Mei Ziqing had just left the Bella International Conference Center to return to the hotel, and as she was walking across the Bella lawn, she saw a man on the bench stand up, smiling and waving to him.

Mei Ziqing was stunned for a moment. This man is so handsome! He looked a bit of a mixed race, 80 percent East Asian and 20 percent Western, maybe Italian or Greek, but he looked classically elegant and very sunny anyway.

She pointed to her nose in confusion and asked in broken Japanese, "Are you calling me?" ”

The man said in fluent Japanese, "You're Professor Mei's assistant, aren't you?" ”

"Ah, yes! Who are you? Are you looking for a professor? He's still in a meeting at the center! Mei Ziqing felt very kind when she heard Japanese, and bowed and said politely.

"Oh, I know." The man said and pulled out an envelope, "I want you to give this to the professor." ”

Mei Ziqing took the envelope suspiciously and asked, "Can you ask what this is?" I can't ......."

"Rest assured, this is just a very ordinary personal letter."

The man's voice was as warm as a spring breeze, and Mei Ziqing couldn't refuse.

"Okay!" She put away the envelope, "But, can you tell me who you are?" ”

"My name is Xingzhi, you can also call me Situ." The man suddenly switched to Chinese.

……

In Room 2 on the third floor of the Bella Center, more than 60 top scientists are talking to each other about why the conference suddenly changed its agenda.

On the rostrum, in addition to the host Frederick, there were several initiators and conveners of this meeting, all of whom had solemn faces and solemn expressions, as if there had been a third world war.

"Everyone! Please be quiet! Frederick shifted the microphone, "I'm sorry, something happened and we had to make adjustments to the agenda of the meeting. In addition, I would like to tell you two very unfortunate news. ”

The venue was quiet, and everyone was waiting for his next step.

"One of the most important items on the agenda of this meeting is the archaeological demonstration of the seafloor remains found in the South Pacific basin. All of you here are important scientists, and I'm sure you've all heard of it. But, just the day before yesterday......" Frederick paused and said with some heaviness, "our research ship is missing." ”

"Oh my God......" everyone in the room shouted in surprise.

"There are 27 scientists and 46 crew members on board, and seven of them are scientists as great as everyone here. They are all my friends and everybody's friends. As of now," Frederick said, looking at his watch, "they've been missing for 63 hours." ”

"How the hell did you get lost? Caught in a storm? What is the situation of the search and rescue? Someone asked.

"Actually, we don't know exactly what's going on. The research vessel has been staying near 150°W longitude and 30°S south latitude for 15 days, and has been maintaining normal communication with us. We have two meteorological satellites that monitor the airflow over the South Pacific basin 24 hours a day, and on the day of the loss, everything was normal in the nearby seas, and there were no storms. ”

Frederick rubbed his nose and eyebrows, apparently he had been suffering from this for more than a day.

"Please rest assured that we have applied for search and rescue support from the U.S. government, the Australian government, the New Zealand government and the Argentine government, and please trust the sincerity of these governments, they have their scientists on board, and they will do their best."

"If there were no storms, would there have been undersea earthquakes? Tsunamis are scarier than storms! "Someone said.

Frederick shook his head and said, "No, no. According to the WWSSN monitoring report, there were 79 monitorable earthquakes in 23 places around the world at that time, including only one in the South Pacific basin, with a magnitude of about 4.5, and the epicenter was more than 300 nautical miles away from the research vessel, which was not enough to cause any damage. Seismic networks and monitoring stations in New Zealand, Chile and Argentina also did not detect strong seismic signals from the area. Moreover, our research vessels are well equipped and in the event of an earthquake, they have at least a few hours to react and contact us before a tsunami engulfs the ship. ”

"Could it be that there is something wrong with the research ship itself?"

"I don't rule it out, but it's very unlikely." Frederick said, "The ship is built by Japan's Taiwa Shipbuilding, with a tonnage of 4,800 tons, a capacity of 80 people, 13 wind resistance, and a cruising range of 18,000 nautical miles, which meets the requirements of unlimited navigation area." Moreover, scientists have modified and upgraded the ship to have the most advanced electronic communications and experimental equipment. In the past two dozen missions, nothing has gone wrong. ”

"Searched for nearby islands? Didn't you find the wreckage or anything? ”

"Nope." Frederick shook his head, "In fact, it's not just our research ships that are missing, the four ghost islands, including Maria Teresa Reef, which was relocated a month ago, and the two regular islands and reefs in the southern part of the Tubuai Islands, as well as the underwater ruins that are being explored, are all missing. ”

……

Mei Yiqiu looked at Frederick, carefully recalling every detail of what he said, discerning the doubts and thinking about the possible cause and effect behind them.

He knew that Frederick was telling the truth, and he couldn't have lied about such a big thing.

As one of the world's top scientists, he can accept anything strange and strange, which is the spirit of exploration necessary for science.

But it happened so suddenly!

Even if there were no earthquakes or storms, it was not impossible to explain, after all, the South Pacific basin is so large. Maybe it's a malfunctioning signaling device, maybe it's a temporary discovery, maybe it's a magnetic field interference that makes them lose their way, but there are many explanations that can be made anyway.

But how did the islands and underwater relics disappear?

Most of the people pondered the same questions as Mei Yiqiu, and the venue fell into a deathly silence.

……

I don't know how long it took, but someone finally remembered that the host Frederick's words were not finished.

"You just said that there are two unfortunate news, the first one we already know, what is the second one?"

Everyone was uneasy, could there be anything more unfortunate than the first news?

Frederick's expression suddenly changed from solemnity to sorrow, and he choked up: "Our beloved and great Mr. Evans Leicester passed away in the early hours of this morning. ”

His sorrow was not fake, and those who sat close could see that the corners of his eyes were moist.

His words were like throwing a bomb in the venue, and after a short silence, the bomb exploded.

Oh，MyGod！

Some screamed, some hid their faces and wept, and some beat their chests......

Mei Yiqiu felt a huge hammer sweep from the void and slammed into his chest.