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

Jiang Fan waited for an answer, holding the report in his hand without moving.

The roar of the pile driver came from deep within the construction site. Chen Ping stood at the edge of the ceremonial platform and did not respond.

He had to fly to Berlin in person and provide a written commitment.

Passport approval follows foreign affairs procedures, and overseas visits also require approval from the municipal party committee. With all the necessary documents, the process takes at least a month, requiring a round trip. A response is required within two weeks; these two matters are completely out of sync.

"What did you reply at the time?"

"They said they would coordinate as soon as possible." Jiang Fan squeezed the report. "The other side said there are three other institutions in talks, and we should wait for a reply within two weeks at the latest. If we don't get a reply then, we won't wait any longer."

Two weeks.

Chen Ping turned around and walked towards the parking lot.

"Submit the application for the overseas visit today. The materials are complete, so we'll expedite the process."

---

On the third day after the application was submitted, it got stuck.

Zhang Chao placed the receipt on Chen Ping's table. It was a thin piece of paper with the seal of the Foreign Affairs Office. The main text contained only one line: "Please review by relevant leaders and await approval."

They neither approved nor rejected it; they just left it there.

Chen Ping picked up the paper, flipped it over, then flipped it back, casually put it down, and dialed the number of the director of the Municipal Foreign Affairs Office. The other party answered and spoke in a roundabout way, the gist of which was that there were instructions from above that during this special period, the main leaders of state-owned enterprises must go through the review process of the mayor's office meeting before leaving the country, and he did not have the authority to approve it on his own.

After hanging up the phone, Chen Ping sat in a chair for a while.

The mayor's office meeting was being blocked by Yan Qinghua.

Ma Guoliang's case had barely been uncovered when he turned around and tampered with passport approvals. His methods were clean, his procedures were compliant, and there was nothing wrong with him from any angle.

This person truly deserves to have spent twenty years in Nanzhou; he has thoroughly figured out what a safe and reliable fighting style is.

Chen Ping pushed the receipt to the corner of the table and called Jiang Fan in.

"Contact the Foreign Affairs Bureau of the Municipal Party Committee and send them a copy of the materials for the trip for their records. In the remarks, make it clear that this trip involves Article 17 of the Annex to the Big Fund Agreement, the Strategic Procurement Special Envoy Clause."

Jiang Fan was stunned for a moment.

"Strategic procurement envoy? Is this clause in the annex?"

"Article 17, go and look it up."

---

The mayor's office meeting is scheduled for Wednesday morning.

There were seven or eight people in the conference room. Yan Qinghua sat in the main seat, slammed a stack of materials on the table, and began to speak slowly and deliberately.

"I have read Director Chen's application for the trip abroad. His intentions are good, but there are a few procedural issues that need to be clarified."

He pushed the materials to the center and spoke in a low voice.

"The foreign affairs regulations clearly stipulate that the principal leaders of state-owned enterprises shall not leave the country without the approval of the municipal party committee. Xinhuo is a municipal state-owned enterprise, and Director Chen is the director. No one can break this rule."

The meeting room fell silent for a while.

A deputy mayor next to him was looking down at documents and didn't say anything.

Yan Qinghua finished the sentence, enunciating each word clearly.

"Furthermore, the second phase of Corefire has just completed its groundbreaking ceremony, which is a critical stage of construction. The key person in charge will be away from the country for at least two weeks and up to a month. Who will make the decisions if problems arise on site?"

He paused.

"My opinion is that this trip should not be approved. We can find a more suitable person to negotiate, or postpone it for three months until the first phase of acceptance is completed, and then renegotiate."

Three months.

The photoresist team only gave us a two-week response window, and three months later, they had already been signed by another company.

This statement was presented in a very balanced and reasonable manner, with both disciplinary basis and engineering justification, effectively blocking Chen Ping and leaving him speechless.

---

After the meeting, Chen Ping found a secluded corner outside the municipal party committee building and dialed Lin Xiangdong's number.

"Brother Xiang Dong, there's something I'd like to ask you for a favor."

There were voices coming from inside the car. Lin Xiangdong rolled down the window to muffle the background noise.

"explain."

"Have you invoked Article 17 of the appendix to the agreement signed between the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (Big Fund) and Chipfire, the clause regarding strategic procurement envoys?"

There was a two-second pause on the other end.

"You need to go through this passage."

"My application to go to Berlin was delayed; Yan Qinghua is the one blocking the way."

Lin Xiangdong remained silent for a while, and Chen Pingfang did not respond either; both sides remained quiet.

How important are these people?

"Photoresist, 23 core patents. Without it, the subsequent billions of dollars worth of equipment in the second phase of Chipfire's photolithography process would not be able to run."

Lin Xiangdong responded with a very short reply.

"Okay, give me two days."

The phone hangs up.

Chen Ping put his phone in his pocket, looked up at the sky, and saw that the clouds were low and thick.

He stopped thinking about the outcome. Whether Lin Xiangdong could push it forward, and to what level, was not something he could control; he had simply presented the path forward.

Over the next two days, he focused his attention back on the construction site, monitoring the progress of the pile foundation work. Zhang Chao came to report on the progress, which he read, signed, and put down.

---

On the third day, the General Office of the Provincial Party Committee sent a letter.

The document's header indicates it is from the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund Management Committee, and the co-signing unit is the Industrial Development Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The main text is very short, with only two lines at its core.

"Given that the second phase of the Nanzhou Chipfire Integrated Circuit Base construction has entered the strategic procurement stage, Chen Pingfang, Director of the Industrial Energy Coordination Center, has been specially dispatched to Germany as a special commissioner for national strategic procurement to conduct special coordination work. All local units are requested to fully cooperate."

The date on the document is yesterday.

The director of the provincial party committee's general office personally approved the document with a single word, "Agreed," and stamped it with the official seal. The document was then sent directly to the Nanzhou municipal party committee through internal channels.

When this letter was delivered to Yan Qinghua, he was in his office reviewing documents. His secretary brought in a stack of materials, and this one was sandwiched in the middle without being marked separately.

He flipped through the pages one by one, and when he got to this page, his hand stopped.

The letter bore the letterhead of the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund Management Committee, the joint signature of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the approval stamp of the Provincial Party Committee General Office. All procedures were complete, with nothing missing.

Looking at the date, the entire process from the letter being sent to the provincial party committee's approval took no more than forty-eight hours.

Yan Qinghua had been immersed in the officialdom of Nanzhou for more than 20 years and had seen many people running around for approvals. A normal application for an overseas visit could not be expected to go through the entire process in less than one or two months.

From the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (Big Fund) to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and then to the Provincial Party Committee, the entire process took only 48 hours without any interruptions.

He slowly laid the paper flat, pressed his fingers on the corner, and paused for a moment.

This path was paved long ago.

The secretary was still hunched over, waiting nearby. Yan Qinghua pushed the documents forward a bit, and spoke, not uttering a single unnecessary word.

"Following procedure, transfer to the Foreign Affairs Office and release."

The secretary responded, took the documents, and left, closing the door behind her.

He was the only one left in the office.

Yan Qinghua leaned back in his chair, pulled the provincial party committee's approval document out of the pile of documents, and looked at the signature line again.

Within 48 hours, everything went smoothly, from the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and then to the Provincial Party Committee.

He has been observing people in Nanzhou for twenty years. To see if someone has a powerful backer, he looks at whether he can find someone at a crucial moment and get things settled within 48 hours.

A director at the level of a division chief is able to establish such a channel between the provincial party committee and national ministries in advance.

Yan Qinghua pressed the paper back onto the table, picked up his teacup, but didn't drink from it before putting it down.

Outside the window, the old locust tree in the yard swayed twice in the wind, its leaves hitting the glass with a soft, rustling sound before falling silent again.

He stared at the provincial party committee's red seal on the table, his fingers pressed against the edge of the table, not moving an inch.

For the first time, Yan Qinghua began to re-examine Chen Pingfang.