Chapter 6

Why did the Japanese open fire on our aircraft carrier? Lin Yuan thought to himself. His warship was flying the national flag of the People's Republic of China and the flag of the People's Liberation Army Navy. The Japanese of this era must never have seen these two flags before. They opened fire without even knowing who they were. This was really unreasonable.

Now, the Japanese warships in the distance had stopped their artillery bombardment. Lin Yuan was familiar with the range of Japanese naval guns in this era. His aircraft carrier was already out of their range. He lowered his head and glanced at his watch: 11:10. The Battle of the Yellow Sea was still almost two hours away. "The catapult is damaged, and the deck is also damaged. The carrier-based aircraft can't take off. It will take at least ten hours to repair. Do we just watch the Beiyang Fleet be defeated?"

Feeling troubled, Lin Yuan walked out of the command room and onto the deck. Xu Feng had already been sent to the carrier's medical room. That guy was probably chatting with the nurses right now. Lin Yuan thought to himself. The people working on the deck stood at attention and saluted when they saw the captain. Lin Yuan quickly waved them to continue their work. He accidentally looked up and saw the flag on the mast of the aircraft carrier. Where the flag of the People's Liberation Army Navy should have been, a dragon flag was now fluttering in the wind!

Lin Yuan was greatly surprised. That was the national flag of the Qing Dynasty! It was also the flag of the Beiyang Fleet!

Modern naval flags are quite complex. Besides hanging the national flag and the military flag, various signal flags must be hung for different situations. For visits or other ceremonial occasions, full flags or substitute full flags must be hung, and the time and order of hanging the full flags are strictly regulated. Therefore, the "Beijing" aircraft carrier had a special flag unit responsible for hanging the flags.

Lin Yuan immediately summoned the company commander, who hurriedly said, "I didn't hang it wrong. It was Shen Dajizhe who told us to hang it this way. The political commissar had already informed us that it was for filming a TV show. They said they would take it down after filming, but they forgot to do so after the filming was done."

Lin Yuan nodded and told the company commander to go about his business. He silently pondered the company commander's words. The Shen Dajizhe he mentioned was Shen Wanqing, a journalist from the military channel of CCTV. Thinking of her, Lin Yuan's heart softened. When he first met her, he was stunned by her beauty: her lively big eyes, fair skin, white T-shirt, and light blue tight jeans accentuated her slender figure. At the farewell party held before the carrier set sail, she changed from her usual sharp and efficient appearance to a light pink long dress, making her look like a peach blossom after the rain.

"By the little river, the red plum blossoms bloom, there is a young man, who truly makes my heart flutter..." The song she sang that day was the Russian folk song "Red Plum Blossoms." Her beautiful voice made even the most melodious birds feel inferior. He couldn't help but hum the song in his heart. It was strange; after hearing her sing it once, it seemed he had learned it. "A girl's thoughts grow day by day, I am a girl, how can I tell him?" When he hummed this line, she seemed to deliberately look into his eyes for a moment.

"Could she be...?" Lin Yuan felt a surge of excitement. As the youngest captain in the Chinese military, he was only 28 years old. At 28, he had taken on such a heavy responsibility, and his abilities far exceeded those of his peers. His excellence was undeniable. During his college years, there were girls who admired him, but in his heart, he had already had a sweetheart—his navy. He once thought that there would be no room for any other girl in his heart, but her appearance made him feel everything was different.

These romantic thoughts were just a fleeting moment in his mind. Soon, he thought about why she had changed the flag. What kind of TV show required such a setup? This was very unusual. Was her changing the flag related to our carrier traveling back in time?

"Why did we travel back in time? Who would benefit from our return to the past?" These questions tangled in his mind, and the traveler's paradox circled in his head. The traveler's paradox is: if time travel is possible, why are there no travelers from the future around us? A reasonable explanation is that there are parallel universes. We left our original universe and entered another one. In this way, the original us disappeared. Who would benefit from the disappearance of an aircraft carrier? Of course, it would be our enemy country!

"Could our return to the past be a plot by the enemy country, and she, their spy?" Lin Yuan laughed out loud. This idea was too far-fetched.

Suddenly, he saw her. She was interviewing on the deck. Shen Wanqing also saw Lin Yuan and waved to him. Lin Yuan walked over and pointed to the dragon flag on the mast, asking, "Was that flag hung by you?"

Shen Wanqing replied, "Yes, we were filming a documentary about the carrier. We hung that flag to shoot a scene of the Beiyang Fleet. We wanted to use the weakness of the Qing navy to highlight the strength of the new China navy. We shot a scene of the dragon flag fluttering, and the audience would immediately think of the Beiyang Fleet. It was my idea." She smiled.

"Why did you shoot it there?"

"Because the wind is strong there, and it looks very effective when it flutters. Our technical staff can replace the mast with one from the Qing era."

At this moment, someone had already taken down the flag. Lin Yuan smiled and nodded, then turned to go back, silently mocking his earlier thoughts.

He had just taken a few steps when a man followed him. Lin Yuan turned around, and the man smiled, saying, "Captain, hello. I am a photographer from CCTV-7, my name is Tang Fan. Here is my ID."

Lin Yuan looked at his ID, which was fine, and asked, "What do you need?"

Tang Fan said, "Is it convenient to talk here?"

Lin Yuan looked around; there was no one nearby, so he said, "What do you need to say?"

Tang Fan then said, "Captain, I think there's something wrong with Shen Wanqing."

Lin Yuan frowned and asked, "What do you mean by 'something wrong'?"

Tang Fan said, "Let me put it this way. I am particularly interested in spies and have read many books and watched many movies about them. I suspect that Shen Wanqing is a foreign spy who has infiltrated the ship."

Lin Yuan was greatly surprised. Could his earlier speculation be correct?

Tang Fan continued, "She wasn't originally part of our production team. She was transferred from another unit just a few days before we boarded the ship. The leader who introduced her to us was quite high-ranking. At first, I didn't pay much attention, thinking she might have connections. Later, I noticed something was off. Her Leica M9 camera is exactly the same as mine. I've used mine for over ten years and am very familiar with it. One time, I picked up her camera and found it much heavier than mine. She never uses that camera. Once, a colleague's camera ran out of battery and wanted to borrow hers, but she made an excuse to refuse. She is very enthusiastic, so I can't understand why she wouldn't lend her camera to the colleague."

Lin Yuan lowered his head and thought silently. Tang Fan continued, "These are things I noticed later. The reason I thought of them is because, just now, after you left the hall, we were interviewing scientists from various systems in the hall. When the shells started flying, she found an excuse to leave. A while later, the soldiers in the hall arranged for us to return to our cabins. Our cabins are close together. In the chaos, I walked into the wrong cabin and saw her fiddling with that camera. She looked flustered when she saw me and hurriedly hid something. That's when I realized there was something wrong with her. I think that camera likely contains a communication device."

Lin Yuan nodded and said, "Come with me." Then Lin Yuan led him to the security office. Director Zhang Hua, who had been in charge of security and counter-espionage for over a decade, stood up to greet the captain. Lin Yuan waved and said, "Comrade Tang, this is Director Zhang Hua of the security office. Please introduce the situation to him."

After listening to Tang Fan's account, Zhang Hua nodded and said, "Comrade Tang's analysis is not without merit. Captain, what do you plan to do?"

"Director Zhang, you are the expert. What do you suggest?"

Zhang Hua hesitated for a moment and said, "We should secretly monitor her. This matter must not be made public. If an enemy spy has infiltrated the aircraft carrier, it will cause panic among the crew."

Lin Yuan said, "The situation is urgent, and we don't have much time. Can we secretly search her cabin?"

Zhang Hua thought for a moment and said, "No problem. I will do it myself this time, without the action team."

The three of them then went to Shen Wanqing's cabin door. Zhang Hua extended his arm to block Lin Yuan and Tang Fan, walked to the door, and carefully examined the door crack. He pointed to the upper left corner of the door crack and said, "Look, there's a hair here. If someone enters her cabin, the hair will fall, and she will know. She must be a skilled professional."

Lin Yuan was startled. For her to infiltrate the aircraft carrier, the spy network behind her must be vast, and its core members might even be high-ranking leaders in our military.

Zhang Hua carefully opened the door,