Chapter 51:
Black market auction items

After the village chief finished his story, Tang Song chatted with him briefly before hanging up.

Turning to Jing Qizhen and the others, he smiled. “So, it looks like your questions have been answered?”

Jin Guijuan, who had been feeling down, smiled sheepishly and discreetly wiped at her eyes.

Standing beside her, Manman also smiled and gently patted Jin Guijuan’s shoulder.

Old Xiao, who had been worrying about navigating the steep winding path down the mountain, suddenly interjected, “You know, I did some quick math. Xu Siya would’ve been nine years old in 1992, so she’d be about thirty-seven years old now.”

While thirty-seven wasn’t particularly old, for their team of mostly young volunteers working to save the planet, the age gap felt significant. Only Old Xiao, in his 40s, could be considered close in age to the real-world Xu Siya.

Jin Guijuan: “…Huh?”

Manman couldn’t help laughing and teased, “In the erosion area, she might call you ‘Guijuan-jie,’ but outside of it, she’d definitely be your big sister.”

Jin Guijuan: “…”

After a moment of stunned silence, Jin Guijuan finally processed the new information and felt briefly disoriented by the time difference. Eventually, she laughed softly, saying, “Well, as long as everyone’s doing fine, I’m happy.”

Tang Song didn’t comment further, but he mentally noted the names, Xu Lu and Xu Siya, planning to follow up later.

When they reached the foot of the mountain, dawn had fully broken. Looking back, sunlight filtered through the mist, creating patches of light among the trees.

The mountain breeze gradually scattered the fog, revealing the forest’s increasingly vivid details.

Tang Song: “We’ll take the car back to the city. You all can rest for a bit while my team and I organize the footage you collected. Once you’re ready, we’ll hold a meeting to exchange insights.”

Before entering the erosion area, everyone had been equipped with tools similar to police body cameras. Those devices stored data on portable USB drives instead of transmitting it over a network. The cameras, including pinhole cameras and audio recorders, were designed to be discreet.

Seeing the researchers still stationed at the base camp, Jing Qizhen asked, “Aren’t these people leaving?”

Tang Song shook his head. “Each erosion area with abnormal energy readings has a team staying behind for ongoing investigations. Once the data is out, experts will compare differences between areas, like Shennongjia and Yunhai Wancheng Department Store, to draw conclusions and hypotheses.”

Tang Song nodded toward Jing Qizhen with a smile, adding teasingly, “Why don’t you ask the Earth’s opinion for me? Oh, by the way, I’ve kept your ability to communicate with Earth confidential. The number of people who know about it is limited to those you’ve already met.”

Grandma Fang, a fellow researcher, chuckled. “If that info got out, a swarm of geologists, geographers, and paleontologists would’ve come after Little Jing by now, eager to interrogate him!”

Jing Qizhen imagined the scene.

A crowd of elite academics, their eyes gleaming with enthusiasm, swarming around him. He wouldn’t dare run away for fear of triggering heart attacks or high blood pressure among the elderly professors in their frenzy for science

The vivid image sent a shiver down his spine.

Quickly, Jing Qizhen shoved the thought out of his mind.

Yet, even in such a situation, the Earth still let out a puzzled ‘Huh?’ and asked in confusion, “What was that loud noise ye’ just made? Ye’ startled me.”

Jing Qizhen replied earnestly, “If you really got startled, we’d be in serious trouble.”

Having just dealt with the erosion area in Shennongjia, the Earth was in an unusually good mood.

Instead of getting angry at Jing Qizhen’s teasing, it spoke in a calm, soft voice, reasoning with him, “Can ye’ stop arguin’ with me every day? Treat de’ one and only Earth a bit better, be mor’ patient with me, okay?”

Jing Qizhen paused for a moment before saying, “I thought the existence of erosion areas meant there are countless parallel worlds, and in those worlds, there are countless Earths too…”

The mention of other planets instantly soured Earth’s good mood.

It switched to an irritable mode and began ranting furiously, spewing curses in multiple languages, “Those uninvited pieces of trash, black-hearted troublemakers, scum! F*ck! Sh*t! Pauvree! …&*%…%)*.”

Jing Qizhen: “…”

The cranky ball was now angrily cursing online.

Interestingly, when the Earth switched languages to rant, its strong northeastern dialect seemed to fade away.

At that moment, Tang Song asked Jing Qizhen, “By the way, is the Earth around? Can you ask about the current global status of erosion areas? While you were in the erosion area over the past two days, we also communicated with several other countries experiencing similar erosion. Honestly, the situation doesn’t look optimistic.”

Jing Qizhen nodded, “Sure, the ball is online. I’ll ask.”

“Why ar’ ye’ callin’? What ar’ ye’ callin’ de’ ball for?” the Earth snorted.

Jing Qizhen explained, “Tang Song wants to ask about the situation in other erosion areas. After all, he needs to understand the broader picture to better plan the next steps for saving the planet.”

The Earth perked up at that, exclaiming, “Exactly! De’ erosion areas ar’ a problem humanity as a whole must face! Dis’ is serious. Mobilize yer’ United Nations and get everyone involved!”

“I’ll grab a laptop and find a dynamic model of you. We’ll mark the locations of all the erosion areas and summarize the current situation,” Jing Qizhen replied.

The Earth: “Good, good, brin’ over a digital glob’ and let’s get dis’ sorted!”

After explaining the plan to Tang Song, he nodded, “There’s a laptop in the car.”

Once Tang Song and Jing Qizhen’s discussion ended, Manman casually asked, “What was that about the Russian experts Jiayang just mentioned?”

Tang Song explained, “The Russian Earthquake Monitoring Center has detected abnormal energy fluctuations within their borders. Comparing their data with what we’ve already made public, they’ve identified a newly emerging erosion area. However, its energy levels are still low and it’ll likely take some time before it fully forms.”

“I think Jiayang mentioned he knows some Russian.” Manman nodded.

Tang Song smiled, revealing his signature small canine tooth. “Given Si Jiayang’s family background, it’s not surprising. If I’m not mistaken, Jing Qizhen probably knows some Russian too?”

After all, both Si Jiayang and Jing Qizhen came from families involved in military and scientific research, with ties to Soviet-era experts.

Jing Qizhen nodded. “But I heard from the Earth that the lead expert this time speaks in a Northeastern accent?”

“But they do prefer others to speak directly to them in Russian,” added Tang Song after a blink.

Manman suddenly realized why Si Jiayang couldn’t outperform Tang Song in communication.

Jin Guijuan: “So, they just want to come over and get a better understanding of the situation, right?”

Tang Song: “Yes, because there’s an active erosion area here in Shennongjia, Russian experts have requested to join the monitoring and analysis efforts. Additionally, the location of their erosion area is quite unique.”

Jing Qizhen: “How unique?”

Tang Song: “It’s located at the Winter Palace in Russia, which later became a cultural heritage museum.”

Manman: “…That’s really unique.”

As they spoke, the group began boarding the bus Tang Song had arranged to pick them up.

At that moment, Si Jiayang, who had almost turned into a ‘longing rock’ while stuck with the Russian experts, finally managed to shake them off. Like the wind, he dashed onto the bus, immediately locking eyes on Manman.

Si Jiayang: “Baby!”

Manman embraced him and Si Jiayang unabashedly kissed her on the forehead. “Baby, I missed you so much. I’ll make you something delicious for lunch!”

Si Jiayang glanced at Tang Song while he spoke.

Tang Song: “Don’t worry, you’re free to use the hotel kitchen.”

Only then did Si Jiayang look away and focus entirely on Manman.

Afterward, Jing Qizhen and the others handed over their recording devices, which had been attached to their clothing, to Tang Song. Lu Lingxi also submitted a notebook filled with meticulously recorded notes. Manman and Jing Qizhen sent a few photos from their phones to Tang Song via WeChat.

As for the ‘Journey of Hell’ book and the ‘Christmas Reindeer Music Box’ brought out from the erosion area, both were sealed in boxes for testing and analysis by staff members.

Jing Qizhen: “These two items may have special properties. We didn’t use ‘Journey of Hell’ but in the erosion area, Xu Siya summoned the oil pan hell directly with it. As for the music box, when we opened it, the surrounding temperature immediately dropped and it started snowing. Its effects seem to counteract those of the boiling oil hell.”

Tang Song nodded gravely at the information.

The bumpy mountain roads took their toll and by the time they returned to the city, Old Xiao was pale and nauseated from motion sickness. The group quickly helped him inside.

At that moment, Tang Song’s phone suddenly rang.

He stopped in his tracks. “Hello?”

The person on the other end spoke rapidly and Tang Song’s expression shifted slightly. “What?!”

After a brief exchange, he hung up, took a deep breath, and turned to Jing Qizhen and the others.

Tang Song: “Items from the erosion area have appeared on the dark web’s black market. It’s suspected that someone from another country, who accidentally entered an erosion area, brought out some of these special items for auction!”