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Chapter 346: Chapter 346: Zhi Zhi Seeks Gua

However, when they climbed to the first floor through the safety stairs, they didn’t see any trace of Guagua.

A corner of the mall had collapsed, evidently trampled by a creature recently; the entrance was in complete disarray, with fallen beams and concrete slabs even blocking the main door.

Although it didn’t affect their coming and going, the faces of Honglian and the others showed clear signs of loss. No one had expected to lose a "teammate" just one hour after arriving in the future.

"I remember it was still following us while we were escaping..." Little Pigeon said, feeling somewhat guilty, "If only I had kept an eye on it a bit more."

"Don’t dwell on it too much. Maybe it was waiting for a chance to be free all along, and it just happened to get that chance recently," Liuli, the least concerned among them, said. "No matter how smart it is, it’s still a dinosaur in the end."

Though the words sounded cold, they inexplicably lifted the spirits of the Red Lotus Team members quite a bit.

While it was living with Wang Baihu, it might have had enough food and clothing, but most of the time it couldn’t leave the estate. Now, even though this world was filled with danger, no walls would ever confine it again.

"Can you sense its location?" Honglian asked Chen Xuan.

Chen Xuan shook his head. The Heart Method couldn’t detect any Spiritual Qi apart from theirs within its range, and since he hadn’t registered Guagua as a guest, he naturally couldn’t contact it. "We could go back to where we fought the nano-living body and have a look. If we don’t find any trace of Guagua along the way, at least we’ll know it hadn’t been killed by the quadrupedal creature, and that’s as far as we can go."

The implication was they didn’t need to exhaust all their efforts searching for a dinosaur; exploring the city was their current primary task.

If an intelligent creature purposefully wanted to leave, they couldn’t pull it back just by themselves.

"Eh? How strange..." Just as everyone was about to turn around, Jiang Siqi suddenly stopped in her tracks.

Everyone looked at her in unison.

"What’s strange?" Chen Xuan asked, going on high alert.

"This place... I’ve been here before," Jiang Siqi muttered, observing the surroundings.

"What?"

"Seriously!? You’ve been to the future too?"

The group suddenly burst into chatter.

"Not the future... I’ve been here before in the past, and more than once." She slowly walked to one side of the hall, pointing at various spots, "This side was the luxury goods area, with Gucci, LV stores... across was a Starbucks, and further in there were Chow Tai Fook and Qilin shops..."

The places Jiang Siqi pointed at were empty, with just a few old partition walls and concrete pillars visible, and even if some rooms still had a few remaining shelves inside, there was nothing left on them.

"Are you sure?" Chen Xuan asked, puzzled.

"Yeah!" Jiang Siqi walked faster and faster, "There’s no mistake, this place should have been an elevator, leading down to the middle floor, where you could get lamb barbecue and rattan pepper bullfrog; going up was the fashion zone, and there was a big supermarket... haven’t any of you been here before?"

"Were we... supposed to come?" He suddenly had a vague answer in his heart.

"Yeah, Century Finance Plaza! It’s considered the best shopping area in Jiang City!" She looked back in disbelief, "Are you really people living in Jiang City? You’ve never even been here?"

"What? This is Century Finance?" Little Pigeon was shocked, "I can’t recognize it at all!"

"Sorry... I basically don’t go to places with parking fees over twenty bucks an hour." Honglian shrugged, "What about you, Young Master Wang?"

Wang Baihu scratched the back of his head, "I don’t know... I go to Shen City to buy things. And can you not call me that? When haven’t I been patrolling with you?"

Chen Xuan couldn’t help but be silent.

When he had a proper job, he was so busy he barely touched the ground, and later when he took on part-time gigs to relax, he had a routine lifestyle, basically not wandering anywhere else; meals and necessary life supplies were mostly handled by delivery. If he had to visit a mall, he would definitely choose the shopping district closest to where he lived.

Moreover, even if it were the mall he visited most frequently, if all the signboards and stores were removed, leaving just an empty shell, he might not recognize it.

So here’s the question.

"How many times have you actually visited Century Finance?"

"Not many... at most twice a week," Jiang Siqi replied, "Back when I hadn’t awakened my abilities yet, livestreaming here had the most viewership."

"So that’s it!" Little Pigeon suddenly realized, "I thought Siqi Sis might be a hidden rich lady too!"

"No way." She laughed shyly, "I even had to prepare my own boxed meals while streaming, because eating here is so expensive."

"So this city is Jiang City?" Wang Baihu mused, "Shixin is in Fenglin District, which is considered a secondary core area of Jiang City... if Jiang Siqi didn’t see it wrong, then we can directly pick out valuable search locations nearby."

"..." Chen Xuan, however, frowned and remained silent.

He kept asking himself, why Jiang City? He had considered many possibilities, but he never thought Lin Qing would live in Jiang City.

The reason was simple, the future Jiang City had neither space elevators nor aerospace launch stations.

If Lin Qing and the rebels were to head towards the Crystal Palace, they must first stop in a city with such facilities.

No matter if they rented a place or stayed in a hotel, it would be seen as their "final foothold."

Chen Xuan even considered whether the back door of Room 202 led directly to the Crystal Palace.

More crucially, Lin Qing never mentioned living in Jiang City—based on his understanding of Lin Qing, if she discovered this city here was the same as the one she lived in the future, she would certainly have pointed it out with wonder.

Diving deeper into thoughts... Chen Xuan considered two possibilities.

One was historical fluctuations causing a change in Lin Qing’s birthplace, turning it from the original city to Jiang City.

But there was a contradiction in this theory: If both her birth time and place changed, could this "new Lin Qing" still be the same person as the Future Warrior?

The other possibility was that Lin Qing was still born according to the original historical path, but moved to Jiang City due to some changes instead of joining the rebels.

This second theory avoids the birth issue, but when thought deeply, it gives chills. Of all the cities in the world, why did she end up settling in Jiang City? Was it just a coincidence, or had the seeds of these changes been sown over a hundred years ago?

If it were the latter, the likelihood of Lin Qing still residing in Jiang City would greatly increase!

"Squeak, squeak..."

Suddenly, they heard several tiny squeaks.

Chen Xuan instinctively turned his head, seeing a group of mice emerging not far away.

"Those pests sure are resilient; even in the apocalypse they aren’t extinct," Wang Baihu mumbled.

"This should be the first group of living creatures we’ve seen, right?" Little Pigeon reached into her bag, "Let me see if there’s anything to feed them..."

"Stop feeding them! The fact that they dare appear in broad daylight means there are no predators around!" Wang Baihu quickly stopped her, "Do you think they’re lacking food? The corpses alone are enough for them to munch on for a long time."

Little Pigeon shivered subconsciously, "Do rats eat dead people?"

"They eat anything." He stomped firmly and shouted at the mice, "Scram!"

Seven or eight mice scattered away in fear, quickly diving into the shadows of the building, but moments later they peeked out again, regrouping together.

"They’re pretty bold." Wang Baihu bent to pick up a piece of debris and impatiently threw it at the mouse group.

The mice scattered again, yet something strange happened. This time, they gathered back in even less time, neither approaching the group nor leaving.

"Are they waiting for us to die so they can eat us?" Jiang Siqi shuddered, "I heard African hyenas have a habit of trailing dying prey..."

"No," Chen Xuan suddenly realized, these mice had specifically come for them. "Let’s follow them."

"Huh? Follow the mice?"

Before the others could react, he was already walking towards those mice.

The mice naturally scurried away in fright, but to everyone’s astonishment, when Chen Xuan stood at their original gathering spot, the mice didn’t approach anymore, instead gathering at another location. The two points were about fifty meters apart—not too far, not too close, just enough for the group to see clearly!

"How is this possible..." Honglian was taken aback.

"It’s Guagua’s ability," Chen Xuan asserted, "It’s commanding the mice to guide us!"