Chapter 1272 - A Once-In-A-Lifetime Spectacle
Chapter 1272: A Once-In-A-Lifetime Spectacle
“Do you want to go over right away, or can we wait another ten minutes?” Huo Shaoheng looked at his watch.
Gu Nianzhi’s stomach wasn’t feeling very feel, and Huo Shaoheng didn’t want her to go see the “miraculous scientific discovery” on an empty stomach.
To Huo Shaoheng, Gu Nianzhi’s health was more important than seeing a “once-in-a-lifetime spectacle”.
But Song Jinning obviously didn’t think that much of it.
She probably didn’t know that Gu Nianzhi had slept until 10:00 a.m, so on the other end of the phone, she said excitedly in anticipation, “Hurry up! Time is fleeting. If you wait another 10 minutes, you might not see it! What a pity!”
Song Jinning’s excitement also piqued Huo Shaoheng’s interest in seeing it.
He held the phone in his hand and pondered over it for only a second before making a decision.
He looked up at the driver and asked, “Can you help buy breakfast for Cereus from the restaurant and deliver it to the crater’s address? I’ll drive Cereus over there.”
He pointed at the car brought by the Huaxia Empire’s researchers.
Although he didn’t know those people, he could see that they were busy blabbering and about to drive away. They were probably going to see the “once-in-a-lifetime spectacle”.
The driver smiled and said yes. He quickly got in the car, started the jeep, and drove to the restaurant.
Vladimir, who was sitting in the car, was dumbfounded. He stared at the driver and said, “I’m still in the car! Why are you driving away?!”
He also wanted to see the scientists’ breakthrough discovery!
The driver said with a smile, “We’re going to the restaurant to buy breakfast first. You can’t even wait for ten more minutes?”
“Ha! Why didn’t you say that to those two people just now! ” Vladimir was so angry that he pounded on the window. “Drive over there! Drive over there right now!”
“What are you yelling about? If you keep yelling, I’ll throw you out.” The driver glanced sideways at Vladimir. “Don’t think that just because you’re my boss, I don’t have the guts to throw you out.”
“Yes, you’re the best! I’m not the first boss that you’ve thrown out of the car! ” Out of humiliation, Vladimir flew into a fit of rage.
The middle-aged driver couldn’t stay in other departments because with his carefree personality, he had offended many people.
However, although he made many minor mistakes, he never made any big mistakes. Even if his higher ups wanted to make a big deal out of it, they couldn’t find anything damaging about him. So in the end, he was sent back to Vladimir.
“It’s good that you know.” The middle-aged driver winked proudly. Vladimir was so angry that he almost had a heart attack.
He was about to forcefully take control of the steering wheel from the middle-aged driver when he suddenly heard his cell phone ring.
He took it out and saw that it was actually a call from the political department of the KGB headquarters.
Vladimir glared at the middle-aged driver and gestured for him to “shut up”. Then he picked up the phone.
“Comrade Wassily, what can I do for you?” Vladimir’s voice could be said to be very obsequious.
When the middle-aged driver heard “Wassily” he immediately thought of the head of the secret service of the KGB headquarters, who always smiled at people creepily when he looked at them. He immediately quieted down.
Vassili, who was on the other end of the phone, said in an diplomatic voice, “Lieutenant General Vladimir, our department has recently reviewed your application for Lieutenant Colonel Promotion to Major Lina.”
So it was about this matter.
Vladimir sighed and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He said with a smile, “Oh, yes, I did submit the application. How is it? When will she be approved?”
“Well… ” Wassily dragged on. “The political department has decided to continue with the assessment.”
Vladimir: ” … ”
“She still needs to be assessed? Isn’t it enough that we have assessed her for seven or eight years? ” Vladimir was furious. “Her achievements are obvious to everyone. What else is there for the political department to be worried about?! She is our most loyal soldier! Aren’t you afraid of your soldiers’ getting disheartened if you guys keep rejecting her?!”
On the other end of the phone, as if he wasn’t affected by Vladimir’s anger at all, Wassily was still grinning.
He smiled and said, “Of course, we are aware of her achievements. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have accepted your application and examined it for her.”
The KGB Headquarters’ political review was as strict as the political review in the Huaxia Empire. It also conducted thorough background checks on relatives as well.
It could be said that the Huaxia Empire’s political review procedure and system had been learned from Russia…
When Vladimir thought of their strict and meticulous political review, he temporarily calmed down and said, “I know. You all think highly of her, so I don’t understand. What do you mean by calling me? Is there something wrong with her family background? But if there’s something wrong with her family background, she won’t be able to enter the KGB.”
Wassily sighed and said, “This is where we are in trouble. Her family situation is indeed fine, but when we examined it, we found that during the years when she entered the KGB, all her relatives had died…”
Vladimir: ” … ”
” … And they all died normal deaths, not unnatural deaths. Don’t you think it’s strange? How did her family members all die within a few years?” Wassily felt that it was extremely suspicious.
Although facts proved that most of his suspicions were unfounded and groundless, so he had wronged a lot of people, there were also a few instances where his suspicions had indeed helped them to fill in the gaps and prevent meaningless actions.
That was why Wassily, who did not have any background, was able to sit firmly in the number one position in the political department.
Vladimir sneered. “Comrade Wassily, if you say that about others, I might believe you, but if you say about to Lina, don’t you feel ashamed? She only had a mother as her direct relative. She didn’t have any other relatives. Her mother died three years ago, and I know about this too. I even accompanied her home to attend the funeral. So don’t you think you’re deliberately misleading others when you say that all her relatives are ‘dead’?”
Wassily laughed dryly and said slowly, “This is another problem. Her data file previously said that she only had one mother, but we later found out that her father was actually still alive and working as a bartender in a bar in Sochi.”
Vladimir was stunned. “Really? You guyys know this too? How did you guys find out? ”
” … one year after her mother passed away, her father came home and found that his wife had passed away. Only then did we know that Lina had a father… ”
Vladimir was speechless again.
“Then we checked the DNA of Lina and her father and confirmed that they weren’t related by blood. ” After Wassily said that, he deliberately paused for a moment.
Vladimir’s face paled. “And then?”
“Haha, and then nothing happened! That man said that Lina was not his biological daughter in the first place, but her mother’s child. He only married her mother after Lina was born.”
“Damn you! Isn’t he just her stepfather then?! Why do you have to beat around the bush so much?!” Such suspense was torturing Vladimir to death.
Wassily giggled. “Lieutenant General Vladimir, since you pay so much attention to her, perhaps you have feelings for Lina? Have you fallen in love with her?”
Vladimir had just been in extreme emotional turmoil, and was about to pass out. Now, Wassily just dropped another bomb on him.
Feeling that he might have to die here today, he held onto the handle of the car door.
“Comrade Wassily, if you have something to say, just say it. If you keep me guessing, I’ll curse you from being promoted!” Vladimir was the second-in-command of the KGB. The people of the political department had gone too far by tormenting him.
Wassily coughed awkwardly and stopped teasing Vladimir, then said, “Aalright, I’ll make it short. This time, I’m calling you because the Political Department feels that since Lina has become Lieutenant General Vladimir’s favorite person, for the sake of stricter security, we’ve decided to raise the standards for the examination of Comrade Major Lina.”
“You can interrogate her however you want.” Vladimir said in a daze. He didn’t deny his feelings for Lina.
Wassily felt more assured and nodded, then said, “Alright. I’ve already recorded and archived this call as one of the materials for the examination. We’ll conduct a further examination of Comrade Lina in the next few days. We hope that you can cooperate with us in carrying out the operation.”
Vladimir’s face wrinkled when he heard this. “Operation? What operation? Don’t act rashly, we are carrying out a mission! ”
“Don’t worry, we know what to do. This time, we’ll kill two birds with one stone. You can cooperate with the headquarters in carrying out the operation.” After Wassily finished speaking, he then sent Vladimir to another phone call that was even more confidential.
From that phone call, someone told Vladimir about the method and content of the review of Lina.
After listening for a long time, Vladimir negotiated a few more steps and finally settled on the final review.
As long as Lina could pass the final review, not only could she be promoted to lieutenant colonel, but Vladimir could also marry her without further review.
This was killing two birds with one stone. Of course, Vladimir would not refuse.
After hanging up the phone, he whistled and followed the driver to the resort’s restaurant. He bought two of the best breakfasts and took them there.
…
Gu Nianzhi and Huo Shaoheng rode in the Huaxia Empire’s researchers’ car and arrived at the giant circular pit first.
Yesterday, Gu Nianzhi had only looked down at the giant circular pit from a nearby hillside. She had felt that it looked very much like the blue hole of the Caribbean Sea.
Now that she was closer, she couldn’t see the similarities anymore.
There was only a giant, bottomless pit in front of her.
There seemed to be liquid at the bottom of the pit, because when she looked down, she could only see a dark blue mist lingering around it. She couldn’t see anything under the mist.
However, she couldn’t see it with the naked eye, but she could see it with the instruments.
Song Jinning and the others worked with the Russian scientists and lowered several long ropes that were hundreds of meters long along the edge of the giant circular pit.
The long ropes were tied with cameras and sensors, so they could check the situation down there.
Song Jinning and the others brought their own small drone, which happened to carry four cameras and a sensor, and flew down from the center of the giant circular pit.
In this way, the entire interior of the giant circular pit was taken care of in all directions.
They had been observing the situation under the giant circular pit for several days.
There had been no movement in the past few days.
The giant pit was shrouded in clouds and mist. There were no living animals or plants, not even microbes. It was dead quiet, even quieter than a tomb would be.
Time seemed to have stopped here since the explosion more than a hundred years ago.
It wasn’t until this morning that movement suddenly appeared in the giant pit.
The movement was slight and wasn’t obvious at first, but it was captured by the sensors on the long rope and the drone, then transmitted back to the receiving instruments on the ground.
When the scientists noticed the movement, the receiving instruments on the ground were already operating frantically, almost exceeding the load they should have been carrying.
Song Jinning pointed to the regular pulsating curves on the big screen in front of her and said excitedly, “Nianzhi, do you know what this is?”
Gu Nianzhi blinked. ” … This is a movement curve?”
“This isn’t a normal movement curve. It’s almost exactly the same as the one observed by all blue planet scientists last year when two neutron stars collided! ” Song Jinning showed another curve in surprise, “Look at this wave curve. Doesn’t it almost match the curve here?!”
Gu Nianzhi: ” … ”
Well, she didn’t pay much attention to scientific news. She had only heard about it and hadn’t done any in-depth research on it…
Of course, even if she did “in-depth research”, she wouldn’t be able to understand it.
“Don’t you think this is a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle?” Song Jinning explained to her eagerly, “The wave curve of the neutron star collision that everyone observed last year was observed with a large telescope. But the wave curve that we got here was observed in this huge circular crater. No telescope was used!”
Gu Nianzhi finally understood. She asked curiously, “Yes, this is really strange. I remember the news saying that the collision of the two neutron stars actually happened 130 million years ago. So we also observed an astronomical phenomenon 130 million years ago from here?”