52: Cracks in Trust and a Silent Game

Excellence submitted the report, which had been carefully "processed" and intentionally introduced with subtle "flaws" and logical "leaps," through the internal encrypted channel. The moment he completed the submission, he felt his heart gripped by an invisible hand, his fingertips turning slightly cold. This report was less a research finding and more a precisely designed bait, a high-stakes gamble testing the edge of a blade. He had deliberately left behind some unnatural elements that only someone who truly understood the field and was extremely familiar with his thinking habits could perceive—some parameters were introduced somewhat abruptly, as if appearing out of thin air; some deductive steps made leaps that were too large, relying more on intuition than on rigorous mathematical bridges, appearing like the bold leaps based on flashes of inspiration common to a genius researcher, rather than step-by-step, airtight, rigorous deductions.

He wanted to see how Wang Jianguo and the vast, omnipresent analysis team behind him would react. Would they be sharp-eyed enough to discern that some of the groundbreaking core contained in this report did not entirely originate from the independent and continuous thought results of Excellence? If they did notice, how would they treat it? Would it be severe interrogation, tighter surveillance, or... some reaction he couldn't predict? If they didn't notice... did that mean they weren't actually as omniscient and omnipotent as they appeared, and that their understanding of the boundaries of his abilities also had blind spots? This small probe was like a pebble thrown into a deep pool; he held his breath, waiting for the ripples that might rise from underwater to reveal the truth.

The days after the report was submitted became exceptionally long and agonizing. The laboratory maintained that suffocating, constant silence, with only the low hum of precision instruments and his own increasingly clear heartbeat. The constant-temperature air sent out by the air circulation system, carrying a faint scent of ozone, now seemed to smell of a vague, scorching anxiety of awaiting judgment. He tried to refocus his attention on subsequent experiments, but his mind could never fully concentrate; his eyes would always unconsciously drift toward the smooth, featureless door of the laboratory, expecting and yet fearing its opening.

Xiao Zhang continued to appear at fixed times, like a precise clock. His expression was as plain as ever, his eyes as deep as two ancient wells, calm and unruffled, showing no emotional fluctuations. He collected the report backups routinely (the paper version seemed to have special archival requirements) and asked one or two highly technical key questions about the experimental progress, his tone as steady as an AI voice. Everything looked no different from usual, as if the report that Excellence had tampered with was just an ordinary daily document.

This calm before the storm only made the sense of unease in Excellence's heart grow stronger, like a rising tide, almost drowning his reason. He carefully captured every subtle movement of Xiao Zhang, every slight flicker in his eyes, every imperceptible change in his tone, trying to interpret any hint or abnormality from it, but it was all in vain. Xiao Zhang's professionalism and calmness were like an airtight wall, silently bouncing back all his probes.

Until the third day, when Xiao Zhang finished all the routine inquiries and turned to leave, his footsteps seemed to pause ever so slightly, almost imperceptibly. He did not turn his head, his voice still that steady, waveless tone, as if he were just casually adding an unimportant daily instruction, but the content of his words was like a silent thunderclap, exploding in Excellence's ears:

"Director Wang has seen your new model architecture, and his evaluation is very high." Xiao Zhang's voice had no fluctuations, as if he were reciting a standard text, "He said... your mathematical intuition is very sharp, jumping out of the constraints of many traditional frameworks, and even... touching upon some new directions worthy of in-depth exploration. Keep it up."

Excellence's heart sank abruptly, as if it had suddenly plunged into an ice cellar! His whole body's blood seemed to freeze in an instant! Wang Jianguo had seen it! He had definitely seen it! That phrase "your mathematical intuition is very sharp, jumping out of the constraints of many traditional frameworks" sounded like praise, but falling into Excellence's ears, it was clearly Wang Jianguo using an extremely obscure, yet tacit way to point out that he had already seen through those "unnatural" parts in the report, seen through that it was not a product of thinking that purely and continuously originated from Excellence himself! Was this a tacit approval? A kind of... knowing and even indulgent attitude towards such small tricks by Excellence? Or was it... a deeper, cold-blooded scheme of playing along? Wang Jianguo did not seem to care whether Excellence was "original"; what he cared about was the result, the progress, and whether Excellence could be effectively "driven." As for whether the method of driving was encouragement or tacit approval of some "small tricks," perhaps there was no difference?

At this moment, Excellence felt as if he had suddenly awakened from a self-righteous fog, only to find himself standing in the center of a larger, deeper labyrinth. The fragile, pathetic bit of trust he had originally built with Wang Jianguo and this "Zhulong" base, based on "protection," instantly developed a deep, irreparable crack. He clearly realized that in this great chess game controlled by giants, he might never have been an independent player, or even a partner treated with equality, but just a... crucial, yet extremely passive chess piece. At both ends of the chessboard, on one side was Wang Jianguo, representing the cold national will, giving him protection but also absolute constraints and surveillance; on the other side was Morpheus Li, hiding in the shadows, watching like a viper, throwing out tempting but deadly bait. Both sides were using him as the focal point, conducting a game he could not fully see. And he had become a butterfly in the center of the web; no matter which side he tried to fly to, he might face an unknown fate of being captured, studied, and used, or even being torn to pieces by the air currents of the invisible struggle between the two.

A strong, almost instinctive desire to completely control his own destiny, like a long-suppressed volcano, surged and burned in his heart more violently than ever before! He loathed this feeling of being manipulated by an invisible hand, loathed this suffocating feeling of every step being calculated, monitored, and evaluated! He craved freedom—not the freedom to escape from here, but... the freedom to think, the freedom to explore, the freedom to touch the unknown according to his own will, even if it meant being shattered to pieces!

When Xiao Zhang's figure completely disappeared outside the door and the alloy door slid shut silently, isolating the inside and outside into two worlds again, Excellence stood still for a long time. His face was a bit pale, but his eyes gradually settled from the initial shock and unease into an unusual calmness and... a kind of desperate determination.

He slowly turned around and walked back to the core area of the laboratory, turning a physical knob on the inside of the door with his backhand—this was a symbolic action; he knew this door could not really be locked, and the base's control system could override any manual operation at any time. But the action itself represented a silent declaration of his, a gesture of trying to draw a line, even if this line was laughably fragile.

He walked to an extremely inconspicuous storage compartment that he had designed himself, hidden in the shadows behind a large liquid nitrogen cooling tank. He tapped a seemingly ordinary area above the compartment in a specific order with his fingertips, and a faint sound of capacitor charging and discharging was emitted. The panel of the storage compartment slid open silently, revealing a miniature safe inside, handmade from special composite materials and shielding all electromagnetic signals. He opened it using his fingerprint, iris, and a dynamic password that only he knew and had never been recorded anywhere.

Inside, the offline storage device containing the original "pandora" data fragments lay quietly. Its cold shell reflected a faint luster under the laboratory's cold light, like a sleeping devil fruit that contained the power of destruction or rebirth.

Excellence carefully took it out and held it in his palm. The cold touch now seemed to carry a scorching temperature. His eyes became firmer and... sharper than ever before, like a blade that had been quenched.

Since you all want to use me, all want to guide me, and all regard me as a chess piece on the board...

Then, why not let me use my own way to personally enter the game and see what kind of mysteries are hidden in this "pandora" box, and what kind of storm it will trigger.

He took a deep breath, as if to expel all hesitation and fear from his body, leaving only pure curiosity and a kind of near-rebellious determination. He walked to the system-assisted supercomputing terminal that was closely linked to his destiny, possessed immense performance, yet was always under the highest level of surveillance by the base.

His fingers did not tremble in the slightest as he steadily aligned the interface of the offline storage device with an input port on the terminal that had undergone special physical modifications and was theoretically only capable of reading "purified" data, then... slowly and firmly inserted it.

The interface engaged, emitting an extremely slight "click" sound.

As if the gates of hell had been gently pushed open a crack.

A silent game surrounding him, yet initiated by him, one that was even more treacherous and unpredictable, thus began its heavy prologue.