Chapter 787: Like Father, Like Son
Winnie felt a bit embarrassed when I took my phone out of my pocket.
She only remembered the time she had to stuff the phone into her underwear when she saw the phone. It even vibrated the hell out of her while she was answering questions.
That’s why she didn’t really hear when Dr. Yu said the phone had a back door. Also, Ren Peng called her at the same time to tell her to participate in a team event, so Winnie waved goodbye and left.
After Winnie left, I asked Dr. Yu more about the back door on the phone, and more about how his classmate invented it.
“Is it a classmate from Stanford?”
“That’s right.” Dr. Yu seemed ashamed, “Actually, he was one of the ‘three musketeers’, but he wasn’t really right in the head before he graduated and me and my senior don’t really want to talk about him…”
It felt like I had something stuck in my throat and I couldn’t speak. I said in utter exasperation: “Don’t tell me Fang Xin is your classmate? So the three of you were just messing with me?”
“Fang Xin.” Dr. Yu was astonished and said: “I think he’s used that name before. The other names he’s used before are Fairbanks, Fairgrieve, Fairbrother… they are all not real names like ‘Fang Xin’. I remember his father’s last name was Bai…”
“When Fang Xin was in college with us, he was already warned several times for organizing illegal clubs. There were still people who believed his nonsense and thought he was the second coming of Jesus, but he did look a little special.”
“At the time, I was interested the most in medicine and mechanical engineering while my senior specialized in pharmacology. Fang Xin, who was a year younger than me was a student who excelled in chaos mathematics and information science. His computer hardware and software ability was also at the top of the whole school, so he was called the ‘Three Musketeers’ of Stanford University along with the two of us…”
“Unfortunately, he wasn’t really mentally stable and we had no idea what he was thinking. Later, he worked at a technology company in Silicon Valley to develop cell phone chips, but ended up leaving a back door in the hardware without approval. The chip was already mass produced before it was discovered by superiors, so he was fired. He was even going to be held criminally responsible, but the doctor testified he had intermittent insanity,. He was freed and sent back to China for treatment, but I haven’t heard any news about him for a long time…”
“I didn’t expect the chip he made to appear in your phone… that batch of chips was supposed to be destroyed. It looks like Americans were quite unethical and sold them to China as electronic trash and it was adopted in large quantities by knock-off phones…”
“It sounds like you’ve met Fang Xin. Did he already get released by the psychiatric hospital?”
Yeah, I’ve met him. I also want to beat him up.
I was almost completely tricked by Fang Xin.
Dr. Yu said your real name isn’t Fang Xin and your father’s last name is Bai. That means Professor Bai from the Happy Science Cult is your father.
I was a bit bewildered when I saw Mr. Hu, Gong CaiCai’s cram school teacher, who was also tricked to attend the Happy Science seminar, use the same phone as me. Now that I think about it, it wasn’t a coincidence at all.
My text messages and phone calls were all recorded, so this is China’s version of PRISM! The chip that had a backdoor in it left by Fang Xin was adopted by a large number of knock off manufacturers, which resulted in many users who use knock offs to have all of their privacy leaked.
That’s why Professor Bai was able to use his ‘Karma Calculator’ to find out I don’t have a good relationship with my mother, I have a sister, my Optimus Prime was taken away, and my father got someone pregnant…
As for Mr. Hu, he was able to calculate he wanted to ‘buy’ stocks in a solar energy company…
There was someone who even said the calculator was extremely accurate and even able to calculate which bank he saved his money in…
Calculate my ass! They found out directly by spying on your test messages, phone calls, and browsing history. Mr. Hu said he never told anyone he wanted to buy stocks, but there’s a good chance he looked up the stock on his phone. As for which bank the other guy saves his money… they probably even know your account number and password.
The Happy Science cult claims that the self-developed “Karma Calculator” needs to perform a lot of calculations, so it rents the country’s supercomputer, which consumes a lot of electricity. Members all have to pay a usage fee, but me, Gong CaiCai, and Mr. Hu could use it for free, so we got a discount…
Discount my ass! They stole our private information but still want us to pay? The Happy Science members are despicable and Professor Bai has no sense of morals. He lacks morals just like his son Fang Xin!
There was still one part I couldn’t figure out. Basically, not all of the members who come for predictions use knock off phones. Even if they all use knock off phones, it might not have one of the chips designed by Fang Xin.
If they can’t spy on their devices, then how do they get them to believe the results of the ‘Karma Calculator’?
Gong CaiCai, for example, used an iPhone 4. No matter how much Apple wants to cut costs, there’s no way they would buy electronic trash as parts.
Gong CaiCai wasn’t spied on through her iPohone, but she was still predicted fairly accurately.
Is it because people are simply following the crowd? Once a certain number of people believe their lies, other people will naturally follow along and also believe them.
I think it would be hard to make such a big scam simply with a hardware backdoor. It’s not like Fang Xin could appear in front of everyone who has a phone with his chip and tell them ‘don’t lose your phone because it will save your life’.
The part where my phone saved my life was also exposed. Fang Xin was the one who sent me the fake text message from Officer Ma. Since he spied on me for so long, he already knew about my relationship with Officer Ma.
The four men who ambushed me was probably also sent by Fang Xin or Professor Bai. The reason why they didn’t get rid of me immediately when it was four versus one was because they were waiting for my phone to call the police.
Mr. Hu was also using the same phone as me, so why didn’t Fang Xin appear in front of him? Why did he escape the psychiatric hospital for a middle school student and try to brainwash me… why did he place an importance on me?
Do I even need to ask? It’s because Fang Xin and his father did a lot of searching through the information they gathered and found out I was the son of a really rich American! I had a lot of value as a believer, so whenever Fang Xin was sane, he would escape and come look for me.
What a devious plot that almost twisted my worldview. It almost made me believe in magic and the supernatural. Give me back my feelings!
I told Dr. Yu about what Fang Xin did and he furrowed his brows and said:
“Not good, my research budget is going to get cut.”
“Huh, what does Fang Xin and his dad’s cult have to do with your budget?”
Dr. Yu said with a bitter face: “It’s not Fang Xin cutting my budget, but Ai ShuQiao.”
“What do you mean?”
Dr. Yu deducted: since my relationship with Ai ShuQiao was strained, there was no way he would try to rope me in because I was the child of a rich person. He probably was trying to make me apologize to Ai ShuQiao so he could gain her favor.
If that was his plan, he must have already contacted Ai ShuQiao ahead of time. Fang Xin (or Professor Bai) might have promised Ai ShuQiao that he would brainwash me into an obedient chess piece.
So Fang Xin could be considered to be Ai ShuQiao’s accomplice! The Stanford University Three Musketeers, including Dr. Yu, are all Ai ShuQiao’s accomplices! Dr. Yu didn’t know that Fang Xin became Ai ShuQiao’s accomplice. He coincidentally noticed a problem with my phone and then casually exposed Fang Xin’s brainwashing scheme! If Fang Xin can’t brainwash me, then Ai ShuQiao would also suffer losses! That’s why Dr. Yu feels that his employer will cut his budget.
“That’s not exactly right.” I murmured after thinking it through, “When Fang Xin came to me yesterday, it seemed like he wanted to help me go against Ai ShuQiao…”
I stopped myself midway and realized Dr. Yu was also Ai ShuQiao’s subordinate.
Even if Dr. Yu only listens to Ai ShuQiao’s orders because he can get funds from her to carry out his human transformation research, and he’s not a dog like Fu ShiJian, but I still have to be wary of him.
“Don’t use the phone for the time being or your private information will keep getting leaked.” Dr. Yu advised, “Even if Ai ShuQiao will cut some of my research funds, I still have enough money to buy you a new phone. Go buy one with Winnie tomorrow.”
I knew that Dr. Yu was my “enemy”, but I couldn’t help but feel close to him.
“Why are you buying a cell phone for me? Fang Xin was the one who screwed me over, not you.”
Dr. Yu smiled bitterly, “While my senior and I don’t want to mention Fang Xin, but he’s still one of the Stanford Three Musketeers. The Two Musketeers sounds awful, so as Fang Xin’s senior, I plan to take some responsibility…”