Lin Zecheng, the current Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Military Region of the Empire and one of the few generals, is Lin Yan's biological father and Xiao Lou's nominal father-in-law.
Upon hearing the name, Xiao Lou immediately perked up: "Ninth Brother, can Starship be reused after it's retired?"
Lu Jiuchuan shook his head: "No. According to military regulations, retired Starship members must..."
It must be sealed, Egret Starship was retired 25 years ago; every Imperial soldier knows this.
Yu Hanjiang said, "So, this group of people secretly drove the Egret and escaped from Capital Star? Since Egret is General Lin's starship, this escape plan must be related to General Lin." He looked at his teammates and said, "Everyone, pair up and search for clues carefully. Communicate with your headsets if you encounter any problems."
Xiao Lou asked, "Number 5 brought you here, right? Did he tamper with the crime scene?"
Liu Qiao said, "No, he only examined the remains and said that the crime scene must be well protected."
Xiao Lou nodded: "Where is the body?"
"This way." Liu Qiao led the way, and Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang quickly followed.
After passing through a long corridor, a silver-white hatch appeared before them. Liu Qiao opened the hatch, and Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang indeed saw ten human skeletons inside. These people had clearly struggled before their deaths, and the postures of the skeletons were extremely contorted.
Xiao Lou bent down to examine the situation carefully and quickly concluded: "There are 8 men and 2 women. This little girl is indeed around 5 years old. Most of the others are young adults, and there is only one elderly person over 50 years old."
At this moment, Lu Jiuchuan and Tang Ci also arrived. Lu Jiuchuan said, " A large area of damage was found on the right rear of the starship. It should be that when the starship was caught in the sea whirlpool, the defensive shield was shattered by the pressure of the deep sea water."
Yu Hanjiang said, "This starship is not a professional submarine. Ordinary aircraft carriers can hardly withstand the water pressure at the deep ocean. The shield will break almost instantly. They may not even have time to react before their internal organs are crushed by the huge water pressure."
Just then, Ye Qi suddenly said in the earpiece, "Huh? There seems to be a rag doll here?"
Xiao Lou turned around and came to Ye Qi's side, took the doll he picked up and looked at it carefully—it was a very high-quality Barbie doll, wearing a cute pink cake dress, and her golden hair was carefully combed into two ponytails.
The doll is made of a special waterproof material, which is why it remains in perfect condition after so many years.
Warships and rag dolls—they sound like they have absolutely nothing in common...
However, after careful consideration, Xiao Lou quickly realized a crucial point: "Adults wouldn't bring a rag doll onto a starship when they're fleeing for their lives. Rag dolls are usually toys that little girls like, and there was a 5-year-old girl's body on this starship, so it's very likely that the rag doll was hers."
Yu Hanjiang followed up with, "Would anyone be kind enough to buy Clone a plush toy?"
Xiao Lou shook his head: "20 years ago, all clones should have been in the physical state of a 5-year-old, but because they had not received human education, their intelligence was still at the level of a newborn baby. Clones with the intelligence of infants certainly do not need to be entertained with toys, so it is more likely that... the dolls belong to Little Girl herself."
Ye Qi's eyes widened: " The Little Girl who died here is actually Lin Yan herself?!"
Xiao Lou nodded with a stern face: "Perhaps her biological father, General Lin Zecheng, is also involved."
Lu Jiuchuan stroked his chin, carefully organizing his thoughts, and said, "Twenty years ago, General Lin Zecheng was only in his thirties, not yet the Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Military Region, but a major general like me leading a corps. This Egret..." The starship was the one General Lin used for his missions. He was very familiar with it, so could it be that he escaped from Capital Star with his daughter in the emergency?
Xiao Lou returned to the cabin filled with corpses and carefully examined the distribution of the bodies around him.
He discovered that there was a man next to the 5-year-old girl, whose arms were tightly wrapped around her shoulders, protecting her in a protective posture. The man's remains did indeed resemble those of a man in his 30s.
Xiao Lou pointed to the remains and said, "This person should be General Lin Zecheng. When danger struck, as a father, he instinctively protected his daughter."
Ye Qi felt a chill run down his spine: " Where did General Lin and Lin Yan from Capital Star come from? And what about Zhang Shaohua with amnesia?"
Shao Qingge said, "I'm afraid that whole family is clones."
Everyone: "..."
No wonder the mastermind killed everyone who signed the proposal but spared Professor Zhang Shaohua. She seemed dazed and didn't even recognize her own daughter. Perhaps she didn't have amnesia, but rather, as a clone, she simply had no memory of her husband and daughter?
Xiao Lou hurriedly said, " Teacher Qu is in danger! Quickly tell her to be careful!"
Shao Qingge wanted to contact the other party, but unfortunately, the signal was blocked in the deep sea, and he couldn't reach Qu Wanyue at all. Looking at his communicator with no signal, Shao Qingge could only frown and say, "Let's talk about it after we leave the sea. She has a Chameleon Card that can blend into the environment, so there shouldn't be any problems for the time being."
Yu Hanjiang asked everyone, "Are there any other clues?"
Tang Ci asked, "Senior Gui, was the Starship's hatch opened when you came to investigate the case?"
Gui Yuanzhang said, "The cabin door was open when we first came here."
Tang Ci said, "That means someone else came before you, because the doors of these starships must be opened with a code. It's very likely that someone from the Merfolk Clan came to the starship and took away materials related to the Noahs Ark Project."
Xiao Lou looked around and said, "Of these 10 skeletons, apart from General Lin Zecheng and 5-year-old Lin Yan, the identities of the other 8 people cannot be determined yet."
Suddenly, Ye Qi walked up to a corpse and stared blankly at the semi-circular necklace around its neck. Shao Qingge rushed to Ye Qi's side, gently grasped Ye Qi's wrist, and whispered, "What's wrong?"
Ye Qi said, "This necklace..."
He unbuttoned his shirt and took out an identical necklace from around his neck: "It's a pair with mine."
Shao Qingge narrowed his eyes: "Could this skeleton be your biological father, General Ye Bowen?"
Tang Ci said, "According to official records, General Ye died on the front lines. So, does that mean General Ye actually escaped from Capital Star with General Lin, taking several clones and data from the Noahs Ark Project with him, and the so-called 'death on the front lines' is a fabricated lie?"
Lu Jiuchuan said, "After all, it's hard to explain why a young general would suddenly disappear. Why not just say he died on the front lines?"
Shao Qingge frowned and said, "It seems that some of the people mentioned in the proposal who died under mysterious circumstances are likely on this starship. They must have realized that His Majesty wanted to kill them to silence them, so they collectively fled Capital Star with the clone and the Noahs Ark Project data. Unfortunately, man proposes, God disposes. They encountered a whirlpool at sea and the Merfolk Clan stole the data instead."
Xiao Lou turned to Liu Qiao: " His Majesty of the Merfolk Clan, who is also your father, do you think there's anything wrong with him?"
Liu Qiao shook her head: "My father is a very kind and gentle person. He doesn't seem to know anything about clones. In my eighteen years of memories in Merfolk Clan, I have never heard of anything like this."
Xiao Lou then asked, " Does Merfolk Clan have anyone with a deep understanding of genes and biology?"
Gui Yuanzhang suddenly remembered something and said, "There is a Merfolk Clan elder named Karen G. who is particularly fond of studying this kind of thing. He has cultivated many deep-sea fish that Merfolk Clan can eat."
Xiao Lou said, "Let's go back today and investigate this elder again tomorrow. I'm worried that there might be problems with Teacher Qu."
No one objected, and they all left Starship.
Back on the deserted island, Xiao Lou had Shao Qingge contact Qu Wanyue. Soon, Qu Wanyue's face appeared on the screen projected by CEO Shao's communicator. She was at home and, seeing everyone with tails, exclaimed in surprise, "How did you all turn into mermaids? Did you use Xiao Liu's card?"
Xiao Lou said, "The clues led us to the deep-sea Merfolk Clan, which just went into the water en masse. By the way, Teacher Qu, have you noticed anything unusual while you were tracking Zhang Shaohua these past few days? His family of three might be clones."
Qu Wanyue paused, then said, " Clone? I was just about to tell you that Zhang Shaohua usually has a blank stare and rarely interacts with Lin Yan or General Lin. She doesn't even recognize her daughter, Lin Yan. She sits in the yard in the sun all day, lost in thought. But last night, I hid a Chameleon card in her bedroom and observed her all night. I discovered that she's been having nightmares frequently!"
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang exchanged a glance—was it a nightmare?
If Zhang Shaohua is a clone and has not received human education, then she should be living a carefree life as a fool, so why would she have frequent nightmares?
Qu Wanyue said, "Moreover, when she woke up in the middle of the night, she kept calling out 'Yan Yan,' although it only happened once, but I heard it very clearly... What's going on? She doesn't know Lin Yan during the day, so why did she call out Lin Yan's name in her dream?"
Xiao Lou took a deep breath and suddenly thought of a possibility.
People can control their emotions, even pretend to be stupid, but dreams are the only thing they cannot control.
Therefore, Zhang Shaohua of Capital Star is likely genuine.
Only two female skeletons were found on the starship. One was 5-year-old Lin Yan. The other, although the age matched that of Zhang Shaohua from that time, was very far from Lin Yan and did not seem to be a close mother and daughter.
Sensing the danger, Zhang Shaohua told her husband to take their daughter and leave first, while she stayed at Capital Star.
Or did she switch identities with Clone, and have been pretending to be stupid for all these years, waiting for an opportunity?