114: Chapter 114: Huh? Bro, consciousness can travel through time and space?!

The night passed in silence.

The events on the internet had nothing to do with Jiang Zhe.

He was used to pouring a cup of coffee every morning, sitting on a recliner to browse his phone for a bit, and then reading for a while.

He scrolled through the news; there were no major fluctuations, just sections on international affairs, entertainment, pet videos, and the like.

Exiting the browser, he opened his banking app and checked his current balance: 4.5 million yuan.

He picked up the new laptop he had bought online the day before from the round glass table beside him and opened a complex fund trend chart.

Although Jiang Zhe was a member of the think tank, his sense for the financial market was actually not as sharp as the financial big shots.

Maneuvering the mouse, he executed fund operations for 4 million yuan from his account in batches, leaving 500,000 for living expenses.

Part was invested in the new energy sector, another part in the medical and health sector, and a batch was also put into the artificial intelligence industry.

According to Jiang Zhe's understanding of this world, it was in the broad category of science and technology equivalent to the year 2012 of his previous life.

After the notification sound for the transfers ended, Jiang Zhe closed the laptop.

At 10:30 AM, Steel Rain returned from Gusu Sports School, her cheeks flushed and her beautiful eyes sparkling with a mix of excitement and unease.

Xiao Wang explained that she felt uneasy because her body had suddenly become stronger last night. She went to the nearby sports school this morning to do some tests and was stunned by the results.

Meanwhile, Jiang Zhe had already thought of a countermeasure. "Puberty, it's just puberty. Normal!"

Only then did Xiao Wang half-believingly let the matter go. "So, when I, Steel Rain, am fully developed, I'll become..."

"Superwoman?"

"You said it!" Jiang Zhe gave a sheepish smile.

For the entire following afternoon, Xiao Wang stayed in the second bedroom, looking up information about consciousness.

For some reason, she had become increasingly fond of studying lately; if she didn't study for a day, she felt like ants were crawling all over her.

Otherwise, every time her brother gave her extra lessons, she couldn't get a word in, which made her feel really stupid!

"I love studying, studying loves me, information comes from all directions."

Suddenly, she scrolled onto an ancient text.

"Resonance between Heaven and Man, Traveling the Great Void... One can actually communicate with people in dreams from the past or future?"

"That has to be fake, right?"

What she was browsing was the "Yellow Heaven Great Change" written by Zhang Jiao of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

"I'll ask my brother tonight."

...

Time passed, and it was evening.

Over a dozen buses drove into the First High School from outside the campus.

The teachers returning from the autumn trip gathered in Cafeteria No. 1.

Principal Fu took a bite of tomato and scrambled eggs and couldn't help but sigh, "Taking students through mountains and rivers these past two days was exhausting, but I always feel like something was missing."

Old Wang from the history department said, "What's missing... of course it's Jiang Zhe's nightly scares."

"What do you mean 'scares'? That's clearly inspiration!" Teacher Xiao Wang said with a chuckle as he took out his phone and swiped. "Look, last night's recording has already hit the trending list. But the strange thing is, you can't find it on the first page; you have to flip pages to see news about Jiang Zhe."

"Mythology is an ancient genetic manual; humans are the descendants of the second-generation product, Lulu..."

"The discussions about these things have exploded!"

Old Chen, the biology teacher, leaned over with his tray. "It's too mysterious. That Lulu from the Sumerian Civilization... if humans were really created as workers, how do you explain the species' skin colors of modern people? Were there different production lines back then?"

"That's a possibility!" Principal Fu slowly sipped his seaweed soup. "According to Jiang Zhe's logic, if there really was intervention from a higher civilization, they might have indeed used different templates. Just like how our school orders uniforms—there are male and female versions, and seasonal versions!"

At those words, several teachers laughed.

Old Wang, however, looked pensive and said, "Being serious, I used to have a classmate who was a professor at Huaqing University. Last night, their supercomputing center had an emergency task and ran all night. The specific content is highly classified. The previous xia nation consciousness experiment was done by a professor surnamed Guan."

"Last night, they ran another operation over there."

"Could it be that they've been hiding in the livestream, peeking at the concepts Jiang Zhe proposes, and then doing things for the benefit of the country and the people?"

Teacher Xiao Wang had a rare moment of brilliance and speculated, "In Jiang Zhe's content from yesterday, there's actually only one core experiment that could be done, and that's the one about gods and humans... In that case, any analysis would lead to the same conclusion: a simulated god experiment!"

"Then it wouldn't be worth it; the news was blocked very quickly!" Old Wang shook his head slightly. "If it's true, and the blocked news over there really is related to what was said last night, then things are getting serious!"

Principal Fu set down his soup bowl, looked left and right, and seeing no students, he unscrupulously pulled out a cigarette and lit it:

"No matter how they research it outside, we'll just be the audience. Tonight's livestream is about the origin of consciousness. Old Chen, as a biology teacher, you should be interested in this!"

Old Chen was thoughtful. "I am indeed interested, but this topic is just too ethereal!"

"Exactly, so it's even more worth listening to!" Seeing several teachers around him looking at him for smoking secretly, Principal Fu felt a bit awkward and stood up. "Let's go. Around seven tonight, come gather in my office. Jiang Zhe's topics are much more interesting."

Everyone laughed and agreed.

...

At 6:30 PM, inside the living room of the six-story building.

After finishing a delicious dinner, Xiao Wang skillfully turned on the pinhole camera.

Inside the frame—

Jiang Zhe was sitting on the sofa, flipping through an old-looking notebook.

This was a study on folk soul theories he had found at a second-hand book market during the day, covering things like possession and empathy.

It also recorded Fuji, which originated from Eastern Han divination techniques.

Jiang Zhe had studied it for a bit; most of it was the talk of wandering charlatans, mostly fake.

But what he possessed was the real deal, an ability that required no tools, equivalent to the life's work of a Taoist metaphysical master.

As Xiao Wang started the broadcast, the number of people in the livestream room rose rapidly.

"It's here, it's here! It's been a whole day!"

"I didn't sleep well last night; my head is full of Lulu. We are Lulu too..."

"Today is consciousness, right? I'm ready for the impact!"

"Can someone give a spoiler? Did consciousness come from the universe, or was it given by aliens?"

"I want to hear about the Tenth Planet!"

"..."

On the sofa, Xiao Wang looked at Jiang Zhe and cut to the chase:

"Brother, last night you talked about the human physical body. Even if you bring in mythology, it's essentially the same set of alien creation theories, right?"

"Correct, you can summarize it that way." Jiang Zhe nodded without refuting. "Tonight, speaking of the origin of the first consciousness or soul, where do you think consciousness is..."

Just as he was about to continue, he was suddenly interrupted by Xiao Wang. "Brother, wait!"

"Hmm?"

"I have a question. I looked up a lot of information online this afternoon, and there are even some claims that some ancient civilizations recorded—metaphysics, Taoism, Buddhism—that some big shots could use deep meditation to enter a state of samadhi and communicate with gods, or even have cross-time dialogues with people from history in their dreams."

"I'm curious, is this just a pipe dream, or is it real? After all, formal history has never recorded it!"

Hearing this, Jiang Zhe's gaze paused for a moment. He thought of the simplified ability he had obtained from the lucky draw last night: as long as he used the numerical hexagrams of the I Ching as a medium and then entered meditation, he could contact people from past space-time in dreams.

He looked at Xiao Wang with a serious expression, and after a long silence, he finally spoke slowly:

"That modern claim you mentioned has different names in different sects, but it is commonly called [Wen Gu]."

"Wen Gu?"

"Yes, it's a term derived from the Taoist school—connecting dreams with ancient people."

*Hiss~~* Xiao Wang's beautiful eyes lit up. "There really is such a thing!"

Jiang Zhe nodded slightly. "Of course. After all, Sinology, metaphysics, Feng Shui, and so on—modern people might think this knowledge is a bit mystical or even mostly fake. But in reality, this profound knowledge was the [science] of thousands of years ago in ancient times; it was all a medium for exploring nature, the human body, and all things."

"By the way, Wen Gu—it's not just the masters in Taoism and Buddhism who can do it; actually, your brother can do it too."

"Huh?" Xiao Wang was stunned, her little legs gradually straightening as she slowly stood up from the sofa. "You can do it too?"

Jiang Zhe nodded slightly. "Yes. That feeling is like consciousness temporarily breaking free from the linear constraints of time to truly communicate with people of the past in dreams. As for whether it's real or fake, unless that person in the dream records it after they wake up; if the person in the dream only thinks it's a dream, then they won't record it, and it will become impossible to distinguish truth from falsehood afterward."

"???" Xiao Wang's cherry mouth hung open, her words stuck in her throat.

Brother, I, Steel Rain, just started the broadcast and wanted to ask a question to liven up the atmosphere, and you tell me it's real, you can do it, and you can even describe it so vividly?

In the livestream room, the originally heated bullet comments came to an abrupt halt.

"????"

"Wait, what did I just hear?"

"Holy crap, you really can? Don't mess with us, brother!"

"Explain in detail, I won't be stingy with gifts!"

"..."