Jiang Yang’s reaction had clearly taken Gu Changshan by surprise.
He had originally thought that conversing with someone like Jiang Yang, whose entire person seemed shrouded in mystery, would be extremely difficult.
But once Jiang Yang began his account, Gu Changshan immediately found his footing, his expression growing increasingly grave.
Jiang Yang did not pause in the slightest, directly laying out everything he knew.
When he finally finished, Jiang Yang asked, “That’s how things stand. What do you plan to do? What do you need me to do?”
Gu Changshan fell silent. Only after a long while did he say, “If possible, please come with me to another conference room. There are some other people who have questions they wish to ask you.”
“All right. But… I haven’t had breakfast yet. Can I eat first before they ask?”
The corner of Gu Changshan’s mouth twitched. He immediately stood up and said solemnly, “I’m sorry, Comrade Jiang Yang. This was an oversight in our work.”
“It’s fine.”
Gu Changshan shook his head. “At this stage, you are the single most important person in our entire country. No one else comes close. Please rest assured, we will absolutely not make a similar mistake again in the future.”
Jiang Yang gave an embarrassed smile.
A breakfast was quickly brought over. Jiang Yang wolfed it down in a few bites, then followed Gu Changshan to another conference room that was obviously much more spacious.
Dozens of people in uniform were already seated around the conference table.
“These are members of the strategic intelligence team.”
After giving a brief introduction, Gu Changshan closed his mouth.
Gathering his thoughts, Jiang Yang mentally prepared himself to answer any question.
His principle was very simple: answer whatever was asked and cooperate to the fullest. That was all.
The questions from the strategic intelligence team were extremely detailed, down to what Jiang Yang had eaten for breakfast on a certain day during the cycle, how many times he had gone to the bathroom, whether he had felt any discomfort anywhere in his body. They would even ask the same question in different ways, repeatedly, from multiple angles.
It was not until noon that Jiang Yang finally had two hours to rest. In the afternoon, Jiang Yang was not questioned. Instead, under Gu Changshan’s guidance, he began undergoing all kinds of physical examinations.
This situation continued for a full two days. It was not until nine o’clock on the second night, after the final physical examination had ended, that Gu Changshan came to find Jiang Yang.
“The information collection and verification stage has ended. Tonight, we will organize these materials overnight. Tomorrow morning, a high-level meeting will be convened, at which time we will determine the response plan going forward.”
Jiang Yang nodded silently.
At this moment, it was already the night of the sixth day after the cycle had begun. In four more days, the end would arrive.
It seemed as if two days had been delayed, but he understood that this was necessary.
For the state to take action was an exceedingly weighty matter. It had to be treated with the utmost caution, repeatedly verified and considered before a final decision could be made on whether to proceed.
To convene a high-level meeting immediately after merely a day and a half of information collection in order to determine the next course of action was already an almost unimaginable level of efficiency. There was truly no room to demand more.
On the morning of the seventh day, Jiang Yang got up and went to the cafeteria on his own for breakfast—over the past two days, he had already become roughly familiar with the layout of this underground base and no longer needed anyone to guide him.
No one came to question him or examine his body anymore. Suddenly finding himself idle, Jiang Yang was actually a little unused to it.
He knew that, somewhere beyond his knowledge, that high-level meeting had most likely already begun.
The result of this meeting would very likely decide his own future, as well as the future fate of the entire country and all of civilization.
Before the result came out, all he could do was wait.
After returning to his room and lying down for a short while, Jiang Yang picked up the walkie-talkie. “Comrade, can you get me a computer? One that can connect to the internet and play games.”
A reply came from the walkie-talkie. “Please wait a moment. It will be delivered immediately.”
In just a few minutes, a laptop along with a keyboard and mouse was brought over.
“Thanks.”
Setting aside all other thoughts, Jiang Yang directly entered the world of gaming.
He might as well seize the time and enjoy life a little.
……
Tianhua University, in a classroom.
An elderly man with graying hair was holding a piece of chalk and writing something on the blackboard. His aged, wise voice traveled through the headset to the entire classroom and into the ears of dozens of students listening with rapt attention. “The core idea of condensed matter physics is…”
The classroom door suddenly opened. Under the old man’s displeased gaze, a young man hurried inside and walked over, leaning close to his ear to whisper something.
The old man’s expression instantly turned solemn. “Students, for the rest of this class, please study on your own.”
After that, he followed the young man out of the classroom, leaving behind the students staring at one another.
In a laboratory filled with rock specimens, a middle-aged man was concentrating intently on observing the cross-sectional structure of a rock through a microscope.
His phone rang.
“Who is it now?”
Muttering somewhat unhappily, he picked up the phone. But after seeing the number displayed on the screen, the displeasure on his face vanished in an instant, replaced by incomparable gravity.
He pressed the answer button, and a voice immediately came through. “Hello, Professor Lü. There is now an emergency meeting that requires your attendance. Please arrive at the confidential conference room of your research institute within five minutes, log into channel 6652, and await further arrangements.”
“Yes.”
Abandoning the rock specimen, Professor Lü did not even have time to take off the white lab coat he was wearing. He jogged all the way toward the confidential conference room.
Luoxia Mountain Meteorological Research Institute. A plump, ruddy-faced middle-aged man was surrounded by a group of young people, pointing at a meteorological image and explaining something.
A staff member came running in, looking left and right. After finding the middle-aged man, he immediately rushed over.
“Xiao Wang, why are you in such a panic?”
The middle-aged man scolded him. The young man called Xiao Wang was out of breath. “Your phone!”
Somewhat displeased, the middle-aged man took the phone. The dissatisfaction on his face melted away like ice and snow, instantly turning solemn. “Yes! I’ll be there immediately!”
He hurried to the confidential conference room, turned on the computer, and logged into the designated online meeting channel. On the screen, the middle-aged man saw many figures.
He did not know those people, but they felt vaguely familiar. After thinking for a moment, he immediately realized why.
He had seen these people in news reports more than once!
There were dozens of experts and scholars attending the meeting, and every single one of them was an illustrious figure in their respective field, someone who could be considered a leader!
Moreover, there were far more participants than just these. He saw that beneath each expert’s name was a different subgroup: physics group, psychology group, medical group, geology group, astronomy group, as well as his own meteorology group, and so on.
Under each small group were even more names, but those participants were not qualified to display their video feeds in the meeting room. They had only a name.
And even those who could display their video feeds, those leading figures of their respective fields, could only occupy a small window in the online meeting room at this moment. The central window was still dark, clearly indicating that the most important participant had not yet come online.
The middle-aged man’s heart gradually grew heavy.