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

"Sujiang aims to be the first province to adopt the Chipfire standard's province-wide adaptation solution."

Shen Zhaokun's grip was quite strong; Chen Pingfang's knuckles ached from being squeezed so tightly.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Shoucheng stood there stunned, his mouth agape. Qian Weiguo turned his head, his thick eyebrows furrowed, and swallowed back what he wanted to say.

Chen Ping did not respond immediately.

The CoreFire standard is currently only being piloted within Nanzhou Province, and even the official local standard document has not yet been finalized. Shen Zhaokun's statement has directly expanded a provincial pilot project to an inter-provincial level.

"Secretary Shen, the Chipfire standard is currently only at the local level. There are too many steps involved in cross-provincial mutual recognition."

Shen Zhaokun released his grip, took a half step back, and put his hands into his jacket pockets.

"So I'm not here for standard documents. I'm here for a cooperation mechanism."

Chen Ping tilted his head slightly.

Shen Zhaokun turned around and walked to the large screen in the main control room, pointing to the power grid topology diagram that had turned completely green.

"What you did today saved half of my province's industrial capacity. But I can't call for outside help every time something goes wrong. Sujiang needs to establish its own safety certification system based on the CoreFire standard."

pause.

"The two provinces will establish a strategic security technology alliance. You will provide the standards and technical support, while we will provide the application scenarios and localized data."

Chen Ping went over the matter in his mind. Jiangsu Province's industrial scale was nearly 40% larger than Nanzhou's, and its chip procurement volume for the power grid, transportation, and financial systems ranked among the top five in the country. If Jiangsu were included in the Chipfire Standard certification system, it would be equivalent to Chipfire Standard directly gaining the second largest provincial market in the country.

This pancake is twice the size of the original plate Chen Ping used.

"The alliance can do it. But there's a condition."

Shen Zhaokun raised an eyebrow.

"Sujiang cannot establish its own certification system based on the Chipfire standard. The right to interpret the technical standards and the final approval authority for the certification process belong to the Nanzhou Chipfire Laboratory. Sujiang can establish branch centers, but the technical leaders of the branch centers must undergo training and certification by the Chipfire team."

Zhang Shoucheng took a deep breath.

This condition means that Su Jiang is handing over the say in the security standards of core infrastructure to Nanzhou. Under normal circumstances, no one would agree to this.

Shen Zhaokun stared at Chen Pingfang for three seconds, then suddenly smiled. The smile was brief, a mere twitch of the corner of his mouth before disappearing completely.

"Okay. I'll have Shoucheng coordinate the details with you later."

He turned and left. From entering to leaving, it took less than seven minutes.

Zhang Shoucheng chased after him, the fire door to the main control room closing silently behind him.

Qian Weiguo walked around from behind the workstation to Gu Weizhen's side and glanced at the front panel of the SH~X02. The green light was steadily lit.

"Could your machine stay with us for a couple more days? I'd like to let the people in my team learn how to perform firmware diagnostics from you."

Gu Weizhen glanced at Chen Pingfang.

Chen Ping nodded.

"Stay. Xiao Zhou and Xiao Lin will also stay and work with Qian Gong's team to conduct a complete training session."

Gu Weizhen didn't say much, and turned to remove the temporary cables from the diagnostic terminal.

Chen Ping walked out of the dispatch center building. The sunlight in Xingzhou shone on the concrete exterior wall, making people squint.

My phone vibrated. It was a encrypted text message from Zheng Xian.

"Director Pei received the source analysis report. During the source tracing process, the Sixth Bureau's technical team discovered a new clue: among the four layers of jumpers through which the shadow sent attack commands, the exit IP of the second layer jumper, after reverse tracing, was located in the central urban area of ​​Nanzhou City. The specific area is being narrowed down."

Chen Ping read the text message twice.

The central urban area of ​​Nanzhou City. The provincial government office building is located in that area.

Save this message to an encrypted memo and then delete the message history.

The matter in Sujiang was quickly resolved. That afternoon, Zhang Shoucheng, along with the director of the Legal Affairs Department of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, and Chen Pingfang, finalized the initial draft of the framework agreement for the "Su-South Strategic Security Technology Alliance" in the conference room of the dispatch center. The twelve-page document contained five core clauses, which Chen Pingfang reviewed word by word, explicitly specifying the exclusivity of the Corefire standard certification in Articles 3 and 4 using legal terminology.

The documents were signed and stamped. Zhang Shoucheng used the official seal of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, while Chen Pingfang used the seal of the Nanzhou Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology—the appointment document for the deputy secretary-general had not yet been issued, and his current official title was still the director of the Department of Industry and Information Technology.

But once this agreement was signed, its significance changed completely.

At 8 PM, Chen Pingfang and Gu Weizhen boarded the high-speed train for their return journey. Xiao Zhou and Xiao Lin stayed in Xingzhou, while Lao Zhao followed them back to write the complete technical analysis report.

Inside the carriage, Gu Weizhen sat opposite, a laptop on his lap, organizing analysis data from the firmware image.

"There's something I need to tell you," Gu Weizhen suddenly said.

"explain."

"In the network traffic logs of the Sujiang Dispatch Center, I discovered an anomaly. The attack command passed through a relay node before being forwarded from the second-layer jump server to Sujiang. The geographical location of that relay node..."

Gu Weizhen turned the laptop around, and a coordinate range was marked on the screen.

"In Nanzhou City, between Dongfeng Road and Zhongshan Road, the error radius is 200 meters."

From Dongfeng Road to Zhongshan Road. That's the core administrative area of ​​Nanzhou City. The provincial government building, the provincial party committee compound, and the provincial people's congress standing committee office building are all crammed into that area.

Chen Ping stared at the screen for five seconds, then reached out and closed the laptop.

"You only told me about this discovery?"

"Only with you."

"Encrypt the archive, don't tell anyone else. I'll deal with it when I get back."

Gu Weizhen put the notebook into his bag and didn't ask any more questions.

The train passed through the night, and the lights outside the window changed from dense to sparse, and then from sparse to dense again.

At 10 a.m. the following morning, Chen Ping returned to Nanzhou.

Instead of going back to the Department of Industry and Information Technology, the car drove directly into the provincial government compound.

The document from the Provincial Party Committee Office was already in the mailroom, in a manila envelope with a red confidential label. Chen Ping signed for it and tore open the seal.

"Notification Regarding Comrade Chen Pingfang's Concurrent Appointment as Deputy Secretary-General of the Provincial Government." Official document, with a red header, serial number, jointly signed by the Provincial Party Secretary and the Governor.

The staff member in the mailroom peeked at the heading on the envelope and quickly stood up straight.

"Deputy Secretary-General Chen, your office is on the third floor, east side, room 307. The key is in the administration office, I'll get it for you right away..."

"No need. I'll get it myself."

Chen Pingfang carried the documents up to the third floor. Room 307 was at the end of the corridor, and the nameplate on the door had been replaced—"Chen Pingfang, Deputy Secretary-General of the Provincial Government." The lettering was in gold, and it was brand new.

I pushed open the door and went in. The office wasn't big, with a desk, a set of filing cabinets, and a window facing the inner courtyard of the provincial government compound. The desk was spotless, with only a landline phone and an empty pen holder on it.

Chen Ping placed his briefcase on the table, but before he could sit down, the landline rang.

"Deputy Secretary-General Chen? This is Xiao Fang from the Secretary-General's office. Secretary-General Qin asked me to inform you that there will be a Secretary-General's office meeting at 2:30 this afternoon in the conference room on the third floor. Please make sure you attend."

"What is the topic?"

There was a pause on the other end of the phone.

"Secretary Qin said... it's a welcome dinner for you."

Welcome dinner.

Chen Ping hung up the phone and sat down in the chair. The chair back was hard, and leaning against it was uncomfortable against his spine.

Secretary-General Qin. Qin Daguan. Executive Deputy Secretary-General in charge of the daily affairs of the provincial government, he has held this position for six years and is a veteran in the provincial government system.

The welcome dinner was held in the form of a secretary-general's office meeting.

Chen Ping opened the drawer; it was empty. He took out a fountain pen and put it in the pen holder.

At 2:25 p.m., Chen Ping entered the conference room on the third floor five minutes early.

Four people were already seated on either side of the long table. The man at the head of the table looked up; behind his glasses were thick double eyelids and a relaxed smile.

The nameplate on his chest reads: Qin Daguan.

"Xiao Chen is here."

Qin Daguan slowly unscrewed the lid of his teacup, and a wisp of white steam rose.

"Have a seat. Let's not talk about business today, just chat."

Chen Ping pulled out a chair and noticed a handwritten name tag on the back of the chair, located at the very end of the long table.

The chair furthest from the head seat.