As the "Approaching Science" program team began to investigate in the direction Yang Lin had predicted, the executives in the Ming Corporation's office building were going mad.
Ming Tianlai, the executive director, had already smashed three ashtrays.
"Everything was fine before, how did these mutated creatures suddenly pop up?"
Hearing his words, a middle-aged man beside him quickly whispered,
"Could it really be because we're discharging sewage into the Yong River? I heard that there are a lot of mutated animals appearing in Japan."
However, as soon as he finished speaking, Ming Tianlai smashed the last ashtray on the table with a "pop."
"Are you an idiot? Our products are at best daily chemical products, how could these things cause animals to mutate?"
"We are a chemical company, not a biological company, you've watched too many movies!"
"Chairman, I think it might indeed be related to us. Didn't you tell us to reduce the chemical precipitation treatment step before? The parts that weren't precipitated exceeded the national control range in all indicators..."
In the conference room, another middle-aged manager stood up.
Hearing him speak, everyone's eyes focused on Ming Tianlai.
Ming Corporation Chemical originally had its own clear sewage discharge standards, but Ming Tianlai, in order to save discharge costs, directly skipped the most important treatment step.
The untreated sewage was directly discharged into the Yong River.
As Ming Tianlai put it at the time, it was better to spend a few million to bribe people than to spend tens of millions on wastewater treatment every year.
Seeing everyone's eyes on him, Ming Tianlai immediately flew into a rage.
"Are you blaming me with those words? You didn't say that when we were making money, you scoundrels!"
While everyone in the conference room was arguing, the "Approaching Science" program team on the live television broadcast had already started taking water samples.
They set up water sampling points every 500 meters, centered on the area of the backwater bay, collecting a total of 10 samples.
Half an hour later, the analysis data for these 10 samples was presented to everyone.
When everyone looked at these report data, they were all stunned, especially the data from the water sample taken from the backwater bay.
"My God, how could this be? The water here is already so polluted."
"This is not river water, this is industrial wastewater."
"The various indicators are tens of times over the limit, how did the water here reach this point?"
"Even the farthest sample, number 10, exceeded the limit by more than ten times, this is too exaggerated."
"Good heavens, it's almost the entire periodic table."
"Drink this bowl of Yong River water, and in the next life, you'll still be a Ningnan person."
"A cup of Yong River water, half of the periodic table."
"With this water quality, let alone causing animals to mutate, I wouldn't be surprised if it could cultivate a Godzilla."
...
The data in front of everyone clearly showed the water pollution situation at each sampling point.
The most exaggerated one had various pollution indicators exceeding the national standard by tens of times, and even the least exceeded the limit by about ten times.
Whether it was from the Aquatic Research Institute, Ocean University, or the "Approaching Science" program team, everyone was stunned by these data.
The only one who was not surprised was probably Yang Lin.
The netizens in the live broadcast room instantly exploded.
"As expected, the director saw through everything long ago. The problem is indeed with the water quality."
"The scheming frog is always touching your belly."
"And they're still making fun of India, this water quality is truly heaven-defying."
"No wonder this place is not talked about. If there were fish here, it would be a ghost."
"Let alone fish, even the Dragon King would be poisoned to death here."
"Even the river god wouldn't dare to lose his axe here."
"Diluting this river water should be enough to use as pesticide."
"So the pee I took in the river last time was the cleanest thing in it."
"If I drink a mouthful, will I mutate on the spot? Maybe I'll grow an extra pair of arms."
"I think you're just an idiot, you'll die immediately if you drink this water."
"I suspect that if someone drowned here, they wouldn't necessarily drown first."
"Damn, if I remember correctly, the water from the Ningnan Water Plant comes from here, so does that mean I've been drinking this water for over twenty years?"
"Investigate, you must investigate, who the hell poisoned the water!"
...
As the topic fermented, soon almost everyone realized the seriousness of the problem.
Compared to water pollution, the issue of water monsters suddenly became insignificant.
Because water monsters could only harm a limited number of people, while water pollution could have infinite consequences.
The entire Ningnan City might be affected.
Almost immediately, everyone present thought of the source of pollution.
But looking around, there were no obvious discharge outlets.
When everyone was confused, Yang Lin suddenly suggested.
"What if there's a possibility that someone has installed discharge outlets at the bottom of the riverbed? This way, it's not easy to be discovered, and it's not easy for the river water to be polluted quickly."
Hearing Yang Lin's words, the program team felt a sense of sudden enlightenment.
"Little Yang is right. Such severe water pollution is definitely not a problem of one or two days. Perhaps the problem has existed for a long time, but we just haven't discovered it."
"Indeed, what is the difference between someone doing this and poisoning?"
"We will immediately arrange for divers to go into the river."
While speaking, the people from the Aquatic Research Institute had already contacted divers.
Soon, a diver fully equipped with diving gear dived into the river under everyone's gaze.
In less than five minutes, the diver surfaced.
"Found it! I found three large discharge pipes below!"
As the diver's voice reached the shore, everyone felt a surge of anger along with their surprise.
They were surprised that they had finally found the ultimate cause of the water monster incident, and angry that someone had openly discharged heavily polluted wastewater into the Yong River.
And clearly, it wasn't just the people on the scene who were angry. The Ningnan citizens who were following the incident live online were also furious.
Anyone would feel this way upon knowing that the tap water they usually drink contains a large amount of pollutants.
Almost immediately, the phone lines of the relevant departments were overwhelmed, and the incident even made it onto the "Focus Interview" program that same day.
When it was early the next morning, Yang Lin saw the news of Ming Corporation Chemical being shut down and Ming Tianlai and other executives being arrested.