288: Are we overthinking this?

As soon as this thought occurred, Zhong Huai felt as if all the air in the laboratory had been sucked out.

He gasped for breath, a chill running from his spine all the way to the top of his head.

The "person" that is Lin Yu himself, and his "clean" to the point of being unbelievable life over the past eighteen years, was the biggest secret of all!

This was ten thousand times more terrifying than discovering he was some prince from the Abyss Domain or the reincarnation of an ancient god!

Because that would mean the power of the mastermind had already surpassed the realm of "tampering with information" and reached the level of "defining reality."

Zhong Huai's hands trembled as he zoomed in on the data on the light screen.

Lin Yu's plain and unremarkable ID photo filled the entire screen.

It was a young, even somewhat delicate face.

Yet at this moment, in Zhong Huai's eyes, behind that face seemed to be a bottomless black hole, silently mocking his ignorance and insignificance.

Forget it, Zhong Huai couldn't make up anything else.

Compared to this terrifying conclusion, another embarrassing one he didn't want to admit was clearly more realistic.

He had overthought it, from the very beginning, he had overthought it; Lin Yu was just an ordinary young man who happened to be a bit lucky.

And he, an elite of the Fangs Troop and a core member of the Zhong Family, had looked at a file that couldn't be any cleaner and imagined a shocking drama spanning from Blue Star to the Abyss Domain, involving unknown civilizations.

And not just himself.

Qin Zhan was likely also influenced by his own overthinking.

This conclusion was just too damn embarrassing!

Zhong Huai covered his face.

A surge of heat rushed from the base of his neck to his forehead; he felt like he was about to spontaneously combust.

No.

Compared to his own embarrassment, it was clearly more important to quickly inform Qin Zhan of this conclusion and stop him from continuing to think along his previous train of thought.

If the captain had already written up their outrageous theory about "remote communication" into a report and submitted it...

Zhong Huai jolted, sprang up from his chair, and scrambled out of the laboratory.

He sprinted all the way to Qin Zhan's exclusive training room.

"Bang!"

The door was rudely slammed open by him.

Inside the training room, Qin Zhan was standing quietly, not doing any training, just looking at the virtual tactical board in front of him, lost in thought.

Zhong Huai rushed in front of him, clutching his knees, gasping for air.

"Boss... Boss..."

Qin Zhan turned his head and looked at his frantic appearance without much reaction.

"W-we..." Zhong Huai finally managed to catch his breath, his face flushed red, every word forced out from between his teeth, "We might have... been wrong from the very beginning!"

Qin Zhan's movements paused for a moment.

Without waiting for him to ask, Zhong Huai spilled everything like beans pouring out of a bamboo tube, shouting out his findings from the past three days and three nights, along with the brand-new theory that made him feel utterly ashamed.

"That wasn't some big shot at all! It was just a scam!"

"A show performed by the Four Major Pharmaceutical Companies and that bunch from the Abyss Domain, working together to deceive us!"

The more Zhong Huai spoke, the more agitated he became, spittle flying everywhere.

"I've re-examined everything! The thread of the whole incident must be like this!"

"The Four Major Pharmaceutical Companies wanted to do business with the Abyss Domain, but a transaction of this scale definitely couldn't bypass the monitoring of the military and Customs. At the same time, they couldn't guarantee the integrity of the Abyss Domain side, so they hedged their bets by contacting the Abyss Domain on one hand and us, the Fangs Troop, on the other. They claimed to be seeking help, but they were actually just looking for a backup; if things didn't work out, they wanted us to be their muscle!"

"Because I found the communication records between that old man surnamed Shi from the pharmaceutical company and the Abyss Domain!"

"I suspect that on that day, they were having a great conversation with the two envoys from the Abyss Domain, and everything went smoothly, so they didn't need us at all! That's why we were left hanging outside for several hours like idiots!"

"After the deal was reached, the people from the Abyss Domain were ready to take the goods and leave, but something went wrong in some step, and they were targeted by Customs, with a tip-off call going directly to the Director!"

"They panicked! Seeing that they were about to be caught red-handed, they pulled in Lin Yu at the last minute to put on a show!"

"Right under our noses, they took the goods away in broad daylight! And the ones inspecting them were us! Perfect! Absolutely flawless!"

By the end, Zhong Huai was almost crying.

What the hell kind of situation is this!

Being used as a gun, and also being played for a monkey!

Qin Zhan was silent.

On his eternal icy face, a clear ripple finally appeared.

He was also thinking.

Seeing this, Zhong Huai hurriedly threw out his ironclad evidence.

"I still couldn't figure out why it had to be Lin Yu? I thought this was a breakthrough, and I tried to use it to fool myself, saying his identity was special... but then I checked the surveillance, and I couldn't fool myself anymore!"

He pulled up a segment of surveillance footage and projected it into the air.

In the image, there was a bus.

"Boss, look! This is the bus surveillance from that route on the outskirts of the industrial park! Although it only shows the front and back doors, it's very clear! Lin Yu boarded the bus first, and a few minutes later, the executives from the pharmaceutical company got on! Afterward, it was also the pharmaceutical company's people who used some means to get the bus back into the park directly!"

"I checked, that bus route was donated by that Old Shi, and that day, Lin Yu and Wang Qingxuan were out on a date, preparing to take the bus home... damn, that little romance between young couples, I've done that too... Anyway, because they happened to be on the same bus as Old Shi, they got dragged into the incident and were taken back to the industrial park together!"

"So, he's just an unlucky guy who got dragged into this by accident!"

Qin Zhan watched the screen, still not saying a word.

"And there's more!" Zhong Huai pulled up another file, "Afterward, I found out that the Four Major Pharmaceutical Companies jointly established a new laboratory, and Lin Yu has a name attached to it!"

"At first, I thought it was some earth-shattering move, but guess what? The scale of this laboratory is pitifully small! I calculated it, compared to the scale of the Four Major Companies, it doesn't burn through much money in a year! How is this a collaboration? This is clearly just... hush money!"

"Give him some sweetness to make him shut up!"

A series of evidence was laid out, and the logical chain was terrifyingly complete.

Qin Zhan's calm aura finally showed a hint of wavering.

"At the end of the day, Boss... we only have one way left now."

Zhong Huai changed the subject, emphasizing his tone, "We can verify it! Verify it at the source of the incident!"

"What was the beginning of all our overthinking? It was that phone call from Teacher Gao Zhengguo! That old professor from the College Entrance Examination question-setting group, who never contacts you, suddenly calling to ask for help!"

Zhong Huai stared fixedly at Qin Zhan, saying almost every word clearly.

"You can call him back right now!"

"Just ask him! Ask him what kind of massive background that examinee named Lin Yu has, and why he needed you to personally be the examiner!"

Qin Zhan's body stiffened.

Zhong Huai reached out and pointed at the tactical communicator on Qin Zhan's wrist.

"Call him, Boss."

"Ask and be clear about it."

"If we really got it wrong, then we'll just have to accept the embarrassment... take it as a lesson. We can't just keep it on our minds as a lingering matter."