335: Chapter 335: He Seems to Be From Another World

The image on the big screen jumped to another episode.

Jiang Zhe was explaining Wen Gu; he sat cross-legged on the sofa, with ancient people intersecting in his dreams.

Seeing every scene of Jiang Zhe from the Qing Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, and even the dialogues that seemed like acting, Elder Fang couldn't help but look at Lu Yuanzhi.

"Wen Gu, what is this? Speaking with ancient people?"

Lu Yuanzhi's expression changed.

There was a touch of gravity in his eyes.

"Elder Fang, do you know there is a record in the 'Records of the Grand Historian'—Confucius dreaming of the Duke of Zhou."

"I know."

"Yes, it is just like that. Confucius met the Duke of Zhou in a dream and asked him about the rites and music system."

"After waking up, he told his disciples: 'I no longer dream of the Duke of Zhou.' After that, he could never dream of the Duke of Zhou again."

"The ancients believed that this was not an ordinary dream, but a true spiritual communion with the ancients!"

"In our metaphysics circles, there is also such a saying: through a certain medium, one can intersect with the ancients in dreams."

"You can see them, hear them, and even converse with them—this is not a hallucination, not imagination, but a genuine out-of-body experience, a spiritual journey through past and present."

"After all, modern medicine has given the answer: regardless of the type of dream, the ratio of time perception flow between dreams and reality is very exaggerated."

"I read a foreign medical journal a while ago, and a guy did a statistical analysis—the deeper the dream, the lower the time perception; this aligns with the 'One Dream for Ten Thousand Years' concept that Jiang Zhe mentioned in the past."

Elder Fang's brows furrowed deeper. "Are there many people who can do this?"

Lu Yuanzhi shook his head gently. "Very few. People in history who could do this are few and far between; only Zhuangzi, Liezi, Ge Hong, Tao Hongjing, and some people among the common folk, but the famous ones are all grandmaster-level figures."

"And Jiang Zhe demonstrated Wen Gu four times in a row in the old house; I had seen this episode before, he went from the Qing Dynasty to the Northern Song Dynasty!"

"In the episode about the Northern Song Dynasty, I specifically found the record of that minister; it was real."

"This ability is, without a doubt, the best in the world."

"Of course, there is another possibility: Jiang Zhe is a perfect liar!"

"But I am inclined to believe—he has this ability; because he does not seem to belong to our world!"

Inside the conference room, the faces of those think tank members, the warriors of materialism, turned pale.

Some gasped, some lowered their heads in contemplation, and some whispered to themselves.

"Wen Gu, isn't that just the modern soul traveling to ancient times, only unable to change ancient events?"

"This is too metaphysical; it's mysterious beyond mystery."

"I don't really believe it. I would rather Jiang Zhe be a liar in this episode!"

"Yes, I share the same thought."

"I would rather believe he traveled here by soul than believe he can really use a modern soul to perform Wen Gu to reach an ancient soul, and then have it recorded by the ancient person after they wake up."

"Same here!"

"..."

Elder Fang ignored these discussions. He stared at Jiang Zhe's face on the screen, silent for a long time.

"Continue playing." This was the replay of the live broadcast from just now.

A gift! Xiao Yu asked: "Brother, what exactly is that gift?"

Jiang Zhe smiled slightly, didn't answer, and just stood up: "Good night."

The screen froze.

Elder Fang narrowed his eyes, his thoughts racing. "Natural disaster, earthquake, coastal area, a gift for people nationwide." He muttered to himself.

Soon, he opened his eyes, turned his head to look at his assistant. "Map."

The assistant ran out immediately. In less than a minute, a map of the coastal areas of the Xia Kingdom was spread out on the long table.

Elder Fang spread the map on the table, and he and some young members gathered around to analyze it together.

"Our country's coastal areas, Jiangsu Province, natural disaster, earthquake, gift!"

His index finger moved slowly across the map, starting from the coastline of Jiangsu Province, moving east, then south.

"A natural disaster, it doesn't happen actively in the coastal area, but passively; if it were active, it would be a disaster, not a gift."

"Passive, it belongs to being affected; the coastal area will be affected."

Speaking of this, his index finger moved to the right along the map, stopping at the Korean Peninsula. Continuing downward, it stopped at the Japanese islands.

Elder Fang's finger stopped there, motionless. He looked at this position, his eyes slightly narrowed.

"The gift, could it be here?"

Seeing this, everyone looked at each other, staring blankly, and soon everyone shook their heads, indicating they couldn't know.

Elder Fang picked up the red dedicated phone next to the conference table. The call was dialed, and after two rings, it was connected.

"I am Fang Yuan; put me through to Director Li of the National Crisis Warning Department."

A short busy signal came from the other side of the phone, and a deep, majestic male voice came through. "Old Fang? It's so late, what is it?"

"Director Li, I want to ask you something. Near the coastal area of Jiangsu Province, has there been any anomaly recently—geological, oceanic, anything at all."

The sound of opening a computer and operating a mouse came from the other end. Soon, the other party asked: "Old Fang, are you asking about that gift Jiang Zhe mentioned?"

"Yes."

"So that's what it is. After his live broadcast, we conducted a comprehensive investigation of the thirteen cities along the coast of Jiangsu Province."

"The geological monitoring data is all normal, the earthquake warning system has not detected any abnormal signals; the ocean monitoring data is also within the normal range. There are no precursors to earthquakes, no precursors to tsunamis, nothing."

"What about the Astronomy Department?"

"In the sky? No, there is nothing there either."

"By the way, what's wrong, Old Fang? Do you have any news on your end?"

"Nothing, I got it."

He hung up the phone and looked at the map for a long time. "Since it is a gift, it should be a gift that is good for the citizens; since it is not in the sky, underground, or in the sea... then what exactly is it?"

"Forget it, no use thinking about it too much."

"Or did he calculate something using hexagrams again, only our technology didn't detect it?"

After thinking for a long time, he shook his head and looked at the tired people in the conference room. "Everyone, let's disperse, go home."

Everyone started to pack up, some talking in low voices, some walking out while yawning. As for what that gift was, no one knew for the time being.

...Four o'clock in the morning, Kyoto University of History faculty housing. The lights in the living room were still on.

The clamor on the internet did not disturb the four old fellows at all.

Professor Chen Runzhi sat in front of the desk, his hands typing rapidly on the keyboard. Three empty takeout boxes were piled at the corner of the table, along with a cup of cold tea.

Qian Mingyi had his laptop on his knees.

Professor Liu Guangyi sat by the dining table, with a geology dictionary spread out in front of him.

Professor Wang Shouren sat cross-legged on the carpet in front of the coffee table, his belly so big that it made him take deep breaths from time to time, and he was working on an outline.

Four people, four postures, one goal.

"Old Chen, have you finished writing the third part?" Old Qian asked.

The other two listened attentively to Old Chen's report:

"I will read it out."

"Part Three: On the Relationship Between Civilization Faults and Knowledge Faults."

"This paper proposes the following arguments."

"One: The 140,000-year gap in human evolution is not a stagnation in the biological sense, but a fault in the sense of civilization—that is: civilization has risen many times and perished many times. After each destruction, the survivors reverted to a primitive state, and knowledge and technology returned to zero."

"Two: After each civilization destruction, not all knowledge is lost. One type of knowledge can be passed down across generations through seeing—that is, knowledge about what can last long; stones can last for ten thousand years. This cognition does not require writing or language, only seeing the stones left by the previous round of civilization."

"Three: Therefore, there are two types of knowledge in human history."

"One type is technical knowledge, how to make wheels, how to smelt copper, how to write; this type of knowledge is lost after each fault and needs to be reinvented."

"And the other type is meta-knowledge—knowledge about knowledge preservation; this type of knowledge can be passed down across generations through surviving artifacts and is never lost."

"Four..."