Back in 1978, I was admitted to Northwestern Polytechnical University.

Chapter 222 I treated you as friends, and you treated me as a thief?
Smoking is not allowed in the computer room, and people even have to wear shoe covers. So, when a smoker gets a craving, he'll go to the toilet for a smoke. But this guy smoking more than a dozen cigarettes is definitely not an ordinary smoker. He's clearly waiting in the toilet to do something!

Qin Liang left the restroom without making a sound, strolled away, went straight down the stairs, found another office, and made a phone call.

"Hello, is this the security department?"

The night grew deeper, eleven o'clock, twelve o'clock, one o'clock...

The lights in the computer room gradually went out. At two o'clock, the last light went out. The person in charge of guarding the computer room yawned, came out to inspect the area, saw that the gates of each computer room were closed, then closed the main gate of the corridor, locked it, and leisurely returned to his duty room.

The computer room fell silent.

Two figures emerged from the restroom and quietly approached the gate of one of the server rooms. They took out paperclips, straightened them, and gently poked them a few times at the lock of the gate. Then... the gate opened.

They slowly and carefully pulled the gate open, making very little noise. It took them a full minute to open the gate, and then they quietly slipped inside.

Inside the computer room, a soft beep was heard, followed by a faint light, and soon the sound of a floppy disk spinning could be heard.

Half an hour later.

Two figures emerged quietly, each carrying a large bag that made a slight rustling sound. They tiptoed to the gate of the stairwell, took out their keys, gently unlocked the door, and then slowly pulled open the gate... The first person had just taken a step when a loud bang was heard.

The door to the duty room opened, and a middle-aged man in his forties rushed out carrying an electric baton. He moved with lightning speed, like a tiger descending a mountain. When he saw the man coming out, the electric baton in his hand crackled and sparked as he poked it against the fence gate.

The man who was about to come out suddenly let out a scream, his body began to tremble, and his hands clenched even tighter. A dozen seconds later, the middle-aged man removed the stun gun from his hand, then raised his foot and kicked the man, who was dizzy from the shock, hard in the stomach.

At this moment, the guy behind him was in a daze and didn't react in time. The middle-aged man's stun gun was directly stabbed into his body, and he began to scream in pain.

dong dong dong...

Footsteps echoed down the stairs. Security personnel hiding on other floors rushed over, but... it seemed there was nothing more for them to do. This was the end!

Qin Liang watched as the security guards subdued the two thieves, then turned to the middle-aged man and asked, "Brother, you're amazing?"

"Of course, the server room is a sensitive area, how could we let two petty thieves get away with it! There are touch alarms on the gates in the hallways and on the gates outside the windows. If anyone touches them, the alarm light in my duty room will go on. But those two bastards were quick enough..."

There are no gates in the server room, but they are installed on the windows and corridor gates. This way, if anyone tries to leave this enclosed area, the alarm on the gate will be triggered!

Even if Qin Liang hadn't discovered anyone lurking in the toilet today, he would have easily subdued the two petty thieves!
After receiving Qin Liang's call, the security department naturally couldn't hesitate. They set up a stakeout on the upper and lower floors, ready to rush out and surround the area if there was any movement.

Now, both petty thieves have been caught. Their backpacks were opened, and they were full of floppy disks, indicating that they had copied out their own confidential information.

The first consumer-grade hard drive appeared in the 80s when a few IBM engineers started their own business and created a 5.25-inch consumer hard drive. Although it only had a capacity of 5MB, it brought about a revolution in computers.

If your computer had this type of hard drive, the other party could simply remove it and take it with them. But now it will take a little more effort.

"Those two bastards are something else! They actually changed the lock on our gate!" The middle-aged man only noticed this when he was relocking the gate.

The lock on the gate was left on after being opened in the morning, so it wouldn't be locked again at night. The other party took advantage of this and found an identical lock to replace the original one, thus giving them the key. They originally thought they could get out faster, since the gate was right next to the guard room in the stairwell. However, they didn't expect that the gate had an anti-theft device!

The two petty thieves were already tied up tightly. Yuan Limin, the head of the security section, stepped forward and said, "Comrade Qin Liang, let's take these two men away and interrogate them."

Looking at the dark night sky outside, Qin Liang shook his head: "No, we can't take him out. We'll interrogate him in a dark room upstairs."

Yuan Limin immediately realized that there was more to this than met the eye!

If these two petty thieves had simply stolen the computer and carried it away, they might have been ordinary thieves. If they had disassembled the computer and only stolen the processor, they would have been slightly more sophisticated thieves. But these two thieves went straight in and copied the data from the computer. What does that mean?
These two petty thieves couldn't possibly have left in the middle of the night. They must have hidden on another floor and waited until morning when the building doors opened and students were coming and going before swaggering out!

Our group is now escorting the thief out of the building. The person hiding behind them will notice the problem and might just disappear.

Winter brings early darkness and late dawn. At six o'clock in the morning, when it is still pitch black outside, the building doors open, and early-rising students have already arrived in the teaching building with their textbooks for class. People come and go one after another.

In the guesthouse in the distance, a man with binoculars stared intently at the building. The lights at the entrance shone on everyone. He finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw two people carrying bags leave the teaching building.

Become!

At nine o'clock in the morning, at Lao Sun's mutton stew shop, down from the Drum Tower.

At this time of day, there are very few people having breakfast, and lunch hasn't started yet, so the shop isn't very crowded.

Two people carrying bags ordered two bowls of mutton stew. A few minutes later, two more people carrying bags sat down at the same table and ordered two bowls of mutton stew as well.

They ate quickly, and after finishing, they picked up their bags and strode outside.

roadside.

Yuan Limin was about to lead his men up when Qin Liang grabbed him, saying, "Don't rush, keep an eye on them!"

These two people are not the final buyers!
So they walked, then took a cart, then walked again... until it got dark, when the two finally walked toward a car parked by the roadside.

This is the time!

Qin Liang urged, "Quickly, get started!"

Inside the car, a blonde, blue-eyed Western woman sat there, smiling as she watched two people carrying bags approach. Just as the two bags were tossed into the car, she looked around warily, her expression instantly changing: "Drive!"

The tires squeaked against the ground as it sped forward, drawing gasps from the surrounding pedestrians.

There's no such thing as a motor vehicle lane or a non-motor vehicle lane anymore. Pedestrians walk on the side of the road, bicycles are next to them, and the middle of the road is reserved for cars. But now, these cars are parked on the side of the road, yet they are speeding towards the middle of the road, completely disregarding the flow of bicycles and pedestrians!
Swish!
Several nails flew out and landed in front of the car. The driver swerved sharply, but still couldn't avoid them.

With a hiss, a gust of air shot out from the side of the tire, causing it to deflate rapidly. The car lost control, wobbled a few times, and then came to a stop.

The car door opened quickly, and the people inside rushed out, eager to leave as fast as possible, even reluctant to abandon their backpacks.

It's too late!
Several people rushed out from the crowd and restrained them tightly, with the blonde woman being the one they were particularly focused on.

"Mia, hello there." A voice rang out: "As the wife of the head of the IAI company's dispatched engineering team, you're not going to say that the whole operation had nothing to do with the Davids and that you did it all by yourself, are you? Even if you take all the blame, it won't work! We treated you as friends, and you dared to steal our technology!"

Mia's face was extremely pale: "This has nothing to do with them!"

"How could it be unrelated? Mia, you probably don't know how we deal with spies in the East, do you? They won't escape even a single bullet. So, do you want to live or die?"

The citywide surveillance was beyond the capabilities of the Northwestern Polytechnical University's security department; they even had to enlist the help of higher-level departments. Otherwise, they simply couldn't keep an eye on those two people with backpacks. Little did they know, the backpacks were the biggest clue that revealed their movements! Mia's face turned deathly pale.

Northwestern Polytechnical University, Guesthouse.

After finishing his day's work, Ovadia Harari returned to his residence with light steps, only to find that someone was already inside when he stepped into his room.

"Who are you? How dare you trespass on my property? Damn it, you even searched my house! What you've done is a huge invasion of our privacy!" Harari roared in fury.

“Mr. Harari, your wife stole our top-secret information, and you cannot escape responsibility either. We will not only search your residence, but also take you away. Please cooperate with us.”

"No, no, you can't do this! My country will not let you get away with this!"

"You think you're in the right to steal? Let's go!"

The facts are clear and the evidence is conclusive; even if these people don't admit it, it doesn't matter.

A few days later, Northwestern Polytechnical University.

“We are very sorry that the staff we sent did something that affected our relationship. We hope that this will not affect our cooperation. We promise that nothing like this will happen again. We were also deceived and did not know that Harari’s wife was working for Mossad.”

IAI's head, Roots, stood up, bowed deeply, and appeared very sincere.

“Mr. Roots, aren’t you oversimplifying this matter? For those who engage in espionage and cause significant damage, the common practice in various countries is to impose the death penalty.” Zhao Gang, the representative from the relevant higher-level department, said, “In 1965, Mossad’s spy king, Eli Cohen, was hanged. Surely your side is aware of that?”

Roots' body trembled violently: "That's because our people fell into the hands of the enemy, and we are friends, or partners, right?"

"Would you steal your friend's most important possessions when they're visiting your home? After doing something like that, you're no longer friends!" Zhao Gang said. "According to our country's laws, Mia will be sentenced to death, Ovadia-Harari will be sentenced to twenty years in prison, and the other employees of your IAI company will be deported!"

Roots' face turned completely dark. He hadn't expected the East to act so decisively!

"Are you trying to sever all ties with us by doing this? Our Great Power has considerable influence in the West. If you do this, no Western company will want to cooperate with you in the future!"

"Are you threatening us?" Zhao Gang's expression also turned serious. "Have we in the East ever been afraid of any country's threats in all these years? Even the United States came to us to develop friendly relations!"

"Ahem, may I say a few words?"

"Comrade Qin Liang, what do you have to say? You were the one who brought this cooperative project to fruition. Now that this unexpected event has occurred, you also have to take responsibility!"

"Sigh, I will reflect deeply on this. If you want me locked up for a few years, I'll accept it. However, since I promoted this project, I have to take full responsibility for it." Qin Liang said, "I do have a solution to this problem, and I hope you can take a look."

Roots looked at Qin Liang, a man who was quite tactful and might be able to offer a solution.

"After this incident, our cooperation is definitely off. However, we have no use for the results of the cooperation. If David Aircraft Company wants them, can we ask them to pay a compensation fee and then take these results back with us?"

"Comrade Qin Liang, you must understand that matters involving national interests cannot be measured in money. If any company that cooperates with us sees that they can take away our data by paying money, they will all come and steal our data. After all, if they can't steal it, they can just pay money. How can that be acceptable?"

“Then let them pay more, let them feel the pinch,” Qin Liang said, looking at Roots: “Mr. Roots, what do you think?”

On the surface, they come to cooperate with the East, but in reality, they steal the East's research and development secrets. This is indeed unethical. The East has the right to freeze the cooperation, drive them away, and not hand over the results of the cooperation to them.

The research and development has progressed rapidly over the past few months! They are still waiting for these research results! Now... paying money to take the data away is not out of the question.

"Yes, that's fine. Just give us the information, and we'll pay any price!"

"Hmph, less money won't do, at least one hundred million!"

Zhao Gang's words made Luo Ci's heart skip a beat again. One hundred million? Damn, you guys are really ripping us off! Could this be something you did on purpose, just to squeeze money out of us?
"Leader Zhao, isn't one hundred million US dollars a bit too much? Can you make it cheaper, fifty million US dollars, how about that?" Qin Liang began to plead.

"Hmph, how could a mere fifty million US dollars be enough?"

"Then it's sixty million US dollars. Our client made a mistake for a moment, we have to give them a chance to reform! We can't just condemn them outright, can we?"

We don't want to give them fifty million either! Roots struggled internally.

“Alright, then it’s sixty million.” Zhao Gang nodded, then looked at Roots: “You send over sixty million US dollars, and you can take away the research data from Northwestern Polytechnical University. Don’t publicize this, otherwise other companies will follow suit, and we’ll have endless trouble in the future. What, you’re unwilling to pay?”

“We’re willing, we’re willing!” Rhodes knew there was no chance to object now. He took a deep breath: “We can pay sixty million dollars, but Harari and Mia are both to be handed over to us!”

Snapped!
Zhao Gang slammed his fist on the table: "What did you say? We will definitely deal with the people. Those who deserve to be killed will be killed, and those who deserve to be imprisoned will be imprisoned. You think you can take them away for a mere 60 million US dollars? What about our reputation?"

"Leader Zhao, don't be angry, please don't be angry!" Qin Liang quickly advised, "At this time, we all need to stay calm. Impulsiveness is the devil!"

"Humph!"

“Mr. Roots, come, let’s talk alone.” Qin Liang beckoned Roots out, looking like he was looking out for the other man.

“Mr. Rhodes, now is not the time to be stingy with money. You Davidians are the most business-savvy people in the world. What is money? You can earn it back. But if a person is gone, it’s gone forever. That Mia deserves to die. She thought it would be as easy as stealing the Mirage 3 data. But Harari’s identity is special. He is the person in charge of the new fighter jet. If he’s in jail here, your project is over!”

"Ugh!"

Back then, Mossad orchestrated the theft of the Mirage 3 blueprints, which was considered their most brilliant operation. When they arrived in the East, they saw the busy machine room with many important projects and lax security, so they hatched a wicked plan.

They planned meticulously, stealing from locals and spending a month teaching them how to copy data from computers. The person in charge of the transfer was also a local. After a whole day of work, it should have been foolproof before Mia came out to receive the goods. Unexpectedly, an accident still happened!
Mia can die if she wants; she deserves to die since she failed. But Harari can't!

"We can spend a maximum of another ten million dollars."

"That's probably unlikely. Judging from that leader Zhao's demeanor, it'll probably cost another 40 million."

Roots suddenly realized something: "Why are you helping us like this?"

You little rascal, you wouldn't be deliberately helping to inflate the price, would you?

"I also have some selfish motives. As long as the higher-ups don't investigate your theft, my responsibility will be much less. I just need to write a profound self-criticism. Otherwise, I will also be sentenced. Sigh, you guys have really screwed me over this time. If you need information, you could have just told me secretly and I would have helped you get it. How could you get involved yourself!"

"Okay, then I'll listen to you!"

(End of this chapter)