Alliance Deployment Headquarters, Top Floor, Conference Room.
Fu Luoyin sat at the head of the conference table and casually tossed the file in his hand onto the table: “If you want me to continue with Project B40016102, fine. But I demand the investigation results of the Chu Shihan’s assassination be reopened.”
“I say… Mr. Fu.” An elder across the table spoke up, “Regarding the changes in your family, we express our deepest sympathy. However, firstly, the investigation results were personally closed by your father. We’ve all confirmed this. It was merely a standalone robbery incident, with no one orchestrating it. It was just… your brother came down from the dock with the documents and encountered a robbery and altercation, unfortunately dying of multiple stab wounds. The documents have been retrieved. There’s…. no further value in investigating this. Looking at it from another perspective, your brother sacrificed himself for Project B4. If this project doesn’t proceed, it would be a disservice to the data that Shihan sacrificed his life to protect!”
“Since there’s no further value in investigating, restarting the investigation won’t hurt either. I’ll bear the project costs alone,” Fu Luoyin said. “This is my only request. I want to restart the investigation into the assassination of Chu Shihan.”
There was a moment of silence in the hall.
Project B40016102 is a biological modification project under the Alliance’s Bureau Seven. It covers multiple fields such as mathematics, chemistry, biotechnology, simulation technology, and genetic research. It involves a large amount of classified information, and participants come from diverse backgrounds, although the majority are businessmen.
The Fu family has always been at the forefront of this project, and as the second-generation CEO, Fu Luoyin holds the key to this project – Fu Science and Technology.
This conglomerate is a family business. Based on Fu Kai‘s age, the conglomerate wasn’t at a stage where it needed to be managed by Fu Luoyin, who is just over 25 years old. Fu Luoyin’s current position has put him on par with many elderly individuals in their sixties and seventies, which is truly enviable.
However, two years ago, Chu Shihan had an accident, which deeply affected General Fu. The middle-aged man who had fought for the Alliance for most of his life suddenly collapsed. As for Chu Jingshu, it goes without saying that since then, she has been deeply immersed in depression, often staring at her son’s photo, crying in a dazed state. Fu Luoyin became the only choice to shoulder the burden.
Due to Chu Shihan’s special status, and considering Fu’s family’s protection of Chu Shihan, Chu Jingshu’s and Chu Shihan’s names have always been concealed from the public. As of today, those in the circle who have heard rumors only know that something has happened to the eldest young master of the Fu family. Other people may not even be aware that the eldest young master of the Fu family is actually surnamed Chu. At the same time, the family keeps the news secret and only states that everything is safe to the public.
The word “accident” sounds light as if it carries no weight, yet it is the most helpless and irrefutable conclusion. Who can guarantee that they won’t suffer from some terminal illness or encounter a indiscriminate murderer?
Why did misfortune have to strike a young man who had just embarked on a new chapter in his life?
“Xiao Fu, are you implying that you don’t accept the findings of the investigation at that time? Is it so?” The person opposite furrowed their brow. “Do you think it was murder?”
“I can’t draw a conclusion. I’m just puzzled by my father’s decision to temporarily halt the investigation at that time. Restarting the investigation and continuing the research under the company’s B40016102 project are not contradictory. I also hope that none of you will see these two things as conflicting,” Fu Luoyin said. “If there’s nothing else, I’ll leave first. I have another meeting at Bureau Seven this afternoon.”
The Alliance has been experiencing frequent rain recently.
When Fu Luoyin returned home, Chu Jingshu was standing by the flower bed lost in thought. This flower bed used to be planted with lilies of the valley and tulips, but now there was no one to care about it. In the bleak wind and rain, the overgrown weeds were crooked and disorderly. Occasionally, there were a few wildflowers that were so gray that their colors were indistinguishable.
“Mom.” Fu Luoyin paused, took the umbrella from the driver, stepped forward, took off his coat, and draped it over Chu Jingshu. “Mom, it’s cold outside. Let’s go in.”
Chu Jingshu glanced at him blankly, and his striking resemblance suddenly stirred her up: “Shihan! Shihan, you’re finally back—”
“Mom, Brother is already dead,” Fu Luoyin replied quietly. “Chu Shihan is already dead.”
His words hit like a bolt from the blue, jolting Chu Jingshu for a moment, pulling her out of the haze of excessive grief.
The woman, no longer young but still beautiful, lowered her head and covered her face, her voice trembling: “Yes, yes… Your brother is dead, your brother is dead…”
“What have you been doing outside every day, not even bothering to come back… Your father didn’t let the investigation continue back then, and you didn’t help to continue it either. How cold it must be for your brother alone underground, have you ever come back to see him, huh?” Chu Jingshu burst into tears, “All of you, all you care about is work and the military. How did I… how did I marry into such a family and give birth to a son like you! Have you ever taken flowers to his grave? Huh? Shihan loved lilies-of-the-valley the most…”
“It’s been two years, Mom,” Fu Luoyin said, “Do you know what flowers I like?”
The sound of the wind gradually diminished, and the atmosphere fell into silence in that moment.
In the tear-filled eyes of Chu Jingshu, there was a look of bewilderment. “You like…”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“Lfiq tfg yjmx lcrlvf. Qtfgf’r atf tberfxffqfg? Pc atf oeaegf, vbc’a ifa ws wbw ub bea lc atlr xlcv bo kfjatfg,” Me Oebslc rjlv. “Qtfgf’r ws vjv? Ktfgf’r rbwfatlcu P cffv ab jrx tlw jybea.”
“Second Young Master, Mr. Fu went on a business trip to the Jiangnan branch this morning and didn’t mention when he’ll be back,” the housekeeper said cautiously, afraid of angering him.
“Call Zhou Heng. I’ll make time to go over there.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
Seeing Fu Luoyin turning to leave, the housekeeper asked, “Is the Second Young Master not eating at home?”
“No.”
Fu Luoyin got into the car and rubbed his temples.
The driver, waiting for his instructions, asked him, “Young Master, are we going back to the Bureau Seven? They’ve contacted to inform that the accommodation arranged for you is ready. You can go and take a look.”
“Not going there, go to…” Fu Luoyin thought for a moment and said, “Lin Shuicheng’s place.”
It’s almost afternoon, and Lin Shuicheng hasn’t started school yet, so he should be at home.
Fu Luoyin has tasted all kinds of exotic delicacies, and Lin Shuicheng’s cooking is not particularly impressive; it’s just ordinary home-cooked dishes. However, he couldn’t explain why he enjoys the atmosphere when Lin Shuicheng cooks. The warm light, the admiring gaze, the aroma of the food—all of these are things he hasn’t experienced in his previous twenty-five years.
It wasn’t that no one had ever cooked for him before. Among the warblers and swallows he had briefly dated, there were those who were stay-at-home people and willing to bring him a lunchbox every day to please him. But he hadn’t paid much attention to them.
The only explanation is that Lin Shuicheng’s cooking is really delicious.
He reached the place but found it empty.
Fu Luoyin pushed the door open. All he saw was the cowcat huddled in the corner, its fur standing on end as it faced him. The room was dark, with no trace of Lin Shuicheng. Rain splattered against the French windows, making a pitter-patter sound.
He didn’t have much patience, so he directly called Lin Shuicheng. However, the person who answered the phone wasn’t Lin Shuicheng himself.
“Hello? Ah, are you looking for Junior Brother Lin? He’s in the modeling lab now. The rule is that phones are not allowed inside. Can I pass on the message to him?”
He recognized it as the voice of the senior sister who received Lin Shuicheng yesterday.
Lin Shuicheng is indeed a good student, seemingly even more enthusiastic about studying than he had anticipated.
He originally intended to wait here for Lin Shuicheng to return, but inexplicably changed his mind: “No need, I’ll come over to pick him up. Thank you.”
He remembered that Lin Shuicheng didn’t seem to know how to drive and didn’t have a car. Outside, lightning flashed and thunder roared, with no sign of the rain stopping anytime soon. In this weather, even if he waited for the bus to return, he would end up drenched.
In the past, he didn’t mind fulfilling the duties of a boyfriend. If it were any of the others he had encountered, they would definitely be clamoring for him to come pick them up now.
At this moment, he realized that Lin Shuicheng had never asked him for anything, leading to his rather weak presence in his life. During the two years at the Jiangnan Branch, if it weren’t for his physical needs, he might have almost forgotten that he still had a little lover here.
This person seemed to be easily contented. Fu Luoyin had never seen him use that card to buy anything for himself. It’s as if as long as he is in front of him, Lin Shuicheng can feel happy and content.
“The rain is getting heavier and heavier. Children, hurry up and go home. With this weather, we should stay home and enjoy a hot pot!”
In the data modeling laboratory, the huge mainframe hummed as it operated. The gray-haired supervisor, Wang Pinyuan, rubbed his hands gleefully, urging the students to finish work and go home, clearly impatient. With his gray hair and a mischievous look, he seemed like an old rascal, without any airs in front of the students.
The second-year graduate students knew all too well about his tendency of occasionally slacking off, and they all laughed as they prepared to leave early.
As fewer and fewer people remained in the laboratory, Wang Pinyuan went around knocking on the doors of each lab, “Everyone’s left. Let’s lock up early today! It’s the same every year. First-year students always stay the latest, but by the time they’re in their second year, they’re running faster than anyone.”
Lin Shuicheng sat at his desk running data, seemingly oblivious. It wasn’t until his senior sister pursed her lips and tapped his desk that he came to his senses. He smiled and said, “Teacher, senior sister, you should go off first. I still have some data to run here.”
Wang Pinyuan walked over with great interest and looked over his shoulder. “Are you using the BFPRT algorithm? Can you run the data with it?”
Lin Shuicheng smiled, “I hope it can be processed. I feel like using this algorithm is the right choice, and it doesn’t require a big machine.”
The “big machine” refers to their core laboratory’s quantum computer. It won’t be activated unless it’s very complicated.
Wang Pinyuan scrutinized him for a while. The person in front of him was a new face, very handsome. Such a boy didn’t seem like someone who would quietly sit in the laboratory; perhaps becoming a star would be more suitable.
He remembered that this time a student was transferred from the Jiangnan branch to the main campus, which involved some military connections.
Connections are everywhere, and nobody can avoid dealing with people who have connections. However, the individual capabilities of those with connections often raise questions.
“Your name is Lin Shuicheng?” he asked.
“Yes, teacher,” Lin Shuicheng stopped what he was doing and stood up, looking at him.
Wang Pinyuan casually took out a piece of paper from his sleeve and wrote five lines of messy numbers on it. “Take a look. Let’s play a very simple password game to see if our newcomer has any affinity with numbers.”
This is a game that data analysts often play. For those who deal with data analysis for a long time, the most important thing is often not their computational skills or professional knowledge, but their sensitivity to numbers and their intuition for analytical methods.
Several classmates who hadn’t left yet also gathered around, each calculating in their minds.
Lin Shuicheng glanced at it. “Two fences. The password sample is the first line of data generated on my computer. But I can’t decipher the message inside.”
“So fast.” A student nearby whispered, somewhat surprised. “Did he really transfer here from another major?”
Wang Pinyuan smiled and said, “Exactly. Because what I gave you was just a string of gibberish. The solution is gibberish itself. How do you decipher that?”
Lin Shuicheng was silent for a moment.
The senior sister interjected with a smile, “Junior brother, don’t mind him. He always likes to intimidate newcomers like this. You know, in our line of work, we often encounter such situations where data analysis leads to meaningless results. He’s just afraid that we’ll hit a dead end, and he wants you to learn to abandon gibberish and adjust course in time. Most of the time in our line of work, we’re like blind cats trying to catch dead mice, whether it’s cracking passwords or investigating anomalies at exponential levels. We have to learn to be selective.”
“Even if it’s gibberish, there can still be meaning within it,” Lin Shuicheng said. “Statisticians investigate the frequency of each letter typed by people on a keyboard. During World War II, data analysts extracted codes from this. Some people may have a preference for the number 7, considering it their lucky number, and their data would reveal this; some programmers may have special coding habits… When a person dies, the data associated with them fluctuates because a part of the data related to him disappears from this world. In the vast sea of data, the communication band for the day he called his lover is missing, as is the code related to the confirmation of receipt he should have made that day. What information did he see that led him to make that decision? Now is the age of information, where every person can be directly broken down into data. If it’s an accident, if a butterfly flaps its wings and triggers a huge storm, then the frequency of the butterfly’s wing flapping will remain, and we can find that butterfly.”
“He’s good at talking…” The senior sister and several other classmates were stunned.
Lin Shuicheng arrived at the laboratory early in the morning today and barely said a word, and if he did, it was just simple everyday conversation. This handsome newcomer data analyst was reserved and aloof, seeming indifferent to everything.
Wang Pinyuan glanced at him. “You make sense. That’s our job: to find patterns in chaos, to uncover wounds beneath erased traces… Many fraudsters would hate us for it. So, how do you suggest I explain the jumble of characters I chose?”
Lin Shuicheng said, “You horizontally selected the field on my screen slightly above the center, which reveals your height based on the distance of your gaze and the height of the table and chair. This is a physical analysis. Your reading order is from left to right, and your instantaneous reading range is within twenty-four characters. You have a preference for angular numbers like 7 and 4, which can be analyzed from the perspective of numerology. You are…”
Wang Pinyuan interrupted him with a smile, “Stop there. If you continue analyzing like this, you’ll even know what dish I want to eat for dinner tonight. You’re very perceptive, Lin Shuicheng. Indeed, there are no accidents in this world; disasters always come with signs. Helping everyone to eliminate disasters is also part of our job.”
Lin Shuicheng said in a low voice, “Yes, teacher.”
“Show me the project you worked on at the Jiangnan branch. If you’re willing after finishing, you can join your senior sister in the second-year project group directly,” Wang Pinyuan said. “Leave early. Your boyfriend is waiting for you outside.”
The senior sister was secretly startled—joining the second-year project group directly upon enrollment, led by Wang Pinyuan himself; it was an opportunity to directly connect with the Alliance’s military!
If he could be recognized by military industrial conglomerates like the Xiao Group or Fu Group, perhaps he wouldn’t have to worry about anything for the rest of his life. Wang Pinyuan’s level of attention to this student was evident.
“Boyfriend?”
Lin Shuicheng was taken aback for a moment.
He turned and looked outside.
Through the transparent glass, Fu Luoyin stood outside the laboratory in casual attire, arms crossed, quietly waiting. His heroic demeanor exuded precision of a soldier. Passersby around cast sidelong glances at him.
“Little butterfly, little flower, come play happily; One blooms in the spring breeze, one flies in the sunshine. Two friends together, two names intertwined…Do you like it? This is the song I sing to my daughter every day, Xiao Lin. But more often than not, a butterfly is just a butterfly, the kind that flies, not every butterfly can cause a storm.” The voice of the old professor gradually faded away in the wind.
Lin Shuicheng stepped out and turned off the lights, plunging the laboratory into darkness instantly.
He raised his eyes to look at Fu Luoyin.
At the moment their eyes met, he felt a momentary daze.
However, he quickly dismissed this feeling—his steps quickened, faster and faster, until he ran towards him and threw himself into his arms. Amidst the pouring rain, his voice sounded somewhat muffled, his warm breath brushing against Fu Luoyin’s ear. When he lifted his face, his eyes shone like stars.
Fu Luoyin reached out and ruffled his hair.
Translator’s Rant:
The translator reading that Fu Luoyin and Chu Shihan resemble each other a lot.
This is gonna hurt. 😐
😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬
My face the entire first half of the chapter…
Thank you translator!!!
i had a similar reaction too. so if lsc was csh’s secret lover then he might be key in the investigation of csh’s death. his talk abt world war 2 and data (which flew right over my head btw im too dumb) feels like foreshadowing
Looks like Fun Luoyin has always been second fiddle to his brother in his parents eyes. I was looking forward to Fu Luoyin finding out he was being used as a substitute but that info kinda puts a damper on my enthusiasm. Idk, something about rubbing salt in a wound that already exists is less fun.
Yeah. It ruins my anticipation for ml’s reaction when he realises he was a substitute for his elder brother, even though ml is scum
Finding out that the person you used as a substitute ALSO used you as a substitute for your own brother….that gonna hurt 😬
What??? 😮 you opened my eyes!!! I thought Lin Shuicheng was the substitute…. definitely need to be more attentive when reading a synopsis…and thank you for the update dear translator🌺
He definitely is but so is Fu Luoyin😭💀