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

The atmosphere in the office was tense.

The tablet computer displayed a 3D structural diagram of a massive object 25 meters underground, capable of impacting the entire country's semiconductor industry.

On the other side, Chen Pingfang looked at the line of text on his phone screen and his heart sank.

"County Chief Chen, would you like to know who the real owner of the Corefire project is?"

Jiang Fan's breathing was still heavy, and his face was flushed with excitement. He looked at the lithography machine on the screen, then at the expressionless Chen Pingfang, and felt a little apprehensive.

With such a great achievement right in front of him, why doesn't the director react at all?

"Director, this is..."

"Engineer Jiang," Chen Ping interrupted him, his voice low but calm, "From now on, anything about the underground is a secret between you and me. Go talk to the technical team yourself and get them to sign the highest level of confidentiality agreement. Tell them this isn't a drill; if even a single word is leaked, no one can afford the consequences."

He paused, his eyes sharpening. "Factory Building No. 3 is to be immediately designated a Level 1 restricted area. Security will be tripled, with Old Ma personally leading the patrols, 24/7. No one except you and me is allowed to approach. Tell everyone we've discovered a risk of geological subsidence and need to reinforce it urgently."

Jiang Fan wasn't stupid; he sensed danger in Chen Pingfang's arrangement. His earlier excitement vanished instantly, replaced by a chill down his spine.

How much power must the people behind this be to bury such important equipment like garbage?

"I understand!" Jiang Fan nodded vigorously, picked up the safety helmet on the table, and walked out quickly.

The office door closed gently, and Chen Ping stood alone in the room, with only the faint hum of the computer tower remaining.

He did not report to his superiors immediately.

Before knowing how many people are involved, taking rash action will only alert the enemy and may even get you caught up in the crossfire.

He swiped his phone and found a number without a name saved in his contacts, containing only one character – “three”.

The phone was answered after only one ring.

"Speak." A young yet composed male voice came from the other end of the line, in a quiet background.

"I've uncovered a major case." Chen Ping walked to the window, looking out at the dark park. "The case is bigger than I imagined, and it's right here in Nanzhou. Now, someone has given me a lead, but I don't know who it is."

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone.

"Send me the clues."

"it is good."

Chen Ping hung up the phone, packaged all the data from the anonymous email, including the original code, into an encrypted file, and sent it over.

After doing all this, he waited quietly.

He knew that "Third Brother's" technology was the best in their system. If even he couldn't trace the source, then this matter would be even more troublesome.

Time passed second by second.

Chen Ping's mind raced, connecting all the clues.

Hu Jinshan, the 12 billion yuan black hole of state-owned assets, the empty shell of the Stardust Project, and the true purpose of debt-to-equity swaps—all these things point to that illicit lithography machine underground.

Hu Jinshan was merely a greedy and foolish gatekeeper. What was the real boss behind him, who went to great lengths to smuggle this equipment into the country and then conceal it under a multi-billion dollar project, really planning?

Is it for researching and imitation?

However, if their purpose was to research and imitate, they would have chosen a more discreet location, rather than placing it in such an obvious place as the Nanzhou High-tech Zone.

That doesn't make sense.

Unless... this lithography machine itself is a tool used to launder money of dubious origin under the guise of investing in high-tech projects.

Yes, it's money laundering through technology.

Chen Pingfang felt that he had finally figured it out. This explanation was the most reasonable one. The purpose of the Corefire project from the very beginning was to launder money.

Hey.

My phone vibrated; it was a message from "Third Brother," equally brief.

"I checked the IP address; it's fake. It used over a dozen layers of overseas proxy servers and some compromised computers, so it's not very useful for tracking. However, the registration information for that sending email address is a bit interesting."

A screenshot is attached below.

That was some information from an anonymous email account's backend. The phone number linked during registration was an anonymous SIM card.

"This card was sold three months ago at a newsstand at the provincial capital's train station. It was bought in cash, so we can't trace who bought it. However..."

The third brother's message came right away.

"When it is first turned on, the signal for receiving the verification code comes from this base station."

A map was sent over.

There's a red circle drawn on the map, and inside the circle are some words that say:

Jiangbei Province, State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) residential compound.

Chen Pingfang was shocked when he saw these words.

State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC).

He immediately understood that this must be related to the 12 billion yuan of state-owned assets, because that money came from the provincial State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

This clue is very important.

"Can you pinpoint which specific household it is?" Chen Pingfang immediately typed.

"That area is too big to do. But this kind of thing definitely doesn't happen casually. I checked if there have been any unusual personnel changes in this residential compound in the past few years." The third brother seemed to have guessed what he was going to ask. "I found that three years ago, there was an accountant named Sun Jiancheng, who was in his fifties, very capable, and a very good person. He suddenly said he was sick and applied for early retirement. I find this very strange."

"Sun Jiancheng..." Chen Pingfang murmured the name.

"Yes. I heard he has a very straightforward personality. He had an argument with the deputy director in charge of enterprise reform at the time because of some accounting issues. Not long after, he took sick leave."

An old accountant who was forced out.

An anonymous email sent from the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission's (SASAC) residential compound.

Chen Ping was almost certain that this Sun Jiancheng was the person who sent him the email with the clue.

He may have crucial evidence, but he doesn't dare to come forward directly, so he can only use this anonymous method to remind himself, the newcomer.

He glanced at the time; it was already 11 p.m.

He felt he couldn't wait any longer.

Now that this matter has been exposed, Sun Jiancheng's situation may become very dangerous.

"Send me Sun Jiancheng's exact address."

He didn't bring his secretary Zhang Chao with him, but drove his low-key black Audi alone, leaving the Corefire Industrial Park and disappearing into the night.

An hour later, the car quietly stopped in a dark alley outside the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission's residential compound.

This was an old-style compound belonging to a work unit, without the strict access control found in modern residential communities. Therefore, Chen Pingfang easily walked in.

It was already late at night, and the hallway was quiet except for the sound of his own footsteps.

He found the address given to him by the third brother: Room 502 on the fifth floor of Unit 3.

The door was an old-fashioned green security door, and the red "Fu" character pasted on it had faded a bit.

Chen Ping raised his hand, preparing to knock on the door.

His hand froze in mid-air, not striking.

He discovered that the door was ajar, with a crack about the width of a finger.

An indescribable smell wafted out from under the door; it smelled of dust and moldy paper.

What made his heart sink even more was that he heard a sound coming from inside the house. Although it was very faint, he could tell that it was the sound of something being rummaged through.

There was a rustling sound, like someone was rummaging through a filing cabinet.