Chapter 9 A World Without Thieves

The China, South Korea, and Japan Go Challenge Tournament, which has been held for many times, is about to start again. This time, each of the three countries will send five of the most powerful players to the battle.It is generally believed that this is an unprecedentedly fierce game, because the Korean "two Lees (Lee Changho, Lee Sedol)" who have dominated the chess world for many years have recently been strongly impacted by Chinese chess players Luo Xianhe and Chang Hao, and the Japanese chess world has been dull for many years. It has also recovered strongly, and people like Yida Yiki, Yamashita Keigo and Zhao Zhixun have all had good records recently.However, the names of these chess celebrities and the specific progress of the chess game have no real relationship with the content of this article and can be blurred as much as possible.The following are replaced by A, B, C, D, and E of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.

The biggest highlight of this group arena is the strong participation of the Chinese gaming industry.Sponsored by China's most prestigious gaming company, Chengxin Company, it adopts progressive scoring. The specific method is as follows: each bet is 200 yuan. one cent.The total number of games is uncertain, depending on the record of each side, if each side fights to the "veteran opposite", there will be a total of 14 games.At that time, the lottery players with 14 points (that is, all correct guesses in each quiz), 13 points and 12 points will win the first, second and third prizes respectively, and the rest will be eliminated.According to the practice of the gaming industry, 40% of the winnings are used for operating expenses, taxes and charity, and the remaining 60% is shared by the winners, of which the first prize winner will receive 50%.

Roughly make an estimate, if a total of 5 million bets are cast, the total prize money will be 1 billion yuan, of which the first prize can get 300 million yuan.And if there are a total of 100 first prize winners, each will get 3 million yuan.Undoubtedly, this is a very attractive figure. The biggest difficulty in this gambling activity is how to overcome the deep-rooted "doubt everything" mentality of the Chinese people.It's no wonder that although the Xi'an BMW gambling fraud case is an old story, the ashes are not cold, and the lottery players have lingering fears.It should be known that this fraud case was finally revealed when the most fearless lottery victim risked his life and attracted the attention of the press.But ordinary lottery players weigh their courage and fear that they may not be able to do this, so they shy away.In order to awaken the courage of the Chinese people, Chengxin Company has taken a lot of measures, especially hiring the famous Swiss notary agency, the Romanson Notary Office to supervise.This measure was very effective in restoring the trust of the people in the society. In the end, Chengxin Company sold 10 million bets, which was a great success.

Later facts proved that Chengxin Company was indeed innocent and innocent in this betting.Although there were still people who criticized them on the Internet for cheating and playing tricks, saying that the first prize winners were all related to the company, etc., but these accusations were groundless.Most of these scolders are those who guessed correctly 11 or 10 times, that is, those who "are only one or two steps away from winning the prize". up. But since the title of this article is "A World Without Thieves", readers are not stupid, and they will naturally guess that the article must involve liars and victims.It starts with the participation of a foreigner.

It is said that Chenimus, an American employee of Beijing Gao Huasheng Securities Company, also participated in the betting, mainly because of his interest in Chinese Go.Chenimus is a well-known Chinese hand, and he speaks Beijing dialect very well. He is familiar with "Sun Tzu's Art of War", "Zuo Zhuan" and "Historical Records".He knows that since the computer "Deep Blue" defeated the chess grand master Kasparov in 1997, computer players have swept human players in all chess sports such as chess, Chinese chess, Indian chess, and various checkers. ——Except Go.In this field, compared with people, a computer is only equivalent to a mentally handicapped child!Even the best computer program, when playing against the lowest-ranked player, needs the latter to make ten pieces to barely draw.However, the rules of Go are the simplest among all kinds of chess, basically there is only one rule: exclude the state of being surrounded by opponents on all sides without gaps.The simplest chess rules have achieved the most profound chess theory. It can be said that at least in terms of inventing chess games, the wisdom of the ancient Chinese is the first in the world, even several orders of magnitude more.Therefore, although China's current scientific achievements are limited, he is still in awe of the wisdom of the Chinese people.

Different from the mentality of Chinese lottery players, Chenimus did not consider whether there would be tricks in the betting.The reason is simple. In the United States, even the most shameless and daring gambling bosses dare not cheat.Because American laws have very strict and effective provisions in this regard, strict laws have created the absolute integrity of the American gaming industry. There is a very favorable condition for Chenimus to participate in the betting.Due to the nature of his work, he can easily collect detailed information on all participating chess players, such as the historical record between a certain two players, a certain person's psychological quality, and even the physical condition of both chess players in a future match Wait, he can get it easily.Input these detailed data into the computer, and then use a special game software to predict the outcome.Of course, the prediction result will not be absolutely accurate—there is never an absolutely accurate prediction or divination in the universe—but it will undoubtedly greatly improve the chances of winning.Although this takes up a little work resources, which is a bit of a fake public service, but 3 million yuan is not a small amount of amateur income.

The first match of the Three Kingdoms Tournament, according to the result of the draw, was China's E against Japan's E.There is not much suspense in this game, because judging from the previous records, the Chinese chess players have a great advantage.In Chenims' PC predictions, the win-loss ratio was 9-1.So of course he bet on China and won the first point. Soon he received a strange e-mail, and the story began from here. Before receiving this email, Chenimus had already used his own method to make predictions, and the result was the same as what was stated in the letter.Even so, he didn't pay much attention to this letter at all. He didn't believe that anyone's prediction could be more accurate than his data and software.As for the motive of this e-mail, it may be a scam, or it may be the mischief of some Internet worm. Now there are many such good people on the Internet.He ignored it.

Sure enough, South Korea won this game, and Chenimus won another point.Then, he received emails from those two anonymous people: Chenimus shook his head when he saw the prediction result.Mr. D in Japan is a Chinese living in Japan. He used to be a super player in Japan, but he is quite old today.Go is actually a cruel sport for young people. This is not a paradise for the elderly.Chenimus used his own data and software to make a prediction: D's win-loss ratio was only 2 to 8.Those two "prawns" must have misread this time, or they were trying to deceive people.He opened the website of Integrity Gaming Company and was about to bet on Korean players-but he changed his mind while typing on the keyboard.Why?He couldn't tell, but his intuition told him that maybe there was something in these emails, and it was worth tracking down.Moreover, in the final analysis, even if he was fooled this time, the loss is only 200 yuan, which is not worth mentioning.

In hindsight, he was very thankful that he was right to act on his instinct.At the end of the third game, there was a big upset. Japan's D old man actually defeated South Korea's little E!It is said that most of the lottery players lost this point, but Chenimus couldn't help becoming interested in those two "prawns" while feeling lucky.He eagerly awaited the next email. The signature of the email has also changed: "Two talented young mathematicians / a certain month and a certain day in a certain year".By this time, Chenimus had taken a keen interest in them.Although according to his computer prediction, the Chinese players had a better chance of winning in the fourth match, he did not hesitate and immediately placed bets according to the prediction in the letter.At this time, what he cares about is not the profit of betting, but these two young people who want to "challenge philosophers".He decided to keep voting according to their predictions and see what would happen in the end.

At the end of the fourth game, the old Chinese-Japanese chess player who was already a star was once again brilliant, defeating the Chinese player D by one and a half eyes.Chenimsi's account also added another valuable point. This continued until the end of the tenth game, when Chenimus made all ten guesses.He became more and more interested and reported the relevant information to his superiors.Therefore, his attention to the "Guiguzi Algorithm" has risen from the level of "sideline income generation" to job research, and it is justifiable to occupy work resources in the future.When the 11th email was sent, Chenimus used technical means to enter the database of China Netcom, and found out that the email was sent from a certain broadband user in Z City, the capital of Province H in this country. The owner of the household was Zhang Yi, who lived on a certain street. certain number.

Because of the nature of his work, he has quite extensive contacts in China.The next day he met with a Chinese friend, Li Shicheng, whose native place is Z City, H Province.Chenimus did follow the instructions of the two men and did not spread the prediction results to anyone, but Li Shicheng was an exception.Because Chenimus knew that Li's participation was needed in future work. The meeting place is at the Beijing Hotel.After listening to Chenimus' introduction, Li Shicheng said decisively without any hesitation: "They must be liars! Just believe me, they must be liars!" He was even surprised at Mr. Chenimus's naive credulity, "You——believe them?" Chenimus said with a smile: "I don't believe them, nor do I disbelieve them. It depends on whether their predictions are accurate in the future. If they are accurate every time, there must be some reasons worth exploring." He analyzed, "If this is a scam, there is only one possibility: the organizers of the game have set the winning and losing results of each game in advance, and this result was stolen by those two people and wanted to resell it to me. But I believe that 15 players from the three countries A famous Go player would never collude and cheat." "Of course not. But the person who sent you the email must be a liar, there is no doubt about it. Just one rebuttal is enough: If they can predict accurately, why don't they keep it a secret and place their own bets? They have nothing to do with money." Enmity? Hundreds of millions in winnings." Chenimus nodded: "What you said is indeed a very strong reason. But there are exceptions to everything." Li Shicheng shook his head at his pedantry, and felt that it was his bounden duty to protect this naive foreign friend from being fooled.To fully convince his friend, he said frankly: "It makes people blush to say this - my hometown is a place where there are many liars. These liars often have extraordinary thinking and make you hard to detect. Let me give you an example that I have experienced. About 30 years ago, I went to Elementary school. One day when I came home from school, a qigong master was showing off that he could drill through bricks with his fingers, and asked anyone present to find a brick nearby and give it to him to perform on the spot. I was 10 years old, just the age of curiosity and good deeds. I immediately got out of the crowd, ran a long way, picked up a half brick, ran back and handed it to the man. The man was lucky, brushed the ground with his index finger to drill the brick, and suddenly the brick The crumbs were flying, and the bricks were quickly drilled through. I was so impressed, I thought I met a real master of martial arts today. If anyone doubts it in the future, I will stand up and refute it—how could it be a liar? Well, I picked up that brick myself on the road! Actually, what do you think?" He paused and asked Chenimus, who shook his head with a smile. "The scam is very simple: the qigong master carefully clears away the bricks within a radius of 200 meters before setting up a site every time - he knows that the person looking for the bricks will not go too far. Fake bricks. These bricks have been drilled with a drill, the walls of the holes have been polished smooth, and then carefully filled with paste mixed with brick crumbs, so that they cannot be seen from the outside. That’s it, I am willing to do it for that liar Childcare is still free." Chenimus laughed: "Interesting, really interesting." "Then let me talk about another scam that I have personally experienced. Hey, please find me a soft belt, one or two meters long." The service lady became interested when she heard him posing, and quickly found a cloth belt. , delivered with a smile.Li Shicheng folded the soft belt in half, and then rolled the soft belt into a circle with the half-fold point as the center. The center of the circle formed a shape resembling a Taiji diagram, and two double-fold points appeared. "This is a very common scam among the Chinese people, commonly known as 'tie ring'. It can be said that there are 'tie rings' wherever there is well water in China, and it has developed into different variants. The scammers do this: first coil the rope, Players are asked to judge the true half-fold point, tie the space with chopsticks, and then the dealer pulls the two ends of the rope. If you tie it right, the soft rope will be stuck on the chopsticks, and you win .If you tie it wrong, the soft string will slip along the chopsticks and you lose. But in reality, you will never win. Can you see how this is tricked?" Chenimus pondered for a while, then shook his head.His IQ is quite high - he can't do it without a high IQ in his job, but he failed to break this "game" for a while.Li Shicheng smiled: "It's actually very simple. If you make a wrong tie, the dealer will follow the normal action, pinch the two ends of the rope and draw the rope outward, and the soft rope will slide away along the chopsticks, and you will lose; if you make a right tie, the dealer will lose." Under the cover of the palm, use the little finger to pull away the outermost section of the rope, and then pull the second and third circles together and pull them out together. At this time, the soft rope will still slide along the chopsticks. Therefore, except for liars You guys, outsiders can never win. The first time I saw this scam, I squatted there and studied it for nearly an hour, and finally figured it out." Chenimus said admiringly: "Yes, if you can penetrate such a scam, I think your IQ must be very high." Li Shicheng laughed at himself and said: "Hey, it's just a little cleverness. People often use too much cleverness in places that shouldn't be used. Hey, after listening to the story I told, do you still believe those two 'young mathematicians'?" Chenimus hesitated a little, but he was not convinced: "You have cited a lot of supernatural thinking deceptions, which are very convincing. You also raised doubts about the motives of those two people, which is also very powerful. But on the contrary The evidence is stronger: Anyway, these two men have guessed the result correctly in 11 consecutive rounds anyway, and notified me before the game. This is a fact of my own experience. Regarding this, you How to explain?" Li Shicheng shook his head: "I can't find an explanation for the time being. As I said, scammers often have supernormal thinking, which is difficult for normal people to understand." "Then let's wait and see. If they can still predict the remaining three games, then this 'Guiguzi Algorithm' must be a real thing. The probability of all 14 guesses is only 1/214, that is, 1/16384. So accurate Forecasting, relying on the little tricks you just mentioned, it will not be achieved anyway." "Well, let's read on. Please let me know if there is any progress." He warned, "I guess they will ask you to pay for it soon. There is no scam that does not involve money. This is what I have been working on for many years." The first law of deception established by experience." The two put the topic aside and chatted for a while.Chenimus asked Li Shicheng if his child had reached the second year of high school. Li Shicheng said earlier that he would let his son go to the United States to study after finishing high school. However, the United States currently has very strict visa controls for Chinese people, and Chenimus had already agreed Unclog him. "If your child has difficulty in obtaining a visa, please inform me in time. The promise of a friend is always valid." Li Shicheng said sincerely: "Thank you. I will definitely go to you if I have any difficulties." Chenimus called the waitress over and paid the bill.Of course, it will not be the Western AA payment system. Chenimus has long been familiar with the rules of Chinese human relations. Two months later, before the final of the group arena, Chenimus sent an email to Li Shicheng, forwarding the 13th email of the two men: Li Shicheng called immediately after reading the email: "Haha, am I right? Any scam will definitely involve money. Their fox tail has been exposed." Chenimus also felt the same. This email greatly reduced the status of the two "genius mathematicians" in his mind: "Yes, you may be right. Actually, they don't have to be so petty at all. I must pay 2,000 first." It takes $1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 nothing. If they really help me win a prize of millions of dollars, I will willingly give them half of it afterwards. This approach is too petty." "But you're sure to pay the 2,000 yuan, right?" "Of course. Anyway, they've been right 13 times, and I still believe they have something real in their hands." Li Shicheng thought for a while: "Do you have the means to find out how many people sent money to that account?" Chenimus immediately said: "Yes, your reminder is right! As long as it is an online transaction, I can check it out. A friend of mine was a well-known hacker in the United States when he was young. It is easy for him to get these things done, even though he is far away. United States." A week later, Chenimus met his Chinese friend again at the Beijing Hotel.The dust of the group arena has settled. Chinese player A defeated South Korea's ever-victorious general A, which was another upset.But Chenimus won again.The results of the betting have been announced. Among the lottery players, there are 602 first prizes (much more than Chenimus predicted).That's a lower number than Chenims expected, but it's still pretty good. According to Li Shicheng's reminder, Chenimus asked his superior (not a hacker friend, he did not tell the truth to Li Shicheng on this point) to find out that 597 of the 602 first prizes had remitted money to that account.In other words, those two poor mathematicians not only informed Chenimus of the prediction results, but also sent similar emails to at least 596 other people, and gained nearly 1.2 million yuan in income from them. , a little more than the first prize winner.Therefore, Li Shicheng's previous assertion has now been verified: this is still a scam based on monetary interests.But what baffled Chenims: Why did they take such a roundabout way to get $1.2 million instead of betting it outright?In that case, they would benefit far more than this amount (since the number of first prize winners may be greatly reduced). Another lingering mystery also remains: How did they make 14 accurate predictions despite the fact that their intention was to scam money?This is a head-to-head matter, and you can't play it with a little pretense. 597 of the 602 first prizes were won by the two people's predictions-this fact convinced Chenimus that their "Guiguzi Algorithm" was indeed a real thing. "Li, I want to ask you to help me with one thing." Chenimus said at the banquet, "If this mystery is not solved, I will have trouble sleeping and eating. I want to meet those two people in Z City, Province H, and find out the truth. If It is an ingenious scam, and I will laugh it off; if the "Guiguzi Algorithm" is real, I would like to go through legal procedures and pay a lot of money to buy it, believing that it will be of great benefit to the economic forecast of Goldman Sachs Securities. In this matter, a foreigner has a lot of inconvenience, maybe the Chinese Ministry of State Security will suspect that I am engaged in espionage." He said with a smile, "So I want to ask a Chinese to accompany me. I will pay You have enough commission." Li Shicheng smiled and waved his hands: "Don't talk about commissions and non-commissions among friends. I was planning to visit my house, and I helped you with this matter. But I have to declare in advance that I suspect that the 'Guiguzi Algorithm' itself is also a scam. If you Be fooled, don't blame me." "Of course not. As for your commission..." Li Shicheng shook his hand and interrupted him: "I said no commission, you just have to bear my travel expenses." Chenimus didn't force it, and said with a smile: "Okay, I will do as you said. Oh, how about this, I will bear all the expenses for your son's visa in the future. Don't refuse, according to Chinese rules, Friends have the meaning of making money, right?" Li Shicheng didn't refuse anymore, and said with a smile: "Then I will thank you for my son." The next day they set off to Z City.Instead of flying, they took the train, ordinary express trains with hard seats.On this general express train, most of the passengers had relatively small pockets, and their ears were filled with the local dialect of H province.It was Li Shicheng's proposal to take the Pu Express. He said that letting Chenimus experience the mass society of H provincial people in advance may be beneficial for him to grasp the future transactions.Sure enough, they quickly witnessed a simple deception.A rural-looking passenger wearing a railway uniform boarded the train with a large sack, light and puffy, as if it contained an empty bottle.As soon as the train left, he got into the toilet with a sack and didn't come out for a long time.When he finally came out, the empty bottles had been filled with water. He carried a dozen of them in a small basket and started selling "Sprite" in the carriage, at five yuan a bottle.Li Shicheng and Chenimus sat not far from the toilet. They saw the production process of "Sprite" with their own eyes. They were curious and amused to see if he could sell it.Someone actually bought it!It was a hot day, and there was no air-conditioning in this ordinary express train, and the supply of tea was insufficient. Passengers who were exhausted from the heat were drinking Sprite, but no one accused it of being a fake.Li Shicheng smiled at Chenimus: "Well, it's a worthwhile trip." Chenimus nodded vigorously: "Yes, this trip is worthwhile." The train passed an oil field in province H, and the pumping units in the field were pitching up and down unhurriedly.Li Shicheng said: "When I saw the pumping unit, I thought of another thing. Although it is not involved in a scam, I can also feel the extraordinary thinking of the lower class people. Let me tell you. It is like this. No oil field can control farmers. Stealing electricity is a major feature of China. The law does not work on the poor and ignorant. The pumping units are located in the wilderness, so it is even more difficult to prevent. The oil field has tried various methods to prevent electricity theft. As a last resort, he raised the voltage of the pumping unit to 660 volts. Such a high voltage is enough to burn out civilian electrical appliances. But after a few minor setbacks, the farmer quickly came up with the cheapest solution. Nimes, can you think of a way? Nothing you can think of, no engineer in his right mind." "Not using a transformer?" "Of course not! If they paid for a transformer, they wouldn't be able to steal electricity. Listen, they invented the 'ground drop method'. Plug a 660-volt wire into the ground, and the area becomes a high-voltage live area, but the voltage Due to the depressurization effect of the soil, it gradually decreases from the center to the outside. Then the electricity thief connects the two prongs of a 220-volt light bulb with two iron bars through wires, and one of the iron bars is first inserted outside the charged area. Then the electricity thief puts on rubber shoes—this is for insulation—goes to the charged area, and tries to insert another iron rod from the outside to the inside. If the light is not on or the light is too weak, move it a little further to the center, and keep When the light bulb can glow normally, the voltage here is about 220 volts, which can be brought home for use.” "But that high-voltage area is very dangerous. Besides, most of the current flows into the ground in vain." "So you still can't get rid of the shackles of normal thinking. Electricity thieves with supernormal thinking don't have to think about these things that have nothing to do with them!" Chenimus smiled and shook his head: "Well, a wonderful story, such extraordinary thinking—it's incredible." Chenimus told Li Shicheng that the sender was found to be Zhang Yi.After hearing this name, Li Shicheng was taken aback, then smiled.Chenimus asked, "What are you laughing at?" Li Shicheng said nothing, but the name happened to be the same as a famous liar in China's Warring States Period. After the two arrived in Z City, they booked two rooms at the Jinhai Hotel near the Zhang family.Chenimus waited in the hotel first, and Li Shicheng took a digital camera with a telephoto lens from an American friend, and hurried out to investigate that day.At night, he came back in a hurry, and when he entered the door, he smiled and said: "It's all figured out, very smooth." He connected the camera to the computer and called up the photos and videos inside.There are distant photos and recent photos, which are very clear.Three people, one is the younger brother Zhang Cheng, twenty-four or five years old, thin body, fair and clean, with a pair of bright eyes behind myopia lenses, and a student-like temperament; the other is the elder brother Zhang Yi, thirty-four or five years old The third one is their mother, with white hair and simple clothes, who is shopping for vegetables with a basket.Their home is located in an alley with small stalls on the side of the road, and the houses are relatively simple, which is a typical urban poor house.Li Shicheng said: "I used the pretext of renting a house nearby, so I asked my neighbors about the situation. The neighbors said they were relatively poor, and my mother had retired; my elder brother went to a technical secondary school and had no formal job. He usually does odd jobs for various newspapers and writes a social edition. The lace news, earning a few manuscript fees; the younger brother just graduated from the computer department of a certain university, and it seems that he has not yet found a formal job. He often sleeps during the day and stays up late at night to play on the computer. However, his family seems to have gotten some windfall recently, and bought a lot of home appliances. , the two brothers even took my mother to Yunnan to play, and they came back just the day before yesterday—needless to say, your 2,000 yuan must have been part of the money they spent." He smiled, "Hey, among these three people, which one is Is it the genius mathematician you said?" Chenimus looked at the photos carefully and said seriously: "You can't judge people by their appearance. At least the two brothers got the details of the bets through hacking, including the mailboxes of the bettors. This shows that one of them is a good player." The hacker—maybe he's a good amateur mathematician too." "It seems that you will not turn back until you hit the south wall. How do you proceed next?" "I want to meet them. I want to go straight to their homes and do a walk-in visit. Maybe it's easier to see them for real." They went that night.Sure enough, it is a relatively poor home, but there are brand new 34-inch color TVs, fully automatic washing machines, cabinet air conditioners, etc. in the house, which are very inconsistent with the tone of the house.When the two brothers saw two strangers visiting, one of them was a foreigner, their eyes were immediately full of wariness, they exchanged glances frequently, and their hospitality seemed blunt.Being a mother is very enthusiastic: "It's a rare guest, it's still a foreigner's guest. Please sit down quickly, and I'll make tea." The guests sat down and took the hot tea made by the old man.Then fuck off and let them get down to business.The two guests had agreed in advance that here Chenimus would pretend not to speak Chinese, and Li Shicheng would come forward.At this moment he said a few words in English, and Li Shicheng translated and said: "Mr. Chenimus from Goldman Sachs Securities Co., Ltd. is here to thank you. Thanks to your help, he won the prize money of 1.03 million yuan in this Go competition." He said with a smile, "Don't surprise us It can be found here, since you can use technical means to obtain the email address of the bettor, we can also find your home address in turn." The expressions of the two brothers were a little more relaxed, and they were also quite curious—they always treated each other as "equal" when sending out emails, and they never knew that there was a foreigner among their "customers"!brother said: "You're welcome, this gentleman has already made a small compensation to us, which is enough for us. Our brothers' research on the 'Guiguzi Algorithm' is not for money. Money, things outside the body, life does not bring death does not bring Go. We like this just to satisfy the human nature of exploration." Li Shicheng interrupted his confession unceremoniously: "The 2,000 yuan compensation is probably not enough to buy these home appliances, plus a trip to Yunnan, right? We already know that 597 2,000 yuan were received on that account, totaling nearly 1.2 million yuan. " The faces of the two brothers turned pale, and they stared at the guest in horror.The elder brother seemed to be a bit more sophisticated, so he quickly calmed down, winked at his younger brother, and forced a smile and said, "It seems that we met a real person today, and I don't have to tell lies in front of a real person. That's right, it's 1.2 million yuan But we have a clear conscience, the money was earned by real skills. We only charged 2,000 yuan per person, but gave each person 1.03 million yuan. For you, this deal is too cheap." Chenimus deliberately relieved their tension, and said a few words with a smile. Li Shicheng translated: "Mr. Chenimus agrees with your opinion, so today he is here to thank rather than ask for guilt. Although there is a little It’s a pity—if you don’t create a few first prizes, his income will be multiplied, dozens of times. But he is already content, and it’s not bad to have 596 people to share his joy with him.” Several people laughed, and the atmosphere in the room immediately eased.But the two brothers just hid their vigilance a little deeper—the ghosts believe that the big nose came here by all means, just to thank them!However, he would never bring the police here, would he? He is the beneficiary, not the victim, and he has no motive to inform?As the conversation progressed, the two brothers gradually felt relieved, and even had a new strategic idea, because it was obvious that the conversations of the two guests had been circling around a center: "Guiguzi Algorithm", it seems that this is what they are interested in where.Zhang Yi regained her spirits, first avoided the guests and gave her younger brother a wink, then said to the guests with a smile: "To put it bluntly, this 'Guiguzi Algorithm' has nothing to do with me; Euler or Gauss. Do you believe it? If you don’t believe me, just wait for ten or eight years.” Zhang Cheng smiled lightly and said, "Don't listen to my brother's nonsense. This 'Guiguzi Algorithm' is immature and can only be used to predict two-parameter games, and the number of progressives is not greater than 20." Zhang Yi immediately said: "Yes, it can only be used in this kind of occasion for the time being, but it is 100% effective in this kind of simple game. You don't doubt this, you have already experienced its power yourself." Li Shicheng nodded: "Mr. Chenimus said that he knew that Mr. Guiguzi in Chinese history was the teacher of the famous military strategist Sun Bin. Your 'Guiguzi Algorithm' is worthy of this name. I believe it can not only predict the winning or losing of gambling, The prediction of the business war game is also of great benefit." Zhang Yi said: "It's not just a commercial war, but also a war with real swords and guns. You know, no matter how complicated a war is, it can be broken down into battles, that is, a two-parameter game, and the cumulative number of times will not exceed a dozen." He said Haha laughed, "I'm a happy person, so we don't have to go around in circles. I'm afraid you are here not only to thank you; as for my brothers, I don't want to take this stuff to the grave after tinkering with it. If you—— If this big nose Mr. is interested, and I am willing to let him buy it out in one go. As long as the price is right." Li Shicheng spoke a few words in English with Chenimus, then turned around and said: "Mr. Chenimus appreciates Mr. Zhang's straightforwardness, but first of all, he must confirm that it is the real thing." Zhang Yi was sincerely surprised: "Is there still a need for confirmation? If it's not real, you won't come to my house. At least this algorithm has passed a successful actual combat test. The probability of winning all 14 predictions is only 1/16384, which is amazing." You can't play a little fake." "You're right, but my boss must have needed more conclusive evidence before shelling out a handful of dollars." Zhang Yi changed color suddenly: "Can't you trust me? Then please bye-bye. You can't trust me, and I can't trust you. Let's take out the 'Guiguzi Algorithm' and let him identify it. He is a ghostly American. Let's take a look." I just learned it, and then I pat my ass and leave, who do we ask for money?" Li Shicheng said calmly: "There are many mature methods in business transactions, for example, please ask the Swiss Romanson Notary Office who participated in the group arena this time as an intermediary." Zhang Yi resolutely said: "No! In a word, if you believe it, you can buy a cat with a cloth bag, and if you don't believe it, leave." Li Shicheng looked back at Chenimus.Zhang Yi's resolute refusal aggravated his suspicion. I wonder if Mr. Chenimus has also begun to doubt?Chenimus thought for a while, and calmly said to Li Shicheng in English: "Please ask Mr. Zhang Cheng directly. Just now my elder brother said that this algorithm was developed by my younger brother. Maybe he has more right to speak." When the two sides were arguing, Zhang Cheng remained silent with a calm expression.At this moment, he obviously understood Chenimus' English, and before Li Shicheng asked, he stopped his brother's quarrel and said simply: "Yes. Just as Mr. Li said, ask the Ruo Manson Notary Office to act as an intermediary." The older brother was obviously taken aback and glared at the younger brother angrily.But the younger brother also gave him a look and said, "That's it! Let's talk about the price." He added confidently, "I came up with the 'Guiguzi Algorithm', and I believe it can stand the test." The elder brother was furious at his decision, but he suppressed his words. Obviously, the taciturn younger brother is the one who is really in charge of the two brothers.The two sides began to negotiate the price. Chenimus, who pretended not to understand Chinese, just listened quietly. He had given Li Shicheng full authority over the price, because Li Shicheng had asked him last night: "Mr. Chenimus, if you can trust me, can you tell me the highest price you intend to offer?" "My boss gave me a base bid of $3 million." Li Shicheng shook his head: "It's too high, it's too high. According to my impression from today's investigation, this Zhang Yi is a guy who only knows how to make small money. I think 1 million, at most 1.5 million US dollars can negotiate this business." 切尼姆斯当然知道李士诚的心意，立即说：“那我就把价格洽谈全权委托给你。如果能以你说的价格谈成，省下的金额中将有你15％的佣金，这个比例是商业上的惯例。但压价要适可而止，能谈成是最主要的。如果那是真东西，我的上级不在乎一两百万。” 李士诚很爽快地答应了，这回没有再说“朋友之间不要佣金”的话。如果他能砍下200万美元，佣金就是30万美元！按他的话说，谁和钱都没仇，不会把到手的大把美元推出去。 这会儿李士诚向两兄弟先开出100万的价码，张仪立即满脸轻蔑之色，喊道： “100万？你这个老板是不是抠门的犹太人？100万！俺们光这一次就赚了240——不，120万。” 李士诚不动声色地说：“我说的是美元。” 张仪的脸色马上缓和了，看看弟弟，弟弟眸子深处也露出一丝笑意。这边的两个客人都不是傻瓜，立即看出，他们对这个价格是很满意的。李士诚甚至后悔，开始叫价时应该再压低一些。他笑着夯了一句： “这可是我老板能出的最高价，但我一下子就给透了底。谁让咱们都是中国人呢，咱们合着伙儿蒙他个聋子老外。不过我也把话说白了，这是一口价，你们要是嫌低，我们立马去买回京的机票。” 价钱很快谈妥了，合同上有关“质量保证”的条款也最终敲定：以瑞士若曼逊公证处作为中介方，售买双方各把“鬼谷子算法”的光盘和100万美元提交公证处。如果公证处验证该算法符合合同要求，则将款项划给售方，否则就向买方退回款子，向卖方退回光盘并负保密义务。至于“'鬼谷子算法'是不是真货色”的标准，讨论起来比较麻烦。双方字斟句酌，最终同意了张诚拟的条款： 售方声明，“鬼谷子算法”并不符合正统的科学和数学理论，因此对于它的验证只能使用类比法，以此次三国围棋擂台赛的实际预测结果为类比基准。买方对此表示认可。 售方承认“鬼谷子算法”尚不成熟，但郑重承诺：在两参数、累积次数不超过15次的博弈预测中，其预测准确度不低于此前三国围棋擂台赛的实际预测结果。 双方在其他条款，如买方买断后售方如何保证不泄密、不向第三方出售等，没有一点争论，仅在公证费上发生了争执。据若曼逊公证处回电，由于这笔交易含有特殊条款，需要组织资深专家组对“鬼谷子算法”进行鉴定，中介费要按交易额的8％收取。李士诚说，按照惯例这笔费用应由售方负担。但张仪强烈反对，他说100万美元的价码不包括这么高的中介费，由售方负担可以，请买方把价钱加上去。李士诚作了让步，同意各负担一半，张仪仍不松口。张诚显然厚道一些，把哥哥拉到一边，低声劝说着。但这次弟弟的权威不管用了，张仪狠狠地骂他： “你个傻瓜！4％也是30多万元人民币，他们要是中途撕毁合同，你白出这30多万？” 李士诚冷冷一笑，看看切尼姆斯。他没说错，张仪这号人，天生是只会搂小钱的角色。他用英语同切尼姆斯低声商量一会儿，大度地说： “这样吧，双方各负担一半，但你们那一半先由买方垫付。这样，即使合同不能履行，你们也毫无损失，这样总可以了吧？”他冷笑道，“对张先生的精明，我佩服得五体投地。生意做成后我打算送你一只玉貔貅，就是咱中国传说中那个没有屁眼、只吃不屙的聚财灵兽。” 张仪并不以为忤，嘿嘿笑着，同两位客人大幅度握手，祝贺交易谈成。 一个月后，若曼逊公证处给切尼姆斯寄来了那张光盘，并有一封复函： 我公证处聘请的资深专家组认定，所谓“鬼谷子算法”只是一个巧妙的骗局，但它完全满足贵公司与张氏兄弟所签合同中的有关条款。因此我们已将贵公司的100万美元划给售方。 张仪兄弟的这次豪赌赢了。其实他们的豪赌并无风险。即使没有这次豪赌，他们也不会再有借此赚钱的机会，因为“鬼谷子算法”的真相总归会暴露出来，瞒不了多久的。所以赢了固然好，是一次大撤退前的意外胜仗；输了也算不上损失。值得庆幸的是，张诚精心拟定的措辞巧妙的合同条款保证了这次的成功。瑞士人虽然明知道这是骗局，也没法不付钱——不过瑞士人确实守信，不服也不行。 兄弟俩立即取出现金，带上老娘人间蒸发。李士诚仅在一年后接到过兄弟俩的一封邮件： “什么？美国间谍？中央情报局的？”李士诚脸色煞白，震惊地瞪着面前的两个人——中国国家安全部的张先生和王先生。张先生纠正道： “应该说是美国国家安全局的。他的任务是搜集中国的军事情报。” “但我的工作和军事科技一点都不搭界呀。” “醉翁之意不在酒。他是想通过你，接近你的舅舅。” 李士诚的脸更白了，他的舅舅是解放军一位正师级技术专家，研究方向是用于隐形飞机的雷达。“但我从没有在他面前提过我舅舅的工作，你们要相信我。” 张先生笑着说：“我们相信，也很赞赏你能自觉履行一名公民的义务。但切尼姆斯看来通过其他渠道，早就知道你有这样一位亲戚了。他曾试图通过你邀请你舅舅赴宴，对吧？” 李士诚很吃惊。某次切尼姆斯邀他吃饭时，他说这两天正招待来京的舅舅，不能前去。切尼姆斯说有比较紧要的事务想见他：“要不这样吧，把你舅舅一块儿请来，也算为他老人家接风。”舅舅当然不会去，委婉地谢绝了。这事过去就过去了，李士诚没想到一次普通的邀请竟然内藏诡计。现在回想起来，那次邀请确实可疑，因为此后切尼姆斯并没有什么非要见面的要紧事。李士诚越想越后怕，断然说： “谢谢你们的提醒，我以后不会再同他来往。” “啊，不必这样。他的公开身份是高华盛证券公司的职员，你同他是正常的商业和私人往来，何必要中断呢？你只要提高警觉，发现可疑迹象立即报告就行。”他笑着告诫，“记着啊，一定要保持正常往来，绝不能让他看出什么苗头。也许以后我们会通过你，给他一些他感兴趣的东西。” “好的，我一定按你们的吩咐做。” 王先生说：“这次来找你，主要是想了解一下，他上次Z市之行到底是为了什么。公安机关已经查明，那对张氏兄弟只是两名普通的骗子，至多会一点黑客手法。切尼姆斯为什么对他们如此感兴趣？而且通过若曼逊公证处向他们汇了96万美元，张氏兄弟提出这笔钱后，立即带着老娘销声匿迹，公安部门到现在还没有抓到他们。”李士诚详细叙述了这件事的全过程，从切尼姆斯开始投注，到收到13次预测通报，到中大奖，到他起意去购买那个“鬼谷子算法”，两位先生听得津津有味。最后李士诚苦笑着说： “聪明的切尼姆斯这回可是上大当了，在两名普通骗子身上白花了100万美元。其实我早就怀疑那个狗屁'鬼谷子算法'，曾一再向他提醒，但他因为有'亲身经历'而坚信不疑。对了，这次活动中，我在他那儿拿了30万美元，但这是正当的中介收入，因为我为他节约了200万美元。” 王先生微嘲道：“你对那位切尼姆斯倒是尽心尽意呀。” 李士诚脸红了，张先生忙解围：“李先生你别在意，我的伙伴只是开玩笑。你那时是做他的中介人，当然应该维护委托人的利益，这是应有的职业道德嘛。不过——”他忍俊不禁地说，“打心眼儿里说，我也巴不得这个财大气粗的家伙多花200万美元给中国人，哪怕花给骗子。” 三个人都大笑起来，不过李士诚的笑容免不了带点儿尴尬。虽说那30万美元是“正当”收入，但不管怎么说，给予者是位美国间谍！还有他答应负担的签证费用！也许没有这两位安全部官员的警告，他会不知不觉被美国“朋友”拖入泥沼中。想想真是后怕啊，他曾经鄙视“搂小钱”、“耍小聪明”的人，现在看来，自己是五十步笑百步了。 切尼姆斯给上级的报告： 不久切尼姆斯收到了安全局的回函，令他大跌眼镜的是，回函中竟然满篇褒辞： 文中所述的骗人方法，见于谈祥柏先生发表的一篇科普文章中（可惜篇名忘了），我只是把科普转换成科幻小说。谨此声明。