bioinnovel Chapter 296: 5 days at most!
Chapter 296: 5 days at most!
"How are the spectrum comparison results?"
"The parameter profile of the Void Crystal you gave me matches it 91 percent."
Ninety-one percent.
It's not 100%, but it's the closest we've come so far.
To what extent can the exact location of the mining area be pinpointed?
"Within a radius of fifty kilometers, anything more detailed would be impossible to find."
"That area is permafrost, covered with coniferous forests, and the ground temperature drops to minus forty to sixty degrees Celsius in winter."
Nie Qingcheng paused for a moment.
"It's August now, and the highest daytime temperature there is only 15 degrees Celsius."
"understood."
When are you planning to go?
"As soon as possible."
There was a three-second silence on the other end of the phone.
"I've arranged a flight route from Jinghai to Vladivostok using the group's private jet."
"Qingcheng International has a branch office in Vladivostok, and the local manager can provide logistics and cover."
"You'll have to figure out how to get to the mining area after you enter the country from Vladivostok."
"OK."
"Zhang Yan".
"Um."
"This time I won't say 'take me with you'," Nie Qingcheng said in a low voice.
"But you have to promise me one thing."
Zhang Yan waited.
Contact me every twelve hours.
"It's not 24 hours a day, and it's not just one message a day."
"Twelve hours."
"Can."
"If I don't receive your message within twelve hours, I will use all my connections in Russia to send a search and rescue team to the Sakha Republic to dig you out."
She spoke very seriously.
Zhang Yan's lips twitched: "What are you digging out? I'm not going to bury myself."
"It's up to you." Nie Qingcheng's tone finally softened slightly. "When are you leaving?"
"I'll finish what I'm doing tomorrow, the day after tomorrow."
"OK."
The phone hangs up.
Zhang Yan put down the Thousand Machine Arm and walked to the system panel.
He pulled up the complete blueprints of the Azure Dragon.
It is 15 meters long.
It is much smaller than the thirty meters of the Vermilion Bird.
But the Azure Dragon doesn't win because of its size—its core is that spatial folding module.
The drawings clearly indicate that the spatial folding module consists of a three-layer structure.
The outer layer is a stable framework cast in star sand gold, which is already in place.
The middle layer is an energy guiding circuit provided by the fragments of the Heart of Heaven, which is already in place.
The innermost layer—the void crystal.
The system describes the void crystal in just two lines: "A microscopic singularity crystal that remains in a three-dimensional matter layer after the collapse of a higher-dimensional space. It possesses the characteristic of briefly distorting the topological structure of local space."
Simple translation: This thing is a fragment of space itself.
If we can get it, we can build the Azure Dragon.
Once the Azure Dragon is completed, the completeness of the Heavenly Craftsmanship Heart will jump to over 85%.
Once the spatial folding system is online, he will have the means to completely seal the Ruins.
All plans rest on this one stone.
……
That evening, Nie Qingcheng left work early and went home.
There were only two people left at the dinner table.
Without Nie Xiaorou's noise, it was strangely quiet.
Zhang Yan prepared two dishes and a soup.
Braised pork ribs, stir-fried pea shoots, and seaweed and egg drop soup.
Nie Qingcheng ate one and a half bowls of rice, half a bowl more than usual.
"You have a good appetite today."
"You're leaving tomorrow, so of course you should eat more." Nie Qingcheng picked up a piece of pork rib and chewed it. "Just in case you won't be able to eat this again."
"What are you saying?"
"Just kidding."
She put down her chopsticks.
"Have you researched the climate and terrain of Siberia?"
"I've checked."
"Have you brought enough warm clothing?"
"The Suzaku cockpit has a constant temperature system."
"You can't stay in the cockpit forever."
Zhang Yan glanced at her.
"Would you like to make a list for me?"
"You wait."
Nie Qingcheng got up and went to the study. When she returned, she was holding an A4 sheet of paper.
The list of items was densely handwritten, ranging from thermal underwear to high-calorie compressed food to first-aid kits to spare satellite phone batteries—a total of forty-seven items.
The handwriting is very neat.
It wasn't written just now.
It was written in advance.
Zhang Yan held that piece of paper and looked at it for a long time.
When did you write it?
"When you were in the basement last night," Nie Qingcheng said, her voice coming from inside the kitchen as she put the dishes away, "you think I didn't know you came up at three in the morning?"
Zhang Yan folded the list and put it into his shirt pocket.
At 10 p.m., the two went upstairs.
The bedroom light is off.
Nie Qingcheng pressed herself against his back from behind, her forehead touching his back.
"Would those things exist in Siberia?"
The "things" she was referring to were the retinue of the ruins.
"uncertain."
"The mining area is in a military restricted zone. If the Void Crystal really has spatial distortion properties, the nearby energy field may attract pollutants to gather."
"So it's likely to be another tough battle."
"It could be nothing at all, just mining."
Nie Qingcheng gently traced a line on his waist with her finger.
"You always say 'maybe nothing'."
Zhang Yan turned over to face her.
I couldn't see her expression in the darkness, but I could feel her breathing very close to me.
"Five days at most," he said. "Be back within five days."
"You said the same thing last time."
"This time it's for real."
"So the one last time was fake?"
Zhang Yan was stumped by her question.
Nie Qingcheng chuckled softly.
Then she leaned in and kissed him precisely in the darkness.
The night was very short.
……
On the morning of the third day.
Five o'clock.
When Zhang Yan got out of bed, Nie Qingcheng also woke up.
She didn't pretend to be asleep like she used to.
She sat up and watched Zhang Yan get dressed, button his clothes, and tie his shoelaces.
"The thermos is on the coffee table, filled with hot water."
"Um."
"I had Qin Xiao deliver the items on the list to the car yesterday."
Zhang Yan paused for a moment while tying his shoelaces.
He didn't even know when she contacted Qin Xiao.
"Let's go." Nie Qingcheng sat on the bed, wrapped in a blanket, her hair disheveled. "Don't look back."
Zhang Yan stood up.
Instead of heading towards the door, he walked back to the bedside and bent down.
He kissed her forehead.
Five days.
"I'm counting."
Zhang Yan turned and left.
Sure enough, there was a thermos on the coffee table in the living room, and next to it was a bag of compressed biscuits that Nie Qingcheng never ate—she had bought them specially.
He picked up the cup and cookies and walked out of the villa.
The air was cold in the early morning.
There was an extra black suitcase in the back seat of the car, which Qin Xiao had put there.
Zhang Yan started the car and drove out of the villa area.
My phone vibrated.
It was posted by Nie Qingcheng.
Only two words.
"return."
Zhang Yan placed his phone on the passenger seat and did not reply.
It's not that I don't want to go back.
He knew that if he typed now, the driver would want to turn the car around.
The car merged onto the early morning highway and headed towards Jinghai International Airport.
In the rearview mirror, the lights of the villa area grew farther and farther away.
He didn't turn around.
But his fingers touched the folded A4 paper in his shirt pocket.
Forty-seven items.
She wrote down every single one.
My phone vibrated again.
Qin Xiao's message: "Boss, the polluter data for the six cities has been updated. Shanghai has two more."
Zhang Yan picked up his phone with one hand, typed three words, and sent them:
"I know."
Then he turned his phone face down and stepped on the gas.
The plane took off two hours later.
Destination: Vladivostok.
From there, he would venture alone into the Siberian permafrost to unravel the final piece of the puzzle in this war.