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

Chen Ping stared at the screen, a layer of cold sweat seeping out of his back.

The two lines of code circled in red by Gu Weizhen on the screen are more than 70% similar.

They are fundamentally of the same origin.

One is a backdoor in EDA software at the very upstream of chip design.

The other is the underlying driver of antivirus software installed on hundreds of millions of computers in China, which claims to protect network security.

This means that the threat from the enemy has penetrated into everyone's lives.

The office was silent except for the faint hum of the server cooling fans.

Gu Weizhen's chest heaved violently; even this tech genius was astonished by his own discovery.

"Director Chen, this matter... this matter must be reported to the highest level immediately!" Gu Weizhen's voice was somewhat hoarse. "This is not a problem that one province or one department can handle!"

Chen Pingfang didn't say anything. He just slowly sat back down in his chair, feeling as if his body had been hollowed out.

Of course he knew he had to report it.

How can we report this? By comparing a piece of code? Who will verify it? Who dares to verify it? The interest groups behind Golden Shield Security Guard are probably hundreds or thousands of times larger than Golden Real Estate.

If you alert them, they only need a remote upgrade to erase all evidence, or even turn around and accuse you of stealing trade secrets.

The evidence he currently possesses is insufficient to bring down the other side.

The vibration of his phone pulled Chen Ping back from his deep thoughts.

He glanced at the caller ID; it was Su Qingwan.

He swiped to answer the call, trying to make his voice sound as normal as possible.

"Feed?"

"Are you still busy?" Su Qingwan's voice, tinged with amusement, came through the receiver, easing his tense nerves slightly. "My dad made his best braised pork today and asked if you wanted to come over and try some."

Chen Ping wanted to refuse, but his mind was filled with those two pieces of fatal code, and he had no appetite at all.

But the words that came out of my mouth turned into...

"Okay, I'll be right there."

He needs to temporarily leave this oppressive environment and clear his head.

~

Su Qingwan's home is in the municipal party committee's residential compound, an old-style three-story building. The osmanthus trees in the courtyard are in bloom, and there is a faint fragrance in the air.

When Chen Pingfang entered the living room, an elderly man with gray hair, wearing an old gray sweater, was reading a newspaper while wearing reading glasses.

Hearing the noise, the old man put down his newspaper, adjusted his glasses, and gave a gentle smile.

"Xiao Chen is here, please have a seat."

This is Su Qingwan's father, Su Wenshan, who retired from his position as the head of the Provincial Propaganda Department.

Su Qingwan came out of the kitchen carrying a plate of sliced ​​fruit and rolled her eyes at her father.

"Dad, how many times have I told you, don't call him Xiao Chen, call him Ping Fang."

"It's all the same, it's all the same." Su Wenshan waved his hand cheerfully, gesturing for Chen Ping to sit down, and personally poured him a cup of hot tea.

The meal was served quickly: three dishes and a soup, all home-style dishes, but they looked, smelled, and tasted delicious.

Su Wenshan didn't talk much about work; he just chatted about family matters, asked about Chen Pingfang's parents' health, and talked about the recent weather in Nanzhou.

The atmosphere at the dinner table was warm and cozy. As they chatted about everyday things, Chen Ping's tense nerves relaxed after a long day.

He even had the illusion that he was just a junior visiting an elder's house for dinner, temporarily forgetting his identity and troubles as the director of the Department of Industry and Information Technology.

After a few rounds of drinks, Su Wenshan put down his chopsticks, wiped his mouth, and spoke seemingly casually.

"Lie it flat. Having trouble at work lately?"

Chen Ping paused for a moment while placing the food with his chopsticks, then resumed his normal motion.

"No, it's fine, Uncle Su."

Su Wenshan smiled, his eyes sharp, as if he could see through people's hearts.

"You child, everything is written on your face. The moment you arrived, I could see you were preoccupied; your brow was never relaxed."

He picked up the teacup and gently blew on the steam.

"I heard about the land issue in the High-tech Zone. It was handled cleanly and efficiently. He Qishan was just trying to squeeze some money out of people by relying on some old connections. It's not a big deal to mess with someone like that."

Chen Pingfang didn't respond, but just listened quietly.

Su Wenshan took another sip of tea and continued speaking slowly.

"Later, I heard that you had a falling out with Sun Heming of the Science and Technology Department. It was a power struggle, or rather, a struggle over policy. Such things are common in officialdom; it's just a matter of who has the final say."

He put down his teacup, looked at Chen Pingfang, and suddenly changed the subject, becoming quite meaningful.

"But, Pingfang, have you ever thought that taking someone else's money isn't so terrible? Taking someone else's position isn't so terrible either?"

Su Wenshan lowered his voice slightly, revealing the solemnity of someone who had been through it all.

"What's dangerous is disrupting someone else's traditions."

The orthodox tradition!

These two words made Chen Pingfang understand many things instantly.

He suddenly raised his head and looked at the seemingly ordinary old man in front of him, his heart filled with unease.

Su Wenshan seemed oblivious to his shock and continued explaining to himself.

"What is the orthodox tradition? It is a path that everyone has tacitly accepted and has followed for many years. Countless people have made a living, risen through the ranks, and built their livelihoods on it. Whether the path itself is right or wrong is no longer important. What is important is that it has become a kind of 'correctness,' a kind of ideological dependence."

"Your current 'Chip Spark' project, which aims to develop EDA and build your own ecosystem, is essentially forging a new path. You're telling everyone that the 'introduction, digestion, and absorption' approach we used to take is no longer viable, and may even be wrong."

"You're no longer touching someone's purse or a department's power; you're shaking the foundations of the entire old system and challenging a deeply ingrained ideology. That's what's deadly."

Su Wenshan let out a long sigh.

"Those people may not openly oppose you, but they will use everything they have to prove that the new path you've taken is wrong and a dead end. This is more dangerous than any open or covert scheme."

Chen Ping remained silent for a long time.

Minister Su's words revealed to him the most crucial essence of this struggle.

His enemies are not just Sun Heming and He Qishan, or even just M-Tek.

His real enemy is the laziness, dependence on others, and unwillingness to change that reside in the minds of countless people.

This is the real hurdle for the Chip Spark Program and even for the industrial upgrading of this country.

The meal left Chen Ping feeling relieved and his emotions were running high.

After seeing Su Wenshan off to his room to rest, only Chen Pingfang and Su Qingwan remained in the living room.

The atmosphere became somewhat quiet for a moment.

Su Qingwan silently cleared away the dishes. Chen Ping stood up to help, but she pushed him back down.

"Sit down, you look tired."

She put the bowls and chopsticks in the kitchen, then came out and sat down on the sofa opposite him, looking somewhat hesitant.

Lay it flat.

"Um?"

Su Qingwan took out a letter from her bag and handed it over.

The envelope was a plain brown paper envelope with no writing on it.

"What is this?" Chen Pingfang asked, somewhat puzzled.

"This afternoon, someone delivered it to the front desk of our newspaper office, specifically addressing it to me." Su Qingwan's voice was a little tense. "I opened it and read it."

Chen Ping took the envelope and pulled out a piece of paper from it.

The words on the letter were pieced together crookedly from printed type cut from newspapers and magazines.

"Stop investigating Company M, or you will face the consequences."