"Do you have any evidence?" Lao Gou's expression was a little ugly. "I have never doubted your identity. Similarly, I will not doubt Liao Zilang... He has been with me for so many years, and I know him very well..."

"Then are you sure that the Liao Zilang who came out of the water is the one you know?" Ke Lan thought of the piece of meat that became exactly the same as the Hound under the glacial ruins last time. This shows that the Alpha civilization is fully capable of copying an identical Liao Zilang. Unfortunately, he is the only one who has retained these memories, and the Hound and the others know nothing about it now.

"Ke Lan," Lao Gou gave him a meaningful look, "You have to know that in the eyes of people like us, you are actually more suspicious than Liao Zilang. Do you know that many of the equipment you are wearing were discontinued before I was born, and you may not even be able to find them in those second-hand stores on the black market."

He paused and continued, "At first, we thought you had found an exploration team that had died a long time ago underwater, but the problem is... those equipments were not used for underwater exploration missions at all... and the black box and the log..."

He shook his head. "There's no way to explain it. Before you wake up, we have no way of explaining the origins of those things... But at least we can keep the secret for you. Otherwise, the people guarding the corridor outside now would not be agents of the Security Bureau, but us."

Hound pulled a stool over and sat down beside the bed: "When you were swept away by the undercurrent, Liao Zilang almost lost his life to save you... You shouldn't doubt him... Or rather, you have to give me a reason, a reason that is convincing enough for me."

"Okay, I'll tell you everything - wait, are there any surveillance devices in this room?" Ke Lan raised her head with some effort and looked around.

"Yes," the Hound reached into his pocket and pulled out a few bugs, "but we had already dismantled them before you came in."

"That's good. Don't be too surprised no matter what I say next... Although I know that those things... sound like fairy tales."

"You say." The Hound nodded.

…

From seeing the giant eye stone pillar, to entering the abyss hatchery, meeting the fusion body, to falling into the deep sea, to coming to the deserted island inexplicably... until he opened the airtight door and was pushed off the cliff by the black shadow. Except for those "things" that only he could see, Ke Lan recounted everything he had experienced in detail.

The expression on the Hound's face was extremely strange. It was obvious that he wanted to interrupt Ke Lan's narration more than once, but in the end he forced himself to hold back. He opened his mouth in confusion only after Ke Lan had finished speaking, but did not ask a single word.

After a long silence, he suddenly said, "...To be honest, movies don't dare to be shot like this these days...but the things you brought back make me believe them."

He turned to look at the closed door behind him, then turned back and said word by word: "You mean... you saw Liao Zilang suddenly appear in that tunnel at the end, and then he pushed you off the cliff, right?"

"right."

"Are you sure you didn't see it wrong? Could it be an illusion or something..."

"I don't rule out the possibility of hallucination, but I think it is necessary to verify Liao Zilang's identity... Of course, if you don't trust me, you can also verify whether I am the real Ke Lan." Ke Lan said.

"...In the A-087 ruins, how many times did the doctor shoot Jiang Lian?"

"Two shots."

"Where did you get shot?"

"All of them were torso, back, one bullet hit the heart... I was still asking him why he didn't shoot the leg. This is very vivid in my mind. Let's change the question."

"No need," the Hound nodded, "I understand. Wait for me for a moment. I'll be back soon."

After saying that, he opened the door and walked out.

In less than ten minutes, the hound came back. He and Ke Lan looked at each other and shook their heads: "There is no problem with Liao Zilang's identity."

"That's good..."

"However, there are other discoveries." As he said this, he handed the tablet computer in his hand to Ke Lan.

What appeared on the screen was a paper file that looked a bit old, with seals of words like "Top Secret" and "Invalid" all over it. When Ke Lan saw the file for the first time, she was mostly attracted by the photo in the upper right corner.

The photo shows a young man who looks 70% similar to Liao Zilang.

“Who is this…?”

Ke Lan's eyes moved to the "Name" column, only to find that it had been smeared with ink - not only that, there were traces of smearing everywhere else.

"Liao Xing, Liao Zilang's grandfather." Hound said, "A former member of the SDU special forces. In 902... that is, forty-eight years ago, he was transferred to the 776 special forces team. In the same year, he was MIA..."

"... Could it be that the one who pushed me down..." Ke Lan swallowed subconsciously, "was Liao Zilang's grandfather?"

"It should be... After all, you found the 776 Special Forces Team that had been missing for forty-eight years on that island, and Liao Xing should be among them." The Hound nodded.

"But... everyone else in the team is dead, how could he... how could he live in that kind of place for so many years, and he doesn't look old at all..." Ke Lan paused here. He had already confirmed that the speed of time on that island was different from that in the outside world, but this only referred to relative time and would not have any effect on things on the island - otherwise, the bodies of the soldiers of the 776 Special Effects Team would not have turned into skeletons, and the fabrics they wore would not have rotted.

"I'm not sure about that... I want to find out the last mission carried out by the 776th Special Forces Team..."

"Did you find out?"

"No." Hound shook his head with some regret. "At first I thought I didn't have enough authority... But I soon found out that it wasn't a problem of authority, but that the archive didn't contain the last mission they performed... Either it wasn't recorded in the beginning, or it was deleted by someone."

"Old dog... I think he may not be a human being anymore... at least, not a 'normal' human being."

"But have you ever thought that he...may not be trying to kill you?"

"Um?"

"According to what you said, after you were pushed off the cliff, you strangely appeared on the sea surface around the Pioneer... If he hadn't pushed you like that, you might still be trapped in that tunnel... In this case, does his action count as... to save you from that hellhole?"