304: Chapter 304: Untimely and Misplaced Cultural Relics from the Wrong Strata

2:30 PM, Gusu Museum.

On weekdays, the museum wasn't very crowded; a few tourists stopped in front of various display cases.

Xiao Yu pulled her best friend Chen Yue's hand and walked inside enthusiastically.

Chen Yue looked reluctant. "Xiao Yu, today is brother's concert. I worked so hard to buy 2.5 tickets, and you just dragged me to a museum?"

Xiao Yu didn't look back. "You can watch a concert anytime, but the things in the museum won't run away."

"But!"

"No buts, look over there!" Xiao Yu pointed at a display case ahead, her eyes shining.

Chen Yue sighed and followed resignedly.

They entered the exhibition hall, which was filled with various ancient stone tools and pottery. But the most eye-catching thing was an independent glass display case containing an unremarkable stone.

A metal object was embedded in the middle of the stone.

It looked like a half-rusted nail.

A circle of tourists surrounded it, and a young man wearing a tour guide badge was explaining.

"The stone you see was discovered in a mine somewhere in our country last century. Geologists have dated the stone to 200 million years ago."

"As for the metal object embedded in the stone, composition analysis shows it is an iron alloy."

"Inside a 200-million-year-old stone is an object that appears to be man-made metal."

"What do you all think this is?"

A tourist blurted out, "Left behind by a time traveler?"

Laughter immediately broke out around them.

The guide also smiled. "Time traveler is a good explanation, but the official name given by the cultural relics department is 'Iron in Stone,' and it's classified as an Object of Unknown Origin."

"Why 'unknown origin'? Because according to our current historical understanding, 200 million years ago, let alone humans, even dinosaurs hadn't appeared yet. This metal object shouldn't be there."

Xiao Yu stared at the stone, feeling more and more that something was wrong.

She couldn't help but raise her hand to ask, "Mr. Guide, what exactly is this? Could it have been left by a super-ancient civilization?"

As soon as she said this, the tourists around her looked at her and then back to the guide, their eyes full of curiosity.

The smile on the guide's face froze. "Super-ancient civilization... you really dare to say that!"

How would I know? Even archaeologists don't know. You're asking me? I only had two weeks of training before starting the job!

But on the surface, he still had to maintain a smile. "Well..."

Just then, a middle-aged man in a black suit wearing silver-rimmed glasses walked over.

Someone in the crowd recognized him: "Curator Zhou!"

Zhou Mingyuan walked to the display case and first looked at Xiao Yu politely.

But when he saw Xiao Yu's face clearly, his pupils shrank slightly. This girl looked familiar... wait, isn't this that Xiao Yu who's been very popular lately? Her brother is J!!!

Curator Zhou's heart skipped a beat; he couldn't just give a random answer.

But he still maintained an elegant smile on his face.

"Little girl, that's a very good question."

He turned to the tourists and began to explain:

"Objects like this, with metal embedded in stone, are actually not unique. They've been found all over the world."

"For example, someone in the USA found a stone from hundreds of millions of years ago with something like a spark plug inside; for example, in Bear Country, a stone was found with traces of a metal screw."

"The academic community has no unified conclusion on these things. Some say they are naturally formed nodules, some say an intelligent civilization appeared hundreds of millions of years ago and left them behind, and others say they're from time travelers or aliens."

At this point, his gaze fell on Xiao Yu.

"But one thing is certain: these things do exist. They remind us that Earth's history may be much more complex than we know."

Xiao Yu nodded thoughtfully, and the tourists around her followed suit.

Only Xiao Yu muttered to herself that her brother seemed to have mentioned before that some things really can't be explained.

After walking out of the museum.

Chen Yue was still grumbling about her concert.

Xiao Yu responded absentmindedly, her mind full of that stone.

"Yueyue, how do you think that metal got in there?"

Chen Yue held a cup of pearl milk tea. "Didn't the curator say it might be naturally formed?"

Xiao Yu shook her head vigorously. "But it looked like a man-made nail to me. Can nature grow something like that?"

Chen Yue couldn't be bothered with her. "Alright, alright. Anyway, the concert is ruined, and you won't let me go to your house to listen to your brother's lectures. Sigh, I really want to visit your home."

"Next time, next time!"

Finally, the two of them hopped into a taxi, bickering and playing along the way.

Inside the museum.

Curator Zhou returned to his office. Seeing Xiao Yu and Chen Yue leave the museum through the floor-to-ceiling window, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Assistant Xiao Zhang brought in a cup of tea. "Curator, was that girl just now the internet celebrity, Xiao Yu?"

Curator Zhou looked strained. "You recognized her?"

Xiao Zhang said solemnly, "Her brother is that J! How would we dare to answer her questions carelessly?"

Curator Zhou sighed. "I told her that stone might be naturally formed, but I don't even believe it myself. How could nature form such a regular metal nail? It's fine for fooling laymen."

Xiao Zhang asked curiously, "Curator, then what exactly is it?"

Curator Zhou was silent for a few seconds before saying, "I don't know, and neither does the academic community. But one thing is certain: there are things on Earth that indeed cannot be explained by existing geology, history, or civilization studies."

He looked at Gusu's somewhat gloomy sky. "Tonight, what J is going to talk about is probably something similar."

Xiao Zhang's eyes were full of curiosity. Shortly after, he quickly pulled out his phone and saw there were still four hours until the live stream.

...

7:00 PM, Gusu Jingan Manor.

Xiao Yu pushed open the door, and the aroma of food wafted over.

On the dining table in the living room were several steaming home-cooked dishes: braised pork, stir-fried seasonal vegetables, sweet and sour pork ribs, and tomato and egg soup.

Jiang Zhe was coming out of the kitchen with the last dish. "You're back. Wash your hands and eat."

Xiao Yu changed into slippers, ran over, sat down, and took a deep breath of the food's aroma.

"How was your day with Chen Yue?"

"Brother, I went to the museum this afternoon!"

"The museum? Weren't you going to see some brother's concert?"

"Chen Yue was going to see brother, but I dragged her to the museum. While I was there, I saw a stone with a metal nail embedded in it!"

Jiang Zhe's chopsticks stopped, and he looked at Xiao Yu.

"A man-made metal object inside a 200-million-year-old stone. Brother, what do you think it really is? Was it really naturally formed?"

A meaningful smile appeared on Jiang Zhe's face. "Naturally formed?"

"Some things cannot be naturally formed, unlike that weak natural nuclear reactor from 2.8 billion years ago."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Yu's eyes lit up.

Jiang Zhe continued, "That kind of metal object in a stone is actually called an OOPArt—an Out-of-Place Artifact—which refers to technologies or items that shouldn't appear in that era."

"They appear in eras and places where they shouldn't. If there were only one, it could be called a coincidence, but since they are found all over the world, it's not something coincidence can explain."

"Then what is it?"

Jiang Zhe smiled slightly. "Eat first. After dinner, I'll explain it slowly."

Without a word, Xiao Yu picked up her bowl and chopsticks and rushed to the kitchen.

[Two new electronic sources detected nearby. No impact on the host. Shield them?]

Jiang Zhe looked at Xiao Yu by the sink, thought they were the phone and tablet on the sofa, and didn't pay them any mind.

"No."