Chapter 209

"Everyone is here." Feng Yan walked directly to the screen; although his voice wasn't loud, every word was like a nail.

"The video was uploaded to the internal network at 6:43 PM last Friday, the publisher ID is 'Brother Hao Invincible', real name Wang Hao."

Wang Hao shrank into the corner.

"At 6:45 PM, there were seventeen likes and nine comments on the internal network. At 6:47 PM, the video was downloaded."

"At 6:50 PM, after triple compression and format conversion, it appeared on three tech forums on the external network. At 7:00 PM, it hit the trending list." Feng Yan pulled up the timeline.

"From internal network to external network, it only took seventeen minutes."

He turned around and looked at everyone: "Those who can access the internal network have all passed level-three political vetting, background checks, and continuous monitoring."

"Everyone here, or the researchers, engineers, and administrative staff under you—a total of seven hundred and sixty-four people."

"Among the seven hundred and sixty-four people, there is one." Feng Yan paused, "Or several, who are passing information to the outside."

"President Feng." The head of the HR department spoke up, a woman in her fifties named Zhou.

"Internal network access has strict logs; the download record should be traceable."

"It was checked." Chen Guang took over, pulling up the data.

"Download records show that between 6:47 PM and 7:00 PM last Friday, twenty-three people downloaded the video."

"But after analysis, twenty-two of them were for normal scientific research exchange needs; only one account's download behavior was abnormal."

"Account ownership: Materials Group level-three researcher, Zhang Mingyuan, thirty-two years old, Harbin Institute of Technology materials science PhD, has been employed for two years." Chen Guang pushed up his glasses.

"Anomaly one: He downloaded the video at 6:48 PM, but thirty seconds before downloading, his account accessed an encrypted folder on the server that hadn't been opened for three months; he actually didn't have access permissions for that folder."

"Anomaly two." Chen Guang switched the screen, "After the download was completed, his terminal sent an encrypted data packet to the outside, with an overseas server as the destination."

"He even disguised the data packet as an ordinary email attachment, but Torch Dragon identified the steganography features inside."

"Where is Zhang Mingyuan now?" Feng Yan asked.

"He's still in the materials lab, working normally." The security head stood up, "Should we control him directly?"

"No rush." Feng Yan waved his hand, "Director Zhou, pull his complete file, including all experiences before joining, family situation, and overseas connections."

Director Zhou slid her finger across the tablet: "Zhang Mingyuan, parents are retired teachers, only child."

"Undergraduate at Harbin Institute of Technology, went to Caltech as an exchange student for a year during his master's, and only returned to Harbin Institute of Technology after finishing his PhD."

"Worked at a state-owned materials research institute for three years before officially joining Longyin, with excellent performance. Background check... wait."

She frowned: "His advisor during his master's was a Chinese professor named Chen."

"That Professor Chen was exposed three years ago for having funding dealings with a certain Eagle Country think tank; there was a stir at the time, but it ended up with nothing. How could this experience be marked as 'no anomaly' in Zhang Mingyuan's political vetting material?"

"Who made the annotation?"

"Deputy Team Leader Wang of the political vetting team, who just retired last year." Director Zhou looked up, "I'll contact him right away."

"Be careful how you contact him." Feng Yan said, "Just say it's a routine review. Don't alert the enemy."

He looked back at the screen: "Now we have a choice. First, control Zhang Mingyuan immediately, interrogate him, and trace his superiors and subordinates. Second—"

He paused: "Play along."

Wang Hao's eyes lit up: "Brother Feng, you mean..."

"Didn't he send the video out? Didn't he attract the attention of foreign media?" Feng Yan's mouth curled up slightly.

"Then we'll let them see it openly. But what they see, and how they see it, is up to us."

Li Yang understood: "You want to display a controllable version of the material on the open day?"

"Yes." Feng Yan pulled up the floor plan of the materials lab.

"Zhao Gong, can we make a simplified version of our Dragon Scale-Space material? Cut the performance in half, but make it look similar on the outside?"

Zhao Gong puffed on his pipe: "I can. But laymen watch the fun, experts watch the doorway. People who really understand materials will see through it as soon as they see the test data."

"Then don't let them see the complete test." Chen Guang interjected.

"The open day process can start with viewing the material samples, then watching a carefully edited repair video, and finally a Q&A session. We'll prepare the questions in advance, and the answers will be rehearsed."

"And add some spice." Wang Hao got excited.

"We can deliberately leave a few flaws on the samples, let the foreigners discover them, and then demonstrate the repair on the spot. Of course, the repair will be done on another sample we've prepared—a switch!"

"You've watched too many spy movies, haven't you?" Chen Guang glanced at him.

"It's definitely possible." Feng Yan nodded.

"Zhao Gong, you arrange and coordinate this. Two days, prepare a performance plan. It needs to be real, but don't leak our core secrets."

"What about the real material data?" Zhao Kaiyuan asked.

"Raise the encryption level to Xuanhuang-Top Secret, store it with physical isolation, and access requires authorization from me, Zhao Gong, and you simultaneously." Feng Yan said.

"Additionally, the material production line will be closed from today, and all personnel entering and exiting will need to be re-vetted."

Before the meeting ended, Feng Yan said last: "As for Zhang Mingyuan, just monitor him, don't alert him."

"Torch Dragon will take over his communications completely; I want to know who he contacts and what he sends."

"Should he still attend the open day?" Director Zhou asked.

"Of course he should attend." Feng Yan said, "And, we need to let him accidentally come into contact with some valuable information."

Wang Hao grinned: "Fishing enforcement?"

"This is cleaning house." Feng Yan's tone was calm, but his eyes turned cold.

The open day was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

Once the news was out, the registration email inbox was flooded.

In the end, only fifty foreign media outlets and thirty international research institutions were selected, totaling one hundred and twenty people.

All day Tuesday, the materials lab was like preparing for the Spring Festival Gala.

Zhao Gong led people to set up the exhibition area.

In the center was that five-hundred-ton main beam structural part; of course, it was just a replica, the real one had already been moved away.

Around it were various sizes of Dragon Scale-Space samples, from palm-sized to door-sized.

"This one." Zhao Gong pointed to one of them.

"Adjust the repair efficiency to 45%; that's enough to shock them, but not enough to scare them to death."

"What about this one?" Xiao Liu held up another one.

"That's the real one." Zhao Gong lowered his voice.

"But don't put a label on it, mix it in. When they ask where the most powerful one is, then take it out casually."

Wang Hao was debugging the demonstration equipment.

He created a holographic projection that could enlarge the microscopic process of the material self-healing to the entire wall.

He also prepared an interactive session, letting visitors use a special small hammer to strike the samples and see how they healed.

"I also tampered with the hammer." Wang Hao said triumphantly.

"The striking force is fixed, and the repair reaction is also preset. I guarantee every demonstration will be perfect!"

Chen Guang was deploying surveillance in the monitoring room.

One hundred and twenty visitors, each would be issued a badge with a built-in locator and microphone.

Torch Dragon would analyze their conversations, gaze duration, and even micro-expressions in real-time.

"Focus on monitoring these five people." Chen marked the list, "These are top experts in the field of materials science who can see the doorway."

Li Yang was checking security—laser fences, electromagnetic jammers, and hidden robotic arms.

In case someone's hand slipped and they wanted to swipe a sample, the robotic arm would lock the sample in 0.3 seconds to ensure nothing went wrong.

"Aren't we being a bit too nervous?" Zhao Kaiyuan looked at the setup, "It's just an open day."

"The price of letting our guard down last time was the video leak." Li Yang didn't even look up, "We can't make any mistakes this time."