Chapter 83
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Chapter 83: New Assignment
“May I ask who you are?” Zhang Zhiyuan tilted his head back slightly.
“Oh my apologies, I forgot to introduce him earlier. This is Dr. Ding, the Director of our Mineral Identification Department,” Bai Yan quickly interjected. “I just noticed something unusual about the composition of the minerals in the rock, so I invited my professor to take a look…”
“What do you mean by ‘something unusual’!” Dr. Ding cut him off directly. “This thing doesn’t even look like it contains any minerals from Earth!”
After hearing this, Zhang Zhiyuan and Gao Wei exchanged glances, both having similar thoughts.
“Are you sure?”
“Of course! I’ve been doing this for thirty years. Just one look at its Light spectrum analysis is enough to make an educated guess.”
“Cough,” Bai Yan cleared his throat.
“All right, it could still be from Earth,” the doctor conceded somewhat, “but it’s absolutely unearthed from some obscure corner we’ve never seen before. Its composition and structure are entirely new. So where exactly did it come from? Are there any more like it?”
“I apologize, but I cannot reveal its origin.” Zhang Zhiyuan looked at Director Gao, who gave him with a reassuring look with his eyes. Then he took out his phone and stepped aside.
Understanding the underlying message, Zhang Zhiyuan continued, “Could you tell us more about what makes this stone so peculiar?”
“Oh, you guys are really driving me crazy!” Dr. Ding said with impatience written all over his face. “Even if I explained, you wouldn’t understand!”
“Can’t you at least give us some sort of appraisal report on it?”
“No!” He waved his hand dismissively. ” The reports can only cover items or elements found in our database. This thing can’t be classified as any known gemstone, jade, or mineral. The machines simply cannot make any conclusions about it. It requires manual analysis piece by piece, which will take no less than five to six days.”
“Come on, Why don’t you just tell us where its strangeness lies?” Zhang Zhiyuan persisted, deliberately stalling for time. “We have a mission too, and without understanding anything if we show up empty-handed, it’ll be hard to fulfill our duties!”
“Professor, let me handle this.” Bai Yan voluntarily stepped forward. “Please don’t blame Dr. Ding for being impatient. He believes that this ‘stone’ could be a significant discovery, both in terms of where it was found and how many there are could be really important. The former could help us understand the origin of these stones, while the latter allows us to conduct more experiments.”
“In simple terms, we have so far found some common elements in the sample, such as silicon, oxygen, carbon, iron… But these are just Light spectrum data. The way they’re combined is completely different… How do I put this? It’s like having two watermelons—one whole and one smashed up. The sample is ‘smashed up.’ There are also a lot of dark areas in the light spectrum. In theory, this indicates absorption characteristics of substances, but we’ve never seen such a large number of dark areas before. Most puzzling of all, when electrons absorb light, they usually jump to a higher energy level and then release that extra energy. But we haven’t seen any signs of them releasing it.”
Zhang Zhiyuan fell silent. He realized that he was in over his head. Even though the explanation was concise and Bai Yan had tried to explain it simply, it still left him utterly bewildered.
“As you can see, they don’t understand the significance of this sample at all.” Dr. Ding said as if he had expected this reaction. “Never mind, let’s continue our analysis. Send the light spectrum data and other results to the lab as well, so that others can check them. We can also share it with North University’s research studio; they will be absolutely amazed —”
“No!” Zhang Zhiyuan suddenly interrupted.
“Huh?” Dr. Ding, who was about to return to the appraisal room, turned back with a frown. “Aren’t you in a hurry for the report?If we have more hands we can divide the appraisal tasks, perhaps within three days we could…”
“I’m sorry, I can’t give you any details right now, but please cooperate with us and stay where you are,” Zhang Zhiyuan said, taking a step forward and trying to block everyone.
“What do you mean? This is also a Governmental institution!” Dr. Ding expressed his dissatisfaction.
At that moment, police sirens began to sound outside.
Black van after black van entered the Governmental Appraisal Center and parked neatly along both sides of the large courtyard. Armed police officers jumped out and began methodically started setting up barricades. Within just a few minutes, they had taken control of all the entrances and exits to the center. At the same time, an ordinary black sedan pulled up directly in front of the entrance to the reception hall. Several middle-aged men got out, briskly walking straight towards Gao Wei.
Gao Wei didn’t wait passively, he proactively approached them and extended a handshake.
Zhang Zhiyuan did not recognise any of these people, except for one who seemed familiar—he often appeared in the front rows during meetings when the National Security Department was being reorganized.
Witnessing this scene, Zhang Zhiyuan finally understood the true meaning of his superior’s words:
“It doesn’t matter whether I believe it or not; what matters is having evidence.”
Gao Wei might not have blind faith in the situation, but he was prepared just in case it turned out to be true. It wasn’t just him, the higher-ups followed the same approach.
Instead of betting solely on the assumption that nothing would happen, it was wiser to spend some time in making a contingency plan. After all, it wouldn’t take much effort anyway.
Everything that was happening before his eyes couldn’t have been that was hastily put together at the last minute. A group of people had been preparing for this for a long time, just waiting for concrete evidence to spring into action. What followed seemed like a natural progression of events.
Zhang Zhiyuan was escorted out of the Appraisal Center—his rank did not allow him to take part in the upcoming discussions nor be privy to the higher-ups’ further plans. Similarly, the staff of the Governmental Appraisal Center were also “kicked” out, including Bai Yan. Not only that, he was also made to sign a non-disclosure agreement stating that he was not to tell anything to anyone which he had seen today. Of course… the compensation for maintaining secrecy was quite substantial, as one could see from his expression.
An hour later, new researchers arrived on the scene. It was quite clear that they were specially selected elites; their smooth, shiny bald heads served as testament to their expertise.
Another hour passed, and even engineering vehicles arrived. As soon as the workers arrived, they began to take down the Appraisal Center’s sign and started setting up a new entrance. It seemed pretty obvious that starting from today, this place would have a new name.
But Zhang Zhiyuan understood why they chose this approach. After all, the Appraisal Center was equipped with all sorts of testing equipments, so it was a natural fit to turned into a laboratory. He just hadn’t expected everything to happen on the same day. Perhaps this was an unintended show of power when the state gets involved.
Zhang Zhiyuan was grateful that they hadn’t thrown him out right away. At least he could still hang around outside the reception hall. He spent the rest of the day crouching in the parking lot, watching the cars go by. It was around 6 p.m. when his superior, Gao Wei, finally reappeared at the entrance to the hall.
As soon as Zhang Zhiyuan saw him, he quickly ran over to him.
“Old Gao! What did the higher-ups say?”
Gao Wei shot him an irritated look.
Realising his mistake, Zhang Zhiyuan quickly covered his mouth. “I forgot about the rules. I’m not supposed to ask questions that doesn’t concern me. Doesn’t that mean I’ll no longer have access to information about the Paradise?”
“It’s not that you can’t ask! You just can’t do it here! you haven’t had dinner yet, right? The cafeteria is open now, Let’s grab something together.”
“Sounds good. Are we going back to the International Criminal Police Department building?”
“No, just the cafeteria here.” Gao Wei pointed to the large building to the left side of the reception hall. “They’ve turned the the public lobby into the staff cafeteria for today.”
Zhang Zhiyuan couldn’t help but feel dumbfounded. He recalled that the public lobby was an area open to everyone. It was mainly used to provide appraisal services to the city’s residents. Now it had been transformed directly into a cafeteria?
“From now on, entering or exiting this place will require a specialized identity card, and all trips outside must be registered,” Gao Wei explained as they walked. “Additionally, you don’t need to return to the police headquarters anymore. As of today, you have a new assignment.”