A man with a gray beard opened the office door angrily and walked in from outside.

“Old Li! I want to know what is going on!”

Director Li stayed calm, but the voice scared his assistant.

Most ordinary people wouldn’t dare to speak to the secretary of the State Administration for National Defense this way, but Academician Xue wasn’t an ordinary person.

Forget about the State Administration for National Defense; even the head of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology would have to treat this old man with respect.

When Director Li saw Academician Xue at his front door, he seemed to know why Academician Xue was here. He smiled, put down the pen in his hand, and spoke.

“Why are you here? Come and sit down… Xiao Zhou, go and pour Academician Xue a cup of tea, then print fifty copies of this document and send it to Director Liu.”

“Okay!”

Xiao Zhou quickly poured a cup of hot tea for Academician Xue, picked up the document off Director Li’s desk, and quickly left the office.

“What?” Academician Xue said as he picked up the teacup off the table. He took a sip and said angrily, “You’re asking why I’m here? Why else would I be here!”

Before Director Li could respond, Academician Xue began to fire like a machine gun.

“You’re the one who wanted to develop a quantum encryption algorithm! Now you’re canceling the project?! Half of the cryptography experts are in Beijing, and our work has only just begun. Now you don’t want us to do it anymore? Is this a joke?”

Director Li felt a little embarrassed. Academician Xue was right, but this wasn’t totally his fault.

“This… situation is complicated.”

“What do you mean complicated? Did I not warn you? Even the most advanced quantum computer can only reach 100 qubits! It’s crazy to imagine the existence of a 1,000-qubit quantum computer!”

In the eyes of Academician Xue, this was a ridiculous research project, proposed by a layman. He always hated the higher-ups interfering with his scientific research. This was a waste of research resources!

Director Li coughed and said, “That’s not the reason for canceling this project. This project isn’t totally canceled, we’re just making a strategic adjustment…”

Academician Xue said, “Then why are you doing this?!”

“Because someone else already solved the problem.”

The office went quiet.

Academician Xue was stunned. He took a while before he snapped back to reality.

“Solved? What problem was solved?”

“Of course it’s the quantum encryption algorithm…”

“That’s impossible!”

Academician Xue’s eyes were wide open in disbelief. He thought Director Li was lying to him. He was even angrier. “Half of the cryptography field is here in Beijing with me, and you’re telling me someone else solved the problem?”

After a week of work, they had yet to make any substantial progress in their research. Now someone was telling him that the problem was solved? Someone was able to find an algorithm?

He had never heard anything more ridiculous!

Director Li sighed and said, “Now that you’re here… I want to discuss this with you.”

He opened his drawer and took out a CD stored in a special container.

Academician Xue frowned as Director Li continued to speak.

“The quantum encryption algorithm is in here… Of course, it can only stay in this office; it cannot leave. But I can demonstrate it on my computer.”

Academician Xue snorted and said, “I’m not that foolish.”

Director Li smiled and said, “I know, I’m just a layman. We need to consult experts like you… That’s why I want you to take a look at this, to see if it can really fend off an attack from a 1,000-qubit quantum computer…”

He put the CD into his laptop.

Director Li turned his screen toward Academician Xue as the CD began to spin.

Academician Xue finished the cup of tea and stood up from the sofa. He walked up to Director Li’s desk and sat down on a chair.

He used the mouse to click on the file in the CD. Academician Xue could see the lines of the encryption algorithm code on the screen.

Honestly speaking, it was almost impossible to develop a stronger and more secure encryption algorithm that was completely different from the BB84 protocol, especially in such a short amount of time.

He knew almost all of the Chinese scholars in this field.

If even their research team couldn’t do it, he couldn’t believe someone else could.

Unless… they received help from a “foreign entity”.

However, because this was related to national security, the probability of outsourcing the encryption algorithm to a foreign research team was zero.

Academician Xue glanced at the lines of code.

As he continued to scroll with the mouse wheel, the look on his face gradually changed.

Even though the changes were subtle, they were obvious in the eyes of Director Li.

Finally, this stubborn old man spoke.

“Who… made this?”

“I can’t tell you this,” Director Li said. He coughed and said, “It’s top secret, I hope you understand.”

The office went silent.

Academician Xue looked away from the screen and made eye contact with Director Li. He then asked in a croaky voice, “Is it Academician Lu?”

That’s the only possibility…

Director Li didn’t reply, he had a blank expression on his face.

Sometimes, a blank expression is a type of answer.

Academician Xue turned his head; he continued to read the rest of the code with a look of astonishment on his face.

It seemed like he had just witnessed a miracle. He muttered to himself, “So it is him… no wonder.”

No wonder the project was canceled.

With an algorithm like this, there’s nothing left for us to do.

How embarrassing! 20 people lost to one person.

He had a bitter look on his face.

He finally understood why people said it could be frustrating to work in the same field as Academician Lu.

He wasn’t just frustrated. He even started to doubt everything about his life, and he almost felt hopeless.

Maybe it would have been better for me not to know the reason behind the cancellation…

Seeing how Academician Xue didn’t say anything for a while, Director Li became a little anxious as he spoke.

“Don’t just sit there… Tell me, how is the algorithm?”

Academician Xue spoke.

“It’s strong.”

“What does strong mean?”

“Means that, forget about 1,000 qubits…”

Academician Xue gulped and said with a trembling voice, “Even 2,000 qubits is not a problem…”