[INT. SUBLEVEL — FACTOR IV; MEETING ROOM III]
Soon the drinks were served, the trio sipping carefully.
Violet inclined her head, expression minimal.
ĀN TIĀN QÍ:
"We noticed the tracers. ET has been active; they're testing in zones where the noise floor is low."
Yè Yī kept still, absorbing — watchers often spoke in half sentences; here it meant he was being examined and catalogued.
Qiū, still in hoodie, said nothing. He watched like prey watches a small, energetic predator.
ĀN BÁI:
(booming, a little theatrical)
"Honestly, I like the idea. Make them chase phantoms. We'll keep the real node nice and quiet. They'll waste cycles. Good theatre."
Ān Shēn rubbed his temple with two fingers, exasperated.
ĀN SHĒN:
"You call that theatre; I call that gambling with a live database."
A technician moved a rack's status light from amber to green. The room smelled faintly of solder and tea.
ĀN TIĀN QÍ:
(to Ān Bái, soft but firm)
"Your showmanship is not the same as operational security."
ĀN BÁI:
(grins, not backing down)
"Operational security is boring. I prefer interesting security."
ĀN TIĀN QÍ:
(mentally cracking)
"We'll consider a controlled noise injection. But only if we test in a sandbox first. No live decoys yet. And Bái—" (a sharper look) "—no stunts."
Ān Bái rolled his eyes dramatically but said nothing further. A half victory was better than none.
The room took a breath. Servers hummed. Lines of code marched across screens like lit windows in a sleeping city.
ĀN SHĒN (to the trio):
"You three — names? You're not on our roster."
What he meant was not all on the roster? Yè Yī they knew, but Qiū Huà Bǐ... then Violet.....
VIOLET:
(flat)
"I.... Visitor."
YÈ YĪ:
(low)
"Student."
Qiū's gaze stayed steady on the hardware. He answered last, minimal.
QIŪ HUÀ BǏ:
"Curious"
Ān Tián Qí nodded to the introductions.
VIOLET:
(getting serious)
"Now to be serious. I..am Violet . You already know Yè Yī. You've been keeping tabs and all, with the hidden cameras, CCTV stuffs you had installed in the Yè ancestral home.."
The air in the room seemed to drop by a couple of degrees. Ān Bái sneezes, Ān Shēn could feel the feel right on his skin. Only Ān Tián Qí and Mù Xiāo Xiāo, who was lost in the world of watching the fish in the little aquarium's Earth Arm seemed to keep them more grounded.
VIOLET:
"But hey,.." (nudges Yè Yī) ,"We're talking about your great grandfather here, an indomitable and renowned Specialist here. Now that he's gone, what he has left behind... will of course be craved by many who seek..."
Violet leaves her words half said.
"Don't be mad, okay?"
ĀN TIĀN QÍ:
(heaves)
"Factor IV watches, but we don't hunt unless necessary. We are sorry, if you feel our methods were inappropriate."
Yè Yī looks away from Violet and faces Ān Tián Qí. Her floral knee-length dress and dyed brown hair made her look like an garden faerie. Her smile was reassuring.
"ET's methods are—" (she searches for the safe word) "—direct. They're curious about the old systems. That's probably the reason why they attacked. The Yè ancestral home usually been found inhabited during our research, so we had been convinced no one lived there.. anymore. No one has seen any descendants of the Yè's, since your great grandfather's disappearance. To avoid any exploitation, we kept watch."
YÈ YĪ:
"But..."
Ān Tián Qí's face darkens and so does the Ān brothers.
ĀN SHĒN:
"Someone thought the job was so good and easy. He decided to take a nap".
---
A technician brought up a feed from the Yè house: timestamps, CCTV clips of all that had occurred that day.
ĀN SHĒN:
(quietly to Ān Tián Qí, not hiding his concern)
"They moved faster than their profile suggests. Someone with disciplined hands."
ĀN TIĀN QÍ:
"Or they were guided."
A name was left unsaid in the air.
ĀN BÁI:
(leans)
"But what had they been looking for? They didn't take anything when leaving"
No one spoke for a moment. The only sound: fans, the low-clack of keyboards, a city breathing above them through book-thick concrete.
In that hush, Violet glanced at the plaque tucked into Yè Yī's pocket.
VIOLET (soft):
"Whatever they were looking for mattered enough to start paper wars."
Ān Bái, never quiet for long, broke the gravity with a theatrical sigh.
ĀN BÁI:
"Well then. If we're on paper-war duty, I'll be the pyrotechnics team."
They all stared at him.
ĀN SHĒN (deadpan):
"You'll be the team that makes visible things very loudly and poorly."
Ān Bái shrugged unbothered, he pulled a small toolkit from his belt and flicked a switch on a device that hummed like a nervous animal.
ĀN TIĀN QÍ (to the trio):
"You're not alone now. Watch us work. And don't touch the servers. Someone who doesn't know the line will trip the alarm."
Violet inclined her head once — an acknowledgment and a promise.
Above them the library kept its ordinary life — a mother reading to a toddler, a student tracing citations — while under its floors a small military of engineers, archivists, and reluctant pragmatists prepared to make noise so the city could sleep.
Ān Tián Qí turns to the quiet one, Qiū Huà Bǐ. She smiles, "And him?".
VIOLET:
(turns to Qiū)
"Qiū Huà Bǐ"