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

The five glasses had just clinked together, and the sound hadn't even completely faded when Chen Ping's phone lit up, showing an incoming call.

The person who called was He Mingzhang, chairman of Nanzhou Heavy Industry Group.

Nanzhou Heavy Industry is a large state-owned enterprise in the province, with an annual output value of over 100 billion yuan. It is also a leading enterprise.

Their business scope is very broad, including heavy equipment manufacturing, ship propulsion systems, and even some military-civilian integration projects.

He Mingzhang's status and influence in the Nanzhou economic circle are far greater than the combined influence of the five CEOs in the private room earlier; he holds a very high position.

"Director Chen, would you do me the honor of joining us tomorrow evening? Old He will be hosting. It'll be at Tinglan Pavilion by the Green Lake. Let's sit down and have a chat."

He Mingzhang's tone was polite, even somewhat cautious. But Chen Pingfang knew very well that the head of a state-owned enterprise with assets in the hundreds of billions wouldn't invite a department head to dinner for no reason.

"Chairman He, you're too kind. I'll arrive tomorrow night."

After hanging up the phone, Chen Ping leaned back in his chair and rubbed his thumb against the edge of his phone case a couple of times.

He still remembers the shutdown accident at Nanzhou Heavy Industry last March.

The official explanation at the time was "an intermittent failure of the control system," and the internal handling was quick, restoring operation after replacing a few boards. However, in the backdoor analysis report submitted by Gu Weizhen last month, there was a set of trigger condition feature codes that matched the firmware version number of the batch of imported industrial control chips used by Nanzhou Heavy Industries perfectly.

He not only has to go to this meal, but he also has to eat it properly.

~

The following evening, at Tinglan Pavilion by Emerald Lake.

This private restaurant is not open to the public; there isn't even a sign at the entrance, just three seal characters carved on a bluestone slab.

When Chen Ping put it down, there were already six people sitting in the private room.

He Mingzhang sat in the main seat. He was in his early sixties, with gray hair that was neatly combed. He wore a dark blue Zhongshan suit and looked very imposing.

The other five people sat on either side. Chen Ping glanced at them and recognized them all—the three vice presidents of Nanzhou Heavy Industry: Zhong Jianguo, who was in charge of production; Lü Zhiyuan, who was in charge of purchasing; and Tao Xuewen, who was in charge of technology. The other two were heads of supporting enterprises under Nanzhou Heavy Industry.

They are all direct descendants of the heavy industry system.

He Mingzhang stood up and went to the door to greet Chen Ping, reaching out to shake Chen Ping's hand.

"Director Chen, please have a seat!"

Chen Ping smiled and nodded to everyone present before taking his seat as a guest.

The dishes were served quickly, and He Mingzhang personally poured the wine, making a few polite opening remarks. These were nothing more than "I've long admired you," "You're young and promising," and "It's a blessing for Nanzhou that the province has produced a cadre like you."

Chen Ping held his wine glass and took a slow, deliberate sip.

After several rounds of drinks and five courses of food,

He Mingzhang finally got to the point. He put down his chopsticks, wiped his mouth, and gave Tao Xuewen, who was in charge of technology, a wink.

Tao Xuewen immediately understood and cleared his throat.

"Director Chen, there's something our technical team has been wanting to tell you. We've carefully studied the ChipFire standard's safety certification process, and there are several indicators that no domestic chip currently meets."

Tao Xuewen pushed a technical document over and turned to one of the pages.

"Look at this. The real-time response latency requirement for industrial control-grade chips, according to the Chipfire standard, is within 0.5 microseconds. But the best domestic product of its kind currently only achieves 1.2 microseconds in actual testing. That's more than double the difference."

Zhong Jianguo, who was in charge of production, took over the conversation.

"Director Chen, our heavy industry production line is working on the intelligent control of large marine diesel engines. If something goes wrong with that, it's not just a matter of burning money, it can cost lives."

Zhong Jianguo shrugged.

"We're not unwilling to cooperate with your request to replace the chips, but who will take responsibility? What if there's a safety accident on the production line? If I sign off on it, will I go to jail?"

The group of people chatted amongst themselves, leaving Chen Ping sandwiched in the middle.

Their statements were consistent and their rhythm was perfectly synchronized, clearly indicating that they had rehearsed in advance.

Chen Ping didn't interrupt anyone. He slowly picked up a piece of Dongpo pork with his chopsticks, chewed it, swallowed it, and then wiped his hands with a tissue from the table.

The private room fell silent, and everyone's eyes were focused on him.

"Are you done talking?"

He Mingzhang smiled and picked up his wine glass.

"Director Chen, we don't mean anything by it, we just want to lay out our difficulties so we can discuss a solution together."

Chen Ping didn't touch his wine glass.

"Chairman He, let me summarize what you just said. First, the chip development standards are too high, and domestically produced chips cannot meet them. Second, replacing chips carries security risks; if something goes wrong, no one will cover it. Right?"

He Mingzhang nodded.

"Then I'll also ask two questions."

Chen Ping extended one finger.

"The first question: political stance."

The atmosphere in the private room suddenly became tense.

"AetherX just implemented a targeted supply cutoff to our province three days ago. Today it's consumer-grade chips, tomorrow it'll be industrial control chips. Chairman He, one-third of Nanzhou Heavy Industry's marine propulsion systems are supplied to the Navy. If AetherX announces a complete supply cutoff to the military-civilian integration sector tomorrow, will your production lines stop?"

He Mingzhang paused slightly in the hand holding the wine glass.

"You're all here today discussing with me whether the technical specifications are sufficient, how much the response latency differs. But the real issue isn't the specifications, it's the lifeline. Your supply chain is in someone else's hands; if they tell you to stop, you have to stop. This isn't a technical issue; it's a matter of sovereignty."

Chen Ping raised his second finger.

"My second question is for Chief Engineer Tao."

Tao Xuewen sat up straight.

"On March 17th last year, the main control system of Workshop No. 6 of Nanzhou Heavy Industry suddenly failed, and the entire production line stopped for 47 minutes. The internal investigation concluded that it was an 'intermittent failure of the control system'."

Chen Ping tapped his fingers lightly twice on the table.

"On September 2nd of the same year, the welding robot cluster in Workshop No. 2 received an abnormal command and had to be shut down immediately. The internal conclusion was still 'an intermittent failure'."

Tao Xuewen dropped his chopsticks on the table.

"On November 19th, the sensor array on the marine diesel engine test bench simultaneously went offline, remaining offline for two minutes and thirteen seconds before automatically recovering. They didn't even conduct an internal investigation this time, right?"

He Mingzhang's smile vanished completely.

No one touched their chopsticks or spoke at the table.

"The three 'intermittent failures' occurred at intervals of 169 days and 78 days, respectively. The time intervals are decreasing."

Chen Ping took out his phone from his pocket, found a picture, and placed it in the center of the table.

That's a schematic diagram of the backdoor triggering logic extracted by Gu Weizhen's team from the M~Tek chip firmware.

"Professor Gu's team has verified this. M-Tek's AX series industrial control chips have a built-in timestamp-based sleep-wake mechanism. Every cycle, the backdoor program automatically performs a 'handshake' operation to exchange a set of encrypted data with the overseas server. The timing of your three shutdowns matches the wake-up cycle of this mechanism by more than 95%."

Chen Ping put his phone away.

"Chief Engineer Tao, you just asked me who would be responsible if a safety incident occurred while replacing the chip. Now I want to ask you, if we don't replace the chip, and the next 'incidental failure' happens in a naval power system deployed in actual combat, who will be responsible?"

The entire private room was completely silent.

Zhong Jianguo was holding a wine glass, unsure whether to put it down or not, so it remained frozen in mid-air.

Lu Zhiyuan lowered his head, staring at the plate in front of him, not daring to utter a single word.

He Mingzhang leaned back in his chair, his hands folded on the table.

Chen Pingfang looked at him.

"Chairman He, I'm not here to argue with you today. Are the parameters of the Chipfire standard high? Yes. Are domestically produced chips sufficient at this stage? No. But we've reached a crossroads. We either grit our teeth and move forward, or we continue to stick our necks out to others."

He Mingzhang remained silent for a long time.

"Who in the province has reviewed those downtime data?"

"Currently, it's just me and Professor Gu's team."

Chen Ping picked up the glass of wine in front of him that he hadn't touched.

"But if Nanzhou Heavy Industry does not cooperate with the Corefire Standard's safety inspection, this data will end up on the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense's desk. Chairman He, then it won't be me coming to talk to you."

A fine layer of sweat appeared on He Mingzhang's forehead.

He loosened the collar of his Zhongshan suit, picked up the wine bottle on the table, and personally filled Chen Ping's glass.

"Director Chen, this glass of wine is for you."

He Mingzhang stood up and raised his glass with both hands.

"Nanzhou Heavy Industry will establish a special team for chip-fire standard docking tomorrow, and I will personally take charge."

Chen Ping raised his glass and drank it all in one gulp.

The liquor slid down my throat, spicy and scalding.

The moment he put down the cup, his phone vibrated in his pocket.

The message, from Qin Yu, contained only eight characters.

"Secretary Zheng Huaien met with Zhao Yiming tonight."