Genius Club.

Chapter 317 The last piece of the puzzle

the next day.

The two boarded a plane to the imperial capital early in the morning and began a new journey.

"I don't want to be an astronaut at all now."

Gao Yang sat in the first class cabin, with a bitter face, leaning to look at Lin Xian:

"When we first started primary school, our class teacher asked us to stand up and answer questions one by one, such as what our future dreams were and what kind of person we wanted to be when we grew up."

"At that time, I stood up without hesitation and said that I wanted to be an astronaut in the future. But these few days, I have been flying back and forth with you, going into space, and riding spaceships... I am really sick of sitting. I miss the earth more than anyone else now. I don't want to go to the sky anymore."

Lin Xian chuckled and recalled the first lesson of elementary school:
"At that time, 40% of the boys in the class dreamed of becoming astronauts. Because when we were in elementary school, it was just two years after the success of the Dragon Kingdom's manned space program. Which little boy didn't want to become an astronaut?"

"It was mainly because the kids back then had little experience and didn't know there were so many different professions and lives in the world. It seemed that in addition to teachers and policemen, the only people they saw were astronauts and scientists... At that age, the world was as big as their vision."

"I remember you said at that time that you wanted to be a scientist, right?" Gao Yang turned his head and looked at Lin Xian:

“Do you still want to be a scientist now?”

"forget about it."

Lin Xian closed his eyes, his hands still clicking, trying to crack the diary's password lock by exhaustive method:
"When I realized that my IQ wasn't high enough to become a scientist, I gave up decisively. Then I tried parkour, learned to paint, and prepared to take the art college entrance examination route."

"Oh, don't give up on your dreams too early." Gao Yang patted his chest and abdomen:
"Look, my dream of becoming an astronaut has come true. Life is like this. You never know when something will happen. Maybe one day you can really become a scientist!"

"I wish I had that brain."

Lin Xian turned his head and looked out the window.

Can you become a scientist just by wanting to?
If he could really become a scientist, he would definitely devote himself to the study of the cosmological constant as soon as possible and would definitely want to find out the truth about the mysterious number 42.

Now, almost all the mysteries around us revolve around 42.

When the true meaning of the cosmological constant 42 is fully understood, all these mysteries will most likely be solved.

In the semi-enclosed cockpit on the right, Gao Yang's loud snoring sounded again.

That's what falling asleep in seconds means.

If you don't catch his words or have time to reply, the other person will fall asleep immediately... What an enviable superpower.

Click, click.

Lin Xian continued to fiddle with the combination lock in his hand.

He has been in this posture and action since leaving the hotel in the morning:
Half lying down,

Holding the spine of the diary in my left hand,

With my right hand I hold the combination lock.

Push the combination wheel and press the lock; push once; press once.

Now the wheel on the combination lock has reached 6432...6431...6430...

It is estimated that by the time the plane arrives at the imperial capital airport, he will have tried more than 3000 passwords.

Please don't.

If I had known that the password was so small, I should have tried digits upwards from 0000.

But there is no other way. This is how the exhaustive method works. By exhausting every possibility, you can always find the correct answer.

Soon after, the flight attendant brought the first-class meal.

Gao Yang held up three fingers:

"Three servings."

"Yes, sir." The flight attendant smiled politely and enthusiastically, and brought Gao Yang some more staple food and fruits.

"It's good to have money, Lin Xian."

After the flight attendant left, Gao Yang came over and whispered to Lin Xian:

"I used to fly economy class, the food wasn't this good, and they were always reluctant to ask for two portions. It's nothing like this! You can have as much as you want! The attitude is good, and they even squat to serve you! Plenty of fruit!"

"You get what you pay for."

Lin Xian said calmly:

“Unequal exchange.”

……

After the plane landed, the hotel Lin Xian booked sent a special car to pick them up. The two threw their luggage into the room and set off immediately, heading back to the third ring road of the capital and the first Xiruidu community.

They walked quietly through the small square in the middle in tacit understanding.

as predicted.

The kind old lady was still sitting there peeling pomegranates.

One by one, slowly and carefully, she picks them up gently with her fingers and then puts them down gently.

"She really loved her daughter."

Gao Yang said softly:

"I talked to her for so long that day, but she didn't ask me to try the pomegranate. I don't have to eat her pomegranate... It's just that Shandong people are hospitable in their bones, so they will be polite and give way at times like this."

"But she never did. In her eyes, these were peeled for her daughter Zhang Yuqian, so she wouldn't give a single one to anyone else. Well, what do you think? If these two girls were both thousand-year-old piles, and the thousand-year-old piles were intentionally planted and artificially created..."

"How heartless is this person? He used someone else's daughter, whom he had worked so hard to raise for 20 years, to hit her with a stake! After the beating, her soul flew away and not even a hair was left. How can the parents live? He is such a scum!"

"Yes, it is unforgivable."

Lin Xian nodded. It was rare that he and Gao Yang agreed on the same thing.
"But we can't be so definite now... After all, we have no idea what a thousand-year pile is."

"Huang Que also explained to me that the term Thousand-Year Pile was created by her so that we wouldn't understand it and it wouldn't affect the elasticity of time and space, so she could say it. The original name of Thousand-Year Pile is definitely more accurate, more appropriate, more straightforward and easier to understand."

"So, now it sounds to us subjectively that the Millennium Pile is a tool and a bad thing. But we cannot judge the truth at this moment. However... I hope that the truth is really as you said, that the Millennium Pile was artificially laid and manipulated by someone."

Gao Yang opened his eyes wide.

Looking at Lin Xian in disbelief:

"Why? What do you think?"

"Why do you think that the disappearance of Chu Anqing and Zhang Yuqian was man-made and that this is a good thing? What kind of logic is this?"

Lin Xian snorted softly:
"Because, anything that is man-made can be stopped and even reversed. If he can make the thousand-year-old pile disappear, then by doing the reverse operation, he can definitely restore the thousand-year-old pile to human form."

"If that's the case, we just need to find that person, and maybe we can rescue Chu Anqing directly. The only thing to worry about is that... the Millennium Pillar is not man-made, but some other force that we can't understand and resist. That would be really troublesome."

While talking.

The two have arrived at Building 22.

I still pressed the elevator button, arrived at the familiar floor, and knocked on the familiar door.

dong dong dong.

Half a minute later, the middle-aged man, Zhang Yuqian's father, Zhang Shi, with half white hair and plain clothes, opened the door and looked at the two of them with a vigilant look:

"Young man, if you keep pestering me like this, I will call the police. Although I don't know what your purpose is, I don't want to talk too much about my daughter with you."

"Uncle Zhang."

Lin Xian took a step forward and looked him straight in the eyes:

"You lied and concealed a lot about the car accident that happened to your daughter in 2000, which happened in the early morning of Zhang Yuqian's 20th birthday."

"Zhang Yuqian did not die in a car accident, nor was she cremated or buried. Instead, she disappeared into thin air... right before your eyes, in the car, she turned into tiny blue stardust and dissipated like crystallized dust."

"you!!"

The middle-aged man's face suddenly turned grim, and he gritted his teeth:
"Nonsense! This is complete nonsense! Get out of here right now!"

Say it.

The middle-aged man immediately closed the security door.

Snapped!
Lin Xian was quick-witted and quickly grabbed the lock of the security door and opened the door:

"Uncle Zhang, we have no other intention in coming to see you. You don't have to be afraid or scared. We are here to seek your help today, and at the same time, we are also trying to find a way to help you."

"Let me go!" Zhang Shi hit Lin Xian's arm.

"Do you still remember the girl who was next to me at Xidan Shopping Plaza that day and was mistaken by Aunt Yan Qin as your daughter?"

"let go!"

Zhang Shi had no intention of listening to Lin Xian's words. He pulled the door hard: "If you don't let go, I'll call the police!"

"[She also turned into blue stardust and disappeared... at 20:00 in the early morning of her 42th birthday.]"

Instantly, Zhang Shi lost all strength. His hands softened, and the security door was directly opened by Lin Xian, hitting the wall with a bang.

He himself had no intention of taking care of the security door.

The pupils trembled and the face turned pale.

Slowly raised his head.

His face was filled with shock, and he looked at Lin Xian evasively:

"That...that girl, your female companion...also...disappeared?"

Lin Xian nodded.

"It disappeared... It turned into blue crystals, like flying sand. It was intangible, weightless, and could not be touched. Then... it just dispersed? The time was also 00:42!?"

Lin Xian nodded again.

Then he turned his head and looked at Gao Yang.

It seems...

The two were not wrong.

The situation when Zhang Yuqian disappeared was exactly the same as Chu Anqing's; that's why Uncle Zhang Shi has been dodging and unwilling to talk more about this matter.

but now.

He was obviously convinced by Lin Xian.

"Uncle Zhang, can we go inside and have a good chat?"

Lin Xian pointed inside the house and looked at Zhang Shi:

"We will tell you what happened to that girl, and we also hope that you can tell us the truth about Zhang Yuqian's car accident that year."

"Maybe things are not as bad as you think. It is true that Zhang Yuqian disappeared, but maybe she is not dead. Instead, she went to some place we don't know and can't understand."

"Believe us, Uncle Zhang. You miss your daughter, and we want to save our friend. Only if we are honest with each other and compare these two pieces that were made more than 20 years apart, we may be able to discover the truth. Perhaps..."

He stared at Zhang Shi:

"Perhaps, we can help you find your daughter."

at last.

Zhang Shi sighed.

He stepped aside and gestured for Lin Xian and Gao Yang to come in:

"come in."

He said in a low voice:
"Come in and talk."

……

On the coffee table, two cups of hot tea were steaming, with the Maojian tea leaves rising and falling inside, finally standing in the middle and slowly sinking to the bottom.

"24 years ago, on January 2000, 1..."

On the sofa, Zhang Shi scratched his gray hair and spoke with difficulty:

"That was my daughter's birthday. Although it's true that she was born in the early morning, who celebrates their birthday in the early morning? We originally planned to celebrate her birthday during the day after she woke up. Your aunt and I dote on our child very much. We booked the best hotel, the biggest cake, and invited many relatives, friends, and classmates to celebrate her birthday..."

"My daughter is 20 now, she has grown up. Although a 20th birthday doesn't need to be as big as an 18th birthday ceremony...but my daughter likes to have a lot of fun, and we like to have a lot of fun too, so every year her birthday is big, and we are all very happy."

"It all started the night before, on January 1. That night, I took my wife and children back to my hometown and met up with my childhood friends whom I hadn't seen for many years. We talked until late and drank a lot of wine. So when we drove back to the city from my hometown... it was almost dawn."

"I drank and sat in the back seat, a little tipsy. My wife was driving and Qianqian was sitting in the passenger seat. She didn't have a driver's license and was only a sophomore in college, so we didn't plan to let her learn to drive so early."

"We talked and laughed along the way, Qianqian was also chattering, discussing tomorrow's birthday. My wife had just learned to drive and drove slowly. There were not many vehicles on the road at that time, so everything was safe and nothing would go wrong."

"However, everything happened very suddenly. My daughter was talking and laughing about what happened in the university dormitory, and I half-closed my eyes and listened. But suddenly... it stopped abruptly, and there was no sound at all. Then there was my wife's scream! She shouted Qianqian's name, and the car seemed to be out of control and crashed into the tree on the side of the road."

"I quickly opened my eyes and saw...look...look..."

The old man couldn't help choking up, swallowed a few times, and gritted his teeth:
"I still can't forget that scene. It was like a nightmare. A healthy, living person! Qianqian, so big! Suddenly, she became transparent... like broken glass! In an instant, she turned into fine blue sand, and disappeared into the air in clumps!"

"Then there was a bang, and the car crashed into a tree, and I sobered up all of a sudden. I first glanced at my wife Yan Qin. She was terrified and couldn't control herself except screaming. When I glanced at the co-pilot seat, I also glanced at the electronic clock on the center console... Just like you said, the time when that strange incident happened..."

"00:42."

Zhang Shi raised his head and looked at Lin Xian.

In a trance, Lin Xian felt that he had aged several years.

Zhang Shi paused and continued:

"Then I got out of the car and looked for Qianqian everywhere...but I couldn't find her. Then I ran to the passenger seat and touched the seat, which was still warm. This means that my daughter was still there. She was clearly sitting in the passenger seat a minute ago, with her seat belt fastened."

"But in the blink of an eye, it disappeared... turned into blue crystals, and disappeared without a trace like fine sand blown by the wind..."

"Over the years, I have actually wondered if my daughter didn't die at all, but just went to some unknown place. But my wife has suffered a mental breakdown since then, and her life has been in danger several times. I have already lost my daughter... I can't lose my lover too, right? So I packed up all of Qianqian's things, put them in the coffin, and pretended to bury her."

"To the public, I just said that he died in a car accident. In the 2000s, unlike today, many things were easy to handle. The formalities and death certificates were easy to get. But it doesn't matter. I did this for my love."

"If my daughter, Qianqian, was really alive, I could wait patiently. But my wife was in a state of dying and even wanted to jump off the building. I didn't dare to give her any stimulation and had to stabilize her emotions first. So I invited the best psychologist to come to the imperial capital, away from that environment, and conduct hypnosis-guided treatment on her..."

"Now, although her mind is still not so clear, as long as she is not stimulated, her mental state is generally stable. In her mind, her daughter simply died in a car accident. The scenes she thought she saw at the time were just hallucinations caused by excessive brain stimulation."

"Compared to those fantastic and outrageous events, it's still sad and upsetting, but a common reason like a car accident is more or less acceptable to my lover. After so many years of treatment and recuperation, he is finally stable."

"Young man, I didn't mean to lie to you. Look at my life now. My daughter is gone, and I've given up my career. My wife is everything and the only thing left in my life. I have to take good care of her."

Say it.

He picked up the teapot again and filled Lin Xian and Gao Yang's cups with tea:

"That's the thing. My wife and I are at this age, and we can accept many things. And my wife's spirit really can't be tossed around anymore. You've seen her appearance. She is only in her 60s, but she looks like she is . She really can't be tossed around anymore."

"I am willing to tell you this today because you said that the same thing happened to your female companion. That's why I told you. As for what you said... you can save my daughter, find my daughter, etc..."

Zhang Shi sighed and shook his head:
"Over the past twenty years, I have long given up hope. If you have such thoughts, I am very grateful to you. At the same time... I also wish you to find the missing female companion, the girl, as soon as possible."

"But I really hope that this is the last time we meet. I beg you, young man, please don't bother us anymore. We have finally settled down in our lives."

"Everything I told you today is absolutely true. I haven't concealed anything... I hope you will believe what I said, stop making things difficult for us, and stop looking for Yan Qin."

……

Zhang Shi spoke very sincerely.

Lin Xian also nodded.

He believed that what Zhang Shi said this time should be true.

It was consistent with what he expected.

"Okay, Uncle Zhang, we won't come again."

Lin Xian stood up:
"It's just... there's one last detail I need to confirm with you."

Zhang Shi stretched out his hand, motioning Lin Xian to speak out.

"Excuse me, when you were driving home that night, did you see a small blue ball the size of an apple, flashing blue light, constantly jumping and flashing, like a small blue electric ball with lightning gathered inside?

Lin Xian used his hands to measure the size and described it to Zhang Shi:

"It's a small blue electric ball about this size, floating around, weightless and without substance... Did you see it that night?"

Zhang Shi thought for two seconds.

He shook his head solemnly:
"No."

He added:

"Although I drank a lot that night, I kept my eyes half open and looked ahead. At least there was no blue electric ball inside the car. There was no blue electric ball outside the car either. My wife has good eyesight. If there was, she would definitely see it in the middle of the night."

"Then that day at home, my wife was with Qianqian the whole time, playing mahjong with relatives, and I never heard them talk about this kind of thing... If there really was a little blue electric ball, such an obvious and strange thing, everyone would definitely discuss it, and both Qianqian and Yanqin would tell me about it."

"So... I'm afraid I'm disappointing you, young man."

Zhang Shi raised his head and looked at Lin Xian:

"[I am very sure that on the night Qianqian disappeared...there was no blue electric ball at all.]"

(End of this chapter)