Hello, Mr. Major General

Gu Nianzhi finished mentally complimenting Huo Shaoheng and said to He Zhichu, “But I have to admit, Professor He, you are still the most capable person in this area. If you’re so computer savvy, why did you study law? You should be a computer programming entrepreneur! With you around, Google, Qiandu, Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, and Weibo would all be put to shame!”

A laugh escaped He Zhichu’s lips. “You certainly have a lot of confidence in me.”

“Of course, you are my mentor! If I don’t have confidence in my mentor, wouldn’t that be ungrateful and shameless of me?!”

Perhaps Gu Nianzhi hadn’t realized, but He Zhichu noticed that Gu Nianzhi had become more and more comfortable and at ease when speaking to him. More and more… like she had been when she was a child.

Only He Zhichu knew how Gu Nainzhi had evolved from an autistic little girl into the emboldened, genuine, and, forthright young lady she was today. Although it had only been six years, those six years were immensely influential in contributing to Gu Nianzhi’s personal growth and the way she perceived the world around her.

The way Gu Nianzhi was acting in front of him at the moment jolted him back in time to seven years prior, back when she had just left him. That was his Nianzhi. The old her would never be forgotten.

He Zhichu clenched his hand tightly into a fist and let it drop to his side. He resisted the urge to wrap his arms around her. If he did, he would never let go of her again.

She wouldn’t like that… and she wouldn’t be happy… she wouldn’t accept that…

Only by mentally repeating these three phrases over and over again was he able to calm himself down.

“Thank you for your confidence in me, but my interest does not lie with the computer. And as I said, I am merely standing on the shoulders of the giant. The military laboratory of a certain country has already reached the stage of a semi-finished product. I think some of you will be interested in this piece of information.” He Zhichu said this nonchalantly as if he didn’t know the weight of this piece of information.

Yet Gu Nianzhi was perceptive enough and grateful for the piece of information. “Professor He, I understand. We will try our hardest. But Professor He, won’t divulging such a confidential piece of information bring you unwanted trouble?”

He Zhichi had many nationalities, and American was only one of them. He Zhichu’s mood relaxed. Sprawling on the bed lazily, he said, “You’re overthinking it too much. I didn’t say anything. As for the programming language I just mentioned, Prolog, there will be a lot of relevant information about it on the Internet. A lot of basic stuff.”

The master only gives the instructions and teachers the techniques, but the apprentice herself is responsible for mastering them. The intelligent one will be an insightful visionary who comprehends and innovates.

Gu Nianzhi smiled perceptively. “Thank you, Professor He, for your pieces of wisdom. Alright then, I won’t disturb you any further. Wait for my contact, I will invite you to dinner sooner or later!”

“I’ll be eagerly waiting.” He Zhichu hung up the phone, turned off the light, and fell into a deep sleep.

…….

After hanging up on He Zhichu, Gu Nianzhi called Zhao Liangze immediately. “Brother Ze! What are you doing?” Gu Nianzhi’s voice was overflowing with joy. Even across the telephone line, Zhao Liangze could still hear it clearly.

“I’m working, what else could I be doing?” Zhao Liangze looked at the time. “Shouldn’t you be in bed already?”

There was a six-hour time difference between Zhao Liangze’s location and Gu Nianzhi’s. In Gu Nianzhi’s time zone, it was now one o’clock in the morning, while in Zhao Liangze’s time zone, it was seven o’clock in the evening.

Gu Nianzhi giggled a little and suddenly said, “Brother Ze, I found the bug in the source code. I’m going to report to Huo Shao now. Bye!” As soon as she finished, she blocked Zhao Liangze’s number and called Huo Shaoheng.

Zhao Liangze was dumbstruck.

Gu Nianzhi had found a bug! Gu Nianzhi had found a bug in that source code! He’d spent an entire day searching for bugs yet still couldn’t find anything!

“Nianzhi? Nianzhi?” Zhao Liangze was so anxious that he urgently called Gu Nianzhi again right away to ask what on earth she meant, but he could no longer connect to Gu Nianzhi.

“She did this on purpose! That little brat definitely did this on purpose!” Zhao Liangze jumped up and down with frustration in his tiny run-down barn in the small island off the Cape of Good Hope, but he was unable to prevent Gu Nianzhi from communicating with Huo Shaoheng.

Huo Shaoheng was still in the temporary command room of the Parliament building and was personally inspecting the in-line system between all the networks and the central control room. Ever since doubts concerning the surveillance software had surfaced, Huo Shaoheng had also started to harbor doubts about the central control room’s election monitoring process.

He couldn’t put his finger on exactly what it was, but his intuition told him that something was wrong. Huo Shaoheng’s exceptional sixth-sense was not god-given, it had developed over ten years of countless near-death experiences.

He had already been checking for twelve hours straight with no results.

The general election was coming up soon. How could he guarantee that the voting process in this election would be fair and just?

Huo Shaoheng frowned slightly. He began inserting commands to conduct random checks on the monitoring system. So far, everything seemed in place. But he also had the sense that he was overlooking something right before his eyes, and that it was grimacing at him…

Just when Huo Shaoheng felt like he was walking into a dead-end, Gu Nianzhi called. The sound of the phone ringing jerked him back to alertness. Suddenly, Huo Shaoheng was wide awake.

He connected the line to Gu Nianzhi’s call and spoke to her with a Bluetooth headset. “Gu Nianzhi? It’s so late, why haven’t you slept yet?”

Gu Nianzhi hurriedly said, “Huo Shao, where are you?”

“I’m still at the Parliament building, what’s wrong?” Huo Shaoheng asked while maintaining his composure. Yin Shixiong and the staff of the Special Operation Forces were right beside him. He looked very somber.

“Are you free to speak right now?” Although Gu Nianzhi tried to remain calm, Huo Shaoheng knew her so well that he instantly sensed the urgency in her tone.

“Yeah, spill it.” Huo Shaoheng paused for a moment and said, “I’m wearing a headset.”

Gu Nianzhi took a breath before saying hurriedly, “Huo Shao, I identified the issue with that source code. Someone mixed an AI logic programming language into your ordinary programming language. It can analyze existing programs and even start a new programming process!” Her voice was crisp and clear, and she spoke rapidly with urgency. It was like a bunch of beans spilling on the floor.

Whether it was her voice or merely the content of her speech, to Huo Shaoheng, what she said was melodiously pleasant to the ears.

His fingers paused on the keyboard and remained motionless for a full minute. He then asked hoarsely, “Nianzhi, you can repeat what you just said and speak slowly this time?”

Gu Nianzhi cleared her throat and repeated word for word, “That source code in question, someone mixed an AI logic programming language in your ordinary programming language. It can analyze existing programs and even start a new programming process!”

Huo Shaoheng closed his eyes. Everything that hadn’t made sense suddenly seemed so clear.

So this was why the monitoring software had given him such a bizarre feeling… If she was right, then all the contradictions made sense now.

Huo Shaoheng groaned for a second but immediately made a decision. “Nianzhi, I’ll come and pick you up immediately to take you to the central control room.”

Although it was early morning, Gu Nianzhi couldn’t sleep at all. She was dying for the chance to confirm her findings. “Oh! Come back soon, Huo Shao! I’ll be waiting for you.” Gu Nianzhi hung up the phone and immediately went to the bathroom to take a shower.

Just as she finished taking a shower and pushed the bedroom door open, she saw Huo Shaoheng entering in with his military uniform on. Seeing her, he reached out his hand to her and said, “Come, follow me.”

Gu Nianzhi did not hesitate to put her hand into his palm and walk with him towards the central control room.

This was the core of the entire empire. Countless pieces of confidential information were stored here. Gu Nianzhi was so nervous that her palms were sweating. Huo Shaoheng’s large palm was warm and dry as he held her firmly, taking her into his world.

…

In the central control room, Huo Shaoheng didn’t say much. Instead of letting Gu Nianzhi sit in front of the console, he said, “Tell me how you found out.”

Gu Nianzhi collected herself, pulled out her debugging program, and then directly started scanning and inspecting all of the monitoring software. The computer in the central control room was a super system, and although Gu Nianzhi used to think that the computer in her bedroom was potent enough, it was put to shame by the supercomputer in front of her.

Within the span of five minutes, she had finished scanning all of the monitoring software. When Gu Nianzhi had been scanning monitoring software with her computer, it had taken her twelve hours to scan just half of the software.

This was a brutal comparison.

Gu Nianzhi looked at the error-report that was generated after the scan was completed. Surprised, she said, “Two more erroneous commands have been identified!”

Huo Shaoheng printed out the error-checking report, read the report, and said calmly, “You only inspected one-third of this monitoring software’s source code. Naturally, you found fewer errors.”

Only after scanning all of the monitoring software was she able to identify two more erroneous commands.

“…Huo Shao, you don’t have to worry so much. You see, the embedded artificial intelligence program has only four lines, so it can only do so much damage,” Gu Nianzhi tried to assure Huo Shaoheng.

Huo Shaoheng sat down beside her and said sullenly, “That’s because our hardware has a limited capacity. Otherwise, these four commands could have generated countless commands. Look at this line—” Huo Shaoheng drew a circle with a marker.

Gu Nianzhi looked at it and suddenly felt relief. It had never crossed her mind that these four lines of commands were more than enough to cause severe damage. Since they were able to reprogram, it meant that it had the potential to cause unimaginable damage at an unspeakable extent.

To be honest, it was truly relieving that human-developed hardware was still fairly limited. Further AI development in the future would harbor uncontrollable destructive power.

“…Huo Shao, what do we do now? Has it affected you in any negative way?” Gu Nian inquired nervously, “Will deleting those four commands affect how your monitoring software operates?”

Huo Shaoheng walked over to sit down and said, “I’ll try… counter-programming. I want to find out where the real monitoring data has been hidden.”