Lu Zhou didn't expect that so many things would happen as soon as he came back from a short trip.
In the room of the Star Sky Hotel, Lu Zhou, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, looked at the clothes and belongings that were turned over everywhere. He pinched his eyebrows with a headache and spoke.
"In other words … You thought I was taken away by the people from the city hall?"
Wang Peng nodded awkwardly.
"… Here's the thing."
Lu Zhou thought about the whole thing in his mind. He tried to reconstruct the whole incident.
"Then, you didn't find me in the city hall, so you went to the Alpha Centauri Colonial Exploration Fund? But what does this have to do with the Alpha Centauri Colonial Exploration Fund? Aren't they just a business? "
"We thought so at first, but then we found out that their background is not that simple." Wang Peng sighed and continued, "Remember the Aurora Borealis cruise ship?"
"I remember, but that was a hundred years ago."
"Yeah, it's been nearly a hundred years." Wang Peng continued with some emotion, "The mastermind of that incident was a man named Gray Cloak, and Gladstone is Gray Cloak."
This sentence sounded a bit awkward, but with Lu Zhou's logical ability, it was not difficult for him to understand. What he didn't understand was that if he remembered correctly, the man named Gladstone should only be in his thirties. He didn't look like he had lived for more than a hundred years.
"I know what you are thinking. In fact, I have the same confusion." As if seeing through what Lu Zhou was thinking, Wang Peng sighed and continued, "Gray Cloak doesn't refer to a specific person. It's just an identity, or a title. The previous owner of this title passed it along with his account to Gladstone before he reached the end of his life. And now, we have mastered the movements of the entire foundation, and they still don't know anything about it. "
On the surface, the Alpha Centauri Colonial Exploration Foundation and its boss were just pawns of the foundation. In the eyes of most of the senior executives of the foundation, Gladstone's identity was no different from the arrested Song Yangwei and Morinaga. They would not associate him with Gray Cloak, the boss of the foundation.
As the saying goes, the most dangerous place is the safest place. The more he appeared in public, the less likely it was to be suspected. Especially when it was uncertain whether the other senior executives of the foundation were absolutely loyal, this was the safest approach …
At least, that was what Gladstone thought before he was arrested.
"But why … did this farce turn into a civil war in the end?"
Looking out the window, Lu Zhou couldn't help but say, "You know what? When I just came back, I was shocked by the big pit on the street. I thought something like a meteorite fell in the city center. I didn't expect to find out that the Third Orbital Airborne Brigade and the Martian militia fought. "
"This is a long story. To be honest, we were actually quite surprised …"
Wang Peng smiled bitterly. After a pause, he continued, "In fact, the signs of separatism have long appeared in Tiangong City. We were also aware of it before, but we didn't expect this idea to have penetrated the senior executives of Tiangong City. We didn't expect that Xiao Hong's plot was not only the independence of Tiangong City, but he even planned to pull other colonial cities on Mars together to establish a 'regional alliance for the Martians'.
"They developed their own armed forces in the asteroid belt by letting the space pirates go, thereby restraining the military forces of regional alliances such as the Pan-Asian Cooperation. At the same time, they used this as a bargaining chip to threaten the Pan-Asian Cooperation to allow them to maintain a certain number of starships on the basis of autonomy. It can be said that they have long planned to rebel. "
Lu Zhou: "But why now —"
"Because of you." Wang Peng looked at Lu Zhou with a helpless expression on his face. "The deadline for the military exercise is getting closer and closer, and the Qinling has achieved faster than light cruising. Considering that Tiangong City was granted autonomy mainly because of distance, once the problem of faster than light communication is solved, it is only a matter of time before Tiangong City's autonomy is taken back. Under such circumstances, launching a civil war is their only choice. As one of the bargaining chips for victory in the war, being the first to install warp engines is the only possibility for them to defeat the First Fleet. "
Lu Zhou: "So the invitation to the academic conference …"
"It seems that you have guessed it. Yes, Europa is just a cover. Their real intention is to build a permanent and hidden space base on the asteroid belt. And the reason why the entire academic conference has been delayed for so many days without any progress … "Wang Peng shrugged his shoulders." I speculate that it may be intentional, and the purpose is to delay you and buy time for the Martian industry to master warp speed technology. If necessary, they may be able to directly coerce you to hand over the technology. "
"As for The Spirit of The Universe Foundation …" Wang Peng hesitated and continued, "Although I don't know what they want to do, they also seem to be very eager to get the warp speed technology."
Under the entanglement of the interest demands of all parties, this civil war that broke out in advance evolved into a scuffle between the three forces.
However, no one expected that the disappearance of Academician Lu was a misunderstanding from the beginning. He was not in the hands of the city hall or The Spirit of The Universe Foundation at all, and he was not protected by the Security Bureau as Mayor Xiao had guessed. He just left Tiangong City temporarily because of something.
Wang Peng was still very confused. What did Lu Zhou do when he left Tiangong City during this time? However, Lu Zhou didn't seem to want to answer this question. After saying "I went to see an old friend", he didn't give any explanation. It wasn't convenient for him to continue to ask, so he had to give up.
Looking at Wang Peng with a helpless expression on his face, Lu Zhou, who finally figured out the cause and effect of the matter, didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
I just went out for a while, how did it become the fuse of a civil war?
"It seems that … I'm afraid I screwed a lot of people this time."
"It's not exactly screwed, it just happened ahead of time." Wang Peng looked at Lu Zhou, who had an ashamed expression. He scratched his head and explained, "If it weren't for your sudden disappearance, which made Xiao Hong mistakenly think that we had already noticed his plan and decided to strike first, this time bomb might have been buried for a while. It's hard to say whether it's a good thing or a bad thing that the problem broke out in advance. "
Lu Zhou: "It would be good if other people could think so."
"Don't worry about this, I believe no one will embarrass you because of this matter." Wang Peng continued after hesitating for a while, "There is one thing I still don't understand. Can I ask you for advice?"
Lu Zhou: "We're all friends, don't be so polite. Ask me anything."
Wang Peng: "You said that after you left the hotel, you took a car directly to the exit of Tiangong City, but why didn't we find you after searching all the surveillance cameras in the city?"
Wang Peng still couldn't understand this matter.
It wasn't just Wang Peng, even Mayor Xiao and Gladstone, who had already been executed, couldn't figure out how Lu Zhou managed to slip away from everyone's eyes without anyone noticing.
Logically speaking, with his popularity, it was impossible that no one had seen him along the way. Not to mention that there were cameras everywhere in Tiangong City. Under the coordination of the central processor, it only took five minutes to lock onto the footage that the target had appeared. In less than a minute, a model of his movement path could be established, marking all his activity paths and destinations in Tiangong City.
However, Wang Peng also discovered during the investigation that during the few days of his disappearance, even during the period before his disappearance, Lu Zhou did not leave a single frame on the cameras in Tiangong City.
It was like …
It was as if it had been deleted by something.
Lu Zhou: "Are you saying that there are no cameras on me?"
Wang Peng nodded and continued.
"This is too strange."
"It's not strange." Lu Zhou smiled and continued, "In my opinion, it's probably a little guy who is worried about my safety, so he did something unnecessary behind my back."
Wang Peng: "…?"
"Let's not talk about this." Lu Zhou changed the topic with a dry cough. After thinking for a moment, he continued, "Speaking of which … Actually, there are some things that I'm curious about."
Wang Peng immediately said, "Please go ahead!"
Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Don't be so serious … According to what you said, Gladstone is a senior member of The Spirit of The Universe Foundation, so what will happen to his Alpha Centauri Colonial Exploration Foundation?"
The Alpha Centauri Colonial Exploration Foundation was the company that issued the Alpha Centauri Colonial Exploration Fund some time ago.
If Lu Zhou remembered correctly, this guy had previously issued 10 billion credit points of corporate bonds, which made a lot of money in the entire Pan-Asian Cooperation and even the world.
Maybe …
The bankruptcy of this company would even develop into a new fuse, causing a financial tsunami with a worse impact than the civil war in Tiangong City.
"It will probably go bankrupt … My colleagues are already cooperating with the staff of the AIIB to liquidate its assets." Wang Peng thought for a while and replied, "After all, even if we don't consider Gladstone's identity, just the funds they sent to the city hall, we can't let them go so easily."
What's more, they were also related to a cult organization, so it was even more impossible to allow them to continue to live.
"I see …" Lu Zhou nodded thoughtfully. After thinking for a moment, he suddenly said, "Can you introduce me?"
Wang Peng was slightly taken aback. He looked at Lu Zhou in confusion.
"Introduce who?"
"The person in charge of the asset liquidation of the Alpha Centauri Colonial Exploration Foundation." After a pause, Lu Zhou continued, "There are some things I want to talk to him about."
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