Sneaking all the way over to my place?!

Lin Xu opened his eyes.

His mind was a chaotic blur, as if he had received so much information that his fragile neural pathways were nearly blown apart.

M-theory, butterflies, divine miracles, the chaotic fundamental forces, the rise of planetary reincarnation...

This time, he had gained a wealth of knowledge.

Many questions now had answers.

Yet, it seemed these very answers only gave rise to more and more questions.

Where did the higher-dimensional space come from?
Where were the butterflies flying to?
Why were the fundamental forces in chaos, and was there any possibility of them returning to order?
Was the Planetary Reincarnation a religious cult brainwashed by "divine miracles," or was it a "dissident organization" expanding its influence through extreme measures with the ultimate purpose of saving the world?
What did all of this have to do with Mars?
Why did Jiang Xingye run off to Mars to establish a new "Martian Republic"?
Could going to Mars allow them to escape the apocalypse?

None of these questions had answers.

And as for himself, he wasn't much closer to the truth of the so-called doomsday.

After all, even in the bracelet world twenty years into the future, humanity had not uncovered the truth of the end times.

They didn't even know that the apocalypse was about to arrive!

Planetary Reincarnation was spreading panic, while official organizations were burying their heads in research.

No one was genuinely looking ahead toward the future, and no one had managed to come up with truly effective countermeasures.

Sigh.
The limitations of history...

Lin Xu crawled out of bed and updated all the clues into his document.

This time he had spent quite a bit of time, updating while checking reference materials, and finally managed to roughly grasp the meaning of the so-called "higher-dimensional butterfly."

Actually, if expressed through an intuitive example, this thing wasn't all that difficult to understand.

He was like a butterfly hatched from reality, landing on a peony painting inside a gallery.

The butterfly itself remained unchanged, but pollen-stained footprints were left behind on the artwork.

That was the "projection" he brought from the higher-dimensional space.

Was this probably why every time he entered the bracelet world, it took the form of a "dream"?

Lin Xu scratched his head and looked at the bracelet on his wrist.

There were still 3 uses left, but tonight, he really didn't want to go in again.

He was too exhausted.

And it wasn't just physical and mental fatigue.

He genuinely needed time to let his brain recover and sort through the clues at hand.

Once he had everything cleared up, communicating with Bai Mo would be much more efficient.

So...
Sleep!

Lin Xu checked the time; it was already 10:00 PM.

Jiang Xingye had sent him a bunch of abstract, hilarious videos dug up from who knows where, dumping them all in front of him like a retriever bringing back a bone.

Lin Xu watched them one by one, replying "hahaha" to each like an automated machine.

Before he knew it, an hour had slipped away.

Damn it.
He had gotten sucked in.

He hurriedly dropped his phone, took a quick shower, blew-dried his hair, collapsed onto the bed, and achieved instant zero-second sleep...

...

Early the next morning, Lin Xu was woken up by a phone call.

Ever since he realized he could log in and out flexibly, he had simply turned off his alarm clock.

Yet, he never expected that the life of President Lin would also be so plain, dull, and frantically busy.

The name displayed on the incoming call was Ren Jian.

Lin Xu picked up the phone, and Ren Jian's slightly nervous voice immediately came through the earpiece.

"Comrade Lin Xu, are you awake?"

Good grief, he was using the term "comrade" now.

Lin Xu checked the time and replied,
"I was busy quite late last night, just woke up and getting ready to head to the company."
"What's wrong? Is it urgent?"
"Not particularly urgent."

Ren Jian cleared his throat and continued,
"We have two... comrades from the Nanjing Materials Research Institute here."
"They want to talk with us about the follow-up production plans for Donghua Chemical Fiber."
"You're the chief officer in charge of this project, so I think it would be best if you could be here."

"Materials Research Institute?"

Lin Xu's heart skipped a beat.
Good grief, he had just intercepted Xu Jin, so were the people from the research institute coming to settle scores?

----No.
That was impossible.

He had already met Xu Qianlin, so Xu Jin's matter must have been smoothed over long ago.
Coming here this time was most likely not because of Xu Jin.
Could it be because these two documents were leading to early contact?

That made sense.
However, in front of them, figuring out the specific way to communicate would be an issue.

He would absolutely never hand over this document for nothing, but if he wanted to leverage official resources, he indeed needed to give them some benefits...

No matter what, go talk to them first!

Thinking of this, Lin Xu replied,
"Give me half an hour, I'll be right there."

With that, without waiting for Ren Jian's reply, he quickly hung up the phone.

After a brief cleanup, the taxi he hailed arrived right on time.

Lin Xu moved in a flurry of activity, and by the time he reached the company, barely over 20 minutes had passed.

At that moment, Ren Jian's message came through again.

"We're in the reception room, just come straight in."
"OK."

Lin Xu replied briefly, went upstairs, and headed straight for the reception room next to the chairman's office.

The corporate secretary was already waiting at the door. Nodding at Lin Xu, he politely pushed the door open and led him inside.

"Leaders, President Lin has arrived."

As his voice fell, the few people who had been chatting casually in the reception room instantly looked over.

After a brief pause, a middle-aged man wearing glasses was the first to stand up.

"President Lin is young and promising."

He smiled and reached out his hand toward Lin Xu, then said,
"I'm Xu He, a researcher at the Nanjing Materials Research Institute."
"This is Director Zhang Jiachuan, who is in charge of our advanced carbon fiber material R&D project."

As expected!

Hearing this title, Lin Xu understood instantly—they really had come looking for a partnership.

However...
Wasn't this a bit underhanded?

He hadn't agreed to anything yet, so had Xu Qianlin sold out the information in his hands?
Now that they had barged directly into his company, it was equivalent to putting him on the spot. How was this any different from a palace coup?

A flash of displeasure crossed Lin Xu's face, but he managed to control his emotions and warmly shook hands with both of them on the surface.

"The two of you... were introduced by Elder Xu?"
"Elder Xu?"

Zhang Jiachuan, sitting across from Lin Xu, was slightly stunned.
"Which Elder Xu?"
"Huh?"

Not him?
Now it was Lin Xu's turn to be stunned.
"It's not Elder Xu?"

He subconsciously scratched his head.
"Then the two of you... how did you find me?"
"Well... about that..."

Zhang Jiachuan cleared his throat, weighed his words for a moment, and said,
"This matter... is actually an assignment from above."
"We have a fact-finding mission to look into the R&D progress of private enterprises in carbon fiber materials."
"Mainly to see if there are any new processes or technologies emerging, and whether they can be applied to broader fields."
"As it happens, one of our colleagues heard from an investor about your company's acquisition move regarding Donghua Chemical Fiber."
"According to him, you are extremely determined this time, which means you should already have some preliminary progress."
"So, we thought we'd come over and take a look to get the lay of the land."
"Later on, if it's confirmed to be beneficial and you happen to need it, we can also provide a certain degree of support."
"Whether it's financial or technical support, everything is open for discussion..."

"I understand."

Lin Xu nodded slowly.
Presumably, some official project had also entered the stage where cutting costs and improving material performance were necessary.

Fact-finding.
Tsk tsk.

You guys are really lucky.
You happened to stumble right onto my doorstep??