Chapter Two: Who Stole the Proof

Eleven months earlier, Shen had written the dynamic framework. Nine months earlier, He had called it absurd. Three weeks earlier, He had copied it into his grant proposal. The record also showed Mu-Zero's three hints—and every keystroke by which Shen created the decisive functional and stopping-time argument. The conference canceled the talk. The university opened an investigation. Editors suspended He. Scholars and investors surrounded Shen, but triumph lasted seven minutes. Xu Zhi pulled him into a fire stairwell and showed him a photograph of ten nested rings identical to Mu-Zero's interface. “I found this in He's safe three months ago. He is screening problems for the Vault Fund. Seven teams touched that list.