"Minister Yu, I'm sorry that I made you take the blame because of my willfulness."
After everyone left, Qiao Zhixue said with a red face.
"Xiao Qiao, do you still remember what I said when I made you the main person in charge of the 'Void' project against all odds?" Minister Yu stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the wall.
"You said that I only need to produce results, come up with a clear result, and do what I want to do, and I will leave all the other difficulties to you."
"Isn't that enough?" said Minister Yu.
Before the meeting, they had discussed that in order not to add burden to the existing team, they would only add one new person at most. If there were more, they would not be able to lead. But during the meeting, Qiao Zhixue suddenly thought of something and changed his mind. He directly sent a message to Minister Yu using the computer in front of him, increasing the number of people to three and asking Minister Yu to act tougher.
"But I took the blame, so I should know why, right?" Minister Yu turned around with a melancholy look on his face, "That kid will definitely think I am cold-blooded again."
Qiao Zhixue knew Minister Yu's family situation. Minister Yu's family members were also top secret and had always been under the protection of the military. Liang Xian's surname was taken from his mother's grandfather. In the household registration, Liang Xian did not even dare to take his parents' surname.
"He will understand later." Qiao Zhixue sighed. He was so absorbed in his research that he didn't know how to comfort him about household chores.
Minister Yu rubbed his face and wiped away his sorrow: "What's going on? Why did you change your mind at the last minute?"
"Come with me."
Qiao Zhixue took Minister Yu to the laboratory in the base. This was a laboratory dedicated to Qiao Zhixue, and no one else could enter without his iris authentication.
He took out five transparent containers containing five pieces of skin.
"What is this?" Minister Yu asked with a frown.
"I collected the skin of the five people who entered the 'Void'," Qiao Zhixue placed several groups of skin in front of Minister Yu, "I conducted radiation experiments on these five test subjects, releasing radiation that will accelerate human aging. After about a month, please take a close look at the changes in these skins."
Minister Yu squinted at it with a magnifying glass for a while before saying uncertainly, "Number 2 is particularly wrinkled, 345 is a bit old, but not bad, and number 1 is very young."
At this point, Minister Yu frowned slightly, and he also realized who these five sets of specimens belonged to.
"Number 1 is Tan Yan's, number 2 is yours, Minister Yu, and number 345 is Liang Xian and the other three. You are older than them, so it is normal for you to age faster. The problem is that, except for Tan Yan, no one else has shown any anti-aging characteristics. Our previous assumption that 'entering a different world will make you immortal' is wrong." Qiao Zhixue explained, "Only Tan Yan has shown any special characteristics."
"Why is this happening?"
"I was puzzled at first," Qiao Zhixue said, "Tan Yan is indeed a human being. All his tests show that he is no different from normal people. At most, his physical fitness is a little better, but not as good as those who are particularly outstanding. After all, his generation was born in hardship, and they didn't eat well when they were young, so their foundation is a bit weak. The old Chinese doctor told me that Tan Yan's body is actually quite weak. Although he looks strong now, once he gets older, he will suffer from all kinds of diseases and may suffer in his old age."
"But he never aged and still remained the youngest," said Minister Yu.
"Since I did this experiment, I've read a lot of books, but I still can't explain Tan Yan's condition. I even read some metaphysical books and ancient myths, but they don't make sense either."
Qiao Zhixue narrated his research process with an inquisitive attitude, which made Minister Yu feel embarrassed.
"It was not until Liang Xian brought back the real source of his superpowers that I was given a new idea." Qiao Zhixue took out Tan Yan's EEG graph, "Liang Xian believed that superpowers come from quantum forces in consciousness. Consciousness is composed of countless entangled electrons. These electrons control microscopic particles in the surrounding environment through thinking, thereby acting on matter and generating superpowers. In other words, Tan Yan, whose brain cells are highly active, has a very strong consciousness, to a degree that we cannot imagine. What he can do is also difficult for us to predict."
"If he doesn't want to grow old, he won't grow old?" Minister Yu expressed doubt. "That's too ridiculous."
"That's not the case," Qiao Zhixue took out a stack of printed A4 papers, "This is the transcript of Tan Yan's previous statement, as well as the evaluation of him by colleagues from the Ping County Public Security Management Office whom we interviewed. I think these are very useful. I read a lot of them and found that one word appeared very frequently."
He handed the document to Minister Yu, who took it and looked at it. The word "retirement" appeared frequently in these conversations.
Tan Yan himself said, "I will retire in two years", "I will take a rest after retirement", "I will travel and enjoy myself after retirement"; colleagues said that Tan Yan has a very good work attitude and kept repeating, "Until retirement, you must stick to it until the last moment", "People who are about to retire are not really retiring, there are still two years left, you must work hard before that", "Tan Yan is a good comrade, there are almost no old cadres who are about to retire who are as serious and hardworking as him"...
These conversations were hidden among many trivial inquiries. If Qiao Zhixue hadn't marked them out one by one, I really wouldn't have noticed this word.
After all, the fact that Tan Yan is about to retire is an objective fact, and anyone who mentions him will say these two words.
But if you really mark them all out, the feeling it gives people is a little different.
"Consciousness, superpowers, immortality, retirement..." Minister Yu tapped his fingers on the table unconsciously and came to the same conclusion as Qiao Zhixue, "'Retirement' is Tan Yan's bottom line. It is the limit he sets for himself."
"That's right," Qiao Zhixue flipped through the documents and pointed out a sentence for Minister Yu, "I have read Tan Yan's words many times and I know his character very well, but this sentence is inconsistent with his character and violates his style of doing things."
This conversation took place when the Minister was interrogating Tan Yan alone. Later, the Minister compiled it for everyone to see.
Minister Yu asked: What if you are no longer a police officer in Ping County
Tan Yan’s answer was: If I retire, I will have a good sleep first. I have been very tired these years.
After seeing this, Minister Yu picked up a pen and circled the three words "take a nap", and a bad feeling arose in his heart.
"Given Tan Yan's personality, will he just ignore the 'empty' phenomenon after he retires?" Qiao Zhixue asked, "He has gone through all the ups and downs in the past forty years. No matter how difficult it was, he never gave up. What kind of difficulties and obstacles could make an old cadre like him stop?"
Only death.
Tan Yanhui would fight until he was exhausted and covered in bruises without even realizing it, but death was his biggest obstacle.
"You mean, Tan Yan will die when he reaches retirement age. His vigorous energy over the years was achieved by overdrawing his vitality. His subconscious mind knows that he can't hold on for much longer, so he said this, but he himself knows nothing about it." Minister Yu's tone was very heavy.
"That's right," Qiao Zhixue put down the document, "When I guessed this at the meeting just now, I was also completely unwilling to believe it."
To them, everyone can be sacrificed, but Tan Yan cannot.
This is not only because Tan Yan is the only person who can freely enter and exit the "hole", but also because this old cadre has dedicated so many years to the country without any personal life, not even married. Apart from work, there is no love, family, or friendship in his life. If such a person welcomes the end of his life after work, isn't it a bit too...
Even a scientific madman like Qiao Zhixue who only cared about research felt a little sad, let alone Minister Yu who already had a good impression of Tan Yan.
"You know Tan Yan only has two years to live, so you're worried, right?" Minister Yu sighed sadly, "That's a bit..."
"It's not just that," Qiao Zhixue said, "Two years is very tight, but not to this extent. The reason why I want to add people is that I have another idea."
"From your expression I can tell it's not a good thing."
"Half good, half bad," Qiao Zhixue said, "After discovering Tan Yan's physical condition, I found a paradox in his words. It's strange why we haven't realized it before."
"What paradox?"
"Tan Yan said that 'superpowers cannot be used in the real world', but his immortality is not a 'hollow' gift, but the result of superpowers enhancing the activity of body cells. According to his previous theory, he should only be able to become younger in the other world, and he cannot stay young in the real world." Qiao Zhixue said shockingly, and immediately guessed the truth that Liang Xian was trying so hard to cover up.
"Yes," Minister Yu also said with a look of sudden enlightenment, "Why didn't we realize it? How strange..."
"I can only think of one answer. Tan Yan's consciousness affected our judgment. First, he was convinced that this was true, so we followed his lead and believed it."
Hearing this, Minister Yu's expression suddenly became solemn.
"From your expression, I can see that it would be a terrible thing if consciousness could be used in the real world. So I said this matter is half good and half bad. On the good side, it will accelerate human evolution. On the bad side, the result of this evolution is too terrible. If a person whose brain development far exceeds that of Tan Yan appears, can the country control the speed of this progress?" asked Qiao Zhixue.
"It's difficult," Minister Yu shook his head. "Tan Yan's simple words can even affect our consciousness. This kind of power cannot be solved by fire/arrows/cannons. Before we can fully master this power, I think this matter cannot be leaked."
Especially since they may act together with foreign soldiers in the future, if even people from other countries know about this, the world will be in chaos and the consequences will be unimaginable.
"Yes, I decided to take what Tan Yan said as true." Qiao Zhixue sighed, "If I hadn't told myself to remain skeptical about any point of view and not to easily believe in any so-called truth, I wouldn't have realized this. This kind of influence is really terrifying. It's not like hypnosis that forces you to believe, but it affects the root of your thinking from the subconscious level. Once you are affected, it is difficult to get rid of it."
Minister Yu calmed down, sorted out his thoughts, recalled what he had said before, and then asked: "So what does all this discovery have to do with your sudden increase in the number of people?"
"I suspect that Liang Xian and the other two awakened their abilities not because they were near death, but because Tan Yan couldn't accept the fact that they were dying, and he hoped that they could awaken."
"Wait a minute, I'll take my time." Minister Yu rubbed his temples with a headache.
Almost every word Qiao Zhixue said today challenged his ability to accept. If Minister Yu had not witnessed many incredible events in the National Bureau of Technology Safety over the years, his old bones would hardly be able to accept this explosion of information.
How many secrets are there for them to uncover about Tan Yan
It has to be said that fortunately, Tan Yan is a good young man who grew up under the red flag of socialism with a good family background. If he had grown up unexpectedly in a crooked way after coming out of the "hole", with Tan Yan's power, it is hard to say what this country would be like now.
"I said that Tan Yan's power is enhanced, and this definition is not made casually. I believe that his consciousness can enhance the activity frequency of microscopic particles themselves, and can even bring about qualitative changes to the outside world by enhancing the frequency. Minister, humans cannot evolve so easily. It took us millions of years to change from apes to humans. If there were no stimulation from the 'void', Tan Yan's change would have been delayed by at least tens of thousands of years, and it is not certain whether the universe will give us tens of thousands of years." Qiao Zhixue said seriously, "I tend to believe that Tan Yan is the only 'case' that has appeared in these millions of years. The rest are only in the process of change and no change. At this time, Tan Yan's enhanced ability gave everyone a push, which pushed the process forward for at least ten thousand years."
If it weren't for Tan Yan, Liang Xian and the others might have become disabled and completely ruined their future because of their suicide in the other world. But first, they had a strong desire to evolve; second, after being decomposed and reconstructed in the other world through the "void", their subconscious felt the operation of the quantum force field in this process. Although they may not understand it, they still have an impression; third, Tan Yan's promotion.
His strong desire not to let anything happen to the three of them gave them a push, thus accelerating their awakening.
Minister Yu took a long time to sort out Qiao Zhixue's words. He felt that his brain was not enough. Hey, young people have big imaginations. Everyone was in the meeting together, and he and the old men in the research group thought of everything, but Qiao Zhixue analyzed so many things in such a short meeting.
How does the head grow
"I kind of understand now, so you want to force Tan Yan."
"Yes, three people is on the edge of danger, but it is also the limit of what Tan Yan can possibly protect." Qiao Zhixue analyzed, "Given his personality, if Tan Yan knew that he would have to sacrifice those who cannot awaken when necessary, he would definitely strongly hope that everyone can awaken. If they still cannot awaken under this circumstance, it means that this student really does not have this possibility."
"My approach may be risky, but it is the fastest way to train as many talents as possible to fill the 'hole' within two years."
"Two years?" Minister Yu said with a wry smile, "We are putting the survival of the human race entirely on the shoulders of one person."
He is a man who has burned his entire life for the country and is now at the end of his strength and is about to die.
The author has something to say: Please repeat with me countless times, Lazy Youth is the author of sweet articles. Lazy Youth is the author of sweet articles. Lazy Youth is the author of sweet articles.
I see you guys have been worried that Tan Yan’s old-fashioned personality won’t allow him to reconcile with the little gong or something like that. What kind of person is Lazy Qing? Now that I have sold this character, I will definitely be able to make him happy. Humph!
ps: Please call me Qing Ershiliu today, with my hands on my hips, I am so thick and long╭(╯^╰)╮