Chapter 2

  When Magellan sailed across the strait named after him, he saw a vast ocean that was calm and peaceful, so he named it the Pacific Ocean. However, the great navigator Magellan did not see the other side of the Pacific Ocean, which is actually not peaceful at all, its turbulent waves can swallow up anything.

  Wangxiang Island, one of the many unnamed islands in the Pacific Ocean, was originally part of a French colony. During the colonial era, greedy French people would often plant their flag on uninhabited land and claim it as their own. However, many of these islands were uninhabited. Due to its lack of inhabitants, Zhu Ao bought this 2-square-kilometer island for $250 million 15 years ago and named it Wangxiang Island. The island is only 2.5 square kilometers in size at low tide and about 1.5 square kilometers at high tide. It has lush green trees, protruding rocks, and cliffs, resembling the island in Robinson Crusoe. On the west side of the island, there is a natural spring that flows gently down to form a small pond with a diameter of only over three meters. The water then flows directly into a small stream that enters the ocean. The clear and sweet spring water flows out continuously throughout the year. This was also one of the reasons why Zhu Ao chose to buy this island.

  I lay on the gentle sandy beach on the east side of the island, reminiscing about the past. I've been to this island for 15 years now. Although I spend three months of vacation every year in other places, my mind is still so melancholic. Looking at the blue sky at the edge of the horizon, my thoughts seem to have returned to the past years again. In my memory, I was wandering on the streets of Changsha, sitting on the street watching people come and go, never like other children chasing after passersby running around, I just silently watched these crowds, seeing only vagrancy on their faces but full of perseverance. Grandpa later told me that it was because he saw the perseverance in my eyes that he decided to take me in.

  I came to this island when I was eight years old, although before the age of eight, there were more than 30 little friends together. However, only I and eight other people actually made it here. Among them, four people left five years ago, and Grandfather said they went out to study. I remember that when we arrived, Grandfather personally presided over the IQ and EQ exams, and I was fifth in IQ and first in EQ. Of course, the other eight people were also ranked within the top 10 before being admitted. Every day here is spent on strict military training in the morning and knowledge learning in the afternoon. Grandfather has very high expectations for us, and we live in a white villa at the center of the island. In front of the villa is a large helipad where Grandfather arrives by helicopter each time.

  Here is the translation:

  Alright, now let me introduce myself and my 8 friends. My name is Zhu Xiao. I'm currently 23 years old, and I've never attended university. My ancestral home is in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province. When I was three years old, I followed my parents to America, but due to some kind of disaster or calamity, my beloved parents sacrificed themselves, leaving me behind as a survivor. I was taken in by my grandfather and raised by him until now. I'm grateful for his guidance and support that has brought me to where I am today, but I have no way to repay him.

  Zhou Lun, 23 years old, like me, did not attend university, ancestral home in Hunan, and entered the company with me a year ago. He has no particular shortcomings except that he is slightly lecherous, and is skilled at strategic research.

  Lü Jun, 24 years old, his ancestral home is probably in Henan, we met here. He likes to study tactics and is on par with Zhou Lun.

  Peng Ying, 22 years old, also from Hunan province, I really can't understand why there are so many talented people in Hunan. He likes collecting car models and has collected a lot, but they all got lost by me (hehe, poisonous). However, the most impressive thing is that his plans have no way to be found out.

  Xu Jin, 24 years old, seems to be from the same hometown as Judge Bao, an Anhui native studying at Harvard, went there 5 years ago, said to understand 5 languages, don't know if this kid is lying or not because I only heard him speak Mandarin with a hint of Anhui accent.

  Fan Jie, 23 years old, is a chubby guy from Hubei. Although he's fat, his skills are not bad after long-term military training. He knows all the firearms on our island, including their principles.

  Li Quan, 23 years old, is also from Hunan. His grandfather brought him here when he came to Hunan for inspection. He went abroad to study 5 years ago and studied ship design and manufacturing. Now I really miss him a bit.

  Chen Hui, 25 years old, ancestral home is probably in Shaanxi. He's our big brother, with a straightforward and generous personality like a Northwestern Chinese man. Studying economics at Harvard, I just can't figure out how such a straightforward big brother could study economics, haha!

  Jiang Hao, 23 years old, is a Guangdong native. This kid's name sounds like water, but he's actually a duck that can't swim. He majored in Metallurgy, a pretty niche major. I really don't know how his parents supported him studying such a major. Sigh!

  Time is passing, and I quietly lay on the soft beach thinking about the past. To be honest, we should all thank the old man. If it weren't for him, maybe some of us would have starved to death in a corner of the street. I don't know if they would have died from hunger, but at least I myself would have definitely starved to death or taken a wrong path and gone astray.

  The old man instructed us to watch patriotic TV movies from China every night, making us realize that our motherland is China, not the United States. This made our hearts gather a strong sense of patriotism. We all vowed that whenever we saw Japanese people, we would fight them once. Whenever Xu Jin came back on vacation and bragged about organizing Chinese students to resist Japanese students in school, we were all envious that he had such good opportunities to find trouble with the Japanese at any time. Of course, I thought that when we went out for tourism every year, if something small happened, I couldn't help but smile slightly at the corner of my mouth.

  Peng Ying's figure, under the illumination of the setting sun, dragged a long tail. I watched as her shadow walked towards me, but I still didn't want to get up, squinting my eyes and enjoying the beautiful sunset.

  Xiao Ying stood behind me and said in his low voice, "A Xiao, the old man's phone call has come. The old man said he will be back soon and asked us to wait for him inside the villa."

  When I heard this, a carp jumped up and stood upright, facing Xiaoying and laughing: "Really or not? Let's go back on horseback." It's been half a year since the old man came to the island, and I really miss him.

  The old man's helicopter was hovering over the island and slowly descended, our 5 people and our martial arts teacher Zhao Zhe, military tactics teacher Song Dian were all standing on the tarmac watching the plane land slowly. The cabin door opened slowly, and Xu Jin jumped out first, made a ghost face at us, then opened his arms and ran towards us. We also followed up, 9 people hugged together, at this moment we all felt that brotherhood was so strong.

  Grandpa had already come down and was standing beside us, patting our shoulders and saying: "Alright, alright. You're all grown up now, no need to be so sentimental. Let's talk about this later, there are more important things to discuss right now." It was only then that I realized Grandpa had come down, and as I looked at him, I saw that he had aged a lot in the past six months. At 72 years old, his wrinkles were deeper, his eye sockets were sunken, and there were hardly any black hairs left on his temples. The few of us who were on the island all walked over to hug Grandpa.

  Grandpa smiled and said, "I'm not dead yet, don't be so excited, men. Let's go, we still have important things to discuss." He walked towards the nearby villa. We followed him and came to his study, where everyone sat down at the conference table.

  Grandpa first said to us: "I'm very glad that Xu Jin can graduate ahead of time. Ah, you four have also done a great job. Teachers Zhao and Song have reported your situation to me, and I am very pleased. You are all so obedient and hardworking, which means you haven't forgotten our country's disaster and our nation's difficulties. This time I came back because I found an important artifact for the plan. As for what the plan is, I'll tell you in detail later. First, take a look at this artifact." After finishing speaking, he took out a box from beside him and opened it.

  I looked at the eight of them, and one by one they were all stunned. I turned my head to take a look, wasn't this the jade seal from history? Or was it me who first broke the silence and said to Grandfather: "Grandfather, is this really the Jade Seal?" I believe these words represented the voices in the hearts of our nine people.

  But then Grandfather nodded, looked at me with a look of approval and said: "Not bad, this is the Jade Seal, and it's the Ming Dynasty's Heirloom Jade Seal." Now I'll tell you what the plan is. After thinking for a moment, he said: "You probably don't know that there's also a huge underground room here."

  We were all staring at Grandpa in surprise. We had lived on the island for almost 10 years and never discovered any basement before.

  Grandfather looked at us with a stern gaze and continued: "This next part starts from Einstein's theory of relativity, of course you should also know that I only understand this much about physical principles so I won't say more. So later on, I invited many scientists to research this principle in the basement lab, and now the experiment has been successful. We have decided to start implementing the plan on March 7th. Originally, the plan was supposed to be carried out a long time ago, but I wanted it to be even more perfect so I kept waiting for this national treasure, which is why it's been delayed until now. In other words, all nine of you including me will go back in time together through the machine to ancient times, our destination is set at 1660. We will go there and create a new world using the most advanced technology and ideas to transform the world. There won't be any Opium Wars, no Nanjing Massacre, no ceding of territory, no more invasions of our country. And I require you all to work together with me to use today's knowledge and the accumulation of several hundred years of historical experience to establish a number one powerful nation in the world, making it so that there won't be any America, Australia or other countries. Alright, what I just said is called the 'Teng Long Plan', go back and think about it, are you going or not?"

  "After that, Grandpa glanced at his watch and said: "Today is March 2nd. I'll be waiting for you here on the afternoon of March 3rd, then we'll enter the underground room for adaptive training." He stood up as he spoke."

  We nine people walked out of the study one after another, although no one spoke a word, but I knew that our emotions were almost the same. I closed the door to my bedroom and felt so excited in my heart - the fantasies of the past could now suddenly come true. For me or for us several people, we wouldn't hesitate about anything in this world; if we weren't old men, perhaps we would all be gone by now. I believe that we several people will go all out for the old man's dream.

  On the morning of March 3rd, I didn't have training, but I still got up at six o'clock. I did a few push-ups and then went to wash my face. When I returned to the dining hall, they hadn't arrived yet. I thought maybe I had misjudged them, or perhaps they weren't willing to live that ancient lifestyle. I ate some food hastily and headed towards the old man's study, lightly knocking on the door, but found it was ajar. I pushed the door open gently and saw the old man resting on the sofa. I quietly took the coat beside him and covered him with it, but he was still startled awake by me. He sat up and said to me, "Ah Xiao, have you thought it through?" I nodded my head. The old man smiled and said, "Good, good, very good." Then he looked at his watch and continued, "It's 8 o'clock now, there are still four hours left on the deadline. I hope they won't disappoint me, but of course, I won't force them either. Why don't you take a look at the books in the study or chat with me for a bit?" Time seemed to pass very slowly, and to be honest, my heart was uneasy. I really didn't know who among them would come over. I sat down and stood up again, occasionally glancing towards the door, looking at the ancient clock in the study. It was already 10 o'clock, but they still hadn't arrived.

  The old man stood up, patted my shoulder and smiled at me: "Ah Xiao, it's none of your business, but when it concerns you, it gets messy. Although this is a common human feeling, it shows that your understanding of things is still not enough. In my estimation, those few will definitely come."

  Just after finishing speaking, I heard Aron's voice outside: "Grandpa is really clever." As soon as the voice fell, all eight of them walked in. I smiled and went forward to hug them. We all knew that this hug meant that from now on we would live or die together. Our hands were tightly clasped together. We all knew that we would create a new sky together and from then on we would share our joys and sorrows.

  All I saw was Aron saying to Grandpa, "Grandpa, this time we're going and not coming back." Grandpa also nodded seriously. It seemed like they had reached some kind of agreement, even Xiao Ying, who loved to interrupt, didn't say a word, only Aron was talking to Grandpa, and the rest of us were listening on the side.

  "Grandfather, when we go back, are we going to establish a republic or a monarchy?"

  Grandpa also smiled and said to Aron: "Little Run, actually you already know the result, why bother asking grandpa?"

  Aron smiled awkwardly and continued, "Grandfather, forgive me for speaking disrespectfully, but at your advanced age, if you were to pass away, which of us brothers would be in charge? So we avoided Ah Xiao and discussed it among ourselves. We think Ah Xiao is the most suitable to be our eldest brother, and we hope you agree, Grandfather." The grandfather also nodded in agreement.

  I was the only one who vaguely said: "How can this be?"

  "Laughing Brother" Allen took over and said, "In terms of intelligence, you may not be the best among us, but your EQ is the highest, and you know how to hide your light. So you are the most popular among our 9 brothers, and whenever we have a dispute, it's always you who mediates, everyone thinks you're the most suitable to take over from Grandfather, because you bring us a sense of closeness, plus we're going to the Ming Dynasty which is about to perish. So your surname and Grandfather's surname both gave you the heavenly timing and human harmony. It makes you seem even more important than us. By this point, I also knew they had obviously discussed it beforehand, if I continued to decline, it would be a bit inappropriate."

  I nodded and said, "Thank you all for your support. I, Xiao, will need everyone's help in the future. After we leave, I hope we can unite as one to work towards Grandfather's ideals and goals. With our efforts, let's make Grandfather's wishes come true sooner." After that, the 9 of us hugged each other tightly again.

  Grandpa walked over, patted our heads and said: "Let's go. From today on, you and I are no longer people of this world, your household registration will have the word 'death'." After finishing speaking, he walked to the desk and turned the lamp a few times, only to see the two bookshelves behind him slowly moving apart. A door leading underground appeared before everyone's eyes. We followed Grandpa down the passageway. When we all came down, the door had already slowly closed.

  I took a look around the passageway, and the fluorescent lights on the ceiling emitted white light. The walls on both sides were black concrete. We followed and walked down, turning several corners until we came to a metal wall in front of us. On the left side, a computer-like display screen was embedded in thick steel plate. Grandfather went up and pressed a string of passwords, and the computer prompted: "Please show your voice password." Grandfather adjusted his clothes and said: "Tenglong plan." The computer verification sound came out. Then another prompt tone came out: "Please show your fingerprint record." Below the computer display screen, a small place that could just fit a palm appeared. Grandfather put his palm on it. The computer display screen showed grandfather's fingerprints, and the computer scanned the fingerprints into small squares. At this time, the computer beeped and prompted: "Please show your retinal record." A small door opened from the steel plate wall, and a small thing like a camera lens came out. Grandfather took off his glasses, aligned his eyes with the small hole, and after about 30 seconds, the computer prompt tone came out again. A voice without emotion said: "Mr. Zhu, welcome back, please enter." After that, the steel plate in front of us opened a door.

  Grandpa took us in and pressed a red button inside. He said to us, "Every time I came before, I always pressed the green button. This time I can finally press the red button." Then he explained to us as if we didn't understand, "Pressing the red button means that the program for this door has been destroyed, and from now on there is no more door here."

  Grandpa seemed excited and said, "Let's go, I'll take you to the lab and then help you guys get settled into your rooms." None of us spoke, we just nodded. We followed Grandpa inside, and along the way, there were armed personnel patrolling with guns at the ready. Although it was impossible for any suspicious characters to appear here, their eyes still told me - they were executing their tasks with utmost care. When they saw Grandpa, they all stopped in their tracks and gave a standard military salute, then continued their patrol.

  It seems like we've all matured a lot overnight. Gone are the days of laughter and joking around. We finally arrived at the core laboratory. This lab is as big as two basketball courts put together. In front, there's a 10-meter-high metal gate with instruments scattered everywhere, and several staff members are busy working.

  One of the staff members walked up to Grandfather and said, "Mr. Zhu, all work indicators have been tested and the success rate is 95%. The self-destruct device has been installed here. As soon as the machine is started, the self-destruct program will also start. I have adjusted the time according to your instructions to 1650. Please instruct if there is anything else that needs to be improved."

  "Good," Grandpa nodded in satisfaction and said, "We'll carry out the plan the day after tomorrow at dawn."

  The staff member said: "Okay, then these few gentlemen will first undergo adaptive training."

  Grandpa nodded and turned to us, saying: "Let me introduce you. This is the main person in charge of this plan. Dr. Han Zhi. In the next few days, he will take you through some pre-plan adaptive training, and you should learn well from the doctor."

  We all nodded. Grandpa looked at us and left with satisfaction. For the next three days, we didn't see Grandpa's shadow. And of course, we could only spend the three days in training. The wait was long, and time seemed to pass very slowly. Finally, the early morning of March 7th arrived. At least I felt that way. We were all anxiously waiting for this moment to arrive. Under Dr. Han's leadership, we came to the laboratory where we had visited when we first arrived. Grandpa was already wearing a camouflage uniform and giving orders to the people in front. In the middle stood 36 armed personnel wearing camouflage uniforms. The momentum was absolutely no worse than that of any country's military. We also wore our own camouflage uniforms under Dr. Han's leadership. The other staff members had disappeared. There were only 50 of us left in the underground room. I knew that those people might have been secretly executed. My heart couldn't help but think, "Is this what it means to be blood-soaked and glorious? Is this the meaning of 'one general's achievement is worth a thousand bones'?"

  There were 25 Mercedes-Benz panel vans parked around the entire laboratory. However, none of them had license plates, and the colors of the cars were not ordinary colors either. They were all painted in camouflage colors.

  We walked to Grandpa's side with Dr. Han Zhi, and Grandpa said to Dr. Han Zhi: "Han Zhi, take them to the first five cars first, and then I'll sit in one car with A Xiao. After you start the machine, get on the last car. It's up to you now. You've been here for 8 years since graduation, and you're already 34 years old. When you arrive at the other side, you should also find a wife and get married."

  Hanj heard this and also smiled awkwardly: "Mr. Zhu, why did you say that? I'm going to work now, you all get on the bus quickly."

  The three team leaders said to the soldiers: "Get on the bus according to the drill procedure. Start the car."

  Jingqi replied: "Yes."

  I also started the car, Grandpa has already gotten on, I'm the first one. Aron, Xiaoying and others are all behind me. Although this training has been done countless times in three days, at this time I still feel a bit nervous. My hands are shaking, my palms are already sweating a bit. I looked at Dr. Han Zhi. He was making 4-3-2-1 hand gestures with me. The 10-meter-high door had emitted a burst of light. The entire hall echoed with the roar of machines spinning rapidly. We don't have much time, only about 10 seconds, which means each car must pass through here within 10 seconds, otherwise the cars behind will be left here waiting for death. In 5 minutes, this place will explode. This underground has been equipped with around 5000 tons of TNT explosives, enough to blow up this small island twice.

  I stepped on the accelerator with ease. The car rushed towards the large gate in front, and at the moment I entered, I felt as if time had stopped. Then, amidst a daze of darkness, I felt like the car had hit something. The car was already out of power, and I could hear the sound of other cars nearby. Just after rushing through that gate, the strong pressure had made my tense nerves even more tense. Now, with a relaxed spirit, I finally fainted.

  Wang Xiang Island also sank to the bottom of the sea in a sea of fire. The police in the jurisdiction investigated and finally concluded that it was a volcanic eruption, and media from all over the world reported on the topic "Former Chairman of Dongfang Shenglong Group died on his private island - revenge? Competition?"