After breaking up with my boyfriend, I made a fortune and rose rapidly in my career.

The next morning, after Chen Ping finished processing several documents, he prepared to leave.

He had just reached the door when Zhang Chao ran over with the car keys.

"Director Chen, are you going to the Chipfire Industrial Park? The car is ready, I'll go with you." Zhang Chao's attitude was very solicitous. Yesterday, Chen Pingfang had intimidated the debt collectors and made the finance director bow his head, so Zhang Chao's gaze towards him had changed.

"No need," Chen Ping waved his hand. "I'll go take a look myself. It's inconvenient with too many people."

"But... that place is quite remote and abandoned. It's not safe for you to go there alone."

"It's alright," Chen Ping said firmly.

Chen Ping didn't let Zhang Chao see him off; he walked out of the management committee building by himself.

Standing on the side of the street amidst the passing traffic, Chen Ping took out his phone and scanned the QR code of a shared bicycle parked on the roadside.

The weather in Nanzhou in September is very nice.

A young cadre in a white shirt rode a blue shared bicycle and merged into the city's traffic. His straight back stood out against the towering office buildings and speeding luxury cars around him.

More than half an hour later, the navigation led Chen Ping to the edge of the city.

The five gilded characters "Core Spark Industrial Park" were once inlaid on a huge archway. Now, the lettering has faded, and the metal around the door is rusted, making it look dilapidated.

Chen Ping parked his bicycle on the side of the road and went inside.

The park gates were open, with no security guards or access control.

Before us was a wide main road, with weeds on both sides growing taller than a person. When the wind blew, the weeds rustled.

In the distance, a dozen or so factory buildings and research buildings, already topped out, stand silently in the wilderness. Gray cement walls protrude, and dark windows gaze out at the sky.

This place doesn't look like a high-tech industrial park with billions of dollars in investment at all; it looks like a ruin.

12 billion yuan has been poured into this place, ruining the careers of several officials. Only by standing here can one truly grasp the gravity of the situation.

Chen Ping walked steadily along the main road.

He walked slowly, observing very carefully. Every building here was in the same location as on the planning map, but they were all unfinished projects.

The air was filled with the smell of dust and weeds.

After walking for about twenty minutes, Chen Ping stopped.

Chen Pingfang realized something was wrong.

According to the planning map, the most central location in the park is three core server room buildings used for chip manufacturing and packaging testing. From a distance, those three buildings, like the other buildings, look like an abandoned project.

But upon closer inspection, the problem becomes apparent.

The side road leading to those three buildings had its weeds trimmed and the road surface much cleaner, with watermarks left by the sprinkler truck still visible.

More importantly, the windows of those three buildings were spotless, reflecting the sunlight. A high-voltage electric fence surrounded the buildings, with a high-definition camera rotating every fifty meters.

Four security personnel dressed in black combat uniforms and wearing sunglasses stood in front of the main entrance.

They stood ramrod straight, were robust, and had bulging temples; they were clearly professionals, completely different from the security guards at the management committee entrance.

Chen Ping didn't say anything and continued walking in that direction.

"stop!"

Thirty meters from the entrance, a security guard immediately raised his hand, his voice cold, as if giving an order.

Chen Pingfang stopped and looked at them calmly: "I am Chen Pingfang, the newly appointed deputy director of the High-tech Zone Management Committee. I am here to investigate the Chipfire Industrial Park project."

The head security guard sized him up, his expression unchanged, as if the title of deputy director meant nothing to him.

"This is a restricted area. No one may enter without permission."

"Whose restricted area?" Chen Ping asked. "This land is state-owned property. I am the person in charge here, and I am going in to inspect the work."

"We only follow orders," the security personnel replied directly. "Director Chen, please go back. Don't make things difficult for us."

His hand was already on the baton at his waist, a gesture that served as a warning in itself.

Chen Ping sneered inwardly.

There was indeed a problem.

An unfinished industrial park, yet it's guarded by this level of security for several buildings. This suggests that something shady is being hidden inside. Moreover, this force isn't under the jurisdiction of the management committee and can even disregard government officials.

Hu Jinshan and his group went to great lengths to turn this land into commercial land, probably not just for the price difference. More importantly, they wanted to keep the secrets of these buildings hidden forever.

The two former deputy directors, one was investigated and the other committed suicide, probably because they wanted to get closer to this secret.

Chen Ping did not force his way in.

He knew that there was no point in talking to these people who only followed orders.

"Okay, I understand your work."

He nodded calmly, then turned and retraced his steps, as if he really had just come to take a casual look.

The security personnel kept their eyes on his back until he disappeared at the intersection.

Chen Ping did not leave the park immediately.

He took a long detour, walking from the side of the park to the back of the three core computer room buildings. This area was separated by a wall more than two meters high, which was also covered with cameras and electric fences.

He walked along the wall at a leisurely pace.

Suddenly, his gaze was drawn to a pile of garbage in the corner of the wall. Several black garbage bags were piled up haphazardly there, one of which had a hole in it, and some papers and debris were scattered out.

A gust of wind blew by, and an A4 sheet of paper was rolled up and flew to get caught on the barbed wire fence of the wall.

Chen Ping walked over and naturally took the paper down.

It was a printed table with the heading "7nm EUV Process Yield Test Record (17th time)". The table contained a lot of complicated data and parameters, such as "exposure dose", "etch depth" and "film stress", which Chen Ping could not understand at all.

But at the very bottom of the table, in the footer, there's a blue logo printed there.

That's a name that's very famous in the global semiconductor industry—ASML.

The only Dutch company in the world capable of producing high-end lithography machines.

Chen Ping held the paper in his hand, his fingertips applying slight pressure.

His face remained expressionless, but his eyes suddenly changed.

The Chipfire Industrial Park, touted as a domestically developed industrial park, ultimately failed. A factory building is now heavily guarded by a mysterious security force. Now, a record of a core technology experiment bearing the logo of a global semiconductor giant has surfaced.

These three things were linked together, and a suspicion that was far more serious than embezzling state assets and reselling land arose in Chen Ping's mind.

He slowly folded the paper in half, then in half again, and carefully put it into his pocket.

Chen Ping glanced up at the mysterious building, then turned and quickly left. He knew this wasn't some abandoned project; the problems were extremely serious and could explode at any moment.

And that piece of paper is the key to uncovering all of this.