I received a call from Ai ShuQiao before noon.
At the time, I was on the second floor of the VIP building, spectating Winnie, Ren Peng, and the others practice. I was suddenly called down by Dr. Yu and handed a black cell phone while he told me Ai ShuQiao wanted to speak to me.
“Don’t panic, it might be something good.” Dr. Yu urged.
I was much calmer now than before I developed my heart problems. Also, I was pretty curious on why Ai ShuQiao contacted me when she already lost all interest in me.
After I was poisoned by the butterfly and my life was in a precarious state, Ai ShuQiao treated me like I was trash in the negotiation with Ren HongDe and planned to give me away with Ai Mi.
If she voluntarily contacted me now, it meant she had a renewed interest in me, and that I had some ‘value’ in her eyes.
I once talked to Ai ShuQiao on the rooftop of the VIP building, but now there were team members occupying the VIP building, so it was difficult to guarantee that I would not be disturbed. Dr. Yu suggested that I go to the basement to take the call, which was being prepared as his exclusive laboratory and was extremely soundproof.
As I walked into the basement, which I had visited once before, I discovered the place underwent major changes.
The originally empty and vast space was divided into three to five areas. There appeared to be both biological and mechanical labs, but it was only in its early development stage and wasn’t complete.
Most of the walls were covered with white tiles, which made it feel clean like being in a hospital or sterilization room.
However, the steel animal cages still haven’t been moved. Over twenty steel cages of varying sizes were scattered across the tiles which was quite frightening and made you think of Japan’s Unit 731.
It looks like Dr. Yu was dead set on performing human modification experiments! Did he keep the cages because he plans to start with animals? Since Ai Mi won’t allow him to experiment on cats or dogs, then he might use even larger animals. Maybe black bears?
Make sure you aren’t seen by any animal protection groups or there will be unforeseen consequences. In the worst case, my sister might get caught in the crossfire.
The basement, which was only partially renovated, didn’t have any experimental equipment for the time being. It didn’t even have a desk, only a single office chair. I sat down on the chair and used the phone Dr. Yu gave me to start the call with Ai ShuQiao.
“Is your body okay?”
I couldn’t believe Ai ShuQiao would start with a greeting as if she was actually concerned.
“What do you want?”
As expected, I became more calm and mature after going through a life-and-death experience.
Ai ShuQiao laughed. Due to the time difference, she seemed to be lying on bed and was preparing to rest after a tiring day of work.
“Can’t I call my own son?”
“That’s not a funny joke.”
Ai ShuQiao became serious, “That’s right, I never joke around. I want to make a deal that’s a win-win situation for the both of us.”
“Tell me about it.”
“I want you to help me infiltrate the Happy Science Cult and obtain their ‘Karma Calculator’ formula.”
“Wait!” I couldn’t suppress my surprise, “The Happy Science Cult doesn’t even have a ‘Karma Calculator’? I thought they scammed people by stealing personal information through a backdoor in their phone!”
Ai ShuQiao should also know the information that Dr. Yu knew. Dr. Yu said he would not do anything that would harm the interests of his employer unless it conflicted with his own beliefs.
“Oh, it seems that you only have a partial understanding of Fang Xin and the others…”
“As you already know, Fang Xin is frequently locked up in a psychiatric hospital due to his intermittent outbreaks of insanity. He also thinks the psychiatric hospital is a great place to think, so he doesn’t leave most of the time. The majority of the Happy Science Cult affairs are handled by his father, Professor Bai.”
“Using a backdoor of a phone to gather personal information sounds impressive, but there’s a lot of useless information. If you search through it manually, I’m afraid you won’t even find a single piece of valuable information within a year.”
“That’s why Professor Bai uses a information screening program made by Fang Xin to find valuable intelligence, and that’s how they found out about you and me.”
“Have you ever wondered why even though not everyone in the Happy Science Cult uses a knock-off phone, but they still get fooled by the results of the Karma Calculator, do you think they are all stupid?”
“The truth: The Karma Calculator does exist, but the data isn’t calculated when Professor Bai asks you for you name, age, hobbies, and a psychological test. They actually search through a large amount of information beforehand.”
“Perhaps you’ve heard of the Six degrees of separation theory which is the idea that all people are six or fewer social connections away from each other. The Happy Science Cult also utilized this theory and they used the relationship between people to indirectly obtain the personal information of those members who don’t have knock-off phones.”
My doubts were finally cleared: that must have been how Gong CaiCai’s information was entered into their database. She might not have a phone backdoor they can access, but I was spied on as her classmate, and Mr. Hu was spied on as her cram school teacher. Professor Bai was able to get his hands on a lot of personal information, so it was fairly easy for him to dupe Gong CaiCai.
“The Karma Calculator makes extensive use of the chaos theory in mathematics and contains an information filtering component which is incredibly efficient at sorting through information. To a certain extent, it can really ‘predict’ the future as long as there is enough data.”
“What do you need it for?” I couldn’t help but interrupt Ai ShuQiao.
“Because I’m interested.” Ai ShuQiao replied, then she explained to me:
“The half-crazy Fang Xin is extremely confident of his Karma Calculator, and his father, Professor Bai, is the same. According to the information they initially gathered, they thought that being friendly to me and giving you to me as a pawn after brainwashing you would be the best choice.”
“However, I wouldn’t trust a guy who thinks of himself as a god every time he becomes insane. I turned a blind eye to what they’re doing, but if you were brainwashed by them, it just meant you weren’t strong-willed enough. I didn’t think they would succeed and that proved to be the case.”
“But just in case, I planted a spy in Happy Science Cult, who reported to me that Professor Bai, after performing a recent calculation, found that the results of a previous calculation had changed. Him and Fang Xin actually believed: in the struggle between you and me, you would be the victor…”
“That’s why Fang Xin reappeared in front of you and wanted to form an alliance with you to deal with me to maximize their benefits——but he obviously failed, because Dr. Yu inadvertently discovered the backdoor to your phone and he can no longer impersonate as a god in front of you.”
“Wait,” I said, “Are you saying that Fang Xin’s program really exists? Also, after they inputted more information, it came to the conclusion that I would defeat you?”
Ai ShuQiao’s voice suddenly became as cold as ice.
“Don’t be too complacent, it’s just an imperfect program and the information it can gather is very limited…”
“Is that so?” I said mockingly, “If it was just a worthless piece of crap program, you would never want it.”
“Don’t talk back to your mother.”
“Hey! Now you’re trying to act like a parent! What have you been doing earlier?”
“Stop arguing pointlessly. Anyway, I’m very interested in Fang Xin’s program. If used wisely, it can be as good as a presidential think tank. It’s a waste to use it to start a cult to cheat people out of their money…”
“So you plan to let me… pretend I haven’t recognized Fang Xin’s scam, join the Happy Science Cult as a believer, and then find the opportunity to steal the program?”
“Good, you understand quickly, as expected of my son.”
I didn’t bother arguing about our mother-son relationship anymore since there was no need to waste more time on Ai ShuQiao.
“What about the pay?” I asked in a businesslike manner, “You said earlier that this was a ‘win-win’ deal, so you will get your hands on the calculation program, but what do I get?”
“Ai Mi’s freedom.” Ai ShuQiao replied concisely.
Seeing me remain silent for a while, Ai ShuQiao continued:
“As long as you succeed in getting the calculation program, I will let Ai Mi quit the entertainment industry. Also, I won’t stop her if she wants to live with you, and I will pay monthly child support to the two of you, how does that sound?”
“Don’t try to trick me!” I got agitated, “Just like your negotiations with Ren HongDe, you will drag your feet and say to first let Ai Mi finish the drama and commercials currently booked before ‘gradually’ quitting the entertainment industry! Don’t treat me like an idiot!”
“Calm down, I’ve never treated you like an idiot, that would be disrespectful to myself genetically speaking. There’s an 80% chance my deal with Ren HongDe can’t proceed. This old geezer actually arranged a lot of traps for me, I really underestimated him… but my deal with you is very promising. If you don’t have the patience to wait and want Ai Mi to quit the entertainment industry immediately, I can have that arranged.”
“As long as you do one more thing for me.”
“What is it?” An ominous feeling rose in my heart, “Who do you want me to kill?”
“I won’t make my son do something as tasteless as killing someone with his own hands. My second request for you is simple: just cooperate with Dr. Yu in your routine medical examinations and then let him draw some blood each time…”
Isn’t that completely indistinguishable from what I’ve been doing on a daily basis for weeks? Why did it suddenly become something that had trade value where it was even equal to what Ai Mi was worth in the entertainment industry?
Ai ShuQiao instructed with a joy that welled up from the depths of her soul:
“In addition to routine medical examinations and blood donations, I will also strictly forbid you to drink alcohol. Remember that drinking damages your body…”
“Ai ShuQiao!” I suddenly felt an inexplicable chill in the empty basement, “What use do you have for my blood? What use do you have for my blood that contains the toxin of the blue morpho butterfly? What exactly did you intend to do with the butterfly when you offered a reward of half a million dollars for its capture?”
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