Chapter 29 - 28: All Coming Together

Chapter 29: Chapter 28: All Coming Together

Lin Feng had just brought the people to the vineyard when he got a call from Hu Xia. She had arrived with Professor Niu Yaozu.

’Everything is happening all at once these past few days.’

"Professor Zhou, you can start your research here. I have something else to attend to."

"Go ahead. I’ll let you know if anything comes up on my end."

When he got to where Hu Xia was, he saw that she and Professor Niu Yaozu had already begun their investigation. He walked over.

Seeing Hu Xia was livestreaming, he asked Hu Zhiming, who was standing beside her, "Handsome Hu, how are things going?"

"A bunch of people are just being stubborn and refusing to admit they’re wrong. Professor Niu has run the experiment several times with the same results, but they insist he’s in on the act with us."

Lin Feng saw his excited expression and asked in a low voice, "You guys aren’t still collecting information, are you?"

Hu Zhiming said with a triumphant grin, "Of course! This time, we’re going to teach those people a harsh lesson!"

Looking at the man’s excitement, he thought, ’It looks like they’re going on a rampage this time.’

"This is strange. How could this phenomenon be occurring?" Niu Yaozu murmured, looking at the instrument readings, completely baffled.

His assistant, Liu Wen, said, "Professor, could it be the result of multiple factors, like the geographical environment?"

Professor Niu looked up at the surrounding environment but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary—just mountains and trees, not even a source of water.

"Set up twenty cameras. We need to see the effect when they all film simultaneously and compare the footage."

"Yes, Professor."

"You few, go install the detection equipment. Focus on the area we’re filming. See if there are any changes in the data."

"Professor, we’re on it."

Hu Xia’s livestream was getting exciting. The number of concurrent viewers had already surpassed one million and was still climbing.

"See? I told you all it wasn’t false advertising, but you just wouldn’t believe me.

As for Professor Niu colluding with me to fake this, use those rusty brains of yours for a second. A renowned physics professor from Hua University, faking this with me? Am I crazy? Is the university crazy? Or are you the ones who are crazy!"

The non-believers wouldn’t be convinced no matter how she explained it, so Hu Xia stopped paying them any mind.

As long as the majority of people believed her, it was a victory in her book.

Lin Feng watched for a while, answered some of Professor Niu’s questions, and then left the area.

Knowing their research would lead to nothing, he felt a twinge of guilt watching them analyze the data piece by piece.

He went over to Professor Zhou, who was analyzing the grapevines in a way that Lin Feng couldn’t quite understand.

Just then, his phone rang. Seeing it was the wealthy tycoon Wang Peng, Lin Feng thought, ’He really is keeping a close eye on this place.’

"Hello, Boss Wang. How is the grape research coming along?"

Wang Peng had been planning to question Lin Feng about why he had let other people into the vineyard to conduct research when they had a contract.

Instead, Lin Feng’s first words were a jab straight to his sore spot. The research these past few days had cost him his appetite and his sleep.

"Boss Lin, my research is progressing quite well. I noticed there are people doing research in the vineyard. What’s that all about?"

"Oh, you mean Professor Zhou. Well, a couple of bosses from Wuyuan County wanted to help me expand the vineyard for free. I told them the vines couldn’t be transplanted successfully, so they hired someone to help me research it. That doesn’t seem to violate our contract."

Wang Peng was stunned for a moment. He carefully recalled the details of the contract, and indeed, nothing about this was written into it.

As long as they weren’t buying vines from Lin Feng, he really had no say in them helping to expand the vineyard for free.

He thought to himself, ’An oversight. That clause should have been in the contract.’

He thought about the grape analysis report that he’d kept from Lin Feng, afraid that Lin Feng would go back on his word and breach the contract directly.

"Well, Boss Lin, you sure are lucky to have someone research the grapes for you for free. I hope you succeed," he said through clenched teeth.

After hanging up with Lin Feng, he immediately called the Research Institute.

"Professor Qian, how is the research on transplanting the grapevines going?"

"Boss Wang, where on earth did you get these grapevines? To be honest with you, the research progress is currently terrible."

"What! So the grapes really can’t be transplanted?"

"It’s not just a matter of transplanting them. We can’t keep them alive at all. We’ve tried all sorts of methods, but the vines just keep withering."

Professor Qian was also getting annoyed. He had thought it would be an easy task, but they had even used methods that exceeded the experiment’s budget and still couldn’t stop the vines from dying.

’This isn’t scientific at all!’

"Boss Wang, can you tell me where these vines came from? I need to go see the place where they are grown myself. This type of grape might have specific environmental requirements."

Wang Peng was speechless. How was he supposed to answer that? He had been hiding the truth from the professor, afraid that if he learned about the grapes’ unique nature, he would cut him out of the picture.

Now the research seemed to be at a dead end. It was just as Lin Feng had said: the grapes couldn’t be transplanted.

His mood soured even more when he thought about the more than three million yuan he had spent, not to mention the connections he had pulled.

’Giving up is not an option. Since things have come to this, telling Professor Qian the situation probably won’t cause any more losses. There might even be a glimmer of hope. Otherwise, all that money will really be down the drain.’

"Professor Qian, I bought the grapevines from a small mountain village for over three million yuan. The seller told me at the time that the grapes couldn’t be transplanted."

"He wasn’t lying. We’ve used advanced techniques and still can’t save the vines."

"If you’re interested, Professor Qian, I can take you there. There are other people researching on-site as well. You might even know them."

"Of course, I’m interested. I don’t believe there’s any agricultural professor who wouldn’t be interested in encountering such a unique plant."

Professor Qian thought, ’It’s not just curiosity about the plant. Researching every new, unique plant increases my standing in the academic world.’

Wang Peng invited Professor Qian to go with him to Lin Xian Village.

Meanwhile, Professor Niu had gone from exploring the unknown to a state of confusion and bewilderment.

He had measured the entire environment but found not a single clue, which was making him question his life’s work.

Seeing the change in Professor Niu, Hu Xia said softly, "Professor Niu, why don’t we take a break and get something to eat?"

"Yes, yes, let’s take a break, get something to eat. It’ll give me some time to think."

She pulled Liu Wen aside and asked, "Liu Wen, your professor... he’s not going to have a breakdown, is he?"

"I don’t think so? He’s sometimes like this when he’s doing experiments," he said, though he sounded a bit uncertain.

The main thing was that it was just too strange to not find a single clue from all the detection data.

He glanced at the Arrow Tower, then at the distant mountain forest, a sense of worry growing in his heart.

"How about this? You should get some more big-shots over here. I’m a little worried about your professor’s state."

Hu Xia was getting scared. If she drove a top-tier physics professor insane, she wouldn’t just have to worry about her livestream; the man himself could be in real trouble.

Liu Wen’s eyes lit up. That was indeed a good idea. Perhaps they should also get people from environmental and geographical sciences to participate in the research.

Deciding to act immediately, he called Wang Min from the propaganda department and asked her to report the situation to the faculty.

In fact, Hua University’s propaganda department had also been livestreaming today and had noticed the problem as well.

It seemed Professor Niu was also unable to find the source of the issue. The propaganda department had already reported this to their superiors. They had initiated this event to promote the university; if they couldn’t find an answer in the end, it wouldn’t be promotion—it would be a disaster.

Inside a conference room at Hua University, a group of people were carefully reviewing the video footage and all the data that had been sent back, all of them frowning.

"Professors, have you reached any conclusions after reviewing this material?"

"There’s nothing in this data and material that points to a problem. We’ll have to go to the site and see for ourselves."

"Indeed. I can’t see any issues either. This phenomenon is too strange. Could the problem be with the Arrow Tower?"

"We’ve already tested the Arrow Tower with our instruments. We didn’t find any problems."

"Then we should still send a team to conduct a field investigation and a comprehensive analysis to see if we can find an answer. If we really can’t find one, then we’ll escalate the matter and bring more people in."

The propaganda department staff heard this suggestion and nodded. It was a great idea. If they couldn’t figure out the reason, they could just get more universities involved. That way, they wouldn’t lose face.