Xiao Zhong withstood the pressure. He detained everybody for 48 hours. In that time, he only rested for a total of 30 minutes.
In the last two hours, Huang Xuan gave Guy an ultimatum. Guy finally gave in and whispered, “I’ll tell you…”
Huang Xuan gladly took down the formula. Immediately after that, he called his little uncle and said, “Among all the people you detained, someone could be wearing a disguise.”
Zhang Si was exhausted. He hotly answered, “Whatever you’ve thought of, we have too. Do you think it’s that easy to put on makeup? This isn’t a martial arts film!”
“Rub each person’s face to obtain some of their dead skin. Use atomic absorption spectroscopy to study each person’s skin cells. The one whose cells contain heavy metals is the one in disguise.”
Zhang Si stood dumbfounded. He felt as if he was in a science fiction movie. However, Huang Xuan’s previous call had already helped his older brother to earn some credit. They only had two hours left. As silly as it sounded, it was worth a shot.
The results of the atomic absorption spectroscopy were going to take some time. Zhang Si assigned some of his subordinates to borrow atomic absorption spectrometers from other major institutions. He then sent people to bring the samples to those institutions for testing. Guy reacted immediately when his sample was taken. He turned to the window and shouted, “You lied to me?”
Huang Xuan shrugged nonchalantly. Through Rolin, he replied, “Mr. Guy, you’ve become too deeply involved in this plane. It’s impossible to allow you to escape. Serve your time in jail, and we can talk again when you’re done.”
“I’ll tell them all that I know,” Guy clenched his jaw.
“Even so, the buffer zone will lose less energy than if we let you off. Also, don’t push me.” Although the space warriors were immune to low-level energy attacks, Rolin could kill him in an instant given his current state. Guy was of absolutely no value to them now. The only reason Rolin hadn’t killed him yet was Huang Xuan – he was not yet at the age where he could be so ruthless and inhumane.
Guy immediately kept quiet. In fact, he had expected to be killed after giving Huang Xuan all the answers. At least, that was how they handled problems where he came from.
“Please co-operate with the police and hand over everything that you have. I’ll look for your secret key. Don’t play any tricks. If you fail to co-operate in any way, I’ll take the secret key from your corpse.”
“I understand.” As long as Huang Xuan didn’t make a move on him, Guy was not going to agitate him.
The two policemen in the room were taken aback by Guy’s shouting. They immediately twisted his arm behind his back. He didn’t resist, especially after talking to Huang Xuan.
Guy had expected Huang Xuan to kill him long ago. Yet, he was still alive and kicking, even though he had run out of moves.
Space travel was always full of twists and turns.
…
The paste that Guy had stuck on his face was rubbed off. Xiao Zhong looked at this new face in utter surprise. It dawned upon Zhang Si that this man looked exactly like the one who had murdered Nicholas a few days back.
The mystery was solved, and the other major case was closed as well. Xiao Zhong was proud of himself. The time that he painstakingly bought had not been wasted. Before he left, he patted Zhang Si on the shoulder and said, “I received a lot of help from two people this time. Coincidentally, both are from the Zhang family. One is you, and the other is Zhang Shujie from the police station. Do you know him?”
Zhang Si smiled awkwardly and answered, “Yes, he’s my older brother.”
“Wow!” Xiao Zhong was amused. His laughter was contagious; everybody around him began to laugh along with him. After exchanging a few more pleasantries, he patted Zhang Si once more on the shoulder and boarded the airplane.
As he sat down, he asked his secretary, “Zhang Si and Zhang Shujie are from the same family? Why didn’t you tell me?”
His secretary glanced at him. He was puzzled, but he carefully kept his expression still. Then, he said, “You’ve been extremely busy the past two days. I didn’t think that you would be bothered by these details. Even if I had told you, you wouldn’t have remembered. You might even have reprimanded me for being nosy.”
“You, Xiao Liu…” Xia Zhong wagged his finger. He asked, “Who else do you know in that family?”
“Actually, you know him too. General Zhang Zhongqi is their father.”
“Wow!” After a while, Xiao Zhong smiled and said, “These two men are Old Zhang’s sons. Impressive. Alright, I’ll keep this in mind.”
At that moment, Zhang Si was still standing in the airport, rooted to the ground. Beside him, his assistant, Li Ranying, nudged him. He asked, “What are you thinking about?”
“Nothing,” Zhang Si replied as he smiled. How could he say that he was suspicious of Huang Xuan? The man in front of him was known for being curious. If he told him the events that took place over the past two days, he would harass his nephew relentlessly. If he allowed that to happen, his second sister, Zhang Xinyi, would not let him get away easily.
…
After waiting for two days, Huang Xuan finally boarded the car and headed to Yuhuatai District. The secret key remained in Guy’s thigh. Purple gold was a newly discovered material in the space age. It could be found at the exit of the plane passage. Given its high extremely density, it was not easily detectable in the current day and age.
As they approached Nanjing prison, Rolin sent a signal to Guy. The poor traveler would do well to behave himself in the room and allow Rolin to retrieve the key from his thigh.
Purple gold had an affinity with planes. When the traveler came near, the base could absorb energy from the purple gold. The plane passage must then be opened near the traveler or the base. The reason for this was likely related to the key holder’s authority. It was probably to prevent the buffer zone from losing too much energy.
Nanjing in July was beginning to show signs of heat. As he sat in the Bentley, Huang Xuan studied the secret permission key closely. On the surface, purple gold looked almost exactly like brass. The key was about 30 cm in length. It definitely did not look as brilliant as he had imagined. After Rolin scanned the key briefly, he commented, “This Level 16 secret key does strict biological teleportation. I believe it’s a product of the big plane age.”
“What’s that?”
“Strict biological teleportation is a miniature plane teleportation technique. Comparing that to a base is like comparing a calculator to a supercomputer. However, they are similar in nature. It can teleport items to certain coordinates. However, this secret key is limited by the coordinates of its user. It can only teleport biological organisms. The aim of the design was probably to penetrate through the planes in a short time.”
Huang Xuan naturally turned the key around. He said, “In other words, I can still send items back while I’m in another plane?”
“Yes, but they must strictly be living organisms.”
Huang Xuan was satisfied. He continued to flip the key around in his hands. It was difficult to understand how this small key could have such a mysterious function. He was as confused by the key as the ancient people were by the television – how could one box contain so many people?