Chapter 26: Chapter 26: The Truth Gradually Emerging
As a great battle erupted on one side of the city, Lin Ziming happened to return to the camp from Modu.
Seeing the large military green bag on Lin Ziming’s back, Lin Li immediately laughed:
"Colonel Lin, have you really switched careers to being a courier?"
Lin Ziming greeted Lin Li and the others present and explained:
"This bag contains copies of archives collected from all over the country, around thirty kilograms.
The quantity isn’t small, but it’s not so much that it requires many people to transport, so I carried it back myself."
Then he placed the bag on the desk, casually pulled up a chair, and sat down heavily:
"Phew, this thing is heavy; I’ll catch my breath first.
Captain Lin, tell me about the situation over at the city; did Captain Yan’s team join the battle?"
Lin Li replied:
"Not yet; the siege battle just started half an hour ago. The city has raised a light curtain to temporarily fend off the beast tide’s assault.
The top combatants from the city and the beast tide have gone to duel in the skies. The three Sword-controlling Elders seem to have paid some price to trap and kill two leader-class exotic beasts. Currently, the battle is three against five.
The battlefield is now filled with various energy ripples, which affects the drones’ visibility, so we can only judge the casualties by counting heads."
Lin Ziming stroked his chin, appearing thoughtful:
"So currently, the city’s casualties are minimal, and there’s a good chance of repelling the beast tide?"
Dai Chaohong handed him a glass of water:
"Our staff disagrees with your view; based on the current battle situation, we believe the city is likely to fall.
The low casualties are due to the barrier, which has blocked almost all attacks.
Once the barrier is breached, the situation could tip over instantly, and the death toll will skyrocket."
Lin Ziming gave Dai Chaohong a slightly surprised look.
If he remembered correctly, Dai Chaohong previously had a favorable opinion of the city’s chances.
Lin Li glanced at Lin Ziming from the corner of his eye, seeing him gradually calm down, and then coughed lightly:
"Alright, the battle over at the city is still stalemated, and Captain Yan has been on standby nearby. Let’s put the siege battle aside for now.
Colonel Lin, let’s talk about the archives you brought back. Did the headquarters discover anything?"
Lin Ziming pressed his hands against his thighs to stand up, pressed a few numbers on the combination lock of the backpack.
Click—
The combination lock sprang open automatically. Lin Ziming pulled out a small opening, took out a USB flash drive and several kraft paper file folders, and said:
"The bag is full of archives of this size, covering from 1956 to the present.
The electronic versions are on the USB, which require headquarters’ authorization to access."
Ma Ning leaned over and counted roughly with his fingers, frowning:
"Are these few archives from decades of disappearances? Teacher Dai, I remember the number of people who disappear each year is not small, right?"
As a social humanities expert, Dai Chaohong was well-versed in such data and immediately stated:
"Indeed, the number of people who disappear every year in our country is considerable.
This number is quite sensitive, so I’ll take ’Eagle’ as an example.
’Eagle’ loses ten to fifteen thousand people annually, and with a 60% recovery rate, the total over several decades would surely not be less than seven figures.
The number of archives Colonel Lin brought back is clearly disproportionate, perhaps they performed some sort of screening at headquarters?"
Lin Ziming patted the file folder and explained:
"Teacher Dai is right. These archives have been selected.
The specific process involved is also sensitive, but I’ll mention one aspect — headquarters conducted educational screening on these disappeared individuals."
Everyone present said in unison, "Educational screening?"
"That’s right."
Lin Ziming asked them, "Do you remember that couplet?"
Wang Qiang raised her hand: "Year after year, favorable weather and bountiful crops, the people prosper, right?"
After finishing, the girl suddenly remembered something and clapped her hands: "I got it, it’s the character ’阜’?"
Lin Ziming nodded somewhat emotionally:
"That’s right, it’s the character ’阜’.
The character ’阜’ is considered obscure, with a national prevalence rate of about 2.74% (see the second edition, fourteenth column, of the National Statistics on Rare Characters’ Popularity published by the Chinese Language Research Association in 2019, which finally wraps up the couplet. Unexpected, isn’t it?)
The personnel at headquarters, with the assistance of the educational department, confirmed that this character first appeared in textbooks in November 1963.
The context was a ninth-grade Chinese textbook published by Chun province, from the phrase ’As mountains, as hills’ in ’Book of Odes: Minor Epics’.
During this screening process.
Except for regions within counties or cities that have the character ’阜’, such as Fuyang, Qufu, and Fuxin, and non-local people who have passed through or stayed in areas with ’阜’ characters, the rest of the disappeared individuals with education levels below ninth grade were excluded.
It’s worth noting that this screening method does have the potential for a sweeping approach.
For example, some might have encountered this character through life experiences, as textbooks aren’t the only source of knowledge. Not to mention it was hard to track travel or accommodation records before 2005...
But these potentially unique cases are negligible compared to the volume of archives.
Moreover, knowing how to read ’阜’ and writing the phrase ’bountiful harvests and prosperous people’ are two entirely different concepts, thus making the error rate in screening lower than the omission rate.
According to headquarters, the accuracy of this screening was over 98% among the missing persons before the millennium.
For the missing after the millennium, accuracy was also above 92%.
To put it bluntly, if there are a few that slipped through the net, we can only resign to fate."
Lin Li patted the shoulder of his similarly named counterpart and continued to ask: "Did headquarters identify any high-probability targets?"
Lin Ziming answered:
"A total of 1734 files passed the final screening, with twenty-seven being the most likely candidates."
He then pulled out a separate table and handed it to Lin Li:
"Among these twenty-seven, fourteen people have handwriting samples, all submitted by their relatives upon filing reports. Preserved well under our national archive management system.
The command unit conducted handwriting verification for these fourteen, and finally identified six with highly similar handwriting, spanning from 1971 to 2016.
Their names are Nie Han, Ruan Guangtian, Fang Qiao, Hou Gang, Cheng Shiqing, and Yuan Jia’an.
Their occupations are jobless drifter, village official, middle school history teacher, accountant at a state-run farm, high school Chinese teacher, and senior engineer." (Note 1)
Note 1:
Today is 221’s 1, there’s only one update.
Tomorrow marks the debut of the rabbits in another world; for a more ceremonial feel, we’ll play a bonus Chapter game.
The contents of the game: guess which one among the six people above is the Transmigrator?
You can leave a number from 1-6 in the comments, and once the answer is revealed, I’ll tally the votes for each profession.
If the most voted person is the correct answer, two bonus Chapters will be uploaded, or one next week, and another upon unlocking.
If the second most voted is correct, one bonus Chapter next week.
In case of ties, other rankings won’t score.
No reason is necessary (though you’re welcome to provide one if you feel you have it), just a number will do, and each person can only vote once.
It’s free anyway, just play along a bit; the deadline is tomorrow morning at 9 AM, since the answer will be revealed in the update then.
At the end of this sentence, please leave your comment. Votes elsewhere won’t count.
No need for monthly tickets, just some free recommendations would be nice.