Chapter 194: The Truth of the Crisis

Zhao Jianguo swung his shovel down, the frozen earth burst open with a white mark. The iron shovel's blade edge curled, he flicked his hand and tossed it aside. Dong Xu stepped forward to help, but as soon as he took a step, the terminal's red light blocked him, and the screen flashed a line: "Unauthorized contact, risk level three."

"Don't touch it." Zhao Jianguo raised his hand to block him, "This thing recognizes people."

He took the welding torch from the storage ring, pressed the switch. The flame "whooshed" out, lighting half his face. He swept it over the frozen earth at the well's edge; the ice layer made a "hissing" sound, emitting white smoke. The stone emerged, etched with a circle of dark patterns.

Dong Xu squatted two meters away, staring at the well. "I never imagined that what we buried in our courtyard could be linked to events thirty years later."

"Not thirty years later." Zhao Jianguo didn't look up, "They've been waiting for this day all along."

The welding torch burned for ten minutes, and the ice around the stone slab completely melted. He reached into the stone crack and felt a protrusion, pressed it. The slab "clicked" open half an inch. He inserted a pry bar and levered hard, flipping the whole stone over.

Below was a rusted iron box, its surface covered in brown spots. The box had no lock, but the lid was stuck tight. Zhao Jianguo turned down the welding torch and slowly heated the seam. The metal made a "crackling" sound, then suddenly "clicked", and the lid popped open.

Inside lay a half piece of metal sheet, blackened, with irregular edges. In the center was engraved a string of numbers: X-7-1978-0305.

"That's it." Zhao Jianguo put on gloves and took out the fragment. The moment he touched it, the terminal vibrated and automatically launched the scan program. The data bar began to roll; when the progress reached halfway, the screen suddenly turned gray.

【Connection Lost】

"Again?" Dong Xu leaned in.

"Someone's intercepting the signal." Zhao Jianguo unplugged the wireless module and switched to a wired direct connection. He plugged the terminal's interface into the converter on his belt, and the other end into the relay box Dong Xu made. The box's casing is a modified old radio, with the original plastic knobs still in place.

"Will this work?" Dong Xu asked.

"You made it, you tell me." Zhao Jianguo turned the knob; the green light lit up.

The system rebooted and re-uploaded the data. This time the progress bar ran to the end, and a prompt popped up: 【Match successful. Associated file unlocked: Heir Initiation Plan】.

The folder icon flashed twice and opened automatically.

The first photo is a black-and-white group shot, with the background reading "Overseas Training Camp·1978". A group of people in olive-green coats stand in front of a flat-roofed building. Each person wears an ID badge on their chest. Zhao Jianguo enlarged the image and located X-7's position. It was Xu Da Mao's cousin, still smiling.

The second is a training record sheet, its contents mostly blacked out, leaving only a few lines visible: "Consciousness Synchronization Experiment", "Bloodline Sample Collection", "Goal: Second-Generation Host Implantation".

The third is a color photo, timestamped March 4, 1978. The setting is an office, with a corporate logo on the wall. A man in a suit sits at a desk, holding a document. His side profile faces the camera.

Zhao Jianguo's hand stopped.

He had seen this face before. Before the transmigration, at the company's annual meeting, standing at the far right of the podium was that executive. Back then he had thought the man's gaze was too cold, not like someone in tech.

He scrolled down, and another group photo popped up. This time it was a photo of the local engineering team with foreign representatives. Taken March 5, 1978, at the gate of a certain research institute in Beijing.

He was about to close it, when he suddenly stopped.

"Xiao Jian." He called out.

Chen Xiao Jian ran out from the house, his hair still a little messy, as if he'd just woken up. "What's wrong?"

"Look at this photo." Zhao Jianguo handed him the terminal, "Do you recognize these people?"

Chen Xiao Jian took it, glanced, and his breath caught. He pointed at a bespectacled man in the lower right corner: "This is my dad… he never mentioned this group photo."

"Are you sure it's him?"

"No mistake." Chen Xiao Jian lowered his voice, "This is the only photo of him in a suit; the left collar has a tiny tear, which I accidentally made with scissors as a kid."

Zhao Jianguo stared at that face. In the photo, Chen's father stands straight, expression stern. Beside him stand two foreigners, one of whom is exactly the suited man just seen.

"They know each other." Chen Xiao Jian murmured, "My dad never said anything… how could he be with people like these?"

Zhao Jianguo said nothing, called up the system log. All key event timestamps were marked in red, clustered around March 5, 1978. That day, Xu Da Mao wrote in his labor reform diary: "People in military uniforms came by, asking some strange questions."

"Not a coincidence." He said, "They came for this time. Back then I was signing in at the siheyuan, the system just starting up. They knew there would be transmigrators."

Dong Xu felt his scalp tingle. "So everything we've been doing was arranged thirty years ago?"

"More than that." Zhao Jianguo opened another attachment, the "Bloodline Infiltration Route Map". The map drew several lines, starting from the overseas camp, each pointing to the Xu, Chen, and He families, finally converging at a node marked "Second-Generation Vessel".

"They're not trying to stop us." His voice sank, "They want to control us. After we spread our knowledge, then through blood ties, they'll implant their stuff into the next generation."

Chen Xiao Jian looked up at him, "You mean… twins?"

"Exactly." Zhao Jianguo nodded, "We thought we were teaching the kids, but someone had long been waiting to receive this outcome."

Dong Xu slammed his fist on the ground. "No wonder the old well was sealed. That metal sheet didn't fall in by accident; it was a beacon they deliberately left."

"The goal is to let the virus travel down the bloodline." Zhao Jianguo closed the file and called up the suited man's photo again, "I've seen this person. He shouldn't have appeared in that era. He shows up in my time, still an executive at a tech company."

"So he lived into the future?" Chen Xiao Jian asked.

"Not necessarily." Zhao Jianguo shook his head, "Maybe someone else took his identity, or… his plan never stopped."

The three fell silent.

The terminal suddenly sounded.

【Authentication Request: Complete the Bloodline Chain】

Below popped up the option: "Use Chen Xiao Jian's biological information for deep decryption?"

Zhao Jianguo looked at Chen Xiao Jian. Chen Xiao Jian bit his lip and nodded: "Let's try. I want to know what my dad actually went through."

Zhao Jianguo confirmed. The terminal prompted to insert the sampling device. He took a fine needle from the tool kit, gently pricked Chen Xiao Jian's fingertip, and dropped a drop of blood onto the sensing area.

The system loaded for five seconds, and a new folder popped up: 【Original Research Group Internal Communication Records (Excerpt)】.

The first message is in telegram format:

【March 6, 1978, 23:17】

"Shanghai Worker Chen has accepted preliminary guidance, agreeing to provide family data for 'Long-Term Observation'. Project Code: Heir Initiation."

The second is a transcript of a recording:

【March 7, 1978 Meeting Summary】

"The target residence has been confirmed to have abnormal energy fluctuations; it is recommended to immediately deploy signal receivers. Prioritize control of water and power nodes."

The third is just a short sentence:

【March 8, 1978】

"Phase one complete. Await feedback in twenty years."

Chen Xiao Jian's face turned pale. "My dad… was he persuaded?"

"Not persuasion." Zhao Jianguo fixed his gaze on the phrase "Long-Term Observation", "It was inducement. They let him think he was just joining an ordinary study, while actually scheming to involve his whole family."

Jia Dongxu suddenly stood up. "Are all the things we're doing now also in their plan? The promotion of teaching methods, cross-time classrooms, system upgrades... Could it be that these are exactly the results they wanted?"

Zhao Jianguo didn't respond. He turned to the last page, which was a hand-drawn timeline sketch. The Starting Point is 1978, the endpoint marked '2025', and in between are several circled nodes. The first is 'Knowledge Dissemination Initiated', the second is 'Second Generation Awakening', and the third reads: 'Control Transfer'.

His finger hovered over the four characters 'Control Transfer'.

It turned out they had always thought they were breaking the cycle, but in fact they had merely arrived at a fork in the road designed by someone else.

The Terminal sounded again.

【Warning: External access attempt detected】

【Source: Unknown IP】

【Attack Type: Memory trace-back interference】

Zhao Jianguo immediately cut the power and pulled out all the cables. He shoved the Terminal into an anti-magnetic bag, looked up at Jia Dongxu, and said: "They've discovered that we've found out."

"What do we do now?" Jia Dongxu asked.

"We can't stop." Zhao Jianguo closed the iron box again, placed it into the Storage Ring, and said: "The more critical the moment, the more we must press forward. They fear we'll see the truth, so we're determined to see it clearly."

Chen Xiao Jian stood where he was, still gripping the printed photo. He suddenly spoke: "If my father had known the consequences back then, he definitely wouldn't have signed it."

"But he doesn't know." Zhao Jianguo patted his shoulder, adding: "So we have to know it for him."

He opened the Terminal's backup system, preparing to retrieve more data. Just then, the Screen flickered and a new prompt popped up:

【System Notice: Detected Increase in Strength of the 1985 Spacetime Anchor】