From Robinson Crusoe

Even knowing that Ivan was different from ordinary people, Chen Zhou dared not reveal it.

Moreover, having discovered an unusual secret, he even restrained his senses, fearing that Ivan would notice.

Tea can't be drunk all afternoon, so Feng Tan ordered a plate of snacks. After everyone ate, the gathering came to an end.

Before leaving, Harrison politely asked again, hoping that Chen Zhou would sell the gold coins.

Chen Zhou didn't refuse too decisively, only saying that if he needed money in the future, he would give Harrison priority.

As a member of the royal family, Harrison's manners were impeccable. After receiving a negative reply, he immediately exchanged contact information with Chen Zhou and invited Chen Zhou to visit his castle when he had time.

Although Chen Zhou could tell that the number Harrison left was not his private phone number, but more like a contact channel for an assistant or butler, he was still deeply impressed by this polite middle-aged nobleman.

Keep in mind that he is just an ordinary person, and in terms of wealth, status, and age, he cannot compare with Harrison, who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

Given the vast difference in their social status, it was remarkable that Harrison treated him as an equal.

Everyone says that the 21st century is about pursuing equality, but in reality, inequality often exists in various situations.

Even a minor leader at the cement plant could boss him around and make the workers below him fawn over him.

In comparison, regardless of what Harrison really thought, at least he put on a good show.

……

Harrison left first, and Ivan also left the teahouse.

His Chinese was the worst, and he always spoke with a stiffness typical of Russians. Because he wasn't interested in the gold coins, his attitude also seemed somewhat indifferent.

However, out of courtesy, Ivan still invited Chen Zhou to visit Moscow when he had time.

He claims to own a large private zoo outside Moscow, housing various wild animals such as brown bears, Siberian tigers, lions, and cheetahs, where friends can get up close and personal with these animals.

In addition to these, Ivan is also a horse racing enthusiast, a skilled skier, and a golfer.

Although he is 65 years old and approaching his seventies, Ivan is still very energetic.

His trip to northern Beijing was to play a golf game with his friends, and it was through meeting Harrison at the golf course that he coincidentally ended up at the teahouse with him.

Of course, Ivan's words seemed impeccable, but Chen Zhou always felt that something was amiss.

It is often said that in the information age, the earth has become a global village, and the internet connects people from all corners of the world.

But the fact that Ivan, a person closely associated with 10003, was able to stand out among the world's 82 billion people and sit opposite him is clearly not something that can be explained by "coincidence".

Watching Ivan's tall, straight figure disappear into the distance, Chen Zhou had a gut feeling that he would soon meet this mysterious Slav again.

Through the glass window of the teahouse, he glanced at the gray sky and felt that the gaze that had once watched him from the endless sky had not yet left.

It seems that once you get involved with the "Time and Space Administration Bureau," you'll be branded as someone who's different from ordinary people, and it'll be hard for you to get rid of it for the rest of your life.

……

Feng Tan finally relaxed after the two guests left.

He warmly invited Chen Zhou to stroll around Panjiayuan with him, and to stay overnight at his house before returning to Balin Town the next day.

Although Chen Zhou has been traveling frequently across the country in recent months, he has hardly stayed in any major city for long, let alone had time to go shopping or visit famous historical sites.

Unable to refuse such a kind invitation, Chen Zhou couldn't possibly turn down Feng Tan, who was Feng Yingxuan's elder and, by all accounts, his uncle. He had been so kind as to have the appraisal done for free and had even met two important figures.

After leaving the teahouse, the two strolled around the Panjiayuan Market in the afternoon.

The sun was about to set, the weather was getting cooler, the lights on the stalls were already on, and the number of tourists from all over the country had increased significantly.

Feng Tan led Chen Zhou from the northwest gate, heading straight for Panjiayuan Second District—

That area is where antiques, miscellaneous items, secondhand goods, and old coins are sold, and it is also Feng Tan's area of ​​expertise in appraisal.

Don't be fooled by the fact that you can hardly find any genuine antiques at the small market stalls. But at Panjiayuan, one of the top antique markets in the country, if you have a keen eye, you can occasionally find some good stuff.

People in the antique business often pursue the joy of finding a bargain. Even if it's just an item worth three yuan, they'll feel happy if they buy it for one yuan.

Faced with communication barriers with Harrison and Ivan, Feng Tan had to restrain herself.

It was only when he was with Chen Zhou, a younger man, that he truly demonstrated his understanding of antiques. While taking Chen Zhou shopping, he explained to him the age, origin, rarity, and identification techniques of many ancient coins.

However, as the conversation went on, it somehow veered towards Chen Zhou himself.

Feng Tan would ask Chen Zhou about his family background, education, job, and income level, and then casually inquire about how long Chen Zhou and Feng Yingxuan had known each other and whether they had eaten or gone shopping together.

In short, he was quite similar to the elders in Chen Zhou's family who were pressuring him to get married, which made Chen Zhou feel very uncomfortable.

Chen Zhou had originally planned to stay at Feng Tan's house that night, but after being asked this question, he was afraid of being "checked" and wandered around until about 8 p.m. After having dinner with Feng Tan, he made an excuse to rest at a nearby hotel.

……

After figuring out whether the treasure in his hands could be authenticated, Chen Zhou thanked Feng Yingxuan, made an appointment for a dinner that he didn't know when he could make it, and then returned to his villa.

Ivan's appearance stirred a strange sense of crisis within him.

However, not knowing where this feeling came from or how to deal with it, in a country where guns are prohibited, Chen Zhou could only try his best to improve his personal combat skills.

His current physical condition gives him enough confidence to face most dangers with his own martial prowess.

……

With money in hand, Chen Zhou eventually bought the factory located on the outskirts of the town and spent a huge sum of money to transform it into a private hospital.

After using money to pave the way and obtaining various professional certificates, Chen Zhou recruited several doctors, signed confidentiality agreements, and began to conduct comprehensive tests on his body.

The first test was on Chen Zhou's strength.

To make the test more credible and closer to the body's true level, Chen Zhou underwent seven months of specialized training. The test results after the training showed that Chen Zhou's fast-twitch muscle fibers, also known as white muscle fibers, generated about twice the explosive power of a weightlifter, while his slow-twitch muscle fibers, also known as red muscle fibers that dominate endurance, gave him about 2.3 times the endurance of a marathon runner.

Matching his unusual muscle tissue, Chen Zhou's neural recruitment efficiency also far exceeds that of ordinary people.

In other words, with similar muscle volume, he has a higher ability to utilize existing muscle fibers and stronger muscle coordination, which allows him to unleash greater power faster and more accurately.

At the same time, Chen Zhou's muscles have a much higher neural response to repetitive training than ordinary people. Muscle memory that ordinary people need to train hundreds or thousands of times to form can be formed by him in just a few dozen times.

His nervous system, designed specifically for muscles, helps him activate fast-twitch muscle fibers more efficiently, giving him a superior compensatory nervous system.

Moreover, Chen Zhou's bone density and tendon strength give him a higher upper limit of strength, and even his hormone levels are significantly different from those of ordinary people.

However, routine training makes it difficult for Chen Zhou to enter the adrenaline-fueled state he experiences when facing a near-death experience.

Doctors speculate that if the subjects are in an adrenaline-fueled state, their theoretical physical fitness limit could be about three times that of professional athletes.

Subsequent tests on speed, endurance, agility, and flexibility confirmed the doctor's hypothesis.

Within a given time frame, Chen Zhou's ability to move quickly and react rapidly to external stimuli far surpasses that of ordinary people.

His nervous system and muscles have extremely high coordination, and he is extremely powerful and flexible.

Moreover, thanks to the combined effects of his powerful cardiopulmonary function, red muscle performance, and hormone secretion, Chen Zhou can maintain his explosive state for nearly 15 minutes. During this period of full-force bursts, he is no different from the "superman" in the eyes of ordinary people.

Furthermore, Chen Zhou's joint flexibility, ligaments, muscle elasticity, and extension ability have approached the level of a yoga master after training.

With such terrifying muscle mass and extraordinary flexibility, Chen Zhou knew, though the doctors hadn't explicitly said so, that once he finished the challenge and returned to the modern world, he would certainly not be considered an ordinary human being.

……

As for physical qualities that are difficult to quantify with data, such as the hematopoietic function of hematopoietic stem cells, the ability of red blood cells to bind and transport oxygen molecules, fatigue resistance, physiological regulation of environmental changes, immunity and metabolic levels, tolerance to toxins, and the ability to digest food, etc.

After testing, Chen Zhou's abilities were found to be significantly higher than those of an average person.

To be honest, after all the tests were completed, Chen Zhou felt that the doctors he had hired were always talking about him behind his back, and he often had thoughts of killing them to cover it up.

After all, from any perspective, it is a living treasure trove, a moving "Nobel Prize in Biology".

If we can thoroughly study him, the economic value he holds could be thousands or even tens of thousands of times greater than his personal wealth, and could even change the future of human evolution.

Faced with such temptation, it's hard for anyone not to harbor evil thoughts.

But after thinking it over, Chen Zhou dismissed the terrible idea.

All the certificates for the private hospital he renovated were registered under other people's names. He himself appeared in the doctors' sight and used a pseudonym when communicating with them.

Moreover, when these doctors signed the contracts, they accepted not only six times their previous salary but also compensation clauses amounting to eight figures for breaches of confidentiality.

On one hand, there is a considerable income; on the other hand, there are penalties that would allow them to pay off the breach of contract for a lifetime. In modern society, unless someone makes a higher promise, they would never easily leak the secret.

Moreover, China is a country with intensive surveillance and attaches great importance to major cases.

The fact that several doctors who had worked at the same private hospital died in accidents will inevitably attract the attention of the police. If he makes a mistake and attracts national attention, he might end up leaking experimental data, which would be shooting himself in the foot.

Another point is that after completing the testing, Chen Zhou did not intend to stay at the hospital and remained in Balin Town.

He wanted to go to a truly private space where he could be freer, more convenient, and more unsupervised to further explore his physical abilities.

This region could be an island in the Pacific Ocean, North America, or Australia—anywhere that allows him to splurge without restraint, purchase more cutting-edge equipment, and conduct training and testing, is a desirable destination for him.

……

Before leaving the town, Chen Zhou entrusted a professional agency to continue operating his private hospital and to pay his private doctor's salary.

After he leaves, these doctors will be able to receive their salaries for 30 years, with the funds he left behind increasing each year.

For Chen Zhou, this was just a small sum of money, but it was enough to keep these people firmly in check and reduce the risk of them leaking secrets.

Thirty years from now, when they retire, even if they are willing to reveal past secrets to others, they will probably not be very credible.

After all, it's not uncommon for misinformation to spread. The doctor, who is nearly 70 years old, is probably already mentally confused, so it's quite normal for him to misremember experimental data from 30 years ago.

……

After entrusting someone to run the hospital, what Chen Zhou was most worried about before leaving was his parents.

Twenty-eight years of challenges had almost eroded most of his feelings for his parents. After returning home, Chen Zhou always felt uncomfortable with his parents, but he could still feel their unreserved love and earnest expectations for him.

Blood is thicker than water. Even if Chen Zhou didn't feel like he had become another species, even if he was no longer human, he couldn't coldly sever this bond.

There were too many secrets involved, and Chen Zhou dared not reveal his wealth or unusual possessions to his parents, for fear of bringing trouble or danger to his family.

Even when he gave subsidies to his family, he would try every means to make his parents not suspect that the money came from somewhere suspicious.

After secretly letting his father win the lottery twice, Chen Zhou noticed that Old Chen was becoming increasingly addicted to buying lottery tickets and feared that the family's vast wealth would be ruined by the lottery, so he immediately stopped this practice.

He then found his mother a job through a fictitious friend. The job was easy, paid well, and located in a small town.

Soon after, Chen Zhou's father also joined a medium-sized decoration company, where he was responsible for training new employees and could earn high commissions and a considerable salary when he took on jobs.

After his parents had a stable income and security, Chen Zhou gave all of his "income for the year" to his mother.

Because he switched to a "big company" and his income doubled, the money he handed over to Chen's mother this time was not a small amount. After he left, if they encountered an urgent need for money, their family could get by with this money for a while.

After receiving Chen Zhou's salary, Chen's mother told him to buy a new house as soon as possible, and then he flew to Russia.

Not long ago, while sorting through the valuables he had brought back, he unexpectedly discovered that the "treasure poem" left by Ivan could be deciphered using modern networks, and the difficulty was much lower than he had imagined.

After deciphering the lines of poetry, he discovered that the treasure was buried right outside Moscow, not far from the zoo Ivan had mentioned in the teahouse.

Sensing a hidden secret, Chen Zhou decided to investigate the site of the red giant's fall without informing anyone. (End of Chapter)