317: Chapter 317 A New Direction for the Kaketani Conjecture!

The entire Aerospace Engine R&D Center was in an uproar. When the people from the Discipline Inspection Department came in to make arrests, they didn't avoid anyone. Many people in the corridors saw it with their own eyes.

Those colleagues who usually bragged with everyone were being escorted out, flanked by investigators. Coats were draped over their wrists to hide the handcuffs, but their walking posture already explained everything.

Everyone stood at their workstations, staring blankly at the scene in shock. As soon as the people were led around the corner of the corridor, the office exploded with noise.

"What happened? Isn't that Old Liu? And Old Zhao—those two are famous for being honest men. How could they suddenly be arrested?"

"Old Liu even helped me cover a night shift last month, and Old Zhao is the first one in the office every day to wipe the desks. How could these two possibly be..."

"This is too sudden. They were taken away directly without even a word of greeting?"

"I just ran into the investigators in the hallway. From that posture, it's clear they've been preparing for a long time; it wasn't a spur-of-the-moment thing."

The people throughout the R&D Center were buzzing with discussion, everyone wondering exactly what had happened.

Some had a rough guess in their hearts but didn't speak. Everyone looked at each other in dismay, no one knowing if they would be next.

Chief Engineer Sun walked out. He ordered everyone to gather in the auditorium immediately. The auditorium still had those dozens of rows of folding chairs and the slogan "Serious, Lively, United, Tense" above the rostrum. Usually, everyone complained about the chairs being too hard to sit on during meetings, but today, not a single person made a sound. Chief Engineer Sun stood in front of the microphone and waited for everyone to be settled before speaking.

"Everyone, don't be nervous. The three people taken away today were involved in leaking state secrets to overseas forces. Ministry of State Security and the Discipline Inspection Department have been watching them for a long time. That post on the internet earlier was made by one of them with the aim of pushing Dr. Zhao out of the Aerospace Center."

Dead silence fell over the audience. A few seconds later, a group leader in the back row cursed under his breath, and the person next to him slapped the table. The fluorescent lights in the auditorium hummed; no one spoke, but many people were sighing.

After all, those were colleagues they spent every day with! To think they were spies!

Chief Engineer Sun waited a moment before continuing: "The announcement I made earlier about tilting resources toward Zhao Yangs Research Group was not a final technical decision. It was a bait designed jointly by us and the Discipline Inspection Department to draw the snakes out of their holes and force them to contact their handlers as soon as possible. It proved to be effective. Now that the people have been caught, the cleanup is finished. Subsequent work will proceed as usual; the YF-77 plan continues to move forward, Dr. Zhao's four-thrust chamber configuration continues technical verification, and all test run schedules remain unchanged."

Only then did someone in the audience let out a long breath. Zhou Hao, sitting in the back row, snapped his notebook shut on the table and said to the colleague next to him, "I really didn't expect the spies to be right beside me. I shared an office with Old Liu for over half a year and went to the cafeteria with him every day at noon. You can know a person's face but not their heart!"

Zhou Hao's face was full of bitterness and helplessness.

In his heart, he even felt some lingering fear. Who could have thought that a colleague he spent day and night with was actually a spy?

Because it was a joint law enforcement operation carried out in multiple locations simultaneously, and since the Discipline Inspection Department didn't deliberately hide anything when taking people from the Aerospace Center, the news quickly spread online. At first, there were a few anonymous whistleblowing posts that were vague, only saying that an insider had been unearthed at the Aerospace Center and that it had just undergone a round of internal reshuffling.

Later, someone added that this matter was related to the previous cyberbullying of Zhao Yang. Public opinion began to ferment, but the authorities remained silent.

Gu Qing and Li Yan both called Zhao Yang.

Zhao Yang gave a brief account of what had happened.

Hearing Zhao Yang say he was fine, the two women finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Whenever it involved Zhao Yang, they were always very nervous!

In addition to the two women, Zhao Yang's other friends also called to ask what had happened, and Zhao Yang responded to each of them.

A week later, once the case had been mostly sorted out, the Discipline Inspection Department and the Ministry of State Security Department held a joint press conference. The press gallery in the conference hall was packed. A few latecomers could only stand at the very back, stretching forward with their recording pens.

The spokesperson recounted the course of the case from the beginning—starting from that post, moving to the internal investigation and the sting operation, mentioning the involvement of overseas spy organizations, and finally announcing the timing of the arrests and the number of people involved.

After finishing, he added another segment: "The network technology tracking and evidence extraction work involved in this case received important technical support from Professor Zhao Yang of Peking University. Professor Zhao Yang utilized his professional expertise in the field of information technology to assist the investigating authorities in obtaining key electronic evidence and pinpointing the specific locations of multiple involved nodes both domestically and abroad, providing a decisive basis for the subsequent joint arrests."

Flashbulbs instantly formed a continuous sheet of light. After the press conference ended, the internet completely exploded.

"I said before that it was impossible for God Zhao to be slandered for no reason. The timing of the post was too coincidental; it turns out it was the work of spies."

"Exactly, exactly. That post was a bit too strange, even involving technical details. It was too ridiculous!"

"By the way, don't you guys think God Zhao is a bit too outrageous? Maybe my focus is wrong, but this is just a bit too much!"

"Indeed! I noticed it too! One person helped the Discipline Inspection Department take down an entire spy network... Isn't he into mathematics and Physics? How does he know network tracking too?"

"You upstairs, did you forget? He studied Biology as an undergraduate and has a doctorate in mathematics. The companies under his name mainly deal in medicine and semiconductors, and he even ran a marathon and took first place in the country. He also published a top paper in the field of image recognition before. Adding network security now isn't that out of place."

"Speaking of which, when the traitor posted, God Zhao had only been at the Aerospace Center for a month, right? In one month, he spotted problems in the data, led his own team to create a new configuration, and incidentally helped Ministry of State Security catch a nest of spies. This efficiency is just too ridiculous."

"I truly admire him. To set the stage, he dared to personally act as bait. For something like spies, most scholars would have hidden long ago, but he stepped up."

"In my heart, God Zhao is no longer just an academic star; he's the kind of technical consultant who handles top-secret operations for the organization behind the scenes. If he does more things one after another in the future, I definitely won't be surprised."

Zhao Yang sat in the study on the second floor of his villa and glanced at Weibo on his phone. The trending list featured 'Zhao Yang Assists in Cracking Aerospace Espionage Case,' followed by a deep red 'Hot' tag. He scrolled through several pages of comments, seeing various angles of speculation and interpretation.

He turned off his phone, pulled the draft of the Kakeya Conjecture on the desk toward himself, and continued working on the convergence proof.

Zhao Yang didn't care much about the various things on the internet.

During this period, Zhao Yang and Terence Tao had another online discussion regarding the Kakeya Conjecture.

During the discussion, Zhao Yang gained a brand-new insight into the Kakeya Conjecture!

Perhaps!

The opportunity to solve this conjecture lay just ahead!