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

"This thing is used to kill people."

After Lin Yuanzhou finished speaking, Chen Ping's back pressed against the iron frame, feeling very cold.

Chen Pingfang didn't speak; he glanced at the center of the warehouse.

The technician wearing silver-rimmed glasses was squatting on the ground, helping Old Zhao from the Quality Supervision Bureau put the test report into a cardboard box, talking to Old Zhao with a smile.

The four people Ma Donglin brought were still operating in front of the laptop, scanning the firmware of the last few devices, the keyboard still clattering away.

On the surface, everything seems normal.

Chen Ping turned his gaze back and nodded to Lin Yuanzhou.

He meant that there were too many people here, making it inconvenient to talk, and that they needed to find another place.

Forty minutes later, they arrived at a windowless, confidential meeting room on the third floor of the management committee building.

The door was locked from the inside. Ma Donglin personally checked all the electronic devices in the room and even unplugged the network cable from the wall.

He also made everyone hand over their phones, and then threw them all into a shielded bag by the door.

There were only the three of them in the room, sitting around a table.

On the table were several A3-sized photos, taken by Lin Yuanzhou from the motherboard of device A-17, clearly showing the appearance of the gray ceramic chip.

Lin Yuanzhou pushed the photo to the center of the table and pointed to the solder joints of the four flying wires next to the chip.

He coughed because his throat was a little dry, and then he continued, "Let me state my conclusion first."

"This chip is very special. I don't think it's used to steal data, nor does it seem like a typical bugging device."

Ma Donglin placed his hands on the table, then leaned forward and asked,

"Then what's it used for?"

"It is a high-precision timing physical disturbance."

Lin Yuanzhou took out a ballpoint pen from his pocket and drew a simple circuit diagram in the blank space of the photo, talking as he drew.

"Look at the connection points of these four flying wires. They are all soldered to the physical layer channel of the data bus, bypassing all logical layers. This means that it does not interact with the operating system, does not go through any software, and conventional security scans are completely useless against it."

The pen tip drew an arrow on the diagram, pointing to the rice-grain-sized energy storage unit.

"This energy storage unit has a capacity of about 0.3 farads, and it can allow the chip to operate at low power for more than 72 hours after a power outage. But that's not the most critical thing."

Lin Yuanzhou put down his pen and picked up another enlarged image of the side of the chip.

"This is the key."

At the edge of the photo, on one corner of the ceramic package, there is a groove the size of a pinhead.

"This is the receiver port of a miniature radio frequency antenna."

Chen Ping's thumb stopped on the edge of the table.

"Remote trigger?"

"Yes." Lin Yuanzhou nodded. "This chip can receive wireless commands on specific frequency bands. Once triggered, it will generate a very small voltage fluctuation in the device's power supply or signal transmission with millisecond-level precision."

He stretched out his right hand, pinching his thumb and forefinger together, leaving a gap of less than a millimeter.

"It's so small. So small that the equipment's self-test program can't detect it at all, and the operator can't see any abnormalities on the monitoring panel."

Ma Donglin frowned but didn't interrupt.

Chen Pingfang didn't say anything, waiting for Lin Yuanzhou to finish speaking.

"but."

Lin Yuanzhou placed the two photos side by side and tapped them on the table with a ballpoint pen.

"The voltage stability requirement for the epitaxial growth of silicon carbide wafers is on the order of one part per million. During the critical stage of epitaxial deposition, such as the high-temperature steady-state period from the 37th to the 42nd minute, if there is a power supply jitter lasting for two milliseconds with an amplitude of five parts per million, a dislocation defect will be generated in the lattice structure of the epitaxial layer."

He paused for a moment, then looked up.

"This defect is invisible to the naked eye, cannot be detected by an optical microscope, and is even difficult to detect by conventional X-ray diffraction. But it is there, buried deep in the crystal lattice, waiting to be activated."

Chen Ping straightened his back from the chair.

What are the activation conditions?

"High voltage and high frequency," Lin Yuanzhou answered crisply. "The core applications of silicon carbide devices, such as inverters in new energy vehicles, power amplifiers in 5G base stations, and traction systems in high-speed rail, are all high-voltage and high-frequency environments. Under these conditions, dislocation defects in the crystal lattice will rapidly expand, forming microcracks, eventually causing the entire device to burn out."

"Can the factory test detect this?" Ma Donglin asked.

"Cannot be found."

Lin Yuanzhou shook his head.

"The voltage and frequency tested at the factory are far below the limits of actual operating conditions, and dislocation defects will not be exposed at all under low pressure. All test indicators, such as breakdown voltage, leakage current, and continuity resistance, will pass the test perfectly."

The meeting room was silent for a few seconds.

The exhaust fan overhead was humming, and that was the only sound in the conference room.

Chen Ping picked up the chip photo, held it up to his eyes, and stared at the four-millimeter-square gray cube.

Four millimeters.

This tiny thing, tucked into the corner of the motherboard of a precision device, doesn't consume software resources or leave any digital traces. It lies there quietly, just waiting for a wireless signal.

Once the signal arrives, it creates a tiny disturbance during the most critical few minutes of wafer growth.

After the disturbance, everything returned to normal. The equipment was normal, the data was normal, and the production line was normal.

But from that moment on, every wafer that came off this production line was scrap.

These defective products will pass all tests, be labeled as qualified, and be packed into the customer's products. Then, three to five months later, they will suddenly explode in large quantities.

Chen Ping put the photo back on the desktop.

By then, the silicon carbide devices from Chipfire Phase II will collectively fail in the products of customers worldwide. New energy vehicles will break down on the road, 5G base stations will be offline, and high-speed trains will be suspended.

What will the customer think?

Domestically produced silicon carbide is no good. The technology is inadequate, the quality is unreliable, and the billions spent on self-sufficiency has turned out to be a joke.

Once the market loses confidence, it can take ten years to recover.

This is far more serious than stealing data.

This is tantamount to completely destroying the foundation of domestically produced silicon carbide.

Chen Ping flipped the photo over, back side up, the white paper somewhat glaring under the fluorescent light.

"Yuanzhou, is the chip in the epitaxial control module of unit A-23 the same function?"

"The packaging method and the flying wire process are exactly the same. The access points are different, but the goal is the same: the physical layer of the power supply circuit. Working on both devices together increases the probability of defects and makes them more concealed."

Chen Ping stood up, the chair leg scraping against the ground with a short, sharp sound.

He walked to the other end of the table, with his back to Lin Yuanzhou and Ma Donglin, his hands resting on the edge of the table, and his head down.

Han Zhengke's smiling face reappeared.

A billion dollars, just like that, given away for free. The gift was given so generously and so elegantly that no one could find fault with it.

Because what Han Zhengke sent wasn't equipment at all, but a conspiracy to destroy Corefire Phase II from within. A trap that would go undetected, and by the time they discovered it, it would be too late.

Chen Ping turned around.

Lin Yuanzhou and Ma Donglin were both looking at him.

"Yuanzhou, can we remove these two chips for reverse engineering?"

"Yes, it's possible. But it requires a cleanroom environment and specialized micro-welding disassembly tools, which the Corefire Center's laboratory can do."

"Take it down and prepare a complete reverse engineering report, including the radio frequency band, triggering protocol, and disturbance parameters. Get me everything."

Lin Yuanzhou nodded.

Chen Ping turned to Ma Donglin.

"Donglin".

Ma Donglin stood up from his chair.

Chen Ping walked up to him and spoke, word by word.

"Get ready to close the net. This time, I'm going to bring them down completely at the height of their glory."

Ma Donglin's Adam's apple bobbed, but he didn't say anything. He reached out and picked up the photo of the chip from the table, folded it in half, and stuffed it into the inner pocket of his down jacket.

All that remained on the table was the circuit diagram drawn by Lin Yuanzhou. The blue ink from the ballpoint pen was not yet dry and shimmered slightly in the airflow from the exhaust fan.