Chapter 70 - 29: Artificial Rainstorm Conspiracy Theory

Chapter 70: Chapter 29: Artificial Rainstorm Conspiracy Theory

He could only wait for Wen Xiao to analyze the audio before seeing if he had any new ideas.

Yu Xian took a deep breath and forced these speculations and hypotheses to the back of his mind for now. He stood up, quietly emptied the leftover noodle soup and trash into the bin, and washed the dishes. Returning to the living room, he spread out his parents’ papers and continued studying the foundational knowledge within.

Before he could read much, his phone, which had been set aside, suddenly began vibrating wildly.

Yu Xian jumped in surprise. He subconsciously glanced at the bedroom door and only breathed a sigh of relief when he saw there was no movement from his cousin. Picking up his phone, he noticed a new group chat on his messaging interface.

The group’s name was quite comical: Noah’s Ark Ticket Scalping Group.

A quick look at the member list revealed a total of three people: Gala Gives Mu Gaoshou, Yang Liu Yiyi, and COS.

Shi Zuozhou had sent a long wall of text. Before Yu Xian could even read it, another new message popped up: "Old Yu! Brother Yi! Have you guys checked Friends Circle? So many people are sharing this article! I knew something was wrong!"

It was followed by a string of exclamation marks.

Taken aback, Yu Xian scrolled to the very top of the chat. It was an article link titled: *Investigative Report on Abnormal Precipitation in the Northern Hemisphere: Is the Nationwide Rainstorm a "Natural Disaster" or a "Man-Made Calamity"?*

The article was a repost. It read like a machine-translated overseas report, originally published by an organization called the Global Climate Monitoring Alliance. A few satellite cloud images were attached at the beginning, showing a hazy gray mass covering more than half of Asia.

At the start of the main text, the organization claimed to have analyzed rainfall data from the past half-month and concluded that this rain was highly abnormal. The rain belt was too wide, the duration was too long, and the intensity was practically uniform from south to north. Under normal circumstances, even monsoons wouldn’t distribute so evenly.

Then, they presented their hypothesis: this rain might not be a "natural disaster" born of natural phenomena, but rather a "man-made calamity" caused by some human experiments spiraling out of control.

Reading this, Yu Xian frowned. He thought this was absolutely ridiculous and wondered why a guy like Shi Zuozhou was always so obsessed with such pseudoscience. He pondered what kind of human experiment could have an impact vast enough to cover an entire country, let alone all of Asia and the entire Northern Hemisphere.

Reading further, the article mentioned a few weather modification experiments in history. One example cited was called Operation Popeye. This occurred during the Vietnam War in the 1960s, where the US military used aircraft to seed clouds with a chemical substance called silver iodide. This prolonged the monsoon season, resulting in floods that submerged the Vietnamese Army’s supply lines and affected the course of the war.

In addition, the 2024 Dubai floods and the 2025 Texas floods were supposedly also caused by cloud-seeding technology.

Immediately after, the article shifted its focus to the current rainstorm that covered almost the entire Northern Hemisphere:

"...However, in the 21st century, this technology has evolved to the electromagnetic level. Through ionospheric monitoring data, our meteorologists have discovered a ’high-frequency heating’ phenomenon in the ionosphere above East Asia. This phenomenon is similar in principle to the famous High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP)."

Yu Xian skimmed through it quickly as the article provided a specific deduction below:

"We hypothesize that an undisclosed, ultra-large-scale high-energy physics experiment might have experienced a severe loss of parameter control, accidentally triggering a ’standing wave effect’ in the ionosphere. The immense energy heated the upper atmosphere, forming a massive, lingering high-pressure ridge. This ridge has completely locked in the warm, moist air currents transported from the Pacific Ocean, causing cyclones that should have passed quickly to stagnate over inland areas."

At the end of the article was a shocking conclusion:

"If the currently operating experiments and energy sources cannot be shut down immediately, this rainstorm will likely evolve into a modern great flood that sweeps across half the continent."

At this point, Yu Xian closed the article and returned to the group chat. Gala Gives Mu Gaoshou was still frantically typing away.

"I knew this rain wasn’t right yesterday! See?! I’m absolutely certain there’s some conspiracy here! An ultra-large-scale physics experiment... Do you guys think it has something to do with that high-energy particle accelerator?"

Yu Xian felt a bit helpless. Shi Zuozhou was a physics student at JCU, after all. Why was he being brainwashed by this messy tabloid literature every single day? Sighing, he felt it was necessary to remind Shi Zuozhou to defend the dignity of their physics department in front of Senior Sister Yiyi from the School of Life Sciences.

COS sent, "Old Shi, calm down. It’s one thing for someone who hasn’t studied physics to read this and move on, but how could you believe it?"

Gala Gives Mu Gaoshou replied, "Old Yu, look at the article’s analysis! It’s simply flawless! The cited data is also very professional!"

Yu Xian facepalmed and typed on his keyboard, "Then go look up the power output of the HAARP mentioned in the article..."

"I checked. It’s 3.6 megawatts. That should be on par with a medium-sized power plant, right?" Gala Gives Mu Gaoshou replied two seconds later.

"Do you remember what we learned before about the energy source that drives Earth’s weather systems?" Yu Xian typed. "The solar radiation reaching Earth is 174 petawatts. Megawatts and petawatts—there is a billion-fold difference between the two."

Seeing this, Yang Liu Yiyi, who had been lurking, chimed in to deliver the final blow: "Wouldn’t that be equivalent to trying to boil the entire Pacific Ocean with the energy of a single match?"

The group chat went silent for two seconds.

Shi Zuozhou still wouldn’t give up. "But what if they hid the true power output? The article said there’s an ultra-large-scale high-energy physics experiment heating the ionosphere!"

Yu Xian had no choice but to reply, "The heated ionosphere and the troposphere, where weather phenomena occur, are separated by the stratosphere and the mesosphere. Energy can’t be conducted down here."

Shi Zuozhou seemed to realize the article’s flaws. "I guess you’re right. If ionospheric disturbances could really trigger floods of this magnitude, we would have drowned hundreds of times over from every solar flare and Earth magnetic storm. Looks like it’s just another marketing account talking nonsense. And here I thought I’d actually stumbled upon a real-life version of *2012*!"

After saying that, Gala Gives Mu Gaoshou sent a few facepalm and OK emojis.

Listening to the endless sound of rain outside the window, Yu Xian fell deep into thought. Although the article’s logic regarding the cause made no sense, he also truly felt a sense of incongruity about this rainstorm. However, objectively speaking, current human technology was indeed incapable of creating a rainstorm of this scale. Therefore, he deduced that it was more likely caused by some form of extreme climate change.

Just as he was about to turn off his screen, Yang Liu Yiyi sent a message: "This conspiracy theory article actually made it onto the trending search list! So many netizens actually believe it! The comment section on the meteorological department’s account has completely blown up."

Seeing Senior Sister Yiyi’s message, Yu Xian frowned. He wondered how such an article could make it onto the trending list. Common sense dictated that in the current internet environment, a rumor of this kind—one that spread panic and clearly contained pseudoscience—should be deleted in seconds. At the very least, it should be shadow-banned, or someone would have quickly come out to debunk it.

But right now, not only was it still up, but its popularity was steadily climbing.

Shi Zuozhou sent a screenshot of the trending search list into the group. The topic "Northern Hemisphere Rainstorm Suspected to be Man-Made" had already surged to the third spot on the trending list, trailed by a deep red ’Viral’ tag.

Clicking into the topic’s public feed revealed a screen full of netizens’ exclamations and discussions:

"This rain has been falling for almost a month without stopping. Turns out someone is pulling strings behind the scenes!"

"Who exactly is conducting these experiments? Are they crazy? Joking around with the lives of hundreds of millions of people?"

"Our underground garages are about to be flooded. Are those scientists really madmen?"

"Hurry up and shut down the experiment! What a bunch of fame-fishing hack experts!"

Panic spread through the online world like a flood.

Shi Zuozhou asked in confusion, "Isn’t this too outrageous? The rumor has been up for hours. Why hasn’t anyone taken care of it?"

Yang Yiyi was also puzzled. "It’s definitely abnormal. Normally, it would have been dealt with long ago. This time, it feels like it was given a green light on purpose."

Watching the conversation on the screen, Yu Xian pondered the logic behind it all. He reasoned that if lies were meant to cover up the truth, then what truth was this rumor about ’experiments losing control and causing rainstorms’ trying to hide?

Could it be even more outrageous and terrifying than the rumor itself?

Yu Xian took a deep breath and looked out the window. This rainstorm sweeping across Jiangcheng might be hiding far more secrets than he imagined.