313: Chapter 313 Catching the Traitor!

Entering, maintaining, and using the dark web requires specialized technical skills that ordinary people cannot access. The deliberate setup of hidden relays indicates that the poster anticipated a significant investigation from the very beginning.

In other words, the poster is a professional!

Thinking of this, Zhao Yang's eyes narrowed slightly.

He printed out a copy of all the data Shin-chan had uncovered, including the jump paths of those overseas IPs, the access port fingerprints of the dark web nodes, and the digital signature comparison results that overlapped with a previous batch of malware, then placed them into a file folder.

The next morning, he went directly to Chief Sun's office. Chief Sun was reading a failure analysis report on a liquid hydrogen pump. When he looked up and saw Zhao Yang placing the file folder on the desk, he tapped the edge of the desk twice as he pulled his hand back. Zhao Yang didn't wait for him to ask and spoke immediately.

"I found something. The poster isn't using a normal proxy, but a dark web node. There might be a mole inside; this matter is related to a mole."

Chief Engineer Sun took the file folder and flipped through a few pages, his expression shifting from serious to grave. After finishing, he closed the folder, gripped it tightly in his hand, and stood up.

"Let's go. We need to find Officer Liu."

Officer Liu from the Discipline Inspection Department was in a small office next to the Security Department. When Zhao Yang and Chief Sun entered, he was checking a list with two staff members. Chief Sun placed the file folder on the desk, and Zhao Yang shared his analysis and speculations. Officer Liu flipped through the printed materials from beginning to end. His fingers stopped when he reached the pages showing the dark web node port fingerprints and the digital signature comparison charts.

"dark web ports, multiple overseas jumps, and overlapping malware signatures—are you sure the poster is using this setup?"

Officer Liu's expression was very serious.

"I'm sure."

Zhao Yang pointed to a highlighted digital fingerprint comparison column.

"The operator of this dark web node has controlled at least three known link hijacking incidents, and the methodology is basically consistent with this one. Even if the poster isn't the mole himself, he obtained internal meeting records or proposal documents through the mole. Otherwise, he couldn't have described the specific configuration of the Four-Thrust-Chamber Shared Single Turbopump so accurately."

Officer Liu's posture in the chair stiffened slightly. He placed the file back on the desk, his hands clasped over the edges of the slightly yellowing pages, and said in a low voice,

"Then we have a big problem."

Aerospace products are never just aerospace products; from engine thrust to rocket body material parameters, any publicly exposed precise data could be exploited by others in different fields. What he was worried about was far more than just the leak case itself.

If someone inside the R&D Center was truly leaking technical information through the dark web, it was definitely not just about a single post. Officer Liu stood up after a moment of silence, closed the office door tightly, sat back behind the desk, and looked at Zhao Yang with a shifting gaze.

"Regarding technical matters, it is indeed difficult for us on the Discipline Inspection side to handle at the moment. The dark web, overseas servers, and multi-layer jumps—these things are beyond our current technical means and scope of authority."

"I'll take care of the technical side."

Zhao Yang said, looking at Officer Liu.

Since this matter already involved him, Zhao Yang naturally couldn't just stand by and watch!

"You can start with the bank accounts of the R&D Center staff and their relatives, tracing them outwards layer by layer. In cases of information leaks, no matter the channel used, there is always a profit motive in the end."

Officer Liu nodded, his expression relaxing slightly. He stood up and shook Zhao Yang's hand.

"This matter must be conducted in secret and cannot be disclosed to anyone else."

Officer Liu spoke seriously to Zhao Yang and Chief Engineer Sun.

"Understood!"

Both Zhao Yang and Chief Engineer Sun nodded.

After agreeing, Zhao Yang and Chief Sun left the Security Department.

Upon returning to the R&D Center, Chief Engineer Sun and Zhao Yang said nothing more about the matter. Occasionally, people in the hallways were still privately discussing the online post from a few days ago, but those conversations were soon diluted by a succession of test run schedules and parameter discussions. Chief Sun assigned work as usual during the weekly meeting, and Zhao Yang led his team members in deducing configuration parameters as usual.

Meanwhile, the Aerospace Center issued a brief public relations response: Dr. Zhao Yang is a specially appointed visiting researcher at the Aerospace Center. His entry into the Long March 5 Engine Department to participate in turbopump analysis is a normal work arrangement. The research group he brought with him utilizes discretionary funds and idle testing resources, and does not encroach upon the main tasks of the mainstream projects.

After the response was released, the noise that had been arguing online for several days finally began to subside. A few people still insisted that even if the resources didn't belong to the mainstream, they shouldn't be given to a 'one-month newcomer,' but those who disagreed were too lazy to clash with them anymore. More people directly shifted the topic back to Zhao Yang's past achievements, saying that when this man did mathematics, it was from zero to one, and when he did superconductivity, it was also from zero to one; this time would likely follow the same script.

Zhao Yang didn't pay much attention to any of this. He only glanced at the Aerospace Center's response before closing the window. After returning to the underground laboratory, he had Shin-chan move on to the next phase of the investigation.

When Shin-chan was tracking that dark web node, it discovered that although the node was disguised layer by layer, there was a brief direct connection window of less than two seconds recorded in its access logs. In a massive amount of log data, this would almost never be noticed. The reason Shin-chan flagged it as an anomaly was that its transmission timestamp perfectly overlapped with another malicious sample using the same digital signature.

Zhao Yang stared at the string of characters on the screen for a long time. This character combination corresponded to a device identifier on the R&D Center's internal local area network, and each employee's ID matched one of them.

Similar features appeared repeatedly in the login logs of three people, and each time they appeared, it was exactly around the time of several important internal meetings. One of them had even had unencrypted packet fragments intercepted by Shin-chan when connecting through the dark web client. Shin-chan listed several employee IDs, names, and corresponding departments on the screen in sequence, highlighting the entries of the three suspects.

"The scope of suspects has been narrowed down to three people."

Shin-chan began to report point by point in its monotonous voice, with the corresponding login trajectories and suspicious communication timestamps automatically expanding under each name. Zhao Yang saved these three sets of data into an encrypted database and then leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes for a moment.

When he opened his eyes again, most of the fatigue in his gaze had faded. He didn't immediately hand over these materials to the Discipline Inspection side—the tracking wasn't over yet, and the chain of evidence wasn't complete. He simply had Shin-chan continue the pursuit while he poured himself a glass of water and began assigning the next stage of theoretical simulation tasks for the New-Formula Engine.

Investigating the mole was important, but the direction of the new engine was even more important!