identities were clear, the number of victims' family members was too vast. Even finding these people was difficult, let alone screening them.
Xu Huo narrowed the scope, cross-referencing the time of Suo Lan's father's accident with her social circle around the age of twenty. Whether or not there was a direct connection, Suo Lan must have experienced something at the age of twenty that suddenly determined her life's ambition. Since the mine accident was the most likely cause, it was right to start the investigation in this direction first.
The most direct intersection was the Tiantianle Group. Suo Lan's father died in the Tiantianle mine. Suo Lan's childhood playmates and those who had interacted with Dingding Flower Town, whose families had experienced mining accidents, were mostly from the Tiantianle mine. Under the circumstances where most were implicated in the mine disaster, the old blind woman who had once taken care of Suo Lan stood out instead. Her two sons had died in a mining armed conflict.
Xu Huo thought briefly and then began to investigate the old woman's information.
The blind old woman's entire family had died, and she herself had passed away a few years after Suo Lan left Dingding Flower Town. There was too little information about her on the Message Collection Terminal. However, by backtracking from the time of the aircraft accident report and connecting it with the relevant information about the armed conflict, it was basically possible to confirm which mine the old woman's two sons had died in.
It was worth noting that this mine also experienced a mining accident shortly after the armed conflict.
Xu Huo paused in his thoughts and randomly checked the information of some passengers in the new-type aircraft accident. He unexpectedly found that many of them came from the same place. Checking their hometowns and the government policies of that period, it could be seen that a batch of young and middle-aged laborers had once gone out from that place. Whether they went to work in the mines was hard to verify, but the destination of the aircraft was not far from the accident mine and the cemetery arranged by the Tiantianle Group. It would be a stretch to say there was no connection at all.
Whether the blind old woman's sons died because of the mine accident was hard to say, but most of her other descendants likely died because of it. Did she know the truth?
As the most directly implicated person, it was impossible for the old woman to completely disregard the Tiantianle Group after her family's death. When things happen repeatedly, it's normal for people to become suspicious. Whether she had influenced Suo Lan...
Xu Huo then investigated the group of people responsible for the aircraft development back then. That production line was scrapped, and many related personnel paid the price for it. Many subsequently changed careers, and most of their lives did not improve. Only two technicians not only returned to work at Tiantianle but were now retired core members enjoying very high welfare benefits.
At this point, he couldn't go any further. Without more new clues to narrow down the scope of investigation, even with what he had now, there were still millions of possibilities, and there was no clear direction yet. At least the keyword "maiden" had not appeared.
Xu Huo had also made various speculations before. If this "maiden" referred to a specific target, then it could be a family member of the victims, someone seeking revenge for the innocent dead, or someone accidentally implicated like Suo Lan's father... Combining all these possibilities also resulted in a massive amount of data.
Rubbing his temples, he turned off the Message Collection Terminal and went overnight to the residences of the two technicians.
These two were of a higher rank and lived in a courtyard-style recuperation area specially set aside by the Tiantianle Group, another place that was hard to enter.
However, as he circled outside, he unexpectedly ran into the short-haired woman and the bald-headed man he had parted ways with in Dingding Flower Town. He took the initiative to greet the two who looked dejected.
"It's you," the bald-headed man said, squatting by the roadside chewing on dried meat. He raised his chin to greet him.
"You're here too," the short-haired woman said listlessly, also gnawing on her own dry rations as if she hadn't eaten for days.
"Judging by your expressions, you've had no luck. The Ember Maiden isn't in the hands of the Tiantianle Group's higher-ups?" Xu Huo said with a smile.
The short-haired woman and the other man had actually come to try their luck. They had originally guessed that the accidents involving Suo Lan's father and the blind old woman's family were related to the Tiantianle Group, and that Suo Lan used the "Ember Maiden" as a clue to expose the tragedy orchestrated by Tiantianle. They hadn't expected that upon arrival, not only could they not find the painting, but they couldn't even get into the place. They had spent the last two days circling outside. They thought they had been warned for appearing too frequently around the Tiantianle Group headquarters, and since then, no matter where they went, the robots on the street seemed to have an extra eye watching them.
"Don't even mention it. Any luck on your end? Coming here again, do you still think Tiantianle is the most likely problem?" the bald-headed man asked.
Xu Huo nodded slightly. "I've narrowed down the scope a bit, but I still don't know exactly what the Ember Maiden refers to."
He briefly explained the reasons for the high frequency of mining accidents in the 019 District a hundred years ago.
"Wait, are we doing the same Instance?" the short-haired woman said in surprise. "Where did you find out that the mining accidents were man-made? We've been scouring the information on all the notable people in the Tiantianle Group for days and haven't found any problems!"
"I've confirmed this from the relevant personnel," Xu Huo said. "It shouldn't be wrong."
"Most of those mining accidents were man-made. Did Suo Lan's father die because of this, and Suo Lan's purpose is to uncover this secret?" the bald-headed man asked, puzzled. "But this matter is too far-reaching. It doesn't have a direct connection to the Ember Maiden. Is the direction right?"
Both expressed doubts, because the mining accidents Xu Huo mentioned indeed had nothing to do with the painting. If Suo Lan suspected the Tiantianle Group because of her father's death, discovered this truth, and wanted to use the painting's name to make it public, that would be too roundabout. Besides, so far, there had been no sign of the painting in the entire affair.
"That depends on the information about the Tiantianle personnel you've gathered," Xu Huo said.
(Chapter End)