Ye Wenjie, watch my moves closely.

Chapter 19 An Old Man

The upheaval in the office was contained to a very small extent; in most parts of the Red Coast base, people continued as usual.

Li Youyu packed the milk powder and cloth he had obtained in exchange, carried them on his back, and planned to go to Qijiatun at the foot of the mountain to visit Ye Wenjie's family.

The downsizing of the Red Coast Base is nearing completion, and people are heading to new places. Lei Zhicheng went to the Science and Technology Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense. For someone who was once in charge of a top-secret national project like Red Coast, this is considered a demotion, but at least his abilities are recognized by his superiors, who still gave him hope.

Li Youyu was just an ordinary duty officer at Hong'an, not as prestigious as those with technical backgrounds. He was assigned to work in an ordinary unit in his place of household registration, but he naturally refused.

He planned to travel to the Northwest and find Evans first.

In the original story, Evans' father was a multinational oil tycoon. After witnessing an oil spill and ocean pollution when he was young, Evans vowed to dedicate himself to environmental protection. He then traveled around the world and eventually came to a rural area in Northwest China to work on the protection of endangered birds.

In a rural area of ​​Northwest China, Evans encountered Ye Wenjie and learned about the Trisolaran civilization from her. Soon after, Evans inherited his father's huge fortune. After the failed mission to save Yanzi, he returned to China and used his father's inheritance to establish the Second Red Coast Base and founded the Earth Trisolaran Movement Organization, or ETO, with Ye Wenjie as its spiritual leader and believing that the Trisolarans were the saviors.

Even with Evans's piety, Li Youyu still suspected that he was a wild Wallfacer when reading the original work.

He poured all his wealth into the ETO, intercepted and organized information about the Trisolaran civilization, and exposed it to human society. If he hadn't made such a big show of it, humanity might never have imagined that their enemy came from the Centaurus system, four light-years away, until the day they were destroyed.

All I can say is that Evans was a great Wallfacer; without him, how could Luo Ji, Zhang Beihai, and Wade have had the opportunity to take the stage?

Joking aside, to complete the system's task and make Ye Wenjie a Wallfacer, ETO is an indispensable entity.

However, Ye Wenjie may no longer need to contact Evans. Information about the Trisolarans can be leaked to Evans by others.

It wouldn't be a problem for Li Youyu to go by himself.

While pondering, Li Youyu pushed open the wooden door, walked along the corridor to the stairwell, and was about to go downstairs when he suddenly realized something was wrong.

It was too quiet outside. Looking down the corridor, a military jeep was parked at every intersection leading to the dormitory area, with its windows covered in camouflage to prevent outside prying eyes.

At the Red Coast base, Li Youyu had never seen such brand-new military vehicles.

He took a half step back, and a cold gun barrel was pressed against his back like a ghost.

"Come with me, someone wants to see you."

The other person's voice was hoarse and devoid of any emotion.

With a single twist, he deftly gripped Li Youyu's wrist.

Li Youyu did not make any rash moves. The force transmitted from his wrist was a warning to him that any reckless movement would be courting death.

The other party stuffed Li Youyu into a jeep, took him to the huge parabolic radar on the mountaintop, and then forced him out of the car at gunpoint.

There was a person standing under the radar.

To be precise, he was an old man.

Loose skin, sparse silver hair, and wrinkles on his face as dense as a spider web.

Although the padded jacket fit him well, his atrophied muscles made the clothes look loose and baggy.

The old man looked up at the radar, motionless, like an old poplar tree.

Li Youyu sensed a familiar aura from his figure.

It is in Lei Zhicheng that the indomitable spirit of a soldier of the Republic is embodied.

And it is even more powerful than Lei Zhicheng's.

As they drew closer, the old man spoke, his voice strong and clear, "This radar has been patched up and repaired for years... I never expected it to develop such a powerful, almost imperceptible, development. Young man, did you tell Xiao Lei about the contact symbol theory?"

"Who are you?"

The old man's profile looked very familiar, but Li Youyu couldn't quite place him for a moment.

"Me?"

The old man said calmly, "Didn't you want Xiao Lei to come find me?"

Li Youyu flipped through his memory and finally found the face in a corner.

It's him.

"What's wrong, little one? Are you a bit surprised?"

"To be honest, it was a bit of a surprise. I didn't think you would show up."

When Li Youyu told Lei Zhicheng about the contact theory, it was purely a delaying tactic to prevent him from exposing the Trisolaran civilization to human society.

In Li Youyu's vision, connecting with national power would be at least twenty years from now, by which time he would have already used the Trisolarans' knowledge to develop a batch of technologies that were ahead of their time.

Only then will Li Youyu be qualified to tell the story to the country and ensure that the plot does not go off track.

Unexpectedly, less than a year after receiving the Three-Body information, people from above came to visit.

Lei Zhicheng's stubbornness in hitting a brick wall really surprised Li Youyu.

Upon hearing Li Youyu's reply, the old man turned around, his warm gaze suddenly turning into a sharp scrutiny. "You seem to know a lot. I've investigated you. After 1979, many of your actions lacked reliable logic, including your business in the city. It's as if you foresaw what would happen."

"I'm a scientist, I don't believe in gods or ghosts. There must be a reason behind everything a person does."

"On the day Ye Wenjie sent the signal to the Trisolaran civilization, you defended her and diverted the attention of the other duty officers. You deliberately made her reply. Why?"

"Lei Zhicheng told me that after he finished talking with Ye Wenjie, he almost got into trouble. It was you and Ye Wenjie who saved him and Yang Weining."

"Is it a coincidence? No, there are no real coincidences in the world. Your real target is Ye Wenjie; you want to save her."

"But why do you want to save her?"

"Because she sent a signal to the Trisolaran civilization?"

"I can't fill in the gaps in the logic. There must be something I don't know, but it's very difficult for you to keep things from me."

"So, tell me, little one, your story."

Whether Ye Wenjie sent the signal or cut the safety rope, there were other people present during the time period before and after. If you wanted to know, there would be nothing you wouldn't know.

Given the elderly person's experience, it's perfectly normal for them to deduce inconsistencies from subtle clues.

"Sir, what if I don't tell you?"

The gun behind him was pressed against Li Youyu's head.

The old man did not answer.

"Alright, sir, I'll explain it to you, but I have something to do right now. Could we talk as we walk?"

Li Youyu lifted the milk powder in his hand.

The old man stared at him for a moment, then a smile suddenly bloomed on his face. It wasn't a perfunctory smile; it was genuine. He saw the young man's joy. "You really dare to ask an old man to accompany you on a mountain path."

"Fine, let's go. I'm just curious about your story."