Chapter 1 After Breakfast

After breakfast, Zoey and I set off from home.

Zoey's house was quite far from Jennifer's. According to Zoey, we were traveling from one small city to another, a journey that spanned an entire metropolitan area, requiring a two-hour drive to reach Jennifer's house.

Zoey had called Fatty in advance to let him know I was coming.

Upon hearing my news, Fatty, like a big kid, excitedly shouted into the phone, "Yo, you actually found the young master! Is he missing any limbs? Is he old or young? Are all the parts still there? Did the foreign miss give him a thorough inspection?"

Fatty went on and on. Zoey had the phone on speaker, and both she and I were listening.

Zoey was in a good mood. She didn't scold Fatty for his nonsense, but just smiled foolishly as she drove. I, on the other hand, couldn't sit still.

Hearing Fatty's voice stirred up waves of emotion in my heart. To be honest, I missed him quite a bit. However, Fatty's ribbing was really annoying. "You fatso, I'm doing just fine. All my limbs are intact, and all the parts are still there. Just wait until I get there and sort you out."

After I said that, Fatty didn't reply, surprisingly silent.

Seeing the atmosphere turn a bit awkward, Zoey tried to smooth things over. "What's wrong, Fatty? Why aren't you talking? Has the veteran of a hundred battles finally been rendered speechless?"

Fatty's voice came again from the other end of the line, sounding a bit hoarse. "Young master, it's been a long time. Hearing your voice is a bit touching. Ah, never mind. Hurry up and get here. Jennifer and I will make you something delicious. What do you want to eat?"

The words "Jennifer and I" in Fatty's sentence sounded a bit ambiguous to me. Zoey seemed to pick up on the secret too, and kept winking at me.

Fatty's unintentional words exposed his relationship with Jennifer.

Even if nothing had happened between them, that single sentence was enough to feel that their relationship was unusual.

"Ahem, well, Zoey and I will eat anything. Just make whatever you're good at."

"Alright, you just wait and see. Hurry up and come, we'll be waiting for you."

Fatty's mood changed quickly, transitioning from sentimentality to cheerfulness in just two sentences.

After the call with Fatty, Zoey called Dodge. She planned to bring Dodge along as well. Zoey had asked for my opinion on this matter beforehand. My opinion was that the more help, the better, so I agreed with Zoey's idea.

Zoey told me that after Strange's death, Han Yu took control of the Z organization, and Dodge was gradually excluded from the core circle of power. Now, Dodge was more inclined to stand on our side.

After all, Dodge used to be at a relatively high level in the Z organization, with rich resources and connections. I thought it made sense that Zoey wanted to win Dodge over.

During Zoey's call with Dodge, I heard them mention someone named Levan.

Dodge's voice came from the other end of the phone, "Levan passed away yesterday in London, England. His caretaker told me that Levan was incredibly old when he died, but he refused all treatment and waited for death. Levan asked my subordinate to tell us that he was very grateful for our help, allowing him to return to the human world for the last part of his life, although it was short, it was beautiful..."

At this point, Dodge's voice was a little low.

Zoey's mood wasn't very good either, but she quickly recovered. After learning that Dodge was in America, she told Dodge that they were going to Jennifer's house for lunch in a while to discuss something.

Dodge hesitated for a moment, but then asked for the specific time and agreed.

Before hanging up, Dodge suddenly said, "Oh, right, I just got some news, it's not convenient to talk about it on the phone, I'll discuss it with you when we meet."

After saying that, Dodge hung up the phone in a hurry.

The sentence Dodge said before hanging up piqued Zoey's and my interest.

You have to know that Zoey and Dodge are different. Zoey is in a semi-detached state from the organization and has almost no access to more core content, while Dodge is different, he can access more inside information.

Zoey and I looked at each other, thinking that Dodge's news might be related to Han Yu or the meteorite.

Zoey glanced at me knowingly and sighed, "It seems like we can't avoid it."

Although I didn't want to appear impatient, I still asked Zoey, "Do you have any clues about those rubbings?"

Zoey rolled her eyes at me and said unhappily, "You're really impatient. I've never seen you so concerned about anything else."

After complaining, Zoey continued, "I took a general look, and these characters are somewhat similar to ancient Chinese, but the structure and writing style of the characters on the rubbing are still different from the traditional ancient Chinese in history."

From these words, I heard that Zoey's interpretation of these rubbings seemed to have found an entry point, there was progress.

So, I asked in depth, "Is the difference big? Is there a possibility of deciphering them?"

Zoey calmly replied, "According to records, the earliest Chinese characters appeared with Cang Jie, but before Cang Jie, the prototypes of characters had already appeared in many tribes, but at that time they were not yet large-scale, and only spread in a small area. A long time ago, I saw a record of a type of character similar to the rubbings you gave me in an encyclopedia of the origin of characters. Last night, I tried to use the encyclopedia's interpretation of this type of character to translate the rubbings, but it still failed. Although these two types of characters have the same origin, they are not the same in the final analysis. Now I plan to try another method, and I estimate that I will be able to find a solution soon."

I had great faith in Zoey's attainments in writing, and I was relieved to hand this work over to Zoey.