From Robinson Crusoe

"Ivan Andreyevich Bolkonsky".

A long and distinctly Soviet-style name—this was the name of the owner of a red document inside the safe.

此人出生于20世纪30年代末，于20世纪80年代加入了一支名为“10003部队”的神秘组织。

According to the document, this person initially reported directly to Colonel Alexei Savin, the unit commander, and was responsible for handling a large special fund.

Of course, Ivan's job wasn't accounting; Chen Zhou felt that his work was more like money laundering.

Among several complicated bills, Chen Zhou saw a small portion of the fund flow records.

This small portion is calculated in hundreds of thousands of rubles.

Chen Zhou didn't know much about the Soviet Union, but he did know that this behemoth, which had once rivaled the United States, still held considerable weight in the ruble before its collapse.

In the 20s, a ruble measured in units of 80 was probably equivalent to millions of dollars today.

Matching the massive funds is the tough and mysterious background of "Unit 10003".

The document contained several pages of Ivan's illegible handwriting, and it took Chen Zhou a long time to decipher the meaning of the Russian words.

The letter repeatedly mentions General Mikhail Moiseyev, the Chief of the General Staff, as well as the General Staff of the Soviet Army and many high-ranking figures in the Soviet scientific, military and political fields.

Just by looking at these names, these documents are incredibly valuable—they represent parts of the truth hidden beneath a dusty history.

The funding for the military was personally determined by the Soviet Minister of Finance. The amount of money Chen Zhou saw was as high as tens of millions of rubles, and this was probably just the tip of the iceberg.

However, while government funding is top secret, it wouldn't warrant Ivan keeping a brand-new pistol in a safe.

What truly caused a sensation were other documents concerning the research funding for "Unit 10003," the flow of funds, and the money laundering process.

According to the document, this unit is so special and has so few members because it studies how to use special abilities to achieve military objectives.

In order to utilize the so-called supernatural abilities for psychological warfare, intelligence gathering, and military operations, the then-wealthy Soviet Union generously allocated several large sums of money to Unit 10003 in batches.

Among the core missions recorded by Ivan was locating missing ships using telepathy;

Predicting the exact location of nuclear facilities; assisting friendly forces in navigating enemy minefields; influencing the mind of enemy personnel through ultra-high frequency radiation amplifiers; using telekinesis to disrupt NATO's command system; and monitoring the movements of US nuclear missiles through dream-like processes.

To be honest, if this seemingly absurd special forces unit can actually achieve its goals after receiving the money, then Chen Zhou feels it is indeed worth every penny.

Unfortunately, the special abilities unit was an absurd product of the US-Soviet rivalry.

In his letter, Ivan bluntly stated that "this is a business that will make him a fortune" rather than an important event closely related to the international situation.

For the colonel in charge of the troops, every core mission is a feast for the senses.

The funds allocated by the Ministry of Finance, once they passed through Ivan's hands, were instantly transformed into "legitimate and reasonable income" and pocketed by Colonel Alexei Savin.

From 1979 to 1991, nearly 20 million rubles of funds disappeared without a trace.

In this process, Colonel Alexei Savin naturally became very wealthy. He not only made a fortune, but also rose rapidly in the military and political fields. By the last page of Ivan's handwritten notes, the colonel had become a general.

Despite being Colonel Alexei Savin's most trusted "money laundering machine," Ivan's life was far from comfortable.

In China, there is the proverb "When the cunning rabbit dies, the hunting dog is cooked; when the birds are all gone, the good bow is put away." Naturally, there are similar folk tales in the Soviet Union.

Ivan knew far too much, so much that only death could put his mind at ease.

In the last few years of his career, he lived in constant fear of being purged.

So he converted his earnings into real estate, gold and jewelry, and antique collections in batches, storing them in various parts of the Soviet Union, leaving only a few lines of obscure poetry for his descendants, as if hinting at the location of the treasure.

Among the documents Chen Zhou obtained were two pages of poems written by Ivan himself.

Perhaps his Russian wasn't good enough; no matter how he translated those two pages of poetry, he found it utterly nonsensical. In addition, his lack of knowledge about Russia made it even more difficult for him to deduce the exact location of "Ivan's Treasure" from the poem.

……

The process of unraveling historical mysteries is far more interesting than conquering the "Pure Blue Hell".

The mysterious reward included professional and comprehensive self-study Russian books. After analyzing and comparing each word and phrase and studying the grammar, Chen Zhou finished this pile of "raw meat" in no time.

……

September 12th was another day of continuous rain.

Having basically finished translating all the documents, Chen Zhou rubbed his temples and stared blankly at the small black-and-white photo on the table.

It was an old photo tucked inside a blue work ID card; the photo showed only an abandoned, deserted factory.

The only feature that reveals any information is a few lines of large Russian characters painted in white on the factory wall, and a six-pointed star painted at the bottom of the chimney at the end of the wall.

Previously, Chen Zhou didn't understand Russian. Although he knew there was something strange about the only picture in the safe, he didn't understand what it meant.

He has now translated those lines of large Russian text by consulting books.

The photograph did not include all the text, and the combination of text resembled poetry, deviating from normal grammar. Chen Zhou could only manage a rough translation:

"Rusted Sacred Body Research Institute";

Slavic Tundra Confession Room 13;

This is a restricted area for people with aphasia; entry is strictly prohibited.

As for the six-pointed star and the symbols on it, Chen Zhou couldn't understand their meaning.

To his surprise, there was not a single word about the Corroded Corpse Research Institute or the Aphasia Project in the information left by Ivan.

There doesn't seem to be a project with a religious or fantasy theme among the operations carried out by Unit 10003.

So why is this photo here?

Upon closer inspection, the name information on the blue work permit is identical to that on other work permits, with no difference whatsoever.

Chen Zhou even disassembled the work ID to examine it, but found no clues. The factory photo seemed to have been inserted out of thin air, becoming the most incongruous anomaly among all the documents.

……

"Damn it, this thing is even more of a headache than deciphering a mystery."

"Even if you gave me these few books, I couldn't find out what this photo was trying to say online. Could it be that the Time and Space Administration is trying to sabotage me with their own agenda?"

Angrily shoving the photos back into the file, Chen Zhou suddenly remembered the English medical journals that had been delivered on July 15th.

"Could there be other clues hidden in the journal?"

As soon as the idea came to mind, Chen Zhou immediately put it out of the water.

He had books similar to dictionaries to help him memorize Russian documents. As for English journals, he could only rely on the vocabulary he had acquired during his university years; there was no other assistance.

Moreover, medical journals are highly specialized, and he studied mechanical engineering, not medicine. Even if he could barely read them, there would definitely be many errors. If he translated them hastily, they would be far from the truth.

Besides, he's been busy translating these Russian documents for almost a month; it's time for him to relax, go fishing, and go for a few walks.

……

Chen Zhou's initial motivation for translating Russian documents was not to find any kind of wealth, but simply to satisfy his curiosity.

An old mechanical safe, a pile of unusual documents, a somewhat eerie photograph, and the origin of the safe—a mysterious reward.

All of this makes the densely packed Russian text seem particularly mysterious and intriguing.

When Chen Zhou first received the items in the safe, he knew that they were unusual, and his guess was only confirmed after they were translated.

However, aside from the historical mystery surrounding him, he did not actually gain any real benefit from it.

The Soviet Union has long since collapsed, and Ivan, this old guy born in the early 20th century, has probably been dead for forty or fifty years. What he left behind can only prove the truth of some rumors, and has no other use besides historical value and a little collection value.

Moreover, even if Chen Zhou wanted to sell or donate these documents to the country, explaining where he obtained them would be a problem.

As for Ivan's treasure, Chen Zhou was not interested.

Not to mention the enigmatic locations of the treasures, the sheer difficulty of finding them—traveling to distant Russia to search for treasures hidden for at least 50 years—is comparable to finding a needle in a haystack.

……

Today, the island is thriving, with more and more crops being planted, and grain gradually piling up in the warehouses like small mountains.

A stone-paved transportation network is being planned, and the houses and tools used by the indigenous people are being gradually improved.

Even cows have already reproduced once—

When the cow gave birth a while ago, Chen Zhou went to the scene in person. Fortunately, there were no accidents and the delivery went smoothly. The cow gave birth to a bull calf.

Chen Zhou had instructed the local herders to cultivate a good relationship with the calf, as it might be useful for pulling carts and plowing fields in the future.

It is foreseeable that after absorbing this group of native prisoners, through subsequent captures, the island will, like a greedy beast, rapidly drain the population resources of the archipelago.

At that time, forming a small fleet to explore this sea area will no longer be just empty talk.

Instead of eyeing the savings Ivan had painstakingly accumulated throughout his life, it would be better to try a "double-cross" and seize the vast amounts of gold and silver that the Spanish had plundered from the Inca Empire—that would be far more valuable than Ivan's treasure.

……

Putting away his paper and pen, Chen Zhou stacked the white paper with his Chinese annotations alongside the rather old archives, and blew out the oil lamp.

The office suddenly fell dark.

Looking at the rain-streaked glass and the ceiling blackened by the oil lamp, Chen Zhou sighed, feeling quite distressed.

His new house was only renovated less than three months ago, and the clean white walls have already been blackened by cooking fumes. It's true that products of the 21st century and equipment from the 17th century are completely incompatible in every way!

……

Step out of the office and call out "Laifu".

As soon as he finished speaking, the big dog with golden fur and a purple collar came running over from the other side of the second floor.

Chen Zhou has been busy translating documents lately, and has really neglected him.

Fortunately, the factory is much more lively than before. In addition to Chen Zhou, there are also Saturday and Sunday, Chen Fu, Chen Shou and Chen Lu. The indoor space is also spacious, so even if you don't play with Chen Zhou, there are other people to play with Lai Fu.

Chen Zhou habitually rubbed the dog's head and headed towards the stairwell.

Without being commanded, Laifu obediently followed behind Chen Zhou. The man and the dog had been together for many years and had developed such a tacit understanding.

……

On the first floor of the factory, Fu Lu Shou and his two companions had just finished their daily physical training and were resting on stools.

Seeing Chen Zhou come down the stairs, the three who had been joking around quickly stood up and respectfully greeted their leader.

As reserve confidants specially selected by Chen Zhou, these three received vastly different treatment from their other companions.

They only need to spend a small portion of their time working outside each day, and the rest of their time is devoted to studying and exercising. Their food standards are the same as those on Saturdays and Sundays, far surpassing those of other indigenous peoples.

They spent almost all their time in the factory, were closest to Chen Zhou, and were therefore most affected.

Despite having been captured and stranded on the island for just over a month, these three individuals have undergone a complete transformation.

From basic cultural knowledge to mastery of Chinese language and characters, and even physical fitness and loyalty, they have set themselves apart from other indigenous peoples.

……

"You guys go ahead with your work, I'm going out for a walk."

Apart from serving as a class monitor or academic representative for a short period during his school years, Chen Zhou has never actually held a job that involved leadership.

He had gotten used to training the three characters Fu Lu Shou all day long recently, but when he handed them over to Saturday and Sunday to manage, he was quite embarrassed by this situation.

He waved his hand to indicate that he had nothing important to do, and led Laifu to the factory gate. Before they could even take down the raincoat hanging on the wall, Chen Zhou saw a native running over in a hurry.

There were only about twenty people on the island, and all personnel arrangements had to be approved by Chen Zhou. He had long since memorized the appearances and jobs of these natives.

The guy who just ran over is one of the two new captives who followed the zebra. He should have been working in the field in front of the cave dwelling recently.

It's only 3 p.m., and he shouldn't have finished his work yet. What is he doing here all of a sudden?
Chen Zhou was full of doubts, but before he could ask any questions, the native ran to the iron gate and said, panting heavily.

"Tiger Head has been found, it's injured... Zebra is taking care of it..."

"what?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Zhou immediately became anxious.

Tiger Head was a cat he raised little by little. Although he couldn't bring it here when he moved later for various reasons, in Chen Zhou's heart, Tiger Head was always his old companion who had been with him since the "early days of his business".

When Chen Zhou moved it from the cave dwelling, he planned to bring it back to live out its days when it got old and could no longer move around.

Who would have thought that before Tiger Head even arrived, this guy got injured.

"How badly is Tiger Head injured?"

Pulling open the iron gate, Chen Zhou questioned the locals while ordering Fu Lu Shou and the other two to end their rest, put on raincoats, take medicine, and go with him to the cave dwelling to find out the details. (End of Chapter)