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

Song Yue screwed the pen cap back on and put it back on the table, leaving a line of blue ink on the signature column.

He didn't shake hands or say much, but closed the folder and pushed it towards Chen Ping.

Chen Ping took it, flipped to the last page to confirm his signature, closed the box, and put it into his briefcase.

The meeting room was silent for three seconds. The female researcher stood up first, and the others followed suit. Song Yue remained seated, tapping his right index finger twice on the edge of the table before speaking.

"Formula documents, delivered within one week."

Chen Ping fastened the clasp and stood up.

"Jiang Fan will be in charge of coordinating the construction progress with you throughout the entire process."

He turned and walked down the corridor without lingering. Behind him, several researchers gathered around the laptop again, discussing in hushed tones in a mix of German and Chinese.

In the corridor, the sound of rain seeped in through the window cracks, sometimes heavy, sometimes light.

---

Liaison officer Wu took him to the airport, and only after his boarding pass was printed did he speak his second sentence of the day.

"Did it go smoothly?"

Chen Ping put his boarding pass into his pocket.

"smoothly."

He walked slowly toward the security checkpoint. He turned on his phone; Zhang Chao's number was at the top, accompanied by a fifteen-second voice message.

I found an empty chair, sat down, and put it close to my ear.

"Director, something's happened in the city. Yan Qinghua raised a topic at the Standing Committee meeting yesterday, saying that to streamline the organization, the function of approving industrial electricity consumption quotas for our center should be transferred to the Municipal Development and Reform Commission."

The voice paused for two seconds.

"I did as you said before I left, I didn't move, I waited."

Chen Ping took the phone away from his ear, placed it on his lap, and glanced ahead. Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows of the departure lounge, thick clouds hung heavy over Berlin, showing no sign of dissipating.

He dialed Zhang Chao's number, and the other end answered without saying a word, just waiting.

"Keep waiting, let them in."

After hanging up the phone, I put it on silent, leaned back in my chair, and closed my eyes.

---

The plane landed on the third day.

As soon as Chen Ping entered the central office, Zhang Chao pushed a document over, moved his chair half a step to the side, and leaned closer.

"Yan Qinghua has approved it. The official document has been issued, and the industrial electricity quota verification business has been transferred to the Municipal Development and Reform Commission. It will start next week."

Chen Ping took the document, glanced at it, and placed it on the corner of the table.

"What about the list of coordinators?"

Zhang Chao flipped out another piece of paper.

"The person in charge is Luo Ming, the deputy director of the Planning Department of the National Development and Reform Commission. The other two are his subordinates, who are responsible for data verification."

"When will you arrive?"

Tomorrow morning, nine o'clock.

---

Luo Ming is a man who walks with a swagger.

Upon entering, I slapped the letter of introduction from the National Development and Reform Commission on the front desk. The two young men behind me, carrying laptop bags, followed closely behind.

Zhang Chao waited in the lobby and stretched out his hand.

"Director Luo, welcome. I'm Zhang Chao, the center's assistant. The director asked me to greet you."

Luo Ming shook hands and glanced at Zhang Chao.

"Where is Director Chen?"

"The director has a meeting with other provinces today and will be back later. I'll take a few people to familiarize themselves with the situation first."

Luo Ming hummed in agreement and walked inside.

On the third floor, in the data studio, Zhang Chao pushed open the door and stepped aside to let him pass.

"The industrial electricity data system is here, and the operation port for index verification is on the main unit. Would you like a technician to explain this to us?"

Luo Ming shook his head, walked to the main unit, inserted his USB drive, and waited for three seconds.

A dialog box pops up on the screen.

[System is currently locked. The current permissions do not meet the operation requirements. Please contact the administrator.]

I unplugged it, plugged it back in, and the same dialog box popped up again.

Luo Ming turned to look at Zhang Chao.

"What's going on?"

Zhang Chao bent down to look at the screen, picked up the extension phone on the table, and dialed a few numbers.

"Xiao Liu, the system in the data room on the third floor is inaccessible. Could you come over here?"

I hung up the phone and straightened up.

"A technician will be here soon; it's probably a permissions configuration issue."

Two minutes later, technician Xiao Liu pushed open the door, sat down in front of the host, and typed a series of keys. The screen froze on the login page and didn't move forward.

Xiao Liu looked down and flipped through the backstage logs. After thirty seconds, he spoke.

"This account has no record in the system. To operate it, you need to go through the permission application process again."

Luo Ming took the letter of introduction out again and placed it on the table.

"The official letter from the National Development and Reform Commission is right here, what other procedures are needed?"

Xiao Liu picked up the official letter and flipped through it slowly and deliberately.

"I saw the official letter, but the system's operating permissions are independent. Ports involving the verification of industrial electricity consumption indicators belong to the first-level data permissions, and according to the operating procedures, the approval process is very long."

He brought up a flowchart on the screen and pushed it to the side.

"As you can see, there are seven steps involved in applying for Level 1 data access. First, it needs to be reviewed by our center's technical committee, then it needs to be filed with the data security sub-center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, then the National Audit Office needs to confirm the data confidentiality clauses, and finally all documents need to be archived at the National Natural Science Foundation of China Management Committee."

Luo Ming watched it from beginning to end, and then he became serious.

"How long will it take to walk all the way?"

Xiao Liu tilted his head and calculated carefully.

"If all goes well, it will take two to three months."

Luo Ming took the official letter back from the table, rolled it up twice, held it in his hand, and didn't say anything.

The two young men behind him put their laptop bags back on and exchanged a glance.

Zhang Chao stood to the side, looking apologetic.

"Director Luo, I wasn't aware of this situation beforehand. It's indeed a requirement of the center's technical regulations, and there's no way to circumvent it. Would you like to prepare the application materials first, or..."

"We'll take care of the materials ourselves."

Luo Ming shoved the rolled-up official document into his suit pocket, turned and walked toward the door, his steps a full step heavier than when he came in.

Two subordinates followed, their footsteps quickening in the corridor before disappearing at the stairwell.

Zhang Chao stood in the studio for a while, then turned to look at Xiao Liu.

"Is your process genuine?"

Xiao Liu closed the background log interface and shrugged.

"The application procedure for Level 1 data access was something the director asked me to add to the system last month. Every single one of it is based on the technical specifications of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and there are no loopholes."

Zhang Chao closed the door, took out his phone, and sent Chen Ping a message with only six words.

"The person has come in, but is stuck."

Ten seconds later, he replied with two words.

"receive."

---

The first thing Luo Ming did upon returning was to send a screenshot of the application process flowchart to Yan Qinghua's secretary.

Two minutes later, the phone rang again, and the person on the other end didn't beat around the bush.

"What's going on?"

"We can't access the system." Luo Ming recounted what had happened, adding at the end, "Seven nodes, at least three months."

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone before the secretary cleared her throat.

"When was this process added?"

"last month."

---

In Yan Qinghua's office, he zoomed in on the screenshot, staring at the third node in the flowchart: confirmation of the National Audit Office's data confidentiality clause.

I pressed my finger on that line of text, paused for two seconds, and then released it.

last month.

Chen Ping's application to visit Berlin was submitted three weeks ago.

In other words, that set of procedures was already established before the application for approval was submitted.

Yan Qinghua placed his phone face down on the table and leaned back in his chair.

He'd been in Nanzhou for twenty years, and had seen at least eight hundred, if not a thousand, games. But this kind of play…

Chen Pingfang's actions weren't a last-minute solution. He had known all along that someone would come in while he was away, so he locked the door beforehand and deliberately left a small opening so that anyone who came in would run into it and get hurt.

Yan Qinghua picked up the teacup, but didn't drink it; he put it back down.

Outside the window, the wind swept through the courtyard, pressing down the leaves of the old locust tree, then rustled and fell silent again.

He stared at the still-lit screen, the words on the seventh node clearly visible: National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund Management Committee Attachment Archive.

The National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (Big Fund).

These are the same words again.