Chapter 167: Situation Escalation!

At the same time!

Zurich, Swiss National Bank!

As the fervor gradually fermented, the crowd of onlookers outside the police cordon grew larger and larger!

Looking out, it was a dense, massive sea of people!

On the streets, there was trash everywhere, forming a stark contrast to the cleanliness and order from before.

In the scramble for gold, the sewer manhole covers on the entire street had no idea where they had gone.

During this period, all kinds of vicious violent incidents occurred from time to time!

But because of the traffic jams, the authorities had no way to deal with it and could only let the situation spiral out of control.

Such a scene was initially limited to within Zurich, but as time passed, the entire Switzerland, and even several surrounding countries, were affected to a certain degree!

The severity of the situation was unprecedented in history, catching the authorities completely off guard and plunging them into a dire predicament!

During this time, the relevant departments had to try their best to maintain the current situation while also bearing the pressure from public opinion.

On the internet, the subsequent discussions regarding that video had never stopped from beginning to end.

Many citizens spontaneously ran to the official website to leave messages, asking them to make the truth of the matter public and give everyone justice.

Because there were more and more people leaving messages, in order to quell this public opinion, the authorities directly chose to shut down the official website and no longer provide services to the public.

But this approach not only failed to calm the situation, but instead made it intensify, and it soon completely escalated the whole affair into a public incident triggered by a robbery, historically known as: the Zurich Gold Mystery.

……

At this moment, Huaxia, a certain special department!

Inside an antique-style office!

Wreaths of sandalwood incense drifted out from the incense burner, one after another.

Faint sunlight passed through the carved window lattices and shone onto a desk carved from a single piece of golden Phoebe zhennan wood, brewing a very special atmosphere.

Standing directly in front of the desk was a bald old man. His expression was very serious, and the military uniform on his body was clean and neat; on his shoulders, one could clearly see a "Two Stars One Leaf" epaulet.

Sitting opposite him was a white-haired old man.

The old man was dressed in simple casual clothes, his face was kind and amiable, and the reading glasses on the bridge of his nose were wrapped in thick tape due to long-term disrepair, covered with the traces of time!

"Old Chief..."

Looking at the white-haired old man opposite, the bald old man spoke slowly.

"Is there something the matter that you've come to find me so urgently?"

While speaking, the white-haired old man still did not take his gaze off the document in front of him.

"Something happened over in Europe..."

Hearing this, the white-haired old man nodded: "You're talking about that matter with Chu Chen, right? I've already seen it on the internet..."

As he spoke, the old man closed the document with a "snap," simultaneously took off the reading glasses on the bridge of his nose, and cast his gaze toward him.

"You already knew?"

"Mm." The old man nodded, then immediately stood up, walked to the water dispenser to draw two cups of Water, and turned to hand one to the bald old man.

The next second, he continued: "I only found out after watching the Associated Press news this morning. The impact of this matter is huge; I heard that the entire Europe is in chaos, and even the European Cup matches have been postponed because of it..."

"It's more than just chaos; it's completely turned upside down. In order to grab that gold, traffic in the whole of Switzerland and several surrounding countries has long been paralyzed, and it hasn't recovered even now. And that video..."

When he said this, the bald old man unconsciously lowered his voice.

Hearing him mention that video, the white-haired old man put down his cup and asked: "What exactly is going on with that video? Have you found any clues?"

Hearing this, the bald man shook his head: "Not yet, but I think the truth of the matter is very likely related to the Americans and those few large financial groups."

"Why do you say that?"

"During this time, our intelligence team discovered many hackers from North America investigating Chu Chen's personal background information on the dark web. This is definitely not a coincidence..."

"Hackers from North America?"

"That's right."

After receiving the affirmative answer, the old man nodded, and it was only after a long while that he asked in a slightly questioning tone: "It really has something to do with them?"

"Mm, but we haven't found conclusive evidence yet, it's just a guess."

Hearing this, the white-haired old man nodded meaningfully and did not speak again.

The conversation reached this point, and both fell into silence. It was not until a good while later that the white-haired old man pondered again and said: "Come to think of it, it's also incredible. Even now, I haven't figured out how he knew this secret... You have to know, those hackers and agents at the FIS are not to be trifled with..."

"That's right..." After the white-haired old man finished speaking, the bald old man couldn't help but sigh:

"But he really did it... and he did it without the opponent even knowing... This matter, the FIS only found out about it later. If he hadn't exposed this matter himself, I'm afraid the FIS wouldn't even know about it to this day. That is the most outrageous part of the whole thing... The FIS's network firewall, even the top technical personnel of the National Security couldn't do anything about it, yet this kid could enter as if there were no one there... Now, even I am starting to doubt his background..."

"What do you mean by that?" After the bald old man finished speaking, the white-haired old man suddenly asked.

"Old Chief, you should understand what I mean..."

Hearing this, the white-haired old man's brows furrowed unconsciously, as if he were thinking about something, but he soon shook his head, negating this thought of his:

"Not very likely. If he were one of Old Qian's people, wouldn't there be a record in the 749's previous files? During this time, I have checked all the records and files related to him, and I haven't found any records related to him. There is a high probability that he has no connection with the Aerospace Research Institute. Besides, his age doesn't match either..."

"But what he has done is truly..."

Before he could finish, the white-haired old man interrupted him: "Don't let your imagination run wild, it's impossible, but..."

"But what?"

The white-haired old man glanced at him, calmed his emotions, and continued: "A few days ago, I just talked with the higher-ups, and they do have the idea of reorganizing the Aerospace Research Institute..."

"What? Reorganize the Aerospace Research Institute? Because of Chu Chen?" the bald old man asked.

"Mm..." The white-haired old man nodded: "The new research institute will be fully under his responsibility, and he will be conferred the rank of Three Stars One Leaf. Of course, the BOSS said this is just a preliminary concept, and how it will end up is still up for discussion. However, I think this matter should be a done deal."

……