Chapter 101: Night Clash·Tea Shadow Discerns True Identity

Zhao Jianguo walked out of the hotel corridor, the wind blowing from behind lifted the edge of his coat. He didn't look back, his steps didn't stop, but his fingers had already quietly felt the Metal Sheet in his trouser pocket, and the thing still retained a bit of residual heat.

He looped around to the back alley, squatted at the corner, took out his pocket flashlight and shone it on the Metal Sheet for two seconds. The scratch along the edge was oddly bent, as if someone had scraped it out with a knife tip. He squinted, and a thought suddenly sprang to mind—this thing shouldn't have appeared by chance.

Half an hour earlier in a private room, Chen Jianguo finished his tea and left, his movements so brisk it didn't seem like a technician, more like someone avoiding something. But Zhao Jianguo didn't let him go. He guarded the back door for twenty minutes until he saw Chen Jianguo emerge alone, exchange a few words with his teammates, then walk away in the opposite direction.

Opportunity arrived.

He stepped forward, laughingly patting the other's shoulder: "Hey, I still haven't grasped that buffer chamber algorithm from earlier; can we talk a bit more?"

Chen Jianguo stopped, the eyes behind his lenses flashing, "You're really taking this seriously."

"We tech folks can't afford to be too serious," Zhao Jianguo grinned, "Come on, let's move to a quieter spot; I know there's a little tea stall nearby, no one will disturb us."

The two re‑entered a small private room, older than the previous one, half the wall plaster peeled off. The server brought a pot of hot tea, and Zhao Jianguo specifically asked for two glass cups. As he poured water, he said, "Your watch is quite stylish, where did you get it?"

Chen Jianguo lowered his head, glanced at his wrist, gently rubbed the dial once, "It's an old piece, a friend gave it to me."

Zhao Jianguo smiled, didn't reply, but extended a finger and tapped the tabletop slowly a few times.

Drip, drip‑drip, drip.

A short‑long pattern, crystal clear.

Chen Jianguo's hand froze.

He looked up at Zhao Jianguo, his gaze changed.

Zhao Jianguo remained expressionless, tapped again: "Do you have a Sign-in Interface?"

Chen Jianguo was silent for three seconds, lifted his Teacup, and gently tapped the rim with the lid three times.

One light tap, two heavy taps, then one light tap.

It matched.

Zhao Jianguo almost laughed out loud. He really isn't the only one blindly stumbling in this era.

"Looks like we're in the same boat," he lowered his voice, "but your system… is it being watched by something?"

Chen Jianguo didn't answer immediately, but set the cup down, slipped his cuff slightly, revealing a tiny engraving on the back of the watch dial. The shape was crooked, yet Zhao Jianguo recognized it at a glance—it matched the missing piece on his Metal Sheet perfectly.

"It's called the Historical Correction Force," Chen Jianguo finally spoke, his voice almost drifting off the table, "It's not built into the system; it was added later. Whoever makes a big alteration gets marked."

"So your watch is actually a shield?"

"I'd say so," Chen Jianguo forced a smile, "But it won't hold for long. The last time I pulled up electrical schematics five years ahead, the whole team was reassigned the next day to the northwest for a Confidential Project. That's no coincidence."

Zhao Jianguo nodded, about to ask another question, when a buzzing rang in his mind.

【Warning: High-energy Metal Signal Source detected, Coordinates match 97.6%, Source: target's left wrist accessory】

He stared sharply at Chen Jianguo's wrist.

At that moment, Footsteps came from outside, followed by a "clang" as the door was slammed open.

Jia Dongxu burst in, his face flushed, muttering, "Old Zhao! I've been looking for you forever!"

He clutched a yellowed sheet in his hand, the edges frayed, with several winding lines that resembled some kind of mechanical diagram.

"You came here just to drink tea? The diagram my father drew before he died, and you're hiding it?" Jia Dongxu lunged onto the table, reaching to snatch the notebook in front of Zhao Jianguo, "Did your factory already know this thing was valuable?"

Zhao Jianguo quickly held down the notebook, "You've had too much to drink? What diagram?"

"This one!" Jia Dongxu slapped the paper onto the table, his finger trembling as he pointed to a segment of curve, "It's the feedback loop of a diversion valve! My father fell in the workshop back then because someone tried to steal this diagram! Was it your people from Jingbei Factory who did it?"

The room fell silent.

Chen Jianguo stared at the paper, his complexion darkening gradually.

Zhao Jianguo was also stunned. He slowly lifted the diagram, flipped it over several times, and suddenly noticed a tiny Symbol in the lower right corner—a triangle enclosed in a circle, with a string of numbers beneath: **0428**.

He had seen this mark before.

Last month during sign‑in, the system popped up a design sketch of a future Laboratory, and that mark appeared in the corner.

And the number matched.

He looked up at Chen Jianguo, "Have you seen this mark before?"

Chen Jianguo inhaled deeply, nodded, "That's a Cross-domain Verification Code. It only generates this Resonance Trace when more than two Traveler System nodes are activated simultaneously."

"So…," Zhao Jianguo's voice lowered, "this diagram wasn't drawn by Jia Wu. It was delivered."

Jia Dongxu looked bewildered, "What are you talking about? What crossing? What delivery?"

Zhao Jianguo ignored him, turning to Chen Jianguo, "If this diagram came from the future, why did it end up in my father‑in‑law's hands? He can't read, not even understand a blueprint."

"Maybe it wasn't meant for him to see," Chen Jianguo said slowly, "It's prepared for someone who can 'receive' it. Just as a Metal Sheet seeks another Metal Sheet, a signal seeks its Signal Source."

Zhao Jianguo felt a jolt in his chest.

He suddenly recalled something—Lou Xiaoe had delivered a basket of sweet potatoes a couple of days ago, saying it was from Uncle Wang. That day he casually slipped the Metal Sheet into his Toolbox, only to find it had shifted that night, falling from the top layer into a bottom‑layer crevice.

He had thought it was caused by vibration.

Now that he thinks about it, maybe not.

"We need to go to the Laboratory," he sprang to his feet, "There's residual signal on this diagram; I can detect it with an oscilloscope."

"I'm coming too!" Jia Dongxu clutched the diagram, "I don't care about your crossing talk; I just want to know why my father died!"

"Fine." Zhao Jianguo gave him a look, "But you need to stay clear‑headed, don't throw a tantrum here."

"I'm not drunk!" Jia Dongxu said, stiffening his neck, "I just… held it in too long."

The three left the hotel, the night wind biting their faces. The street was sparsely populated, the streetlights dim, shadows stretching long. Zhao Jianguo walked at the front, clutching the diagram tightly, his other hand in his pocket, gripping the Metal Sheet.

Near the factory gate, Chen Jianguo suddenly stopped.

"I shouldn't go," he said.

"Why?"

"My system has already started alerting," he raised his wrist, pointing to the engraving on the back of the watch, "It's heating up. One more step forward could trigger a forced evacuation protocol."

Zhao Jianguo frowned, "Evacuate? Evacuate where?"

"I don't know," Chen Jianguo shook his head, "Anyway, it's not this world."

"Then tell me," Zhao Jianguo stared at him, "Besides us two, is there anyone else?"

Chen Jianguo was silent for a few seconds, then uttered two words: "Not just."

After saying that, he turned and left, his silhouette quickly disappearing around the corner.

Zhao Jianguo stood still until Jia Dongxu shoved him, "What are you standing there for? Come on!"

They walked through the factory lane, heading straight for the abandoned laboratory on the west side. The door lock was rusted; Zhao Jianguo took out his key and tried twice before opening it. Inside hung a smell of dust; the instruments were covered with cloth, but he familiarly lifted an old oscilloscope and plugged in the power.

"Spread the drawing on the table," he said to Jia Dongxu.

Jia Dongxu hesitated, then spread out the drawing.

Zhao Jianguo took out the metal sheet, carefully placing it at the center of the drawing. As soon as it made contact, the instrument's screen flickered, then displayed a string of irregular waveforms.

"There's a reaction!" his eyes lit up.

He was about to adjust the parameters when he suddenly heard a "click" from behind.

Turning around, he saw Jia Dongxu holding a wrench, pressing it against the metal casing of the oscilloscope's side.

"What are you doing?" Zhao Jianguo frowned.

"What do you think?" Jia Dongxu's voice trembled, "I just remembered outside… that day, before my dad had the accident, he was also in this room, arguing with two people in white coats. One of them was wearing that kind of watch!"

He pointed at the spot where Chen Jianguo had just stood, "They don't want people to know this drawing exists, right? Do you also want to destroy it?"

Zhao Jianguo sighed, "You have to trust me; what I'm doing now is just to preserve it."

Jia Dongxu gritted his teeth, his hand still shaking.

At that moment, the waveform on the instrument's screen suddenly jumped violently, and immediately, a faint blue glow appeared along the edge of the metal sheet.

Zhao Jianguo grabbed the sheet and flipped it over— the notch on the back was slowly writhing, as if pulled by some force, trying to deform.

He suddenly recalled Chen Jianguo's words.

**Signal also seeks its source. **

He raised his head to look out the window.

In the depths of the siheyuan, the west wing room where the deaf old lady lived, the window frame trembled slightly.