Chapter 252: Blueprints Suddenly Appear: 2000 Design Verification

Zhao Jianguo crouches on the cement floor, eyes fixed on those few scratches. The lines are crooked, yet their direction is not chaotic, as if they are connected by a Rules Sign. His finger slides along one line and stops at the Bend.

He has seen this shape before.

Just when the blue light flashed, the activation module inside the exhibit equipment was this structure.

He looks up at Zhao Chen. The little girl leans against his shoulder, her eyelids about to close, her small hand unconsciously scrapes the ground. Her fingertips draw a new line, connecting to the end of the previous pattern.

Zhao Xing suddenly moves, lifts her head from his arms: "Dad, that door is about to open."

"What door?" Zhao Jianguo asks softly.

"The one in the dream," Zhao Xing points to her head, "Grandpa said, when the key matches, the door opens."

Before Zhao Jianguo can speak, urgent Footsteps come from afar. Jia Dongxu runs, sweating, clutching several sheets of paper, panting and shouting: "Old Zhao! I compared the diagram you sent me!"

He rushes forward, squats down, spreads the sheets onto the cement floor in one layer. One is a printed Crystal design diagram, the other is his hand‑drawn simplified version.

Side by side, they are almost identical.

"This... this is the primary architecture of a quantum gate array," Jia Dongxu's voice trembles a bit, "Data decrypted by the National Laboratory only three years ago, not even in any commercial textbooks. How could you possibly..."

He stops mid‑sentence, lowers his head to examine the marks on the ground. The segment of line Zhao Chen just added perfectly completes a missing feedback loop.

That was the part that had been blurred in the original diagram.

"She didn't draw randomly," Jia Dongxu looks up, his eyes change, "She knows."

Zhao Jianguo says nothing, only gently pats Zhao Chen's back. The little girl, half‑asleep, opens her eyes, looks at him, then lowers her head to stare at the lines on the ground.

"Sweetheart," he whispers, "who taught you?"

Zhao Chen blinks: "Grandpa."

"Which grandpa?"

"The one in the dream." She lifts her small hand, mimicking pushing glasses, "He said this is a 'low‑power trigger module', it will save electricity later."

Jia Dongxu jerks, almost dropping the paper. He quickly pulls out his pocket notebook and hurriedly writes down the sentence.

"What else did he say?" Zhao Jianguo continues to ask.

"He said we must remember these," Zhao Chen yawns, "If we remember, we can Go Home."

"Where is home?"

"In the sky." She points above her head, "There are bright cars running around."

Zhao Xing interjects: "I dreamed too! Grandpa gave each of us a board, with lines on it, letting us connect."

Zhao Yang also nods: "He said this is a key, we must hide it."

The three say exactly the same.

Jia Dongxu stops writing, his breathing slows by half a beat. He stares at the three children, then at the diagram on the ground, suddenly stands, strides to the exhibit edge, and opens his portable Terminal.

He pulls up a file, flips to a photo—a bespectacled old professor, hair silvered, standing at a podium writing.

"Chen Jingzhao." He reads the name, "Died in 2001, one of the country's earliest experts in quantum computing. This photo was taken at his final public lecture."

He turns the Screen toward the Triplets: "Is it him?"

Zhao Chen glances, nods: "It is him. He calls me Xiao Chen."

Zhao Xing leans in: "He also touched my head, said I'm not afraid of the dark."

Jia Dongxu's hand trembles.

This is no coincidence.

Zhao Jianguo lowers his head to the lines on the ground, and suddenly his mind clears. Those blue lights, those images, are not mere Projection. They are signals, someone is transmitting something here.

And the Triplets are the receivers.

He silently recites a system command: 【Mark current event as 'Major Technological Lead', request classification and archiving.】

A golden prompt pops up immediately: 【Detected cross‑generational technology inheritance, reward 'Cross‑Generational Technology Inheritance Law' fragment ×1】

He feels a weight lift from his mind.

The system acknowledges.

This shows it is not hallucination, nor accident, but a real occurrence.

He instantly selects "Lock on site". An invisible Barrier spreads over the cement floor, the air in the diagram area warps slightly, like a heat wave trembling, but nothing else changes.

"Your system can do this?" Jia Dongxu is stunned.

"More than that," Zhao Jianguo whispers, "It can distinguish real knowledge from nonsense."

Jia Dongxu swallows, squats back down, watches those lines more closely. He suddenly reaches out, scrapes the cement along one line with his fingernail.

A deeper mark remains on the cement surface.

"Strange," he says, "This force doesn't seem like a child could make. How strong is Zhao Chen? These lines are too deep, the edges are neat, as if... drawn with a tool."

Zhao Jianguo squints.

He also notices.

These lines become clearer, deeper, and more complex the farther they go. The final segment doesn't look like a casual sketch, but rather a copy of some standard diagram.

"They're not drawing," he says slowly, "they're copying."

"Copying what?"

"Copying what's in the dream."

Jia Dongxu looks up at him.

The two meet eyes, say nothing.

Zhao Jianguo reaches out, holds Zhao Chen tighter. The little girl is already asleep, her face pressed to his chest, breathing even.

Zhao Xing and Zhao Yang are also drowsy, one leaning on his arm, one hugging his leg, eyes barely open.

Yet at that moment, Zhao Chen's hand suddenly moves.

Her small fingers start scraping the ground again.

A new segment of line appeared.

This time it was no longer a simple circuit connection, but a complete module structure, with a circular Symbols at its center and eight radiating lines surrounding it.

Jia Dongxu stared at it for two seconds, his complexion changing.

"This is… an authentication module," he said in a very low voice, "Only the core project team has Permission to access its design; I have only ever seen its outline in encrypted files."

He looked up at Zhao Jianguo: "What she drew is a Permission lock."

Zhao Jianguo did not move.

He knew what that meant.

This wasn't knowledge transmitted casually. It was opening a door for them.

It lets people come in, and lets what's inside come out.

He lowered his head and saw his daughter still drawing, her fingers moving nonstop, as if she couldn't stop.

"System," he asked himself in his mind, 【Is there any way to pause this process?】

【Cannot intervene in natural reception state】

【Recommendation: maintain supervision, avoid external interference】

Alright.

Then we'll guard it.

He gently patted Zhao Chen's back, then glanced at Zhao Xing and Zhao Yang. Though the two children had their eyes closed, their lips moved slightly, as if muttering something.

"They're reciting," Jia Dongxu suddenly said.

"Reciting what?"

"Code," he whispered, pressing his ear close to Zhao Yang's mouth for a few seconds, "It's an initialization command, paired with that module earlier."

Zhao Jianguo remained silent.

He knew they could wait no longer.

These children were neither playing nor dreaming. They were receiving a complete set of system knowledge, transmitted in stages and in order.

It was as if someone were teaching them step by step how to boot up.

He had to figure out who was on the other side.

Why choose this moment.

Why go through the three children.

Just as he was about to speak, Zhao Chen's hand suddenly stopped.

The final stroke reached the center of the circle.

She went limp and fell straight into Zhao Jianguo's arms.

"Are you tired?" he asked softly.

Zhao Chen nodded, closed his eyes, but his mouth kept moving.

Zhao Jianguo pressed his ear closer.

She said two words.

"Grandpa."

Not the old grandpa from the dream.

But grandpa.

His heart leapt.

The address was wrong.

They had never seen a grandpa before.

But the instant he was stunned, the blue light on the platform flickered suddenly.

It wasn't the chaotic flicker from before.

This time, it was regular.

Three short, three long, three short.

Like a signal.

Jia Dongxu also saw it and sprang to his feet: "That's Morse code!"

He stared at the flashing rhythm, his lips moving in sync, his complexion paling little by little.

"I… have deciphered it," his voice hoarse, "These three groups of short and long lights translate to—"

He looked at Zhao Jianguo, his throat rolling.

"I am your grandpa."