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

The day after the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection took Liu Guangping away, the weather in Nanzhou was unexpectedly sunny.

The events that unfolded in the No. 1 meeting room of the municipal party committee did not cause much of a stir and ended quietly. Apart from a few people in the inner circle, most people only knew that Executive Vice Mayor Liu Guangping was under investigation for violating discipline and the law.

In officialdom, many people sensed the danger, but on the surface, nothing seemed amiss.

Chen Ping's life returned to normal. He threw himself into the follow-up work of the Chipfire Industrial Park, starting with asset verification, personnel restructuring, and technical evaluation, each of which was extremely troublesome.

That afternoon, an unfamiliar local number called.

"Hello, is this Chen Pingfang? I'm your college classmate, class monitor Li Wei!" The voice on the other end of the phone was a man's, sounding very enthusiastic.

Chen Ping's mind conjured up the image of a classmate wearing glasses. "Li Wei, hello."

"Wow, Pingfang, you're the pride of our class now!" Li Wei's voice was full of praise. "The top leader of Nanzhou High-tech Zone, my goodness, I never would have guessed you'd quietly made such a big splash!"

Chen Ping rubbed his temples and asked directly, "Is something the matter?"

"Hey, look at my memory," Li Wei said quickly. "It's the weekend, and some of our classmates in Nanzhou are thinking of having a small get-together to welcome you. You absolutely have to come; everyone wants to meet you, our big boss."

In the past, Chen Pingfang never liked attending these kinds of gatherings. After graduation, classmates went their separate ways, their circles changed, and when they got together again, it was either reminiscing about the past or comparing themselves to each other, which wasn't very interesting.

Just as he was about to refuse, Li Wei added, "Oh, by the way, Lu Yuan is coming too, you know, that bookworm from our dorm. He doesn't seem to be doing so well these days, working as a tech guy at some small, run-down company. We got in touch this time too."

Lu Yuan?

Chen Ping's fingertips stopped on the table.

That person was the only one I could talk to until midnight about the molecular formula of photoresist during my four years of university, and who vowed to work with me to build China's own photoresist machine.

"Send me the address," Chen Pingfang said.

……

Saturday night, at Guanlan Pavilion, a high-end hotel in Nanzhou.

As soon as Chen Ping's Hongqi car arrived at the door, squad leader Li Wei, who had been waiting for a long time, ran up to greet him with a big smile and personally opened the car door for him.

"Put it flat! Oh, Director Chen! It's such an honor for us that you could come!"

Chen Ping nodded and followed Li Wei into the reserved private room.

There were already more than a dozen people in the private room. When Chen Ping was let in, the noisy room immediately quieted down, and then became lively again.

"It's laid flat!"

"Look, our Director Chen has arrived!"

A group of well-dressed men and women swarmed around them, each with a warm smile on their face.

"Director Chen, I'm Wang Tao, the one who slept in the bunk above you back in the day! I'm now with the Municipal Planning Bureau. If you ever need anything about planning for your High-tech Zone, just say the word!" A man with a beer belly patted his chest vigorously.

"Brother Pingfang, do you remember me? I'm Liu Lili. My husband works in engineering. If there are any projects in the High-tech Zone..." a woman with exquisite makeup said sweetly.

These familiar yet unfamiliar faces, speaking sweet words, handed out business cards printed with various titles.

Chen Pingfang greeted them with a smile. He knew that these people were interested in his position as director of the High-tech Zone Management Committee.

Amidst the noise, he spotted Lu Yuan in the corner at a glance.

Lu Yuan was still the same as always, wearing a slightly faded plaid shirt and thick glasses, sitting quietly there, completely out of place in the private room. On the table in front of him was a glass of plain water.

Chen Ping pushed through the crowd and walked straight over.

"Lu Yuan".

Lu Yuan, who was looking down at his phone, suddenly looked up and saw Chen Pingfang. His eyes behind his glasses lit up, and he adjusted his glasses and stood up: "Pingfang, you're here."

His voice was somewhat reserved, but his eyes were clear.

"Sit down." Chen Ping sat down next to him, ignoring the surprised looks from the people behind them.

"You..." Lu Yuan opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, but didn't know where to start. "I saw the news. You... are very capable."

"What's so great about that?" Chen Ping poured him a cup of tea. "We're all just trying to make a living."

As the two were talking, a voice rang out.

"Hey, isn't this our top student from Lu University? What, still fiddling with those crappy chips? Let me tell you, that stuff has no future. Foreign countries have already blocked us. Look at me, I went straight to a bank after graduation, and now I'm the deputy general manager of the credit department. I just bought a Panamera last month."

The speaker was Zhou Kai, the class's most attention-seeking student back then. He was holding a wine glass, his face flushed, and he was shaking the gold watch on his wrist.

Back in school, he targeted Lu Yuan because the girl he was pursuing had feelings for him.

Lu Yuan's face flushed red, his lips moved, but he didn't utter a rebuttal. He was a tech guy, not good at arguing.

"Zhou Kai, say less." Class monitor Li Wei stepped in to smooth things over, but his words carried a different meaning. "Lu Yuan is a tech guy, he's aloof. Unlike us common folk, we only care about money and power. Come on, Director Chen, let me toast you. We classmates are all counting on your help in the future."

As he spoke, he was about to fill Chen Ping's glass with Moutai.

Chen Ping raised his hand and blocked the bottle.

His gaze swept over Zhou Kai and Li Wei's faces, then settled on Lu Yuan, and he calmly asked:

"Lu Yuan, do you remember what we said in the lab during our junior year?"

Lu Yuan paused for a moment, then his eyes reddened slightly, and he nodded heavily: "I remember. You said that we should build our own industrial park in the future, free from any interference, dedicated to paving the way for technology. I said, as long as there is such a place, I will work for you for the rest of my life."

It was a promise made by two twenty-year-olds in the 155 laboratory to a second-hand lithography machine model.

The surrounding students quieted down, looked at each other, and didn't understand why Chen Pingfang suddenly said this.

Chen Ping smiled, picked up his phone, and pulled up a photo in front of everyone.

That's a photo of the underground of Factory Building No. 3 in the Chipfire Industrial Park. The wreckage of a dismantled lithography machine lies in the deep pit.

"This is the Chipfire Industrial Park in our High-tech Zone. It was just unearthed a while ago."

Chen Pingfang's voice wasn't loud, but every word clearly reached everyone's ears.

"They tore it down, wanting to keep our high-tech industry forever kneeling on the ground."

Chen Ping put away his phone and turned his gaze back to Lu Yuan.

"Now, I want to rebuild it and get it running again. Not only that, I also want to use it as a foundation to build a completely new semiconductor industry chain that truly belongs to the Chinese people."

Chen Ping stood up and extended his hand to Lu Yuan.

"The industrial park I mentioned back then now exists. It's called Corefire."

"Lu Yuan, I'm asking you, are you coming or not?"

The entire private room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Everyone was stunned by Chen Pingfang's words. They thought it was just an ordinary classmate reunion to curry favor with the leaders, but they never expected Chen Pingfang to say something like this.

Zhou Kai's smug expression froze. Li Wei's hand, holding the wine bottle, stood still in mid-air.

They suddenly realized that they and Chen Pingfang were no longer from the same world. They were still talking about cars and houses, while Chen Pingfang was talking about national industries worth tens of billions.

Lu Yuan's breathing became rapid. He stared intently at Chen Pingfang, his usually evasive eyes now filled with light. He suddenly stood up, pushed aside the chair in front of him, and gripped Chen Pingfang's hand tightly.

His hands were trembling, and his voice was trembling too.

"I'll do it!"

That one word was spoken with great emphasis.

Just then, Chen Ping's phone rang.

He released his hand and glanced at the caller ID; it was Jiang Fan.

Chen Ping walked to the window to answer the phone. The private room remained quiet, and everyone's eyes followed him.

"Director," came Jiang Fan's voice from the other end of the phone, his voice trembling with suppressed excitement.

"We just risked connecting the main control system to backup power and cleaned up several critical circuits..."

Jiang Fan took a deep breath and shouted it out with all his might.

"Director, the equipment's circuit is connected, and it's even running!"