Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Gu Nianzhi wiped her hair with a towel and shot Huo Shaoheng a sidelong glance. She asked doubtfully, “…Unusual people? What do you mean?”
Huo Shaoheng crossed his arms as he leaned on the edge of Gu Nianzhi’s desk to explain the recent events that had occurred. “… From the feedback from your security personnel, it looks like your fall was a bit peculiar this time around.”
“Peculiar?” Gu Nianzhi was even more shocked. “I only slipped and fell on a snowy day. How could it be peculiar?”
At least, she didn’t feel that someone was deliberately harming her in the slightest. The janitor had fallen down, and the snowplowing truck had detoured from its original route in order to not hit the janitor, and Gu Nianzhi accidentally grazed a piece of ice when she tried to avoid the snow removal truck. These are all extremely normal events on snowy days.
Huo Shaoheng shook his head. “We’re not very sure, either. We are only suspecting it, and you can read this information for the specifics before you come back to tell me if there is a problem or not.”
Huo Shaoheng finished speaking and left, leaving Gu Nianzhi alone in the room.
Gu Nianzhi picked up the hairdryer and dried her hair as she quickly read over the material. The report wasn’t very long. It was only three pages, but the content was very rich.
Gu Nianzhi was aware that she had security personnel around her, but she was still a little stunned to see how her daily activities had been clearly observed by others.
She silently read over the entire document, and her brows began to furrow. Huo Shaoheng was right after all. This really was peculiar. It wouldn’t be easy to find clues if these people were watching her in secret.
Gu Nianzhi recalled the two most recent accidents, the first one being the bicycle accident. At the time, there weren’t any suspicious people on the road. She had clearly seen two groups of people approaching from the two ends of the road. When she passed between them, there was no one who had deliberately pushed her. The occurrence of the accident could nearly be described as a “matter of course.” Afterwards, she was rescued by a young person on a skateboard, and that was an accident because that person was actually her security personnel.
And the same thing also happened this time when her tailbone was seriously injured. It appeared that a series of unrelated incidents had caused the outcome.
According to the situation described in the report, if her security personnel hadn’t gotten involved at the time and had made her fall on her bottom, her hindbrain would’ve hit the mountain sculpture instead.
Gu Nianzhi understood the importance of the hindbrain for a human body. If something had happened to her hindbrain, she would have become a vegetable, even if she had managed to survive.
If Gu Nianzhi could only explain the last bicycle incident as a “random accident,” then she definitely couldn’t say that her slipping on a snowy day was “attempted murder.” But if it was really murder, then the mastermind behind it was powerful. It was like they hadn’t done anything at all but had just keenly used certain random incidents to cause a final result.
Gu Nianzhi rubbed her kneecaps with lingering fear in her heart. Who could be so powerful?
What method did they use to take advantage of a series of incidents to create this kind of result?
Logically, Gu Nianzhi also thought of “probability.” She had very solid computer skills, so she could do more than use simple applications, and if she had a high level of computer skills, that meant her math couldn’t be too shabby, either.
Gu Nianzhi had taught herself math skills at the Special Operations Forces base. From the time she turned thirteen, she had only used two years’ time to teach herself all the math courses, including high-level university content such as calculus.
Probability is a mathematical concept that’s important within the study of statistics. Nianzhi was familiar with it. When she discovered that the random appearing incidents linked together to somehow cause a surprising result, Gu Nianzhi instinctively wanted to calculate the possibility of all of those things occurring. If she explained it in statistical terms, it was the probabilities of the occurrences of all sorts of incidents. Then she would use a formula or algorithm to link all the probabilities of all the different incidents occurring to calculate under what circumstances what incidents could consecutively occur, as well as what consequences would result when the events consecutively occurred.
Gu Nianzhi was obsessed with this train of thought. Ignoring that her hair hadn’t dried yet, she immediately turned on the computer in the room and opened a program to begin writing a computer program to run the algorithm.
…
At the same time, in a Japanese-style villa in the Mount Yu Villa District, the Ishihara grandparent and grandchild were sitting across from each other, drinking.
Before each of the two people was a short, long table. It was laden with Japanese snacks, fruit, and sake.
Ishihara Taro sat on his knees behind the table and raised a sake glass to say to the old man, “Grandfather, even though Gu Nianzhi managed to escape this time, there is no way she can escape next time. Don’t worry. Once I find out which hospital she’s staying in, I’ll have even stronger measures waiting for her.”
The old man beamed brightly as he sighed with emotion. “Taro, you really were too impressive this time. Was that Gu Nianzhi severely injured?”
Although he hadn’t managed to instantly kill her, they had heard that she was still severely injured and had been taken away in an ambulance. Many people had witnessed it. She allegedly damaged her tailbone so severely that she couldn’t move. She had been secured with leather straps onto the ambulance stretcher, as evidenced by the photos.
Ishihara Taro replied smugly, “I calculated the reaction force she would endure at the time. It could nearly rip her entire spine from her body. Severe spinal misalignment, as well as severe bone fractures, could cause her to spend the rest of her life on a sick bed.”
They had cleverly killed a person in the hospital before, so it was all too easy to kill off Gu Nianzhi, who would be paraplegic.
The old man was evidently thinking the same thing. He complimented Ishihara Taro generously. “Taro, you have no idea how happy your father would be if he were still alive.”
“Grandfather praises me too highly. I spent five years time trying to figure out the principle, and suggested the preliminary algorithm. There is still a long road ahead,” Ishihara Taro answered earnestly. “However, I will try my best to create a fail-proof algorithm as soon as possible, that way we can use it to do even more things.”
If he could isolate the erroneous areas, they would never have to worry about money ever again.
The present problem with his algorithm was that it wasn’t all-encompassing, so it only sometimes worked. This type of issue wouldn’t be too serious when it came to dealing with people. If it failed, then he only had to try again, since one success meant that the person was dead and all was well.
But when this method was used on other aspects, such as the stock market, it didn’t work like that. Even if he succeeded ninety-nine times, just one failure was enough to potentially cause them to go bankrupt. So, at the moment, his algorithm couldn’t yet help the company create true wealth.
Only by helping the company clear its obstacles could he earn precious time and funds for his research. Then he could optimize the algorithm. He must have zero tolerance for errors.
…
Huo Shaoheng was working in his room and forgot the time as soon as he had gotten busy.
Lifting up is wrist to glance at the time, he saw it was already 5 p.m. and time for dinner. It must’ve been seven or eight hours since he had brought Gu Nianzhi back that morning.
Somehow, Gu Nianzhi hadn’t come looking for him once the entire time.
Huo Shaoheng was a bit confused. Shutting down his computer, he stood up from his desk and began using the communicator to call his orderly.
“Did Miss Gu go out today?” Huo Shaoheng asked.
The orderly on the other side quickly replied, “No, Huo Shao. Miss Gu didn’t even have lunch.”
Huo Shaoheng was shocked. He often forgot to have lunch, but Gu Nianzhi rarely did so. What was going on?
Huo Shaoheng strode out with his long legs and quickly walked out of his room to go to Gu Nianzhi’s room on the opposite side.
Pushing open Gu Nainzhi’s bedroom door, Huo Shaoheng saw that Gu Nianzhi was sitting in front of a computer and staring intently at the screen. The computer screen flashed with bright blue light, a series of numbers and symbols jumping on the monitor. A very long formula was being quickly typed out by Gu Nianzhi’s slim and deft fingers.
She seemed to be calculating something.
