Chapter 234 - 199: Abnormal Heat

Chapter 234: Chapter 199: Abnormal Heat

The entire next morning, Xu An was somewhat distracted.

Although his memories from his past life served as proof that for the six years before the tidal flats were destroyed, this area had been perfectly normal. Even after its destruction, right up until his rebirth in 2027, nothing unusual had ever happened to the flats.

But too many things had changed in this life.

Xuguang Real Estate’s construction sites had all switched to a meal subsidy system. The owner of Jiajia Fast Food Restaurant had been thrown in jail. Victory Supermarket had a food safety scandal a year early. The greenhouse farming area had been vandalized. All these things either never happened in his past life or happened a year or two later...

These changes weren’t huge, but Xu An worried if the tidal flats had undergone a similar change. He feared that the problem originally set to appear after 2027 had arrived early, in 2012.

However, this state didn’t last long. At twelve noon, Xu An received a call from his Second Great-Uncle. At three in the afternoon, Professor Yu would be leading a team to the Southeast Corner Tidal Flats in Qianhai Town for an on-site inspection!

Upon hearing the news, Xu An immediately found Wang Fulong and put him in charge of the first-prize challenge at Xu’s Braised Shop for the day.

According to the original plan, Xu An, as the owner, was supposed to be present for such a major prize event. But his mind was now completely consumed by the tidal flats. Hearing that an on-site investigation was happening that very afternoon, how could he possibly sit still?

’After all, when you compare ten thousand to nine hundred and sixty thousand, the nine hundred and sixty thousand is obviously more important!’

Wang Fulong had no objection to this work arrangement from Xu An and agreed in a heartbeat. He then stared at the blank document on his screen and fell into deep thought.

’I feel like I learned something really important last night,’ he thought. ’Something I had to tell the boss right away, immediately, urgently! But now I can’t for the life of me remember what it was! Not only can I not remember that, I don’t even remember how I got home. When I opened my eyes, I was already lying in my own bed.’

’What on earth could it be? It must have been important, or I wouldn’t have remembered that I absolutely had to tell the boss, even after blacking out from drinking!’

’So, what was it?!’

Wang Fulong grabbed the hair on both sides of his head and viciously tousled it, trying to find some shred of a clue through this self-inflicted torment.

Separated from Wang Fulong by an aisle, Tang Wen, who had her own separate desk, silently scooted her chair closer to the wall.

’My coworker seems to have gone crazy,’ she thought. ’Should I call the police or an ambulance? Or just make a run for it!’

After teasing him a bit in her head, Tang Wen’s attention returned to her computer. The grand opening event for the braised food shop could be considered a resounding success! The move to add more first-prize slots, in particular, had attracted a great deal of attention.

Last night, after posting the news about the reinstatement of the first prize on the Xu’s Catering account, they gained a full three thousand followers in just two hours! This growth only recently started to slow down, and the account’s follower count has now reached twenty-three thousand.

It had been less than a week since the account was created and put into operation, and its follower count had already grown from zero to over twenty thousand. This growth was nothing short of terrifying.

Moreover, she discovered today that the account’s followers weren’t just from Hai City; many were from other cities in Haiyang Province, and there were even some from out of province! Most of them were drawn by the Hellish Braised Flavor and the huge first-prize cash award.

Among them were many people from provinces known for their love of spicy food, and they were all arguing up a storm in the comments. Some wanted to come and take the first-prize challenge, some wanted to test just how spicy the Hellish Braised Flavor really was, and others were disdainful of its so-called title as the spiciest in the country...

Amidst all these comments, a few in particular caught Tang Wen’s eye.

’I’m in the north-central region, and I checked the round-trip fare to Hai City—it’s over two thousand! Looks like I won’t be having any of this Hellish Braised Flavor. I really want to try it, though!’

’Boss, why are you selling the super-spicy Hellish Braised Flavor in a province like Haiyang that doesn’t eat spicy food? Take my advice and open a shop over here. We all love spicy food; I guarantee your Hellish Braised Flavor will sell like crazy!’

’Hahaha, I went to university in Hai City! I’m on the train right now! Hellish Braised Flavor, here I come!’

’...’

All these comments were posted by friends from other provinces, with the spiciest-food-loving provinces leaving the most messages. There were quite a few such comments—two or three hundred in total. After filtering out multiple posts from the same person, there were still nearly two hundred unique individuals.

’Two hundred people! One jin of braised food per person... that’s two hundred jin of braised food! That’s all money!’

’What a pity. A real pity.’

Tang Wen shook her head regretfully. She compiled this data into a separate document and tossed it into a folder named "Potentially Useful."

「The Southeast Corner Tidal Flats of Qianhai Town.」

Although Professor Yu had said they wouldn’t arrive to inspect the tidal flats until three o’clock, the villagers from Xu Family Village had already gathered here to wait a little after two. A group of thirty or forty people congregating like this immediately drew the attention of the fishermen working on the flats. During their occasional breaks, they would cast glances in this direction, curious about what the group from Xu Family Village was up to.

Xu An was among them. After handing things over to Wang Fulong, he had rushed back to Xu Family Village and come here to wait with everyone else.

The late-August sun was still scorching. Even standing in the shade, you could feel a wave of summer heat rising from the soles of your feet, and it wasn’t long before fine beads of sweat dotted your forehead.

Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait long. At two forty, an eight-seater business van slowly drove over and stopped in front of the crowd. The door slid open, and Professor Yu was the first to step out, followed by his four students, and finally, two sturdily built young men.

While Professor Yu exchanged pleasantries with Second Great-Uncle, the two young men retrieved two large packs from the van. They began taking out various pieces of equipment and putting them on.

As they donned rubber suits, breathing masks, oxygen tanks, and other gear, Xu An watched them pull out a pair of flippers from their bags and felt something was wrong. ’This equipment, this getup... why does it look like they’re going into the sea?’ he thought. ’Could the problem be in the sea? Not on the tidal flats?’

Once the two young men were fully geared up, Professor Yu and his team also changed into sleeveless tops, chest waders, and rubber boots, then led the crowd down onto the tidal flats.

A whole group of forty to fifty people walked across the flats, including two strangely dressed frogmen. The fishermen who had been secretly observing them no longer bothered to pretend; they strode over in a few steps and tagged along behind to watch the show.

An asphalt road ran through the middle of the tidal flats. After descending onto the flats, they walked a full two kilometers to the left, towards a sparsely vegetated and rarely visited area, before stopping. Just then, Professor Yu suddenly turned his head to look at Xu An and asked, "Do you feel anything unusual?"

Like a student caught daydreaming in class who is suddenly called on by the teacher, Xu An was stunned for a moment before he mobilized all five of his senses to observe what was special about this patch of tidal flat.

’First, the vegetation is sparse, and what little there is looks extremely malnourished. Second, there’s a lack of sea creatures; even the ubiquitous little crabs don’t scuttle over here. But besides those two things, there doesn’t seem to be anything else wrong!’

But seeing the serious expression on Professor Yu’s face, Xu An thought for a moment, then bent down and plunged his hand into the mud. The instant his skin made contact with the silt, Xu An’s eyes flew wide open.

’Normally, while the surface mud might get scorching hot under the sun, the silt five centimeters down—or ten at the most—should be cool to the touch.’

During the walk over, he hadn’t noticed the temperature because of the thick rubber clothes and boots. But now, with his skin in direct contact with the mud, Xu An could feel it. Not only was the mud ten centimeters down warm, but it was also warm at fifteen centimeters, even twenty centimeters! And it got hotter the deeper he went!

Xu An snapped his head up. Seeing the faint smile playing on Professor Yu’s lips, he exclaimed in utter astonishment, "Professor Yu, why is all the mud on these flats warm?!"

Hearing Xu An’s words, the crowd froze for a second. Then, without hesitation, they all copied his action, plunging their hands into the mud. A moist, warm sensation enveloped their entire arms...

Professor Yu didn’t answer Xu An’s question. Instead, he turned and nodded at the two frogmen. The frogmen walked straight towards the sea. When the water reached their chests, they snapped on their breathing masks, bit down on their oxygen tubes, and with a sharp dive, plunged into the water...