Chapter 52: The Yearning for Sacrifice

The elderly professor placed his application directly on the chief's conference table.

The handwritten characters flowed with vigor and dragon-like grace, fully embodying the extraordinary demeanor of a master of his generation.

It was only at this moment, seeing the name signed on the application, that the chief learned the old professor's true name: He Guocheng.

It was a name deeply rooted in a distinct era.

That was an epoch when everyone was full of youthful vigor and striving toward lofty goals, driven by a single purpose: prosperity and strength.

Deeply influenced by that era, the old man's passion had continued to burn to this very day. The chief looked at him and saw a yearning ready to blaze anew.

Even seated in a wheelchair, his presence remained towering.

The chief sighed, picked up the application, and then laid it back on the conference table. He repeated this motion several times before gritting his teeth, putting the application back on the desktop, and turning around.

"Political Commissar?"

"Present!"

"You oversee these petition applications. Lead the comrades in a vote!"

"Yes!"

The political commissar nearby took the application and passed it to everyone present for review, asking them to mark their agreement or disagreement.

The voting proceeded with great speed. The old professor instantly sensed something was amiss, furiously wheeling himself forward. When he looked over, he saw that the paper was filled mostly with rejections.

The official currently casting his vote, perhaps accustomed to high authority and heavy responsibilities, could not help but feel a twinge of awkwardness as he looked at the elderly Professor He.

He looked at the old professor, then at the application, and finally at the chief, whose back was turned. With a resolute crunch of his teeth, right there before the professor's eyes, he wrote down "disagreement."

The old professor was instantly so enraged that his mustache and beard bristled, and he rushed over to bang on the table.

"Absurd! Utterly absurd! I am already old, and the contributions I can still make are very few. If you won't let me go, do you intend to send someone else instead?

Where is your conscience and revolutionary awareness? I have never forgotten the moment I took my oath, have you all forgotten yours?

You leave an old man like me unused, while allowing those younger than me to face danger?"

Professor He grew more and more agitated, until the chief turned around. "Professor He, there is order in the conference room. If you continue to shout, I will have no choice but to ask you to leave."

Realizing that if he were forced to leave now, the decision against him would be set in stone, Professor He glared at the official who had just written "disagreement." Though he said nothing, his gaze was fierce and piercing.

Unable to withstand the intensity of his stare, the official's hand trembled as he held the pen, and he drew a line straight through the "disagree."

Professor He remained unsatisfied, refusing to relent until the official completely blackened out the character "disagree."

The application was then passed to the next official, who looked at the fierce and formidable Professor He and instantly broke out in a cold sweat...

...

Under Professor He's watchful eye, the subsequent officials all signed in agreement. When the application was handed back to the political commissar, Professor He could not help looking somewhat smug.

The political commissar glanced at the chief and began to tally: "Disagrees... 16 votes. Agrees... 16 votes."

As soon as the results were announced, the political commissar looked at the chief, while Professor He urged, "What is there to question? It has already passed by half, just let me go."

"Professor He, a passing result requires more than half, and under these circumstances, a re-vote is necessary," the chief advised.

Looking at the chief, Professor He understood that if he did not fight for it now, the outcome next time would be entirely unpredictable.

"Hmph, everyone in this conference room except me has the right to vote, correct?"

The chief nodded, unsure of what he was driving at.

"Then cast your vote as well, Chief."

Taken aback, the chief chuckled softly, accepted the application and pen from the political commissar, and prepared to sign.

"Chief, you must think carefully. The threat of 'Him' is imminent, yet you remain indecisive. If you let someone as suitable as me slip away, you will never find another."

The pen hesitated for a moment, then pressed heavily onto the application.

"You need to understand clearly: if someone must face death, why cannot it be me? I have already enjoyed all that I should enjoy, and suffered all that I should suffer. I have no regrets left whatsoever. But if you choose someone else, the same cannot be said."

The pen slashed a fierce horizontal line across the application.

"Chief! If you do not agree, I will unite the other physicists to pressure you... To shed blood for one's country requires death, but if death is inevitable, is it not a glorious sacrifice for the state?"

The chief sighed and signed his agreement.

Never could he have imagined that avenging two academicians would require the life of yet another professor, placing him in grave danger. Although part of the motivation was to retaliate against "Him" for the sake of the small fishing village on the coast, human life is often far too complex to be weighed merely on a scale.

"Elder Professor He, I agree. For the sake of the subsequent operations, you should stay and sit in on the meeting."

Only then did Professor He smile and nod. "As it should be."

He slowly wheeled himself to the conference table, where two officials immediately squeezed to the side to make space for him.

Professor He cast a smiling glance around the people seated at the table. Every official who met his gaze saluted him with solemn respect, expressing their deep admiration and reverence.

Finally, he looked at the chief. The chief stood up and returned the military salute.

Then, taking his seat, he let out a breath. "Now that we have someone capable of deciphering Academician Ge's information, what are our next steps? Shall we go directly to see Academician Ge's disciple, Meng Hua?"

"No!" Professor He was the first to object. "Based on the information I just received and my previous conjectures regarding Academician Ge's actions, even if we were to decode the message he left behind, it would still remain inaccessible to us.

Did Comrade Ge not want to leave information behind? I think not.

He certainly recorded what he discovered, and he recorded it right in his experimental log! Yet those records were still destroyed by 'Him.'

Did Academician Tom detect this problem? He is no fool; he certainly noticed it. That is why he took the initiative, slipping the note to Meng Hua while his own findings were still mere hypotheses.

And yet, that note was still tampered with."

Professor He's throat grew somewhat dry from speaking, and an official nearby poured him a cup of tea.

"If I were to get the information directly from Meng Hua, then even if I understood that message, what you would be left with would merely be a string of circles and meaningless lines."

A nearby official listened intently, and hearing this, instinctively asked, "Then what should we do?"

Professor He glanced at the official. "I do not know if you have noticed, but my team and I have realized that the message left by Academician Tom has one distinct difference."

Everyone in the conference room looked toward Professor He.

"The note left by Academician Tom! 'Him' did not directly alter it; 'He' could only erase it! In fact, 'He' could only erase the critical parts."

Playing the role of the attentive listener, the official asked again, "Um... what does that matter? What we aren't supposed to know, we still don't know."

"It matters immensely! A mathematician on my team proposed an idea: the reason this number is so special is because Academician Tom employed encryption—even if it is the simplest form of encryption.

Even just the simplest encryption can effectively resist 'His' pollution and tampering.

He proposed that if we wish to counter this kind of information tampering, we must use various cryptographic algorithms for information transmission."

"But aren't our electronic products nowadays already using information encryption? The 0s and 1s inside them—'He' would certainly find them even more baffling than Academician Tom's note."

Professor He shook his head. "'He' indiscriminately targets all kinds of electronic products, causing the devices recording such information to go on strike together. But 'He' cannot force paper and pencils to go on strike."

"Ah? Then what kind of encryption should we use?"

"An even older method.

I am not a specialist in mathematics and cryptography, but my colleagues are. They have proposed a mathematical encryption method based on the difference engine—it is only a concept as of now, yet it holds infinite possibilities!"

Professor He concluded, "Once I decipher the information left behind by Academician Ge, I will use their method to preserve and transmit it."