217: Chapter 217 Fifteen Years of Waiting, Grandpa, the Seed Has Flew Away!

Countdown to the arrival of the sentry ship, sixty-eighth day.

The military-only route from Pangu Laboratory to Longmai Base takes an hour and a half one way.

Su Che sat in the back of the bulletproof Hongqi, the anti-static hard-shell case resting across his knees, containing the full set of equipment for the upgraded Brain-Computer Interface.

Qin Lan was driving; the radio was off, and the only sound in the car was the tires rolling over the road.

Su Che checked the latches on the case, snapping them shut, releasing them, and snapping them shut again.

Before leaving, he called Lieutenant General Peng and said only one sentence: "I am going to see Grandpa, using the upgraded version."

Lieutenant General Peng replied with three words: "I know."

The mountains outside the window receded.

Checkpoints in the depths of the Yanshan Mountains followed one after another; armed sentries checked license plates and passes, cleared them, and then on to the next.

Su Che had walked that final, downward-sloping tunnel many times; the lights were dim, and the air was filled with the dampness unique to deep rock strata.

The car stopped in the underground parking lot.

Su Che pushed open the car door, carried the case, and walked toward the intensive care unit.

The medical team leader of Longmai Base came to meet him, walking half a step to his left.

"Chief Engineer Su, let me update you on the Old Chief's condition."

The medical team leader flipped open the clipboard in his hand.

"Since your last visit, the Old Chief had one brief moment of autonomous wakefulness, lasting about two minutes; he could open his eyes and had weak verbal responses, but he quickly sank back down."

Su Che did not stop walking.

"How does the extent of his consciousness system damage compare to Lin Weiguo's?"

"Far lower than Senior Lin's. Senior Lin suffered organic neuron necrosis caused by radiation, which is irreversible damage at the hardware level."

The medical team leader closed the clipboard.

"The Old Chief is different; his neuronal structure is intact. Long-term cognitive overload caused his consciousness system to enter a protective state similar to a system crash—in layman's terms..."

"System crash, just need to reboot." Su Che finished for him.

The medical team leader nodded.

The explosion-proof isolation door opened, revealing a white corridor and the smell of disinfectant.

Su Che pushed open the door to the intensive care unit.

The medical life-support pod was the same as before; tubes, monitors, and various data jumping across the screens.

Su Changshan lay inside, having lost some weight since last time, but his breathing was steadier.

Su Che placed the hard-shell case on the metal bedside table, undid the latches, and took out the upgraded flexible Brain-Computer Interface.

The semi-transparent thin-film electrode with a graphene oxide substrate was thinner than the primary version, and the bionic fan-shaped bifurcations on the edges conformed to the curve of the scalp.

Quantum encrypted closed-loop communication protocol, with one hundred percent external signal isolation.

Two-way interaction, end-to-end latency of eleven milliseconds.

Su Che opened a crack in the lid of the life-support pod and applied the flexible electrode to Grandpa's forehead.

The thin film stretched, adhered, and merged with the skin.

32-channel brainwaves spread out on the main control terminal.

Theta waves, amplitude of three to five microvolts.

Stronger than that time with Lin Weiguo.

Su Che sat on the folding chair next to the life-support pod, placing the terminal on his knees.

The chat interface opened, the cursor blinking.

He typed the first line.

["Grandpa, it's Che'er. Upgraded Brain-Computer Interface. This time, no one can interrupt us."]

Send.

The two-stage series noise reduction model entered active monitoring.

Three seconds.

Five seconds.

On the monitor, the nearly flat brainwave line began to show fine fluctuations.

On the terminal screen, a line of text slowly emerged.

["...Che'er... This time... it's different... My mind is much clearer."]

Su Che pressed the terminal down on his knees.

["Grandpa, I want to ask you something. That seed you deployed at the L2 point—it's a deep-space probe, right?"]

The reply came faster than the first one.

["Yes!"]

["After deployment, I spent many years studying the data for that coordinate point, slowly calculating that the L2 point might contain a coordinate location for space jumping."]

Su Che stared at the screen.

["I gave it a name: Southern Gate."]

Southern Gate.

Above Kunlun, there is the Southern Gate.

That riddle from the letter, fifteen years later, was spoken by Grandpa himself.

["That deep-space probe carries the hope for humanity to venture out, so it's called a seed."]

Su Che typed on the terminal, deleted half of it, and typed again.

["Grandpa, I have confirmed it. The L2 point is indeed a space jump coordinate. The main god ai I developed has parsed the complete spatial folding anchoring parameters."]

The screen was quiet for a few seconds.

["You confirmed it? How did you confirm it?"]

["I piloted the luan bird and flew there myself to take a look."]

This silence was longer.

Nearly ten seconds later, a line of text popped up.

["You flew there."]

It was not a question.

["Grandpa, the seed is gone. When I arrived at the L2 coordinates, full-spectrum scanning revealed nothing. The deep-space probe you deployed back then is no longer at that location."]

The brainwaves showed a distinct fluctuation, more intense than at any time before.

But it wasn't deterioration; it was more like—excitement.

["...It's gone..."]

["Then that is correct."]

Su Che did not press for more, and Grandpa did not continue to explain that sentence.

He changed the subject.

["Grandpa, the Kunlun Alloy you researched helped me a great deal. I've used all the Anti-gravity matter."]

["Also, I have found all the backdoors you left in the Southern Gate database."]

["The 0.73 Hz heat suppression field from Experiment 812, the spiral flow channels of the variable cycle valve assembly, and the 2.19 Hz reverse cryogenic band of the thrust vector nozzle."]

["All three backdoors have been secured, and I know the last one too."]

On the screen, the words appeared very slowly, but each one was steady.

["You found them all. I knew you could find them."]

Su Che leaned back against the folding chair and turned the terminal sideways.

["Grandpa, let's talk about something else. Your grandson has a girlfriend."]

The brainwaves flickered.

["What's her name?"]

["Lin Waner. I brought her to see you before. You were lying there unconscious, and she sat by your side for half an hour."]

["Is she pretty?"]

Su Che smiled.

["Yes."]

["Is she good to you?"]

["Yes. She didn't come today; she's at Jinghua University participating in a classified physics experiment project and couldn't get away."]

["She does physics?"]

["Mm."]

["Good, it's good to do physics."]

Su Che switched the terminal to his other hand.

["Grandpa, why don't you ask about my dad!"]

There was a two-second pause.

["How is your dad's health?"]

["Very robust. When I was in Su Family Village, he was still chasing me all over the courtyard with a broom."]

The brainwaves exhibited a tiny, rhythmic oscillation.

Su Che stared at that waveform for a moment.

Grandpa was smiling.

["Su Family Village has now been included in the national key construction scope. The roads are paved, the water is connected, everything is good."]

["Good!"]

Su Che paused on the terminal for a long while before typing the final message.

["Grandpa, Longguo is very strong now. No country in the world dares to bully us. The foundation that you and the old seniors spent your whole lives building underground—our generation has carried it on."]

The screen was silent for a long time.

So long that Su Che thought Grandpa had sunk back down.

Then, a line of text pushed out, word by word.

["...Good..."]

["...Then Grandpa... can rest easy."]

The brainwaves began to slow down.

Not a sharp drop, but that natural decline after feeling tired.

Like someone who had finished saying what they wanted to say and closed their eyes peacefully.

The data on the monitor stabilized.

Su Che turned off the terminal and closed it.

He sat on the folding chair for a while, gently peeled the flexible electrode from Grandpa's forehead, and put it back into the hard-shell case.

When he walked out of the intensive care unit, the medical team leader was waiting in the corridor.

Su Che handed over the hard-shell case.

"Hand this equipment over to the state. The production side can arrange for mass production in advance; it will be needed for the configuration of the subsequent White Emperor fighter jets."

The medical team leader took it with both hands.

Su Che took out his handheld device and dialed a number.

It connected after two rings.

"General Shen."

"Chief Engineer Su."

"The upgraded Brain-Computer Interface has been handed over. You can screen suitable personnel from the J-20 pilots and use the upgraded version to begin simulated training for manned White Emperor flights as soon as possible."

"Understood, I will arrange it today."

Su Che hung up the phone and walked into the underground parking lot.

Qin Lan had already started the car.

The Hongqi drove into the tunnel, the lights sweeping past the windows, one after another.

An hour and a half later, Pangu Laboratory.

When Su Che walked into the B2 level, Lieutenant General Peng was standing next to the main control console.

He was holding a military-green file bag; the seal on the opening had already been broken, revealing the yellowed edges of the paper inside.

On the front of the file bag was a faded red stamp.

Four characters on the stamp: Kunlun Top Secret.

In the lower right corner, a number was written in pencil.

Seventh Slot.

"Chief Engineer Su." Lieutenant General Peng placed the file bag on the console.

"Longmai Kunlun Archives, Seventh Slot."

"Your grandfather hid it."

Su Che stared at the file bag without reaching for it.

Lieutenant General Peng took a step back.

"Take a look."