Why it never ends

Chapter 23 Gifts
Hesta pushed the door and went out, but the moment she went out, the entire corridor was darkened, only the lamp above her head remained bright.

The surveillance cameras at both ends of the corridor turned to Hesta at the same time, and the same twisting sound reappeared—it was the sound of the camera focusing.

Thinking that it might be Sean's eyes behind the surveillance, Hesta's whole body tensed up again. Fear wrapped in anger made her clenched her fists, but her face remained expressionless.

She didn't want the other party to see her frightened or helpless rage, and after adjusting her breathing a little, she knocked on the assistant's door as usual.

However, no one responded.

"Jane—?" Liz's voice came from downstairs, and for a moment, Hesta trembled involuntarily.

"……I'm here."

Following this question and answer, the lamp above her head was quickly extinguished.

In the pure darkness, Hesta heard Liz's footsteps approaching rapidly, until she grasped her hand tightly.

Liz was out of breath, "Are you okay? Why is there a power outage here..."

In the silence, before Hesta had time to answer, they suddenly heard a knock on the door from the bathroom not far away, "Is anyone outside?"

Hesta quickly realized: "...it's the assistant's voice."

"Is anyone? Is anyone? I seem to be trapped in the toilet by the automatic door."

"Wait—" Liz began to reach out for her public key, "here we come."

……

On the way back to the apartment, Hesta talked about what happened tonight and asked Liz why she sent that message.

Liz's expression was a bit complicated, "Two weeks ago, Ms. Morley said that she would discuss Sean's behavior restraining order with Chiba Masaki... Do you remember this incident?"

"Well, remember."

"Ms. Morley received feedback this afternoon, and Chiba directly rejected this suggestion—she requested that all existing restraining orders and punishments against Xiao En be lifted. She believes that this is just a normal quarrel between students. , there is no need to go online like this.”

"……yes."

"Ms. Morley was very annoyed. She had a video call with Chiba in the afternoon, and the two broke up. The result now is that the adjustments to Sean's rating and allowance compensation belong to the internal disciplinary action of the base. Chiba I have no right to ask, Ms. Morley will definitely insist, as for how to restrict Xiao En's actions, we can think of a way..."

"understood."

"...Jane?" Liz looked at her worriedly, "You look tired."

"It's nothing." Hesta reached out and scratched his hair lightly. "It's something new I learned today. It's too difficult for me."

Along the way, Hesta silently chewed on everything that happened tonight.

Obviously, this must be Sean's masterpiece. I'm afraid Sean's sight never really disappeared during the half month that she thought was calm.He has been watching himself nonchalantly behind a screen, but until today, he has not shown up in an overly dramatic way.

And the reason why he chose today is probably also related to the news that the restraining order failed to take effect--Liz said it was true before, Sean was indeed afraid of the base's punishment, but this kind of punishment deterred him , exists only under the premise that his evil deeds will be discovered.

After a brief trembling, a heavy stone in Hesta's heart suddenly fell to the ground.

Yes, her judgment was right, she recognized the storm.

Liz analyzed from the side, "Tonight's power outage is likely to be related to Sean, and he has also remotely controlled some smart furniture in the old building before.

"When I go back, I will report to Ms. Morley what happened tonight. At that time, even if we can't do a firmware upgrade for all the facilities in these buildings for the time being, we can adjust your daily courses underground, where , Sean's tricks are no longer—”

"Liz." Hesta interrupted Liz softly, "I... my mind is a little messed up, can we talk about these things tomorrow."

"Okay..." Liz looked at Hesta with concern, "Sorry."

Hesta shook her head—in any case, it's not you who should apologize.

The two pushed open the door of the apartment and stepped into the lobby of the apartment one after another. Mrs. Lavitt suddenly opened the window and waved to Hester with a smile, "Miss Fletcher, Miss Hesta, are you back together?"

Hesta stopped. "Good evening, Mrs. Lavitt."

Mrs. Lavitt said softly: "There is a package for you, come and sign for it."

"For me?" Hesta was a little surprised, "Who sent it?"

"Well, let me see..." Lavitt picked up her hand-held gold-rimmed glasses, squinted and looked at the big cardboard box in hand.

"Chiba Masaki."

……

After returning to the room, Hesta put the package on his desk.

She stared quietly for a while at the package with Chiba Masaki's name, which made her feel a little complicated.

After a moment of hesitation, Hesta picked up the scissors and started unpacking.

It was a 40cm square carton. She used scissors to cut open the tape on the upper layer of the carton. Unexpectedly, there was a small box inside the big box. On the small box was a handwritten postcard with Chiba’s handwriting on it:

"I heard that my ward, Ms. Hesta, has encountered some difficulties recently. I have thought twice and prepared a small gift for you. I don't know what occasion you will open this package. Please try to stay alone , even if there are people around, please pay attention to controlling your expression and don't let yourself look too surprised.

"Can it be done? If you're ready, just open the package.

"The solution lies within."

Hesta put the postcard aside suspiciously, and cut the seal of the small carton with a knife—opened the paper cover, and there was a box full of white plastic foam rollers thick as fingers.

Hesta put her hand into the cardboard box, trying to find out what was inside. When her fingertips were almost touching the bottom of the box, her expression froze suddenly.

Despite her preparations, her breathing froze slightly when she touched the bottom of the box.

Hesta slowly raised her hand, and a Beretta 92 pistol suddenly appeared in her hand.

At this time, she suddenly found that there seemed to be another postcard in the pile of flipped white foam. Hesta immediately picked it up, and saw a few lines written in the same handwriting on it:
"If you don't agree with this solution, just reseal the carton and return it to its original place.

"If you are interested, go to Sophie Morley tomorrow and make an appointment with her for me this Thursday, and we will have an interview."

In the lower right corner of the postcard is Chiba's rather wild signature and a self-portrait with a toothy grin.

(End of this chapter)