Zhang Yang and Mi Xue turned through them one by one, marking any section containing news from the Sichuan-Chongqing region, and reading any item related to Antsian City with extra focus. Regrettably, just like before, most of these papers carried news about other matters, proving useless for Zhang Yang's investigation.

“Zhang Yang, look at this Oriental Military Gazette, it has Antsian in it!” After a while, Mi Xue pulled out another paper and handed it to Zhang Yang.

This was the fourth newspaper Mi Xue had found that related to Antsian. Oriental Military Gazette was a purely military publication, mostly covering things to do with troops and military affairs. The news in this particular paper described a military exercise.

Zhang Yang took the paper and began reading carefully. Regardless of whether it was useful, if it mentioned Antsian, he would scrutinize the content.

“On September 16th, all officers and soldiers of a certain regiment under the Second Division of the Sichuan-Chongqing Military Region held a field exercise in Antsian City, Sichuan-Chongqing Province. Over two thousand soldiers participated in this exercise, deploying more than five hundred various military vehicles, including military trucks…”

Zhang Yang read on slowly, and as he did, his brow couldn't help but furrow.

September 16th—that was the day before his mother fell ill. According to the news, this was just an ordinary military drill; countless exercises like this happened all the time. Yet, this specific exercise seemed to have been reported only by the military paper; no other newspaper had mentioned it. The news appeared mundane, but Zhang Yang kept feeling something was off, though he couldn't pinpoint what.

“Two thousand men—did they really need that many vehicles?”

Mi Xue was also reading the article and asked in confusion after finishing it. She was looking purely at the content: a military exercise involving over two thousand people deploying more than five hundred vehicles. Even accounting for armored personnel carriers and tanks, it seemed excessive.

“You’re right, too many vehicles. For a routine military drill, they wouldn't need that many!”

Zhang Yang’s eyes brightened slightly, and he nodded quickly. He had finally realized what was amiss. A drill for an ordinary regiment. Five hundred vehicles was quite a lot, especially with over three hundred and eighty being military trucks. Such a massive number of trucks wasn't necessary for a regular exercise. Generally, a military truck holds twenty men, maybe thirty if packed tightly. A regiment only needed a little over a hundred trucks, even allowing for the transport of supplies and equipment; two hundred would suffice, perhaps slightly more at a stretch. A few extra were acceptable, but nearly double the number of trucks was abnormal.

Besides that, Zhang Yang discovered other irregularities. This exercise was explicitly termed an armed defense drill. Zhang Yang wasn't a military enthusiast and didn't know much, but he knew defensive exercises usually involved multiple parties—land, sea, and air—and rarely occurred inland. Perhaps in '88, such exercises might be held inland, but they wouldn't feature only a defending force without any offensive counterpart. The news about this exercise only mentioned this single regiment, solely focused on their defense; there was no mention of an attacking force whatsoever. Even if there were no attackers, this defensive drill lacked any mention of command structure. The news simply stated that a regiment conducted an exercise and then abruptly ended. This exercise looked decidedly strange, no matter how one viewed it.

“Mi Xue, pull out all the Oriental Military Gazettes and see if there’s any similar news!”

Zhang Yang suddenly spoke up. He sensed something wrong with this report. Though it seemed completely unrelated to his mother’s death, he had a strong intuition. That intuition told him this news might offer a clue.

Mi Xue hurried off to find all the Oriental Military Gazettes, while Zhang Yang reread the current article. The article was brief, only about a hundred characters, providing a simple description; small-scale exercises like this were destined not to receive lengthy coverage anyway.

“Antsian, Xinhe Town?”

Zhang Yang’s brow furrowed again. Antsian, Xinhe Town. He vaguely recalled something about that place. The research institute where his mother worked had a base there, supposedly for increasing rice yields—he didn't know the specifics. His mother didn't go often, and whenever she did, she always returned the same day. He himself had never been there. Antsian, Xinhe.

Zhang Yang took a pen and paper, writing the place name down in a notebook, then went back to review the other thin papers Mi Xue had collected.

Mi Xue gathered every Oriental Military Gazette. After September 16th, only a few issues were missing; most were present. Among these papers, there was no more news about the Antsian military drill, but there were many introductions to weaponry and comparisons of domestic and international military capabilities.

“Zhang Yang, should I keep looking?” Mi Xue asked him quietly, looking at him.

Zhang Yang looked up and said decisively, “Keep looking. Forget the news from other parts of Sichuan-Chongqing; we only need news about Antsian!”

By focusing only on Antsian, their speed increased considerably. If the Sichuan-Chongqing news didn't contain the word "Antsian," they discarded it immediately. Soon, they had gone through hundreds of papers.

This time, Zhang Yang found another related piece of news: there had been a wolf attack in Antsian, where over a hundred wild wolves suddenly descended from the mountains, biting and injuring dozens of people. Eventually, with the help of the People's Armed Police and local police, the starving wolves were quickly eliminated, but the damage was done and unavoidable. The site of the wolf attack was also Antsian, Xinhe Town. Coincidentally, this incident occurred on September 17th.

According to the Oriental Military Gazette report, during the time the wolf attack happened, an entire regiment was conducting a drill in Xinhe Town. If a large-scale wolf disaster had occurred, this regiment couldn't possibly have remained inactive. An entire regiment, plus over five hundred vehicles, and yet this subsequent news report mentioned nothing about them.

Did that mean the People's Liberation Army stood by and watched the common people being devoured by wolves, treating it as an audience to their exercise? Such an outcome was absolutely impossible. The city’s armed police had responded, yet the stationed troops near the town hadn't moved. If something like that truly happened, the entire unit would face severe disciplinary action. The interests of the people were paramount; this wasn't just rhetoric in those days.

Since that was impossible, these two news reports contradicted each other—one must be false, or at least incomplete. Either the military exercise never happened, or the alleged wolf attack was fabricated, that no such event occurred. However, in that era, few people would publish fake news just to attract attention, especially concerning military drills or news involving so many deaths; reporters risked imprisonment if such fabrications were discovered.

With this doubt in mind, Zhang Yang considered another possibility. The troop exercise was real, and many people really died, but the wolf attack story was fake—a cover-up by the local government, using "wolf attack" to mask the true cause of death. This possibility wasn't remote; later eras saw plenty of instances of substituting one truth for another in news reports. Still, Zhang Yang only considered this possibility in passing; he didn't settle on it, as everything remained speculation, with various scenarios plausible, or perhaps something else entirely that he hadn't considered.

“Xinhe!”

Zhang Yang murmured the place name to himself. Wolf attack, military drill, and his mother's rice cultivation base—Zhang Yang listed the three together, unable to fathom any connection between them.

“Zhang Yang, I've looked through all the newspapers; these are the only relevant reports!”

Mi Xue finished flipping through the last paper and looked up at Zhang Yang. The newspapers Zhang Yang had borrowed from the library were now exhausted. Counting those Zhang Yang had reviewed that afternoon, they had gone through nearly seven or eight hundred assorted papers, yet only these two struck Zhang Yang as truly anomalous. However, having these two was already a great success.

This was Jiangdong, not Sichuan-Chongqing; finding news from there was hard, especially since it wasn't the internet age where one could simply search on Baidu from home to find anything. To understand what was truly behind these two incidents, Zhang Yang now knew he would have to travel there to investigate. A new plan was already forming in Zhang Yang's mind.

“Mi Xue, are you hungry? Let’s not cook today, let’s eat out!”

Zhang Yang smiled at Mi Xue as they began tidying the scattered newspapers.

“I’m not hungry, Zhang Yang. There’s something I need to tell you!” Mi Xue shook her head slightly, her face flushing a little as she spoke.

“What is it?” Zhang Yang asked.

“I... I went to the Provincial Committee today and met Uncle Zhang!” After saying this, Mi Xue immediately looked at Zhang Yang with a hint of apprehension. She knew about the friction between Zhang Yang and Zhang Keqin, and Zhang Yang always reacted poorly whenever Zhang Keqin was mentioned.

As expected, Mi Xue’s words caused Zhang Yang’s brows to knit tightly together. Zhang Yang asked unhappily, “Why did you go see him?”

Mi Xue stammered, “I... I wanted to help you. I can feel that Uncle Zhang cares about you deeply; he loves and looks out for you!”

“I don’t need that. Don't ever go see him again!”

Zhang Yang shook his head, his tone sharp. He was already frustrated from reviewing the materials and failing to find answers in the news; Mi Xue bringing up Zhang Keqin only compounded his gloom.

“Zhang Yang, I don’t think you should be like this.”

Mi Xue bit her lip and spoke softly. She took Zhang Yang’s hand and continued, “Between a father and son, what conflict can’t be resolved? You should give Uncle Zhang a chance, and give yourself a chance. If you talk properly, perhaps the rift can be mended!”

The irritation inside Zhang Yang resurfaced, his eyes turning slightly red. This wave of negative emotion was returning. Mentioning Zhang Keqin reliably triggered his negative state. It was a genuine weakness; if an equally matched opponent were fighting him, they wouldn't need any other strategy—simply calling out Zhang Keqin’s name would completely disrupt his focus, leading inevitably to his defeat.

“I said, stop mentioning him!”

Zhang Yang’s voice suddenly rose slightly. Mi Xue faltered, and then her eyes also began to redden. This was the first time Zhang Yang had spoken to her in such a tone, leaving her feeling disappointed and hurt.

………… Sixth update, Chapter 100 bonus chapter, forty-sixth installment.