Chapter 144: Breaking the Deadlock (2) |
By the time Wei Hongsi and the group of executives came out of the President's Office, it was already past six in the evening.
He first returned to his own office to check on the monitoring and diagnosis progress of the police-commissioned task. The monitoring data for the final batch of subjects had already been collected, and the data analysis had just begun—it would still take some time before the diagnostic results were ready.
Wei Hongsi pulled his phone out of the drawer and gave Zhang Shengyong a call. Learning that the other man was being taken to dinner, he headed downstairs to the cafeteria to join Officer Zhang for the meal.
The two had only met briefly that morning when the first batch of subjects arrived, exchanging just a few quick words. Everything after that had proceeded according to plan, with Wei Hongsi making no further direct interventions.
Since the police were the client who commissioned this task, Zhang Shengyong and his fellow officers were given the treatment due to the client side and arranged to eat in a small private dining room.
When Wei Hongsi went looking for them, Li Xuan was waiting outside. She smiled and greeted him, then led him to the private room.
When Ji Cheng had previously sent people over for diagnosis, it was Lu Jiaqi's work group that handled the coordination. That team had gained relevant experience and also had some connection to this case, so they had been assigned to assist with the work.
Four people were seated in the private room—three police officers plus Lu Jiaqi. Wei Hongsi exchanged brief greetings with them before sitting down next to Zhang Shengyong.
Li Xuan, sitting by the door, helped the cafeteria staff bring out dishes and rotate the lazy Susan, and also served rice and poured water for everyone.
"No big deal." Lu Jiaqi waved her hand, then smiled and asked, "Officer Zhang, since it's just us here, can you tell us who's coming tonight?"
Zhang Shengyong replied, "Ran Tong and Meng Cai."
Those were the public figures coming in for diagnosis tonight, and Lu Jiaqi would be handling the coordination with them anyway, so there was nothing to keep secret about it.
"Wow!" Lu Jiaqi exclaimed. "Both big names."
Wei Hongsi, however, had no real impression of either name. "Are they that famous?"
Zhang Shengyong looked surprised. "You don't watch TV or scroll through short videos?"
Wei Hongsi nodded. "Rarely."
As he recalled, he watched a lot of cartoons as a kid but never had much interest in TV dramas. After starting high school, he almost completely stopped watching TV, only occasionally catching a movie. As for short videos, he only looked into them when he needed to research something—never as daily entertainment. Since he studied algorithms, he strongly disliked having his preferences dictated by them, building an information cocoon for himself.
Lu Jiaqi pursed her lips in a small smile and gave Wei Hongsi a brief introduction.
Ran Tong had debuted as a child star and became widely known in her teens after starring in a family sitcom. In recent years, she had played lead roles in two blockbuster dramas, earning herself A-list celebrity status.
Meng Cai was a star anchor at Yuecheng Television, primarily hosting news programs. On short video platforms, she had over twenty million followers and frequently created videos with over a hundred million views, making her especially influential locally.
After hearing this, Wei Hongsi turned to Zhang Shengyong. "Did you spot the problem?"
Zhang Shengyong knew what he was referring to and shook his head. "Not so far, at least."
Wei Hongsi gave a slight nod.
These two public figures should both be potential transmission channels that the Guide Light Society planned to develop.
If the CMS or a similar AI system had fallen into the Guide Light Society's hands, they could use these public figures' short video accounts to spread the Psychological Virus, exposing tens of millions of people to it in a very short time.
This led him to another question. "When you normally scroll through short videos and see something interesting or something from your idol, how many times do you usually watch it?"
Lu Jiaqi said, "Just once, I think. At least I don't replay things."
Li Xuan nodded. "Same here. Maybe hardcore fans would watch it several times."
Wei Hongsi looked at the others. Zhang Shengyong and the other two officers all gave similar answers.
Wei Hongsi was silent for a moment in thought, then said to Zhang Shengyong, "Help me get some data on this."
"That might take some time."
"Then ask the team leader to help coordinate."
Zhang Shengyong thought about it—handling this through Director Liang's channels would be much easier—and nodded. "Alright."
Lu Jiaqi and Li Xuan had noticed earlier that the three police officers treated Wei Hongsi somewhat differently.
Zhang Shengyong and Wei Hongsi were well-acquainted, with the former being considerably older, yet their casual conversation felt more like that of brothers. But when it came to what seemed like serious business, Zhang Shengyong fell into a posture of taking orders, while Wei Hongsi's words of "help" and "please" were practically commands.
The other two police officers showed Wei Hongsi not just surface-level politeness but also a hint of respect.
This was truly odd, but neither woman asked any questions. They simply rotated the lazy Susan, offering dishes, and focused on their own tasks.
What they didn't know was that Wei Hongsi and Zhang Shengyong had always interacted this way, mainly because they were so familiar with each other that formalities were unnecessary. When Wei Hongsi made a reasonable point about something important, Zhang Shengyong naturally listened and complied.
The other two officers were both members of the Task Force, and Wei Hongsi was the Task Force's specially invited expert. Even Director Liang and Director Shi treated him with great respect—how could they dare to be dismissive?
After they finished eating, Wei Hongsi invited them to his office for a short rest and to discuss the arrangements for subsequent treatment.
By then, the diagnostic data for the final batch of subjects had also come in. Wei Hongsi glanced over the summary—a total of 121 people had been confirmed as suffering from Spiritual Contamination.
This number was about what he had estimated before the afternoon meeting. He already had a rough plan for how the project team should handle the treatment. However, getting the patients in would still require the police to organize and coordinate, while also asking Lu Jiaqi's team to assist with the handoffs.
After finishing the work discussions, everyone chatted for a while longer. Wei Hongsi then received a call from Wu Wenjun, who asked where he was and said that Director Dai wanted to talk to him about something.
Wei Hongsi said, "I'm at the company. Should I come up now?"
Wu Wenjun replied, "Oh, then meet me in the first-floor lobby in ten minutes."
Wei Hongsi found it a bit strange but didn't ask further. After hanging up, he said to Zhang Shengyong, "Brother Yong, I need to step out for a bit."
Zhang Shengyong waved his hand. "Go ahead and handle your business. Don't worry about me."
Lu Jiaqi added, "Yeah, I've got things covered here. You can relax."
Wei Hongsi smiled and nodded, then briefed Yuan Zhenhui on the evening's monitoring and diagnosis arrangements before grabbing his things and heading out.
He took the elevator down to the first-floor lobby and waited only a short while before a black sedan pulled up at the entrance. The driver got out and walked into the lobby. Recognizing Liu Zhifeng, Wei Hongsi stepped forward to meet him.
The two exchanged greetings. Liu Zhifeng invited Wei Hongsi into the car, and then the vehicle drove away from the Zhiwei Technology Building.
