Chapter 48 - Nailing the coffin shut?
The technical expert was very cooperative. He brought up a video of a mouse-drawing guru who had converted a peach into the face of an actress through photo-editing.
"See? You can even turn a peach into me. I'd venture to say that it's even easier to convert another person to me. Doing that in 40 minutes is well within reasonable time." Facing the camera, Xu WanZhi was calm and nonchalant. The reporters from the media couldn't stay still anymore. They were here to mock her and waited for her to hang herself. Who'd have thought that she would have given them such a reasonable rebuttal?
Xu WanZhi waited quietly for others to lower their voices before she carried on. "From my understanding, Qin Sheng and Chen Jin were very career-oriented individuals who have outstanding achievements in their respective fields. One of them in the area of retina scan and the other in the entertainment circle. With the two of them being so busy at work all day long, I trust that they would not have the time to learn about photo editing. So my guess is that one of them had it prepared ahead of time and brought it with them to the hotel for the purpose of selling it to the other one for a large sum of money. Question now is: who is the seller and who is the buyer?"
Xu WanZhi paused there and gestured the technical expert. The audio recording began to play and the voices of Qin Sheng and Chen Jin echoed around the venue in 4D surround sound.
"Miss Chen is such a strategist, being able to make such a handsome amount with just a few photos."
"You are funny, Mr. Qin. If you are okay with the price then check on the item, Mr. Qin. I will not interfere with how you are going to use these photos, Mr. Qin. You do with them what you want. All I ask… all I ask is for Mr. Qin to not share the source of these pictures."
Xu WanZhi was very happy with the reaction of the melon-eating crowd beneath the stage. She smiled and said, "I think all of you know that Miss Chen and I have been old rivals and old friends for a while now. I am not surprised that she'd try to set me up with fake photos at all. But this one is truly a good move on her part. She didn't even need to do the dirty deed herself and she was able to make a handsome amount at the same time."
"Miss Xu." One of the reporters couldn't hold out anymore and stood up from the crowd. "Everything that you have just said only showed the source of these pictures and that they went from Chen Jin to Qin Sheng. You still aren't able to prove whether the one in the picture is you. What you are doing right now is just trying to distract us."
Xu WanZhi looked at his watch and looked over coldly. "It hasn't even been 45 minutes yet since the start of this news conference. Sir, if you don't even have this kind of patience, you are not going to produce any good articles. Why don't you go back to grade school and work on your level of concentration, hmm?"
Her words brought about a round of laughter from the crowd.
The reporter sat back down and pretended to be jotting down something, looking awkward.
Xu WanZhi returned to what she was saying. "But since this gentleman had brought it out, then let's do a little experience. I have five different retina scan software here in front of me. They were Cobra, designed by the Qin's for Project Falcon; Northern Star developed by Huanyu; two other ones used by online banking system; and the one most commonly used for our cellphone payment system. Since this has very much to do with Mr. Qin, why don't we start from his software and see if I am the person in the photo?"
The technical expert walked up to the stage with a tablet in hand, uploaded the photo to be used, and then turned on the camera and pointed it at Xu WanZhi.
Under a series of meticulous algorithm, the software quickly arrived at a conclusion – they were the same person.
Immediately the crowd became rowdy.
"Xu WanZhi messed up! She really hung herself!"
"Oh darn! Did she really just do that? She set herself up?"
"She just brought up everyone else in her speech, Qin Sheng, Chen Jin, Liang ZhiQuan, Mu ZhenYu… and now she just nailed her own coffin shut?"
"What the hell? AHAHAHAHA."
"I am getting progressively more confused about the purpose of the conference today."
Xu WanZhi tabbed on the microphone to quiet the mass down. "We've only tried one software so far, what's the rush? Now, let's try out Northern Star."
The technical expert repeated the process earlier and pointed the camera at Xu WanZhi.
Retina scan focused mostly on the iris. Iris was the part between the pupil and the sclera. It has a lot of characteristic arrangement of spots and filaments. This arrangement was very complicated and, as such, given each individual their unique signature.
The Cobra was able to identify that she was the one in the photo because, well, she was the on in the photo.
Yet, when she used the software developed by Mu ZhenYu's team, she used her magic to alter the arrangement in her iris.
Any minute variance would be picked up by the sensitive system.
Sure enough, the Northern Star did not identify Xu WanZhi as the individual in the photo.
With all the ups and down, all of the reporters sitting below were sitting on edges. Xu WanZhi knew that the best part of the event was about to begin and decided to stop with the build-up. She used the same trick with all the other software and, sure enough, with the exception of Qin Sheng's system, all of the other ones failed to identify her as the person in the photo.
The true was about to be revealed.
Xu WanZhi picked up the microphone again. "You have all seen the result of the test. What I want to ask is, is there anyone here who is familiar with programming? Please tell us how difficult would it be to alter the code within Cobra only when it came to me. So that each and every time it will identify me as the one in the picture. How difficult would that be to achieve that?"
It was silence at first and, finally, someone said, "It unlikely but plausible."
"I agree. The chances of the data being altered were low. But, what if…" Xu WanZhi paused for a little bit and said, "What if Project Falcon had already sealed off Cobra for their acquisition a while back? The photos were given to Qin Sheng by Chen Jin less than three days ago. Would Qin Sheng really be able to bypass the bosses of Project Falcon and alter its algorithm?"
The IT person who answer the question earlier was now speechless.
Xu WanZhi stood up with the microphone in her hand and her voice was sonorous. "In the very unlikely event that Qin Sheng's team was so good that they were able to bypass Project Falcon's firewall. Now we are talking about endangering public safety. We all know that Project Falcon was designed for crime prevention. If it could be easily hacked, then what kind of reassurance is it really providing us? Will Qin Sheng really dare to commit such a crime?
When public safety was involved, the subject became much more serious and the reporters, too, looked more solemn than before. This involved more than just Xu WanZhi, or the conflicts between just a handful of individuals. This involves every resident of this country.
"And, if the algorithm was not altered, then why was it that we had different results from different software? Specifically, four of them provided the same result overwhelmingly and Cobra a different one," denounced Xu WanZhi with her eyes widened. "That is because Cobra was not suitable for Project Falcon! It doesn't make the cut. It was an unfinished product! As such, we can only postulate how many false accusations Cobra would cause had it be adopted by Project Falcon."
She pointed at the tip of her own nose and said, "Luckily, as of right now, me, Xu WanZhi, was the only victim of this system being falsely accused of me having very casual relationships. Yet, at the end of the day, there was no actual damage to anyone's safety or property. But what happens when Cobra is launched? How many innocent lives will it claim?"
The entire venue became pin drop silent after Xu WanZhi's question from the soul.
A little while later, someone raised their fist and said, "Miss Xu is right. We need to boycott the Cobra!"
"Boycott the Cobra!"
"Boycott the Qin's!"
"We can't allow the Cobra to launch!"
As the exhortation grew louder and louder, Xu WanZhi knew that she was very close to success.
"Everybody, quiet down and listen to one last thing that I want to say," said Xu WanZhi as she raised up her hands to stop everyone from speaking their minds loudly. "We shouldn't arrive at the conclusion that Cobra should be disqualified just from one picture and one face. That would simply be unfair. As we all know, Mr. Qin Sheng, CEO of the Qin's, graduated Bin University and also studied abroad for a few years. He had earned very good grades in school and was the pride among Chinese students. Yet, nobody knows that during the time of his dissertation defense, he was actually not on campus, but had returned to China instead."
The only reason Xu WanZhi knew all these was because she had read the original novel.
In the original novel, Qin Sheng and Liang ZhiQuan, as the male and female leads of the book, had a very extraordinary romance. One that was envied by most. And part of it was that when Liang ZhiQuan's father was about to go bankrupt, Chang XiaoYa told it to Qin Sheng.
The two were broken up at the time but Qin Sheng worried about Liang ZhiQuan and finally ditched his dissertation and returned to the country to look for her.
That was when the two of them picked things back up again.
Even Xu WanZhi, when she was reading this part of the novel, was moved. But, after she had transmigrated, it had come to her attention that Qin Sheng, in doing so, had set himself perfectly for failure in the future.
Something that would follow him for life.
"Mr. Qin had returned to the country to help out Miss Liang ZhiQuan and her family's business. Back then," Xu WanZhi's lips curved upward. "Miss Liang was still Mr. Mu ZhenYu's fiancée. So, Mr. Qin came running back to the country to be the third wheel and, at the same time, missed the defense for his dissertation. And, if that's the case, how did he end up earning his degree? I'm afraid he will be the only person who would be able to answer the question of how legitimate his degree truly is."
Xu WanZhi watched the reaction among the crowd quietly. When the discussions from the crowd finally died down some, she smiled and said, "I have provided you with a lot of information today but, that is about all I can do. After all, I don't have a say in Project Falcon nor am I in the position to opine on the qualifications of the Qin's Corporation. As such, I place the responsibility into your hands. You are the last voice of this era and I hope that in the day and age when most people choose to remain silent, you will be able to fight for the fairness of tens and millions of people. Thank you."
Xu WanZhi stood up and bowed at the audiences before she left the stage decisively.
The reporters applauded for a long time. After Xu WanZhi had disappeared behind the stage, the reports rushed up again, hoping for more information.
At this point in time, Fang Lin stood up as well and said, "Alright, everyone. If you have any more questions about Miss Xu's acting career, you can ask me. I will address all of your questions."
The security guards quickly rushed up to keep the venue under control and a perfect press conference had concluded.
Xu WanZhi had tossed out a long and logical inference. Xiao Yuan, listening next to Xu WanZhi the entire time, felt that it was an eye-opener. Following behind Xu WanZhi as they were on their way out, she couldn't help but looked at Xu WanZhi with admiration – that was an extremely good move on Miss Xu's part. Normally speaking, when a scandal of this magnitude was dismissed -- finding out that the photos were fakes – ought to make the reporters very unhappy.
Many a time, when there were scandals, the ones involved were usually able to clear themselves in the end. Nevertheless, when the action of clearing one's name was way weaker than the action of generating the scandal, this was very detrimental to those involved in the scandal.
When the melon-eaters were not pleased, the act of clearing one's name would not be very effective. In fact, all effort might just be in vain.
This time, on the other hand, was different. While Xu WanZhi was clearing her own name, she had, at the same time, tossed out an even bigger melon. That way, the reporters, in the effort to find out more would dig and blow the incident up. So when the time came, Silver Star wouldn't even need to do much and this incident would be resolved on its own.