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

"I am the seventh person on the list."

Chen Ping did not retract his hand; the leather envelope remained between the two men.

Xu Shouzhen released his hand from the envelope, took a half step back, and leaned against the window frame in the corridor.

"M~Tek China deposits $120,000 into my personal account every year. Starting in 2018, for a total of five years, that's $600,000."

"Back then, Sun Heming approached me about technical consulting fees. I thought I was just helping them review a few documents and didn't take it seriously. Later, I discovered that the people on the list not only received money, but also gave high scores to M~Tek's partners and low scores to their competitors in provincial project reviews."

The old man took off his gold-rimmed glasses, held them in his hand, and the lenses reflected the sunlight at the end of the corridor.

"I'm 73 years old, and I've spent 50 years working on chips. After watching your blind test today, my hands were shaking the whole time I was sitting in the back."

"That's not fear, that's shame."

Chen Ping put the envelope into the inside pocket of his suit.

"Academician Xu, I will verify this list. But I have one condition."

"you say."

"Leave the rest to me. You only need to do one thing: after returning to the capital, write the report exactly as it was written. The technical evaluation of Corefire doesn't need to be changed at all."

Xu Shouzhen stared at Chen Pingfang for a few seconds, then slowly nodded.

"There's one more thing." The old man turned to leave, then stopped. "The third person on the list is Fang Qinian from the Institute of Microelectronics. He not only takes money, but his lab has applied for over 20 million yuan in national research funding over the past few years under the guise of adapting to AetherX. You can find out where the money went by by checking."

Chen Ping watched the old man walk out of the laboratory building and disappear into the parking lot.

The car didn't arrive, so Chen Ping stood in the corridor and opened the envelope.

Twenty-three names, handwritten in neat penmanship. Each name was followed by the organization, position, and average annual fee. The minimum was $30,000 USD per year, and the maximum was $200,000 USD per year.

It includes six universities and four research institutes.

This is not a list, it's a network. A control network woven by M~Tek with money, covering the entire semiconductor research system in Southern State.

Chen Ping took photos, locked the original document in his briefcase, got in the car, and returned to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

~

Back in his office, Chen Ping didn't make any phone calls, didn't call any meetings, and didn't even give the list to anyone.

Chen Ping turned on his computer and pulled up a file.

Notice of the third review of the Green Industry Fund.

This fund was personally spearheaded by Chen Pingfang three months ago, with an initial size of 800 million yuan, specifically to support basic research and application transformation in the semiconductor industry chain. The first and second rounds of review have been completed, and nearly 300 million yuan has been disbursed. The third round of review has not yet started; the application window has just closed, and there are 47 backlogged applications.

Chen Ping spent twenty minutes typing on the keyboard, adding a new rule to the review guidelines.

"All laboratories and affiliated institutions applying for the Green Industry Fund must submit an audit report on the use of funds for all research projects over the past three years along with their application materials. The audit must be conducted independently by a third-party organization. Applications that fail the safety audit will not be accepted."

This regulation does not involve any person's name or target any specific organization.

But Chen Ping went through all forty-seven applications. Of the twenty-three people's institutions, eleven had submitted applications for the third batch of grants.

Chen Pingfang didn't need to involve the Discipline Inspection Commission or alarm the Provincial Party Committee. He only needed to tighten the tap on the money, and what was going to be exposed would naturally be exposed.

~

On the third day after the new regulations were released, Lin Shaofeng, director of the Science and Technology Division of the Department of Industry and Information Technology, walked into Chen Pingfang's office carrying a stack of documents.

"Director, five applicant organizations have voluntarily withdrawn their applications."

Chen Ping opened the list of withdrawals.

Nanzhou University Microelectronics Laboratory – Fang Qinian's territory.

Lai Mingzhi, the ninth person on the list from the Provincial Semiconductor Engineering Technology Research Center.

There are three more companies, all of which are on the list of twenty-three people.

One rule was made, and five mice ran out on their own.

"What's the reason for the withdrawal?"

Lin Shaofeng pulled out the reply letter: "They're all pretty much the same, saying that the project has been adjusted recently and the application is temporarily suspended. Fang Qinian added a sentence, saying that the audit period is too long and he's worried that it might affect the completion of other ongoing projects."

Chen Ping picked up Fang Qinian's letter of withdrawal and looked at the words on it.

Is the audit period too long? What have you done that makes you afraid of being audited?

"Director Lin, we don't need to worry about the five companies that withdrew their applications. But the audits of the remaining forty-two companies that haven't withdrawn must be completed. In addition, we'll add a requirement for the third-party auditing firms: they should focus on verifying projects that have had technical cooperation relationships with overseas companies in the past three years. This includes adaptation development for overseas industrial software, joint research, and data sharing."

After Lin Shaofeng finished writing, he stood still and didn't leave.

"Director, I heard that Fang Qinian has very close ties with people in the Provincial Science and Technology Association. Could it be...?"

"It's his prerogative to withdraw his application. But the audit notice has already been issued, and the publicly disclosed rules cannot be revoked just because someone withdraws. You should extend the audit scope to all entities that have applied for the Green Industry Fund, including those that have already received funding in the first two batches."

Lin Shaofeng was taken aback.

The first two batches have already been allocated? That means a retrospective audit is required.

"Director, the funds for the first two batches, involving twenty-three units, have all been received..."

"Once the money arrives, it needs to be audited even more. How the money was spent, what results were achieved, and whether the country's money was being used to benefit foreign companies—shouldn't these things be investigated?"

Lin Shaofeng didn't ask any more questions and left with the documents in his arms.

~

On the fifth day after the audit began, the results started to be compiled and placed on Chen Ping's desk.

Most of the companies' accounts were fine, with only minor issues of non-compliance with financial regulations. However, six companies were marked with a red alert.

The most eye-catching one came from a joint laboratory under the School of Information Engineering at Nanzhou University of Technology.

This lab has applied for 14 million yuan in research funding over the past three years, with the project titled "Tackling Key Problems in Core Algorithms for Domestic Industrial Software".

However, the audit report revealed that of the fourteen million, nine million was used to purchase AetherX's commercial licenses and translate technical documents. Of the remaining five million, three million was paid to a company called "Vision Technology" under a contract titled "Technology Adaptation and Testing Services."

Chen Pingfang's finger hovered over the words "Vision Technology" on the paper.

Chen Ping opened the business registration information system and entered the company name.

Vision Technology, registered in Nanzhou High-tech Zone, was established in 2019 with a registered capital of five million yuan. Its business scope includes software development, IT consulting, and system integration services.

Legal representative: Sun Yaozong.

Chen Ping stared at the name for five seconds.

Chen Ping picked up the internal phone on the table and dialed a number.

"Qin Yu, help me investigate someone. Sun Yaozong, the legal representative of Vision Technology. I need to know about his relationship with Sun Heming."

Qin Yu paused for less than two seconds on the other end of the phone.

"No need to investigate, Director Chen. Sun Yaozong is the son of Sun Heming's second uncle, and his cousin. We marked him when we were investigating Sun Heming's network of connections, but we didn't have any concrete evidence at the time, so we didn't take any action against him."

Chen Ping put down the phone.

Sun Heming was imprisoned by the Discipline Inspection Commission, while his cousin was still outside, using a shell company to embezzle national research funds to do localization adaptations for M~Tek.

Of the 14 million yuan "domestic algorithm breakthrough" project, more than 60% of the money flowed into the pockets of foreign software companies and the Sun family.

Chen Ping closed the audit report, picked up a pen, and circled the name of Vision Technology.

The phone on the table lit up.

The message Lin Shaofeng sent contained only one sentence:

"Fang Qinian flew to Beijing overnight and went to the Chinese Academy of Engineering this morning."