Chapter 1: The Submerged Ancient Civilization

  Just as the phone was about to say "The number you dialed is temporarily unanswered, please call again later", Mingying suddenly picked up. Her tone was still so cold, and she didn't apologize for revealing my whereabouts and the trouble it brought me, as if it were a matter of course. She asked me to meet her at 7 o'clock tonight at the Starbucks coffee shop in Changning Longzhimeng.

  I can only agree.

  7 o'clock coffee shop...... This girl can't even afford to buy me a meal? Looks like she really doesn't have any intention of apologizing.

  I arrived at Changning Longzhimeng at 6 o'clock, this blue sailboat-like building is just across Zhongshan Park from my alma mater. When I was a graduate student, I often came here to shop and have dinner with friends, so I'm very familiar with it. First, I quickly solved the dinner problem in KFC, then went to the Starbucks coffee shop on the first floor to wait for Mingying.

  At 7 o'clock sharp, she appeared punctually at the coffee shop entrance, almost to the second.

  Her eyes were very sharp, and she saw me sitting in the corner at a glance. She walked over and said: "You don't have to go to work starting tomorrow. We've already arranged everything with your company. Tomorrow, I'll go to your company as your girlfriend and submit a sick leave notice for you to take a month off."

  I was stunned. A one-month leave application, unless it's from a municipal-level regular large hospital, the unit simply doesn't recognize it. So I asked: "Which hospital? What disease?"

  "Cardiology department. Arrhythmia." She said as she pulled out a chair and sat down.

  Alright. Running into such a weird group of people, it's TM normal for my heart to be skipping beats. This illness is fabricated in a way that makes sense logically.

  Ming Yingdao said, "I saw you at the Lu Gong postal market early this morning. You were wandering around foolishly and I could see your true face at a glance. You still have a lot to learn about disguise techniques."

  This girl still has this temper, as soon as she comes, she teases me. However, I've been turning around for so long and didn't recognize her disguise at all. It seems that in this aspect, she is more clever than me.

  "But I didn't expect you still had a trick up your sleeve. That broken bottle, it's a bit shabby, but it's not a bad plan either. So, have you passed the test?"

  She spoke so directly without intending to make a purchase here. I stood up and said: "Wait a minute, what do you want to drink?"

  "Large Mocha."

  I bought a cup of vanilla starbucks ice cream and a cup of mocha coffee, brought it to the table and said softly: "Please enjoy."

  She unwillingly squeezed out a "hmm" from her nose and picked up the cup to take a big gulp.

  Alright, you're so thirsty, yet you can't bear to buy a drink? If you're heartbroken about spending money, why not meet at the entrance of a cheap tea shop outside instead?

  It's not that I'm not a gentleman, but she got me all tense about finding Xiao Luqi's body and dragged me into this complicated situation, so it's only right that she should treat me to a drink.

  I plopped myself down and said, "What kind of test are you talking about?"

  Mingying said how did I know, when an organization finds someone to do something, they always test them.

  My heart skipped a beat, could it be that this afternoon's grave-robbing farce was actually a test? Could it be that the loopholes in Old Lady Yun's words were intentional? Was it possible that the water on the ground and the quilt hanging from the stick were also intentionally left behind as clues?

  Never mind. These people must have nothing better to do, making a test like the real-life Sherlock Holmes version. I inserted a straw, sucked an ice chip, and chewed it in my mouth, asking: "What do you know about that painting?"

  Mingying pulled out a picture from her bag and spread it on the table, saying: "Have you seen this before?"

  I went over to take a look, and this picture is divided into two colors: blue and yellow. The yellow part has a blue triangle-shaped gap at the top and another one at the bottom.

  "Is... is this Shanghai? And that," I pointed at the gap above, "is the Yangtze River estuary? And below, is Hangzhou Bay?"

  Mingying nodded slightly.

  "I suddenly said: 'This is wrong, although these two estuaries are correct... but this map and the current Shanghai map are completely different?'"

  "You're so surprised. Haven't you heard of the phrase 'the mighty ocean becomes a mulberry field'?" She said with an air of nonchalance, lightly remarking.

  "Could this be an ancient map of Shanghai? After years of wind and frost, the shape of Shanghai has changed beyond recognition?"

  "There's less of that nonsense over there. This piece, I don't know what the reason is, sank during the Song Dynasty." She said with a tone of disdain, pointing to the part above Hangzhou Bay.

  "This piece," I pointed to the blue road in the east of Shanghai, "looks like it was sea in the past but now is land. Is this now Pudong and Nanhui?"

  "Ask despite knowing."

  "Where is Nangong City?" I asked hastily, "Isn't it this sunken piece?"

  She said that this piece of land has now sunk to the bottom of the sea, and in the past, the three hills on this land have been swallowed up by the sea, leaving only the tops of the mountains, turning into three small islands. That is today's Jinshan Three Islands.

  "Oh, Jinshan Three Islands? I've heard of it. Weren't these three islands set up as a natural ecological protection zone and forbidden to visit quite some time ago?"

  "Do you think setting up a nature reserve is for protecting the ecosystem and animals?" Mingying said, taking a sip of her coffee.

  "Is there some unknown secret on these three islands? Is the reserve just a name, meant to protect this secret?"

  "Do I need to spell it out?"

  It seems that working with this woman requires enduring her poisonous tongue and cold indifference.

  Seeing me not speaking, Mingying coughed lightly and said: "These messages are almost unknown to the people. After Da Yu controlled the flood, he ordered a general to build Ninghai City at the southern foot of Huanghua Mountain and Wolong River, where the people established their own country name, called Ninghai State. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, King Kang of Zhou, Ji Xian, built Dongjing City at the foot of Huanghua Mountain, and the king of Ninghai State was grateful to King Kang of Zhou, so he renamed Huanghua Mountain as Xuan Mountain and changed Wolong River to Qinglong River. After King Kang of Zhou passed away, the son of the king of Ninghai State changed his father's title to King Kang, and Dongjing City was also renamed Kangcheng."

  "Da Yu? This is a figure from before the Xia Dynasty, over 4,000 years ago. I didn't expect this Kang City to have such a long history?" As I listened to Mingying's words, I couldn't help but feel surprised - in ancient times, there were very few cities that could be called "Jing". During the Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties to the Sui and Tang periods, there was Zhongjing Luoyang, Xijing Chang'an, Nanjing Chengdu... If Kang City was also called "Dongjing", what kind of super metropolis, what kind of super ancient civilization would it be? I licked my lips and said: "How do you know these things? Don't tell me your organization has a historian or something?"

  "How did you know?" she asked expressionlessly.

  "Hey, you've admitted it, I heard your tone before and thought you weren't one of our organization's people."

  "How did you know it wasn't?" She had always been expressionless.

  “……”

  I'm going to, this woman is too sharp-tongued, cold words and cold language, can't bear it...can't bear it... Shaking my head, I continued to ask: "Then when did this Kangan sink into the sea?"

  "After the Eastern Jin, the coastline of Jinshan and its surrounding areas was constantly eroded by strong tides, retreating until the end of the Tang Dynasty, when the coastline had already retreated to the foot of Jinshan. According to a very secret historical record, what ultimately led to the fall of Kangcheng into the sea was an earthquake and tsunami in the 11th year of the Xuanhe era of the Southern Song Dynasty."

  I stared at the map, listening to Mingying's words, and when she picked up her coffee to take a sip, I carefully examined the map and said, "Earthquake tsunami? I'm afraid it's not that simple, is it?"

  "What does it mean?"

  I pointed to the number on the edge of the map, which was prominently written as "30". A horizontal line extending from this number ran through the left and right sides of the map. And the already non-existent Cannes was located exactly on this line, neither biased nor deviated.

  Mingying rarely showed a puzzled expression, looking at me.

  All of you who have read the previous chapters, if you have seen the previous chapters, you will not have any doubts like Mingying. When I entered Wang Yongshun's office in the Taiping District, I had already flipped through a travel magazine he had, and the page he most often turned to was the Caribbean Sea. At that time, I mentioned a very mysterious meridian: the 30th parallel north of the Earth.

  There were countless strange events that occurred on this latitude, and since they have already been mentioned, I won't repeat them here. Of course, regarding these strange events, I picked out a part of them and gave Mingying a scan with great accomplishment.

  My heart skipped a beat, I took out my phone and looked at it carefully. If this map that had already fallen into Chen Ziqi's hands was not the "Wu Prefecture Map" but the "Kangcheng Prefecture Map", then from this map, the prosperity of Kangcheng had exceeded people's imagination - among them, there were not only luxurious government offices, but also countless civilian residences, shipyards, oil workshops and salt workshops, merchants coming and going frequently, everything was thriving.

  It's just such a prosperous coastal city, under the threat of wind, rain and sea tides, after thousands of years of evolution, how could it not have a perfect flood control system and facilities? Can it be completely destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami, and sink to the bottom of the sea with just one disaster? Who would believe this if I said it out loud? Do you believe it? Anyway, I don't.

  That's right, there must be another hidden story in it. Just like the prehistoric civilization that was also located at 30 degrees north latitude and sank to the bottom of the sea - Atlantis...