"Hey, Old Zhou, the food’s on the table, what are you doing?!"
Teacher Mother Zhou felt a surge of frustration as she watched Zhou Shitao turn and run to the study, and she hurriedly tried to call her husband back.
Unfortunately, Zhou Shitao was completely engrossed in the content of Huo Sining’s article at that mont, with no mind for eating, so he didn’t hear a single word, no matter how loudly Teacher Mother Zhou called after him.
"Teacher Mother, you might as well stop calling out; no matter how loud you shout right now, Teacher won’t hear you."
Ji Kun couldn’t help but chuckle wryly, turning his head to persuade Mada Zhou before he turned around, following Zhou Shitao into the study. Both of them huddled in front of the table, examining Huo Sining’s article while seriously sifting through materials, painstakingly verifying each argunt within Huo Sining’s work.
Mada Zhou watched, feeling both amused and exasperated, but unable to say a word. She could only shake her head helplessly, turn back to the kitchen, and place the dishes back on the stove to keep warm.
Zhou Shitao’s eyes were fixated on the computer, occasionally turning around, climbing the ladder to search through his years-worth of old books on the bookshelf. One heavy ancient docunt after another was taken down, and Zhou Shitao, wearing his reading glasses, flipped through them page by page until he finally found the information he wanted. He slapped the table and shouted:
"Xiao Ji, co look at this. Isn’t it exactly the argunt that Huo ntioned?"
Ji Kun leaned over, only glancing briefly before he realized what his teacher was searching for. He nodded quickly, saying, "It should be the sa idea, but we previously lacked enough data to corroborate it, so we overlooked it."
Zhou Shitao couldn’t help but stand up, "Although all we have are re clues, when pieced together, just as Huo ntioned, there’s definitely a grand tomb in Fucheng. Moreover, you know what your junior sister is like without telling you; that girl never fights unprepared battles. If she’s bold enough to write this article, it ans she has full confidence and has definitely already grasped accurate information about this tomb, maybe even including its location and layout!"
"So, Teacher, what should we do next?"
Ji Kun couldn’t help but ask, "If what Junior Sister says is true and Fucheng is undergoing massive urban redevelopnt, if the municipal planning docunts are indeed confird and affect this ancient tomb, the planning would have to be changed, and by then, making alterations would an wasting a lot of manpower and resources, possibly even causing public resistance and protest?"
Zhou Shitao nodded, knowing that Ji Kun’s concerns weren’t unfounded. Many cities have faced this problem, where ancient buildings and underground tombs cause subways and city roads to detour.
What worried Zhou Shitao even more was that when city redevelopnt begins, the workers might unknowingly damage the underground structure of the ancient tomb or even destroy its burial items, an outco Zhou Shitao would never want to see.
With these concerns in mind, after so contemplation, Zhou Shitao decided to make a trip to Fucheng:
"I’ll report this matter to the Cultural Relics Bureau and have them liaise with the municipal planning departnt to try to delay the urban redevelopnt plans. anwhile, we’ll quickly pinpoint the exact location of the tomb. With the tomb as a key factor, the Fucheng City Governnt won’t dare to act rashly and will certainly take asures, even at great cost, to protect the tomb."
Ji Kun nodded, then recalled sothing and asked, "Should you give Junior Sister a call to inform her?"
Zhou Shitao looked up at Ji Kun, saying irritably, "Inform her about what? That girl is cunning; I think she did this on purpose, writing this article to tease . She’s probably waiting to see make a fool of myself! Otherwise, why didn’t she tell the significance of her article beforehand? It almost caused a major mistake! Why inform her? Let her wait. I want to see who gets anxious first!"
Ji Kun’s mouth twitched, silently grumbling: Wasn’t it you who single-mindedly focused on your jade artifacts and ignored her article? How can you bla Junior Sister for that?
Ji Kun couldn’t help but shed a tear of sympathy for his Junior Sister, sighed quietly, and said no more.
On the other side, although Huo Sining was waiting for Zhou Shitao’s response, she wasn’t really anxious. To her, whether Fucheng undergoes redevelopnt or suddenly changes municipal planning has nothing to do with her, no matter how many people are affected or how great the loss.
Moreover, as long as she was around, that tomb wouldn’t be destroyed right under her nose, so she wasn’t anxious at all. On the contrary, the longer the wait, the greater Jiang Weide’s losses might be, which was sothing Huo Sining would gladly see.
She even found out that Jiang Weide, in preparation for transitioning, had already been making various plans. As soon as the municipal planning notice is formally issued, he plans to develop the land he purchased for real estate. Thus, he has already been engaging with several construction companies and banks, preparing to collaborate with those construction companies and negotiate loans with the banks.
Huo Sining could foresee that when the actual municipal planning notice is released but then suddenly changed, causing the subway line to bypass Anmin Alley and Sanfang Street, Jiang Weide’s expression upon discovering this fact would be sothing worth seeing.
His dreams of soaring to riches dashed, his investnts turned into water, and his land and properties devalued into worthless assets rotting in his hands. Huo Sining wondered whether Jiang Weide could endure such a blow.
Huo Sining couldn’t help but click her tongue a few tis; she truly felt no sympathy for Jiang Weide.
While still waiting for her teacher’s response, early the next morning, Zhou Shitao set off for Fucheng with Ji Kun, without contacting anyone and heading straight to the suspicious locations ntioned in Huo Sining’s article.
Then, to their headache and frustration, according to the locations indicated in Huo Sining’s article, they were all city buildings with towering concrete structures that covered the underground completely. In such circumstances, trying to detect any clues was utterly wishful thinking.
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