Zhu Chongyan agreed to participate in the Spring Festival Gala held in the city. There was no need to fly elsewhere, so he didn't have to leave early. He and Zhuo Jin, along with the aunties at home, prepared New Year's goods. After finishing the recording, he rushed back to celebrate the New Year together.
However, this New Year seemed destined to be anything but peaceful.
Around eight in the evening, Zhuo Jin received a call from Sheng Qingchi. He said there was a point of extremely intense energy fluctuation in City Y. Before the call ended, alien creatures had already crawled out. They lost contact for nearly half an hour. When she called Sheng Qingchi back, he said the number of such fluctuation points had increased to 16.
And the numbers were still growing.
These points were not all within China; some were abroad.
Zhuo Jin felt a sense of unease.
She made arrangements for her household and then hastily departed with the research institute team to the nearest energy fluctuation point.
Meanwhile, Sheng Jiangchen also left the New Year's Eve dinner table to help Future Star open the weapon warehouse, allowing the soldiers to take possession of the latest batch of manufactured weapons.
Although it was the holiday season, Future Star had constant personnel on duty. With such a serious incident, those on leave also had to rush back overnight to participate in the production of targeted weapons.
Simultaneously, the first batch of energy shields was ready for distribution.
However, there was a very serious problem. As mentioned before, the magnetic chips would record personal information to regulate usage and prevent leaks in the short term. But for large-scale personal data input, even with approval, the process would be extremely slow and difficult, possibly taking three to five years.
Yet, if the alien monsters were left unchecked, the world would turn into an apocalypse within three to five years.
Sheng Qingchi, finally catching his breath, proposed establishing an intelligent system to fully manage all the data on the magnetic chips.
But numerous issues followed, including concerns about hacker intrusions, sabotage, and system malfunctions.
This hesitation dragged on for nearly a week.
According to current statistics, the number of energy fluctuation points worldwide had exceeded 200. Tens of thousands of alien creatures had emerged from them, and most were still beyond control.
If a decision wasn't made soon, it could become the end of the world.
Luan Yu had intended to enjoy some time in this world with her people and perhaps find an opportunity to persuade Zhuo Jin. Unexpectedly, her own backyard caught fire.
Thus, she hastily returned to the alternate dimension.
However.
It wasn't hers.
When she found Zhuo Jin, her mental state was not good.
As soon as Luan Yu spoke, Zhuo Jin knew what she wanted to say and preempted her: "It's not under my management."
"Is there someone else?"
"I haven't heard of it." She picked up a bottle of water and gulped it down. "But before coming to this world, I hadn't heard of you either. Anything can happen in the three thousand worlds. However, I can help solve this problem."
"On the condition that you agree to my previous request."
Zhuo Jin remained silent.
"I must remind you that those things are organized and have strong imitation abilities. The world they originally came from was extremely chaotic, with time and space completely disordered, which is why they created so many monsters. Now that they have arrived in such a stable world, they will undoubtedly try every means to stay here. And for them to stay, they will inevitably engage in a war of conquest with the creatures of this world."
The alternate dimension was the place she managed. The time and space there were disordered. Time caused the monsters' bodies to be in different stages of growth, and space caused certain parts of their bodies to replicate, leading to situations where they had extra organs, and those organs were of different sizes.
For example, if a cat in two parallel universes was one month and four months old respectively, and it should have lived in different universes, but because these two universes overlapped, its one-month-old body and four-month-old body experienced a phenomenon of overlap, resulting in bodies or heads of different sizes.
There might be such dimensions in higher-dimensional spaces. In fact, whether it was a loss of control over time or space, three-dimensional spacetime was the most suitable place for human survival. For humans to reproduce, the former would perish, and the latter would be born, forming a closed loop of life and death. This required the wheels of time to keep moving forward, not backward, nor changing according to human desires.
For order, humans cannot do as they please and go wherever they want (not through transportation, but through will). Spacetime must have laws. The current state of humanity is undoubtedly the best.
But with such monsters, who knows if that would change?
"I can help you." She seemed to have compromised. "Prepare the necessary items yourself, and I will help you convert them and extend his lifespan."
Luan Yu's eyes flickered.
This was clearly not the ideal situation, but it was all that could be achieved now.
It was too difficult to make this person compromise and back down.
"Okay."
She smiled and steered the conversation back. "The shields you mentioned need to be distributed immediately. Those aliens are not from the area I manage. I need to investigate their origins. You figure something out in the meantime."
"I know."
"The Void Beast's spiritual power is limited. I cannot travel through time and space with Dongling at will, so I will temporarily leave him here. Please keep an eye on him for me."
Zhuo Jin: "..."
"I think your home is quite safe. I'll have him go to your place."
Not long after Luan Yu left, Zhuo Jin received a call from Zhu Chongyan. He said the strange person who had visited their home last time had returned, brought luggage, and seemed intent on staying at their place.
Zhuo Jin rubbed her temples. "Arrange a guest room for him, and don't bother with anything else."
Hearing her exasperated tone, Zhu Chongyan couldn't help but joke, "Your tone makes me suspect he's your illicit lover showing up at our door."
"If that were true, you should be out there with a knife, not joking with me."
Zhu Chongyan paused, then burst out laughing.
"What are you laughing at?"
He said, as if joking, "You're right. If you dare to cheat, I'll chop both of you with a knife."
"Oh, you've gotten fierce."
"Of course." Zhu Chongyan was very proud. "It's all because you've spoiled me. So, either you spoil me for a lifetime, or we die together. Do you hear me?"
Zhuo Jin could still detect a hint of nervousness in his tone.
But she pretended not to hear. "I hear you, my little husband! Stay home and protect yourself and the baby. I'll return after I handle things here. You've seen the news, right? It's been turbulent lately. Didn't Liu Can ask you to participate in that variety show last time? If you want to work, you can do that variety show. It can be filmed from home."
Zhu Chongyan was overjoyed by the phrase "little husband," and his tone carried a smile. Zhuo Jin could even imagine his smiling eyes at that moment.
"Yes, I was planning to film that too. Be careful outside. The baby and I will wait for you to come back."
"Wuwu... ya!"
The baby's voice came through the phone, melting her heart into warmth and softness.
"Alright, I'm hanging up now."
"Okay, bye-bye."