The meeting was arranged in a small conference room on the first floor of the main building.
Before going in, Shen Wu leaned in and whispered in her ear, "I'll be waiting outside. If it goes over five minutes, I'll call the captain."
There was only one person in the conference room.
Wen Xu'an was younger than she had expected, with a gentle expression and a faint smile at the corners of his mouth. He looked like the most popular young professor at a university.
His slender fingers were idly spinning a pen.
"Have a seat." He tilted his chin.
Jiang Nuan felt a dull ache in her lower back—still bruised from the night before—but she controlled her muscles, making sure her posture as she sat down betrayed no stiffness.
"You wanted to see me?" She tried to put just the right amount of nervousness and confusion on her face.
"Just a casual chat." Wen Xu'an smiled and pushed a teacup slightly toward her.
Jiang Nuan didn't touch the tea.
"I noticed you being pushed back in a wheelchair by Qi Sui today. Are you feeling unwell?"
Jiang Nuan's inner tension tightened.
"Yeah, I'm not feeling well today." Jiang Nuan nodded. "I think I might have caught a cold."
Every word was true.
Wen Xu'an nodded, his gaze showing no fluctuation.
"I heard you joined the base recently. Zero Squad has never taken outsiders. How did you get in?"
"I ran into Zero Squad in the restricted zone," Jiang Nuan said, lowering her eyelashes as if a little embarrassed. "Probably... my ability was exactly what they needed."
Purification ability was what they needed, and encountering them in the restricted zone was also true. As for whether she was invited back or dragged back, that wasn't necessary to explain in detail.
Not getting the answer he wanted, Wen Xu'an's brow furrowed slightly. "What is your gift?"
"Purification type."
She wasn't going to dodge this one. Other abilities would be too easy to see through. It was better to tell the truth—there were so many people with awakened purification abilities anyway.
"And your level?" Wen Xu'an's smile remained gentle. "If a purifier's level isn't high enough, Zero Squad won't take them. A-level? Or higher?"
Here it comes.
Jiang Nuan's heartbeat quickened by half a beat, but her expression didn't change.
Saying she didn't know would be false—because she knew she was triple S-level. And making up a level would also be false.
Jiang Nuan clenched her fingers under the table, using the pain to keep her mind clear.
"Well..." She paused, as if organizing her words. "I don't really understand the specifics of leveling. Those technical things would have to be asked of our captain."
Not false.
She genuinely didn't know exactly how the levels were determined. Her understanding of this world's ability rating system was patchy at best.
And that those technical things needed to be asked of the captain was also true—because Lu Shiyan really did know more about it than she did.
She had perfectly kicked the ball away.
Wen Xu'an stopped spinning his pen.
He looked at her, the smile fading from his face. "You're very smart."
That sentence carried no praise whatsoever.
"Your file shows you're from a refugee settlement in Sector C," Wen Xu'an leaned back, shifting to a more casual posture, but his eyes never left her face. "And kids from those places usually aren't this composed."
Jiang Nuan met his gaze and said nothing.
That wasn't a question. She didn't need to answer. Silence was the best strategy.
"Last question." Wen Xu'an leaned forward, elbows on the table, closing the distance between them. "What is your purification meth—"
He spoke each word deliberately. Jiang Nuan's heart nearly leaped out of her throat.
But before Wen Xu'an could finish his sentence, the meeting room door was shoved open from outside.
Lu Shiyan stood in the doorway, backlit. Today he was wearing casual clothes with his sleeves pushed up to his forearms, the muscle lines clearly visible.
"The Investigation Department requested a basic interview, and I gave you the courtesy of those five minutes." Lu Shiyan looked at Wen Xu'an, his tone flat. "Manager Wen, your time is up."
Wen Xu'an leaned back in his chair, neither angry nor even changing his expression.
He looked at Lu Shiyan. "Shiyan, are you this tense about it?"
"You don't have the authority to keep interrogating my team member."
"Has Miss Jiang Nuan been officially assigned to Zero Squad?" Wen Xu'an's gaze flicked between Lu Shiyan and Jiang Nuan. "I thought she was just base staff."
He stood up, picked up his pen from the table, and tucked it into his chest pocket.
As he passed by Jiang Nuan, he paused.
He leaned down, close to her ear.
"Every word you said was true."
"But what you left out is much more interesting than what you said out loud."
He straightened up, nodded at Lu Shiyan, and walked out unhurriedly.
The moment the door closed, Jiang Nuan realized her back was completely soaked.
Lu Shiyan walked over to her, looked down, his eyes sweeping over her face.
Those rational, almost cold eyes paused on her for a second, carrying a hint of approval.
In the hallway outside the conference room, Shen Wu was leaning against the wall, arms crossed.
Jiang Ce had somehow shown up too, waiting not far away. When she came out, he immediately came over.
"Not bad, Jiang Nuan," Jiang Ce grinned. "That guy's got a tough tongue. I can't last more than five minutes against him, and you held out until the very end."
He glanced at the communicator on his wrist and his eyes lit up. "Six minutes and twelve seconds!"
"But if it came to a fight," Jiang Ce suddenly punched one palm with his fist, his tone carrying a hint of pride, "he wouldn't last half a minute against me."
Shen Wu glanced at Jiang Nuan, her tone still bland.
But this time, her mouth wasn't as vicious.
"Not bad."
Wen Xu'an boarded a pitch-black armored vehicle with several aides.
He sat in the back seat, thinking about the day's events.
After this incident at an SS-level restricted zone, not only had no one in Zero Squad crossed the judgment line for anomaly levels, they had all dropped below the safety threshold.
The Investigation Department didn't have the authority to pry into how each squad performed their purification, since some encounters were private. That was the rule.
But rules were rules, and instinct was instinct.
He thought of that girl named Jiang Nuan.
Sitting in a wheelchair, pale-faced, like a blade of grass that could snap in the wind at any moment.
But her eyes were different.
Those eyes had been exceptionally calm with every question he asked—too calm for someone from a Sector C refugee settlement.
Every word she said was true. His gift hadn't triggered any alarm.
But precisely because they were all true, it was that much more off.
An ordinary person under interrogation would either be nervous and say the wrong thing, or honestly confess everything.
She had done neither.
Zero Squad was hiding her.
Wen Xu'an came to that conclusion.
A purifier that Zero Squad was willing to protect and hide must be worth another visit from him.
