Shrouded Seascape

Anna was eating lunch with the others in the dim basement of a house somewhere on the surface world. This was her new base. To ensure that the IMF wouldn't find her, Anna frequently changed residences.

Li Lu quietly ate her delivered fish noodle soup, and her eyes never left the table where Tobba was punching the air with a feeding bottle in his hands.

Tobba looked like a mighty hero as he slammed his feeding bottle on the table and exclaimed, "This stuff is just terrible! This isn't milk! The powder practically tastes like flour! The ads are lying to us!"

"Shut up! If you don't want to eat that, then get lost," Anna chided impatiently. She was truly fed up with Tobba.

Tobba's mouth was tiny, but it was full of energy, capable of talking from morning to night. To make matters worse, Anna had to stay close to him. Truth be told, Sparkle was a curious child as well, but she wasn't as troublesome as Tobba.

Li Lu hurriedly put down her chopsticks and reached out to her child. "If you don't like it, then don't eat it, Baby. Here, come to Mommy."

However, Tobba ignored her and picked up his feeding bottle. He took another sip of the milk and whined, "How much longer do we have to hide, Anna? I'm bored out of my mind watching the same stuff on TV over and over again.

"I want to go out and play."

"Hmph, if you can use your special ability to evade the IMF's pursuit, then we could go out as many times as you want. Can't do that? Then, stay put," Anna replied. She made quick work of her noodles and opened her laptop.

Tobba stuck out his tongue and rolled his eyes at Anna. He repeated her words in a mocking tone of voice before turning around and leaping into Li Lu's embrace.

With a few quick clicks, the computer screen turned black as Anna entered a weird page depicting places all over the world that had been experiencing bizarre phenomena.

Anna hadn't been idle while waiting for Wang Jianshe's news. She had been searching for ways to fight the IMF. A long, drawn-out battle was not an option here, and she had to seize the initiative against them.

The enemy of an enemy was a friend.

Perhaps starting with the IMF's enemies was a good choice, but there hadn't been much progress so far. However, it was not strange at all. If they were easy to find, they would have been like a sieve in the IMF's eyes, easy to infiltrate and destroy.

Just then, Anna remembered something and turned to look at Li Lu next to her.

"Do you know any organizations that are enemies of the IMF?"

Li Lu was busy feeding her child, and she shook her head in response to Anna's query. "The organizations I once infiltrated have already been dealt with by the IMF. You won't get much from me."

"Really?" Anna suddenly smiled.

Li Lu reluctantly said, "I know what you want to do, but I advise against it. If the IMF is a cat, then those organizations are rats at best. The IMF is comparable to a first-world country in strength. Those organizations couldn't hold a candle to them.

"What we can do and what we must do is hide—we're going to hide until they get distracted."

"I don't think so. If there are enough rats, they can surely kill a cat," Anna replied. Then, her gaze returned to the screen before her.

Ring, ring, ring!

Just then, Anna's phone rang. She picked it up and saw Wang Jianshe's name on the screen. Holding the phone to her ear, she immediately heard an exciting piece of news from the other end of the line. 𝘙

"Come here, quick! We found him!" Wang Jianshe exclaimed, and his aged voice carried a hint of excitement that added to the credibility of the message.

After a few false alarms, however, Anna wasn't too excited anymore. She merely said that she'd be there soon.

If it hadn't been for Wang Jianshe's inquiries, she wouldn't have known that Charles' face was so common in this country. Moreover, Anna was also caught off guard by the number of people with similar faces worldwide.

Anna sat in front of the vanity table and began applying makeup to her face. After applying layer after layer of foundation, her appearance remained alluring, but she no longer looked like Anna.

Zhou Tao's approach was a lesson for Anna, and she had been looking for ways to disguise herself since then. Compared to a mask and sunglasses, makeup was better and more convenient.

Perfect makeup was an excellent disguise. With the help of navy blue, formfitting polo neck and long pants that accentuated her waist and hips, Anna became someone else entirely.

When the disguised Anna arrived at Wang Jianshe's office, she saw the latter pacing back and forth with his hands behind his back.

"Found another one? Let's see him," Anna asked. She sat sideways on the chair, remaining calm and unperturbed. It seemed that she was already prepared for this one to be another false alarm as well.

Wang Jianshe nodded solemnly and turned the monitor around before playing the footage. The footage was rather dim, and it seemed that the footage was made during dusk. The camera was also shaking violently.

A few sharp jolts later, a square metal trash bin appeared in the frame. The shaking eased, and the camera was then pointed inside the bin. There wasn't much garbage inside as if it had just been emptied.

The trash was sparse, but the filthy walls and the nauseating pitch-black water that had pooled at the bottom of the bin told Anna that it was truly a garbage bin.

Despite the filthy environment, someone was actually inside the bin. Judging by the size of the figure, it was a little boy. The little boy's yellowing hair indicated that he was malnourished.

The little boy had no idea that he was being filmed, and he was engrossed entirely in his own business—cooking noodles.

The three bricks were stacked like the character "品." A large ceramic teapot was placed atop the bricks. The teapot's chipped paint made it clear that it was scavenged by the little boy.

The boy took out a transparent plastic lighter from the pocket of his baggy, blackened pants. He shook it hard and lit a thin piece of plastic before stuffing it beneath the teapot. He then moved quickly and stuffed more flammable garbage underneath the teapot.

Acrid black smoke wafted out, and the tap water inside the teapot soon started boiling. As soon as it did, the boy took out a red packet of instant noodles from his arms.

The boy opened the packet and added the noodles, the sauce, the vegetable packet, and the seasoning packet into the teapot. Each step was done with utmost care as if he weren't cooking a packet of instant noodles but crafting a masterpiece.

Once the noodles were cooked, the boy couldn't wait for it to cool down. He took out a pair of filthy chopsticks and ate with relish. Clearly, he was starving. The boy winched as soon as the noodles entered his mouth. As expected, it was too hot, but the boy dared not spit them out. He tilted his head backward, covered his mouth with his hand, and exhaled loudly to cool the noodles down as soon as possible.

When the boy tilted his head backward, he saw the camera. The camera also caught the boy's face. His face was no cleaner than the rest of him, but his eyes were so pure—like two pieces of black jade.

The boy seemed delighted to see the camera, and he revealed an innocent smile.

"Hey, you're filming me with that, aren't you? Am I going to be on TV?"

The boy's joyful, innocent smile formed a stark contrast with the filthy surroundings.

Anna's breathing quickened upon seeing that little face. The boy didn't actually look like the previous Charles candidates, but those eyes… she recognized those eyes—those eyes unmistakably belonged to her husband, Charles!