Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
It was true that while the expert looked at the mechanism, the layman looked at the excitement. The netizen audience witnessed a live drama of “magic realism” online last night, but there were also many computer experts who discovered there was an “invisible hand” in the background setting up the entire thing. They posted professional opinions on Weibo. “There is a team led by a computer expert behind the entire thing, and the whole team is well organized. With so many searches and resources, as well as the amount of computing required for digging up IPs and the equipment required, this all illustrates that the incident wasn’t a coincidence. The hacking was premeditated, planned, actionable, and executable. This was the result of long term planning and investment in large amounts of manpower and resources.”
“There are only a few such organizations like that in the world. We will wait and see which hacker organization announces responsibility for this incident.”
…
Gu Yanran took Ye Xuan to Tan Dongbang’s Official Residence of the Prime Minister. She couldn’t absorb everything with her eyes alone the entire way there. The great No. 32 Willow Hutong had been a place she had only heard of but couldn’t enter in the past, but now its doors were wide open for her. With her head half inclined, she maintained an elegant smile as she graciously walked through the long corridors to arrive to the door to Tan Dongbang’s Office of the Prime Minsiter. Two staff members stood in front of the door, and one of them moved aside when they saw Gu Yanran and Ye Xuan. They bowed over to help them push open the heavy dark brown oak door. Gu Yanran thanked them with a smile then took Ye Xuan inside.
Ye Xuan remained calm from the beginning until now, like the surroundings were not enough to shock him. Gu Yanran was quite pleased with his attitude and introduced him to Tan Dongbang with a smile. “This is Ye Xuan. He’s a computer expert.”
Tan Dongbang reached out a hand to Ye Xuan. “Hello.”
Ye Xuan shook his head with a smile. “I didn’t expect Prime Minister Tan to appear even younger in real life than on TV.”
“You’re too kind.” Tan Dongbang was in no mood for pleasantries and directly asked Gu Yanran, “You said there was a computer expert. What did you mean by that?”
Gu Yanran prodded Ye Xuan. “You explain and tell Prime Minister Tan properly.”
Ye Xuan nodded as he took out his laptop from the briefcase he carried. He began to demonstrate for Prime Minister Tan. “I’ve been observing this entire incident since last night and out of curiosity, I checked the IP for the account that wrote the long Weibo post. I didn’t expect to only discover the IP to a French library, even with my abilities.”
Tan Dongbang was very disappointed and frowned. “Our personnel discovered the same thing as well.”
“Not only that, his IP was also heavily concealed. I used a bit of a tactic to finally check where he transferred. It was directly carried out through the Nandou satellite.” Ye Xuan’s last sentence was the main point. “Prime Minister, who could use the Nandou satellite to directly transfer and also disguise their IP? There can’t be many people capable of that.” Ye Xuan’s words practically pointed out that the secondary account must belong to one of their internal personnel.
In fact, Tan Dongbang had long suspected someone from the inside was working against him. Otherwise, how could they investigate everything so thoroughly? Ye Xuan’s words matched his thoughts, so Tan Dongbang became much more friendly. He even called several personnel over to offer Ye Xuan and Gu Yanran coffee or tea. Ye Xuan asked for coffee, Gu Yanran asked for tea, and Tang Dongbang got tea as well. He also asked personnel to bring some snacks in, and they chatted as they ate.
…
Gu Nianzhi browsed Weibo on her phone at lunch time. When she saw the “statements” made by “computer experts” on Weibo, she couldn’t help feeling shocked. What kind of computer experts would determine her actions yesterday as those of a team?! She had simply wanted to start something on a whim and argued back on Cai Songyin’s posts… These people sure knew how to do damage control.
Gu Nianzhi’s curvy lips lifted as she revealed a sly smirk. Logging onto her own Weibo, she used another secondary account to comment, “Computer experts, you determined that a team’s actions could conceal the truth about the First Lady’s misappropriation of campaign funds, faking of high-end jewelry, and also that she had her daughter wear stolen jewelry? Where are your morals? Eaten up by dogs…”
Ma Qiqi instantly backed her up. “This is some damage control. I give these computer experts 99 percent and not 100 percent, so you don’t get too smug!” Her comment was quickly bumped up by likes. Even bystanders expressed that this incident could not be covered up with damage control.
“Also, hacker organizations… These people’s imaginations are even stronger than their computer skills.” Ma Qiqi covered her beaming smile.
Gu Nianzhi glanced at her and whispered, “Prime Minister Tan and his personnel won’t let this go easily, that’s for sure. Keep a low profile and don’t reveal this to others.” Although she wasn’t afraid of them, she was worried about all the trouble that could follow, so it was best to avoid what they could.
“I know, as if I need you to remind me? Also, as to why yesterday’s incident developed to that dramatic extent, I’m confused, too. So don’t worry, even if someone tried to question me, they wouldn’t get anything out of it. I don’t even know what happened, either!” Ma Qiqi giggled and gobbled down her lunch before going back to her room to nap. Gu Nianzhi then looked at Weibo some more before losing interest and logging off.
…
The department responsible for supervising the election within the Supreme Procuratorate of the Hua Xia Empire was called the Election Office. They were located on the highest floor of the Supreme Procuratorate building. Cai Songyin had been brought there for questioning the night before. Neither she nor Tan Dongbng were clueless folks who didn’t know anything. However, she had been pampered and well respected for many years and was used to being arrogant, so she was very unaccustomed to the environment. Naturally, she didn’t say a word and kept repeating, “I need to see my lawyer.”
The Procuratorate questioned her the entire night but failed to pry open her mouth, so they felt very useless. Also, the legal team sent by the Tans had arrived at the entrance of the Supreme Procuratorate and was holding a press conference right there. “Dear friends from the media, hello. We are not here today to talk about efficiencies or build relationships. Instead, we are here for an innocent Imperial citizen who is an unfortunate victim. Although my client is the wife of the Prime Minister, she is foremost a citizen and enjoys all the rights a citizen should have.” The lawyer the Tans hired was the lawyer from JD law office, Jin Wanyi. She was no longer the nobody lawyer who had been pushed out to clean up messes no one wanted, but was now an independent and respected lawyer.
She had a professional and short coif, and she was wearing the latest dress suit by Issey Miyake with high heels nearly three inches tall. Soon after, Jin Wanyi’s press conference for her client, Cai Songyin, in front of the entrance of the Supreme Procuratorate went viral on Weibo. The press conference was quickly captured on Miaopai short videos and reposted everywhere.
Gu Nianzhi couldn’t help but check on the latest update on the situation while she was bored in class. Her hand paused when she saw Jin Wanyi’s video. If she remembered correctly, this woman had been romantically ambiguous with Brother Xiong for some time.
