Chapter 6

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Chapter 6: High-Tech Cave

Ying Zhao immediately fell silent, and the three of them focused on the panel on the table.

Luo Yu moved the soft cushion off her lap and crawled closer to take a look. The communication request showed a profile picture of the person who would meet them tomorrow, the same one Mo Chuan had shown them earlier, with the name matching as well.

Zhu Huai, nestled in the cushions, lazily asked, “What’s that person’s name again?”

“Lei Ming.”

“‘Lei Ming’ as in the thunder and lightning?”

“No, come see for yourself; I’ll connect.” After Luo Yu pressed the connect button on the panel, a holographic image appeared above it, revealing a warm and cheerful face.

“Hello, everyone! I’m Lei Ming. Professor Mo Chuan should have introduced me to you today. I heard you are staying at the ninth cliff dwelling, and I wanted to ask what time would be good for me to pick you up tomorrow?”

The three exchanged glances, and Luo Yu thought about needing to check the time capsule control panel for damage in the hangar first thing in the morning. Following tonight’s drying process, she estimated they could start cleaning and repairing by around nine o’clock. So, she asked, “How about nine tomorrow morning?”

Lei Ming seemed surprised, “Nine? That early? Don’t you want to sleep in a bit?”

The three were momentarily taken aback. Was nine really that early?

After a brief silence, Luo Yu suggested, “Then… ten o’clock?”

Lei Ming smiled and nodded, “You all are so diligent! Alright, let’s do ten o’clock. I’ll try to arrive on time. See you tomorrow!” As soon as he finished speaking, the holographic projection disappeared, leaving the three of them exchanging puzzled looks.

“What’s up with the people here?” Zhu Huai scratched her forehead in confusion. “The wristband prompts for a break after six hours of work, and now nine o’clock is too early…”

Remembering Ying Zhao’s earlier comment, Luo Yu interrupted Zhu Huai, asking her, “What was that hypothesis you didn’t finish sharing?”

Ying Zhao looked at them seriously, “I observed today that there are no men in this place.”

“Wow, I was expecting something significant,” Zhu Huai sank back into the cushions. “This is a matriarchal society; it’s normal not to see men. When we recovered the sky curtain during the Qin, Han, Tang, and Ming dynasties, we barely saw any women.”

“True, I didn’t see any in the assembly hall, but when we passed through villages and fields during landing, I did see women working the land. However, today by the river, aside from those hurriedly passing to the assembly hall, there were a lot of onlookers, and on our way back through the woods and hills, I carefully looked at those returning home and saw no men at all—none whatsoever. So, I wonder if the men here are somehow kept in a concentrated place, making them invisible outside.”

And the two trainee team members in the tail section of the Shan Hai Jing were both male.

Luo Yu also thought about that today and agreed, “They were likely isolated or detained for this reason.”

“Actually, I suspect they might already be…” Ying Zhao gestured near her neck, “When I went to release their safety restraints yesterday, they both had very faint signs of life. I wondered if they were moved somewhere for dissection or research, which is why they wouldn’t say anything when I inquired during the day.”

Earlier by the river, Ying Zhao had subtly hinted at the two assistants behind Mo Chuan, but they had remained serious and stated they only knew that three external time-space humans were found aboard the spaceship, without knowledge of any tail section team members. Mo Chuan had even directly refused to further discuss this issue, mentioning that there were still some problems under investigation and asked them to wait a little longer.

Luo Yu hugged one of the cushions beside her, leaning against the backrest, as she furrowed her brow in thought. The two trainee team members were a male researcher transferred from the hangar laboratory of the Space Administration and a male history PhD from the Time Bureau.

After thinking all day, she suspected their chances of survival were slim, but if they had been discovered or transferred away shortly after arriving, it would be best to be told directly. However, Mo Chuan and the others remained tight-lipped about it, leaving her feeling uneasy.

The civilization here is highly developed, and their attitude towards everything differs from that of their original world, but does this kindness also extend to them as “external invaders”? She wasn’t sure.

Shaking her head, Luo Yu reminded herself that they had only awakened here for one day, and many things remained unclear. She carefully said, “Since they are not willing to reveal information, let’s not press any further. We still need their assistance for the repairs to the time capsule, and we must avoid conflict with the locals unless absolutely necessary. As for the two team members’ whereabouts, we can look into that later. It would be best to find out what happened, especially since we’ll need to submit a detailed report to the Inspection Department about the missing personnel. If we can’t explain the reason for the incident properly, we’ll all face penalties.”

The two male team members had only been assigned last month, and they weren’t familiar with them. Therefore, when Luo Yu decided to pause inquiries about their whereabouts, Zhu Huai and Ying Zhao supported her decision. After all, the top priority now was to repair the Shan Hai Jing, and they couldn’t afford to offend the locals at this time for the sake of those men.

Zhu Huai nonchalantly poked at her ear, “It’s not like it’s hard to explain. Just say they mishandled their protective gear and lost consciousness from suffocation during the emergency landing, so we had to bury them on the spot. Done. If the Bureau doesn’t believe it, let the Inspection Department come here to investigate.”

Ying Zhao nodded, “Tomorrow, let’s first check the time capsule situation in the hangar, and then we can follow Lei Ming to observe the local conditions nearby. Perhaps we’ll discover something new.”

The three of them talked for a while longer, and just as the time on the round table hit nine o’clock, they also felt they had rested enough. So, they all climbed up from the cushions and prepared to explore the rooms behind the three archways.

The three extended rooms were located on either side of the lounge; there was one archway on the left and two on the right. They first walked through the left archway to find an independent suite, which included a bedroom, bathroom, and an entertainment room along with an open dining area.

Each room was spacious, with walls made of irregular cave stone, and the lighting was provided by invisible LED strips embedded in the walls, softly reflecting moonlight from outside. The indoor living facilities were complete, all seamlessly integrated with a human-friendly design in the original natural environment.

They all explored each suite one by one, finding that the layouts and facilities were exactly the same. Noticing that it was getting late, the three of them casually split the rooms. Luo Yu said goodnight to the other two and walked through the left archway.

When they first entered the room, a screen at the entrance prompted them to input their living information, but they didn’t pay it any mind. Now, as Luo Yu entered the room for the second time, the prompt sounded again.

The input process wasn’t complicated; Luo Yu stood for a moment in a round groove at the entrance, answered a few questions, and the screen displayed, “Input complete, Luo Yu, welcome to your stay.” She instinctively nodded at the screen before heading toward the bathroom. She desperately needed a hot shower to relax.

The room’s facilities were different from what she was used to, but thankfully the design was simple and easy to use, so there weren’t any difficulties for a first-time user.

As the warm water cascaded down from above in the shower, Luo Yu let out a long sigh of comfort. After wiping her face and opening her eyes, she noticed the walls of the bathroom were made from the cave’s interior, and through the steamy mist, she could see the natural patterns faintly appearing on the stone wall. The lighting in the bathroom came from the moonlight filtering in, and as she leisurely washed herself, she felt a bit like a wild person.

After coming out of the bathroom, her thoughts were clearer, and she didn’t bother to examine the other facilities in the room. Instead, she directly approached the bed, crawling up using both her hands and feet.

How to describe this bed? The exterior and top were woven materials, resembling a giant cozy nest, and lying inside gave her an inexplicable sense of security. Luo Yu adjusted her position against the soft cushions, closed her eyes, and carefully reflected on all that had happened before and after this mission.

Thoughts raced through her mind, and after much contemplation, she unknowingly drifted into a light sleep.

The next morning, a ray of sunlight streamed in, falling on Luo Yu’s face, forcing her to squint and open her eyes. After a moment, she sat up and looked around: cozy nest bed, stone wall, hidden refractor lights.

Great, everything that happened yesterday was not a dream; she was still in the high-tech cave from thirty thousand years ago.

She got out of bed, washed up in the bathroom, changed clothes, and opened the suite door. The public lounge was bright, and she realized that the circular soft cushions they had sat on yesterday were in front of a massive floor-to-ceiling window, which had been covered by curtains last night, hiding them from view.

The window faced a distant mountain, with a wide waterfall cascading down from a steep cliff. In the forested valley below, mist lingered in the air, and flocks of birds flew around the waterfall. She could even faintly hear the cries of monkeys echoing in the distance.

Ying Zhao sat by the window, holding a warm drink, and was leisurely enjoying the beautiful view.

Luo Yu approached Ying Zhao from behind and admired the waterfall for a while. She rarely saw such natural scenery and struggled to find the right words to express her appreciation. After racking her brain for adjectives, she finally managed to say, “How magnificent!”

Startled by Luo Yu’s voice, Ying Zhao turned and smiled, “Good morning, Fish Sister!”

“Morning.” Luo Yu leaned over to look at Ying Zhao’s cup. “What are you drinking? It smells nice.”

“Hot wheat drink. I ordered breakfast from the central control panel. It tastes pretty good. Hui hasn’t woken up yet; why don’t you go see what there is to eat?”

“I’ll wait for Zhu Huai to join me for breakfast.” Luo Yu turned to glance at Zhu Huai’s room, then noticed two touchscreen writing boards by the window filled with complex formulas. She walked over and asked, “What’s this?”

“I found this handwriting screen when I woke up this morning and calculated the displacement angles during our time gap, as well as the trajectory of arriving in this parallel time. It helped wake me up a bit, but there are a few places with flaws. While writing, I noticed there was also a window here, so I sat down to sort out my thoughts.”

Luo Yu looked at the screen filled with symbols, feeling a bit overwhelmed. “You physicists have some hardcore ways of waking up in the morning.” Afterward, she spotted a boxed formula in the lower left corner and asked, “Is this also a time trajectory calculation?”

“Oh, this isn’t. This is a wonderful discovery.” Ying Zhao suddenly seemed excited and walked over to the window. “Come here, Fish Sister, and look at what’s installed on this window.”

“Isn’t it glass?” Luo Yu asked, but then she noticed the lack of the usual reflections associated with glass.

“Come touch it.”

Luo Yu reached out and pushed against the ‘glass.’ It was soft and felt oddly strange, so she quickly withdrew her hand.

“I’ve tentatively named it soft glass. It’s a fascinating material. It can self-repair; just watch.” After saying this, Ying Zhao rolled up her sleeves and quickly punched the soft glass. Her arm passed through the soft glass, and moments later, she pulled her hand back. The soft glass rippled where she had hit it, returning to its original state.

Luo Yu’s eyes widened in astonishment as Ying Zhao continued, “This soft glass can’t just be penetrated casually; it has a speed requirement. If the speed isn’t sufficient, it will just trap you. So I calculated the minimum speed needed to break through on the handwriting board.”

“Additionally, this soft glass is unidirectional. Just now, while I was sitting here, a big bird nearly flew into my face. It definitely exceeded the critical speed, but it was stopped and couldn’t get in. It glared at me and flew away.”

After hearing this, Luo Yu placed her hand against the soft glass and felt a gentle breeze coming through. “It prevents bird collisions, reduces noise, and filters the air—a highly advanced feature.”

Just as they were talking, the adjacent archway opened.

“Huh? You two are up so early?” Zhu Huai walked out, still looking half-asleep. “I woke up hungry. Is there food?”

“Yes! I’ll order something for you in a bit.” Ying Zhao approached Zhu Huai’s door. “I have a new discovery, and you’ll definitely be interested.”

“Okay, tell me in a moment; let me change my clothes first.” Zhu Huai said this and turned back into her room. Eager to share, Ying Zhao followed her inside.

However, once she stepped into Zhu Huai’s room, she felt something was off. “Wait a minute, why is your room different from mine? Didn’t we see that all three rooms were identical last night?”