"Come quickly! A new discovery!!"
The shout was so abrupt that it immediately drew everyone's attention.
The camera crew following at the rear of the team promptly turned their lenses in that direction as well.
"What did you find?"
The three team leaders hurriedly ended their discussion and walked over, while everyone else nearby did the same.
The one who had shouted was a researcher in his thirties. He stood by the riverbank, wildly excited, waving the item inside a sealed bag.
"This! I found it in the riverbed... Look!"
As the others approached and saw the rust-stained metal object inside the transparent bag, everyone present changed expression.
It was a piece of metal no bigger than a finger joint.
Its surface bore obvious traces of corrosion.
Most importantly, its shape could never have been formed by nature.
It showed unmistakable signs of processing.
A manufactured metal object!
"Give me the tweezers," Academician Zhou said gravely. Pulling on gloves, he somewhat clumsily used the tweezers to pick up the tiny metal object.
He examined it carefully in the sunlight, his expression growing increasingly solemn.
"A bullet?" the geologist suddenly said.
No one spoke.
In truth, despite its severe rusting, its shape still naturally made people think of a metal cartridge case.
"Give me something to polish it with," Academician Zhou said again.
Someone hurriedly brought over a sheet of sandpaper. The group then gathered around a nearby stone and began carefully polishing it.
Their movements were delicate and slow. As the rust was gradually worn away, the bullet that had lain buried in the soil slowly gleamed with the cold light of metal.
Perhaps because it had not been washed into the river all that long ago, they could even vaguely make out what seemed to be markings or