Ruan Chen, however, felt that something was still not quite right.
If this matter is indeed related to nobody, then the mysterious person behind the screen could have simply blocked Feng Shuang after using her, without waiting for Feng Shuang to question her.
After saying "Please accept my condolences," nobody blocked Feng Shuang, as if... he was deliberately waiting for her to question him today.
Why? Is it to extract clues from Feng Shuang about the progress of the police investigation?
But if nobody can hack into Feng Yuankai's computer without leaving a trace and silently use the surveillance to see everything in Feng Yuankai's surveillance footage, then why would he need to try to get information from Feng Shuang? He could just hack into the public security system directly.
She was completely baffled. Logically speaking, this shouldn't be a big problem. The most urgent thing was to track down nobody's true identity, but Ruan Chen's keen intuition told her that this matter was very important.
She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she completely ignored the increasingly loud blaring from the loudspeakers outside.
After a moment, Ruan Chen still couldn't find a clue, so he sighed and put the matter aside for the time being. He then entered nobody's IP address and began to track down his identity.
It took about five minutes for the data to be processed. Ruan Chen took advantage of this break to get up and lean out to breathe some fresh air. Then she heard the loudspeaker.
"Ruan Chen, please come to the main venue immediately after hearing this announcement!"
"Ruan Chen from the Rocket Class, please come to the main venue!"
At this moment in the main venue, Old He was sweating profusely, and his speech was somewhat slurred.
He was also a veteran teacher, and normally he wouldn't lose his composure like this, but the person asking her about Ruan Chen's whereabouts was an academic bigwig whom he had only ever seen in academic works and papers, or on television.
Among them, the most prominent is Nan Jing, the director of the First Academy Research Institute, and Duan Jingfu, a legendary all-around scholar, developer of a certain Chinese weapon, and supposedly the successor of the next Martial Arts Research Institute.
Led by these two, the professors from the First Affiliated Hospital and Beijing University of Technology who came to participate in the meeting surrounded Lao He and asked him all at once where Ruan Chen might have gone.
Old He couldn't tell if he was excited, thrilled, or scared. His hand trembled as he showed the two men the last message Ruan Chen had sent him on his phone: "He Ban, I have something urgent to attend to. I need to ask for leave. I'll get a leave slip from you at noon."
“I was busy setting up the venue backstage and didn’t notice that this kid called me twice,” Lao He said, trying to calm himself down. He didn’t forget to speak up for Ruan Chen, “This kid is too diligent and hardworking—otherwise he wouldn’t have won the gold medal, right? He must have been so engrossed in his studies that he couldn’t get out of it.”
He sighed, "It's all my fault. I didn't explain it to Ruan Chen beforehand. They're calling from the broadcasting room. If the kid hears it, she'll definitely come over."
Old He spoke cautiously, and he could roughly guess that these professors were choosing their future students from among this group of award-winning students.
In the past two years, for some reason, talent has become increasingly sought after in China, and the age requirements for selection have become increasingly younger, leading to fiercer competition among the four major research institutes for talent.
Old He was afraid that these people would abandon Ruan Chen because she was late.
A group of students in the venue were gloating.
"Everyone is waiting for Ruan Chen at such an important meeting. She's going to be in big trouble."
"It would be best to disqualify her; that would free up an extra spot."
"Shh, don't say that. I heard that this morning, the people from Class 3 and Class 4 tried to make things difficult for Ruan Chen, but they ended up leaving in a sorry state."
Nan Jing glanced at his watch, then exchanged a look with Duan Jingfu. Their faces showed no anger, but rather a hint of helplessness.
The two of them had put in a lot of effort today to figure out which school Ruan Chen would be attending, but Ruan Chen just disappeared.
“Here’s what we’ll do,” Nan Jing said to the acting principal. “Let’s keep it running for now. The four colleges will pick the students from the bottom up. Ruan Chen is last anyway, so there’s no rush. You can keep looking.”
The acting principal glared at Lao He, inwardly blaming him for making such a huge mess, and planned to start his new administration's three major crackdowns on Lao He first. Then he bowed and scraped to Nan Jing's group, "Okay, okay, no problem."
Duan Jingfu spoke up, addressing Lao He, "You're Ruan Chen's homeroom teacher, right?"
Old He's heart leaped into his throat. "It's me."
Duan Jingfu gave a light compliment, "You've taught well. I've met Ruan Chen before, and I like her very much. You've done a good job teaching her."
Old He let out a long sigh of relief.
How could he not understand the meaning behind the acting principal's glare? It was clearly a warning that he would make things difficult for him in the future, but after Duan Jingfu's words, the acting principal dared not harbor any ulterior motives.
In the empty classroom, Ruan Chen heard his name being called over the loudspeaker and quickly called Lao He.
"Ruan Chen, I've finally got in touch with you! Come over right away!"
Ruan Chen responded and apologized, "I just suddenly had something to do, I'll be there now, I'm sorry, He Ban."
As soon as Lao He called Ruan Chen's name, everyone stopped in their tracks.
Old He's phone was leaking sound, and the volume was turned up high, so everyone could hear it.
Just as Nan Jing was about to remind Ruan Chen not to rush and to be careful before Duan Jingfu could, Lao He's phone suddenly crackled with static, followed by a sharp popping sound, and then there was complete silence on the other end of the line.
Not only Duan Jingfu and Nan Jing, but many of the professors' expressions changed.
Old He, looking bewildered, shouted "Hello!" into the microphone a few times, muttering, "Maybe the signal is bad and it's dropped?"
Nan Jing, who was usually unfazed even by the collapse of Mount Tai, roared sharply, "Go find Ruan Chen, now!"
Ruan Chen also heard the static sound. She knew it was the sound of signal interference, that someone had invaded her cell phone's signal frequency band.
She silently held up her phone and waited.
"Hi, Ruan Chen," a gentle male voice came from the other end of the phone, "it's actually a bit troublesome to get in touch with you."
Ruan Chen didn't speak.
But when the voice spoke again, it turned into a female voice, "Your computer's security level is too high. I've been trying to log in for the past two days, but it's been very difficult. I had no choice but to resort to this. I hope I didn't scare you."
The third sentence was spoken in a synthesized voice: "I am nobody."
"Ruan Chen, I think you have many questions about Principal Feng Yuankai's unexpected death, and even about this world. How about we meet?"
Ruan Chen remained silent, her hands moving quickly and lightly across the computer keyboard, tracing the signal source in reverse.
The electronic voice switched to another, asking provocatively, "Are you scared?"
Ruan Chen's usually calm and indifferent face suddenly changed color, his fingertips trembled slightly, and even his throat tightened instinctively.
That was... Cao De's voice!
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