Born with Knowledge

Xu Chen looked at the information on the screen, his mind full of questions.

There was one question above all that he mulled over a couple of times before he finally couldn't help asking.

"Why do you think the Taihao they're talking about... is the same Taihao from the Taihao Mausoleum I discovered? Those two things don't seem to have anything to do with each other, do they?"

Team Leader Zhu set down his cup. "That's not what we think. It's what Yang Tianyou thinks."

"Grandpa Yang?"

Team Leader Zhu was about to continue when Captain Chu waved a hand to interrupt him. "The situation isn't too urgent right now, but I think the longer this drags on, the harder it'll be to deal with. You don't mind telling us what you know, do you?"

Xu Chen nodded. "No problem."

But as soon as he said it, he felt it might be a little difficult. To put it plainly, the whole thing had started with a disaster caused by a typhoon wind field map. But as far as he knew, no matter how mystical Taihao was, he'd never heard of him having any powers related to typhoons.

Besides, humans needed high-tech weather stations to see a wind field map. If they hadn't upgraded the equipment in the first place, wouldn't none of this have happened? Had the typhoon kept up with the times and gone high-tech too?

And even if it was a typhoon along the coast, the neighboring island nation endured wind and waves year-round. Surely its meteorological observation capabilities were no worse than the mainland's? How come it seemed to be completely unaffected too? Could its attention have been tied up by the incident involving the stationed troops?

He didn't know much, but he had plenty of questions!

"How about you tell me what you want to know? If I know, I'll tell you," Xu Chen asked cautiously.

Captain Chu nodded. After a moment's thought, he came up with what he most wanted to know right now.

"What is 'Taihao'?"

Xu Chen's face twitched. He hadn't expected such a basic question, though judging by the information they'd provided, Taihao was indeed central to the matter.

It was as though this world's historical heritage had been severed. They didn't even know what Taihao was. It was sad and pitiful.

"Taihao... is the cultural progenitor of Huaxia. You could say that without him, there would be no Huaxia."

Captain Chu glanced at Mr. Ge, then looked back at Xu Chen and asked solemnly, "How did he cause this Taihao infectious disease?"

The question left Xu Chen dumbfounded. "Wait, why would you think I know the answer to that? How about I tell you more about Taihao instead?"

"No need. The excavation of the Taihao Mausoleum is proceeding at full speed. We've already obtained and studied a considerable amount of information."

"..."

Xu Chen was completely speechless. He didn't know all that much himself. Honestly, what he knew wasn't even as detailed as the information on the stele.

"Then what did you come to see me for? I really don't know anything either."

"All right, then let's try another question."

"Sure, go ahead." Xu Chen breathed a sigh of relief.

"Why did Taihao spread this infectious disease? Where did he spread it?"

Xu Chen wanted to smash the computer. The way he asked made Taihao sound like some extremist, wearing a stocking over his head, planting bombs everywhere and causing destruction at random.

"I really don't know that. Could you ask something else?"

"You really don't know?"

Xu Chen said wearily, "I really don't."

"All right, I'll ask something else."

"Go ahead, just don't ask me who or what Taihao is."

"I noticed that you discovered the location of the Taihao Mausoleum in ancient texts, so we have some questions..."

Xu Chen relaxed again, thinking that they'd finally gotten around to it.

After all, he'd noticed a loophole during the excavation of the Taihao Mausoleum: how had he known where it was?

There were quite a few records, but the Taihao Mausoleum had never been discovered in this world. That was enough to prove that historical records concerning it were pitifully scarce, so Xu Chen had immediately decided to make some evidence.

He'd obtained copies of some historical records and gone straight to the accounts of rituals at the Taihao Mausoleum. Most of them were indeed incomplete when viewed individually, but with some effort, they could be pieced together to fill the gaps in one another.

It was an enormous undertaking, though, so after giving it some thought, Xu Chen had used a few methods to fill in the gaps himself.

He'd forged the evidence by working backward from what he already knew to reconstruct the wording in the ancient texts, but no one could actually spot a problem. Given his contributions to the history department, fooling its professors and experts was as easy as could be.

The testimony they could obtain from the history professors and experts was all officially certified, and they lacked the knowledge to dig deeper into the lies in it.

Thinking of this, Xu Chen couldn't help smiling faintly.

"We asked the police to investigate. Their psychology and criminal investigation experts noticed that your behavior before and after the excavation of the Taihao Mausoleum closely matched that of someone concealing information. The psychologists unanimously agreed that you appeared to have deliberately concealed an important piece of information before the excavation."

"!"

Xu Chen was dumbfounded. If he could have cursed them out, he would at least have yelled, "You're not playing fair!"

He'd thought these people would just ask a few questions afterward. Who could have known that he'd end up under scrutiny, with a whole group of criminal investigation experts analyzing him under a magnifying glass?

They really were giving him a lot of attention.

Xu Chen considered denying it, but when he looked at Captain Chu's solemn face, he suddenly found it hard to speak. If they dared bring it up so directly, didn't that mean someone already had evidence against him?

After all, he hadn't thought any criminal investigation or psychology experts would look into him back then. A lot of the evidence he'd made was admittedly crude, though that also had to do with the fact that he hadn't done anything criminal...

Suddenly, Xu Chen's eyes lit up. That was right, he hadn't done anything bad. Was he really going to be afraid of these soldiers?

Captain Chu frowned at Xu Chen. Had the kid suddenly become a little more self-assured? Was he imagining it?

"Oh, you mean that? I knew where the Taihao Mausoleum was from the start. I thought they wouldn't believe I'd discovered it, so I filled in the gaps in the ancient texts and showed them. That's not a bad thing, is it?"

That was the truth.

"Hm? Then what information were you hiding?"

"Didn't I just say? I knew where the Taihao Mausoleum was from the start."

Captain Chu's frown deepened.

Team Leader Zhu cut in from beside him. "No, why did you know the location of the Taihao Mausoleum from the start?"

"I just knew."

"So you're saying you knew even before you read any books about Taihao?"

"Yeah. What, is there a problem?"

Captain Chu's eyes widened. This was more than a problem. It was a huge problem. At the most serious, this kid was definitely an accomplice of Taihao's, or at the very least someone connected to him.

But he'd read the information the archaeology department had just compiled, and he understood that Taihao was a figure from a thousand years ago who had already become almost a myth. How could he have anything to do with Xu Chen?

An aged voice beside them asked with interest, "Then where did you learn about Taihao?"

Xu Chen looked over. It was Mr. Ge.

"I was born knowing it."

There was nothing wrong with that answer; it wasn't untrue. But as for what others made of it, Xu Chen didn't care.