668: Chapter 663 The Last Dialogue

At the dining table, Youyou was animatedly recounting interesting stories from kindergarten.

Liu Hui listened quietly, occasionally serving Shen Yan a bite of food.

"You seem preoccupied."

Liu Hui suddenly spoke, her voice very soft.

Shen Yan looked up, meeting her clear eyes.

"Nothing, just some new directions for the company."

He didn't want to bring the bloody business wars into their home.

Liu Hui smiled and didn't press further.

"No matter how busy you are, you must eat on time."

She simply pushed a bowl of soup closer to Shen Yan.

"You aren't alone anymore."

"There's me and Youyou."

Shen Yan's heart felt instantly softened, as if immersed in warm water.

He picked up the spoon and took a sip of the soup.

It was very warm.

For the next two days, Shen Yan was stationed at the headquarters of Shenyan Group.

The fifty-billion acquisition exploded like a depth charge, creating immense ripples throughout the business circles of Binhai City, and even the entire nation.

Countless letters of intent for cooperation flew onto Wu Ya's desk like snowflakes.

The entrance was almost trampled by investors and entrepreneurs eager for a meeting.

In the CEO's office,

Chen Guangke placed a document in front of Shen Yan.

"Yan Zi, certain people are indeed starting to make petty moves."

"On the key transportation routes surrounding the land we acquired, there have suddenly been many 'accidents' recently."

"It's either inexplicable road construction or phantom vehicle collision disputes, severely slowing down our exploration team's progress."

Shen Yan flipped through the document, his expression calm.

"Have you found out who is behind him?"

"We have some leads; they point towards Yongsheng Group."

Chen Guangke's face was grave.

Shen Yan's fingers tapped lightly on the desk.

"Let him make noise."

"The more wildly he acts now, the harder he will fall later."

"Notify An Ran to prepare the funds. I want to give Yongsheng a grand gift in Binhai City's construction industry."

Chen Guangke's eyes lit up. "Understood!"

Just as he was about to turn and leave, Wu Ya knocked and entered.

A hint of excitement was on her face, but she maintained her professional competence.

"Mr. Shen, the Asia-Pacific President of LVMH has called me three times already, hoping to schedule a time to personally discuss the details of their entry."

"Their sincerity is very high. Besides the seven brands and ten years of prepaid rent proposed by Director Li Man, they are also willing to mobilize the Group's global resources for joint promotion and publicity for the opening of Shen Yan Plaza."

Shen Yan didn't look up.

"Tell him I'm very busy."

"Let him continue negotiating with you."

Wu Ya paused.

That was the Asia-Pacific President of LVMH, a figure at the very pinnacle of the global luxury goods industry.

Shen Yan didn't even have the interest to meet him?

"Mr. Shen, this..."

Shen Yan finally looked up and glanced at her.

"Wu Ya, you must remember."

"From the moment we acquired Prism Technology, the value of Shen Yan Plaza is no longer just simple commercial real estate."

"We are the ones selecting the tenants."

"They are not bestowing charity upon us."

"If LVMH wants in, fine. They need to show me something tangible, not just empty promotional resources."

"What I need is for them to set the launch site for their most important, most disruptive products over the next decade right here at Shen Yan Plaza."

Wu Ya's heart skipped a beat.

She instantly understood.

What Shen Yan wanted was not rent, nor fame.

He wanted the power to define the future!

"I understand, Mr. Shen!"

Wu Ya's gaze became brighter than ever before.

She turned and left, her steps firmer than when she arrived.

Only Shen Yan remained in the office.

He leaned back in his chair, looking out the floor-to-ceiling window at the bustling city.

Whether it was Chen Wu or LVMH, they were merely small embellishments on his grand blueprint.

What he was truly waiting for was news from across the ocean.

Just then, in the lower right corner of the computer screen, an icon for an encrypted email flickered silently.

It had arrived.

Shen Yan's fingertip gently clicked the mouse.

The sender of the email was Ning Ke.

There was no subject line, only a triple-encrypted compressed file.

The filename was interesting.

"The Shark and the Siren"

( * The Siren, a female demon in Greek mythology who lured sailors with her song; here, it refers to Evelyn Reed * )

The decompression password was a secret code between Shen Yan and Ning Ke.

After entering the password, two separate folders appeared on the screen.

"Viktor Croft — — The Greedy Shark"

"Evelyn Reed — — The Silent Siren"

Shen Yan first clicked on the "Shark" folder.

Ning Ke's intelligence gathering capabilities were terrifying.

It contained not only all of Viktor's public data, resume, speech videos, and financial reports,

but also countless dark secrets buried beneath the surface.

"Viktor Croft, real name Viktor Ivanov, born in a small Eastern European country, later immigrated to the United States. His father's side has deep KGB ties, which allowed him to accumulate a large amount of gray capital in his early years."

"His doctoral thesis at Stanford University, when compared using an AI model, shows a 73% high degree of overlap with the research of his advisor, who was Evelyn Reed at the time, but had not yet been published."

"The startup capital for Quantum Leap Dynamics Company did not come from the angel investment he claimed, but rather through money laundering to legitimize a sum of black money from South American drug lords."

"His proudest AI product, 'oracle', once suffered a fatal BUG during military chess simulation testing delivered to the Pentagon. When faced with a scenario of 'sacrificing three friendly units to achieve strategic victory,' the system crashed three times in three simulations because its rigid core could not comprehend complex logic like 'strategic sacrifice.' Viktor later used his military connections to forcibly suppress this matter and seal all information."

"Last year, an independent investigative journalist in Silicon Valley died with his entire family in a 'gas leak' accident because he got too close to the truth about the technical vulnerabilities of the 'oracle' AI."

...

The pieces of intelligence were shocking.

The image of a technology tyrant who rose to power through theft, lies, money laundering, and bloody means jumped off the page.

There was no expression on Shen Yan's face.

He closed the "Shark" folder and clicked on the other one.

"Evelyn Reed — — The Silent Siren"

Unlike Viktor's report, which was filled with blood and conspiracy,

Evelyn's file was as clean as a blank sheet of paper, yet saturated with a tragic color that caused regret.

"Evelyn Reed, 42 years old, unmarried. A genius physicist and computer scientist, she earned dual doctoral degrees from MIT at the age of 19. Widely regarded as the person closest to creating a General Artificial Intelligence."

"Solitary in nature, poor at socializing, with a mild Asperger's Syndrome. All her energy was poured into constructing the 'chimera' framework; she was almost completely ignorant of human relations."

"The report includes an audio segment, recovered by Ning Ke through special means from the discarded server hard drive of the Quantum Leap Dynamics Company. It is the last conversation Evelyn had with Viktor before she was expelled by the Board of Directors."