Genius Club-Chapter 545 - 5: The Truth Behind Millennium Stakes_2

Seeing these precious and hard-to-come-by documents, Lin Xian quickly thanked the police officer, expressing that it was already enough, he was very grateful, and that it must have been hard work.

He couldn’t help but feel...

Although VV was an Artificial Intelligence, it had significant limitations in human society, which prides itself on personal relationships and etiquette.

It’s true that VV could search through the entire network’s information in a second.

But even if you gave it the entire power output of the Three Gorges Dam, it couldn’t get any archival staff to flip through 20-year-old dusty files for it.

Obviously, no one would do the work just because VV instructed it... except himself.

Director Liu An was different, though.

Just being the director of the National Security Bureau, he wouldn’t even need to intervene personally—a single phone call, and the whole archives department of Qufu city would be put to work. That’s why... in just a few hours, all the old archives from the year 2000 could be thoroughly searched.

Looking at the condition of the papers in these photos.

They’ve been through a lot over the years: decayed, torn, and certainly not spared by mice or the elements.

The staff really worked hard.

Lin Xian thanked them many times, although he actually didn’t need such detailed information; a simple understanding of what happened back then would have sufficed. He really didn’t mean to trouble the staff of Qufu:

"Thank you, I really appreciate it, you all have worked so hard! This is absolutely enough!"

After politely expressing his gratitude, Lin Xian began to read each document from the year 2000 carefully—oral testimonies, case records, police reports, and processing documents—and extracted useful information from them.

It was just as the police officer had said.

The accident that led to Zhang Yuqian’s death occurred around 1 a.m. on January 21, 2000, but the report was filed on February 7, 2000, a full half a month later.

The reason, as the officer had explained, was clear.

In 2000, people didn’t have a strong sense of legal or reporting obligation, thinking that since no one else was harmed and there were no other victims, there was no need to file a report. After all, it was just a tree that was knocked down, not something that usually prompted a call to the police.

Plus, with Yan Qin and Zhang Shi grieving over their only daughter’s death, their first reaction was to try to save her or to handle the aftermath, not to file a report.

It was only after the public announcement by the department of parks and environmental protection that they came to report it. By that time, Zhang Yuqian had already been buried, and all that was left was to record testimonies and settle the case with a payment.

However,

from these fragmented testimonies, Lin Xian still extracted the information he needed.

It was precisely what was written on these papers.

Gao Yang, brushing his teeth and just out of bed, stumbled over with his toothbrush:

"What does it say? Let me have a look."

Lin Xian pushed over a chair to him, then picked up a pen and pointed to the words written on the papers, explaining to Gao Yang:

"Look, this police information shows that Zhang Yuqian was born on January 21, 1980, and the accident happened in the early hours of January 21, 2000."

"Damn!"

Gao Yang spit out a mouthful of toothpaste foam:

"She was just 20 years old! The accident happened on the very morning of her 20th birthday! This... this is too much of a coincidence! And the same is true for Chu Anqing! A few days ago, when Chu Anqing jumped off the Skyspace Aircraft and disappeared upon landing, wasn’t it also on the morning of her 20th birthday... um, wasn’t the time also at 00:42, right? I remember you mentioned that time."

"Yes."

Lin Xian moved the pen to the second line:

"Look at Chu Anqing’s information. She was born on March 28, 2004, and the time when she was suspected of undergoing quantum state collapse, vanishing like the Blue Stardust, was also at exactly 00:42 on March 28, 2024."

"I’m not sure about the specific time of Zhang Yuqian’s death, whether it was 00:42, because the information provided to us by the police wasn’t detailed to the exact time. It just vaguely stated around 1 a.m., based on the oral testimony of the car driver, Yan Qin, who is also Zhang Yuqian’s mother."

Spitting out another mouthful of toothpaste foam, Gao Yang discarded it into the trashcan:

"Well, I feel like it must have been 00:42."

He rinsed his mouth with a cup of water a few times before spitting into the trashcan:

"Since Zhang Yuqian and Chu Anqing look so alike, and you said even the position of the tear mole is exactly the same, adding to that the fact that they both died on their 20th birthday, why not be a bit bolder in our speculation and assume Zhang Yuqian died at precisely 00:42! Down to the second!"

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"And even!"

Gao Yang spewed out the last mouthful of water, picked up a napkin to wipe his mouth, and looked at Lin Xian:

"And even! Let’s be even bolder—"

"[Assume that the exact time of birth for Chu Anqing and Zhang Yuqian was also 00:42!]"

"Is it possible? I mean, the exact time of birth could be any moment, but I feel that since their deaths on their 20th birthday are already such a strange coincidence, why couldn’t it be an even bigger one? Maybe their births were indeed at 00:42 in the morning. And then their deaths were also at 00:42."

"That way! It is exactly 20 years of life! A strictly calculated twenty years, down to the minute!"

Suddenly, Gao Yang’s expression turned serious, and he slapped his cheeks:

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, we shouldn’t use the word ’die.’ Chu Anqing is our friend, we can’t curse her. I’m feeling more and more that Chu Anqing may not be dead... but I can’t figure out what exactly happened."