Xiao Lou previously discovered the sunken Egret in the deep sea. After Starship, my first thought was that when General Lin Zecheng was escaping in Starship, he accidentally heard the Merfolk Clan's singing at sea. Because the Merfolk Clan's singing had the ability to "bewitch people," they would be unable to resist flying to the place where the singing came from, only to be swallowed by the sea whirlpool.
The presence of numerous destroyed ships and human remains near the whirlpool at sea proves the legend of the Merfolk Clan hunting with their songs to be true. Based on this, Xiao Lou deduced that General Lin and his group had unfortunately encountered an accident.
But what if... this wasn't an accident?
There are at least ten known human-inhabited planets, so why did Lin Zecheng choose to go to the Azure Empire?
Egret Although the Starship has been decommissioned, it was still the Empire's top warship. How could it possibly "coincidentally" end up at sea and get caught in a whirlpool and swept into the deep ocean?
Explaining so many coincidences as "accidents" is actually quite illogical. Now, Zhang Shaohua has confirmed that her husband fled the empire to carry out a "mission," which further supports Xiao Lou's speculation.
Xiao Lou asked softly, " General Lin, did you go to Azure Planet when Princess Xiao Rou got married?"
Zhang Shaohua nodded, his face pale, and said, "Yes. I was worried that His Majesty would silence all of us who knew about the gene project, so we gathered together to discuss countermeasures. During that time, the Imperial Capital Star was under extremely tight security, with patrols constantly moving around. So many people fleeing together would definitely attract attention..."
Yu Hanjiang frowned: "So, Xiao Rou's wedding became the perfect opportunity for you to escape?"
Zhang Shaohua took a deep breath and looked at the two of them, saying, "The princess is marrying into the Azure Empire. Prince Herman will personally come to fetch her. The checkpoint at the space station will be open for a while. His Majesty is busy presiding over the wedding, so the general has activated Egret ahead of schedule." Starship seized the opportunity to escape and then joined Prince Herman's wedding procession to go to the Azure Empire.
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang exchanged a glance—I see.
Egret The sinking of the starship in the Azure Planet area was no coincidence. They had escaped with Princess Xiao Rou's wedding procession. Xiao Rou must have known about this, but she didn't tell Xiao Lou. Instead, she misled Xiao Lou with the "legend of the invisible man" and even made Xiao Lou and his teammates go to sea to search for the Merfolk Clan.
legend?
She probably already knew the location of the Merfolk Clan and that they could use their songs to lure nearby ships. (Egret) Starship sinking in the deep sea—maybe it was all her doing.
It wasn't that General Lin and his group encountered an accident; rather, she wanted to silence them!
Thinking of the kind-smiling older sister, Xiao Lou felt a chill run down her spine—she had felt something was off before, but now, upon closer reflection, she realized they had overlooked many details during their investigation.
Xiao Rou claims that 20 years ago, when she accompanied her mother to a hospital, she happened to enter a laboratory with a nurse and discovered hundreds of cloned children who looked exactly like her brother.
The cloning project is top secret; how could a princess possibly "coincidentally" enter the lab? Was there no surveillance in their experimental area? Were unauthorized personnel allowed to enter freely?
Xiao Rou also said that she was flustered after learning about this and did not dare to tell anyone. Just then, her father asked her to marry Prince Herman, so she agreed to the marriage.
There's another contradiction here—if His Majesty wants to keep it a secret, how could he allow his daughter, who knows the truth, to marry into a foreign country? What if Xiao Rou reveals this, wouldn't that also let the Azure Empire know the secret of clone?
If Your Majesty wishes to keep this a secret, the best course of action is to confine the princess to the palace rather than force her to marry.
The princess is clearly lying.
Xiao Lou looked at Zhang Shaohua and said, "Professor Zhang, can you give us the Noahs Ark Project data you have?"
Zhang Shaohua shook his head: "That document isn't on me."
Xiao Lou was somewhat surprised: "It's not with you? You hid it?"
Zhang Shaohua clenched his fists tightly, his lips trembling slightly: "When those involved in the plan died one after another in an 'accident,' I knew that His Majesty wanted to kill everyone to silence them and bury this secret forever. I could only continue to live by pretending to be a clone. I couldn't carry the data with me, so I had to give it to Madam Ye."
Ye Bowen's wife? That is, Ye Qi's biological mother.
Yu Hanjiang asked in a low voice, "Is Madam Ye still alive? Where is she?"
Zhang Shaohua said, "She is dead, but her child should still be alive."
General Ye and General Lin escaped from Capital Star and perished in the deep sea of Azure Planet. At the time, Madam Ye was pregnant. Zhang Shaohua entrusted her with the information and secretly took it away. She fled to a remote city and secretly gave birth to Ye Qi, sending Ye Qi to an orphanage... However, she herself could not escape His Majesty's pursuit.
The official obituary stated that General Ye and his wife died unexpectedly on the front lines. Their child, Ye Qi, ended up in an orphanage, and it is unknown how Madam Ye managed to prevent His Majesty from killing the child.
Later, Shao Qingge went to the orphanage to do charity work. He saw Ye Qi and felt that she looked familiar, so he adopted Ye Qi.
His Majesty only killed the lovers, but did not eliminate the innocent children as well... He probably did not expect that the lovers would leave clues by various means, including the safe and Morse code left by Shao Qingge's father, as well as the complete information that Madam Ye may have left behind.
Looking for
It seems we'll have to rely on Ye Qi to get this complete information.
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang exchanged a glance, and the latter continued to ask, "Where is your laboratory?"
Zhang Shaohua said, "The initial experiments were conducted in a secret laboratory on the top floor of the Capital Star Royal Hospital. I don't know if the laboratory has been moved over the years."
Xiao Lou asked, " Rhode Bell, was the Space Pirate leader you captured also taken away by General Lin?"
Zhang Shaohua nodded: "That's right, he is a sample extracted from the first generation of genes."
Xiao Lou closed his eyes and carefully sorted out his thoughts in his mind—after finding Xiao Rou, the overlooked point, most events could be reasonably explained; only the last step was missing.
Why did His Majesty give him the S-class mecha Spirit Fox? And who sent the invisible man who infiltrated Gemini Palace on his birthday?
Xiao Lou pondered for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Twenty years ago, when the Noahs Ark Project was restarted, His Majesty's sample was among the first batch of gene clones you created, right?"
Zhang Shaohua said, "Of course. We only made one sample of His Majesty. This was also His Majesty's request. He wanted to make a copy of his body data so that he could clone his organs at any time in case of injury or illness in the future."
This was also within Xiao Lou's expectations.
Xiao Lou continued, "Do you have a sample of Princess Xiao Rou?"
Zhang Shaohua said, "There's one too."
Xiao Lou: "..."
He was right.
Since His Majesty has cloned the prince, how could he neglect himself and his daughter? Since the original purpose of the clone project was to create a copy of the body's data so that when the "original" is sick or injured, the organs and tissues of the "clone" can be used for repair at any time, His Majesty will naturally prepare such an "insurance" for himself and his daughter as well.
Therefore, the first batch of clones included not only Prince Xiao Lou, but also His Majesty himself and Princess Xiao Rou.
Of course, the throne of the empire is inherited by princes, and the princess does not need to go through the "breeding worm" program to select the most powerful one. Therefore, His Majesty only made a copy of the princess as a genetic backup and hid it in the laboratory.
What Xiao Rou discovered in the lab may not have been just her brother—but also herself.
Zhang Shaohua said that the Noahs Ark Project contains samples of His Majesty and Xiao Rou, but Xiao Lou and his team did not find their genetic data in the Merfolk Clan and the Zerg, indicating that it was deleted.
Who deleted it?
The only person who has consistently possessed data related to the gene project is Rhode Bell, the head of Space Pirate.
The most complete set of original Noah's Ark data, besides the backup left by Zhang Shaohua, was the one taken by General Lin and his team. (Egret) After the starship sank, General Lin and his crew quickly drowned in the deep sea, except for Space Pirate, who had been infused with Zerg genes. Rhode Bell, along with several unconscious clones, survived.
Rhode Bell obtained the data, modified the information, deleted the parts about the princess and the emperor, and then handed it over to Merfolk Clan.
The parts that were taken to the Zerg were also deleted, so Xiao Lou and the others never suspected that His Majesty and Xiao Rou might be clones, because there were no genetic samples of these two people in the database!
In retrospect, Rhode Bell deliberately deleted the data on His Majesty and the Princess to mislead Xiao Lou and his team's investigation.
He knows Xiao Rou.
Perhaps, all of this was a conspiracy between him and the princess.
Why would a princess and a Space Pirate team up?
***
Through questioning Zhang Shaohua and combining the results of their previous investigation, Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang finally confirmed most of their suspicions. The two secretly sent Zhang Shaohua back to General Lin's villa and then used Peach Blossom Spring to gather their teammates.
Xiao Lou briefly recounted the results of Zhang Shaohua's interrogation and the current speculations to his teammates, who were all shocked upon hearing it.
Ye Qi said in disbelief, " Xiao Rou? She seems so gentle and kind, and she's always been helping our sister. Is she actually the mastermind behind this? I actually had a pretty good impression of her."
Shao Qingge sighed and rubbed his forehead in exasperation: "So, my Sapphire Necklace was given directly to the dungeon boss?"
Everyone: "..."
Lu Jiuchuan chuckled and touched his nose: "Only CEO Shao would do something like giving a gift to the Boss."
Shao Qingge: "......"
Ye Qi smoothed things over for Shao Qingge: "Ahem, thankfully we made a copy before sending it out. However, CEO Shao's necklace might still be of some use; at least Xiao Rou didn't immediately send people to kill us after getting the necklace."
Xiao Lou said, "She didn't kill us. She just used 'legends' to lure us to investigate the Merfolk Clan at sea. If we hadn't reacted quickly enough, our hovercars would have been swept into the deep sea."
Ye Qi: "...Is she using someone else to do her dirty work?"
Yu Hanjiang concluded in a low voice, "This princess's method of using someone else to do her dirty work is indeed brilliant. " The Starship sinking might also be her doing.
Lu Jiuchuan raised an eyebrow: "This seemingly gentle and weak woman is actually quite cunning. But why would she do this? Does she want to inherit the throne? She doesn't seem ambitious at all..."
Xiao Lou said, "Her motives are still unclear, but she and Rhode Bell are definitely working together."
After a moment of silence from his teammates, Xiao Lou changed the subject, asking, "How's the investigation into the wedding going?"
Tang Ci calmly said, "I've already found out the time, location, and guest list for the wedding. Ninth Brother and I will use [ Mask ] cards then."
The man dressed up as General Lin's bodyguard and went to the wedding venue.
Chu Huaying said, "The wedding will be held at St. John's Church in Sands Cotai Central, and I will dress up as the priest there."
Shao Qingge asked, "How are Ye Qi and I supposed to get there? We're not on the invited list. If we pretend to be other people, Liu Qiao has a [ Twin ] card that can be used to impersonate someone we've met in the last half hour."
"You two don't need to go to the wedding; you have other tasks." Xiao Lou looked at Ye Qi and asked, "Ye Qi grew up in an orphanage. Do you still remember your biological mother?"
"I don't remember what my mother looks like. I've been an orphan since birth..." Ye Qi scratched his head, frowned, and tried to recall for a moment. Suddenly, something occurred to him, and his eyes lit up. "That's right, there's a kind aunt who comes to the orphanage every weekend to see us and brings us delicious food. Could that woman be..."
"She could very well be your mother. Think carefully, did she give you anything?" Xiao Lou said.
—Xiaoqi, have you ever heard of a wishing bottle? If you bury a wishing bottle under a tree, your wish will definitely come true.
A childhood memory suddenly flashed through Ye Qi's mind.
His memory of the woman was very vague; after all, he was less than five years old at the time, too young. He only remembered that the woman had a gentle voice and always brought lots of food and toys when she came to the orphanage, and the children all loved her. But one day, after she said those words and hugged Ye Qi, she never appeared again.
"The wishing bottle, under the tree." Ye Qi recalled this childhood memory and looked at Shao Qingge, saying, "Let's hurry back to the orphanage and look for it. There's a tree at the entrance of the orphanage; maybe that's the clue she left for me?"
******