“You don’t know why the explosion happened?” Besnova demanded.
“I told you that the safety test was designed by Chief Engineer Fomin. I’m only responsible for submitting its procedure to the Institute of Hydropower Engineering and the Nuclear Safety Committee,” Breuhanov said as he glanced at Zhang Heng. He appeared very nervous, haunted by thoughts that Zhang Heng would cut off another of his fingers if he was unsatisfied with his answer.
“What did the Institute of Hydropower Engineering and the Nuclear Energy Safety Committee reply to you?”
“I didn’t receive any reply from them.”
Seeing that Besnova was about to get angry again, Breuhanov hurriedly added, “You can’t blame me for that! They’re very busy… I don’t know how long they’ll have to wait for the reply, and the reactor is about to be shut down for maintenance. If we miss this time, we’ll have to wait until the next cycle before we can carry out the test. We’ve done this several times before, and we haven’t encountered any problems.”
After Breuhanov finished, he saw Zhang Heng, Master Kui, and Coconut whispering to each other. They even glanced at him from time to time, which gave him goosebumps. Thus, he took the initiative to plead. “I know I’ve made a mistake, so I’ll go back to Moscow with you. I only hope that you’ll let me say goodbye to my family.”
“Who’s taking you to Moscow?” Angered by Breuhanov’s words, Besnova laughed.
However, after that, her expression changed and she said to Breuhanov with a straight face, “The cause of the accident has not been found out yet. We will not go back. Don’t mention to anyone else that we came to look for you, understand?”
“Understood. Understood.” Breuhanov nodded repeatedly.
“The others I’m talking about also include the expert group and the committee members after that.”
“Of course.” Buruhanov almost patted his chest.
“Your secretary?”
“I’ll take care of it. I’ll make sure she keeps her mouth shut.”
“Your finger?”
“I was too worried about the accident at the nuclear power plant, so I cut myself while cutting an apple.” Clearly, Bryuhanov understood. However, his excuse was too ridiculous, and Besnova was speechless.
After that, Zhang Heng left Master Kui behind to look after Bryuhanov, and he took Besnova and Coconut to look for Fomin, who was next door.
Unlike Bryuhanov, the tactful and worldly-looking factory manager, Fomin possessed a square face, sharp corners, deep eyes, and a pleasant voice. Sounding a baritone singer, he was clearly usually very efficient in his work.
But now, he was the first person in the nuclear power plant to collapse. Zhang Heng and the others could hear him shouting, “Where else can I find water?! Where else can I find water?”
Apparently, the chief engineer was having a headache over how to carry out the orders of the higher-ups to continue supplying water to the reactor, even though there was no longer a need for water there.
Zhang Heng and the others said nothing. They pushed the door open and walked in. After that, Fomin received the same treatment as Bryuhanov, and he was pressed on the table by Zhang Heng.
So far, the players had already talked to the four people on the list, but they still hadn’t received any system notifications, so only Fomin was left at the top of the list.
According to Dyatlov, Bryuhanov, and the others, the safety experiment that triggered the reactor explosion was designed by Fomin, so he was obviously responsible. Fomin must have realized this, which was why he had become so stressed.
Like Bryuhanov, he insisted on blowing up the water tank instead of the reactor, because only then could he possibly survive the current crisis.
Thus, he spent most of the morning figuring out how to fill the reactor with water. After the water in the spare water tank was used up, he even contacted the fire department and asked them to bring more water over with fire trucks.
Zhang Heng and the others returned to the nuclear power plant. Although they were led by Vorobyov, they were still exposed to some radiation along the way. Normally, it wouldn’t be that serious, but because they were already at the scene of the explosion, and now had absorbed a good amount of radiation at close range, Coconut didn’t look too good either. After entering Fomin’s office, she threw up in the trash can for a while.
However, when she raised her head and looked at Fomin, her eyes were filled with hope. Fomin felt his hair stand on end under her gaze. He didn’t understand why this strange woman was looking at him like she was her savior.
The chief engineer had no idea what to do with the current situation. Furthermore, his mental pressure had reached a critical point. As long as Zhang Heng exerted a little pressure on him, he wouldn’t even need to do anything before explaining everything honestly.
However, after a round of questioning, Fomin repeatedly stated that he didn’t understand why the explosion had happened. He insisted that there was nothing wrong with the design of his test. Even after Zhang Heng stabbed the knife into Fomin’s thigh and he wailed in pain, he still couldn’t figure out what went wrong with the safety test. He only blamed everything on the two who were on duty last night.
In the end, Zhang Heng only released his grip when he realized that he could not ask any more questions. By then, Fomin was completely paralyzed on the table. Snot and tears were streaming down his face.
On the other side, Coconut looked exhausted. She sat on the sofa in her office and covered her face with her hands. No one knew what she was thinking.
The office fell into a strange silence.
Coconut spent a full six to seven minutes to barely suppress the disappointment in her heart. She opened her mouth again. “Did we just ask all the people we can ask but still fail to complete the main mission? What should we do next? Who else should we look for, the designer of the nuclear power plant? What should we do if he doesn’t have any effect? Have we been heading in the wrong direction from the start?”
Coconut’s tone was filled with frustration and entirely devoid of faith. As the names on the list were removed one by one, the remaining ones were either not easy to find, or the ones who seemed to have less responsibility. Coconut’s mood became more and more irritable. She was the most exposed among the players, and if nothing went wrong, she had the least amount of game time left. She could even feel an invisible hand slowly strangling her neck harder by the second.
“I can console you that our mission is almost complete, but you’re also a player, so you should know very well that we’re still in the investigation stage. We can’t rule out other possibilities, so we can only choose the most likely path and go down to take a look,” Zhang Heng said. “We can’t get any more clues from the nuclear power plant. Let’s go and meet up with the others first. Tell them about the situation here, and then we’ll discuss what to do next.”
