Twenty minutes after the plane took off, looking at Zhao Wanyu beside him, Chen Mengchuan felt somewhat surprised by her talkativeness and sense of propriety.
Chen Mengchuan had originally planned to pull out his computer and get some work done once the aircraft was airborne, but instead he had started chatting with her, and it actually felt quite nice. How long had it been since he had last chatted so comfortably with a strange woman? Whether it was his current self or the self he had been in the dream, it had been a very long time indeed.
"Passing through Xi'an, where is Dr. Chen heading?" Zhao Wanyu asked him with a smile.
"To Golmud." In Chen Mengchuan's mind, the boundless deserts of Golmud that he had visited in his dreams floated to the surface.
"Golmud? Is that in Qinghai Province?"
Chen Mengchuan nodded.
"Then I guess Dr. Chen certainly isn't going for work, am I right?" Zhao Wanyu asked the question she most wanted answered.
Chen Mengchuan shook his head and smiled. "I'm going to see someone who is very important to me."
"Your girlfriend?"
The image of when he first met Ayase Sonoko surfaced in his mind—a sunny and lively smile. Chen Mengchuan's gaze involuntarily softened a great deal; if only life could always be as beautiful as first acquaintance.
Zhao Wanyu looked at Chen Mengchuan's tender expression and smiled. "It seems so."
"No." Chen Mengchuan shook his head. This time when he went to see Ayase Sonoko, he had no intention of picking up where they left off. Following him through that mesmerizing dream, Ayase Sonoko had suffered too much and given up too much of herself. That was why there had been endless arguments, continuous conflicts, and ultimately a divorce, leaving just himself and his daughter Chen Zhihui.
"How is Dr. Chen's work situation right now? Our Ke University is very sincere about cooperating with Dr. Chen." Zhao Wanyu never strayed far from her old profession in just a few sentences.
"Hahaha, Miss Zhao, you really are dedicated enough." Chen Mengchuan laughed heartily. The impression Zhao Wanyu gave him was exceptionally good; she was the kind of woman who was not only pretty and had a great figure, but also possessed extremely high emotional intelligence, on top of being dedicated to her work!
"Apologized—I mean, apologies, Miss Zhao. Although I don't have a job right now, I temporarily have no plans to go work at another company. Furthermore, even if I wanted to work at Ke University, my non-compete agreement with the Xia Science Academy is still in effect, and I can't go work at Ke University either. I think you should understand that point," Chen Mengchuan said candidly.
"Where there's a will, there's a way." Zhao Wanyu's tone and expression were both optimistic.
After flying for a full 100 minutes, the plane slowly landed at the Xi'an airport.
"I hope we'll have the opportunity to cooperate, Dr. Chen." Zhao Wanyu took out her phone and waved it at Chen Mengchuan.
"Right." Chen Mengchuan gave a polite, smiling nod. After the two of them parted ways, he walked over to the baggage claim area to wait for his single box of luggage.
While he was waiting for his bags, Chen Mengchuan's phone rang. Glancing at the caller ID, Chen Mengchuan answered the call.
"Brother Chuan," Guo Siming's voice sounded from the other end of the line.
"Team Leader Guo, the Xia Science Academy must have plenty of matters to attend to; you don't need to harp on this issue endlessly. I accept your apology, so let's leave it at that." Chen Mengchuan genuinely did not want to have any further dealings with the Xia Science Academy.
"Don't hang up, don't hang up! Brother Chuan, Brother Chuan, you're my own brother. I'm right here in Minhang District, Shanghai City. If it's convenient, Brother Chuan, give me an address and I'll come over to apologize to you, and by the way, there are some things I'd like to say to Brother Chuan face-to-face," Guo Siming coaxed with a flattering smile.
"Team Leader Guo, it's not that I'm not giving you face; I really don't have the time. Coincidentally, I just arrived in Xi'an right now. Alright, that's how it is." Chen Mengchuan sighed, and after speaking, without waiting for him to reply, he directly hung up the phone.
Listening to the continuous beep-beep-beep-beep sounds coming directly from his ear, Guo Siming flew into a rage and slammed his phone onto the ground with a loud clack!
Seeing that Guo Siming was in a fit of anger, his two assistants didn't dare to utter a sound. They merely looked at the Fruit X on the ground with its shattered screen, a wave of distress aching in their hearts.
After forcing himself through several deep breaths, Guo Siming spoke up, "Help me call President Guo."
One assistant immediately took out his own phone and dialed the number, while the other assistant picked up the Fruit X phone with its completely shattered screen, retrieved a SIM ejector tool, and popped out the SIM card.
The call connected.
"Siming, did you see Chen Mengchuan?" Guo Zhidong asked.
"President Guo, I didn't handle it well. I was played by him—he went to Xi'an," Guo Siming answered in a deep voice.
Guo Zhidong was silent for a moment, then replied, "Go to Xi'an to find him. No matter what method you use, you must invite him back to the Xia Science Academy!"
After saying that, Guo Zhidong immediately hung up the phone.
Handing the phone back to his assistant, Guo Siming said with a gloomy expression, "Book the next available flight. We're going to Xi'an to find Chen Mengchuan!"
After parting ways with Chen Mengchuan, Zhao Wanyu pulled out her phone and called her superior, Sister Wang.
"Wanyu, have you arrived in Xi'an?" came a gentle and caring voice from the other end of the line.
"Sister Wang, I've arrived in Xi'an. Guess who I ran into at the airport?" Zhao Wanyu said with a smile.
"Who? Judging by your tone."
"Chen Mengchuan! The former head of the Xia Science Academy's Artificial Intelligence Xuanyuan Project." Zhao Wanyu lowered her voice.
"Chen Mengchuan? Really or not? Is he in Xi'an right now too?" The voice on the phone turned serious.
Zhao Wanyu smiled. "We ran into each other in Shanghai, ended up on the exact same flight, and coincidentally sat right next to each other!"
"Wanyu, did you manage to get his number then?"
"Of course I did, Sister Wang. With a flick of my pinky, who can resist the charm of Ke University's number one beauty?" Zhao Wanyu said with a coquettish pride.
"Fine, fine, my Ke University number one beauty! I'll arrange for someone else to handle the Xi'an University Town recruitment plan. Sister Wang is giving you a mission: keep a close eye on Chen Mengchuan and lock him down. At all costs, invite him to our headquarters to give a lecture and exchange ideas. As long as you pull this off, I'll go to President Huang myself and claim credit for you!"
"Keep a close eye on him? Sister Wang, it looks like he's about to fly to Golmud right away," Zhao Wanyu suddenly realized.
"I'll have administration buy your plane ticket immediately!"
Taking out her phone to call Mother Chen and report that she was safe, Chen Mengchuan ate a bowl of rather tasty Xi'an mutton paomo at a noodle restaurant inside the airport. Then he located the boarding gate for the flight to Golmud, pulled out his computer, and began writing the algorithm for the neural network's disordered nodes.
Inside Chisako's core rules, rather than being based on massive statistical data, operations were realized through the firing of neurons. Each neuron received inputs from other neurons; when Chisako received an input, it would generate an output to stimulate other neurons. Based on the unordered, massive mutual reactions of neurons, various output results were ultimately formed.
This was the crucial core logic by which Chisako perceived and understood the world.
To simply understand this algorithm and logical chain: when Chisako saw a cat, it would not judge it based on data rules such as the cat's body proportions or walking movements, nor would it rapidly compile, aggregate, and analyze all reference objects of similar feline body proportions and athletic movements in its database. Instead, data neurons would trigger from the data receiving end into the core program segment, before looping back to the data receiving end to generate a result—this is a cat, it is moving, perhaps it is searching for food, or perhaps it is full and wandering aimlessly to bask in the sun.
During this process, every single data neuron played a role in this final result, cognizing this cat. Moreover, this data result was unilateral; it self-stored into the core database and would not be fed back externally to a third party, unless someone asked a guided question: "What kind of animal is this? What is it doing?"
Then Chisako would trigger another set of core rules to process this question: Who is asking? What is their identity? Why are they asking the question? Do they need her answer, or do they simply hope for her to reply? Should she answer them or not? And so on, through a series of machine-thought "reflections" before making a response.
Soon the broadcast began prompting passengers to board. Chen Mengchuan packed up his computer, boarded the flight to Golmud, and drew closer and closer to that gentle, water-like face in his mind.
Still in the window seat, Chen Mengchuan closed his eyes and quickly drifted off to sleep. In a hazy half-slumber, he seemed to hear someone saying something, accompanied by a faint, lingering fragrance.
"Hello, would you mind swapping seats with me? This is my friend... Thank you so much."
He opened his eyes and turned his head—sitting right in the adjacent seat next to him was actually Zhao Wanyu!
"Dr. Chen, we meet again." Her face bloomed as peach blossoms in spring.
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