Those who travel back in time

Chapter 30 Yuan Tiangang

Fang Xiande was silent for a moment, then slowly said, "You're right, I didn't know."

This frankness made Chen Qing pause. He was prepared to continue refuting Fang Xiande, but he did not expect Fang Xiande to agree with his point of view first.

"I don't know if Sun Fan would be a survivor if he had lived, just as you don't know if Sun Fan would have died if you hadn't gone back." Fang Xiande took a step forward: "Because your time travel caused Sun Fan's death, that's just your conclusion. You're in the thick of it, so your conclusion might not be correct. Maybe if you hadn't gone back, the assassins would have killed Sun Fan after killing Li Mengfei."

"This time it's different from the theft of the serum from the Qilin Building. If I don't go back, Sun Fan won't die."

"Chen Qing, the word 'if' is meaningless because it changes nothing. Chen Qing, I can listen to you blaming yourself or me all day long, if that makes you feel better, but you should understand without me saying it that it only wastes time and solves nothing. Or you can skip this useless step and try to be a truly calm adult and tell me everything that happened during this time travel, and we can analyze together what really happened in the past."

Chen Qing remained silent for a while, then took a deep breath: "Dr. Fang, have you ever heard of the name 'Yuan Tiangang'?"

"Is this the clue you got on your trip back?" Fang Xiande sat down at the computer and started typing away.

"This Yuan Tiangang is definitely connected to the serum." Chen Qing stood behind Fang Xiande, looking at the various data flashing on the computer screen while quickly recounting his "time-travel adventure".

"Chen Qing, you only focus on Sun Fan's death. Why don't you mention that you saved Li Mengfei? If you hadn't gone back, wouldn't you have blamed yourself for Li Mengfei's death?" Fang Xiande's hands moved faster and faster, opening one webpage and document after another on the screen.

"Sun Fan shouldn't have died."

"No one deserves to die, but you are not a god, you can't save everyone." Fang Xiande paused as he spoke, zooming in on a webpage.

It was a very rudimentary online forum page, where an anonymous user posted a thread titled "Yuan Tiangang: The Only True God Alive."

Chen Qing quickly skimmed through the post. The poster claimed to be a programmer who encountered a man wearing a Tai Chi mask on his way home from get off work one day. The man told him that his house would catch fire in ten days. Of course, Chen Qing didn't believe him and thought he was just a scammer trying to swindle money.

But the next day, the person in the Tai Chi mask appeared again and told the programmer that it would rain that night. It did rain that night, but the programmer didn't take it seriously, since there was a weather forecast.

On the third day, the Tai Chi mask appeared again and directly told the programmer the lottery numbers for that day. The programmer naturally didn't believe it, but when the lottery results came out that night, he was stunned. The lottery numbers were exactly the same as those given by the Tai Chi mask, not a single digit was different!

The programmer could no longer ignore the possibility of a fire in his home. He sent his wife and children to his parents' house while he stayed home to see how it started. He deliberately turned off high-powered appliances and the gas valve, and avoided using any open flames.

That evening, he witnessed his laptop's power adapter short-circuit without warning, sparking and instantly igniting the paper documents on the table.

It was the early hours of the morning, a time when everyone should be sleeping. If it weren't for the Tai Chi symbol mask reminding him, his family would definitely be asleep, and the consequences would have been unimaginable.

At the end of the post, the programmer said that the man in the Tai Chi mask was named Yuan Tiangang, and that he had created an organization called "Tui Bei Lou" (Pushing Back Tower). He said that the world was about to face a disaster, and that joining Tui Bei Lou could help resist the end of the world. He said that he had already joined Tui Bei Lou and was calling on everyone to join as well.

"Yuan Tiangang was a famous physiognomist at the end of the Sui Dynasty and the beginning of the Tang Dynasty. His physiognomy skills were incredibly advanced, and there are many legends about him predicting the future." Fang Xiande quickly finished browsing and commented, "The name 'Tui Bei Lou' (Pushing Back Tower) should come from the 'Tui Bei Tu' (Pushing Back Diagram). This book also has many legends, saying that it predicted major historical events for the next two thousand years after the Tang Dynasty. This post puts the historical Yuan Tiangang in a modern urban setting and even has him predict lottery numbers. The story is well-crafted, but the writing is not very good."

"This must be just an online story. This Yuan Tiangang can't possibly be the Yuan Tiangang that Sun Fan is talking about." Chen Qing also thought the story was quite absurd.

"I'm afraid this is more than just an online story." Fang Xiande's voice suddenly became serious. He clicked the mouse and zoomed in on a photo.

It was an office building. Several zombies were tearing at people at the entrance, and the scene was chaotic. Everyone else was running away in panic, but a person wearing a Tai Chi mask stood there with his arms crossed, as if watching the show, which was in stark contrast to those who were running away.

"The zombie outbreak is right in front of us, and this person isn't afraid at all?" Chen Qing pondered.

"If he created the zombies, then his behavior is not surprising," Fang Xiande said in a deep voice.

"This one." Chen Qing pointed to a post on the screen titled "Witnessing Yuan Tiangang's Cleansing of the World with My Own Eyes."

After opening the post, there was a video of about ten seconds, shot from above, filming the street from a high place. In the previous photo of the office building, there were only a few zombies, but in the video, there were many more zombies in the street, more than the number of humans, chasing and tearing at people.

The video also included a voice-over, a rather old voice accompanied by coughing: "The Great Purge that Yuan Tiangang spoke of has finally come! I never thought I would see this day before I die of illness! It's just a pity that I can only see the Great Purge, but not the world after it."

"A great purge? Using zombies to cleanse the world?" Chen Qing frowned.

"It seems that Yuan Tiangang is the mastermind behind creating zombies and causing the apocalypse." Fang Xiande turned off the video and continued his investigation.

After much effort, the two finally pieced together a file on Yuan Tiangang: his true identity and appearance are unknown, he has the ability to predict the future, and he is the leader of the organization Tuibeilou. This organization believes that the world will face a disaster that could lead to the extinction of mankind. In order to avoid the disaster, a "great purge" must be carried out, and the method of the great purge is zombies.

The organization's symbol is the Tai Chi symbol. Not only does Yuan Tiangang wear a Tai Chi mask, but Tai Chi patterns have also been left at multiple zombie outbreak locations. Some have sprayed Tai Chi symbols on walls, while others have pasted Tai Chi posters. The old man who filmed the "Great Purge" video also had his wrist filmed for a few seconds, and a Tai Chi tattoo was clearly visible.