38: A counter-strategy and a clash with the undercurrents

Excellence did not hesitate and immediately reported the matter of the invitation and his own concerns to Xiao Zhang through the encrypted communication channel.

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the communicator, followed by Wang Jianguo's chuckle, in which no emotion could be discerned: "Heh, the fox is showing its tail faster than expected, which actually saves us the trouble of scouting. Very well, let's take this opportunity to weigh them up and see what exactly they are trying to pull."

"Director Wang, do you mean… I should go?" Excellence's heart jumped into his throat, and his voice tightened. In his mind, he had already pictured himself locked in some underground laboratory being interrogated under torture.

"Go, why not go?" Wang Jianguo's tone carried the playfulness and composure of an old hunter. "They have built the stage and invited the performers; if we don't show up, wouldn't that be too disrespectful to Mr. Morpheus? However, rest assured, you won't be going to perform a solo act alone."

A meticulous and bold plan was quickly formulated. Excellence would "accept" the invitation, but he would not attend the banquet alone. Accompanying him would be two "master's student seniors from the same research group" disguised as top technicians from the National Special Bureau, as well as a "guiding teacher" played by a behavioral analysis expert.

During the preparation phase, Xiao Zhang brought a full set of equipment. Excellence's glasses were replaced with a pair of specially made smart glasses, with a miniature camera and microphone built into the temples, and the lenses could display minimalist prompt information; his watch was replaced with a monitoring device equipped with multiple sensors, which could track his physiological indicators and location in real time; even his shirt buttons were replaced with miniature devices capable of encrypted transmission.

All the equipment carried by the "seniors" and the "teacher" had undergone the highest level of anti-espionage processing. Their laptops not only had built-in multi-layer encryption and remote real-time backup systems but were also equipped with devices that could instantly physically destroy the storage chips in an emergency; the voice recorders could release strong electromagnetic pulses to paralyze nearby electronic devices upon detecting abnormal scanning; their clothing and accessories concealed signal jammers and environmental monitoring sensors.

Excellence's own task was more subtle: he needed to play the role of a young student who was "full of pure enthusiasm for technology, with budding talent but lacking social experience, and easy to be moved and guided." He needed to make full use of the other party's "academic" guise, communicate with them as much as possible, ask bold questions, and even conduct limited technical discussions that did not involve core secrets, in order to extract information and test the other party's true strength.

"Remember, you are going to learn and to demonstrate potential, not to offer up treasures," Xiao Zhang sternly reminded him at the final preparation meeting. "The other party will try to dig for your true level in various ways; you must learn to find a balance between sincerity and reservation."

This was tantamount to a dance on the tip of a knife under the gaze of the enemy, requiring extremely high psychological quality and the ability to adapt to the situation. Excellence felt unprecedented pressure, but at the same time, there was a strange excitement—he was finally no longer a completely passive pawn, but a member capable of participating in this game.

The seminar was held in a highly private VIP conference hall at a top-tier hotel. The environment was extremely luxurious and high-tech: soft indirect lighting created a comfortable atmosphere, the touch-interactive smart conference table flickered with a faint blue light, and the air was filled with a subtle cedar fragrance. There were not many attendees, but everyone was well-dressed and had an extraordinary demeanor. Sure enough, Excellence saw the faces of several academic bigwigs who had appeared in journals like Nature and Science, and he couldn't help but feel a bit excited and nervous.

Morpheus Li did not attend in person, but Evelyn did. She sat in an inconspicuous corner, wearing a well-tailored champagne-colored professional suit, with exquisite makeup, looking intently at the tablet in front of her, looking exactly like an ordinary mid-level staff member or academic assistant of The Foundation. It was only when Excellence entered that she looked up, her gaze meeting his for a fleeting moment. A complex emotion that was difficult to interpret flashed quickly through her light gray pupils, and then she lowered her eyelids, returning to her business-like appearance.

The content of the conference was truly a feast of cutting-edge topics. The reports from several scholars were full of substantial content, especially a practical simplified model for ultra-secure initial key distribution using the Quantum Entanglement effect, and a new path for programmable nanomaterial synthesis inspired by the principles of biological self-assembly, both of which opened Excellence's eyes and left him enthralled, recording rapidly in his notebook. He noticed that his "senior" and "teacher" were also listening attentively, occasionally exchanging an imperceptible glance.

During the free communication and tea break, a Dr. Aris, who claimed to be the Chief Scientific Advisor of the Prophet Foundation (Excellence had checked in advance, and he was a real person with a high academic reputation), took the initiative to find Excellence. The old man's silver hair was meticulously combed, he wore gold-rimmed glasses, and his attitude was kind and humorous, showing great patience and encouragement for the few slightly immature but tricky questions Excellence raised.

"Very interesting ideas, young man." Dr. Aris smiled, his eyes behind the glasses flashing with wisdom. "You have a quite sharp intuition regarding the correlation between bio-electric fields and information transmission. Our Foundation has also been exploring similar directions recently, especially in…" He "inadvertently" revealed several "non-core" but equally inspiring research directions within The Foundation, his words full of appreciation for Excellence's "unique ideas."

Excellence was enthralled, almost forgetting the other party's potentially dangerous identity. He noticed that Evelyn was chatting with people nearby, seemingly casually, but her body angle was always subtly facing their direction.

Everything was proceeding in an academic atmosphere that was harmonious, friendly, and full of wise collisions.

However, at a level that Excellence could not perceive, a silent war had already begun.

The seemingly ordinary tablet in Evelyn's hand was receiving real-time data transmitted from a miniature high-sensitivity sensor array hidden inside the decorative picture frames, flower pots, and even the tables and chairs of the venue: the dilation frequency of Excellence's pupils when facing different topics, the subtle changes in his facial micro-expressions, the extremely minute stress patterns of his vocal cord vibrations when speaking, and even the tiny deformation of the drink cup in his hand caused by unconscious force…

This massive amount of physiological and behavioral data was transmitted in real-time to a complex machine learning algorithm model on her tablet, conducting high-speed analysis, attempting to construct an accurate profile of Excellence's emotional state model, attention focus map, and which technical topics he was truly deeply interested in.

This was a precise prying into his subconscious and true interests, armed with high technology!

At the same time, a waiter "accidentally" spilled a bit of orange juice on the tablet that Excellence had brought, which had been specially reinforced and encrypted by the National Special Bureau. Just as Excellence was subconsciously wiping it, another seemingly enthusiastic attendee (who was actually a Foundation staff member) "timely" handed over a brand-new, top-brand tablet with the seal still intact: "Use this for an emergency first; we have already pre-loaded the meeting materials and PPT for you. We are very sorry for our mistake."

This brand-new tablet was itself a carefully prepared "Trojan Horse"—it had a highly concealed hardware-level backdoor and signal transmission module pre-installed inside. Once Excellence used it for any operation, or even just connected to the network, all his data and behavior would be monitored and stolen in real-time!

Fortunately, all of this was under the anticipation and monitoring of Wang Jianguo's team. One of Excellence's "seniors" happened to pass by, "naturally" intervening. While politely "helping" Excellence deal with the spilled drink, he cleverly separated the "enthusiastic" attendee and "politely declined" the other party's spare tablet, indicating that they had brought spare equipment.

Meanwhile, in another corner of the venue, two National Special Bureau agents disguised as hotel IT personnel were clearly capturing the data stream between Evelyn's tablet and a hidden relay point through a terminal disguised as maintenance equipment, as well as the two quick exchanges completed through extremely tiny gestures and glances between the "waiter" and the "attendee."

A silent, high-tech-enhanced fierce confrontation was surging and clashing like an undercurrent beneath the facade of polite academic exchange.

After the seminar, Excellence left the hotel with his mind full of new technical terms and theoretical inspiration, as well as a faint, lingering fear that he felt in hindsight. He had indeed learned a lot and broadened his horizons, but he had also truly and closely felt how exquisite, patient, and pervasive that invisible hand attempting to infiltrate and manipulate him was.

Returning to the dormitory, Xiao Zhang conducted a detailed debriefing inquiry with him that lasted for two hours, and every detail was repeatedly confirmed and recorded.

"They showed unusual interest in that vague concept about 'Energy Field Perception Feedback' that you mentioned inadvertently." Xiao Zhang looked at the preliminary report submitted by the technical analysis team, his tone unprecedentedly grave. "Although you only mentioned it casually and didn't go into depth, their subsequent conversations with you and our other personnel were clearly consciously guiding and deepening the topic in this direction. Morpheus Li's true goal, in its depth and cutting-edge nature, may far exceed our initial estimation."

Excellence felt a chill climb up his spine. The few words he had inadvertently leaked could actually expose so much information under the other party's professional intelligence analysis and technical judgment. This feeling of being completely seen through, with nowhere to hide, made him shudder.

That night, Excellence lay in bed, unable to fall asleep for a long time. He recalled Evelyn's complex glance, recalled the sharp gaze beneath Dr. Aris's kind face, and recalled those seemingly casual but incredibly precise questions. He realized that he had been drawn into a game that was far more complex and dangerous than he had imagined.

And in this game, every seemingly accidental encounter, every seemingly casual conversation, could hide unfathomable calculations and purposes. For the first time, he felt so truly that knowledge was not only power, but also potentially the most dangerous bait and the most exquisite trap.