Chapter 20: Chapter 20: An Astonishing Discovery (Part 2)
"Hahaha, you guessed it right!"
Ma Ning looked at Lin Li with some admiration, giving a thumbs up:
"Old Lin, oh Old Lin, you’re really something in research, your logic is clear. Yes, we have a second video!"
With that, he pressed another button, and another scene instantly appeared on the screen: "Watch!"
Lin Li pressed his lips tightly together, not speaking, his eyes fixed on the screen.
He had a feeling that the second video might bring some unexpected information.
The second video was also short, about ten seconds.
The content was even simpler than the first video.
No protagonist, no focal point.
The scene was somewhat shaky, just an image of Yu Lian and other refugees transporting goods, passing through a courtyard in the mansion.
It seemed ordinary, meaningless.
Lin Li looked up at Ma Ning, a question mark unconsciously popping up in his mind: "?"
Ma Ning did not explain but pressed the play button again.
After the progress bar moved forward for three or four seconds, he suddenly paused and magnified the image:
"Old Lin, look again."
This area that was paused and magnified was on the left side of the passing refugees, mainly focusing on a closed small house in the courtyard.
The small house was entirely made of wood, with sparse eaves, silently sitting in the courtyard, and two wooden strips with carved words hanging on each side of the door.
Combining with the surrounding moss, it looked full of age.
The small house was about seven or eight meters away from Yu Lian’s shooting position, and the high-precision camera made the enlarged footage almost without distortion, allowing very clear visibility of the content on the wooden strips.
Lin Li leaned forward and naturally read aloud:
"Year... Year of good weather, annual... wealth and health?
Isn’t it just spring...ah??!!"
Before finishing speaking, he suddenly froze as if struck by lightning, standing stiffly.
After a full ten seconds, he finally regained his senses, staring fiercely at Ma Ning:
"Spring couplets?"
He then looked at Dai Chaohong, enunciating one word at a time:
"Chinese, characters?!"
Dai Chaohong half-tilted his head, closed his eyes, and exhaled a long breath from his nose.
His tone carried a hint of excitement and trembling:
"That’s right, these are spring couplets written in Chinese characters."
Lin Li opened his mouth weakly, not knowing what to say for a moment.
After a long while, he hesitantly asked:
"But... wasn’t it confirmed earlier that the languages of the parallel world and Huaxia are different systems?"
Dai Chaohong pointed to a computer next to the screen and said:
"Yes, Professor Ma is an expert in languages, he analyzed the original linguistic data collected before using computers.
It can be confirmed that the characters and languages of the parallel world have no intersection with Huaxia culture, and it’s impossible for Chinese characters to be some kind of pre-existing culture."
Ma Ning nodded slowly on the side, confirming that Dai Chaohong was correct.
Lin Li pointed to the couplets on the screen: "Then what is this about?"
Dai Chaohong gently took off his glasses, rubbed his temple, and spoke with a tone of helplessness and confusion:
"We aren’t sure either, this entirely violates the cultural barrier studies of civilization.
At least with current established thought patterns, we can’t find a completely logical explanation."
At this moment, Wang Qiang, who had been acting as a background, suddenly raised her hand:
"Teacher Dai, you said there’s no completely logical explanation, could there be an explanation that’s logical but not reasonable?"
"Oh?"
Dai Chaohong looked surprised at the girl, exclaiming: "Indeed worthy of being Captain Lin’s student, very quick-witted, yes, we do have a somewhat bizarre speculation."
"I just said it casually, did I really guess it right?"
Wang Qiang widened her eyes, then asked eagerly: "Teacher Dai, then tell us, is there an explanation that’s logical but not reasonable, or one that’s reasonable but not logical? Or maybe neither..."
"Stop! Stop! If you keep talking, readers will say it’s filler!"
Dai Chaohong quickly interrupted her, stopping the banter, turned to Lin Li, and said:
"Captain Lin, we do have a shaky speculation...
Which is...
Could the person who carved these couplets also be a Huaxia transmigrator?"
Lin Li exclaimed in surprise: "...A Huaxia transmigrator?"
Being a top-notch expert in scientific research, Lin Li’s intelligence is naturally unquestionable.
His momentary confusion was purely due to the shock of seeing Chinese characters.
Now with Dai Chaohong’s revelation, a hypothesis soon emerged in his mind:
"Are you talking about the light gate?
Did someone pass through it to arrive in this world before us?"
Dai Chaohong shook his head uncertainly:
"It’s hard to say, there’s only a possibility of that.
After all, that ancient couplet seems quite old... Even if the transmigrator came to the other world through the light gate, it should have been long before us.
Unfortunately, the wooden house was too remote, and Squad Leader Yu didn’t have the chance to bring back some wood samples for historical analysis."
Lin Li crossed his arms, sorting his thoughts, and soon thought of another key point.
He turned to Ma Ning and asked:
"Professor Ma, you’re an expert in literature and history, so do you know which dynasty this couplet originally came from?"
Ma Ning, deserving of his title as an honorary advisor at the Jinling Museum, replied without much hesitation:
"Year after year with favorable winds and timely rain, every year with abundant resources and well-off people, the key to this couplet is the second part, particularly ’abundant resources and well-off people.’
The term ’abundant resources and well-off people’ first appeared in the statement ’Indeed a place of bright mountains and clear waters, abundant resources and well-off people’ from the Biography of Liu Tao in the Book of Later Han.
The Book of Later Han is one of the Four Histories, compiled by the historian Fan Ye during the Southern Song Dynasty of Huaxia — note, it was the Southern Dynasty of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, not the Southern Song.
This book was created between 432 AD and 445 AD, around the late stage of the Roman Empire in Europe."
Lin Li thoughtfully stroked his beard:
"So, if the Huaxia transmigrator first arrived in the alternate world, it wouldn’t have been later than the Southern Song period?"
Unexpectedly, Ma Ning shook his head:
"Old Lin, you’re not in the literature and history field, so you might not be as sensitive to the script style.
That couplet... is written in simplified characters."
Lin Li’s pupils contracted heavily, and he leaned closer to the screen again, carefully examining the couplet: "Is this... really simplified characters?"
Ma Ning exhaled complexly:
"Yes, simplified characters. Huaxia began implementing simplified characters comprehensively in 1956, which means that suspected transmigrator might have come from after 1956..."
"Wait a moment."
Lin Li suddenly interrupted him:
"Professor Ma, I remember that even before the founding of New Huaxia, simplified characters already existed among the people, right?
For example, during the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China period? I recall some newspapers used simplified characters?"
Ma Ning didn’t immediately answer the question; instead, he pointed at a word on the couplet:
[调].
Lin Li: "?"
Ma Ning picked up a piece of paper and wrote the character ’讠’ on it, then circled it with the pen tip, and explained:
"Captain Lin, did you notice the speech radical next to the character 调?
The character [讠] first appeared in the "Hundred Rhymes of Cursive Tips," which stated ’a dot turns water, void pointed makes word.’
Historically, it was used as a cursive form of the speech radical rather than a side radical.
Historically, [讠]became officially recognized as a standard simplified radical after the 1956 Chinese character simplification scheme was announced."
Upon hearing this,
for a moment, Lin Li felt a sweltering sensation in his chest.
A peculiar tingling seemed to rise from his tailbone, shooting up to his scalp.
Every statement Ma Ning made was like a blow to his somewhat aged heart.
After a long while, he finally spoke with a slightly hoarse voice:
"So, the suspected Huaxia transmigrator most likely came from after.... the founding of the state?"
Ma Ning nodded, reaching a final conclusion:
"If such a person really exists, then he or she definitely comes from after 1956."
Lin Li tugged at his already sparse hair, clearly showing his inner conflict.
If such a person indeed exists, when exactly did they arrive in the alternate world?
The 60s? 70s? Or the 90s?
The couplet clearly has some age; is this person still alive?
Thinking deeper, by what means did this ’transmigrator’ arrive in the alternate world?
A light gate, or something else?
This was an enormous variable, no one knew if it was good or bad.
As Lin Li contemplated, a figure hurriedly walked in from outside the tent.
It was Lin Ziming, who went to Shencheng to report.
At this moment, Lin Ziming’s forehead was covered with fine beads of sweat, his breathing a bit hurried, looking windswept:
"Captain Lin, the main camp has approved our proposal, we can notify Captain Yan and the others to start gathering!"