Although transportation in the Interstellar Era was very fast, this was still a journey between planets. Duan Hengye saw the news after class ended two hours later. Even if he were to return to the Research Institute now, it would take him a few more hours.
Duan Hengye did not understand why Meng Jinhuai would suddenly go to the Research Institute at this time. However, after seeing the message sent by Su Mingge, even though he was still on the distant Planet Duguang, he could imagine how nervous his colleagues at the research institute were at this moment.
After class, the students dispersed one after another. Duan Hengye also returned to his lounge. However, he did not leave the classroom as usual. Instead, he took out his optical supercomputer again and sent a message to Meng Jinhuai.
Duan Hengye estimated that it was almost time for the Research Institute to get off work. He guessed that as long as the Marshal was there, no one would dare to leave before him. Therefore, as the Dean, Duan Hengye, who was rarely considerate, helped the staff out. He told Meng Jinhuai that he could go to his residence in the Research Institute to rest.
Just as Duan Hengye estimated, the sun was currently setting in the hemisphere where the Yeti Empire Mecha Research Institute was located. Logically speaking, at this time, most of the researchers who had finished their work should have left. However, until now, the tense atmosphere in the Research Institute had not dissipated.
Although no notice was given in advance, the news of Meng Jinhuai's arrival at the Research Institute still spread throughout the Research Institute.
This was not the first time Meng Jinhuai had been to the Research Institute, but it was obvious that he had not lost his interest in this place. While walking and stopping, Meng Jinhuai asked a lot of questions to the staff accompanying him. As the Marshal of the Yeti Empire with countless military achievements, Meng Jinhuai's understanding of Mecha far exceeded that of the average researcher. Soon, everyone realized that Meng Jinhuai's questions were not casually raised, but rather, they were rather profound and had been considered in advance.
For a moment, everyone was nervous. They were afraid that Meng Jinhuai would suddenly wander over and ask some difficult questions.
As the Vice Dean, Su Mingge was only accompanying Meng Jinhuai on a tour. However, when he heard Meng Jinhuai's questions, he could not help but feel nervous like everyone else.
In the blink of an eye, the Research Institute's daytime working hours were over. However, Meng Jinhuai's attitude did not seem to have any intention of leaving. However, when Meng Jinhuai walked to the Research Institute, the Research Institute's optical system, Su Mingge saw Meng Jinhuai's optical supercomputer.
There was no need to think too much. As the Grand Marshal of the empire, Meng Jinhuai would definitely receive countless messages on his A.I. every second. If he was like an ordinary person and set the notification mode to normal, he would have been annoyed to death by the sound of the notifications. Su Mingge remembered that Meng Jinhuai's optical supercomputer had not flashed even once in the past few hours. He guessed that Meng Jinhuai must have set the notification mode to emergency notifications.
Therefore, when he saw Meng Jinhuai's optical supercomputer light up, Su Mingge could not help but feel nervous. Whether the staff could get off work on time was a small matter. The safety of the Empire was the most important thing. Like Su Mingge, Meng Jinhuai also saw his optical supercomputer light up. Then, he stopped in his tracks. Then, he picked up the silver-white optical supercomputer and opened the message he had just received.
Now, Su Mingge was not the only one following Meng Jinhuai. There were several other people in charge of the Research Institute as well. When they saw the notification from the Marshal's optical supercomputer, everyone became nervous.
Following Meng Jinhuai's movements, everyone's attention was focused on his hands. But after a few seconds, they realized that … the terrifying scene they had imagined did not happen.
After turning on the optical supercomputer, not only did Meng Jinhuai not have a serious expression on his face, he even smiled at the object in his hand.
So what did the Marshal see?
Meng Jinhuai turned off the optical supercomputer. Then, he turned around and smiled at the staff who had been following him. Then, he said, "Okay, thank you for your explanation today."
Hearing Meng Jinhuai's words, everyone could not help but breathe a sigh of relief. Just as Su Mingge was about to ask Meng Jinhuai if he was going to arrange dinner for him, he heard Meng Jinhuai say to the military staff who had been following him, "Go to the residential area SIU-7."
"Yes, Lord Marshal." Hearing this, the staff in the black military uniform who had not spoken a word nodded. Then, he picked up the optical supercomputer and began to adjust the hover car.
After hearing Meng Jinhuai's words, Su Mingge stood there for a moment. Then, he remembered that the "SIU-7" Meng Jinhuai mentioned was the coordinates of Duan Hengye's residence on this planet.
Well, there was finally an answer as to who sent that message.
Normally, after the afternoon class at Amro University, Duan Hengye would stay on planet Duguang for the night and return the next morning. But because Meng Jinhuai was at the research institute today, Duan Hengye boarded the starship directly after class.
At the same time, Meng Jinhuai stepped into Duan Hengye's home at the research institute. Even though Meng Jinhuai had been here a few times before, he had never taken a good look at this place.
Duan Hengye's residence was a three-story villa. When Meng Jinhuai first came in, the word "cozy" popped up in his mind. At first glance, the style of this place didn't seem to match Duan Hengye, but after a while, he felt that Duan Hengye belonged to this world.
When Meng Jinhuai first came here, he saw a black upright grand piano in the corner of the first floor of the villa. Even though this piano had not been used for a long time, because of the robot's regular cleaning, there was not a single speck of dust on the piano.
At this time, the setting sun shone through the window and plated the black piano with a layer of honey-colored gold. It looked like chocolate with syrup.
Meng Jinhuai walked in and paused for a moment. Then, he walked towards the piano that had not been touched in a long time.
Duan Hengye's starship was huge and flew very smoothly. Even though the journey back was a little long, it was not too tiring. Even though the starship had sped up, it was already night time when Duan Hengye returned to the research institute.
As soon as Duan Hengye walked to the entrance, he found that the lights on the first floor of his residence were still on. However, before Professor Duan could think of anything, the identification device at the door automatically sensed the return of the owner, and then the door of the villa slowly opened.
A smooth sound of music flowed out of the house. The soundproofing of this house was so good that Duan Hengye was stunned when he heard the sound of the door opening. But then he saw a familiar figure sitting by the piano not far away.
Meng Jinhuai of course also heard the sound of the door opening, but he still didn't stop playing. Duan Hengye slowly walked towards the piano. To be honest, even though this piano was very large, because it had been sitting there quietly for a long time, Duan Hengye almost forgot that there was such an instrument in his home.
But most importantly, Duan Hengye had never heard that Meng Jinhuai could play the piano.
Because the female lead of "Star Toppling Stars", Shang Mengzhen, was mainly active in the entertainment industry, there was naturally a piano scene in the book. To save time, the author directly put the classical songs from the Earth era into this world.
Therefore, even though he was in a different world, Duan Hengye was still very familiar with the piano music played by Meng Jinhuai at this time. He walked to Meng Jinhuai's side, then gently put his hand on the piano, and then quietly enjoyed the other party's performance.
The window behind Meng Jinhuai was not closed. The evening wind slightly lifted the light gray gauze curtain by the window, and the curtain's foot touched the side of the piano. Right now, Meng Jinhuai didn't have the murderous aura that came from the battlefield. Instead, he was extremely elegant.
Although Duan Hengye didn't remember the name, he could tell that Meng Jinhuai was playing a lyrical song at this time. But in this style of music that had nothing to do with the word "passionate", Duan Hengye's heartbeat began to accelerate little by little. His hand, which had been resting on the side of the zither, had unknowingly moved to his chest, and the sound traveled along his flesh and bones to Duan Hangye's ears. He thought that his heartbeat might have disrupted the rhythm of this lyrical song.
After an unknown period of time, Meng Jinhuai finally stopped playing the zither. And at this time, as the only audience of this young and elegant pianist, when Meng Jinhuai's keys fell, Duan Hengye couldn't help but applaud.
As a child of an aristocratic family, Duan Hengye, like most people, learned this kind of musical instrument when he was young. But unfortunately, Duan Hengye didn't like the boring activity of "playing", so he didn't continue learning for long. But today, after hearing the music played by Meng Jinhuai, Duan Hengye felt the beauty of it for the first time.
Seeing Duan Hengye gently applauding there, Meng Jinhuai smiled at him, then stood up and closed the piano cover. Seeing this, Duan Hengye couldn't help but show a disappointed expression.
"I'll play for you next time." When Meng Jinhuai smiled, his eyes unconsciously squinted slightly, the usual seriousness was completely gone.
Duan Hengye nodded, then couldn't help but look at the piano and said, "If it weren't for you, this piano would be wasted here." His words were a little regretful.
Hearing this, Meng Jinhuai shook his head and didn't say anything. Perhaps it was because he had been sitting here for a long time, but when Duan Heng Ye arrived, Meng Jin Huai walked over to the dining table to the side. He drank a mouthful of water then said: "I was in a bit of a rush a few times before. I originally wanted to take a good look at the place where A-Heng lived when she was young. But when I thought of you not being here, in the end I didn't run around. " After saying this, Meng Jinhuai gently raised his eyebrows at Duan Hengye, as if he was waiting for his praise.
Duan Hengye thought about the time Su Mingge sent him the message, then realized that Meng Jinhuai had probably been sitting here for a few hours. He turned around and looked at his empty kitchen, then couldn't help but frown and ask Meng Jinhuai, "You haven't had dinner yet?"
Meng Jinhuai shook his head, then as if he knew what Duan Hengye wanted to do, he added, "I had lunch a little late."
Duan Hengye ignored Meng Jinhuai's words. After hearing the first sentence, he went straight to the kitchen. Perhaps because he was afraid that Meng Jinhuai would stop him, Duan Hengye walked towards the kitchen while saying, "Just in time, I haven't eaten either."
Duan Hengye, who didn't turn around while talking, didn't know that Meng Jinhuai was looking at him with an indescribable gentleness in his eyes.
"Okay." After a while, Meng Jinhuai replied.
Dinner started very late, and it was very simple. But in Meng Jinhuai's eyes, the simple dinner paired with the house that Duan Hengye grew up in was particularly warm. He thought that maybe "home" was supposed to be like this.
Meng Jinhuai was the marshal of the Empire. Although the Empire was relatively peaceful recently, he didn't return to the research institute for leisure. He had serious business to attend to.
In the morning of the second day, Duan Hengye and Meng Jinhuai took a hovercraft together to a corner of the research institute on the planet that no one had set foot in for a long time.
"Arrived, coordinates: KN-0, confirming access now."
After arriving here, the hovercraft suddenly stopped in mid-air without any warning. When Duan Hengye heard the coordinates reported by the synthesized electronic voice, he hesitated for a moment. He then reached out his hand and gently placed it on the side of the hovercraft.
"Access confirmation beginning:
Duan Hengye, president of the Yeti Empire Mecha Research Institute, confirmed. Access granted. "
After the voice finished speaking, the hovercraft gently beeped again. Then, the hovercraft that was suspended in the air for a while began to move forward again. Gradually, the scene in front of them became clear.
70% of the planet where the research institute was located was surrounded by buildings. Other than that, all of the places were man-made green belts. This planet was very standard. It looked like a fully developed interstellar planet, exquisite and beautiful everywhere.
But now, the place in front of Duan Hengye was completely different from the rest of the planet.
If there were two words to describe it, it would be: "desolate" and "decadent".
If he looked down, he could see that the ground under his feet was not covered by any green plants. Instead, it was completely scorched black. If one tried to observe carefully, they would be able to see a faint silver light in the middle of the charred area.
From the moment the hovercraft slowly entered this area, Duan Hengye had been looking down. Seeing this, Meng Jinhuai, who was standing next to him, couldn't help but look at him with a worried expression. "A Heng, how are you doing now?"
Actually, when Duan Hengye looked down, his mind was completely blank. It wasn't until Meng Jinhuai spoke that his mind was finally pulled back. Duan Hengye pursed his lips, then shook his head and said to Meng Jinhuai, "… No, I can't remember anything." Duan Hengye's voice was a little quiet when he said this, and he looked confused.
"The hovercraft is about to land." Seeing that Duan Hengye was in a good state, Meng Jinhuai looked down and spoke to him.
Not long after Meng Jinhuai spoke, the hovercraft landed on the scorched ground in front of him. After the silver hatch opened, Duan Hengye took a deep breath and finally walked out before Meng Jinhuai.
Perhaps for Duan Hengye, this was a place that he couldn't be more familiar with.
— The director's office used to be independent of the main building of the research institute, where Duan Hengye lived as a child.
Because after the accident, Duan Hengye was taken away by the royal family. So until a few days ago, when Duan Hengye began to re-investigate the incident, Duan Hengye found out that the site of the accident was not actually buried. Instead, it was left there in its original state.
Even though he didn't know why the investigation team made this decision back then, he had to admit that the ruins were indeed a clue that couldn't be missed.
As soon as Duan Hengye walked out of the hovercraft, he heard a strange "kacha" sound from under his feet. The surroundings were too quiet, so the sound under his feet was particularly obvious. Even though Duan Hengye's mental fortitude had always been very good, when he suddenly heard the sound from under his feet, he couldn't help but tremble. Meng Jinhuai, who was standing behind Duan Hengye, held his shoulder and said, "It's okay, it's a branch."
After hearing Meng Jinhuai's words, Duan Hengye slowly squatted down, then picked up the pitch-black object under his feet. Just like Meng Jinhuai said, this was the appearance of a tree that was scanned by a special optical weapon. Even though Duan Hengye understood the reason for its formation, unlike Meng Jinhuai, Meng Jinhuai was a marshal who was used to seeing the messy state of a planet after a war, so he naturally didn't recognize it immediately.
After confirming what it was, Duan Hengye gently placed it back on the ground. He looked around, then said to Meng Jinhuai, "The area of destruction here is larger than I thought."
"Mhmm," Meng Jinhuai nodded, then said to Duan Hengye while recalling, "The loss of control of the mecha back then was too sudden, and at the time of the incident, many people weren't sure if this was a deliberate experiment by the director. So it wasn't until ten minutes later that the garrison of the research institute came over with another mecha to take control of the scene. "
This office was far from the research institute building, and there was an open space around it. The previous director often used this open space to conduct some small experiments. So even though the research institute detected the abnormality in the energy here, because they were hesitant about whether this was an experiment or not, they didn't react quickly enough.
What Meng Jinhuai said just now was also written in the accident investigation report that was released to the public, and it has always been regarded as the biggest cause of the previous director's death.
Probably because he lost this part of his memory, Duan Hengye was calmer than he expected when he returned here. The two of them recalled the experiment report while walking into the depths of the ruins.
Finally, after a few minutes, Duan Hengye and Meng Jinhuai stopped in front of a broken silver metal pillar. During the investigation back then, the staff in charge of the investigation left a mark here. When they got closer, Duan Hengye saw the words "Research Room 7 Metal Pillar".
Before coming here, Duan Hengye had studied the original structure of the laboratory. So when he saw this pillar, he realized that he and Meng Jinhuai were currently in the indoor part of this office – even though he couldn't see anything from the scorched area.
More than ten years had passed, but Duan Hengye didn't know if it was an illusion or not, but as soon as he walked here, he seemed to smell a strange burning odor that he couldn't get rid of.
He glanced at Meng Jinhuai, and after noticing the other party's expression, he confirmed that this smell was not an illusion.
For a moment, Duan Hengye felt that the atmosphere around him had become a little strange. He looked at Meng Jinhuai again and said, "This smell isn't right."
Whether it was the investigation report released to the public or the report stored in the Imperial Palace's internal network, neither mentioned this smell. Duan Hengye believed that this obviously strange smell would not be missed by the investigators.
Just as he thought of this, Meng Jinhuai said telepathically, "This smell isn't right, find the source."
"Okay." Duan Hengye nodded at Meng Jinhuai, and then the two of them walked in different directions of the ruins. Now that they were indoors, because the materials of the melted structures were different, the wreckage left behind was also different. When Duan Hangye walked, he felt like he was taking a deep step and a shallow step. Fortunately, he had some foundation in ancient martial arts, so he didn't trip over the things under his feet.
Slowly, the distance between Duan Hengye and Meng Jinhuai widened. Just as he was about to walk out of the ruins, Duan Hengye suddenly saw a special piece of metal shining with a dark blue light in front of him.
He slowly squatted down, hesitated for a moment, and tore off a piece of his shirt. Then, Duan Hengye hesitated for a moment, and slowly picked up the dark blue piece of metal. Just as Duan Hengye squatted down to pick up the item, Meng Jinhuai also walked in his direction.
Finally, Duan Hengye slowly stood up with the item in his hand. At this time, Meng Jinhuai also walked to his side.
"This is …" Meng Jinhuai muttered as he looked at the item in Duan Hengye's hand.
Even though Meng Jinhuai didn't say it, Duan Hengye nodded his head lightly. Then, he turned to Meng Jinhuai and said, "Yes, this is it." If it was someone else, they might have overlooked this unremarkable dark blue piece of metal. However, the people here today were Duan Hengye and Meng Jinhuai.
Both of them recognized that the item in Duan Hengye's hand was some kind of solidified fuel – it was usually used in a type of large-scale killing weapon that had not yet been installed in a Mech.
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