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

Suzhou Public Security Bureau (Gengchen) Criminal Retrial Case No. 0037.

This string of numbers lingered in Chen Ping's mind for three days. He didn't check it, nor did he ask anyone to check it. The criminal review files of the Provincial Public Security Bureau weren't things that could be touched casually; rashly accessing them would only alert the enemy. The fact that the person who passed the note chose to act at Zhou Dingbang's doorstep meant either that Zhou's people were testing him, or that Zhou's rivals were using him.

Regardless of which one, this card cannot be flipped now.

On Monday morning, Han Zhiming called from Qingjiang.

"Director, the High-Tech Department of the National Development and Reform Commission has officially sent a letter. The draft for soliciting opinions on the nationwide promotion plan of Chipfire 2.0 has been copied to the Provincial Development and Reform Commission."

"Is the Qingjiang model included?"

"It's written in. Section 3, Part 2, two whole pages."

Chen Ping hung up the phone, pulled the electronic version of the draft for comments from his email, and read it word by word. The nationwide rollout of Chipfire 2.0 meant a significant increase in special central government funding, and as one of the first pilot provinces, Jiangsu had to complete the inventory of its existing matching funds first.

This is the cut he wanted.

That afternoon, Chen Ping drafted a three-page "Sujiang Province High-tech Industry Historical Bad Debt Liquidation Plan" and sent it to Governor Liu's desk in the format of an internal document for signature.

Governor Liu's instruction consisted of only four words: "To be discussed at the meeting."

The governor's office meeting is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday.

The large conference room on the fifth floor had an oval table and fourteen chairs. Governor Liu sat in the main seat, Executive Vice Governor Qin Jiru sat to his right, and Chen Ping's nameplate was in the second position from the left—one position forward from the last coordination meeting.

The heads of the five provincial departments—the Development and Reform Commission, the Industry and Information Technology Department, the Finance Department, the Science and Technology Department, and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission—were all present.

Sun Desheng sat at the end, holding a pen with its cap still on, the tip pointing downwards, and poking at the edge of the agenda again and again.

Governor Liu opened the folder.

"We only have one topic today. The nationwide rollout of Chipfire 2.0 is imminent, and the central government's additional special funding is expected to reach 1.2 billion yuan. But before accepting this money, we need to clarify our own accounts. Comrade Pingfang, you report."

Chen Ping stood up and walked to the front of the large screen. He didn't bring a report draft or a PowerPoint presentation; all he had in his hand was a three-page plan and a USB drive.

When the USB drive was plugged in, the screen lit up.

The first table: Summary table of Jiangsu Province's high-tech industry supporting funds disbursement over the years. The time span is from the Gengchen year to this year, 24 years, with a cumulative disbursement of 47.8 billion yuan.

"Distinguished leaders, this table is compiled from publicly available data from the Provincial Department of Finance and the Provincial State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. The 47.8 billion yuan in matching funds covers 13 high-tech zones and 67 key provincial-level projects across the province. Of these, 71%, or approximately 34 billion yuan, have been completed and generated benefits. The remaining 29%, or 13.8 billion yuan, is distributed among 31 enterprises and institutions, and these projects have not yet been completed and accepted."

Click the mouse, and the second table pops up.

The list of 31 companies is arranged from highest to lowest amount of capital required. Each line includes the company name, registered capital, legal representative, year of capital disbursement, and project acceptance status.

"Of these 31 companies, 19 have already ceased production or been deregistered, making them typical 'zombie companies.' The total amount of supporting funds they occupy is 8.9 billion yuan."

Lin Zhenghai, director of the Provincial State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, paused on his teacup, not picking it up.

Chen Ping moved the mouse to the third row of the table.

I'll focus on three companies.

"The first company is Sujiang Zhongxin Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. Founded in 2004 with a registered capital of 20 million yuan, the legal representative is Liu Zhiqiang. The company received a total of 170 million yuan in funding from the provincial high-tech industry supporting fund, under the name of 'construction of a pilot line for optoelectronic wafers'. However, this pilot line never went into production. The company ceased production in 2011 and was deregistered in 2016, with zero assets on its books at the time of deregistration. 170 million yuan vanished."

No one spoke in the meeting room.

"The second company is Sujiang Dingsheng New Material Technology Development Co., Ltd. It was established in 2003, with Zhang Weiguo as the legal representative. It has received a total of 230 million yuan in funding. The project name is 'Industrialization of Nanocomposite Materials'. The company is still listed as 'existing' in the business registration system, but its actual business premises are an 80-square-meter rented room, and the number of employees is only one, namely the legal representative Zhang Weiguo himself."

Zhou Hai, director of the Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, turned to a new page in his notebook and wrote down his thoughts twice as fast as usual.

"The third company is Sujiang Tongda Information Engineering Co., Ltd. Established in 2002, with Chen Guodong as the legal representative. It has received a total of 310 million yuan in grants, the highest amount among the 31 companies. This company's equity structure is quite interesting."

Chen Ping opened the third form.

A diagram showing the equity structure filled the entire screen. Tongda Information's shareholder is an investment company based in Chengdu, and the investment company's shareholder is an offshore entity registered in Hong Kong. The ultimate beneficiary of the offshore entity is listed as "pending confirmation."

"310 million yuan of state-owned funds, after passing through three layers of equity structure, still have an 'unconfirmed' ultimate beneficiary. This 'unconfirmed' status has been pending for 22 years."

Qin Jiru closed the folder and placed his hands on top of it.

Governor Liu tapped his thumb on the edge of the table.

"Pingfang, who approved the projects for these three companies you mentioned back then?"

"The approval chain is on page two of the appendix to the plan." Chen Ping turned to that page, but didn't read it aloud. He simply pushed the document in front of Governor Liu. "The project approvals for the three companies all went through the joint signature of the Provincial High-tech Industry Leading Group at the time. The signatories included the then Deputy Director of the Provincial Development and Reform Commission, the then Director of the Provincial Science and Technology Department, and the then Deputy Secretary-General of the Provincial Government Office in charge of the relevant matters."

He didn't mention names. There was no need to. Everyone here had been immersed in this system for over a decade or two; they could easily recall who signed the documents and who led the projects.

Those three signatories were all core members of Zhou Dingbang's team during his tenure.

Lin Zhenghai finally picked up the teacup, took a sip, put it down, and ran his fingers around the rim of the cup.

"Secretary-General Chen, I agree in principle with the direction of clearing up historical bad debts. However, there's an operational problem—many of these companies have already been deregistered, their legal representatives have changed, and their accounts may not be traceable. Where do we find the leverage for this liquidation?"

This was exactly what Chen Ping was waiting for.

"The key lies in CoreFire 2.0."

He switched the screen back to the first table.

"The central government has allocated an additional 1.2 billion yuan, which requires matching funds from the provincial level before it arrives in the account. According to the proportion, Jiangsu Province needs to contribute 400 million yuan. Where will this 400 million yuan come from? If we include the recoverable portion of historical bad debts into the matching fund pool, we can both fulfill the audit requirements for preserving the value of state-owned assets and solve the problem of the source of matching funds. It's killing two birds with one stone."

Governor Liu turned to the last page of the plan, which listed the liquidation path and timetable.

"This plan should be jointly evaluated by the Finance Department and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, and a feasibility report should be produced within two weeks." Governor Liu closed the folder. "Put it flat and leave it there. The rest of you may leave."

The sound of chairs being pushed around echoed. Twelve people filed out, their conversations in the corridor kept low.

When Sun Desheng passed by Chen Pingfang, he slowed his pace slightly and his lips moved, but in the end he said nothing.

Governor Liu spoke privately with Chen Pingfang for another twenty minutes. Those waiting in the corridor didn't know exactly what they discussed.

At 10:40, Chen Ping came out of the conference room and walked towards the elevator.

The elevator doors opened, and a person was standing inside.

Zheng Weiqing, member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee and Minister of the Organization Department. Fifty-six years old, with a square face, graying temples, and the top button of his suit jacket always fastened. During Zhou Dingbang's tenure as the head of Jiangsu Province, Zheng Weiqing was the deputy director of the Provincial Party Committee General Office, and was promoted all the way to the position of Standing Committee member.

Everyone in the province knows that Zheng Weiqing is Zhou Dingbang's protégé.

Chen Ping stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the sixth floor.

The moment the door closed, Zheng Weiqing spoke.

"Lie flat; if the water is too clear, there will be no fish. Don't narrow your path."