Help

Captain Chu's heart sank when he heard the voice in his earpiece.

Although he had stressed the need for a gentle approach, he had not come unprepared.

The conference room was actually fitted with numerous sensors, and even the military-grade computer had a camera. The purpose was to let the think tank behind him use the sensors, cameras, and listening devices to help analyze Xu Chen's words and actions. They would then tell him through his earpiece whether Xu Chen was telling the truth and offer suggestions.

The think tank included not only leading figures from the military region's Academy of Sciences, but also criminal investigation and psychology experts sent by the criminal police detachment working with them. Xu Chen probably had no idea that he really was being scrutinized under a magnifying glass, as if he were wearing nothing at all.

So far, however, the think tank had concluded that the young man before him had cooperated with him completely from beginning to end. He had not told a single lie.

But just now, the think tank had issued a warning. After analyzing Xu Chen's microexpressions and small gestures, they believed that if Captain Chu continued pressing him about his source of information, Xu Chen would not only become resistant, but the information obtained from subsequent questions would also become unreliable.

So they offered two choices.

The first was to keep pressing. If Captain Chu considered Xu Chen's source an important lead, he could question him quickly and use his authority to pressure him. He might get an answer, but Xu Chen would likely be unwilling to cooperate during further questioning and give up trying altogether.

The second was to drop the matter and ask other questions.

Captain Chu stared at Xu Chen until Xu Chen grew uneasy.

After learning that his measures had not worked and confirming once again that he had done nothing criminal as far as he could remember, Xu Chen decided to give up trying and say no more.

He had nothing they could use against him and had committed no crime. Even if the king of heaven himself came, he would still be in the right, so what did he have to worry about?

As for the Taihao Mausoleum and the anomalies he had discovered... if the sky fell, the tall people would hold it up. It had nothing much to do with him.

Having made his peace with it, Xu Chen picked up the cup of water on the table and took two big gulps.

Captain Chu hesitated, then finally shook his head. He recalled Dean Yang's assessment of Xu Chen's character: his thinking and logic were superior to those of ordinary people, as if he had far more time to think than they did and a more clearly defined bottom line.

Such a person was beneficial to him and to civilization, so he could not afford to make an enemy of him for now.

"I don't have anything else to ask. Mr. Ge, what about you?"

Xu Chen gave Captain Chu a surprised look. He had thought the captain would keep pressing him, but he had actually dropped it.

Mr. Ge nodded slowly. "Young man, you've read so much of the material too. What do you think of this Taihao?"

"Me?" Xu Chen came to his senses and glanced at the screen.

"I only just learned about it myself. I can't offer any suggestions."

"Old Yang didn't say that. He thinks you're someone special, someone who could discover something." Old Ge smiled. "Besides, we've seen your records from the internship group. You put forward a very important conjecture."

Xu Chen was startled. "That conjecture? I only mentioned it because I thought it was quite a coincidence. It shouldn't be taken seriously."

Old Ge gave Xu Chen a meaningful look.

Xu Chen immediately understood what he meant. Perhaps his conjecture was not entirely baseless after all. It might even be true.

The fact that Old Ge had neither denied nor confirmed it was an answer in itself. Perhaps he had not responded because it was confidential?

However terrifying the implications became the more Xu Chen thought about them, it would not change anything. As the saying went, if the sky fell, the tall people would hold it up. Even if aliens came, he would not be the one going to the battlefield. He adjusted his mindset and soon noticed something else Old Ge had said. "All right. You just said Grandpa Yang thought I was special? What's special about me?"

Old Ge thought for a moment and looked at Xu Chen. "It's your spirit. I mean spirit in the broad sense, the mystical sort, like the kind in novels... I don't know if you understand?"

Xu Chen shook his head. Old Ge's description only brought things like spiritual power and SAN points to mind, but was that really it?

"Then you'll have to ask your grandpa." He sighed. "But your Grandpa Yang heard that you uncovered the Taihao Mausoleum, and he seems convinced that you must have found something. I wonder if you really did discover anything?"

"No, I only know where the Taihao Mausoleum is. Other than that... there were just those stone steles." Xu Chen answered. After all, he really had not discovered much. He had gone there for the Taihao Mausoleum in the first place, and finding it had satisfied his curiosity.

"Sigh, to tell you the truth, these two recent outbreaks have left us at our wits' end. A lot of things have had to be delayed..."

"Wait, weren't those two diseases brought under control?" Xu Chen asked in surprise. The material said that all patients with Taihao disease had been contained, and all the patients infected with Aspergillus flavus had died. By rights, both outbreaks really had been completely stamped out.

"Team Leader Zhu..."

Team Leader Zhu responded, then looked Xu Chen squarely in the eye. "Yesterday, we received news that strange diseases all seemed to have broken out around the world at the same time. In a neighboring country, there was even an outbreak of a fungal infection with symptoms extremely similar to ours, but the fungal species was different."

"Controls have already been imposed at the border. Our soldiers and border control personnel won't let any virus spread into the country, but we really suspect this disease will return."

Xu Chen did not know what to say. The news reports had actually all been true.

But thinking back, it seemed there really was nothing he could do about the Taihao Mausoleum.

Wait.

Xu Chen suddenly remembered something he had overlooked.

"Old Ge, now that you mention it, I do remember something I thought was strange."

Old Ge grew interested. "What is it, young man?"

"It's Special Corrosion. I suspect there's something wrong with it."

Everyone present was dumbfounded.

Captain Chu could even hear the people in the think tank shouting through his earpiece for someone who knew the term to come over.

"I think there's something odd about this 'Special Corrosion.'"

Old Ge, perhaps because he was well-read and experienced, immediately realized what Special Corrosion was. "You mean the Special Corrosion on cultural relics? Isn't that a perfectly normal natural phenomenon?"

"It's not normal. How could it... It shouldn't have corroded like that..."

"Then how do you think it should have corroded?" Old Ge asked.

Xu Chen could not find an answer. After all, the tutorials he had read were logical and consistent, and reality matched them. Those were the facts, so what could he say against them?

Old Ge sighed. "Forget it. Let's leave that question for now. We only asked you here this time to talk about how Taihao was discovered. After all, so many people didn't know about it before..."

"We'll handle things from here, so don't worry. It won't affect your schooling. Now let's sign this confidentiality agreement to ensure you won't disclose what happened today..."

A chill suddenly ran up Xu Chen's spine, making his hair stand on end. Deep down, he felt that things absolutely could not end like this. He might be at a crucial juncture.

"Wait! You think what I said was wrong? You weren't planning to take that 'Special Corrosion' seriously?"

Old Ge looked at him without speaking, but he had obviously acquiesced.

"Didn't you ask if I had discovered anything? This is my discovery. Why aren't you taking it seriously?"

Old Ge lowered his head slightly. "All right, I'll organize my research institute to verify what you said about 'Special Corrosion.' But it is a natural phenomenon, after all, so I can't guarantee we'll find anything..."

Hearing that, Xu Chen suddenly understood that Old Ge might be a leading figure at a military region research institute. He must have considerable expertise in some scientific field, which was why he had been invited here to provide these people with "technical" support.

To put it plainly, the man knew who knew how much more than Xu Chen. On hearing Xu Chen question a natural phenomenon, he would surely be skeptical. If he had also studied the causes of Special Corrosion in depth, he would be thoroughly convinced of that corrosion mechanism, and on hearing Xu Chen question this and that, he would surely take him for some kind of crackpot.

Xu Chen suddenly grew anxious, because he kept feeling that something bad would happen if he did not say something more.

It really was a strange feeling.

He watched Old Ge place the confidentiality agreement in front of him. Its terms strictly bound him to keep this exchange secret.

They took Taihao seriously and were fully prepared for the possible return of Taihao disease, but until the future arrived, it could only exist as a secret.

Suddenly, Xu Chen thought of something and looked at Old Ge.

"I've got it. I found another suspicious point, but I can't be sure. I need your help."

Old Ge looked at Xu Chen in surprise.

Captain Chu, who was beside him, spoke first.

"All right. What help do you need?"

"Help me check what cultural relics were damaged by Special Corrosion in the site museums I write down." Xu Chen took the paper and pen on the table, thought back for a moment, and wrote them down.