Chapter 628 - 12: Farewell, Ivan (Part 2)
"What a coincidence, you’re eating here too?"
With a face full of surprise at bumping into a friend, Chen Zhou sat on the bench next to the table, pretending not to know, greeting Ivan in awkward Russian.
Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, the smile vanished from Ivan’s face.
He shook his head, raised his glass of bright red wine, and surprisingly spoke fluent Chinese.
"No, Mr. Chen, I came specifically to find you."
Ivan’s voice was loud, seemingly unbothered about eavesdropping, which made Chen Zhou instinctively observe his surroundings.
Only then did he realize that most of the men and women who were dining when he entered the hotel had left their seats, and the closest person to Ivan’s table was five tables away.
Further away, tall strong men stood in every corner, either standing sideways next to the columns in the lobby or guarding the entrance, looking very much like bodyguards.
Taking a gentle breath, Chen Zhou could even catch the scent of oil and gunpowder in the air, indicating that quite a few of the bodyguards present were armed.
...
"Damn it, I should’ve known better than to come here; curiosity really killed the cat..."
Seeing himself surrounded by Ivan’s men, Chen Zhou couldn’t help but regret his rash decision.
Yet besides regret, he was more curious about how Ivan had targeted him when they had only met once before today, and the question he had asked wasn’t even a sensitive one.
Even if Ivan were sensitive, he couldn’t possibly monitor everyone he’s met and have his men keep a close watch on every passenger flying to Moscow.
Or is there surveillance on the zoo’s perimeter, and anyone showing interest in the zoo is put under scrutiny?
But that makes no sense either; after all, he had just passed by on a small road outside the zoo. As a tourist in Moscow, it’s not unreasonable for him to pass by there, though the odds are slim. How could it lead Ivan to such a big fuss, clearing out the hotel dining area just to trap him here?
...
"Your Chinese is quite impeccable, Mr. Ivan.
But I don’t understand, what do you mean by this?"
Chen Zhou pointed to the "no-man’s land" around their tables, complimenting Ivan on his progress in Chinese while asking.
"Mr. Chen, you have a saying in your place, ’open the skylight and speak candidly.’ We both know the truth, why hide it?"
If Ivan had directly pointed out that Chen Zhou came to Moscow to pry into secrets behind the Ivan Clan, Chen Zhou might have found some excuses.
For instance, claiming he found an old Soviet-era safe at a flea market, inside of which were secret documents of the Former Soviet Union and a treasure poem of the Ivan Clan, and he came here out of curiosity.
But the way he said it, Chen Zhou was left puzzled.
"Both know the truth?
’Open the skylight and speak candidly’?
What does that mean? Is there something we both know about?"
This statement doesn’t seem related to the Ivan Clan at all; could the old coot be bluffing me...
Fearing to be tricked into saying something he shouldn’t, Chen Zhou could only continue playing dumb.
"I don’t understand what you’re talking about, Mr. Ivan."
Seeing Chen Zhou still not admitting, Ivan pointed to his own ear.
"Mr. Chen, you can hear my heartbeat, and naturally, I can hear yours.
As far as I know, you don’t have a congenital heart condition, so isn’t your resting heart rate of less than 25 a bit unusual?
If you need further reminders..."
Ivan undid his chest buttons, pulled his tie aside, revealing a tattoo on the side of his collarbone.
Chen Zhou clearly saw it was a series of Arabic numbers—
10003!
...
"How is this possible?
The 10003 unit is supposed to be a scam for military funds, right?
Does he mean that this unit’s ’Super Soldier’ plan succeeded?
Are there other people with extraordinary physiques in this world?
What was the data I saw then? Fake data?
Wasn’t the funding for the plan all going into Aleksey Savin’s pocket? Could this plan really succeed without funding?"
Even with Chen Zhou’s mental age near 60, seeing the code on Ivan’s body, he still couldn’t help but show a shocked expression.
Soon, another terrifying yet closer-to-the-truth guess emerged in his mind—
The mysterious rewards sent to the island by the Space-Time Administration Bureau might not originate from this world at all; they could be from another parallel world similar to the modern world, just like the Robinson Crusoe world he influenced.
Failures in another timeline don’t necessarily mean failures in this world.
In other words, he accidentally stumbled into a major mystery, and he was completely unaware.
"Damn, the Space-Time Administration Bureau really got me!"
Having figured out the cause and effect, Chen Zhou finally understood why he was targeted by Ivan.
It turns out that from the first meeting, Ivan had noticed his abnormal physique and quietly tagged him.
No wonder he was found so soon after arriving in Moscow by this old guy.
He thought he was the one hiding in the shadows, never expecting to be in Ivan’s eyes as a glaring light bulb.
Reflecting on his feigned maneuvers over the past few days, Chen Zhou felt like a clown, and maybe his electric scooter had been bugged long ago, his hotel room fitted with eavesdropping devices and cameras, while he thought he was well hidden.
But then again, the 10003 unit was a Soviet secret plan; without Russian bloodline and not being a Chinese-American mix, just being a tourist in Moscow, even an abnormal physique shouldn’t make Ivan so tense, right?
"Open the skylight and speak candidly, what exactly does he want to say?"
...
Unable to figure out what Ivan the enigma meant, Chen Zhou could only try to regain the initiative.
He didn’t know how much the events in parallel times overlap with the history of this world, so he could only probe bit by bit, creating the illusion that he too understands Ivan.
"Then, Mr. Ivan Andreyevich Bolkonsky, if you want me to tell the truth, at least you shouldn’t deceive me.
Since you’re born in 1936, how could you be 65?"
Hearing this question, a hint of confusion flashed in Ivan’s light-colored eyes.
He didn’t understand why Chen Zhou was so hung up on his age, but out of respect for a "fellow," he still answered Chen Zhou’s question.
"Mr. Chen, I am indeed 65 years old; if you say born in 1936, that might be my father, he passed away long ago, and I inherited his name, it’s a family tradition."
Ivan’s answer brought Chen Zhou more information.
He had thought this old guy was a monster living for over ninety years, hence extra cautious.
From the looks of it, Ivan’s acceptance of the modification plan might not have significantly enhanced physical fitness, just sensory enhancements, maintaining a body akin to a 30-year-old athlete during aging.
In terms of real physical abilities, he simply couldn’t compare to himself.
After all, his changes were influenced by the Space-Time Administration Bureau, which far exceeds these "secret plan" products in hierarchy.
Moreover, the current world structure confirms this notion; if similar "Super Soldiers" can be mass-produced, monsters wielding heavy machine guns across battlefields, breaking Olympic records time and again should’ve already gained global fame, lacking any rumors seems impossible.
And this Ivan being different from that Ivan gave him another potential advantage—
This Ivan might not know much about the 10003 unit’s deeper secrets, especially about his father’s era events.
The reason Ivan targeted him could predominantly be due to a misunderstanding, assuming he’s from a similar organization to the 10003 unit, whereas his physical abilities were unrelated to any such organization.
Of course, with things developed to this stage, no matter how he explains, Ivan probably wouldn’t believe him.
Besides, the Space-Time Administration Bureau issue being absurd and even more frightening than the so-called secret unit, not saying might be better; telling the truth might really be a point of no return—
An actual Super Soldier is worth much more than these false ones; if the Russian authorities discovered such a thing, they’d want him dissected alive.