Countdown: Humanity's struggle to survive against yesterday

Chapter 49 Zhang Tian Group

An hour later, Jiang Ning finished speaking.

Several people stared at Jiang Ning as if he were a madman, and even Sun Fumin fell silent.

"I knew you wouldn't believe me..."

Jiang Ning shook his head helplessly, stood behind the bar in the living room, and shrugged at everyone.

He then raised his glass, trying to break the deathly silence in the room.

"Are you satisfied with this place?"

"This is a four-story independent residence, numbered Taiqing No. 1 Courtyard. It has six rooms, plus a conference room, and there is a wine cabinet in the living room. Moreover, there is an internal elevator. Obviously, it was previously used to entertain leaders."

But now they belong to our Kaiten Group.

Instead of raising their glasses, the crowd continued to gather around the bar, staring at Jiang Ning, wondering if he had truly gone mad.

After a long silence, Sun Fumin raised his hand, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

Jiang Ning looked at Sun Fumin: "Brother Fumin, if you have something to say, just ask directly. I'm not used to you doing this."

"that……"

Sun Fumin grabbed the wine glass and drank it all in one gulp. His mouth felt burning. He wiped his mouth and looked at Jiang Ning incredulously.

"Xiao Ning, you're amazing! You should have said so sooner! No wonder you've always been the 'perfect child' since we were kids. Now the case is finally solved..."

"this……"

Jiang Ning pursed her lips and gave an awkward smile. The other person's description was indeed appropriate, but were you serious about the second half?

Moreover, he hasn't seen this skill have any significant effect so far, and it can't save the world.

Its only function at present is like the wind-fixing pearl in mythology, which can fix people and prevent them from going backward with the world.

But to simply fantasize about using this ability to save the world is pure nonsense.

Su Mian snapped out of her daze and calmly looked at Jiang Ning: "If what you said is true, does that mean we'll stay here today?"

"Is that so!"

"That's why I dared to call you all here!"

Jiang Ning nodded, and seeing that Su Mian, after being dazed at first, was now the first to regain her composure, he was very satisfied.

"Team Leader Jiang, I still don't understand why milk is so important?"

Lu Xue bit her lip and asked a question that surprised everyone.

"It's just a pet dog; there's no need for it to be studied like a guinea pig in the future, is there?"

"Do you remember how Milk would bark wildly every time she saw me?"

Jiang Ning did not answer first, but instead mentioned a fact.

"It seems so..." Lu Xue continued to bite her lip, her delicate face showing great distress.

"I hadn't noticed this issue before..."

As Jiang Ning spoke, a ferocious look flashed across his face, and his fists clenched and unclenched unconsciously, as if he really didn't want to recall a past event.

Finally, I couldn't help but complain:

"Those damn scientists interrogated me for three days and three nights straight, trying to find out as many times as I went to the toilet in a day."

Upon hearing this, they immediately brought in other pet dogs for testing.

Interestingly, the other dogs didn't bark at me, nor did they seem agitated...

"So, that dog mutated too..."

Sun Fumin's eyes lit up, and he quickly chimed in, looking at Jiang Ning with sympathy, "Alright, Xiao Ning, relax, relax. It's good enough that we didn't slice you into pieces; it was just an interrogation."

This line, meant to soothe a child, eased the atmosphere in the room considerably, and everyone continued to look at Jiang Ning with strange expressions.

I don't know if it's mutated or not!

Jiang Ning took a sip of wine and continued looking at Lu Xue: "They are just speculating that when the world went backward for the first time, when the mutation occurred in me, this dog was likely also affected."

"I understand, you don't need to explain anymore!"

Lu Xue nodded, having roughly sorted out her thoughts.

Similarly, the other three understood as well, and all looked thoughtful.

If you look at it that way, this dog is indeed worth keeping an eye on.

No wonder Jiang Ning said, "Political Commissar Zhou treats it like his own son."

Based on this reasoning, the scientists might not conduct any human dissection experiments on Jiang Ning, but the dog will definitely suffer.

Thinking of this, Su Mian reached out and gently hugged Lu Xue, without saying anything to comfort her.

Lu Xue felt Su Mian hug her, looked up and forced a smile, then lowered her head again, not daring to show the new conflicted look on her face.

She was conflicted at the moment. Jiang Ning's story reminded her of something.

Before the world went backwards, every day when I went out to walk my dog, I would deliberately let go of the leash inside the building and let Milk run to the door of 2102 to play.

Not for any other reason than to see if I could create a chance encounter, so that I would have an excuse to strike up a conversation.

Ironically, I did the same thing on the day the world went backwards.

It seems that, just as the scientists speculated, the dog was indeed affected.

"only……"

"Even dogs can be affected, so why didn't I mutate too? I wish I could mutate too..."

"Also, if I reveal this now, will it cause misunderstandings?"

Thinking of this, Lu Xue lowered her head even further, almost pressing it against the bar.

Seeing this, Zhang Jimin patted her shoulder but didn't know what to say, assuming he was still worried about her dog.

Afterwards, seeing that no one else was speaking, Zhang Jimin raised his glass and looked at Jiang Ning.

Jiang Ning lightly touched him and said with a smile, "Old Zhang, if you have something to say, just say it. I can tell you've been holding it in for a while."

"I do have something to say!"

Zhang Jimin followed Sun Fumin's example and downed half a glass of baijiu in one gulp, only to find that while it was indeed bold, it was incredibly spicy.

"Ningzi, my biggest curiosity right now is about that mysterious space you mentioned. You said it's like a global sleep monitoring room. Is that true or not?"

"Of course it's true!"

"Is it possible that it is a human sleep monitoring room?"

"Go on..."

Jiang Ning put down his wine glass and looked quietly at Zhang Jimin. He seemed to see a strange light in Zhang Jimin's eyes, a look that was different from his usual mature and steady image, and more like a kind of madness.

Su Mian, Lu Xue, and Sun Fumin all looked at Zhang Jimin with curiosity after hearing the conversation between the two.

"It's very simple. Strip away its mystique, and you can see who's sleeping and who's awake. It's just a surveillance system."

"As for what you said, those mysterious beads that represent each person are actually like samples. Just like when we conducted online and offline surveys to compile the annual China Sleep Report, we also sent sleep recording bracelets to volunteers."

The only difference is that we can't see people, only data, while you can look directly at it.

So, I think this might actually be a sleep monitoring room.

"That's right, that's what I think too!"

Jiang Ning was very pleased that Zhang Jimin had the same idea as him, thinking to himself that he was indeed a colleague and friend of many years and understood him very well.

After he finished speaking, he solemnly addressed the four people:

"Don't laugh at me, but I believe the root cause of this disaster is most likely related to human sleep problems!"

Everyone was shocked when they heard this.

"To think you could cause a global catastrophe while you're sleeping? That's ridiculous!"

Jiang Ning chuckled self-deprecatingly: "Other scientists don't agree with this idea. They believe the root of the problem is more likely at the quantum level or in spacetime distortion."

"Some scientists are willing to try my conjectures, but I don't like them. I think they are more interested in me personally, using scientific research as a pretext to actually study me."

After speaking, Jiang Ning slammed his glass down on the bar, his face revealing a dramatic expression beyond his usual calm for the first time.

"You don't need to know what I've been through over the past twenty days, and I won't complain about it."

I just want to selfishly tell you all that the future research goal of the Return to Heaven Group is to verify my hypothesis. If you think it's feasible, you can stay; if you don't agree, just consider it a trip here.

These words were very direct and cold, almost explicitly stating that the Huitian Group laboratory belonged to Jiang Ning alone, and that anyone who wanted to work there could stay, or it didn't matter if they didn't.

As soon as Jiang Ning finished speaking, the four people opposite him fell silent.

Sun Fumin rested his chin on his hand and fiddled with the wine glass in his hand; Zhang Jimin took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose; Su Mian looked at Jiang Ning and gently tapped the table with one hand; Lu Xue bit her lip and kept turning her thumb down.

Jiang Ning didn't urge them. He looked away from Su Mian and turned to walk towards the fake balcony in the living room.

He lit a cigarette and looked at the blue sky and white clouds on the 3D screen on the wall.

After a long while, Sun Fumin grinned, slowly walked over, put one hand on Jiang Ning's shoulder, and said.

"Xiao Ning, I don't know how I can be of any help here? But since you specifically asked me to come, I suppose you have your reasons. It's just about studying sleep, which is my specialty. I think we can start with me."

"yes!"

As Zhang Jimin spoke, he walked over and put his arm around Jiang Ning's shoulder from the other side.

"This idea sounds crazy, but when I think about how you've become Jiang Daxian, it suddenly doesn't seem like such a big deal. Since it's still about studying sleep, isn't that my old specialty? How can things work without me?"

Seeing this, Su Mian stopped tapping on the table and looked at Lu Xue: "Junior, what do you say?"

"I……"

Lu Xue glanced at the three men embracing on the balcony, especially Sun Fumin, who was making a suggestive attempt to grope Jiang Ning's crotch, startling Jiang Ning into a flustered frenzy. This behavior caused Zhang Jimin to burst into laughter.

"I want to stay, what about you, senior?"

"I think I'll stay too! The other labs don't really want me anyway..."