Love letters are not allowed in the exorcism notebook!-Chapter 829 - 76 In principle, we do not deal with these

Interrogating intelligence is something anyone can do, really.

Tiger benches, chili water, whips paired with braziers—none of it takes any real skill.

The real skill lies in extracting the kind of intelligence that even the person themselves isn’t aware they possess.

Small fry aren’t necessarily worthless. Even if he keeps insisting, "I’m just working for the money, I don’t know anything," and might genuinely know nothing.

But as the teacher used to say back in school—why you? Why did they come to you instead of someone else?

The next morning, Huo Dali arrived as promised, but accompanying him were Shopkeeper Nong and that New Army officer, Meng Qing.

When they entered and saw Wang Yunxiao’s grave expression, Shopkeeper Nong’s heart immediately sank.

"The situation is rather complicated. I’m not sure how much you’ll be able to understand."

Cheng Feng handed the written report he had prepared overnight to Shopkeeper Nong, stood up straight, and said seriously: "To put it simply, the convergence of two worldlines this time has caused your world to start being affected by the Temporal Tide, and signs of instability have appeared in the Time-Space Axis."

Okay, they already lost him starting with the first sentence.

Meng Qing raised his hand. "I’ve got a question!"

"Let me finish. The issue with the worldlines, put in terms you can understand, is this: only people with access to higher education can fully grasp the nation’s current internal and external crises and propose reform solutions. For regular civilians, generally speaking, they don’t have to worry about being branded as Revolutionary Party members and hauled off to be decapitated."

"The problem we’re seeing now is that if you happen to live next door to a Revolutionary Party member—even if you’ve only ever exchanged a few words with them—in the eyes of the Governmental Office, you’re associated. Hence, you could also face the risk of being arrested and beheaded."

"According to the intelligence we have so far, due to the instability in this world’s Time-Space Axis, transmigrators from a future era have started to appear. The bad news is, this particular person happens to be a Fusang person. He has established a secret organization called Huitian, whose primary goal is to secure victory for Fusang. The reason why the head of Hashimoto Trading Co. received the news so quickly is because this organization is working behind the scenes to stir things up."

"But on the flip side, it’s not all bad news. Since they’ve resorted to such measures, it at least proves that, at some point in the future, Fusang must have ended up as the defeated side."

Shopkeeper Nong and Meng Qing exchanged a glance and couldn’t help but let out a wry smile.

They understood—they really did—but the issue is, they can’t even handle the present-day Fusang. How could they possibly think about dealing with the future?

"Where is this person now?"

Huo Dali, ever direct, got straight to the heart of the matter: "Can we eliminate him?"

"According to the intelligence we’ve gathered, the core of this organization is still based in Fusang itself. This time, they specifically sent someone over to steal the engineering blueprints in Professor Li Mingshen’s possession."

"If he’s traveled back from the future, why would he still need blueprints?"

"That question touches on the three major dilemmas faced by time travelers: the causality dilemma, the societal dilemma, and the cognitive dilemma."

To put it simply, it’s the issue of how to survive without ’cheating.’

Last night, when Cheng Feng was explaining this concept to Wang Yunxiao and the others, Wang Yunxiao easily understood.

The first dilemma, the causality dilemma, isn’t about some sort of grandfather paradox. It’s the fact that as a transmigrator, you can’t be sure what causes lead to what effects.

Only mathematics, physics, and chemistry can yield precise calculations—history cannot.

The tides of history are shaped collectively by thousands upon thousands of people. It won’t all come undone because you killed a certain individual, leading a war to inevitably fail or a certain plan to inevitably collapse.

Who’s good, who’s evil, and what roles they played during specific periods... Even the most professional historians can only provide subjective judgments rather than absolute objective truths.

The second dilemma, the societal dilemma, can be boiled down to this: as a natural individual, a time traveler cannot fully grasp the operational mechanisms of an entire society. Even if you hold supreme power and can order something as precise as moving a machine gun emplacement five meters to the left, it doesn’t mean you can win a war. Because the factors that determine the outcome of a war include the stability of the rear echelon, the will of the people, the morale of the troops, and the tactical abilities of the leaders...

The third dilemma, the cognitive dilemma, involves the clash between a time traveler’s self-awareness and the ingrained perceptions of the locals. Certain behaviors and moral standards that are second nature in the future would be shocking and outlandish in a past era.

In a novel, these three dilemmas could easily be resolved through ’cheat codes’ or by putting a ’lowered intelligence halo’ on the locals.

But if someone truly time-traveled, these three dilemmas would be like life-threatening talismans hanging over their head.

Take the Huitian organization as an example. Their vision is noble—they want to ’correct’ history. But what exact methods could they use to steer history toward the outcomes they desire?

Judging by their current tactics, it’s clear they have ideas but no concrete strategic blueprint yet.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t be limited to merely trying to steal blueprints.

Cheng Feng, having a background in the Secretary Bureau, seemed to have accumulated extensive expertise in handling such matters.

"There’s an old saying: if you see one cockroach, your house might already have a thousand. Huitian is just one example and hasn’t yet caused particularly severe damage. So, I suggest you set up a similar organization on your side to deal with these problems specifically."

Meng Qing and Shopkeeper Nong exchanged helpless looks.

To them, this suggestion was... a bit too far ahead of its time.

Whether it’s the Imperial Court’s New Army or the overseas Revolutionary Party, at this moment in history, simply surviving is already challenging enough. And now they’re expected to create a group just to deal with time-travelers?

You might as well send me to capture Monk Tang instead!

Cheng Feng cleared his throat and said, "In principle, we should not interfere too much in your historical trajectory. For example, the manuscripts Li Mingshen brought back could have profound effects on the history of the future era. But because of this, they’ve already drawn Huitian’s attention. If we intervene further, the more history is altered, the greater the unknown risks involved."

And this, of course, was why he’s in charge—listen to the artful way he says things.

In principle, no interference...

"But if you require help in this area and formally request it, we can provide assistance and support within our capabilities before completing this mission."

Shopkeeper Nong’s eyes lit up as he hurriedly asked, "What specific kind of assistance and support?"

"Primarily, this includes knowledge and theories related to the temporal dimensions, guidance on organizational frameworks, and solutions to commonly encountered issues. Lastly..."

At this point, Cheng Feng cast a subtle glance at the captains sitting stiffly and expressionlessly in their seats.

"Appropriate responses to the provocations by the Huitian organization."