Study Room Chat

Lin Yuan followed Dean Li to the study.

As expected, his mentor was already inside, practicing calligraphy.

"Make yourselves comfortable," Professor Zhang said, briefly lifting his head without stopping his brushstrokes.

"You haven't seen this before, have you? Your mentor can actually write such good calligraphy," Dean Li said, leading Lin Yuan to a seat. "Professor Zhang is particularly good at these unconventional things. He knows a bit of everything—qin, chess, calligraphy, and painting. He was quite handsome when he was young, which is why he became such a successful son-in-law."

As Dean Li spoke, he kept surveying the furnishings of the study. Given his relationship with Professor Zhang, it was clearly not his first time there. He was naturally using the study's exquisite decor to hint at something.

"I don't have Professor Zhang's dashing charm, so I just had to work hard on my own."

Lin Yuan also looked around.

Being in this study felt like traveling back to ancient times. There were almost no modern furnishings visible. Even the lights were encased in rustic lanterns.

Many of the surrounding objects he had only seen in television dramas. For example, he didn't even know what to call the large porcelain jar used to hold scroll paintings. And he was even more puzzled as to why so many calligraphy brushes hung on the brush stand.

He recalled visiting Zou Village Ancient Town before, where there was a former mansion of a wealthy family. If you were to enlarge the study inside that mansion, which was now a cultural heritage site, by two or three times, it would look exactly like the one before him.

Lin Yuan hadn't expected his mentor's family to be so wealthy; no wonder his mentor had no interest in money.

Professor Zhang finally put down his brush. "Little Lin, don't listen to his nonsense. Li Youcai is twisting the facts."

What could Lin Yuan say? He could only listen.

Professor Zhang continued, "I came from the same background as him, both from the countryside. It's precisely because I don't care about these external things, and I don't like to scheme—my nature is straightforward and direct—that my father-in-law was willing to marry his daughter to me."

"Do you understand?"

"Everything you see before you is a result."

Lin Yuan roughly understood his mentor's meaning. "Teacher, are you saying that it's not that you became so carefree after you got rich, but rather that you were already carefree, which is why your wife married you?"

"Exactly."

"At that time, my father-in-law was vehemently opposed. He wanted a marriage of equal social standing. Later, seeing your wife's persistence, he thought about cultivating me. But I had long disliked him; his lifestyle had no semblance of an old comrade."

"I also considered this aspect when I joined GuoAn back then; I wanted to make a name for myself through my own abilities."

"Later, well..."

"What happened later?" Lin Yuan became interested.

Dean Li interjected, "Later, he was too eager for success, violating internal organizational regulations, and was almost considered a traitor. In wartime, he could have been directly executed."

Professor Zhang retorted, "Time reveals a person's heart; wasn't my loyalty proven later?"

"How much later was that? Your and my mentor, along with your father-in-law, all vouched for you, and only then were you not arrested."

From Dean Li's tone, the incident must have been quite serious. However, Professor Zhang looked relaxed. "But it was a blessing in disguise. Since then, my father-in-law also understood my nature and stopped pressuring me, only asking that his daughter and I live a good life together."

Lin Yuan pressed on, "And then what? Did you withdraw from GuoAn, Teacher?"

"I didn't exactly withdraw; I was restricted from active duty. The organization is reasonable. At that time, I didn't cling to my father-in-law's influence, so the organization believed I was just young and impulsive. I still did some work later."

"Alright, let's not talk about these old stories."

"Let's talk about that incident when you went to Shanghai with Zhang Yan. How did you pinpoint that person's MAC address? Li Youcai's report was sent back."

"Huh?" Lin Yuan didn't react immediately.

But Dean Li already looked embarrassed. "Ask what you want, but can you please not mention the report?"

"It's just the three of us here, what's there to be embarrassed about? The part of Old Li's report submitted to the higher-ups concerning the discovery of that person's MAC address was deemed insufficiently detailed and sent back for further elaboration."

To repay Dean Li for his continued support, Lin Yuan had credited the success of apprehending the person in Shanghai to him. Naturally, Dean Li's understanding of the entire matter was not as thorough as Lin Yuan's, who was directly involved.

Lin Yuan said earnestly, "I just sent that person a small software, and he opened it, which then collected and uploaded his MAC address."

"But after the higher-ups reviewed it, they found that the person had been recruited since his student days and had been undercover for almost 20 years. How could he make such a low-level mistake?"

Lin Yuan was a bit embarrassed because he had obtained that person's information by tricking Musk across the ocean.

Musk still frequently posts Martian ciphers on X platform, all to find the mysterious person who free-loaded his information.

What's more, the concept of Feng Shui is currently booming in the global AI community.

These were all effects caused by Lin Yuan, this little butterfly.

Lin Yuan even felt that if he told the truth, his two mentors might believe him even less.

He caused such a huge stir worldwide just to help Dean Li once? Not only did he disturb the world's number one tech rogue, but he also stirred up the entire AI community?

"Well, a horse can stumble," Lin Yuan could only stick to his original explanation, otherwise, he would only make things worse.

"So what kind of small software did you send him?"

"The kind of small software that all men like."

Professor Zhang laughed and scolded, "Do you think everyone in our line of work is a rookie? An old hand who has been undercover for almost 20 years, would he click on a small software you sent from a confidential laptop?

"Little Lin, it's not just your mentor asking you for the reason now."

"The organization wants to know. You must tell the truth."

Seeing the serious expressions of his two mentors, Lin Yuan realized he probably couldn't rely on deception to get out of this. 'Sigh, I was just trying to help someone, but I ended up getting myself into trouble.'

"Alright, your mentor didn't call you here to interrogate you. I also know that you originally didn't have to bother with this old fellow Li Youcai and could have just let him retire as a deputy."

At this point, Dean Li's expression towards Lin Yuan became even more benevolent, as if a grandfather was looking at his grandson.

"You don't need to reveal everything to us; everyone has their little secrets. But you roughly need to give us a plausible explanation, a way to handle it."

Lin Yuan finally felt relieved. His two mentors were still very honorable; if it weren't for the pressure from above, they definitely wouldn't have brought this up again.

"I, uh, uh, in what direction would it be more reasonable to speak?" Lin Yuan stopped pretending, because his mentor had already made it clear: everyone inevitably has their little secrets. It was obvious that the three of them—mentor and student—were closing ranks to fabricate a story.

Professor Zhang said faintly, "How about, uh, we lean towards personal information leakage? The Prism program exposed a lot of data before, right? Expand on that idea, is there any possibility of a connection?"

Lin Yuan thought for a moment. The information exposed by the Prism program had probably already been thoroughly scrutinized by intelligence agencies worldwide, so he obviously couldn't pin the blame on the Prism program. However, the idea his mentor provided was viable.

So Lin Yuan tentatively said, "Every private job the other party gave me was shared through long blog posts from an anonymous account on X platform. Is it possible that I discovered the MAC address of one of those anonymous accounts from some private file exposed overseas?"

Professor Zhang mused, "That's a good idea. Then, Old Li, you can just fabricate a private file; you're experienced in that."

"What do you mean, 'I'm experienced'?"

Lin Yuan felt that the conversation between his two mentors seemed to have a deeper meaning.

"Teacher, if we say that, wouldn't it conflict with what we said before about 'getting the MAC address by sending small software'?"

"That's fine. Just say that the private document was bought from someone on the DarkNet, and you concealed it to avoid being criticized by the organization. As for who you bought it from, it was traded with digital currency anyway, so there's no way to trace it."

Dean Li thought for a moment. "I think it's feasible. Let's do that."

Lin Yuan exclaimed, "That's all it takes?"

"Buying and selling intelligence on various DarkNets is a very normal thing."

Lin Yuan's eyes were opened again today.