It wasn’t any of the six research experimenters.
Zhou Huaixia judged instantly with the weak light in the corridor.
A strange man with a buzz cut and thick eyebrows reacted extremely fast when he saw the three people.
His eyes flashed with hostility, and he charged forward.
His right foot fiercely kicked the back of Shen Yi, who was sitting on the stairs, while his left hand directly grabbed the throat of Lu Jin, who was the closest.
Zhou Huaixia did not look back.
She immediately dodged to the side, ignoring Shen Yi, who was rolling down the stairs with the computer, and Lu Jin, who was nearly suffocated by the chokehold.
Without the faint light from the computer screen, the seventh-floor corridor was instantly plunged into darkness, with only the faint glow of the emergency exit sign below.
Zhou Huaixia reached for the manual fire alarm button at the corridor entrance, based on her memory, and pressed it without hesitation.
Although the building’s main and backup power supplies had all failed, the fire alarm system had redundancy measures designed into it, at least with built-in batteries.
“Beep Beep Beep”
In an instant, a sharp, high-decibel alarm echoed throughout the entire building.
“F*** your mother!”
The strange man cursed angrily in the darkness.
The corridor entrance was already narrow.
Just as Zhou Huaixia turned her head, she was kicked hard into the wall.
The next moment, he grabbed her hair and slammed her head against the wall.
Before she could even feel the pain, everything went black, and she lost consciousness.
The man vented his frustration, then the emergency exit door was pushed open again, and a man and a woman rushed out.
“What’s going on?”
“That b***h pressed the fire alarm.”
“Hurry up and leave!”
“Did anyone see my face?”
“Take all of them!”
They quickly carried the three unconscious people and threw them into a small white cargo van in the underground parking lot.
They also turned off their phones and dumped them in a trash bin.
Just as the van drove out of the parking lot, the building’s power was restored.
The Tianhe Technology Park emergency team rushed inside to inspect the situation and prepare for evacuation.
Fortunately, by this time, most of the researchers on different floors had already come out.
“Seventh floor, manual alarm button A11 was triggered.”
The emergency team member reported through the intercom.
“Two people go to the seventh floor.
Others, check each floor.”
“First floor, no fire detected.”
“Second floor, no fire detected.”
…
“Seventh floor! Multiple people unconscious!”
As the emergency team checked each floor, the team assigned to the seventh floor found unconscious researchers in the corridor and rest area.
“Wake up!” An emergency responder tried to rouse them.
The six unconscious researchers had no injuries and were breathing normally.
As the responders patted their bodies, Zhan Ying gradually regained consciousness.
She was confused at first, but as soon as she heard the alarm, she became alert.
“What happened?”
“The building’s fire alarm suddenly went off.
We’re checking for a fire.”
The emergency personnel asked, “What happened on the seventh floor?”
Zhan Ying turned to look at her colleagues, who were slowly waking up.
Suddenly, she jumped up and rushed out of the rest area.
“Call the police immediately! Someone attacked the researchers!”
“Tianhe Technology Park, Research & Development Building, Seventh Floor.”
Tian Hong led the investigation team into the building.
As he walked in, he noticed a group of people with instruments leaving.
Zhan Ying followed his gaze and explained, “They’re here to check for gas leaks.
Someone attempted to ignite high-concentration hydrogen gas to cause an explosion but didn’t have time to complete the sabotage.
It seems the fire alarm went off unexpectedly.”
“What were you all doing at the time?” Tian Hong asked.
“Did anyone see the assailants?”
Zhan Ying shook her head.
“No, we were in the break room celebrating our successful experiment.
Xiao Tang went to the corridor to turn off the lights, and then suddenly, everything went black.
The candle went out, and we couldn’t see anything.”
Tian Hong asked, “So you were attacked at that moment?”
“No,” Zhan Ying recalled.
“We had just finished blowing out the candles, and everyone was clapping.
Xiao Tang went to turn on the lights, but they didn’t work.
That’s when we remembered the scheduled maintenance check.”
“I was about to use my phone’s flashlight when suddenly I heard someone collapse beside me.
I turned my head, and the next moment, I was knocked unconscious.”
Tian Hong frowned. “Maintenance check?”
Officer Sun Wei came over and reported, “Captain, I asked around. Every winter, the technology park does a routine maintenance check.
This week, it was the R&D building’s turn.
On Wednesday at 8 PM, the engineers were scheduled to shut off the main and backup power for testing.”
“But when they heard the fire alarm, they prioritized safety and restored the power system.”
“Our ventilation system had a surge failure during the check, causing the fans to malfunction, which prevented air circulation.
At the same time, the lab’s explosion-proof lights short-circuited,” Zhan Ying said with a grim expression.
“When the power was restored, the lights started sparking.”
“If the high-concentration hydrogen gas had leaked, the entire lab would have exploded instantly.”
Even now, the thought made her shudder.
“Someone wanted to stage an ‘accidental’ explosion and kill me and my team.”
Tian Hong pondered.
“But the alarm went off, so the perpetrators fled before they could complete the sabotage?”
Zhan Ying nodded.
“Yes, we’re lucky that alarm was triggered.”
Tian Hong looked at Officer Sun Wei.
“Check all surveillance footage before the power cut.”
“Captain, the technology park emergency team members are waiting in the break room.
They said they didn’t see any suspicious people.”
“Because of the scheduled maintenance shutdown at 8 PM, most labs had saved their data and left by 7 PM.”
Zhan Ying’s team had already completed their research last month.
Today was just a final confirmation, and since they were so excited, they didn’t think to leave early.
“Did anyone from your team press the alarm?” Tian Hong asked.
“No, just the six of us. No one pressed it.”
Tian Hong nodded and turned to walk toward the break room.
“Did you ask the emergency team where the alarm was triggered?”
“Yes,” Officer Yu Tiancheng said.
“They said it was at the seventh-floor emergency stairwell.”
“The stairwell?”
Tian Hong frowned.
The unconscious engineers in the corridor were far from the stairwell.
Officer Yu hesitated.
“Could the perpetrators have had a disagreement? Maybe one of them changed their mind and triggered the alarm?”
Tian Hong looked at him.
“Why do you think that?”
Officer Yu pointed to a shattered laptop on the stairs between the sixth and seventh floors.
“The laptop is pretty distinctive gold-plated on the back. It might have some clues.”
Tian Hong’s expression suddenly changed as he stared at the laptop.
He quickly grabbed his phone and made a call.
“Check the entry system to see if Zhou Huaixia, Shen Yi, or Lu Jin were registered!”
He dialed Zhou Huaixia’s number.
The phone was off.
Then he tried Lu Jin’s.
Off.
Shen Yi’s phone.
Also off.
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