Chapter 10: The Second Step (Please Bookmark, Vote for Recommendation)_1

Jiang Yu arrived early at the entrance of Kong Xiang's office, while Shi Qiang, accompanied by two police officers, patrolled this floor as planned.

As if facing a stranger, Jiang Yu made small talk with Shi Qiang for a few moments.

Kong Xiang stepped out of the elevator just in time to see Jiang Yu conversing politely, yet somewhat distantly, with Shi Qiang.

After exchanging a couple more sentences, Shi Qiang and the two officers took the elevator downstairs.

Once the elevator had left, Kong Xiang asked in a hushed voice, "What are those police here for?"

"They're looking into a case related to 'the Frontiers of Science'. Professor Liu downstairs is a member. They've come to find him but ended up on the wrong floor," Jiang Yu relayed the excuse he had readied beforehand:

"However, when I came up, they were lingering outside your office door."

Kong Xiang seemed surprised and as he walked briskly, he said angrily, "Sooner or later, I'm going to be killed by those Redemptionists and Pan Han! Recruiting members for 'the Frontiers of Science' right under my nose!"

'The Frontiers of Science' was a collaborative project between the Adventists and the Redemptionists. When it was first established, the differences between the two factions weren't as significant as they are now.

Pan Han is in charge of the Adventist 'Frontiers of Science' within the domestic scene.

Upon opening the door to his office, Kong Xiang asked Jiang Yu, "What brings you here so early?"

Ready with his response, Jiang Yu said, "Next Monday, I have to accompany Ye Wenjie to a lecture."

Kong Xiang patted Jiang Yu's shoulder, "Do well! Now go back! Next time you come here, pay attention to whether you're being followed or not."

Jiang Yu nodded and headed for the downwards elevator.

Once inside, Jiang Yu immediately entered "Wallfacer's Shop" in his mind and used the product "Three-minute Infiltration of Sophon Surveillance System."

A line of text appeared in his mind: What monitoring task do you need Sophon to accomplish for you?

In his thoughts, Jiang Yu commanded, "Monitor every single move of Kong Xiang from now on."

Instantly, the view of Kong Xiang's office materialized in his mind, with Kong Xiang sitting at his desk, anxiously powering up his computer.

Jiang Yu felt as though he were standing behind Kong Xiang, watching his every move, holding a post-it note and pen at the ready to jot down anything important.

As Jiang Yu saw it, the system on Kong Xiang's computer was peculiar, one with a self-destruct feature he had read about in a magazine.

If the password is entered incorrectly more than three times, the system would fry the computer's hard drive.

This system must always stay powered on, with sensors on the inside of the case so that if anyone opened it, the hard drive would instantly self-destruct.

Seeing this, Jiang Yu knew without a doubt that Kong Xiang's computer must contain secret files.

Kong Xiang then opened an encrypted file, within which there were several documents with titles that were merely simple numbers.

Relieved to find these documents intact, Kong Xiang sighed.

Unfortunately, he did not open any of the documents but instead went to "My Computer" and checked "Hard Drive Events" to see if the files had been copied.

Finding no records of copying, Kong Xiang finally smiled and said, "I told you so, how could anyone suspect me when I've hidden it so deep?"

The three-minute surveillance ended swiftly, and Jiang Yu couldn't help but envy the Trisolarans; in the presence of a Sophon, no one could keep secrets.

Sophons are ten thousand times more effective than any surveillance system on Earth!

Jiang Yu eagerly anticipated when Humanity could create their own Sophons.

Then, for sure, he'd use a Sophon in the women's bathroom... ahem, to do something meaningful.

Having collected himself, Jiang Yu glanced at the note with its string of passwords that he now knew, as well as the location of the files. All that remained was to steal them.

For the sake of safety, Jiang Yu decided to use the merchandise drawn from Wallfacer's Shop to calculate Sophon's surveillance blind spot.

With two hundred Deception Points left, Jiang Yu entered "Wallfacer's Shop" to try his luck.

But both attempts ended with "Thank you for your participation."

Jiang Yu was not discouraged; he first did some preparatory work and then, as usual, went to the faculty dormitory to clean.

As he had hoped, after encountering a group of elders playing chess and poker, his Deception Points reached a round hundred.

Jiang Yu tried his luck once more and finally won the prize for "Calculating the Surveillance Blind Spot of Sophon."

He hurriedly used it, and a line of text immediately appeared in his mind:

Sophon is currently monitoring, the next blind spot is at 9 PM tonight until 11 AM the next day. If you encounter another person being monitored by Sophon during this period, you'll return to Sophon's surveillance; if you leave the monitored person, the blind spot continues.

Jiang Yu was taken aback; compared to the blind spot he had calculated last time, this one was four hours shorter.

Had Sophon tightened surveillance on him?

Or had new Sophons arrived on Earth?

Both questions were difficult to verify, so Jiang Yu simply chose not to ponder them; this blind spot was very suitable for his document theft operation.

There was no time to delay the theft of the documents, just in case Kong Xiang had taken additional precautions today after Shi Qiang's cooperation, which would render all previous preparations useless.

Resolved, Jiang Yu lay in his dormitory before nine o'clock, pretending to be ready for rest.

At about 9:10 PM, he took a pretend call and told his dorm mates he had to leave for an errand.

In front of the office building, Jiang Yu found an unoccupied spot to put on the jacket and hat he had prepared earlier, then took the elevator to the floor of Kong Xiang's office.

The lights were still on in Kong Xiang's office, and Jiang Yu planned to wait in the restroom until the latter part of the night to act.

Outside the restroom, he hesitated briefly before swiftly entering the women's room to avoid Kong Xiang possibly discovering someone in the men's restroom stalls later on.

This was Jiang Yu's first time entering a women's restroom, and he felt somewhat nervous, the anticipation of tonight's operation adding to his excitement.

Soon, Jiang Yu heard Kong Xiang talking on the phone on his way to the restroom; he felt fortunate to have hidden in the women's room, otherwise, the operation would have been greatly risked before even starting.

After Kong Xiang used the restroom, it seemed like he took the elevator and left, but Jiang Yu still patiently waited until late at night before stealthily coming out of the women's restroom.

At this point, the office building was dead silent; Jiang Yu had already found out that the security guard would only patrol once at night, giving him plenty of time.

Jiang Yu put on disposable plastic gloves and used the key he had prepared beforehand to unlock Kong Xiang's office.

After locking the door from the inside, he quickly booted up Kong Xiang's computer and, using the password he had obtained that morning, located several encrypted files.

He copied the files onto a USB drive and then went to the "hard disk event" that Kong Xiang would check to delete the record of the file copy.

At this moment, Jiang Yu thought he heard footsteps. Could it be such a coincidence that the guard was conducting a patrol?

Jiang Yu swiftly shut off the computer monitor and waited until the footsteps faded before restoring everything back to normal.

He strained his ears for a while to ensure no footsteps were outside before creeping back to the women's restroom.

Jiang Yu opened the laptop he had borrowed from a classmate and accessed the file labeled "1." The file name boldly stated: "Plan Code: Poison Apple (China Region Part)."