"Did your taxi company... has this part not been investigated by the police?"

Lin Xian looked at Zheng Chenghua, who was bundled up tightly and focused on driving.

"The vehicles that killed Professor Xu Yun and the female scientist some time ago were both taxis. Have you drivers been investigated?"

"Of course, we have."

Zheng Chenghua replied while steering the wheel,

"But don't think there are so many taxis in Donghai City. In fact, each one has a number, and the newly replaced taxis have real-time positioning systems. It's very simple to investigate. The platform clearly shows where each car is at any moment."

"I also know about Professor Xu Yun's case. I paid attention to it at the time. But that taxi should have been a fake taxi, maliciously painted and modified, not a formally registered taxi... so it was never found."

Lin Xian watched Zheng Chenghua driving attentively and said nothing more.

...

After Zheng Chenghua dropped Lin Xian off at the Donghai City Public Security Bureau, he went to pick up passengers and go to work.

Lin Xian and his colleagues quickly threw themselves into their work.

The general direction of solving the case was still the same as the plan Ji Lin had set before—

Predict the next scientist murder case that would occur at 00:42, then ambush in advance nearby, and while preventing the car accident and protecting the scientist's life, intercept the vehicle involved and arrest the driver.

Therefore.

The current difficulty lies in how to accurately predict the next target of the murderer's plot and the date of the murder.

After Ji Lin left, Lin Xian was indeed much freer.

He had briefly entered the dream world, just to confirm whether the dream world had changed.

But the result was different from what he thought...

Old Donghai was still old Donghai, and New Donghai City was still New Donghai City.

In the second dream, there were absolutely no changes.

This made Lin Xian quite surprised...

Logically speaking, shouldn't a groundbreaking invention like room-temperature superconductors have even a shred of impact that causes a temporal distortion?

Or, was the appearance of room-temperature superconductors originally in the historical trajectory of the second dream?

Lin Xian felt that the space-time logic here was a bit strange.

But for a while, he couldn't figure out what was strange, so he could only think about the questions while monitoring the movements of those hibernation field scientists with his colleagues.

During this period, they also tried to ambush several times.

However, those scientists passed the road safely at 00:42, without any signs of murder.

It was certainly a good thing that no one was in trouble.

But for the task force that was determined to solve the case... they hoped to be able to successfully stake out and arrest the murderer as soon as possible.

...

April 10th, morning.

Donghai City Public Security Bureau, task force meeting room.

A male team member, holding a pointer, pointed to the five scientists' photos on the projection screen, each photo with their respective introductions below:

"On the evening of April 12th, there will be two large-scale scientific exchange dinners and an academic report in Donghai City. On April 13th, there will also be a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a key hibernation laboratory, which will invite several heavyweight scientific leaders to participate."

"These days, we haven't let up for a moment, staking out every scientist who might be harmed, and we've all come up empty-handed. But on the night of April 12th, that is, at 00:42 on the morning of April 13th, we still can't relax our vigilance."

"Most importantly... our task is very severe that night. According to the information we currently have, there are a total of these 5 scientists who may be exposed to danger at 00:42."

The male colleague pointed to the first two scientists, both new stars in the field of hibernation research, not very old, in their 40s, but already leading figures in the field of hibernation equipment:

"These two hibernation experts will participate in two scientific exchange dinners in Donghai City, respectively. It is difficult for us to judge whether they will be murdered at 00:42, but they are definitely key objects of monitoring."

Then, he pointed to the fat, big-eared scientist in the middle:

"Academician Lyon from Canada, everyone should be familiar with him. His research on room-temperature superconductors shocked the world some time ago. He will also attend an academic report on the evening of April 12th. After the meeting, he will have dinner with the leaders. We can't control what time it will end, so it is not ruled out that the murderer may want to murder him."

Finally, the male colleague pointed to the last two scientists on the screen:

"These two scientists are here to participate in the ribbon-cutting ceremony on April 13th. They are also researching hibernation technology. Their plane arrives at midnight on April 12th, so they are also in danger at 00:42."

...

The female colleague next to Lin Xian thought with her chin in her hand:

"If it's just to protect them, it's easy. Just let them avoid the 00:42 time point, and naturally there will be no danger to their lives."

"But... if we don't give the murderers a chance to kill, they won't appear, and we won't be able to catch them. These two things are too contradictory!"

"That's right."

The male team member who was explaining continued,

"I've been thinking about it for the past few days. We always set up roadblocks and interception nets on both sides of the road... If the murderer is really well-prepared, then they will definitely notice our ambush, and even if they have a murder plan that day, they will cancel it. So... is it precisely because our actions have been discovered that we have failed every time?"

After the male team member finished speaking, the other members also nodded.

Indeed.

It is true that the murderers are very arrogant in killing people, but they are not stupid.

If they clearly perceive that there are police ambushes and roadblocks are set up, they will not take the risk.

They may patiently wait for the next opportunity.

If such a tug-of-war continues... the police will only become more and more passive.

"Everyone is right. Now we mainly face two difficulties."

The male team member leaned on the table and summarized,

"First, we can't let the murderer notice our actions, including protecting scientists, setting up roadblocks and interception nets, etc., otherwise they will not take the bait."

"Second, if we don't ambush in advance, we can't protect the lives of scientists, even if we catch the murderer afterwards, the cost is too great."

"These are two very contradictory points. Moreover, if we ambush five target locations at the same time... the action is too big, and it is impossible not to arouse the murderer's awareness. And once awareness is triggered, they will cancel the action, and we will never catch the murderer like this."

...

Listening to everyone's discussion, Lin Xian turned his pen without speaking.

In fact, he still had a concern in his heart.

He looked around at the team members...

It was true that Ji Lin had left.

But among the remaining team members, in this police station, are there still Ji Lin's accomplices?

Or, are there Ji Lin's informants?

It was not that he did not trust his colleagues.

It was just that under the premise that the opponent was extremely clever and cunning... Lin Xian did not dare to easily trust these team members. Although they seemed to be on his side, it was not necessarily impossible for them to be used by Ji Lin.

In addition, if a large-scale deployment and ambush of personnel was really launched, it would inevitably leak the plan, and it would be even more impossible to catch the murderer.

"Lin Xian, what do you think?"

The male colleague looked at Lin Xian with a smile,

"Ji Lin also said before he left that because you have experienced the crime scene twice, you are better able to perceive the murderer's intentions than we are from your intuition and feeling. Among these five scientists... which one do you think is most likely to be the target of the murderer's assassination?"

Lin Xian stopped turning his pen, thoughtfully,

"...I can't make a decision now, I need time to think about it."

The male colleague nodded and looked at everyone,

"This is indeed no small matter, we must act cautiously. It is very likely that one wrong decision of ours will not only lead to the murderer's escape, but also lead to the death of a scientist, so... everyone should think about it carefully after you go back, and we will communicate again at the routine meeting tomorrow. Remember, pay attention to keeping everything confidential!"

"Meeting dismissed."

...

At noon, Lin Xian went home for a long-awaited visit.

After locking the door, he went to bed.

He increasingly felt that he was still under Ji Lin's surveillance, perhaps his every move in the police station was being watched by Ji Lin, Zhou Duan Yun, and the others.

However.

This was also an opportunity for him to break the situation.

And the key to breaking the situation was to obtain more intelligence and information.

If he could accurately know which scientist would be murdered, that would be great.

At present, the only place where he could obtain this "predictive information"... was in the dream, in New Donghai City, in that chain bookstore full of books.

"Let's try my luck."

Lin Xian closed his eyes and fell asleep...

...

...

New Donghai City at night, bookstore.

Lin Xian was already familiar with this place, like coming home.

He used the computer at the cashier to search for the names of the five scientists who arrived in Donghai on April 12th.

This book guidance system 600 years later was very easy to use. Unlike the libraries in 2023, which could only search for book titles, this place could even retrieve the content of each book. As long as you entered a keyword, it would list which books contained that keyword.

But this kind of technological progress was to be expected.

After all, New Donghai City was much more developed than the real world in all aspects, so it was not surprising to have this kind of retrieval ability.

Lin Xian first entered the names of the four scientists related to hibernation research, and then clicked search separately.

The result...

All of them were not found.

It seemed that these four people, in the 600 years, were just insignificant little people, not even qualified to have their names mentioned.

Lin Xian curiously entered Xu Yun.

As expected, there were many results.

Many books mentioned Xu Yun's name, calling him the Father of Hibernation, and there were also many evaluations. One book also wrote that Xu Yun died in a car accident, and then there was no other information.

Then enter Tang Xin's name...

Still, no information was found.

"Sure enough, 600 years is too long to bury everything."

Lin Xian sighed.

Unless it was a great man of Xu Yun or Einstein's level, could they leave their names in history.

Lin Xian also entered his own name...

"Heh."

Similarly, no one was found.

Oh well.

Even MX Corporation did not leave any records in history, let alone a small sesame seed like himself?

Even if Lain Cat was popular, it was just a toy, and could not be compared with Xu Yun's hibernation pod and Einstein's great achievements.

Purely with a try-it-out mentality, Lin Xian entered Academician Lyon's name in the search bar, and then clicked the search button—

The page refreshed instantly.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

Many pieces of information popped up!

The amount of information was even more than Professor Xu Yun's!

"It seems that this is a heavyweight."

Understandable.

His room-temperature superconductor was the prerequisite technology for controlled nuclear fusion. Although the title of Father of Controlled Nuclear Fusion could not be given to him... but as long as controlled nuclear fusion was mentioned, he could not be left out.

What's more, the technology in New Donghai City has not yet conquered controlled nuclear fusion, only small nuclear batteries have been popularized.

So under this premise, the attention to controlled nuclear fusion must be much greater than the already realized hibernation pod.

However...

Lin Xian browsed through these search results, but frowned more and more.

He thought that these messages should all be praising and worshiping Academician Lyon.

But the opposite was true!

Almost all the evaluations of Academician Lyon in the books were uniformly critical and critical!

What academic fraud, academic thief, deserved to die, dirty means... these derogatory words almost drowned out Academician Lyon's name.

"What's going on?"

Lin Xian did not understand.

In 2023, where he lived, Academician Lyon has been hailed as the star of mankind, and countless research institutes have proved that his theories and experimental data are correct.

Under such a premise, how could he become a street rat pointed out by everyone in future books?

Lin Xian continued to browse those excerpts full of scolding, and finally found a useful piece of information—

...It was not until 3 years after Academician Lyon's death in a car accident that Dr. Poncemai was finally vindicated, and people began to investigate Academician Lyon, and the dirty truth of this academic swindler was revealed...