266: Chapter 266: Is this an eyewitness report from ancient times?

Qingfeng Temple.

Zheng Ming stared at the screen, his expression shifting rapidly.

He opened his mouth, wanting to speak but stopping himself, unable to find the words.

Robert sat to the side, his gaze complex. "The rock paintings in Northern Xinjiang, the rock paintings in the Greater Khingan Mountains, the legends of the Hopi Tribe; these pieces of evidence, these pieces of evidence..."

He looked at Zheng Ming, saying with a grave expression: "Do you know, I have never heard of these rock paintings; but he is right. If the moon were close enough to the Earth, we would indeed be able to see the radiation patterns of the craters with the naked eye."

The corner of Zheng Ming's mouth twitched, his fists clenching and unclenching.

He wanted to refute it, but he didn't know where to start his argument.

Wang Chongyang took a deep breath. "The ancients were not lying; they just didn't know how to speak in our language."

Celestial Master Zhang smiled slightly and looked at Zheng Ming. "Brother Zheng, this NASA expert you invited seems to be..."

Before he could finish, Robert interrupted him. "I am not necessarily agreeing with his claims, but I have to admit that everything he says is supported by evidence; it's just that such evidence cannot be interpreted within the framework of a research paper."

"This isn't pseudoscience; it is a combination of history, geology, and astronomy."

The veins on Zheng Ming's forehead throbbed, and he couldn't say a word. Damn it, is the person I invited going to become his fan too?

...

Principal Fu's office.

Old Wang's eyes blazed with excitement, and he stood up abruptly.

"Tiantai Mountain in the Greater Khingan Mountains, I know this one!"

He pointed at the screen, his tone filled with excitement. "I went to the Greater Khingan Mountains for field research the year before last, and the local Cultural Relics Bureau staff mentioned it to me; a sacrificial site from 12,000 years ago, seven people worshipping, two moons; this is the earliest sacrificial ritual in our country!"

Teacher Xiao Wang's eyes lit up. "So, did the ancients really see two moons?"

"Yes!" Old Wang nodded repeatedly. "And that rock painting is preserved exceptionally well. The seven human figures are clearly visible, their arms raised in parallel, and beside the two moons above their heads are stars and clouds!"

Ren Xiaoyao couldn't help but ask: "What I'm curious about is the two moons. One is our moon, so what was the other one?"

Old Yu the Physicist said in a deep voice: "If Jiang Zhe's hypothesis holds, the other one could be Venus, or perhaps... a 'strange celestial body' responsible for tidal locking our Earth before the moon became tidally locked, only for that 'strange celestial body' to have exploded later?"

As soon as these words were spoken, Old Wang looked at Old Yu with a numb expression. "You..."

"What's wrong?"

Old Wang's gaze trembled, and he couldn't help but swallow hard. "What you just said corresponds perfectly with our country's mythological legends..."

He extended one finger, his gaze sweeping across Principal Fu, Old Yu, and Xiao Wang.

"In our country's ancient mythology, it was never just a single moon."

"There was once a time of 'Sun and Moon shining together,' which was the norm."

"But if you dig deeper, in those most ancient legends that haven't been systematically modified by later Confucianism, you can even unearth records of 'Two Suns in the sky,' and there are also shadows of 'Two Moons hanging together.'"

"The 'Huainanzi' speaks of Gonggong angrily striking Mount Buzhou, causing the pillar of heaven to snap and the sky to tilt to the northwest, which is why the sun, moon, and stars shifted."

"Everyone at the time was focused on the sky collapsing, but few people asked: Why did the stars shift? Were the celestial bodies hanging in the sky the same before and after that shift?"

Old Wang spoke faster and faster, his gaze burning.

"There's an even more direct one: Nuwa mending the sky. Why did the sky need mending?"

"If we follow your speculation, Old Yu, that a celestial body responsible for tidal locking suddenly exploded, what would that be to the ancients?"

"That would be the sky collapsing and the earth splitting, a giant hole in the sky, the stars shifting, floods raging. Nuwa refined five-colored stones to mend the sky—what was she mending?"

"She was mending the giant cracks and the collapse of order that appeared in the sky after that damn celestial body exploded!"

"The ancients couldn't understand the explosion of a planet; what they saw was that there were originally two moons in the sky, and then suddenly one day, one of them just 'pop,' shattered."

As Old Wang spoke, he pressed his fingers heavily onto the table. "Then the sky collapsed, the floods came, and the remaining moon hung lonesomely in the sky, spinning wildly until the moon stabilized, and finally, until today."

Having reached this point, his gaze became even more intense. "That casual comment you just made about the 'strange celestial body exploding'—to those of us who study history, that is the most hardcore scientific interpretation of the myth of Nuwa mending the sky!"

As soon as Old Wang's impassioned words fell, the office fell into a brief silence.

Old Yu the Physicist gasped, his eyes revealing a complex light.

"I was just saying it off the cuff!"

Old Wang pointed at Old Yu excitedly. "Say more things off the cuff next time!"

Teacher Xiao Wang was so shocked she covered her mouth, her eyes wide. "So, the rock paintings from 12,000 years ago weren't depicting two moons at all, but one moon and a celestial body that exploded later?"

Ren Xiaoyao, the astronomy teacher, shrank his neck, feeling that tonight had gone a bit beyond the curriculum. A perfectly good myth was being explained as reality, and the key point was that it was also incredibly damn reasonable!

"If it really exploded, what would the scene on Earth have been like back then..."

Old Yu couldn't help but exclaim: "Who knows!"

"But if we really want to get into the details of this matter, my little thoughts are nothing; all of this was guided by Jiang Zhe on the big screen!"

...

On the other side, inside the History Staff Quarters.

Professor Chen Runzhi watched the screen, the cigarette he had just lit having gone out before he could take a single puff. He looked at Qian Mingyi. "Old Qian, what do you think?"

Qian Mingyi was lying on his side, shifting into a comfortable position. "I'm watching it while lying down!"

Professor Chen's mouth twitched. "Be serious, what's your take on this?"

"Oh! I'm thinking that there's actually even more evidence that Jiang Zhe didn't mention here."

He casually pulled a book standing on the desk behind the sofa and flipped through it at random.

"In ancient Greek literature, the legends of the Arcadians explicitly state that 'the moon only appeared after the Great Flood.'"

"And in the 3rd century BC, Demetrius, the first librarian of the Library of Alexandria, left behind a sentence after reading countless ancient manuscripts: 'In ancient times, the moon could not be seen in the Earth's sky.'"

Professor Liu Guangyi, the ecology professor, gasped upon hearing this.

Qian Mingyi continued, "Then there are our country's myths. Pangu, Nuwa, Fuxi, the Yellow Emperor—these earliest gods, their myths contain no mention of the moon, which also aligns with what Jiang Zhe said earlier."

"It wasn't until the era of Emperor Jun that the record appeared: 'Emperor Jun's wife, Changxi, gave birth to twelve moons.'"

"That was the first time the moon appeared in our country's mythology."

"It matches Jiang Zhe's previous claim perfectly."

"So what's my take? I, for one, am absolutely treating mythology as eyewitness reports from the ancients!!!"

Professor Chen Runzhi exhaled a long breath.

"It seems Jiang Zhe is right. In global mythology, there was no moon before the Great Flood."

"It's not that the ancients didn't want to record it; it's that they had truly never seen it."

As his words fell, the atmosphere in the room became increasingly heavy.

...

Villa living room.

Xiao Yu finally recovered from her shock.

She took a deep breath, her beautiful eyes filled with a look of confusion.

"Big brother, those rock paintings, those legends—could they really be true? That's impossible, right?"

"I don't believe it. This is absolutely impossible!"

Seeing this, some rational netizens sent barrage comments one after another.

"I don't believe it either. Wall paintings are wall paintings; they are artistic creations of ancient people. How can this count as archaeological evidence?"

"Could it be that ancient people saw big birds soaring in the sky, and because their drawing skills weren't good, they carved them onto wall paintings? Then, in modern times, someone says: 'Look, it's an airplane! Ancient people from tens of thousands of years ago saw airplanes!' This just makes me laugh. That's just big birds turning into airplanes because of their poor drawing skills. Besides, modern airplanes were built based on the principles of big birds—there's a question of sequence here."

"The person above is professional; that's what I wanted to say too. Seeing those idiots constantly agreeing with this streamer's brother makes me cringe so hard."

"+1+1+1, this can only be watched as a bedtime story, not as a hypothesis!"

"..."

Amidst the debate among the viewers in the live stream.

One sentence from Jiang Zhe made everyone who was complaining shut their mouths.

"Xiao Yu, do you think it's impossible?"

"If it were impossible, why do records of 'Two Moons' appear in almost every culture around the world?"

As soon as these words were spoken, all the viewers, teachers, and experts sat up straight once again!