Chapter 151: Being Followed

"It really is Pollux!" Zhang Mingyang was extremely shocked. He knew the Black Hole Organization was building a spaceship, but he never expected that Jin Yaowen had actually built an observatory here long ago. It seemed he had been observing Pollux all along.

"Let's get out of here!" Zhang Mingyang pulled Bai Muqing and left the room. Stepping out of the cave, they found the weather outside had turned completely clear, with a bright sun high in the sky and not a single cloud in sight.

"It's so warm." Bai Muqing stretched lazily, finding the sunlight exceptionally comfortable.

Zhang Mingyang, however, had no heart to enjoy this; right now, he just wanted to go home and unravel the secret of this photograph.

"Let's hurry home." Zhang Mingyang pulled Bai Muqing down the mountain. The path was extremely muddy from the heavy rain, and the two of them walked with utmost caution.

An hour later, they reached the foot of the mountain. Seeing the washed-out road, Bai Muqing asked Zhang Mingyang which way they should go.

"That way," he pointed to the east and led her forward.

"Wait!"

"Someone's there!"

Zhang Mingyang suddenly spotted a man in the bushes on the right, but he vanished the next instant.

"What's wrong?" Seeing him acting paranoid, Bai Muqing looked over as well. "There's no one there. Did you see wrongly?"

"That shouldn't be!" He had clearly just seen a man in the bushes.

"Are your eyes playing tricks on you?" Bai Muqing looked at the patch of weeds on the right. "How could anyone be in a place like this? That's just a bunch of weeds over there, not farmland."

Zhang Mingyang scratched his head. "Maybe my eyes really did play tricks on me."

"Stop looking, let's go." Bai Muqing dragged him toward the nearby station.

Half an hour later, the two arrived at the Shimen station. Since both of their phones had been ruined by the rain, Zhang Mingyang had to go to the ticket counter to buy tickets manually.

In front of the ticket vending machine, he tapped in their destination and bought two tickets for the train heading to North Jiyang Station.

"Ten minutes left," he glanced at the departure time and hurriedly led Bai Muqing to the platform to wait for the bullet train.

"Gurgle... gurgle...!" Bai Muqing's stomach growled; she was hungry.

"Wait for me here a moment." Seeing an unmanned convenience store, Zhang Mingyang ran inside.

"Oops!"

The moment he stepped through the door, Zhang Mingyang collided with a man. "Sorry! Sorry!" They apologized to each other.

There were quite a few customers in the small shop, but he had no mind to observe them. Grabbing a shopping basket from the entrance, he walked straight to the snack section. Glancing at the small snacks on the shelves, he casually grabbed a few packs and tossed them into the basket.

Walking past a few aisles, the basket was full of snacks. He quickly walked up to the unmanned counter, picked up the basket, and scanned it against the camera. A moment later, the prices of the items appeared on the monitor. After completing the payment via facial recognition, he packed his purchases into a shopping bag and walked out.

"Respected passengers, the bullet train bound for North Jiyang Station has arrived..."

At that moment, the train pulled into the station. He hurriedly took Bai Muqing by the hand and boarded, and the two found their designated seats and sat down.

"Here," Zhang Mingyang handed the bag of snacks to Bai Muqing. "Is this enough?"

Looking at the full bag of snacks, Bai Muqing smiled and nodded. "It's enough."

Just then, a man walked past his row. Zhang Mingyang glanced back. "Huh? Isn't that the man from the entrance earlier?" He realized the person who had just walked past him was the very same man he had collided with in the convenience store. "What a coincidence?"

He shook his head, thinking it must just be a coincidence.

Two minutes later, the bullet train started and headed toward Jiyang.

On the train, Bai Muqing ate her snacks while Zhang Mingyang pondered the star map. He thought: since Jin Yaowen had established an observation post long ago, it meant he had been keeping his eyes on Pollux all this time. So what did he mean by leaving behind this star map? What was he trying to tell him?

"Do you want some?" Bai Muqing offered him a pack of snacks.

"No need." Zhang Mingyang waved his hand. "Qingqing, when we get back later, help me contact the base and have them fix my communicator."

"Can't you just contact them yourself?" Bai Muqing was puzzled as to why she had to do it.

Zhang Mingyang looked around and whispered, "We're being followed."

"Huh?" Bai Muqing tried to stand up, but Zhang Mingyang pushed her back down. "Don't blow our cover!"

"No... how do you know we're being followed?"

Zhang Mingyang pointed at the man sitting behind them and whispered, "I just remembered. The man we bumped into at the foot of the mountain and the one I ran into at the convenience store are the same person."

"Th-that man... is he from our base?"

Zhang Mingyang shook his head. "I don't know, but my gut says probably not."

"Then what should we do?"

"Let's not expose ourselves just yet. Pretend we don't know." Zhang Mingyang wanted to observe a little longer to see what this person was really up to.

"Alright then." Bai Muqing stole another glance backward. "Do you really not want me to report this to the base?"

Zhang Mingyang shook his head. "No need. Let's observe a bit more and see what he's actually trying to do."

"Okay then."

And so, the two of them acted completely oblivious on the train until they reached their destination.

As soon as they got off, Zhang Mingyang grabbed Bai Muqing and hurried away from the station, hailing a cab to rush home.

"He didn't follow us, did he?" Bai Muqing looked back anxiously.

Zhang Mingyang looked back as well to scan the area. Sure enough! A moment later, that man came rushing out, looking around frantically in all directions.

"It really is him!" Bai Muqing recognized him as the man sitting behind them on the train.

"Looks like we shook him off." Seeing that the man hadn't followed them, Zhang Mingyang breathed a sigh of relief.

"How long do you think this guy has been following us?"

Zhang Mingyang shook his head. "Hard to say. I didn't pay attention the past few days, so I can't tell how many days he's been on our tail. It's also possible he only started following us these last couple of days."

The thought of being stalked made Bai Muqing nervous. "Mingyang, you don't think there's someone near our house too, do you?"

Hearing this, Zhang Mingyang pondered for a moment. "Qingqing, let's get out of the cab a little early and wait near the neighborhood entrance before we go in."

"Okay."

Twenty minutes later, as the taxi was about to reach Puyang Residential Area, Zhang Mingyang quickly told the driver to stop, and the two got out early.

Opposite the Puyang Residential Area was a small shop. The two of them stealthily walked into the shop and observed the situation at the neighborhood entrance through the glass storefront.

"Nobody's there?" After observing for a while, Zhang Mingyang noticed no suspicious people at the entrance.

"Let's wait a little longer."

They waited for nearly another hour without spotting any suspicious figures. "Looks like that guy didn't follow us."

"Let's go!" With a wave of his hand, Zhang Mingyang led Bai Muqing into the neighborhood.

Inside the complex, Zhang Mingyang kept a close eye on the surroundings, checking for any unfamiliar strangers.

Entering the apartment building, he cautiously looked upward all the way until they reached their front door.

"No signs of tampering on the door." Seeing that the security door hadn't been forced open, he unlocked it.

Pushing the door open, he told Bai Muqing to wait outside for a moment while he went in first to check things out.