Chapter 104 - 43: The Rumor’s Logical Loop

Chapter 104: Chapter 43: The Rumor’s Logical Loop

On Friday morning, Yu Xian woke up and immediately noticed that the rain outside seemed a little tamer than in previous days.

The wind was no longer a heart-pounding roar, and the fine strands of rain tapped straight against the windowsill and the outdoor air conditioning unit.

Yu Xian rubbed his eyes and walked into the living room. His cousin’s door was open; he had clearly left early in the morning.

Between flood control and maintaining stability, the pressure on them must have been immense. He probably hadn’t been able to get a single full night’s sleep lately.

He first sent a message to Yang Yiyi, and she replied quickly:

"My fever’s completely gone. I slept soundly last night, and I’ve tidied up the apartment a bit. I’m getting used to it."

Reading her message, the stone in Yu Xian’s heart finally lifted.

She was safe in the apartment. With the USB drive in her possession, they had at least one trump card.

Next, he sent messages and texts to Shi Zuozhou and Wen Xiao, but it was like dropping a stone into the sea—no response. Voice and phone calls wouldn’t go through either.

The university was still an isolated island, with no internet or contact with the outside world.

’I wonder if Wen Xiao is making any progress with the decryption, and if they’ve found a vulnerability in that ’black box’.’

’And in the men’s dorms... over these past two long nights, how many more people has that audio pulled onto that bus with no final stop?’

’Is Shi Zuozhou in danger in his dorm? Could this spark some bigger chaos...?’

Yu Xian sighed. The feeling of powerlessness made him anxious. He quickly washed up and boiled some frozen dumplings.

As he chewed mechanically, he once again opened the stack of his parents’ research papers.

Within the lines of text, he could almost see the figures of his young parents working under a desk lamp, deriving equations and verifying calculations, and see their brilliant, innovative concepts.

...

Time slipped by to the sound of rustling paper, and before he knew it, afternoon had arrived.

Yu Xian rubbed his sore neck, picked up his phone, and habitually opened Weibo.

The "Northern Hemisphere Artificial Downpour" topic was still at the top of the trending list. Below it was a new string of deep-red topics.

"Multiple Research Institutions Issue Stern Statements"

"Physics Community Suffers Severe Damage"

"End the Violence, Return to Reason"

It was a shocking sight.

Yu Xian clicked on one and saw a dense array of official announcements, each with white text on a blue background.

"Public Notice from the East China Physics Experiment Center Regarding Recent Public Order Incidents"

"A Stern Statement from the Jiangcheng University High Energy Physics Research Institute Regarding the Violent Vandalism It Suffered"

"An Explanation of Damages Sustained by National Key Laboratories"

"A Joint Letter of Appeal to Stop Cyberbullying Against Scientific Researchers"

They were like blood-stained obituaries, heralding the darkest hour for the scientific community.

He clicked on a random one. Though the wording inside was rigorous and restrained, the helplessness and tragedy between the lines were impossible to conceal.

"...Recently, our institute was forcibly stormed by unidentified individuals, resulting in the deliberate destruction of multiple high-value precision instruments and equipment. A large amount of precious research data was damaged, causing irreparable losses."

"...In the conflict, three of our on-duty security personnel and two researchers who had remained for experiments suffered minor injuries. They are currently receiving treatment at the hospital."

"...This violent incident has forced the suspension of multiple national key projects. The direct economic losses are still being calculated, research progress has been severely delayed, and the indirect losses are immeasurable."

The end of every statement contained the same few powerless appeals and condemnations:

"...We strongly condemn these irrational acts of violence and call on the public not to believe or spread rumors, to express their demands rationally, and to jointly maintain social order and a healthy environment for scientific research."

"...Our institute will fully cooperate with the relevant departments in their investigation and evidence collection, and we reserve the right to pursue legal action against the perpetrators in accordance with the law."

Someone had made a rough statistical map and posted it in a Super Topic. The map was densely covered in red X’s, each one representing an institution that had suffered losses.

According to one expert’s analysis, this large-scale rioting had damaged, to varying degrees, over 90% of the nation’s cutting-edge physics research institutes and laboratories.

This was far more than just a few buildings being smashed or a few pieces of equipment being destroyed.

For basic scientific research, especially in fundamental physics, this was a devastating blow. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a regression of civilization.

The data on hard drives, the flashes of inspiration on scratch paper, the experiments that were being advanced with the caution of one walking on thin ice.

In this torrent, it was all reduced to nothing.

Yu Xian frowned in thought. ’What’s the motive behind letting something like this happen?’

’Anyone with eyes could see that there were many things about this incident that defied common sense...’

’For instance, the one-sidedness of public opinion, the excessively rapid development of the situation, the large-scale leaking of information about research institutions.’

’It seemed like a planned operation targeting the physics community.’

Yu Xian put down his phone and walked out onto the balcony.

It was a little after five in the afternoon, and the sky was growing dark.

But he discovered that the torrential downpour—the one that had raged for a week, seemingly without end—really did seem to be letting up.

It was no longer a pouring curtain of rain, but had become a fine, dense drizzle.

Down below, the water level in the murky floodwaters had clearly dropped, revealing the top half of a blue barricade that had previously been almost completely submerged.

A few drainage trucks with flashing red and blue lights could be seen working slowly on the street.

He glanced at the weather forecast on his phone again.

Sure enough, the red torrential rain warning icons that had been there for days had quietly changed to orange, and some had even turned to yellow. The flood control emergency response level had been lowered.