Chapter 170 Professor Zhang (1/2)

Zheng Shuang's superiors must have been pressing down on him so greatly that he immediately brought us to his station without question.

The Deputy Director was also overjoyed and relieved when Zheng Shuang reported to him that I have come up with a way for them to explain the incident. ”Personally, I myself failed to make out why was this incident related to the police? Since when does ”natural phenomenon” like this fall under the jurisdiction of the police?” Then I heard how serious this matter had become: the higher-ups of the authorities had deemed this case so serious that this task force involved not only the city police forces but also the county-level headquarters.

But I was too young to understand the significance of this. It was only when I was reminiscing this incident with an older Zheng Shuang many many years later, when I finally got it. It was only human behavior. Fear and panic would sweep a community when faced with the inexplicable and incomprehensible. Thus, the authorities would have no other ways but to act, or be seen to be acting to it to restore order and peace.

But that would be a subject of discussion for another day.

The expert that Zheng Shuang introduced us was a local geologist who was famous in the country. He had come all the way from the capital and had temporarily taken up residence in Zunhua City. But he was also a stubborn and intransigent person who would have no other way but the truth and only the truth. Sadly, it was this very temperament of his that later posed a good many hindrances to resolving this matter.

The sky was dark at night when we met the man in a motel. Apparently, the old professor had refused the lodgings that the city had arranged for him, instead insisting to stay on his own initiative. When he first saw us, he misunderstood who we were. Accompanied by a few of the officers when we arrived, he saw us through the door and asked, ”You kids are the ones who had witnessed the scene and took the recording, did you? Come on, tell me what you saw?!” We were stunned and Zheng Shuang hastily explained, ”Err... Professor, these are not the people who uploaded the video clip. They are...” He paused to look at the few other officers who were from the Zunhua City police force, not knowing how he should continue.

The Professor stared strangely at us before his eyes twinkled as he understood Zheng Shuang's intention. He waved at the other officers escorting us. ”Please, officers. I'd like a moment with these young chaps.”

So all of the police officers, Zheng Shuang included, were huffed out of the room, even with the protests of the officers who tried vainly to reason to the old man about safety and security. At last the door shut, with only five of us in the room, the white-bristled man turned to regard us briefly before he spoke. ”Speak. What do you four know about? Truth be told, I doubt there's anything these days that will surprise an old man like me. But even I could make nothing of this. Tell me. Is there more to this than a simple natural phenomenon?”

I nodded. ”What an old fox you are, eh?” The old man was able to guess much just from Zheng Shuang's hesitant mumbles. I smiled at him wryly and nodded silently. His eyes twinkled again with interest and enthusiasm. ”Heh heh heh heh! I knew it! I knew it when the captain contacted me, saying that somebody wishes to speak to me. What else could it be? Surely you're not here to ask an old senile like me to tea?” ”So Zheng Shuang merely told Professor Zhang that some people wished to speak to him,” I mused, ”And he had intentionally omitted the purpose of our visit. But this old man was able to correctly divine who it was who wished to speak to him!”

I would have immediately spewed everything to him, including my idea of how should we resolve this matter. But it was hardly something that I could be open with him. Instead, I began by asking, ”Mr. Zhang, have you ever considered the possibility that what happened at the Yellow Soil Ridge was something inexplicable by science?”

The white stubbles of whiskers on the old man's face rattled as he let loose a chuckle. ”Of course I did. There have been instances such as the mysterious rays of light over the top of Mount Emei, and the haunted forest at the foot of Paektu Mountain; some of the many things once considered mythical and beyond the comprehension of humankind. But these have all been debunked by our country's top scientists of different fields and studies. Hence, I am sure that we will also discover the scientific and logical explanation behind the sudden growth in the vegetation of the Ridge despite the cold season!” Lin Feng giggled and said, ”Be that as it may, old man. But how would you explain the crop circle mysteries, the UFO sightings, and the hanging Pantuo Rock? What about the Beijing Wanggongchang Explosion in 1626? The giant skeleton found at Mount Kunlun? The mysterious island near the Spratly Islands first seen in 1933? The 1988 Nanfu battery found in Dunhuang in 1965? The Death Valley of Kunlun? And the sightings of lightning streaking across the skies of Shanghai two years ago where there were speculations that someone was trying to endure the Crucible of Heaven?” Like a Gatling gun, Lin Feng hurled examples after examples at the old professor, finally putting to good use all the strange and unsolved mysteries that he had been so interested in reading about.