13: Chapter 13 "Anti-Counterfeiting Fighter" Wang Hai's Declaration of War

The air conditioning in the Shanghai Sports Center press conference hall was turned up too high. Professor Wang Hai pulled his bespoke suit tighter. He tugged at his tie in the vanity mirror; the man's face in the reflection was flawless under the soft lighting, save for the three-centimeter scar below his left eyebrow that shimmered a faint pink—a souvenir from being beaten up ten years ago while investigating a fake liquor factory undercover. Now, it had become the best badge for his "fighter" persona.

"Professor Wang, everything is ready." Assistant Xiao Zhang handed over a tablet. On the screen was real-time public opinion monitoring: The topic #Professor Wang Hai to Expose Internal Energy Scam# had climbed to third on the trending list, with over 8 million related discussions.

Professor Wang Hai took the tablet, his fingertips sliding across the screen. Clips of Chen Wu's Antarctic livestream had been edited into bizarre videos. The footage of Chen Wu walking on the ice sheet wearing his quantum-state shimmering coat was overlaid with "Ultraman transformation" sound effects by netizens. Meanwhile, the "bronze tripod Material Analysis Report" his team had produced overnight was being reposted by major tech bloggers—the report stated that the copper-to-tin ratio of the bronze tripod was identical to modern handicrafts, and the so-called "Qin Dynasty Taotie patterns" were actually 3D scanned and printed.

"Make the line 'Confirmed by Chinese Academy of Sciences experts' bold." Professor Wang Hai adjusted his cuffs in the mirror. "Remember, we are not skeptics; we are the gatekeepers of truth."

Xiao Zhang nodded obsequiously and backed out. As he was about to close the door, Professor Wang Hai caught a glimpse of a notification popping up on his phone screen: [Chen Wu's livestream concurrent viewers exceed 200 million]. The curve of his lips turned cold—this number had doubled since last week. Those idiots who were frantically tipping for "Quantum Listening Force" would soon pay the price for their stupidity.

Fifteen minutes before the press conference began, Professor Wang Hai sat in the backstage lounge reviewing his cue cards. Tucked into page 7 was a note, a secret message sent by Rex's team last night: "The Antarctic clone sample has been delivered to the Shanghai Third Laboratory and can be used as the final piece of evidence." He rubbed the edge of the note with his fingertips; this thin piece of paper was worth three million dollars—enough to buy the authentic Wu Guanzhong painting hanging on the wall of the press conference hall.

"Professor Wang, Academician Lin has arrived." Xiao Zhang pushed the door open, followed by an old man with a white beard leaning on a dragon-headed cane. Professor Wang Hai stood up immediately to greet him, bowing slightly to help the other man: "Elder Lin, I am truly honored by your presence, Junior is flattered."

Academician Lin shook off his hand, his cane tapping the floor with a clatter: "Don't give me that. I'm here to support you because I cannot stand to see the wisdom of our ancestors being trampled—what Quantum Listening Force? It's clearly just a rephrasing of the principles of magnetic resonance imaging to fool people!"

Professor Wang Hai smiled and handed him a teacup: "You are as insightful as ever. Later, please speak from a physics perspective about how 'Internal Energy' simply does not exist in this world."

The old man took a sip of tea, his gaze falling on the TV on the lounge wall—it was replaying Chen Wu teaching an Awakened person to perceive "object vibration." In the footage, a little girl with pigtails closed her eyes, her fingertips hovering above a glass; the water in the cup actually rippled.

"Charlatanism." Academician Lin snorted, slamming the teacup onto the table. "That's a sound-activated device; I've seen it at the science museum."

Chen Wu's Public Welfare Foundation office was packed with over thirty people. Xu Hao stood on a stool, nailing up a banner; the yellow characters on the red background reading "Believe in the Dao" were crooked. Three college students who had just achieved "Listening Energy" Awakening were squatting on the floor, poking at a laptop screen—it was broadcasting Professor Wang Hai's press conference.

"This old man says the water in my cup is sound-activated!" Zhao Mengmeng, the girl with pigtails, stomped her foot angrily. She still wore a hospital bracelet on her wrist. Three days ago, she was just an ordinary girl who could hear water leaking in the walls; now, she could make a fountain pen tap-dance on a tabletop.

Chen Wu sat by the window, wiping the bronze tripod; the Taotie patterns on the tripod's body shimmered in the sunlight. This bronze tripod, unearthed from the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum, had suddenly become hot last night, and a new line of seal script appeared on the inside of the lid: "Those who fake, shall be faked."

"Brother Wu, Professor Wang Hai says he's bringing a clone sample!" Xu Hao fell off the stool, clutching his butt as he shouted, "He also hired fifteen fighting champions as witnesses, saying he's going to expose your 'Quantum Listening Force' on the spot!"

Chen Wu put down the rag. On the screen, Professor Wang Hai was holding up an X-ray: "Everyone look, this is the medical report leaked by Chen Wu's team—his skull density is 30% higher than an ordinary person's. This is not Internal Energy; it's a typical characteristic of long-term steroid use!"

The live chat exploded: "I knew he was a drug addict!", "The idiot above, didn't you see his livestream where he caught a bullet with his bare hands last week?", "Is it possible... steroids can really make fists harder than bullets?", "Stop arguing, we'll see the truth in three days at the Sports Center, I bought front-row tickets."

The office glass was suddenly knocked on. Zhao Mengmeng was so startled she hid the fountain pen in her pocket—outside the window stood two men in suits, holding cameras and filming into the room. Chen Wu stood up to open the door. The leading man showed his press badge: "Mr. Chen, I am a reporter from 'Global Science'. I want to ask if you dare to accept Academician Lin's physics test?"

"I can." Chen Wu stepped aside to let them in, "But I have one condition: the entire test must be livestreamed."

The reporter's eyes lit up: "When do you want to test?"

"Right now." Chen Wu pointed to the glass on the table, "Let Mengmeng demonstrate for you."

Zhao Mengmeng walked to the table timidly. The reporter immediately set up the camera, lens pointed at her face: "Little girl, are you sure you don't need a sound-activated device?"

The girl shook her head, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. Chen Wu stood behind her and whispered: "Think about the day in Antarctica, how the school of fish under the ice greeted you."

As soon as he finished speaking, the glass on the table suddenly trembled violently. The water in the cup condensed into a column, spiraling upward like a small, transparent Dragon. The reporter's camera fell to the ground with a "clatter," but the lens was still pointed at the water column—it swirled in the air three times and landed precisely back in the cup, without spilling a single drop.

"This... how did you do this?" The reporter's voice trembled.

Chen Wu picked up the camera and smiled at the lens: "In three days, I will tell everyone at the Sports Center. By the way, remind Professor Wang Hai to have his clone sample ready—preferably a fresh one."

Professor Wang Hai's private laboratory was in an abandoned cannery in the suburbs. Walking through a corridor filled with rusty iron cans, the room at the end was lit with pale, harsh light. Twelve cryogenic freezers stood side by side; the display on one of them jumped with "-196℃"—inside was the "Chen Wu clone sample" sent by Rex's team.

"Professor Wang, the gene sequence comparison results are out." The researcher in the white coat pushed up his glasses, "This sample has a 99.99% match with Chen Wu's public genetic data, but the telomere length indicates an age of only 7 years."

Professor Wang Hai stared at the pale pink tissue in the petri dish: "You mean, this is indeed his clone?"

"Yes, but it's more like... an embryo re-cultivated using his genes." The researcher pulled up a 3D model, "Look here, there is a marker on the 17th chromosome, a typical trace of modern gene-editing technology."

Professor Wang Hai suddenly laughed, patting the researcher's shoulder: "Whether it's an embryo or a clone, just tell the public it's a replacement Chen Wu cultivated using stem cells! Think about it, a person who can clone himself, what else would he not dare to fake?"

The laboratory door was pushed open. Rex's assistant walked in wearing sunglasses, carrying a silver case: "Boss Wang, where is the stuff we wanted?"

Professor Wang Hai signaled for Xiao Zhang to open the safe, which contained a stack of documents—the donor list for Chen Wu's Public Welfare Foundation, densely packed with the names and addresses of over two thousand "Internal Energy Awakened." "This is the data on the first batch of Awakened," he pushed the file over, "I'll give you the rest after I completely ruin Chen Wu."

The assistant picked up the file and flipped through it, then suddenly sneered: "You seem to have forgotten, we still have the recording of you accepting hush money from fake liquor manufacturers ten years ago."

Professor Wang Hai's face turned ugly instantly. The assistant placed the silver case on the table and opened it to reveal twelve syringes glowing with blue light: "These are 'nano-trackers' that can lie dormant in the body for three months after injection. When you 'expose' Chen Wu at the press conference, find a way to make him come into contact with this."

"What are you going to do?" Professor Wang Hai stared at the syringes.

"Nothing," the assistant closed the case, his sunglasses reflecting the cold light of the refrigerator, "just want to know, if someone who can control the quantum state gets nano-robots crawling into their blood vessels, will they explode like fireworks?"

Chen Wu stood on the center stage of the Sports Center, eyes closed, feeling the floor beneath his feet. For three days, this venue, which could accommodate 80,000 people, had been undergoing subtle changes every day—the resonant frequency of the steel bars had risen from 45Hz to 52Hz, and the water molecules in the concrete vibrated more and more violently, as if expecting something.

"Brother Wu, twelve suspicious signal sources detected." Xu Hao's voice came through the earpiece, "There are three people in the third row of the East Stand carrying metal containers, and someone in the West Stand box has abnormal biological signs, like... cyborgs."

Chen Wu opened his eyes and looked at the auditorium. The 80,000 seats were packed, with people holding "Anti-Fraud" and "Believe in Wu" signs cursing each other across the rows. Drones formed the glowing characters "Science" and "Dao" in the dome, constantly colliding and dissipating.

Professor Wang Hai walked onto the stage surrounded by bodyguards, holding a tray covered with red cloth. He stood opposite Chen Wu, and the microphone emitted a harsh electric sound: "Mr. Chen, dare to take a look at this first?"

The red cloth was lifted, revealing a petri dish in the tray with pale pink tissue soaking in transparent liquid. The big screen immediately gave a close-up, and a gene sequence comparison chart popped up next to it: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the clone sample we found on the Antarctic ice sheet! Chen Wu not only fakes martial arts, he also clones himself to deceive everyone!"

Exclamations erupted from the audience. Professor Wang Hai looked at Chen Wu triumphantly, only to find the other man staring at the petri dish with a smile: "This thing is indeed related to me, but it's not a clone."

"Oh? Then tell us what it is?" Professor Wang Hai pressed on.

Chen Wu picked up the petri dish and examined it against the light: "These are the hematopoietic stem cells I left in Antarctica three months ago. Rex's team thought they could use them to clone me, but they didn't know that these cells contained the seeds of 'Listening Energy'—now, they should have taken root in the petri dish."

As soon as he finished speaking, the liquid in the petri dish suddenly boiled! The pale pink tissue grew wildly like coral, filling the entire container in the blink of an eye, forming a miniature bronze tripod pattern on the surface. Professor Wang Hai stepped back in fear, knocking over the instrument rack behind him.

"This is impossible..." he muttered to himself.

"Nothing is impossible." Chen Wu put the petri dish back on the tray, "The anti-fraud you think you're doing is nothing but being a pawn in someone else's hands." He suddenly raised his voice and shouted into the microphone: "Friends from Rex's team, aren't you tired of hiding in the box? Do you want to come out and talk about the nano-robots?"

The sound of tables and chairs falling came from the West Stand box. The audience turned to look, and saw a few people in sunglasses climbing out the window to escape. One person's briefcase fell to the ground, and the syringes that rolled out flashed blue in the sunlight.

Professor Wang Hai's face went as pale as paper instantly.

Chen Wu walked to the center of the stage, where the bronze tripod had been moved at some point. He placed his palm on the tripod body, and the 80,000-person venue suddenly fell silent, leaving only the humming sound coming from inside the bronze tripod—the sound grew louder and louder, like countless strings being plucked at the same time.

"Does everyone still remember the Introduction to Listening Energy I taught?" Chen Wu's voice spread to every corner through the speakers, "Now, try to feel the floor beneath your feet."

The audience looked at each other, and some tentatively took off their shoes. Zhao Mengmeng closed her eyes in the audience and suddenly shouted: "I hear it! The steel bars are singing!"

More and more people exclaimed. White-collar workers in suits, reporters carrying cameras, and even the fighting champions brought by Professor Wang Hai felt a strange vibration coming from beneath their feet—the vibration spread up their calves to their hearts, resonating with the heartbeat in their chests.

Professor Wang Hai slumped on the ground, looking at his wrist—when he shook hands with Chen Wu earlier, he had been injected with the nano-tracker. At this moment, those tiny robots were swimming under his skin, causing bursts of stinging pain.

"This is not magic; it is science." Chen Wu's voice was gentle yet full of power, "The essence of the Dao is to understand and utilize the vibration of all things. Just like now, the heartbeats of 80,000 of us are synchronizing—",

A real-time monitoring chart popped up on the big screen: the heart rate curves of 80,000 people gradually overlapped, forming a smooth sine wave. The drone swarm in the dome suddenly dispersed, forming a line of large characters: "Resonant Frequency: 7.83 Hz."

"This is the inherent frequency of the Earth." Chen Wu's palm left the bronze tripod body, and the bronze-colored shimmer flowed along his fingertips, "Professor Wang Hai, you say Internal Energy does not exist. But at this moment, the combined power of the 80,000 of us is enough to make this stadium levitate—tell me, does this count as Internal Energy?"

Professor Wang Hai opened his mouth, but could not make a sound. Small bumps suddenly bulged on the skin of his wrist; the nano-robots were trying to break through the blood vessels, but were trapped under the skin by some invisible force, eventually dissipating into the air as dots of blue light.

"As for anti-fraud," Chen Wu looked into the audience, "what should truly be fought against are those who use science as a guise to engage in dirty business."

The stadium lights suddenly went out, leaving only the bronze tripod emitting a soft glow. The heartbeats of 80,000 people converged into a wave, lapping against the four walls of the venue. Professor Wang Hai looked up and saw faint light mists floating above everyone's heads—that was the "Qi" within the Awakened, appearing under the resonance of the Earth's frequency.

"The next livestream," Chen Wu's voice echoed in the darkness, carrying the reverberation of the bronze tripod, "we will go to expose the true face of 'Grey Shadow'."

When the lights came back on, only the bronze tripod remained on the stage. 80,000 people stood up and clapped to an invisible rhythm; the frequency of the applause stabilized at 7.83 Hz, merging with the heartbeat of the Earth.

Professor Wang Hai was escorted away by security. Passing through the corridor, he saw the TV on the wall replaying his press conference. In the footage, he was passionately saying "Internal Energy does not exist," while the latest news scrolled below the screen: [12,000 new Internal Energy Awakened worldwide, distributed across 73 countries].

He suddenly clutched his chest, where a familiar vibration came from—it was left over from resonating with 80,000 people earlier. It turned out that the so-called "Internal Energy" was never any one person's power, but proof that all things are connected.

The sunlight at the end of the corridor was dazzling. Professor Wang Hai squinted his eyes and saw countless people on the square outside the Sports Center stretching their palms toward the sky. Above their heads, faint light mists were also floating, like a forest that was growing.