The Undersea Ruins from Twenty Years Ago

The entrance to the Pure Human Research Institute.

Looking at the somewhat old building in front of her, Shen Qinghan said expectantly, "I've wanted to visit the Pure Human Research Institute for a long time, and today I finally have the chance."

Lin Zichen laughed and said, "I advise you not to get your hopes up too high. It's pretty run-down inside, especially the corridor at the entrance, which looks like a roadside junkyard."

"Really?"

"You'll see when you go in."

"..."

The two walked into the research institute together as they talked.

Along the way, Shen Qinghan curiously observed her surroundings.

It turned out that what Lin Zichen said was true.

The corridor was piled with clutter, looking like a junkyard.

Why is this place so chaotic?

"Don't you ever tidy up?"

"Xiao Chen, how about I come over here and help you tidy up when I have time in the future?"

Shen Qinghan suggested with a virtuous expression.

Lin Zichen: "No way, this kind of messy environment is a characteristic of the Pure Human Research Institute. It's meant to be chaotic to have character. The messier it is, the more research-oriented it becomes, giving people the feeling of being in Ruins."

"Is this even possible?"

Shen Qinghan didn't understand, but it broadened her horizons.

Soon.

The two walked through the dimly lit corridor and arrived at the brightly lit Leisure Area in the middle.

Song Yuyan was doing yoga inside.

Seeing the two enter, she immediately stood up from the yoga mat, her long, sexy legs swaying as she greeted them with a beaming smile:

"Handsome boy, beautiful girl, you're here!"

"..."

Lin Zichen introduced Song Yuyan to Shen Qinghan, "This beautiful older sister is Sister Yan, whom I mentioned to you before. Just call her Sister Yan."

Hello, Sister Yan.

Shen Qinghan greeted him politely, her voice sweet and clear, a shy smile playing on her delicate face, making her look very cute.

Song Yuyan's heart melted as she listened.

She stepped forward, took Shen Qinghan's hand in a very familiar manner, and praised her highly:

"I saw your photos on Zichen's phone before, and I was amazed by your beauty back then."

"I never expected that I would be even more beautiful in person than in the photos."

"Most importantly, her voice is so beautiful, it's like my ears are pregnant from listening to it."

"..."

"Thanks."

Shen Qinghan was a little overwhelmed by the praise and didn't know how to respond. After thinking for a while, all she could do was say thank you to Song Yuyan.

So reserved, so polite, so adorable!

Song Yuyan really liked the pretty younger sister in front of her.

He warmly took her hand.

Lead her towards the refrigerator.

Give her a drink.

Let her treat the research institute as her own home.

Be casual, don't be reserved.

Having spent all her time cooped up in the research institute doing research, and facing either Liu Chuanwu or Lin Zichen every day, Song Yuyan was overjoyed to finally have a girl join the institute.

"Come on, Hanhan, let's add each other on WeChat."

Song Yuyan took out her phone, opened the QR code business card in WeChat, and asked Shen Qinghan to scan the code to add her as a friend.

Shen Qinghan obediently took out her phone to scan the QR code and added Song Yuyan as a WeChat friend.

After adding her on WeChat, Song Yuyan immediately checked Shen Qinghan's Moments. After reading it, she jokingly commented:

"Wow, your profile picture is Zichen, your WeChat Moments background is Zichen, and almost every post you make is related to Zichen. You really like Zichen that much."

"Girls as affectionate as you are rare these days."

"If Zichen ever dares to let you down in the future, Sister Yan promise I'll be the first to stand up for him!"

"..."

Hearing Song Yuyan's words, Shen Qinghan felt very uncomfortable and didn't know how to respond.

Song Yuyan was too outgoing, which made her feel a little uncomfortable around her.

On the other side.

Lin Zichen sat down on the sofa and contacted Liu Chuanwu on WeChat.

Ask him for more information about the Ancient Relic.

For example--

What do Ancient Relic look like?

Which Utility Room exactly?

The place was a mess, with junk piled up everywhere; almost every corner could be called Utility Room.

If we don't ask clearly, we might have trouble finding out later.

Less than half a minute after the message was sent, Liu Chuanwu replied.

[Dean: That Ancient Relic is a bracelet made of pearls and seashells. I forgot which Utility Room it was in; you'll have to look for it.]

Upon seeing the content of the message, Lin Zichen felt a chill run down his spine.

The bracelet is small, and there are many Utility Room in the office; it would probably take an entire afternoon to find it.

After all, a bracelet is an inanimate object, devoid of any life or aura, making it difficult to perceive its existence through Mental Power.

Unless one 'Mental Power is as strong as Yuan Dongzhi's, capable of flying and scanning the human body, it might be possible to sense the existence of an inanimate object like the bracelet.

"By the way, Zichen, didn't you say you were going to the Military District for a month-long special training? Why are you back after only half a month?"

Song Yuyan tossed a can of drink to Lin Zichen, and asked the question with some confusion.

Lin Zichen explained, "During the special training, we were attacked by the Divine Plant Cult, which caused the training to end early, so I came back ahead of schedule."

"Huh? Did I hear that right? Heretic Cult can attack us in Military District?"

Song Yuyan was shocked, then asked with a mixture of confusion and curiosity, "What exactly happened? Tell me quickly."

"Here's what happened..."

Lin Zichen recounted the events to Song Yuyan in general terms.

Song Yuyan was completely stunned after hearing the whole thing.

After a moment of regaining her senses, she exclaimed in disbelief, "Good heavens, they even dared to attack the Military District headquarters of Nanjiang Province! Has the Divine Plant Cult gone mad?!"

"It's a bit crazy."

Lin Zichen wholeheartedly agreed.

After saying that, he skipped the topic and showed Song Yuyan his chat history with Liu Chuanwu, then asked, "Sister Yan, do you remember the bracelet the Dean mentioned?"

Song Yuyan thought for a moment, then shook her head and said, "I've been in the institute for ten years, and I've never seen this bracelet before."

"Is that so?" Lin Zichen said regretfully, "Then it seems we'll have to search slowly."

Song Yuyan smiled and said, "It's alright, I'm very familiar with the Utility Room in the office, so I can eliminate many possibilities. I don't think it will take long to find it."

"That's true, then I'll trouble Sister Yan to help me look for it."

"It's no trouble at all, don't be so polite."

"..."

After a brief chat, the three of them quickly began searching the office.

Half an hour passed, and they still hadn't found it.

An hour passed, and they still hadn't found it.

One and a half hours...

Two hours...

Two and a half hours...

Led by Song Yuyan, Lin Zichen and Shen Qinghan searched for two and a half hours, turning the entire research institute upside down, even searching Liu Chuanwu's office.

However, they found nothing; they couldn't even spot a trace of the bracelet.

"That's impossible! We've searched every place where we keep miscellaneous items, but we can't find the bracelet the Dean mentioned."

Song Yuyan frowned slightly.

She thought for a moment and then said, "Do you think it's possible that the Dean has dementia and that there's no such bracelet at all?"

Lin Zichen didn't reply, but simply said, "Let's keep looking. If we really can't find anything, we'll wait for the Dean to return."

After saying that, he continued rummaging through the pile of junk.

They searched the places they had already looked for again, even more carefully than before, afraid of missing any corner.

After searching for more than ten minutes...

Shen Qinghan, who was standing to the side, turned her gaze to a fish tank in the corner.

It was an abandoned fish tank.

The surface was covered in dust.

There was a thick layer of soil inside the jar.

Upon closer inspection, the soil inside had dried out and cracked, looking like dry land that had been arid for decades.

For some reason, Shen Qinghan always felt that the abandoned fish tank was attracting her, an attraction that seemed to come from nowhere.

Looking at the soil in the fish tank, she said to Lin Zichen almost unconsciously, "Xiao Chen, do you think the bracelet we're looking for might be buried in the soil of this fish tank?"

Lin Zichen looked at the abandoned fish tank upon hearing the sound.

A sense of doubt suddenly arose in my mind.

In the soil of the fish tank?

How did such a perfectly good bracelet end up buried in the soil inside the fish tank?

That doesn't make sense.

Lin Zichen felt that his Hanbao had quite a wild imagination.

Thinking about it, he walked to the fish tank and stopped, looking at the soil in the tank, and asked Shen Qinghan, "Why do you think the bracelet is buried in the soil of the fish tank?"

Shen Qinghan: "I can't really explain it. I just suddenly noticed this fish tank, and then I felt like the bracelet we were looking for was buried in the soil inside the fish tank."

Intuition?

Lin Zichen chose to trust Shen Qinghan's intuition and said, "Hmm, that's possible. I'll go find something to dig up the soil in the fish tank and take a look."

After saying that, he went to find a stick or a shovel.

No sooner had Lin Zichen left than Song Yuyan walked up to the fish tank and said:

"When I first came to the institute ten years ago, this fish tank was already here, and it looks the same now. It feels like this fish tank has been here for at least twenty or thirty years."

Then she asked Shen Qinghan, "How did you have the intuition that the bracelet we're looking for is buried in the soil around this fish tank?"

Like Lin Zichen, she couldn't understand Shen Qinghan's intuition.

It's really strange, after all.

How did such a perfectly good bracelet end up buried in the soil inside the fish tank?

This makes no sense at all.

Faced with Song Yuyan's question, Shen Qinghan couldn't explain it either, and could only answer, "I don't know what happened, but I just felt like the bracelet was buried in the soil of the fish tank."

"..."

Soon, Lin Zichen found a small shovel used for archaeological digging.

Under the watchful eyes of the two women, he carefully dipped the small shovel into the fish tank and began digging.

After digging for a short while, he actually dug a bracelet out of the ground.

A bracelet made of pearls and seashells.

It's exactly the same bracelet that Liu Chuanwu mentioned on WeChat.

Lin Zichen and Song Yuyan were both shocked.

What's going on?!

Shen Qinghan actually guessed correctly?!

The bracelet Liu Chuanwu mentioned was actually buried in the soil inside the fish tank?!

"How come your intuition is so accurate?"

Song Yuyan looked at Shen Qinghan beside her, feeling incredulous and somewhat unable to understand.

She wondered how she had spent ten years in the institute and never knew there was a bracelet hidden in the soil of the fish tank.

Shen Qinghan, on her first day at the institute, guessed that there was a bracelet in the soil of the fish tank.

Does this pretty girl have some special treasure-hunting ability?

Song Yuyan was puzzled by this.

She was puzzled, Shen Qinghan herself was puzzled as well.

Shen Qinghan had no idea what her intuition was, and couldn't explain it, so she could only tell Song Yuyan that she didn't know either.

Beside him, Lin Zichen carefully examined the bracelet in his hand.

That's strange.

This bracelet was clearly dug out of the ground.

However, not a speck of dirt touched it.

It looks shiny and smooth, as if it has just been carefully washed, truly embodying the saying "rising from the mud unsullied."

I didn't pay much attention to whether it was clean or not.

Soon, Lin Zichen's attention was drawn to the mysterious patterns on the bracelet.

The bracelet is made of pearls and shells.

Each pearl and each shell is engraved with mysterious patterns that appear to be writing.

These mysterious patterns are very similar to the patterns formed by the water droplets that had previously surrounded Shen Qinghan; they are so similar that it is almost certain they are the same type of pattern.

"Xiao Chen, the patterns on the bracelet really look like the ones we saw before."

Shen Qinghan leaned closer to look at the bracelet and said.

Song Yuyan asked, "Have you seen these patterns on the bracelet before? Where did you see them?"

Lin Zichen casually lied, saying, "I saw it on some of the items belonging to members of the Divine Plant Cult when we were attacked."

"Were any of those items recovered?"

Song Yuyan is very interested in the unknown ancient texts and wants to collect more related items to study them and see if she can decipher them.

Lin Zichen: "We didn't recover anything; those items all sank into the sea and drifted away with the ocean currents."

Song Yuyan shook her head. "What a pity, such a pity."

After saying that, she added, "If we have the chance in the future, we should pay close attention to the Heretic Cult of the Divine Plant Cult and see if we can catch a few of them, deal with them, and extract some related items from them."

While the group was talking...

Liu Chuanwu, who hadn't been to the research institute for almost a whole day, has finally returned.

He walked in slowly, sporting dark circles under his eyes and yawning listlessly, saying, "Everyone's here. Did you find the bracelet?"

"Found it."

Lin Zichen raised the bracelet he was holding.

Standing next to him, Shen Qinghan greeted him somewhat reservedly, "Hello, Dean."

Liu Chuanwu smiled and said, "Hello to you too."

Song Yuyan teased, "Dean, your dark circles look so heavy. Did you work all night again last night?"

Liu Chuanwu rubbed his lower back and said, "It wasn't just one night, it was a whole day."

"I've been working since noon yesterday without sleeping for a single second."

"I was busy driving piles and helping my old flame repair the garden the whole time; it really wore out my old bones."

"..."

Lin Zichen wasn't interested in what Liu Chuanwu had done at his old flame's place last night; he was only interested in the necklace he was holding.

He quickly asked, "Dean, where did you get this bracelet?"

After thinking for a moment, Liu Chuanwu said, "If I remember correctly, it was unearthed from an Undersea Ruins in 2004."

Undersea Ruins?

Lin Zichen keenly noticed the word "sea" and continued, "What exactly is that Undersea Ruins like?"

"It's been almost twenty years since then, and I've forgotten many of the details."

After finishing his sentence, Liu Chuanwu added, "However, I recorded it at the time, and it's saved in my office. I'll take you to see it now."

P. S.: I'm setting up the bowls, please vote with your monthly tickets and recommendations!