The Bizarre Loss of Contact

"Shareholder?!"

After hearing Lin Xu's description, Jiang Xingye froze.

Good grief, she had said before that Lin Xu could rise quickly, but now he was shooting straight to the top??

Clearly, based on the chairman's description, Skyvault Technology intended to establish a new subsidiary and put Lin Xu directly in charge.

That much was obvious from Ren Jian's statement that Lin Xu would be responsible for procurement and recruitment.

But why so fast?!

"Wait, are you sure he said shareholder, not legal representative??"

Jiang Xingye asked suspiciously.

"...Can you at least wish me well?"

Lin Xu spread his hands helplessly.

"He's the legal representative himself, not me."

"Honestly, I think something feels off too."

"Especially the way he treats me. It feels like... how do I put it? Like he treats me as an equal."

"Seriously, are intellectuals treated this well now?"

"It feels like we've gone back seventy years."

"It is outrageous... but it also makes sense."

Jiang Xingye sighed.

"Those two documents probably mean too much, and you're the only contact they have. The company has to place its bets on you."

"Sigh... President Lin, there's now a terrifyingly thick wall between us."

"Will I still be able to invite you out for late-night snacks in the future?"

"Before, inviting you out for late-night snacks would at most count as workplace sexual harassment. Now, wouldn't it count as sexual bribery?"

"...Sometimes I really don't know how that dog brain of yours works."

Lin Xu raised a hand as if to slap her. Jiang Xingye hugged herself and curled up, deliberately putting on a pitiful expression as her eyes shimmered.

"President Lin, be gentle..."

"Cough, cough, cough..."

Lin Xu nearly choked to death on the mouthful of water he had just swallowed. He glared fiercely at Jiang Xingye.

"I'm begging you, act normal."

"No problem, President Lin."

Jiang Xingye immediately sat up straight.

"Seriously, only the two of us know about this for now, right?"

"Yes."

Lin Xu nodded.

"Then you'd better keep it confidential for now. To be honest, this could become either a big deal or a minor one."

"If word gets out early, it could still stir up some unnecessary jealousy."

"I know—do you really think I'm an idiot?"

"Sigh..."

Jiang Xingye sighed.

"I should've made my move when you first joined the company and were at your dumbest. Now... it's too late."

"...Come on, let's get off work. There's a Home Inn next door. Let's go at it for three hundred rounds."

"President Lin! How could you do this!"

Jiang Xingye was shocked.

"With your status, how can you take me to a Home Inn?"

"At the very least, it should start with Bulgari, right?"

"...Bulgari my ass."

Lin Xu checked the time and packed up his computer.

"I really have to get off work. I still need to go to the National Library to look up some information."

"After that, I need to talk to Xu Jin and update him on what happened today."

"What about you? Getting off work?"

With the conversation turning serious, Jiang Xingye finally became normal again.

"No. There's still some finishing work on test craft No. 3."

"I wanted to ask you too. Are you still going to do the work from your original position?"

"If not, I need to submit a hiring request to HRD right away."

"I am."

Lin Xu answered decisively.

He absolutely could not let go of his work on the flight control system, because he had to maintain a strong connection with Star Traveler One.

"But if you can hire someone, hire one. My workload is already too saturated, and once the Star Traveler One project begins, I won't be able to handle it alone."

"Understood."

Jiang Xingye nodded.

"When the person comes in, you'll interview them with me. They'll count as your assistant, so you should pick one yourself too."

"Can we hire someone good-looking?"

Lin Xu asked, blinking.

"...You really have a death wish. Do you think everyone in this field is born as beautiful as me?"

"...I was just saying."

"I'm leaving."

"Go on. Drink more goji berry tea when you've got nothing to do. Look how yellow your face is—you're so weak."

"...One day, I'll show you who's really weak."

Lin Xu picked up his bag and stood. Jiang Xingye also returned to her workstation and continued the work she had yet to finish.

As he walked out of the company, Lin Xu kept thinking about what he needed to do after getting home.

He didn't notice that someone was sitting on the sofa in the reception area outside the office, occasionally glancing in his direction.

And after Lin Xu entered the elevator, that person immediately stood up and set down the unfinished interview registration form.

But he did not follow Lin Xu into the elevator.

Instead, he headed down the fire stairs, lowering his voice as he spoke.

"I've locked onto him."

"Mm, it matches the preliminary intelligence. He's just a very ordinary employee."

"His background is clean. Yes, definitely clean."

"For now, it doesn't look like a personal act. It looks more like a move by Skyvault Technology. He's only a spokesperson."

"They may be planning to move into independently developed materials. Somehow, they got hold of Xu Jin's research situation, so they placed their bets on him."

"No, there are currently no signs of malicious intent."

"Do we need to arrange a meeting? We can have the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission step in."

"You're sure there's no need? What does Mr. Xu think?"

"All right, all right, understood."

"Then I won't make a move for now. I'll continue tracking him, and I'll also need the economic crime investigation unit to cooperate and monitor Skyvault Technology's movements."

"Right. That's their specialty. If there are any problems, they can issue an early warning in time."

"For now, Xu Jin probably won't suffer any losses. But if necessary, we can escort him too."

"That's it. Over."

Back home, Lin Xu had no idea that he had attracted "official attention." The moment he returned, he turned on his computer and began searching for clues about Zhurong.

Xu Jin was obsessed with the thing. Though Lin Xu did not know whether it had anything to do with his father, Xu Jin truly wanted to bring that probe back.

And one thing was certain: what he wanted was not what the probe had discovered, but the probe itself.

So what exactly was so special about this probe?

Lin Xu entered the keyword "Zhurong" into the search bar, and results immediately appeared.

But most of the information was just ordinary news coverage.

Successfully developed, successfully launched, successfully landed, successfully transmitted back the first image of Mars...

Of course, there were also the recently discovered reports Jiang Xingye had mentioned before, about suspected semimetallic hydrogen.

That was indeed a major discovery.

But the problem was, it had no direct connection to the motive of "bringing Zhurong back."

Lin Xu frowned deeply.

He opened the longest article and read it word by word.

Using the discovery of semimetallic hydrogen as its lead, the article reviewed Zhurong's entire history from beginning to end.

Most of it was nothing unusual, describing the staff's hard work and the probe's tremendous significance to the nation's space program and the exploration of the universe after its launch.

But amid all that ordinary information, Lin Xu still found one anomaly that was "not quite reasonable."

Zhurong's launch had not been entirely smooth.

After successfully leaving Earth orbit for Mars, Zhurong had lost contact for fifty-six days, beginning one hundred and sixty days before its landing.

At the time, nearly everyone believed that Zhurong had been destroyed in space.

But unexpectedly, fifty-six days later, after Zhurong entered Mars orbit, ground control received its signal once again.

The report classified the loss of contact as an accident caused by the complex radiation and electromagnetic environment of space, compounded by celestial obstruction, and it also proved Zhurong's reliability.

But Lin Xu instinctively felt that it was not that simple.

A communications blackout during launch could be explained, but it had already been flying for months. How could it still lose contact?

He tried to search further for the specific details of the loss of contact, but found nothing at all.

It hadn't been declassified yet?

Then it should have been declassified twenty years later, right?

Anything he could not find here, he would definitely be able to find in the wristband.

The time pincer maneuver!

Lin Xu lay down on the bed and gently touched the wristband.

And his consciousness was emptied once again...