Sky Curtain: The opening scene explains the four major cases of the Ming Dynasty plus the early Ming

The incandescent light bulbs in the underground interrogation room hung overhead, with rusty wire mesh covering the bulbs.

Old Zhou stood by the wall, holding a syringe he had just pulled from a portable medical kit. The medicine was light blue. He injected it into the neck of the mercenary who was tightly bound to the interrogation chair. Less than ten seconds later, the medicine took effect. The man's muscles began to spasm abnormally, veins bulging from his forehead to his neck, and he made meaningless hoarse sounds.

Zhu Dijun sat on the iron chair opposite him, his legs crossed, his expression completely calm.

"Speak," Zhu Dijun uttered only one word.

With the combined effects of physical methods and drugs, the mercenary's psychological defenses crumbled completely. His fragmented confession spilled from his lisping mouth. Old Zhou recorded every word with a voice recorder, his face growing increasingly grim as he listened.

The composition of this armed group was quite diverse. One group consisted of descendants of Chinese Americans who had left the country years ago and had forgotten their roots. Another group were Japanese pirates. The core command structure consisted of Manchu remnants. They used their striking physical resemblance to Han Chinese, the legitimate guise of foreign-invested enterprises, and the cooperation of spies within domestic academic circles and the system to cultivate this clandestine armed force right under their noses.

"Originally... the target wasn't the archaeological site..." The mercenary coughed up blood, the froth mixed with broken teeth. "I was forced into it... my trump card was about to be exposed... I received a death order... it had to be destroyed..."

Zhu Dijun gave a cold laugh.

They really went all out. In order to cover up the large-scale historical revisionism conspiracy four hundred years ago, and to bury the unearthed truth back down, they even revealed the trump card used to carry out a deeper infiltration mission ahead of time.

He didn't ask any more questions, stood up, and pressed the tablet to issue a series of commands.

"Xihe."

"Master, I'm here."

Xihe replied on the tablet.

"The names and financial networks in the confessions were all accessed with the highest level of authority. The exposed spies, as well as the domestic and foreign capital nodes that provided cover for them, were dealt with as quickly as possible."

Zhu Dijun's voice was as cold and hard as ice.

"Also, investigate the families and extended relatives of these people. Pack them all up and ship them over in containers. Don't send them to the interrogation room; send them directly to the execution area in the basement."

Old Zhou suddenly turned to look at him, his lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but when he met Zhu Dijun's cold eyes, he swallowed his words back.

"Didn't they like the 'keep your head but not your hair' policy, and like the Manchu system?"

Judy looked at the captive who was still convulsing on the chair.

"Combing, skinning, and slow slicing. The ten most brutal tortures of the Qing Dynasty—let them and their families experience them all. How can we not enjoy what our ancestors developed?"

He has become merciless. To speak of humanity to these foreigners in human skin and traitors who have betrayed their ancestors is the greatest insult to the Chinese martyrs who have died under their swords over the past few centuries.

Xihe's voice was completely flat:

"Instructions confirmed. Cleanup process initiated. Execution preparations complete."

Outside the interrogation room, muffled screams soon followed, audible even through several layers of blast doors. Zhu Dijun didn't turn around, walking straight out of the basement.

Old Zhou, on the other hand, thought of his secret conversation with Zhu Dijun. It seemed that this person who had reached the highest levels of government was not a fake, and was far more complex than he had imagined.

Seventy-two hours later, the studio lights came on again.

As soon as the live stream channel was unlocked, tens of millions of online viewers flooded in instantly, and the barrage of comments refreshed so fast that the server went into overdrive. The screen was filled with inquiries about the attack on the archaeological site and gossip about the "famous scholars" who had been taken away.

The camera zooms in. Zhu Dijun sits behind the podium, his eyes showing obvious dark circles. He rubs his temples, his voice slightly hoarse, yet carrying a cold and stern tone.

"Fellow Xianglings, it's been seventy-two hours. We meet again."

He didn't joke as usual; instead, he twirled the marker between his fingers.

"Because of the series of events that happened three days ago, as you have probably all seen in the reports, we originally promised to resume the live broadcast within 48 hours. However, due to the numerous unexpected events and the time spent cleaning up the debris, it has been postponed."

Zhu Dijun picked up the tablet and tapped it on the holographic projection.

"We don't talk about history now. Because the vast majority of existing historical records are deliberately distorted and utter garbage. They are erroneous and false political brainwashing materials."

He stood up and wrote two huge words on the whiteboard.

【猾褢】.

"The truth about the history of the Ming Dynasty is still being decoded and extracted. In this interim period, let's talk about the Classic of Mountains and Seas." Zhu Dijun turned to face the camera.

"I'm sure you've all seen the recent hot discussions online about 'Huahua' and the massive underground cave ruins that have recently been accidentally discovered in Bavaria, Germany."

A rubbing of the ancient book "Classic of Mountains and Seas" was displayed on the projection screen, accompanied by several high-resolution images of the deep underground abyss in Europe that had just been scanned by satellite.

"Our ancestors wrote it very clearly in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, Southern Mountains Classic: 'There is a beast that looks like a human but has boar bristles. It lives in caves and hibernates in winter. Its name is Huayi. Its sound is like the chopping of wood. If it is seen, there will be a great calamity in the county.'"

Zhu Dijun picked up the pointer and tapped it on the whiteboard.

"Translated into plain language—There is a beast that looks like a human, but has the mane of a wild boar. They live in burrows underground and hibernate in winter. Their name is Huayao, and their cry sounds like chopping wood with an axe. Whenever this monster appears, there will be large-scale forced labor or a great disaster in the area."

He put down his pointer and stared intently at the camera.

"Did something come to mind?"

Next to "Huayu", Zhu Dijun wrote six characters heavily: "Chenghua plows the court and sweeps the cave".

"Emperor Xianzong of Ming, Zhu Jianshen. Historical records say that he launched a 'plowing down the court and sweeping away the caves' to avenge the Buryat wild boars. He killed them all, burned them all, and eradicated them completely. But if you consider the records in the Classic of Mountains and Seas—what exactly did he kill?"

The scrolling of the bullet comments paused for a moment, then suddenly erupted.

"What does 'ploughing the court and sweeping away the holes' mean? Why use the word 'holes'?"

"That's what Zhu Dijun said in a cold voice."

What kind of cave-dwelling monsters lurk in the deep forests of Northeast China? What exactly are those non-human creatures that wear human skin, have wild boar bristles, and hibernate in winter?

He tapped his fingers on the table, making a thumping sound.

"Buryat! Wild boar skin! Are these three words really because Nurhaci's ancestor was called that? Or is it simply a description of the species' characteristics? The Ming Emperor Xianzong didn't kill any ordinary border rebellion tribe. He killed the 'Huayue,' which breeds underground and brings terrifying calamities to the world! They are aberrant beings that eat people like two-legged sheep!"

The holographic projection of European cave images was magnified. It was an underground network of man-made and natural structures stretching for hundreds of kilometers and seemingly bottomless, with cave walls covered in claw marks and oily secretions resembling those left by some kind of giant animal colony.

"Now you understand. Sometimes what our ancestors gave us wasn't some mythical story, but a true record of our survival history. It was a record of the wars our ancient Chinese ancestors waged against non-human beings."

Zhu Dijun erased the words on the whiteboard.

"However, due to the underdeveloped communication in ancient times, coupled with the bloody erasure after the Manchus entered the pass, the cooperation of the descendants of the traitorous civil officials, and the fact that Europe has been desperately trying to hide the existence of these underground caves, we, the later generations, have treated the real history as a fantasy novel."

He turned around and dragged two more images from the tablet.

"Speaking of fantasy novels, besides the Classic of Mountains and Seas, let's look at another seriously misunderstood survival code—Journey to the West."

The holographic screen is split in two. On the left is a hand-drawn reference image taken from secret archives of the medieval Western Papacy; on the right is an illustration describing the ginseng fruit from the well-known classic novel "Journey to the West".

"Look at this Western reference image," Judy Jun said, pointing to the image on the left. It was a bizarre giant tree, and hanging from its trunk were not fruits, but infants pierced through and tightly wrapped by plant roots. The infants' skin was shriveled but not yet rotten, and their facial expressions were extremely distorted, as if some kind of life force had been drained from them.

"Next, let's take a look at the ginseng fruit in 'Journey to the West'."

He pointed to the right.

"It blooms once every three thousand years, bears fruit once every three thousand years, and takes another three thousand years to ripen... The fruit resembles a three-day-old infant, complete with limbs and facial features."

Zhu Dijun's voice echoed in the hall, carrying a chilling aura.

"Was Wu Cheng'en really writing about eating immortal fruits? Was Zhenyuan Daxian really just an ancestor of earthly immortals? Compare this deliberately hidden image of the West with the description in the book of 'resembling a three-day-old child.' What exactly are the fruits growing on this tree—fruits that have absorbed the essence of heaven and earth?"

Zhu Dijun walked to the center of the screen, looked at the picture of the giant Western tree, and paused for two seconds.

"Or were they real human infants being hung on trees like cured meat, fed on by some plant-like creature beyond human comprehension?"

"Just a heads-up, America's Lolita Island has a famous dish called 'Baby Cabbage'."

Think about it carefully.