Bai Liu found a utility knife in one of the dormitory drawers. He warmed it in his palm for a while before he could smoothly click the blade out. With it, he sliced through the waterproof cloth, finally revealing what had been wrapped inside.

It was a stack of experimental report forms, neatly sorted.

The sheets were filled with professional English abbreviations, measurement data, charts, and strange black-and-white or color-stained photographs of specimen slices. In short, they were extremely difficult to read. Without the corresponding expertise, an ordinary person would have no way of understanding them.

Bai Liu flipped through them briefly, then looked up at Mu Shicheng.

“Where did you find this?”

Mu Shicheng had only just caught his breath when he answered, “In the basement. When I went out earlier to check the helicopter hangar, I found a pull-ring cellar door hidden under the landing pad. Below it was a two-story basement with all kinds of experimental equipment inside, along with some pickled cabbage and radishes.”

“Did you find any experimental logs or finished papers related to these reports in the basement?” Bai Liu asked.

The experimental reports these people had been studying were far too raw. Bai Liu needed at least some basic transitional material before he could understand what the data in these reports actually meant.

Mu Shicheng shook his head. “I didn’t look closely. This bag was sitting right on the table. I thought it seemed important, so I grabbed it and brought it up for you to see first.”

Bai Liu said, “Go call Mu Ke over. You follow Liu Jiayi and inventory the food on the first floor, then prepare the portions we’ll need when we go out. Mu Ke and I will go down to the basement to take a look.”

Mu Shicheng turned to find Mu Ke. Bai Liu glanced at Tang Erda and handed him the documents.

“Can you understand these?”

“I can understand some of them.” Tang Erda answered quickly after flipping through them briefly, but soon his gaze stopped on a particular chart. “This chart... This is a pattern drawn after using dual-frequency radar echo multiple times to detect the thickness beneath the ice surface. Based on this pattern, they can draw a topographical map of the area under the ice, making it easier to avoid obstacles like rocks during ice drilling.”

Bai Liu noticed the unusual look on Tang Erda’s face and asked, “Is there a problem with this chart?”

Tang Erda hesitated for a moment, then pointed to the caption at the bottom of the chart.

“This chart is a very common polar ice-layer detection chart, but the location it detected is Dome A—that is, Ice Dome A.”

“The only observation station stationed near Ice Dome A is the domestic one. That area belongs within the research scope of the domestic observation station. Although the atmosphere between the observation stations of different countries here in Antarctica is relatively relaxed, the division of research zones is still very clear. The Edmund Observation Station has neither the ability nor the qualifications to investigate Ice Dome A. In other words, it should be impossible for Edmund Observation Station to possess first-hand experimental data related to Ice Dome A.”

Tang Erda flipped through several more pages of experimental report data, his expression growing more confused.

“But they have quite a lot of ice-layer detection data and ice-core research reports concerning Ice Dome A. This isn’t normal.”

“One observation station possessing another observation station’s confidential research data.” Bai Liu lightly scanned the documents in Tang Erda’s hand. “Generally speaking, there are only two possibilities.” 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Tang Erda looked at him.

Bai Liu continued unhurriedly, “The first is a good possibility: the domestic observation station—which, in the game, is Taishan Station—voluntarily shared its first-hand experimental data with Edmund Observation Station.”

Tang Erda frowned and immediately denied it. “That’s impossible. That would be an extremely serious leak of scientific research data.”

Bai Liu raised his eyes and smiled. “It seems Captain Tang leans toward the bad possibility, just like I do—Edmund Observation Station used some method to forcibly obtain Ice Dome A’s research data.”

“Or, to put it even worse, that group of people from Edmund Observation Station directly killed the people from Taishan Station, then occupied Taishan Observation Station and carried out scientific measurements on Ice Dome A themselves.”

Liu Jiayi appeared in the doorway.

She leaned against the doorframe with her arms crossed and raised an eyebrow at Bai Liu.

“I found Edmund’s room. I don’t think this guy was some scientist who was ‘cool as ice.’ Judging by the remains in his room, his aggressiveness was probably not low.”

“Take us up to see it.”

Bai Liu stepped forward and took Liu Jiayi’s hand. Very naturally, he exchanged his own warmed gloves for Liu Jiayi’s empty ones and put them on her.

The researchers at Edmund Station were all tall, broad adults. There was not a single child among them, so the clothes prepared here were also oversized. When Bai Liu wore one of the coats, it reached past his knees almost to his ankles, let alone on Liu Jiayi.

Although Liu Jiayi had been sensible enough to wrap herself in several layers and looked quite tidy, wind still inevitably slipped through the gaps in her clothing—her gloves, for instance.

But Liu Jiayi was stubborn and did not like being taken care of. Her hands were already so cold they were nearly frozen, yet she had not made a sound, nor did her face show any sign of it. She looked far calmer and steadier than Mu Shicheng, a man in his twenties.

Bai Liu changed her gloves so naturally that it seemed as though he had been born to do this for Liu Jiayi. The others did not even react to what he had done.

Liu Jiayi only paused for a moment, then tightened her grip on Bai Liu’s hand.

“Edmund’s room is on the fourth floor.”

She did not like this kind of highly aggressive man. They always reminded her of unpleasant things, and seeing them made her subconsciously feel repelled and uneasy.

But Bai Liu was also a man whose aggressiveness was off the charts. It was just that it did not show on the surface at all...

Liu Jiayi squeezed the warm, oversized gloves Bai Liu had just taken off, lifted them to cover her face, and exhaled a puff of white vapor into them. Her expression softened considerably as she pursed her lips.

Although Bai Liu was also very annoying, for some reason, she found him acceptable.

Liu Jiayi led Bai Liu all the way to a corner. There was a room there about one square meter larger than the other dormitory rooms. When Bai Liu walked over, he could see wind constantly drilling in through the cracks in the window sealant, whistling past and carrying away every trace of warmth.

Around the sealant, ice stalactites as thick as ballpoint pens had condensed, glimmering faintly in the dim light.

Liu Jiayi stuffed the gloves into her pocket.

“At first, I didn’t realize this room belonged to Edmund, the person in charge, because this room is located right at the wind vent. It would be the first to be hit by any blizzard. It’s too dangerous for a base manager to live here. He could very easily freeze to death in his sleep.”

“But then I found this behind the door.”

Liu Jiayi kicked the frozen-solid door.

With a crisp crack of ice, the room door slammed shut under the force of the wind. An iron hook hung behind it, and from that hook hung a neat row of modified rifles about seventy centimeters long. Ice stalactites dangled from the muzzles as well.

“I didn’t find any traces of firearms in the other rooms. They were basically full of books, computers, medicine, and things like that. Only this room has guns, and quite a lot of reserve ammunition.”

Liu Jiayi hooked the tip of her foot around a box beneath the bed and dragged it out with a twist of her waist. She let out a long breath, stepped on the neatly arranged 7.62mm ammunition inside the box, and said sarcastically,

“At first, I thought it might belong to some military personnel at the observation station, but under this box of ammunition I found the purchase invoice used for reimbursement. The guns and ammunition were all purchased under Edmund’s personal name. This should be his room.”

Tang Erda frowned. “The Antarctic Treaty prohibits observation station personnel from using military weapons such as firearms. Storing similar items here is also strictly forbidden.”

Liu Jiayi shrugged. “But he used them anyway. Judging from the purchase date and the notes on the invoice, he bought them after he had already arrived in Antarctica. Under the pretext of self-defense, he entrusted the Antarctic helicopter transport team to buy and deliver them for him.”

“And he should have been living here alone. I didn’t find any traces of a second person living in this room. I’d guess no one else knew he had guns except Edmund himself.”

Bai Liu’s gaze swept over the pile of rifles. Then he stood in the doorway and mimed holding a gun in empty air. He narrowed one eye, aiming through a nonexistent scope toward the front of the floor.

“So this Edmund bought ammunition and rifles in the name of self-defense and hid them in his room. He would rather risk freezing to death by living alone in this frigid room at the very end of the windward corridor. Every day, in the cold, he raised his gun, and the only people he could aim at were the ones living in the other rooms along this corridor—”

Bai Liu lowered his “gun.”

With some interest, he said, “It seems this Dr. Edmund was afraid of being attacked by the other personnel inside the observation station. And his fear had reached the point where he needed to buy guns to protect himself.”

Mu Ke walked up from the turn between the third and fourth floors, Mu Shicheng following behind him.

When he saw Bai Liu at the end of the corridor, Mu Ke walked over with a rather grave expression and handed him a thick stack of forms.

“When Mu Shicheng and I were preparing travel rations for you, we saw that a large amount of the fresh food in the warehouse had rotted, while a large number of canned goods were piled up untouched. The outer seals hadn’t even been removed.”

“Mu Shicheng and I both felt something was wrong, so we went to check the flow sheets recording food and medicine consumption here. I only gave them a quick look at first and didn’t notice anything off. But then I realized that the amount of food recorded under the ‘Essential Intake Consumption’ item didn’t match the amount of food remaining.”

“After that, I carefully cross-checked the food and medicine consumption records and found that although the items recorded under ‘Essential Intake Consumption’ were all food names, those foods did not represent actual food. They referred to different kinds of medicine. For example, ‘bread’ referred to lithium carbonate.”

Mu Ke looked steadily at Bai Liu.

“The people at this observation station were taking medicine as if it were food, three meals a day. And someone was forcing them to take it.”

Bai Liu asked, “Do you know what kinds of medicine they were?”

“Lorazepam, Betahistine, Chlorpromazine, Olanzapine...”

Mu Ke recited a long string of drug names without pause, then reached a conclusion.

“Most of them are medications used in psychiatric treatment for severe depression, severe anxiety, and mania.”

“The people at Edmund Observation Station were taking these drugs in large quantities every day, to the point where they were barely eating real food anymore.” Mu Ke took a deep breath. “If that’s really the case, then this place was essentially a psychiatric hospital at the pole. And these people were severely ill patients with excellent physical fitness, who would become highly aggressive if they had an episode.”

Bai Liu’s gaze shifted to the floor of Edmund’s room, where an entire box of cold ammunition lay.

“I think I understand why Dr. Edmund wanted to buy guns and ammunition,” Bai Liu said softly.

“He was trying to imprison and control these dangerous patients.”