It started when a bloody rain was about to fall.

"Senior Yue."

Facing Ji Yuezi's breathtaking and awe-inspiring face, Lin Wei took a deep breath and suppressed the pounding of her heart, which was like that of a frightened fawn.

Her voice was soft and clear, with a slight, almost imperceptible tremor at the end.

"The anomalous radiation intensity data of the M42 nebula region in the Orion direction has been analyzed."

Upon hearing this, Ji Yuezi slowly straightened up.

The movement possessed an inhuman elegance and slowness—like a glacier making an imperceptible shift on an eternal timescale.

Every tiny movement seemed to be a struggle against the gravity of the entire world.

The cool white light streamed onto her spotless white lab coat, flowing over her body but unable to penetrate, only sliding down her contours. Only the silver pendant on her chest silently reflected a touch of divinity and holiness.

The moment Ji Yuezi turned around completely, revealing her face, Lin Wei, though she saw her every day, felt as if the air around her suddenly froze.

It wasn't just a visual shock, but a kind of pressure that was almost on a spiritual level.

It was as if a celestial deity, who should be enshrined outside of time and absorb the ancient starlight, had suddenly descended upon this human world filled with the hum of instruments.

Ji Yuezi's beauty completely transcends gender and conventional aesthetics.

That is "perfection"—perfect to the point of being a law, an absolute existence that needs no proof.

"The intensity has increased by 17 percent compared to the same time yesterday."

After calming her trembling mind from Ji Yuezi's appearance, Lin Wei continued speaking, taking a half-step forward and handing over the tablet computer.

At the same time, the coolness seeping from her fingertips due to tension intertwined with the coldness of the metal frame, making it almost impossible for her to hold the smooth surface.

"Spectral analysis revealed discrete, unexplained anomalous peaks in the Gamma band. These peaks do not belong to any known astrophysical processes. They appear random, but each time they occur, the overall background radiation level experiences a step-like jump."

Upon hearing this, Ji Yuezi, who had already stood up, took the tablet computer that Qin Lan handed over.

Her fingers were long and slender with distinct knuckles, and her skin was a pale white, as if it had been frozen for a long time, yet it seemed as if moonlight was quietly flowing under her skin.

Her nails were neatly trimmed and rounded, with a cool pink pearlescent sheen.

At the same time, holding a tablet in her left hand, Ji Yuezi's right fingertips traced the dense curves and sharp peak marks on the screen.

The movement had the precision and ruthlessness of a scalpel dissecting the veins of life—as if her fingers themselves were the most precise measuring instruments.

Then her brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.

A faint wrinkle appeared between her smooth, jade-like brows, like a speck of dust from an unknown dimension disturbing the absolutely calm background of the universe, causing a fleeting ripple.

It was this subtle, almost imperceptible fluctuation that infused Ji Yuezi's flawlessly beautiful face with a fleeting, vibrant, and soul-stirring magic.

At the same time, silence expands within the observation dome.

Only the instrument's deep, constant hum serves as the perpetual background noise.

After carefully examining the contents of the tablet Lin Wei handed her, Ji Yuezi's voice rang out—

Clear and calm, like the first drop of melting snow that has condensed over millions of years on the mountaintop, falling onto the ice with a clear and cold, crisp sound.

"On my behalf, I am contacting the Purple Mountain Observatory, Greenwich Observatory, and Keck Observatory. Requesting the highest priority of the 'Deep Space Transient Source Collaborative Observation Project,' I request the sharing of their full-band monitoring data stream of the Orion constellation—M42 and its surrounding three-dimensional region—over the past 72 hours. My primary focus is on obtaining the raw, uncalibrated data from the high-energy particle and gamma-ray detectors."

At that moment, Zhao Mingyuan sat up straight almost reflexively.

Ji Yuezi's voice wasn't loud, but it clearly penetrated the hum of the instruments and reached everyone's ears.

The voice didn't deliberately emphasize any syllables, yet each word was like a needle, piercing deep into the listener's consciousness.

This way of giving instructions—not as a command, but more irresistible than any command.

When she speaks, you only have one thought on your mind: "How to complete every single word she tells me to say."

Xu Zhixing stopped writing again, this time the ink smear was even larger than before. He didn't pay attention, but just stared blankly in Ji Yuezi's direction.

The voice was clear and cold, like melting snow falling into ice, yet it carried an undeniable certainty in the phrases "in my name, with the highest priority."

When she said the names Zijinshan, Greenwich, and Keck, it sounded like she was talking about the lab next door.

She accessed the resources of these top observatories as if she were accessing her own memories.

"Then, in my name, I will activate the highest security privileges to access the NASA and ESA deep space event archives. I will retrieve the full text of the original reports and underlying data from the past three months that were marked as 'abnormal radiation,' 'unidentified high-energy events,' and 'phenomena that cannot be replicated.' I will then establish a multi-dimensional parameter cross-comparison and correlation analysis model."

At this moment, Ji Yuezi's voice rang out again, and she handed the tablet computer she was holding in her left hand back to Lin Wei, who was standing next to her.

Chen Siyuan's fingers hovered above the keyboard, frozen in place.

After listening to Ji Yuezi's second instruction, he silently opened a new data window. Highest security access—resources only accessible to project leaders.

But she used it as if it were a right she was born with.

It's like we're still thinking about how to graduate, while she's already thinking about how to rewrite the textbooks.

But no one would think there's anything wrong with that.

In the astronomical community, the name Ji Yuezi is more powerful than any other title—she's only in her early twenties, but the moment her name appears on a preprint, the highest-level access channels at major observatories around the world automatically open a door for her.

Youth has never been a disadvantage for her; on the contrary, it's her strongest asset.

"Because everyone knows that only a true genius can get the entire astronomical community to make an exception and grant the highest level of access to a young astronomical researcher."

Shen Linxi raised his eyebrows slightly.

She is known in the research group for her "unconventional methods"—she dares to hack into locked databases and use unconventional means to obtain data.

But those minor squabbles suddenly seemed like child's play compared to Ji Yuezi's nonchalant "Again, in my name, with the highest security clearance."

She might not even be able to find the application button on which page. And Ji Yuezi was just saying it casually.

Wang Ya didn't move. She simply turned her head slightly, her gaze falling on Ji Yuezi's almost inhumanly calm face through the reflection in her glasses.

That perfect face showed no superfluous emotions—no urgency, no solemnity, only absolute focus.

This is not dealing with a problem, but commanding the battlefield.

It's as if she was born to be this way, to unravel things for everyone that we can't even see clearly.

Lu Beichen removed his hands from the keyboard, placed them on the table with his fingers interlaced, and looked steadily at Ji Yuezi.

He had faced a sudden blizzard alone in the wild and knew what true calmness looked like—not the absence of fear, but the fear compressed into fuel, burning quietly in his veins.

That was Ji Yuezi's expression at that moment.

She had already calculated all the possibilities. She wasn't dealing with the unknown; she was waiting for the unknown to enter her predetermined trajectory.

After hearing what Ji Yuezi said, Lin Wei quickly took the tablet computer that Ji Yuezi handed back and opened the memo app to take notes. Her fingertips danced across the glass screen, creating tiny glints of light.

During this process, Lin Wei's heartbeat became rapid and heavy, as if resonating with some rhythm from the depths of the starry sea—

Faint, persistent, like the cosmic microwave background radiation, omnipresent, and unfathomable.

"Senior Yue, do you think... this might be an extremely dense object not yet covered by theory? Or a radiation jet from an active galactic nucleus in a special phase?"

Lin Wei swallowed down an even more bizarre conjecture.

His face reflected both the burning excitement of an astronomical researcher facing a major unknown and the chilling unease rooted in our genes as humanity confronts the universe.

Upon hearing this, Ji Yuezi remained silent for several seconds, a rare occurrence.

Then she looked up, her gaze piercing through the low-scattering glass of the dome, through the dense atmosphere, and reaching the galaxy on the southeastern horizon, which was as dazzling as a mythical belt even in the daytime.

At this moment, Lin Wei finally saw those eyes clearly—the pupils were pitch black, not just plain black, but as if they were the universe itself.

In the deepest darkness lie countless galaxies being born and destroyed.

Remote, ancient, cold, yet breathtakingly brilliant.

Being swept by such a gaze makes you feel as if you have nowhere to hide, inside and out.

The owner of the gaze simply watched quietly, without judgment or pity.

Just as the universe witnesses the birth and death of galaxies, time witnesses the rise and fall of dynasties.

Then Ji Yuezi's voice lowered a few decibels. That icy, rational shell seemed to have been stretched open by some immense pressure, creating a tiny crack from within.

"I have no idea."

The words are clear, yet each syllable carries immense weight.