Card Room

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang carefully sorted out the current clues. The clear plotline was Lin Yan, the crown prince's fiancee, and her mother Zhang Shaohua, the dean of the Academy of Sciences who was sure to have participated in the Noah's Ark plan.

There were also many dark plotlines such as the origin of the assassin and the identity and purpose of his so-called master; the lost memories of Lu Jiuchuan and Tang Ci; Ye Qi's life experience and the clones of Xiao Lou in the palace. These clues would be more troublesome to investigate and needed to be sorted out as soon as possible.

The whereabouts of their other teammates also needed to be confirmed as soon as possible. Xiao Lou believed that Liu Qiao's group of four wouldn't disappear inexplicably. Maybe once everyone met, the answer to this secret room would be clearer.

Since it was very late, Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang went to bed to rest.

In order to guard against the assassin sneaking into the Twin Palaces again, Yu Hanjiang protected Xiao Lou in his arms vigilantly. At the same time, he had the smart mecha, Spirit Fox, turn on the surveillance of the Twin Palaces again.

No one slept well that night.

The next morning, Lu Jiuchuan woke up and found Tang Ci standing in the living room, leaning against the wall and walking forward slowly. His legs weren't flexible, like a child learning to walk. He had a limping, awkward posture but… his eyes were extraordinarily bright.

The warm morning light shone on his slightly pale face. His forehead was covered with fine beads of sweat but every step was serious and firm. Lu Jiuchuan had not seen such a radiant Tang Ci for a long time. There might be no expression on this person's face but Lu Jiuchuan knew that Tang Ci was very happy to stand up again.

Lu Jiuchuan's heart softened. He quickly moved over to help but was quietly interrupted by Tang Ci. "Don't help me."

"Okay, you can go by yourself." Lu Jiuchuan smiled and watched this person practice walking. "Have you adapted to your new legs?"

"Yes. They are easy to use and I'm getting used to them." Tang Ci wiped the sweat on his forehead with the back of his hand and stopped due to tiredness. The next moment, Lu Jiuchuan picked him up and turned toward the living room.

Tang Ci's voice was filled with displeasure. "What are you doing…"

Before he could finish, he heard Lu Jiuchuan say lightly, "Did you forget that you should wear shoes?"

Tang Ci looked down and found he was walking barefoot in the living room.

He hadn't worn shoes for a long time and didn't have any pairs of suitable shoes around him, so he forgot this detail. His white toes had been touching the cold floor for a long time and were red, as if protesting its owner's disrespect toward his feet. Lu Jiuchuan carried him to the living room, found a pair of slippers and placed them on his feet. "'ll buy you a pair of shoes later. Put on these slippers first."

Tang Ci ignored the strange feeling of his toes touching the man’s warm palm and whispered, “Brother Jiu.”

Lu Jiuchuan looked up at him. “Huh?”

Tang Ci hesitated a moment. “I had a nightmare last night and saw some fragments in my dream. I’m not sure if it is a dream or a memory I have lost&#k2026;”

Lu Jiuchuan immediately became serious. "Say it. What did you dream of?"

"I dreamt that we were attacked in the Hilt No Man's Land. The thing that attacked us was a strange alien creature with high-tech smart armor and seemingly invisible capabilities."

Lu Jiuchuan frowned. "An invisible ability? Is this related to the assassin who entered the Twin Palaces that Qu Wanyue mentioned?"

"Since it was in my dream, I can't be sure if it is a memory. I think we should set off for the Hilt No Man's Land as soon as possible. It is only by going there that the puzzle will be solved."

Lu Jiuchuan agreed. "I asked Hanjiang and Xiao Lou to meet today."

***

Meanwhile, Shao Qingge and Ye Qi had breakfast before going to the Royal Bank, the largest one on Capital Star.

Shao Qingge's father had left a safe here.

Shao Qingge didn't know what was stored in it. He went to the bank's VIP account manager and showed his token to open the safe. The manager checked his identity and took him to the top level of the bank.

Shao Qingge followed the manager to the safe left by his father.

Ye Qi stared curiously at the safe. This cabinet was nearly 1.5 meters high and there was a password sensing area set in front of the silver metal safe. Shao Qingge used fingerprint verification to unlock the first password. After that, he placed the ring left by his father in the sensing area to unlock the second password. There was a line on the screen that said 'password matching succeeded'.

The next moment, the silver metal cabinet in front of their eyes slowly opened…

Then Ye Qi and Shao Qingge froze at the same time. The cabinet was full of money. Rows of red banknotes were placed in the cabinet. Ye Qi had never seen so much cash in his life. This could be used to build a wall!

The manager smiled and asked, "Chief Shao, do you want to take the safe away?"

Shao Qingge had to helplessly hold his forehead. His rich father was really simple and rough. He actually left Shao Qingge a cabinet of cash!

However, the last thing he needed was cash. He was now in charge of the Noah Medical Technology company and his monthly profit was enough for him to live without any worries. Even if he had no money in this world, the cold coins they earned before meant he would definitely have no worries about food and clothing once it was converted into star coins. It was better to leave behind some clues than a cabinet of money.

There was a hint of disappointment in Shao Qingge's eyes. The manager felt that Mr Shao was indeed rich and willful if he was able to feel disappointed when seeing a cabinet of money.

Shao Qingge glanced at Ye Qi. "Take it back directly? Or just put it on the card?"

Ye Qi didn't want so much cash but he felt that it wasn't right to deposit it in the card. He carefully observed the cabinet. The cash might be placed neatly but… each row was missing a piece?

At first glance, it seemed fine. Then after thinking about it carefully, it wasn't right.

Shao Qingge's father was a celebrity on the empire's rich list. If he really wanted to leave a cabinet full of cash, why didn't he completely fill the cabinet? Was he short of that little money? If there was no shortage, why were there vacancies in each row?

Ye Qi tried to count from left to right. If he took a bundle of money (100,000) as a numerical unit, the first row was missing 2. The second row was 9… the third row was 7, the fourth row was 5… then there was 0, 7, 1, 5. There were a total of eight rows in the cabinet and each row was lacking a bundle of money.

Ye Qi connected the string of numbers in his heart.

29750715? Eight digits, was it a password? Or… a date?

If it was a date, was it July 15th, 2975? Today was July 16th, 3000. Yesterday was Xiao Lou's 25th birthday, i.e. July 15th. So Xiao Lou's date of birth was July 15th, 2975!

This discovery made Ye Qi's heart beat faster. He didn't think it was a coincidence.

Ye Qi and Shao Qingge had used Heart has a Tacit Exchange of Romantic Feelings to connect when they went out. Then, Ye Qi immediately told Shao Qingge about this discovery. Shao Qingge had originally been reaching out to touch the money in the cabinet but he stopped hard when he heard this.

This money… it wasn't just money his father had left him. It was a password! A password that involved an important clue!

Fortunately, Xiao Ye was smart and attentive enough. If they destroyed the arrangement of money in the cabinet and deposited the money directly into their bank card, they would have lost the most important clue.

Shao Qingge squinted at the manager next to him and asked with a smile, "Can I move the entire cabinet?"

The manager nodded. "Of course, Mr Shao was the one who bought the safe. After confirming your identity and signing, you can move it away at any time."

Shao Qingge nodded and signed the confirmation contract.

The cabinet was very large. In order to not damage the arrangement of the money in the cabinet, Ye Qi took advantage of when the people around him weren't paying attention to use the teleportation card and bring the cabinet directly back to the suspension car. Then he sighed. "July 15th, 2975 is Xiao Lou's birthday. It isn't a coincidence that your father used the money to show this number!"

Shao Qingge frowned slightly. "I found out that 20 years ago, the company put 3 billion stars into the Noah's Ark Restart Plan and the date left by my father was 25 years ago. Could it be that on July 15th, 2975 when Xiao Lou was born, the Noah's Ark project was launched for the first time? Then 20 years ago when Xiao Lou was five years old, it was restarted again?

Ye Qi thought about it carefully and nodded in agreement. "It is reasonable! Restart means there must be one before. If it was first started 25 years ago and then restarted 20 years ago, both times are related to Professor Xiao! The first time was the day he was born. The second time was when he… was seriously injured and lost his memory?"

The two of them exchanged looks and immediately informed Xiao Lou of the important news.

Yu Hanjiang looked at the message on the phone and immediately said, "Xiao Lou, we must make a decision."

After a day, the Heart has a Tacit Exchange of Romantic Feelings had been broken. After all, this communication could only be maintained for 24 hours and new cards couldn't be used in the palace. Still, Xiao Lou understood what Yu Hanjiang meant from his eyes. "Do you want to leave the palace to investigate?"

Yu Hanjiang nodded. "Let's find an excuse to leave the palace and have Brother Jiu lead the Arrow Corps to protect you. It is only in this way that we can move the whole team, find out the truth about that year as soon as possible and find a way to meet up with Liu Qiao and the others."

There was no progress in staying at the palace. It was just sitting and waiting for death. It was better to burn one's boats. They should flee from this palace where cards were forbidden to carry out a comprehensive investigation.

Proofreader: Paranoid Kitten & Fictional Reality