Chapter 1438: To The Countryside
[Congratulations, User, for mission completion!]
Inside the customs lounge at the Jinling Aeros.p.a.ce Airport.
Lu Zhou sat in a chair. He looked at the holographic window that appeared in front of him and the completion of the mission. A dumbfounded expression appeared in his eyes.
“I didn’t expect to disclose my ident.i.ty this way, at least half of the people thought I was joking…”
The scene was in chaos. Lu Zhou still remembered that he had to be escorted by the airport staff to escape from the reporters.
The vast majority of people in the world had already witnessed his return.
Based on the feedback given by the completion of the system task, Lu Zhou didn’t expect that only 49% of the people believed that he had returned.
But then again.
Half was pretty good.
If Plato stood in front of him and said that he had spent more than two thousand years in a dormant cabin because he had found an alien in the “Martian h.e.l.l Mountains”, he would probably think of it as a joke.
Especially since fake-media technology in the 22nd century was so advanced.
The amount of information people in this era were exposed to daily was definitely not in the same order of magnitude as people in the 21st century, and their sensitivity to external information was extremely high.
Fortunately, the way he appeared on the stage was so confident that at least some people took it seriously.
When Lu Zhou heard footsteps from outside the corridor, he blinked and dismissed the mission completion reminder.
At the same time, there was a knock on the door of the lounge. A middle-aged man and a woman, who were obviously of high status, walked in. They were accompanied by a few people.
“h.e.l.lo, I’m Li Guangya, the chairman of the Pan-Asian Cooperation.” After making a simple self-introduction, the leader looked at the lady next to her and introduced, “This is Ms. Wu Shuhua, Pan-Asian Cooperation Secretary-General.”
Wu Shuhua nodded to Lu Zhou and spoke politely.
“h.e.l.lo, Mr. Lu Zhou.”
Lu Zhou also nodded to say h.e.l.lo.
“Nice to meet you.”
After sitting across from Lu Zhou, Li Guangya looked at Lu Zhou seriously and spoke.
“Are you really Lu Zhou?”
“Yeah.”
The two people sitting across Lu Zhou made eye contact. A strange look appeared in their eyes.
Wu Shuhua: “I don’t mean to offend you… but aren’t you supposed to be dead?”
Lu Zhou: “Theoretically, yes. But I was lucky to find the dormant capsule of the Martian civilization.”
The dormant capsule of the Martian civilization…
Li Guangya smiled bitterly. Although he, the chairman of the board, occasionally encountered some strange things when coordinating the work between member states, something like this was really rare.
“Where is the dormant cabin?”
Lu Zhou said silently, “Do you really have to ask this… Of course it’s on Mars.”
Li Guangya coughed and raised his hand, signaling Secretary-General Wu not to ask these trivial questions for now.
He looked at Lu Zhou and continued with a cautious tone, “Mr. Lu, whether you are Lu Zhou or not, can I call you that?”
The information registered on the flight was Lu Ai, so calling him by his surname shouldn’t be a problem.
Lu Zhou nodded and said that he didn’t care. He waited for him to continue.
“Generally speaking, through normal dormancy procedures, we keep a back-up copy of the dormant’s ident.i.ty information in the dormant cabin and the household registration management department. This includes the DNA, fingerprints, and other information that can prove who it is. As long as two of the three categories can be verified, then we can prove that you are who you claim to be.”
Lu Zhou sighed and spoke with a headache.
“How was I supposed to do that back then… So I can’t prove who I am?”
“This is due to rigorous procedural considerations, and… have you heard of the Nicholas case?”
Lu Zhou: “… What’s that?”
“A case that occurred between 2031 and 2100 and spans more than 70 years.” Li Guangya continued after a pause, “In 2031, there was a Northern Union businessman named Don Nicholas. He apparently died in a London hospital. Because of information loss and other reasons, the death could not be investigated. But in the summer of 2100, a man who claimed to be Don Nicholas announced that he had awakened from dormancy.”
Lu Zhou vaguely guessed what he wanted to say.
“You mean… He might be a fraud?”
“Not might, he is. But in fact, even though he was later proved to be a fraud, under the circ.u.mstances at the time, he was likely to have been considered real.”
Chairman Li Guangya continued, “The biggest controversy in that case was an inheritance worth up to 50 million Northern Union credit points. Although his company closed down due to mismanagement in 2043, his descendants still inherited a considerable amount of wealth from him. However, if he is still alive, the inheritance is obviously invalid. His descendants should also return all the inherited parts of his inheritance… At least the remaining part.”
“During the trial, the man claimed that he had come into this world through an abnormal cryo-hibernation method, so many procedures were incomplete. This argument was barely plausible. After all, when he went into frozen dormancy, the law did not prohibit informal dormancy channels, so all his actions were legal.”
Lu Zhou: “What happened?”
“The North Sea Alliance court rejected his lawsuit… Although his DNA is largely consistent with his descendants, there is no way to form a complete chain of evidence. The trail was in a stalemate, his descendants obtained the fingerprint samples of Don Nicholas himself during a charity fundraiser, and through fingerprint comparison, the case was finally brought to an end.
“The plaintiff became the defendant and was charged with fraud, and the man who claimed to be Don Nicholas pleaded guilty in court, saying that he was actually Don Nicholas’ illegitimate grandchild, that he made himself look like his grandfather.”
Lu Zhou said with a headache on his face, “So you suspect that I had plastic surgery?”
In order to receive Academician Lu’s inheritance?
This sounds ridiculous.
“We think that might be a possibility.” Wu Shuhua said in a serious tone, “Although the Northern Union and we belong to different legal systems, similar situations have occurred in the Pan-Asian cooperation.
“A person who was dead in the eyes of the law suddenly appeared as a person who looked exactly like him and was sued by the descendants of the person who had already died, demanding the return of the inheritance or some compensation. Although we support the person getting back his property and social honor, but… After all, this is a very serious matter that must be treated with care. We must 100% ensure that they are the same person.”
Lu Zhou sighed and said, “Then how can I prove that I am me?”
Li Guangya said sincerely, “If you trust us, you can leave this matter to us to handle. Whether it’s ident.i.ty confirmation or owners.h.i.+p definition, these things will take some time.”
“I don’t care.” Lu Zhou continued after thinking for a while, “But I don’t even have a place to live now.”
Chairman Li Guangya’s expression was a bit awkward. He said after coughing, “This… I’m really sorry, your house has been developed by the local authorities into a cultural tourist attraction. Even if we recognize your ident.i.ty, the local authorities are unlikely to return it. After all, they have renovated it many times… But we will compensate you in the form of credits based on market prices.
“We recommend that you find a place to stay as soon as possible. We contacted the insurance company that insured flight N-177, and they expressed their willingness to pay you a prepaid compensation. We will issue you a temporary residence permit here. You can use this temporary residence permit to open an account, apply for a bank card, and rent real estate. After we have restored your citizens.h.i.+p, you can transfer your account.
“As for the fake ident.i.ty registered on the flight…” Director Li Guangya looked at Lu Zhou and said, “We decided not to pursue it for the time being.”
So they know about it.
Makes sense, this isn’t the 21st century anymore, when quantum encryption technology hadn’t been popularized.
Even though Xiao Ai was still strong, it still needed stronger hardware to support that kind of power.
As for his own house…
Since property rights expired after 70 years if there was no renewal, it was confiscated.
“If it’s a tourist attraction, then so be it. It has been a hundred years, it’s probably not livable anymore…” Lu Zhou smiled and asked casually, “By the way, how many stars is it?”
“According to the Pan-Asian Cooperation standards, it is a five-star tourist attraction… That is, the highest level.”
“What about Lu Xun’s former residence?”
Li Guangya was stunned. He didn’t quite understand why Lu Zhou asked this question suddenly, but he still answered, “I think it’s also five stars?”
Lu Zhou nodded.
Not bad, same level as Lu Xun.
“Not bad.”
Li Guangya and Wu Shuhua glanced at each other with weird expressions. They didn’t quite understand what Lu Zhou meant.
It seemed that Mr. Lu was quite an easygoing person.
When most people woke up and heard that their houses were gone, they didn’t care how many years they had slept, nor did they listen to any reason. They cried and complained.
It was also the first time that Li Guangya and Wu Shuhua had talked to a dormant person this way.
After all, if Lu Zhou hadn’t saved the entire flight, they wouldn’t be here.
Taking into account the degree of concern about this matter from the public, Lu Zhou’s problem would definitely be resolved soon.
Wu Shuhua coughed slightly and said, “That’s enough for today. You should rest well for a few days. We won’t bother you too much.
“Also, the managers of the Freezing Human Rights Protection Fund want to see you. When will you be free? They should be able to help you.”
Lu Zhou: “I’m free anytime.”
Wu Shuhua: “Then what do you think about the afternoon?”
Lu Zhou nodded.
“No problem.”
Not long after the two left, another medical team came and gave him a full set of free medical examinations and collected fingerprints as well as blood samples.
Although Lu Zhou carried the protector gene, he was not worried about it being detected.
After all, this was a high-tech technology that even the Calan Empire couldn’t decipher. Even if the complete genetic code was placed in front of the people on Earth, no one would know what it meant.
After completing the physical examination, Lu Zhou wandered around in the customs. Because of his lack of an ident.i.ty, he could only stay here until the procedures for temporary ident.i.ty were completed.
At night, a customs personnel informed him to go to the office to collect the relevant doc.u.ments.
Lu Zhou thought that there would be a large stack of doc.u.ments waiting for him to sign. He didn’t expect to receive only a wristband that was as thin as a piece of paper.
“All of your ident.i.ty information is stored on this bracelet. The network is backed up in the Pan-Asian cooperation personal ident.i.ty information system, which is globally networked.
“There is an electronic contract in the bracelet with a detailed description of the temporary residency. If there are no problems, you can just click to confirm.”
Lu Zhou looked at the bracelet in his hand and the holographic image that popped up after it was activated. He had a strange look on his mind.
“This is it?”
“Are there any other questions?”
Lu Zhou: “Nothing. I thought that you would use paper doc.u.ments to sign or something.”
“All the electronic contracts you sign will have your unique ident.i.ty code attached to the signature. This ident.i.ty code cannot be forged or stolen, so there is no need to worry. We’re in the 22nd century now; most things are completely electronic.”
After speaking, the customs staff smiled and continued, “In addition, it is getting late now. If you have no other place to go, you can stay in the temporary lounge of the customs temporarily. We have prepared a bed and hot water for you. You can stay until tomorrow.”
Lu Zhou nodded and put away the bracelet.
“Thank you.”
“You are welcome.”
In the lounge, Lu Zhou went to the bathroom and took a shower.
Days of s.p.a.ce travel had acc.u.mulated a lot of fatigue on him. He just wanted to get a good night’s sleep and receive the rewards of the system tomorrow.
But just after he had just taken a shower and put on clean clothes he bought from the duty-free shop, footsteps came from outside the lounge.
After knocking on the door, a tall man walked in.
When he saw Lu Zhou, his eyes were filled with tears of excitement. He walked forward quickly and grabbed Lu Zhou by the shoulders.
“Lu… Academician Lu! Is it really you?”
“Li Gaoliang?!”
Lu Zhou opened his mouth. His face was full of surprise.
He remembered this middle-aged internet addict quite well.
The reason why Star Sky Technology’s Phantom system was so successful was because of this guy.
Compared to the last time they met, this guy’s face had a few more wrinkles, but the change was not big. Lu Zhou recognized him at first glance.
However, Lu Zhou never expected that he would see this guy again, a century later.
“Why are you here in this era?”
“It’s a long story!” Li Gaoliang’s eyes were full of excitement as he said, “You didn’t die! This is too… too…”
Because he was so emotional, he couldn’t even get the second half of the sentence out of his mouth.
Not wanting to embarra.s.s him, Lu Zhou coughed softly and spoke.
“How many people like us are in this era?”
After thinking about it for a while, Li Gaoliang replied, “I am not sure about this. Our missions are independent of each other. The dormant information is also a Cla.s.s A secret. I only know… Director Li since I met him in this era.”
Director Li…
That old b.u.g.g.e.r is here?
After hearing this news, Lu Zhou didn’t know what to feel.
Even though he didn’t know what purpose Director Li was here for, it was a good thing for him.
Before returning to Earth, he was a little worried that he would be thrown into a completely unfamiliar era. He didn’t expect that there would be some friends who came from the early 21st century whom he could rely on.
This was a blessing in the midst of the misfortune…