Clue

"Academician Tang, I'm sorry to have asked you here when you're so busy, but I've run into a major problem. I'm truly at a loss, so I came to ask for your advice."

"You're Old Ge's student, Meng Hua, aren't you? I've already learned the details." The old man, whose hair was just as white, smiled and reassured Meng Hua. "The motherland won't forget your teacher. You should also take up his banner and keep forging ahead."

"Yes. Once I've dealt with what's at hand, I'll continue my studies."

"A promising young man." Academician Tang gave Meng Hua an approving look. "Go on, then. What exactly is the problem?"

"Well, it's like this. When my teacher was studying special corrosion, he used a great deal of equipment and recorded his conclusions in his notes. But his notes... for some reason, they're completely incomprehensible. So the only clues we have now are the records and reports from the experiments Teacher Ge previously asked us to conduct."

"You want to...?"

"Yes. I want to work backward from the experiments Teacher Ge asked us to conduct and figure out what problem he noticed. Although he asked us to carry out a large number of tests at the same time, he paid particular attention to a few of them. He may already have had something specific in mind to investigate. I ruled out conventional tests for dating artifacts, such as carbon-14 testing, and in the end, I found that Teacher Ge seemed to have been dealing with something related to high-energy physics."

"Not bad. You actually thought of a method like that." Academician Tang nodded. "But while it isn't quite like looking for a needle in a haystack, it's close. In scientific research, even a narrowly defined direction can consume who knows how many researchers' years."

"I'm not afraid of heading in the wrong direction. I'm afraid of having no direction at all. This is very important."

"All right, give me the materials you've put together."

"Okay." Meng Hua picked up a bound booklet from beside him and flipped it open. It was packed with combinations of numbers and letters. To an ordinary person, it would be an excellent sleep aid. If it were left in a bathroom, they'd rather read the ingredients on a shampoo bottle than give it a glance.

But Academician Tang only flipped through it briefly before taking an old pair of glasses from his jacket pocket. He put them on and began reading closely.

He read slowly, but no one in the laboratory made a sound to disturb him. To ensure the experiments were precise, few of the instruments made any noise. After all, machinery that made noise was bound to be imprecise. As a result, the only sounds in the laboratory were everyone's breathing and the occasional turn of a page by Academician Tang.

At last, Academician Tang finished reading the entire booklet. Meng Hua looked at him expectantly.

Academician Tang took off his glasses and shook his head. "I did find a few anomalies in the data, but they don't seem to be connected. I'll have to take this back and study it more carefully."

"Yes, of course."

"But..." Academician Tang turned to one of the reports. "What's going on with the spectral data in this one?"

As he said this, there was a hint of displeasure on his face.

Meng Hua took it and looked it over, but couldn't see anything wrong. He looked cautiously at Academician Tang, like a schoolchild who had made a mistake.

"Either you failed to follow proper procedures, or the sample was contaminated. The data you got was this absurd."

As Academician Tang scolded them, everyone in the conference room meekly assented. After all, no one present had a higher standing in research than he did, so there was really no fault to be found with him giving them a scolding.

Meng Hua hadn't expected him to be so exacting about research, showing no mercy at all. Sweat poured down his face as he searched for the error Academician Tang had mentioned.

At last, he noticed that part of the measured data had negative values. He had thought the minus signs were just dashes.

It was a basic mistake. The scolding was deserved.

"Academician Tang, this was my mistake. I'll take my colleagues and redo it right away."

Seeing how readily Meng Hua admitted his mistake, Academician Tang's expression improved somewhat, and he waved the matter aside. "There's no need. Since Teacher Ge didn't ask you to redo it, he probably already reached a conclusion from something else. This data isn't important..."

Meng Hua nodded.

"Hmm? There are two more sheets on your desk. What's written on them?" As Academician Tang sorted through the materials, he noticed that Meng Hua apparently hadn't given him everything. He had only handed over the bound booklet, and there were still things where it had been.

"Those are records of what Old Ge said to Xu Chen. I didn't think they'd be of much use to you..."

"Bring them here!"

Meng Hua respectfully handed them over.

Academician Tang put his glasses on again. After just one glance, he exclaimed in surprise, "An interrogation record?"

"Oh, the one on top hasn't been organized. The one underneath has."

Academician Tang pulled out the last page and glanced at it. After all, there really weren't many words on it. Then he frowned.

"'It is boundless, chaotic yet wondrous. Matter and time solidify into small pieces, scattered like stars'?" Academician Tang murmured, sinking into quiet thought.

"Matter and time solidify into small pieces?"

"Is that possible?"

Academician Tang fell silent. He stared motionlessly at the conversation Old Ge had left behind in his final moments, which he had just received, as if he were looking at the most profound mathematical problem.

He spent longer thinking than expected. Meng Hua checked his watch and finally couldn't hold back any longer. He stepped forward and interrupted him.

"Academician Tang? Academician Tang? It's already noon. Why don't we eat and come back to it afterward?"

Academician Tang emerged from his endless thoughts and looked at Meng Hua, his expression somewhat incredulous. "No, there's no need. I already have some ideas now. I just need to verify them."

Meng Hua looked at Academician Tang in delight. "Have you already guessed what my teacher was thinking?"

Academician Tang looked at Meng Hua and both nodded and shook his head. "I can't be certain. I can't tell you..." Then he thought of something and shook the bound booklet in Meng Hua's direction a couple of times.

"Do you have a backup of these materials?"

Meng Hua nodded.

"Good." Academician Tang took a sheet of paper, looked at the materials, then began flipping through them and writing something on the paper.

Meng Hua leaned over to look. Academician Tang only glanced at the materials a few times before writing down a group of three two-digit numbers. In the blink of an eye, he had written a long, densely packed string of numbers.

He pressed the sheet into Meng Hua's hand. "I'll verify some things when I get back. If you hear from me, I'll tell you, and you won't need this string of numbers."

Then he looked around the laboratory, as if remembering something. A moment later, he smiled in acceptance. "If you don't hear from me, or... if I end up like your teacher, then these numbers are the clue I'm leaving you."

Meng Hua's face went pale. "Academician Tang..."

Academician Tang stopped him from continuing. "What are you panicking for? Nothing's happened yet, so don't worry for now. What you need to do is study books on thermodynamics, and preferably find some people with expertise in the field. Then wait to hear from me. Understand?"

"...Understood."

"If I end up like your teacher, report to the higher-ups once you've deciphered these numbers. They'll understand what's going on."

"...Got it."

Academician Tang gave Meng Hua an encouraging pat on the shoulder, offering him silent encouragement, then hurried away with the materials.

He had a feeling that he too would follow in Academician Ge's footsteps. That mysterious entity possessed a power that was difficult to contend with, but someone had to do this in the end. He just didn't know how furious the country would be if two academicians died in succession.

When that happened, he would have served as the Bell Ringer.

The state apparatus would be fully awakened. No one would want to face such an entity.

Even those across the ocean wouldn't want to provoke an enraged lion.

He thought over the information he had left Meng Hua. Once he was sure it was unambiguous, concise and clear, unlike Academician Ge's obscure message, and that nothing had been overlooked, he hurriedly quickened his pace.