Huang Xuan had learned his previous lesson. He invited his mother to sign on Furnas’ acquisition contract, before signing his name below hers. Zhang Xinyi did not probe too much. To her, if anyone – regardless of whether this person was her son – could double their assets in a matter of months, this person was worth investing in. Whether this person had help was not cause for concern. In other words, under normal circumstances, one had no business interfering with another’s investment behavior.
If Huang Xuan knew that his own mother thought so highly of him, he would have been over the moon. However, the Huangs had too much on their minds at that moment, and Huang Xuan had even more on his.
Even Huang Qunsheng had rushed back to the country to visit Huang Jindi together with Huang Xuan. His condition did not seem to be improving. Many of the Huangs had gone down to the hospital. Although not all of them were as devastated as Huang Xuan, there were hardly any who gloated.
Huang Jindi had been the leader of the Huang Family for over 20 years. He had his fair share of criticism, especially from his first and second wives, for resorting to underhanded means and despicable methods. However, it was undeniable that the Huangs prospered under his leadership.
Huang Xuan’s grandfather was hardly seen laughing. He was always fair when resolving issues in the family. He might have been biased toward his third wife, but he never abused his authority as the leader of the family to take advantage of anyone. He remained passive as much as he could. Apart from participating in the anniversary, he hardly meddled with the management of the family foundation. If there was one thing that Huang Xuan learned from him, it was to leave professional problems to the professionals. All these qualities had always been buried by jealousy and greed. It was only when Huang Jindi finally collapsed that everybody began to appreciate him.
The Huang family’s business ran smoothly only because Huang Jindi’s career was smooth. The four branches of the Huang family managed to live in prosperity only because Huang Jindi was impartial. The Huang family’s assets were flourishing only because Huang Jindi remained passive.
Huang Jindi was the family’s protective umbrella. Even the eldest, Huang Sugui, and the second eldest, Huang Peichi, understood. Although they always fought for control over the umbrella, they wanted nothing more than to gain possession of a larger sheltered area. They both knew that their efforts would be futile if the umbrella broke.
In fact, Huang Sugui had already backed down. He had spent the last two days shuttling between the family foundation and the hospital, trying to minimize conflicts within the family. At that moment, everybody in the Huang family was most concerned about Huang Jindi’s health.
In the hospital, Huang Xuan felt a warm familial bond that had been absent for a long time. This was compassion for one another in a big family, different from the familial bond between parent and child or brother and sister. This was unity with a touch of estrangement.
Even those from the third generation, like Huang Liming and Huang Jianxuan, were filled with sorrow. After all, the man who lay in the sickbed was their third grandfather. He was the one who taught them the family rules and checked on their academic grades when they were younger.
Huang Xuan muttered a silent prayer to the gods. He prayed for his grandfather’s speedy recovery. He did not genuinely believe that these “gods” were more powerful than Rolin, but he could only hope that they would lend a hand by miraculously healing his grandfather.
Most of the people in the room observed Huang Jindi’s condition in complete silence. Nobody wanted the protective umbrella over their heads to collapse. Yet, they knew that if it did, many smaller umbrellas would have to take its place. Regardless of whether they could afford to erect those smaller umbrellas, they knew that gaining something from the fall of the main umbrella was going to benefit them. In fact, it would probably benefit them significantly.
……
At that moment, Huang Xuan only wanted to capture the wretched time traveler. Of course, if he was willing to hand over a recipe for an anti-aging panacea, Huang Xuan could consider letting him off.
As he lay comfortably on his bed at home, Huang Xuan attempted to stare directly at the sun. He continued to do so until the sun’s rays gradually became weaker. The view from his room was remarkable. There were no tall buildings nearby, and his floor-to-ceiling windows allowed him an unobstructed view of the sunset from his bed. As he thought deeply about the time travelers, he stared at the setting sun, which had become a red ball by then. Rolin had spent the previous night invading all the necessary systems. His advanced technology and familiarity with the current technology helped him significantly in uncovering the time traveler’s identity.
Many foreigners entered and left China each day. However, as long as he focused on Brazilians who came in and out of Nanjing in a certain time period, and who had no clear reason for doing so, he only had approximately a hundred people to observe.
The time traveler seemed to have noticed that the energy in the buffer zone had increased tremendously. There had not been much energy fluctuation over the past two days. It was almost as if they had evaporated into thin air.
Still staring at the red sun, Huang Xuan asked, “Rolin, what do you think the time traveler is doing now?”
“I’m not able to see him.”
“It’s now much more difficult to access the plane passage, yet his energy is depleting. What advice would you give me if I were in his shoes?”
“Try to take possession of the base.”
Huang Xuan paused, stunned. Suddenly, he jumped up and asked, “Can he access or take control of the base without using energy?
“Of course not. He doesn’t have superpowers. Even if he undergoes the system’s spatial and temporal training, he will not be able to take control of the base without using energy.”
“But if he uses energy, you will be able to detect him, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Then how can he take possession of the base?”
Rolin boldly answered, “I’m only raising suggestions. It’s not my duty to see it through.”
“When did you become the boss?” Huang Xuan muttered to himself. He tapped his mattress softly while he remained deep in thought.
Sunsets never lasted long enough. Very quickly, the sun completed its duties for the day. It gradually moved out of sight of man. The streetlights took over for the night.
Huang Xuan saw the street lights switch on one by one. Suddenly thinking of something, he exclaimed, “If the time traveler’s trying to find our base, he must be in Brazil! You said you had obtained information when his space base collided with you.”
“I definitely won’t be able to obtain his base’s location.” Rolin confidently continued, “The space base’s location is dependent on geological structure, and the advancing base’s location is no secret. The advancing base was created to make time travel more convenient in standard planes.”
“But you shot down a traveler who trespassed into P112.”
“Perhaps this has been verified. After all, I have passed through the spatial and temporal oscillation, and gone back 100,000 years.” On hearing this, Huang Xuan became increasingly worried for Rolin.
“If it’s verified, it’s verified.” Rolin resolutely remained on Huang Xuan’s side. He continued, “The traveler could have used some other channel to obtain the advancing base’s position. This wouldn’t be difficult.”
Huang Xuan shook his head. “A traveler who has lost contact with his own base and whose energy is depleting by the second cannot possibly survive longer than us. Moreover, based on what you said, attempting to take control of a base would probably cost him his life. What should he do under these circumstances?”
“Surrender,” Rolin answered. “It is very natural for the losing party to surrender in plane battles.”
“And yet he hasn’t done so.” Huang Xuan thoughtfully muttered, “If I were the traveler, and I knew that I would die if I attempted to take control of the base, I would try my best to create oscillations. But apart from the two attacks previously, he hasn’t done much else.”
“It takes a long time to choose a target.”
Huang Xuan disagreed, “If I could fire an AK as accurately as him from several hundred meters away, it would be easy for me to create oscillations. Nanjing would have become a bloodbath long ago if I wanted. This makes it even more likely that he would want to create oscillations.” Evidently, Huang Xuan over-simplified the creation of oscillation after he successfully did it once.
Rolin retorted, “This would be as risky as looking for the bases. It would be difficult for the traveler to escape, especially with so many law enforcers searching for him in this plane. Creating oscillations in the 19th century is very different from doing the same in the 21st century. The benefits of doing so naturally differ as well.”
“I’m only raising suggestions.” Smiling, Huang Xuan said, “Even if he doesn’t resort to killing, there are many other methods to create oscillations. Anything would be better than waiting.” Following his train of thought, he continued, “He’s definitely here to get close to the base. Murder could be a cover-up. I’m guessing that a traveler from higher-level time and space has the means to take possession of a base once he’s close to it. Or perhaps he’s able to access the space passage when he’s close to a base. Whichever it is, is there any way for him to avoid being captured by you in the process?”
Huang Xuan looked to the skies. The remaining rays of the now-gone sun only reached half of his windows. The streetlights below continued to shine, drowning out the light from the stars above.
In the darkness, a car drove by. Its front lights were blinding.
Huang Xuan jumped off his bed and pointed upwards, exclaiming, “If it were me, I would go through the sky.”
“The sky?” Puzzled, Rolin asked, “You mean to say he rented an airplane? If he threatens the safety of the base, I can shoot his airplane down. In practice, this would require less energy than it would take to teach you how to read.”
Huang Xuan ignored Rolin’s last line. He shook his head and said, “He’ll definitely use a civil aircraft.”