Kaza choked.
Xie Dingyuan, however, had long since grown used to it.
“No… your research data was stolen. All your previous efforts have gone down the drain. You, you don’t feel even a little regret? Or feel sad for two seconds?”
Jiang Fuyue shook her head: “No need.”
“Huh?”
“Things in the brain can never be stolen.”
Kaza froze. “Wh-what do you mean?”
“Didn’t I tell you all the experimental data is in my head?”
“N-no, you didn’t!”
“Oh, then I’m telling you now.”
Kaza: “……” D*mn!
“You’re sure it’s all the data?” He deliberately emphasized the word “all.”
Those densely packed numbers and letters plus formulas, Kaza had accidentally seen them once and nearly gotten dizzy on the spot.
Even if there weren’t a thousand, there were at least eight hundred. She really remembered all of it?
You’ve got to be kidding.
But Jiang Fuyue’s expression at this moment carried not the slightest hint of joking.
That kind of unflappable calm and rock-solid confidence made one have no choice but to believe every word she said.
Kaza swallowed and cast a confirming glance toward Xie Dingyuan.
What your girlfriend said is true? She’s not bragging?
Under Kaza’s horrified gaze, Xie Dingyuan honestly nodded, with even a trace of sympathy in his eyes.
Sympathy for him, whose intelligence wasn’t high, and who was destined to suffer the merciless crushing of a genius.
What a sin!
Jiang Fuyue: “So now the problem is how to drag that person out and avoid…”
“Don’t, don’t talk.” Kaza stared blankly, stiff, raised his hand to cut her off, then placed it over the left side of his chest, pressing his heart. “Let me breathe. I can’t quite take it.”
Jiang Fuyue: “……”
It took a full five minutes before he finally returned to normal.
“Next time you drop something this explosive, please give me a heads-up first so I can be mentally prepared. Thanks.”
Jiang Fuyue: ?
That’s already explosive?
Kaza: My ignorance is to blame [smile-and-live-on] JPG
Xie Dingyuan cheerfully watched his good brother get completely destroyed by his own girlfriend, feeling indescribably pleased.
But his words were serious: “Right now the main thing is to prevent the data from leaking. If it can’t be retrieved, it must be completely destroyed to eliminate future trouble.”
Kaza: “What about the laptop? Don’t want that either?”
Jiang Fuyue: “If it can be retrieved, then take it. If it can’t, then don’t.”
So Zen?
“What exactly did you store in there? No experimental data, right?”
“Yes.”
Kaza was just about to beat his chest in distress. Such important things, how can you say you don’t want them just like that?!
Isn’t that no different from a leak?
She really is! Really is,
But the next second, Jiang Fuyue spoke calmly: “I encrypted it. Forcibly opening it will trigger an automatic wipe program. Even if the other party gets the computer, the moment it’s opened is the moment it’s lost.”
Kaza: “……Oh.” Are you from an intelligence agency?
Jiang Fuyue: “If there’s nothing else, I’ll go back to work. Let me know if there’s any news. Thanks.”
With that, she turned and left.
Her back view was sharp and decisive.
“Snap out of it.” Xie Dingyuan reminded coldly. Keep staring and I’ll pop your eyeballs out, believe it or not?
Kaza withdrew his gaze and suddenly asked, “Where did you find a girlfriend like this?”
“?”
“Are there any more? For the sake of brotherhood, introduce one to me too?”
Xie Dingyuan: “……Get lost.”
“No, you’re already eating meat. You can’t deny your brother even a sip of soup, right?”
“……”
Xie Dingyuan turned and left.
Kaza wouldn’t let it go: “Come back here, are we still brothers or not? You you you, don’t go!”
Xie Dingyuan ignored him.
Didn’t expect the guy to be so thick-skinned. Two long strides and he chased right up.
“Does Jiang Fuyue have a younger sister? An older sister would be even better!” Once they’re married, Xie Dingyuan would have to call him big brother. Heh heh, just thinking about it is blissful!
“……”
Kaza: “No blood-related ones? Then cousins are fine too!”
Xie Dingyuan: “No.”
“You’re definitely lying to me.”
“Believe it or not.” With that, he left.
“Really none? Are you sure?!” Kaza craned his neck, stood on tiptoe, reaching out with an Erkang hand.
The only response was a mercilessly receding back.
“Really none…” He began secretly calculating the possibility of stealing love right out of Xie Dingyuan’s hands.
In the end, he decided,
Mm, better to value his life.
Wife or whatever, forget it.
……
Once the theft of the data came out, the entire experimental area was on edge.
Taking it as a lesson, Bai Chuanhao specifically emphasized the issue of data storage security.
Dan Pinghua followed suit and brought it up as well, giving a special talk, telling everyone to pay attention to safekeeping, not to be careless, and to remember to lock doors when coming and going.
For a time, everyone feared that the next one to be stolen from would be themselves.
“Didn’t they say it’s already under investigation? It’s been two days. Why is there still no result?”
“How is it that easy? Interrogations, recordings, and still no follow-up!”
“Things like this usually just get forgotten. I’ve long been used to it.”
“I remember back when I was still doing my PhD in China, there were classmates around me who had their laptops stolen too. In the end, their papers were plagiarized, and they could only swallow the bitterness along with broken teeth.”
“But plagiarism doesn’t exist here, right?”
“Who knows? Someone wanting to reap the benefits by stealing isn’t impossible.”
“By that logic, it was one of our own people?”
“Totally possible! Otherwise why would Officer Kaza not investigate anyone else and just keep his eye on us?”
“Hiss, who is it? So sinister!”
“Probably someone who can’t stand seeing Jiang Fuyue doing well. She’s about to succeed in her research, and one person’s efficiency equals that of a whole team; no, it should be two teams. Too strong! A tall tree catches the wind; someone’s jealous.”
“Hiss… could it be Xin Hongcheng? He badmouths Jiang Fuyue the most. Just listening makes me feel sour!”
“Right! He hates Jiang Fuyue the most.”
“Even Officer Kaza said it was him!”
“If he really didn’t do it and was completely innocent, then why wouldn’t he cooperate with the investigation? Obviously he had a guilty conscience!”
“……”
No one knew from whose mouth it spread, but by the time Xin Hongcheng found out, he had already been slapped with the label of thief.
Almost every moment, people were pointing fingers and whispering behind his back.
Wherever he went, there were hushed discussions.
Even members of his own team would occasionally look at him with strange expressions.
“Old Xin, was it really you?”
“No matter how much you dislike Jiang Fuyue, you can’t do something like this!”
“Look at you, how are you going to wrap this up now?”
“Usually mouthing off is one thing, just talk. Who knew you’d really dare to make a move?”
“……”
Xin Hongcheng flew into a rage: “What did I do?! You’re all talking bullsh*t!”
“Didn’t you steal Jiang Fuyue’s research data to make sure her experiment wouldn’t succeed?”
“Who said that?! What evidence do you have?! What right do you have to say this?!” He was so angry his eyes turned red.
But this appearance didn’t make everyone believe him. Instead, they felt he was angry out of shame.
In just two short days, Xin Hongcheng was on the verge of collapse.
He finally tasted what it was like to be talked about and have dirty water poured on him.
No one listened to explanations, no one cared about curses, and roaring only made him look more like a clown.
It was as if he had been isolated by the entire world. No one was willing to talk to him, and meetings and discussions no longer called on him as they used to.
At some moment, he would think: when Jiang Fuyue was isolated back then, was it also this kind of collapse and agony, as if the sky were falling?
Yet even so, he still persisted in working.
Xin Hongcheng was afraid that once he became idle, he wouldn’t be able to stop his mind from wandering and his emotions from collapsing. It seemed that only through this method could he divert his attention.
Was Jiang Fuyue like this before too? Using work to fill the hollowness in her heart.
But he had clearly overestimated his own ability. Under heavy pressure, his thinking was no longer clear. A simple experiment, and he could still mess up the final result.
“Old Xin, you should rest for a while.” Dan Pinghua went to him and tactfully made the request.
“No, the part I’m responsible for isn’t finished yet!”
“I’ll hand it over to Old Huang.”
“Professor Dan, I’ve been in this team for so many years. You’re not meeting me for the first day. Don’t tell me even you don’t believe me?” At this moment, the grievance reached its peak, as if it were about to drown him.
Xin Hongcheng: “I admit my temper is hot and my personality isn’t good, but as a research scholar, I have never violated basic ethics. This time is the same!”
In the end, Dan Pinghua said nothing, only sighed, shook his head, and left.
……
As the rumors spread more and more fiercely, the hat of “thief” on Xin Hongcheng’s head was completely secured.
As the rumors spread more and more fiercely, the “thief” hat on Xin Hongcheng’s head was completely secured.
Very quickly, it alerted the base side that had been investigating the theft incident all along.
On an ordinary morning, Kaza appeared with a group of soldiers.
“Professor Xin, pardon the offense.”
After saying that, without giving Xin Hongcheng any chance to speak in his defense or express dissatisfaction, he directly raised his hand,
“Take him away!”
This time Xin Hongcheng did not refuse to cooperate like last time, but quietly and dejectedly allowed himself to be escorted away by the soldiers, offering no resistance at all.
“Why isn’t Old Xin yelling and jumping around this time?”
“The general situation is already decided, yelling is useless. It’s not whoever is louder that has the truth.”
“Is it really him? We seem to have never seriously listened to his explanation. What if there’s a misunderstanding here…”
“Whether it’s true or false, someone will naturally investigate it. It’s not our turn to worry.”
“That’s true, but I think apart from having a bad temper and a sharp tongue, Professor Xin shouldn’t have any major issues in terms of moral character. How did it end up like this…?”
“What you think doesn’t matter. Only the truth has the right to speak.”
Very soon, the truth arrived.
That afternoon, soldiers discovered a stack of paper documents in the flush toilet of Xin Hongcheng’s residence, sealed in a plastic bag and soaked in the tank.
After Jiang Fuyue’s confirmation, it was indeed part of the stolen materials!
Now the evidence was conclusive.
When Xin Hongcheng found out, his eyes went blank with confusion: “What paper documents? What flush toilet?”
“Still pretending?!”
“I, I really don’t know… I didn’t put them there! I didn’t steal them either!”
Kaza: “Then how do you explain these things appearing in your room?”
“I know nothing. Someone must have deliberately put these things there to frame me! Yes, it must be so.” Xin Hongcheng seemed to suddenly realize something. “From the moment the rumors spread and everyone believed I stole the materials, this carefully planned frame-up began!”
“Is that so?” Kaza said expressionlessly. “Then who do you think wants to frame you?”
Xin Hongcheng could no longer say anything: “…I, I haven’t thought of it yet, but this person must harbor ill intentions and have other motives!”
“Enough, how long do you plan to keep playing dumb?”
……
The interrogation lasted three hours, and in the end Xin Hongcheng confessed everything.
It was he who, out of jealousy, stole Jiang Fuyue’s experimental materials. Afraid of being discovered, he hid the items in the toilet tank, planning to deal with them after the heat died down, but he never expected they would end up becoming crucial evidence.
“My God! It really was him!”
“It was actually out of jealousy? At his age, can he really be so intolerant of others?”
“The older one gets, the smaller the capacity becomes.”
“Maybe it’s because he’s still holding a grudge against Jiang Fuyue for saying he had let down the motherland and the people.”
“Old Xin, you were muddle-headed!”
“How did things become like this?”
“Serves him right! Everyone should pay the price for the mistakes they’ve made and accept the lesson.”
“……”
Some cheered, some sighed with regret.
But there was also another kind of voice. Though very small, it made people think carefully and feel terrified,
“Doesn’t everyone find it strange? Why were only paper documents found? If I remember correctly, Jiang Fuyue also lost a laptop.”
“Yeah! Where did the computer go?”
“And did you notice what Jiang Fuyue said when she identified the documents on the spot?”
“What did she say?”
“She said, this is part of the stolen materials. Pay attention! Here’s the key point: part! So where did the rest of the materials go? Did they disappear together with the laptop?”
“Hiss! Hearing you say that, things don’t seem that simple.”
“My back is already starting to feel cold.”
“……”
But after all, this was only a very small group of people, a very tiny voice. Under the circumstances where Xin Hongcheng’s evidence was conclusive and he had already confessed voluntarily, it could basically be ignored.
Since everything was now clear, the base had no reason to continue the lockdown, so the order was lifted, the defense level lowered, and entry and exit were permitted.
And Xin Hongcheng, as a person, seemed to disappear overnight, no one mentioning him again.
The base side also did not announce specifically how he would be punished.
“It’s said he still has to undergo a counterintelligence investigation by the base’s relevant departments. If they really dig up something else, it probably won’t be as simple as theft.”
“Huh? Besides theft, what else could there be?”
“For example, espionage. If it’s more serious, even treason isn’t impossible.”
“My God! It’s actually that serious? Then wouldn’t Professor Xin’s future be completely over?”
“Whether he even has a future is a question mark. If it really gets to the worst point, he might even lose his life.”
“Not only that. If the circumstances are serious, it’s said it could even implicate his descendants, basically the whole family would be finished together!”
“That’s too terrifying…”
Everyone immediately felt a chill run through them.
The same question surfaced in everyone’s mind: wasn’t it just stealing a laptop and some experimental materials? How, how did it reach the point of being life-threatening?
……
At night, the moonlight was bright, silent and still.
Although it was March, with spring returning to the earth, desert regions have huge temperature differences between day and night. During the day the blazing sun scorches like fire, while at night the temperature can drop below zero.
The base has a group of staff specially responsible for procurement, and at this time they were wrapping themselves in padded coats one by one.
In order to bring back the supplies needed by the base before dawn, they usually have to set off in the early hours, driving to the central market sixty kilometers away to make purchases.
The merchants with whom they have fixed cooperation will prepare the goods in advance, then wait for them to drive over, collecting from one shop after another.
Tonight, three trucks were dispatched, all of them the largest models.
It seemed the order from a few days ago to lock down the base and forbid entry and exit had indeed affected all aspects and every link.
The trucks soon arrived at the checkpoint at the base gate.
Two soldiers walked out of the guard post. One raised his hand to stop the vehicles, while the other walked to the lead truck: “Please show your pass!”
The pass was handed over. After checking it, there were no problems.
Next, everyone in the vehicles got out for routine inspection.
Not only were people checked, the vehicles were also thoroughly inspected.
“No problems, permitted to pass, ”
With the order given, seeing the barrier gradually rise, the trucks revved their engines, ready to drive out at any moment.
However, just at this moment, Kaza suddenly appeared with troops and loudly ordered: “Close the gate immediately! All personnel on alert!”
“Received!”
In an instant, the barrier that had been rising suddenly stopped, then began to descend again. Immediately afterward, the soldiers brought by Kaza surrounded the trucks.
Each held a weapon, expressions solemn.
Kaza sneered, took the loudspeaker handed over by his aide, and began shouting toward the lead truck: “Come out, stop hiding. I’ve been waiting for you for a long time!”
No movement.
“Heh, are you really planning to make me personally catch you, you little b*stard who stole the materials? Fine, very good!”
He was speaking Chinese, and the curse words came to him effortlessly, smooth as can be.
At this moment, Jiang Fuyue and Xie Dingyuan happened to arrive.
Hearing this, the corners of their mouths twitched violently.
Arriving together with the two of them was Xin Hongcheng, who had been missing for many days and rumored to have already confessed!
Tomorrow the culprit will be revealed.
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