Chapter 147: The Final Verdict (2) |
The next morning, after arriving at the company, Wei Hongsi first took a look at the data analysis reports for Ran Tong and Meng Cai.
After attending Director Dai's banquet event last night, it had already gotten quite late, so he hadn't returned to the company and only knew, through the anomaly alerts from Project CDU, that both women had been diagnosed. He didn't know the details yet.
Now, reading the report, he discovered that the type of Spiritual Contamination they had suffered was identical to Shen Qing's, and that their emotional attachment target was Zhou Huai in both cases.
Wei Hongsi immediately called Zhang Shengyong to get a handle on what the police knew.
Zhang Shengyong told him that Ran Tong and Meng Cai were skeptical of the police investigation's conclusions and still regarded Zhou Huai as a trustworthy romantic partner.
Even when the police told them that Zhou Huai's targets included more than just one woman, they only felt a slight melancholy before continuing to remain wary of law enforcement.
In their view, Zhou Huai had never crossed any boundaries in terms of physical contact, nor had he ever made any material demands. How could such a purely Platonic relationship be a scam?
As for maintaining contact with multiple women simultaneously, that didn't mean anything. After all, they hadn't explicitly defined their relationship with Zhou Huai as boyfriend and girlfriend. Couldn't he even have that much freedom?
Zhang Shengyong found the situation equal parts infuriating and absurd, but he also knew that these two were poisoned by emotional infatuation. They couldn't be judged by common sense, and reasoning with them was impossible.
So, after explaining the situation, Zhang Shengyong asked, "Can you cure these two first? There might be clues to dig out from them. Plus, if they spread any bad news to the people around them, it'll waste a lot of our energy."
"Sure, I'll give you a definite answer this afternoon."
Wei Hongsi hung up the phone and pulled up the monitoring data for Ran Tong and Meng Cai, along with the parsed data on the Psychological Virus that Zhou Huai had sent them. He studied them while brainstorming a countermeasure.
These two didn't have a Cognitive Restructuring ability like Shen Qing, so the situation Zhang Shengyong described was perfectly normal.
To treat them, either the preliminarily validated Neutralization Method or Cognitive Restructuring Method could be used. However, the former had side effects and might not be suitable for them, while the latter took a long time and wouldn't meet the police's expectations.
Actually, there was another option: replicating Shen Qing's treatment process on them.
These three public figures had the same symptoms and similar infection processes. The foundational conditions were entirely in place. If successful, it could also serve as a precursor study for the Emotional Reshaping Method.
Having settled on an approach, Wei Hongsi first concentrated on clearing up the other tasks at hand. These mainly involved matters related to establishing the new project team and arranging treatment for the other 121 individuals suffering from Spiritual Contamination.
After handling these matters, a line of blue Ghostly Text suddenly flashed before Wei Hongsi's eyes.
[Event: Treat Spiritual Contamination patients; receive 2 Contribution Points per patient cured]
Event?
Wei Hongsi was a bit surprised. After the Ghostly Text disappeared, he opened the System panel to take a look, then came to a judgment.
This new System prompt was essentially another form of a quest. Based on what he could see, there were probably two differences between them.
First, an Event was long-term and repeatable. Contribution Points could be claimed immediately upon completion.
Second, Events were triggered by one's own actions, while Quests came from the System's guidance.
Regarding that second point, perhaps it could also be interpreted this way: System Quests were issued by the Second Personality, while System Events were triggered by the main personality.
As for the triggering condition, it was easy to figure out: contributing to human society.
By that standard, cracking the Death Command and the Fuse-Blown Mechanism, as well as researching treatment methods for the Psychological Virus, should all qualify.
Perhaps once the project team was established and the research officially began, Event prompts would also appear. If that were the case, over a thousand Contribution Points should be relatively easy to earn.
Regardless, completing work tasks while also receiving an extra reward was certainly enough to put someone in a good mood.
Wei Hongsi closed the System panel and began focusing on planning the treatment protocol for Ran Tong and Meng Cai.
It took about an hour and a half for the overall plan to take shape. He then sent a message to Shen Qing: "Got some time? There are a few things I'd like to discuss with you."
Not long after, Shen Qing called back. "Hongsi, I received the official invitation to participate in the research work! It came from the National Police Headquarters!"
Hearing the excitement and joy in her voice, Wei Hongsi couldn't help but smile. "Congratulations."
Director Liang had promised to arrange this within two days, but it had actually taken only one day, and the prestige was extremely high.
An invitation issued in the name of the General Administration was clearly a special task at the national level. This was not only significant for Shen Qing but also meant that the research had already received national recognition.
Shen Qing asked, "Is our research work about to start right away?"
"Yeah." Wei Hongsi explained the part that would require Shen Qing's assistance, then said, "Considering it might be inconvenient for you to come here frequently, I'd like to place a set of equipment at your office or where you live. Is that okay with you?"
"How big is the equipment?"
"Spread out, it'll probably take up about 6 to 8 square meters, and it won't exceed 2 meters in height."
"Oh, that's no problem. You can put it in my apartment."
"Can we deliver it this afternoon?"
"Sure, I'll send you the address."
After finishing the call with Shen Qing, Wei Hongsi filled out an equipment transfer and use request on the WD system. The request was quickly approved.
The subsequent shipping, installation, and debugging would be coordinated by Department Six and Department Fifteen, so he didn't need to worry about that.
However, Wei Hongsi still needed to go over there in person to discuss and brief Shen Qing on certain things. That was something someone else couldn't easily replace.
Considering that similar communication needs would arise later—since the research content was constantly evolving and he wouldn't always have the time—he also needed someone to serve as a liaison with Shen Qing.
This person should ideally be female, making it more convenient to visit Shen Qing's residence. It would also be better if they had some technical background to help with equipment debugging.
Wei Hongsi looked over the new project team's personnel list and realized there were no female technicians. He had overlooked this point when selecting people.
He then checked the candidate list to confirm it wasn't his oversight. The few recommenders simply hadn't recommended any female colleagues to him. It seemed female technical staff were still quite scarce at Zhiwei.
After a brief consideration, he called Lu Jiaqi to inquire about Li Xuan's specific situation and see if he could borrow her for a period of time.
