After she returned home, she slept for more than ten hours. She knew that she would be relatively passive in the following days; all the information and inferences were in her mind. But for now, at most, she could only use these things to weave a story.

The countdown on her watch kept ticking, and she anxiously awaited the instructions from Jie Yuchen. However, for four or five consecutive days, there were no phone calls at all. During this period of waiting, Li Cu and the others were experiencing everything in the warehouse. She wasn’t idle either; she kept researching various materials. But she found nothing useful. Instead, she gained quite a bit of understanding about bronze smelting itself.

She discovered that bronze primarily developed from the smelting of red copper, and in ancient China, there were actually three different types of bronze.
1. Tin bronze. Its main components are copper and tin.
The differences in the composition of ores from various regions resulted in different bronze artifacts, and the characteristics of bronze also varied.
The smelting of bronze could originate from the smelting of malachite. Ancient alchemists had detailed records of the medicinal properties of malachite, and it is possible that during the time malachite was used in medicine, copper water was smelted. She also came across information about Kunwu in various materials. In the “Shan Hai Jing” (Classic of Mountains and Seas), Kunwu is described as a mountain of copper, which is the origin of bronze smelting. When King Mu of Zhou traveled west, he carried a divine sword called Kunwu.

In short, all the materials were interesting and engaging, but none were helpful for the current construction, especially military architecture. Only a type of copper-aluminum alloy called aluminum bronze had corrosion-resistant properties in energy devices, but it was only called bronze and had little relation to true bronze.

She also thought about the advantages of bronze: it is inexpensive. If there were local bronze mines and the project required a large amount of metal, smelting bronze would be a relatively convenient construction method. However, considering that this construction might take 60 to 70 years, the issue of raw materials became less significant.

By the morning of the fifth day, she could hardly contain her impatience. She called Jie Yuchen, but the call went unanswered. She thought of Li Cu and wondered how that little rascal was doing. Jie Yuchen had said he was very important, so she called Li Cu as well, but no one picked up.

Men really are unreliable. Even that little rascal was the same, she thought. However, Li Cu had left an address when he registered at the hospital. Jie Yuchen hadn’t said she couldn’t actively look for Li Cu. Liang Wan was not a passive person; she went to Li Cu’s place to confront him, but ended up empty-handed. Li Cu had been staying at Su Wan’s place during that time.

Liang Wan began to feel anxious. She wondered if she had been forgotten, like Wu Xiubo in “Before Dawn.” She kept dialing the two men’s numbers, but to no avail.

Finally, she decided to head to Inner Mongolia.

She still had a direction to act upon, which was the desert that Li Cu had mentioned to her. She knew that these blueprints were related to the desert. In the 1980s, such a large project entering Inner Mongolia couldn’t possibly leave no trace. The Badain Jaran Desert housed China’s earliest and most mysterious drone research and development base, known as China’s Area 51. She felt that all of this couldn’t be mere coincidence.

She didn’t have a boyfriend she could sacrifice for her, but once she got there, she believed she would always find a way.

Of course, in fact, her plans changed at the train station. A little boy who didn’t answer her calls turned out to be much less of a challenge than she had anticipated. Three boys were watching a girl in a soft sleeper compartment.

Li Cu didn’t believe in such coincidences; it was obvious that this woman had some tricks up her sleeve. It was already awkward enough to run into her during ticket inspection, and now she was shamelessly appearing in the same compartment. Too embarrassing.

If it weren’t for the fact that their plans were non-negotiable, he would have definitely gotten off the train at the next stop to escape.

The other two clearly had no idea about the story between Li Cu and this woman, and they were quite amused; after all, a pretty girl was much more pleasant to look at than a burly man.

“What a coincidence,” Yang Hao broke the silence, speaking for Li Cu. “Such a beautiful sister actually knows our classmate Ya Li; this is simply fate.”

Liang Wan looked at Li Cu provocatively, wanting to see how he would respond, but Li Cu just turned his head and smiled awkwardly.

“Shall we introduce ourselves?” Yang Hao suggested. “Sister, you’re not familiar with us yet, right?”

“No need,” Liang Wan replied. “Why don’t we talk about what each of us is going to Inner Mongolia for?”

Yang Hao glanced at Li Cu, and Su Wan said, “We’re going for a trip.” Before he could finish, Li Cu elbowed him.

“She knows what we’re going for; there’s no need to hide it.”

“Then we’re going to the desert,” Liang Wan propped her chin on her hand, looking at the three of them. “What a coincidence.”

Su Wan and Yang Hao were clearly at a loss, unable to gauge each other’s background. Su Wan whispered, “Could she be Mr. X?”

Li Cu shook his head and asked, “What are you going for? This doesn’t concern you, does it? Where did you end up in Zhejiang?”

“I’m interested; you have a lot of secrets you haven’t told me, so naturally, I won’t share everything with you,” Liang Wan looked at him. “However, our destinations are the same.”

Not a coincidence, Li Cu thought. Running into this woman at the train station was definitely not a coincidence; someone must have tampered with the ticket booking.

“The desert is vast, and we’re not in a hurry; we’ll spend some time in the city first. If you’re in a rush, you can go to the desert by yourself,” Li Cu said. It would be best to shake off this woman.

Liang Wan smiled. She didn’t respond to him but climbed up to her upper bunk and said, “Don’t decide so early; we have plenty of time to bond on the road.”

Li Cu made a gesture to the other two, signaling them not to discuss anything from now on.

He still had a good impression of Liang Wan, but considering his previous speculations about Mr. X, Liang Wan was also a suspect, albeit a minor one. He didn’t dare take risks; a woman like her was certainly not harmless.

He lay down on his bed, being on the lower bunk, and started contemplating strategies while looking at the upper bunk across from him.

At that moment, the compartment door opened, and a person in a leather jacket walked in, tossing their luggage onto the table in the middle. They shouted at the four of them, “Is everyone here? There are more people than I expected.”

Everyone was startled by this person. Li Cu raised his head and saw that Xie Yuchen was taking off his outer coat and standing by Li Cu’s bed. After glancing at his phone, he said, “I’m wasting 30 seconds of your time; there’s something I need to mention.”

“It’s you?” Liang Wan exclaimed in surprise.

“It’s me,” Xie Yuchen replied. “Don’t be surprised, because there’s no time for that. I might have to put you through a bit of discomfort next.” As he spoke, he stepped onto the table, pulled Su Wan’s luggage from the rack, opened the window, and threw it out.

Su Wan hadn’t reacted yet and wanted to shout, “What are you doing?” But Xie Yuchen grabbed him by the collar and directly threw him out of the window.

Su Wan’s scream was instantly drowned out by the sound of the wind. Li Cu was taken aback and hadn’t processed what was happening when he was also lifted by Xie Yuchen.

He wanted to struggle, but he found that Xie Yuchen’s hand was skillfully pressing on an acupoint on his neck with immense force. In an instant, he was pulled up, dragged to the window, and with a lift and a push, he was also thrown out.

Outside was a railway bridge, and below it was an unknown river. He flipped three times in the air before splashing into the water.