Chapter 7: Parting on Bad Terms (Chapter 2, Update in the Afternoon)_1
"Okay, let's wrap up this exchange meeting here; everyone may leave now. Thank you to all the experts and scholars for your participation."
Shen Yufei pressed the remote control in her hand, and the slides on the wall flipped to the last page.
"Clang~" "Creak~"
The many experts and scholars seated at the meeting had not only failed to achieve the results they had hoped for, but their faces now bore a hint of sorrow—an expression of despair at not knowing what to do.
Cao Ge watched as the scholars stood up one after another and then dejectedly made their way toward the door. He felt no surprise, only a slight shake of his head before he also stood up, ready to leave.
"Mr. Cao."
"Mr. Cao, please wait."
"Dr. Shen, do you need something?" Cao Ge hadn't taken two steps before Shen Yufei at the end of the conference table called out to him.
"Mr. Cao, do you have time today? There's something I'd like to talk to you about," said Shen Yufei.
Cao Ge was initially startled, then he looked around at the scholars walking out. Finally, he glanced at his watch and said, "I don't have anything planned for the rest of the day. I wonder what Dr. Shen wants to discuss?"
"Mr. Cao, please follow me." Shen Yufei walked over from the end of the conference table and then gestured with her hand for Cao Ge to leave through another exit of the conference room.
Cao Ge glanced in the direction Shen Yufei had indicated, then looked back at her and said, "Okay."
Having said that, he slowly followed Shen Yufei.
As the two walked in the opposite direction of the crowd of scholars, Wang Miao in the group turned to look at them specifically, stood pondering for a while, then followed the last few scholars out of the conference room.
............
A quiet meditation room.
Cao Ge and Shen Yufei sat opposite each other by a wooden table, with the smoke of sandalwood rising gracefully.
"Rustle, rustle, rustle~"
"Mr. Cao, have some tea."
Shen Yufei slowly filled the teacup in front of Cao Ge with a teapot.
"Thank you!" Cao Ge replied politely.
Cao Ge did express his gratitude, but didn't immediately drink. Instead, he looked at Shen Yufei and asked, "Dr. Shen, you mentioned you had something to discuss with me. May I know what it is?"
Shen Yufei put down the teapot, took a sip from her tea cup, and then said, "Mr. Cao, after listening to today's symposium, what do you think? I noticed you didn't speak at all during the exchange meeting. Did you not understand, or were you unwilling to speak for fear of misspeaking?"
Shen Yufei didn't respond to Cao Ge's question but instead posed another question.
Cao Ge paused, looking at Shen Yufei before he replied, "I'm not a physics major. I was able to follow at first, but later on, I couldn't understand much. And with everyone there being top figures in the field of physics, it wasn't my place to speak as a recent graduate."
"If I remember correctly, Mr. Cao studies computer science, and more specifically, the very promising field of artificial intelligence, right?"
"Barely," Cao Ge paused, then reluctantly nodded in agreement with Shen Yufei's remark.
"I know that you've recently developed a smart voice assistant with a certain level of intelligence and even plan to sell it to Apple Inc.," Shen Yufei continued.
Cao Ge looked at Shen Yufei with some surprise, smiled initially, but then his expression turned serious, "I have indeed developed a smart voice assistant recently, but Dr. Shen, how did you come to know about it? You should know that my emails were sent out only a day ago, and I haven't told anyone."
Shen Yufei remained calm and didn't speak, just sipping her tea. Cao Ge stared into her eyes; the atmosphere in the room suddenly tensed up.
"You are following me," Cao Ge began with a touch of harshness in his tone.
Shen Yufei looked at the red infusion in her teacup, gently shook it, and then slowly raised her head to look at Cao Ge, "Mr. Cao, after you sell this item and get the money, what do you plan to do? Continue with research or become a businessman?"
Cao Ge let out a laugh, waved his hand nonchalantly, and said, "Either is possible. Maybe I'll buy an RV and travel around the world."
Hearing this, Shen Yufei was neither surprised nor furious. She just quietly stared at Cao Ge, seemingly trying to see right through him.
"Dr. Shen, you've asked me quite a few questions, but you haven't answered any of mine," Cao Ge said without responding, directly throwing the challenge back at her.
Shen Yufei looked away, took another sip of her tea, and then turned her gaze to Cao Ge, "I can only say that I haven't been following you or had anyone surveil you. As for how exactly I knew you were working on this voice assistant, I can't tell you, unless..."
"Unless what?"
"Unless you join us, join the Science Frontier, and genuinely recognize our cause. Only then will you know everything you want to know."
Cao Ge frowned at Shen Yufei, paused for quite a while, then picked up the teacup on the table, drank it down in one gulp, and finally wiped his mouth before looking at Shen Yufei, "Sorry, Dr. Shen, I'm not interested in Physics, so I might have to disappoint you."
"Dr. Shen, is there anything else you wanted from me? If there isn't, I will be going. I didn't have lunch today, and my stomach is growling with hunger—I really can't bear it anymore."
Shen Yufei showed no irritation at Cao Ge's refusal. Instead, she looked at him and said, "Mr. Cao, your research is very promising and of great significance to humanity. I sincerely hope and suggest you continue with it."
"Since Dr. Shen has nothing else, then I will be leaving."
Seeing that Shen Yufei was sticking to her script, Cao Ge couldn't hold back any longer, so he got up and strode out.
He wasn't angry about the tracking and surveillance he'd mentioned because he knew that had been Sophon's doing. What actually agitated him was Shen Yufei herself.
When he had watched the drama before, he didn't find Shen Yufei to be long-winded, but now that he was interacting with her face-to-face, he felt that not only was she verbose in her speech, but she also seemed somewhat neurotic, often straying off-topic.
Whenever Cao Ge asked one thing, Shen Yufei insisted on discussing another, as though doing so demonstrated her wisdom.
Cao Ge did indeed enjoy interacting with academic elites, but he first required them to be normal individuals. Shen Yufei clearly did not fit into that category.
In a word, talking with Shen Yufei was simply too exhausting.
Comparing the two experiences, Cao Ge felt that he was better suited to interacting with normal people. Following the character depictions in the drama, he thought Da Shi seemed quite good—someone with the kind of personality he liked.
So Cao Ge made up his mind: in the future, he would visit the Science Frontier less often.
He feared that spending too much time with eccentrics might rub off on him, making him abnormal as well.
He had thought that coming here might broaden his knowledge, but all he'd heard this time were nebulous suppositions.
Amid a dozen scholars, Cao Ge felt that only Wang Miao seemed the most normal and more like a true scholar. Wang Miao didn't get as emotional as the others. Even though he didn't believe in the two hypotheses, he didn't immediately jump into a heated debate with Shen Yufei but sat patiently and listened to her.
In short, he had no intention of coming here again; there was no benefit in it.
The reason he had come this time was out of curiosity; now that he had satisfied it, the curiosity was gone.
If he wanted to change the fate of humanity, he had to first achieve a significant status among humans; only then would his decisions be carried out. And the Science Frontier served as an entry point for this.
Now that he had interacted with the Science Frontier, he had also interacted with the many characters in the book, and there was no longer any need to return.
Because the Science Frontier had nothing to offer, the reason Wang Miao and the others had initiated their investigation was that they did not know about the Trisolarans to come, but Cao Ge did.