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

The river wind rushed into my collar, chilling me to the bone.

There was no one on the viewing boardwalk under the Nanjiang Bridge; only the distant city lights cast fragmented reflections on the river.

Xiao Yuhan, wrapped in a trench coat with her hands in her pockets, saw Chen Pingfang approaching and said with a teasing tone, "Secretary-General Chen, you've really become famous. Tonight, I wonder how many people in the Southern Prefecture's officialdom will be unable to sleep because of this big incident you've orchestrated."

Chen Ping walked to the railing and stood next to her, his gaze fixed on the dark river surface, his voice carried away by the wind.

"One Zhao Ming isn't enough to keep them up at night."

"Zhao Ming is just a small fry, but by messing with him, you've essentially slapped Wang Weidong in the face." Xiao Yuhan's smile faded, and her expression turned serious. "I just received news that Vice Mayor Wang isn't someone to be trifled with. He didn't back down after being hit; instead, he's started fighting back."

She exhaled a puff of white breath, which quickly dissipated in the cold air.

"He contacted Guo Rui from the provincial capital construction investment company, the same person you kicked out last time. They've got their eyes on the power capacity expansion for the second phase of the Xinhuo project."

"Electricity?" Chen Pingfang's eyebrows twitched.

"Yes." Xiao Yuhan lowered her voice slightly. "Wang Weidong has worked in the industrial sector for over a decade, and he has people all over the Nanzhou Power Supply Bureau. He plans to use the summer peak electricity demand and the overload of the city's power grid as an excuse to keep delaying the approval of your second-phase project's dedicated substation. He wants to use this method to bring your project to a complete standstill."

Chen Pingfang immediately understood their intention. They wanted to use this to force him to make concessions to the provincial capital's capital on the cooperation agreements for the more than one hundred newly established companies.

His eyes turned cold.

What flashed through Chen Ping's mind were the sophisticated imported equipment from Jiang Fan's team in Factory Building No. 3.

Semiconductor production lines are extremely power-consuming and also very fragile.

Unstable power supply, even with voltage fluctuations lasting only a fraction of a second, can render an entire batch of wafers unusable, resulting in losses in the tens of millions. If someone deliberately cuts off the power, the core equipment being tested could suffer irreparable physical damage due to the sudden shutdown.

That 8 billion yuan investment, the future of hundreds of companies, and the hard work of Jiang Fan and the veteran engineers will all turn into a pile of expensive scrap metal after a single power outage.

That's a ruthless move.

Wang Weidong is trying to destroy the Corefire project from the root.

Seeing Chen Pingfang remain silent, Xiao Yuhan took out a brown paper bag from her handbag and handed it to him.

"Your teacher, Professor Sun Zhixue, asked me to give this to you. He said it might come in handy."

Chen Ping took the paper bag, which was quite heavy. He opened it and found a printed report inside. The cover was printed with the words "Internal Research Report of Jiangbei Provincial Power Company" and was stamped with an internal circulation stamp.

He opened the report and quickly began to read it.

The data and charts in the report show that there are problems with the industrial electricity consumption data of Nanzhou City in the past two years.

In particular, several old industrial parks in the East and West districts report very high electricity consumption and enjoy electricity price subsidies year after year under the name of high energy-consuming enterprises, but their actual industrial output value is getting lower and lower year by year.

The report included several photocopies of electricity bills, with the recipients being several familiar shell companies—the very same ones Zhao Ming used to fraudulently obtain environmental subsidies.

The industrial supporting facilities under these companies have abnormally high electricity consumption, even exceeding that of a nearby medium-sized steel mill.

Chen Ping gently tapped the company names with his fingertips.

Everything is connected.

Wang Weidong's brother-in-law, Zhao Ming, wasn't involved in any industrial support business at all; he was reselling industrial electricity!

He used Wang Weidong's connections to obtain a large number of industrial electricity quotas at very low prices, and then sold them at high prices to surrounding shopping malls, entertainment venues, and even some people who were secretly mining, through these shell companies.

The profit margin in the middle is frighteningly high.

This is not only Wang Weidong's money bag, but also the source of evidence he fabricated to claim that industrial electricity load was overloaded.

"He's using the power shortage he created to strangle me." Chen Ping closed the report, his face expressionless.

"What do you want to do? Go to Mayor Li Jianguo? Or file a complaint with the provincial power company?" Xiao Yuhan asked.

"Asking for help?" Chen Ping shook his head. "It's too slow and too passive. Wang Weidong dared to do this because he knew I only had these two options."

He put the report back into the brown paper bag and turned to look at Xiao Yuhan.

"Doesn't Wang Weidong like to use rules as an excuse? Then I'll use an even bigger rule to completely eliminate him."

What he wanted to use was the authority to coordinate the city's industry that Li Jianguo had just given him.

"I want to launch a comprehensive survey of industrial electricity efficiency and carbon emission indicators covering the entire southern prefecture."

Xiao Yuhan was stunned.

Her mind raced, and she immediately understood Chen Pingfang's idea, which surprised her greatly.

This isn't a simple survey; it's a thorough investigation into all industrial electricity use in Nanzhou!

Chen Pingfang didn't intend to drag things out with Wang Weidong over the power approval process; he wanted to cut off Wang Weidong's escape route from another angle.

Once the census order is issued, he can legitimately demand that all industrial enterprises report their electricity consumption and corresponding output data. Once the data is analyzed, those fictitious projects in Wang Weidong's profit chain that only consume electricity but produce no output will be immediately discovered.

At that point, it won't be Chen Pingfang begging the power company to give him electricity; it will be Wang Weidong crying and begging Chen Pingfang to stop investigating!

"What's wrong with your brain?" Xiao Yuhan looked at him and said this after a long while.

Chen Ping put away his briefcase and watched Xiao Yuhan's figure disappear into the night.

He stood alone by the river, the cold wind ruffling his clothes. He took out his phone and sent a short message to Zhang Chao.

"Notify the General Office to prepare the documents. I will be convening a city-wide mobilization meeting for the industrial electricity consumption census first thing tomorrow morning."

The struggle in Nanzhou has shifted from direct conflict to a covert contest over the city's power grid.

……

Early morning, Nanzhou Municipal Government Building.

In the corner of the third floor, right next to the elevator, in a small office, Zhang Chao was respectfully reporting his work to Chen Ping.

"Director, this is the meeting agenda for the citywide census of industrial electricity efficiency and carbon emission indicators that you requested. It has been prepared according to your instructions."

"Hmm." Chen Ping's gaze remained fixed on the document, without looking up.

The elevator dinged, the doors opened, and another burst of noisy footsteps made the already cramped office feel even more crowded.

Zhang Chao paused, then lowered his voice and added, "Also, Director... there's a comrade in the downstairs reception room who calls himself Zhou Jianshe. He's from Qingyuan County, carrying large bags and saying he had an appointment with you and has been waiting downstairs for almost two hours."