Bait

"Dad, you haven't celebrated Chinese New Year with us for two consecutive years. Why do other children's fathers go home for the New Year, but my father has to be on duty?

Dad, have you been bullied by others? "

"No one is bullying Dad. He's just too busy with work."

"Oh" the childish voice seemed very low

"After the New Year, it's almost my birthday, baby. Daddy promises that I will be home with you on your birthday."

"Really? Then I want you to accompany me to the wood carving class."

"Okay, then dad and baby will carve a little rabbit together."

"No, I want a squirrel."

"Okay, then little squirrel."

Inside the space-time base.

Miao Chang'an, deputy director of the Space-Time Administration, lost himself in memories as he looked at the delicate squirrel wood carving in his hand. A gentle smile appeared on his originally serious face.

"A ridiculous situation? A ridiculous situation?"

Hearing the staff's voice, Miao Chang'an was awakened and immediately held the squirrel wood carving in his palm.

"Miao Ju, are you okay? Do you need some rest?"

"Oh, it's okay." Miao Changan stroked the squirrel wood carving with his thumb and explained with a rare smile:

"I just thought of my daughter for a moment. She almost cut her hand while carving this wood sculpture."

The staff looked at the wood carving and exclaimed: "This little squirrel is very lifelike. Your daughter's craftsmanship is very good."

"It's just a minor quarrel, nothing serious. By the way, is there anything wrong?"

"It's like this. This morning, all Smart Hours equipment has been shut down for inspection. After a brief period of disruption, all departments have returned to normal order."

When the matter was brought up, the staff member immediately got into the mood: "According to the original plan, the engineering team responsible for review would enter the underground computer room today to review the core source code of Smart Hour.

However, Mr. Wang raised objections to the list of names on the engineering team.

According to Mr. Wang, he will avoid participating in this review, but he requires that a joint review team consisting of a third-party expert group must be formed to ensure fairness.

Just recently, Mr. Wang’s proposal was passed at the voting meeting, and we have contacted other top experts in the field to take charge of the review.

However, they won't arrive at the base until tomorrow, so the review process won't begin until tomorrow either."

Hearing this, Miao Chang'an couldn't help but frown, but in the end he said nothing.

The staff member carefully observed Miao Chang'an's expression and continued to report, "Also, according to the information from the Central Control Center, the whereabouts of the 2024 Spacetime Forest are still unknown. They have expanded the scope of the search."

Upon hearing the news, Miao Changan nodded on the table and the staff stopped.

"Tell the Central Control Center that this person can be executed on the spot if he resists."

"But, according to the rules of time and space..."

The staff member was halfway through his words when he saw the look in Miu Chang'an's eyes and immediately fell silent.

Then he said, "Okay, I will convey your opinion to the control center. Finally..."

…

Half an hour later, the staff walked out of Mu Chang'an's office. Thinking of Mu's usual gloomy face and the look on his face as if he was looking at the wood carvings, he always felt a little dazed.

"What's going on?" asked a colleague.

"Nothing," the staff member came back to his senses.

"I just didn't expect that Miu Ju, who usually looks so serious, would have such a gentle expression when talking about his daughter.

It turns out that a daughter is a warm and caring little cotton-padded jacket that can warm up even the coldest iron. I also want a daughter in the future.

I don't want to talk about this anymore. I have a lot of work to do and I have to reply to the control center. I'm leaving~"

"Huh?" The staff member left in a hurry, leaving his colleagues confused.

"Daughter? Didn't Miu Ju's wife die in childbirth? Didn't she and the child die?

Miu Ju was so heartbroken that he never got married again. From then on, he became the workaholic Miu Yanwang, feared by everyone. Where did he get his daughter?

The staff had already walked away, and no one heard what my colleague said. My colleague didn't care either, and they went about their own business.

Inside the deputy director's office.

Miao Chang'an frowned as he looked at the list of names of the joint review team reported, and then he retrieved the information about the Smart Hour incident.

Miao Chang'an kept tapping his fingertips on the table. He always felt that there was something strange about this matter.

Miu Chang'an closed his eyes and thought for a long time, and finally made a decision.

*

late at night.

A dark shadow with an unclear face passed through layers of security systems and approached the core computer room of Smart Hour.

According to the base's dense monitoring system, the computer room was still empty as usual.

After all, since it was put into use in the base, its core computer room has always been kept in an unmanned and independently operated state, and no more than 5 people have the right to enter the entire base.

But if there was someone in the passage at this time, he would be able to see a person covered in black substance coming to the last door of the computer room without any hindrance.

"Please verify your identity" the voice of the hour sounded in the passage.

"Authentication passed, welcome...zizizizi, access record deleted."

After easily passing the last verification, the black shadow entered the hourly computer room and found the core operating console.

As the shadow moved, prompts continued to ring in the empty computer room:

"Unfamiliar data access detected, security level unknown, access denied."

"Ding, advanced permissions approved, are you sure you want to receive the data?"

"Warning: The source of this data is unknown. Please handle it with caution."

"Confirmed, received... This operation record has been deleted..."

It took the black shadow no more than 10 minutes from entering the computer room to completing the entire operation. After completing this series of actions, he began to clear all traces and prepare to evacuate.

At this moment, a sharp alarm sounded throughout the computer room.

"Alarm! Alarm!"

"Trigger the hidden firewall and activate S-level protection."

As the alarm sounded, all the passages in the computer room were instantly closed, and weapons protruded from the surrounding walls, all aimed at the black shadow.

A minute later, the mechanical armed team arrived.

At the same time, Xing Yun's nonchalant voice was also heard: "I didn't expect that this simple trap could actually catch prey."

As soon as he finished speaking, Xing Yun and Bai Yan appeared in sight.

Xing Yun looked at the man wrapped in black in front of him and pointed at the verification system in front of the gate:

"This system has been modified. Although you carefully deleted the access record, we already knew your identity the moment you verified it.

So there's no need to hide the truth any more, Deputy Director Miu."

After his identity was exposed, Miao Chang'an turned the switch on the wrist device, revealing his true appearance.

He glanced at Bai Yan and Xing Yun with a complicated expression: "It's really not a clever trap, but..."

"But you still stepped in." Xing Yun continued:

"I think you didn't need to be personally involved in this matter. If I'm not mistaken, you originally arranged for someone to implant something into Xiaoshi's source code during the review to prove the fact that Dr. Bian left a secret door to control Xiaoshi.

However, after Mr. Wang strongly requested that the joint review team be responsible for the review, most of your arrangements were scrapped.

Even if it is possible to reinsert people into the joint review team before the review begins, it will be difficult to do anything under the eyes of top experts.

Therefore, if you want to add something to the source code, you can only do so before the review begins.

And in a short period of time, there are only a few people who have the authority to enter the 24-hour computer room without triggering the alarm system."

"So, the claim that Smart Hour assisted the 2014 Space-Time Forest smuggling was fake. The real intention was simply to set bait for hunting."

Miao Chang'an had felt that something was a little strange before, so how could he not understand it now?

"That's right," Xing Yun shrugged. This trap originated from the bet with Dr. Bian.

That day, Dr. Bian proposed to make a bet with him.

"Team Leader Xing, how about we make a bet?"

"bet?"

"Team Leader Xing's change in attitude towards me simply stems from the fact that he thinks it's far-fetched for someone like me, an intelligent researcher, to leak such a secret about being able to build a space-time channel."

Dr. Bian smiled and analyzed, "But now it's like someone is trying to force this matter to be reasonable. If you want to make it reasonable, there are only two ways."

"Go on." Xing Yun raised his chin. He found it very interesting.

"Neither the secrets of space-time technology nor the resources of space-time quantum are within my reach, unless there is someone behind me, such as Mr. Wang."

Xing Yun laughed: "According to what you said, someone wants to drag Mr. Wang into this? But Mr. Wang is not someone you can easily mess with."

Putting aside the fact that Mr. Wang had no reason to do this, just looking at his achievements, anyone who dared to accuse him without evidence would probably end up with skinned alive.

Dr. Bian nodded. "So this path isn't easy. The second direction is the hour. The hour is everywhere in the base. If I say I can control the hour, will Team Leader Xing still think it's impossible for me to leak secrets?"

Xing Yun frowned upon hearing this and looked at Dr. Bian with sharp eyes.

"Of course, this is just a hypothesis. Although I'm in charge of the research and development of the system, I don't have any special authority. If Team Leader Xing doesn't believe me, you can investigate on your own."

"So what do you mean?"

"How about trying to lure the snake out of its hole?"

…

In the computer room, Xing Yun's nonchalant voice was still echoing.

"At first I was just confused. It was like some invisible hand was pointing everything at Dr. Bian, shouting in front of me: it was him, it was him, it was him."

Xing Yun spread his hands and said, "But I have a bad habit. The more food is put in front of my mouth, the more I want to eat it, so as not to get diarrhea.

In my opinion, all the signs show that someone wants to confirm the fact that Dr. Bian leaked the information and cut off all clues with Chen Yuan and Dr. Bian, as if they are covering up something.

In fact, it is not difficult to guess. After all, there are only a few people who can access the core secrets and resources of space and time.

So, just let Xiaoshi pretend to be controlled by Dr. Bian. As long as there is enough evidence, the case can be concluded.

"This is such a delicious bait, do you think the snake will bite it or not?"

Miu Chang'an narrowed his eyes and looked at Xing Yun: "But I haven't seen the record of this operation. Did you suspect me from the beginning?"

"That's not the case. In fact, I have equal suspicions about several of your senior bosses."

Xing Yun sighed. "After using various methods to confirm that the Director was alright, I obtained authorization from him for the operation. Under the Director's guidance, I contacted Director Bai Yan."

"But you weren't surprised that it was me who showed up here today. Tell me, what else did you find out?"

Xing Yun smiled and uttered a name: "Han Zhe."

Miu Chang'an nodded, instantly understanding: "The execution team reported that they didn't find the 2024 Spacetime Border Forest. It seems that it was just a feint. Have they actually brought him back to the base?"

"Yes," Bai Yan, who had been silent, spoke.

"The intelligent entity left behind by Chen Yuan not only brought clues about Han Zhe, but also various records that Han Zhe had previously given to Chen Yuan.

By following this clue, we have uncovered a lot more information, and it is not difficult to find out that the person behind this is actually you, Miu Ju."

Bai Yan looked at the familiar person in front of her: "But I don't understand why you do this?"