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

After the ashes in front of the tombstone had all dissipated, Chen Ping stood there for a long time, until the midday sun made the granite hot, before he removed his hand from the top of the tombstone.

The stone still lingered in my palm.

He turned and descended the mountain, his footsteps echoing across the empty cemetery as he walked on the concrete steps. The sound of his shoes grinding against the gravel reverberated through the empty ground. The car was parked in the parking lot at the foot of the mountain, a thin layer of dust covering the hood. Chen Ping opened the car door, got in, but didn't start the engine immediately.

The phone lit up.

Cheng Yuan's message: "The feedback from the Central Inspection Team is in. The 'Chip Spark' project received an A+ rating. The State Council is taking action; we'll discuss it when you return."

Chen Ping placed his phone face down on the passenger seat, turned the key, shifted gears, and drove out of the parking lot.

In the rearview mirror, the iron fence of Chengnan Cemetery grew smaller and smaller until it was finally swallowed up by a bend in the road.

The accounts of the past twenty-five years are settled.

Time to get to work.

It was already 3 p.m. when Chen Ping returned to the provincial government building. Instead of going to the Policy Research Office, he went straight to the sixth floor and knocked on the door of Governor Liu's office.

Governor Liu sat behind his desk, on which lay a red-headed document with the seal of the General Office of the State Council.

"sit."

Chen Ping pulled out a chair.

Governor Liu pushed the document over to me.

Approval of upgrading the "Chipfire" semiconductor industry collaborative plan to a national strategic collaborative project.

Document No. 017 of 2024 issued by the General Office of the State Council.

Chen Ping turned to the first page and scanned it line by line. The core content of the approval was threefold: First, the "Chip Spark" plan was officially incorporated into the national "14th Five-Year Plan" for the development of strategic emerging industries; second, with Jiangsu Province as the core hub, semiconductor industry resources from the surrounding five provinces were integrated to establish a cross-provincial collaborative mechanism; third, the first batch of special funding from the central government amounted to 4.2 billion yuan, which was to be allocated by Jiangsu Province.

Four and a half billion.

Back then, Zhou Dingbang misappropriated 10.9 billion yuan to "pave the way," resulting in 19 zombie companies and 12 shell companies. Now, every penny of this 4.2 billion yuan must be invested in real projects.

"This approval arrived yesterday," Governor Liu said, leaning back in his chair. "But the real battle isn't about money. Five provinces working together—it sounds simple, but it's incredibly difficult in practice. There's overlap between the wafer production lines in eastern Zhejiang and our packaging and testing base. The material supply chain in southern Anhui and the equipment manufacturers in central Shandong are operating independently. And northern Jiangxi is even more troublesome—local protectionism; they practically want to lock up the technical parameters like military secrets."

Chen Ping closed the file.

"Therefore, we need a general coordinator."

Governor Liu didn't respond to that question, but instead took out another document from his drawer. It was an official document from the Provincial Party Committee's Organization Department, with a newer number than the one from the General Office of the State Council—it had only been issued yesterday afternoon.

Notification Regarding the Appointment and Removal of Comrade Chen Pingfang.

Comrade Chen Pingfang is relieved of his post as Deputy Secretary-General of the Provincial Government and appointed as Deputy Secretary-General of the Provincial Party Committee (at the ministerial level), concurrently serving as the head of the Jiangsu Provincial Working Group for the "Core Spark" National Strategic Collaboration Project.

main hall.

Thirty-seven years old.

Chen Ping read the appointment and dismissal notice twice and put it back on the desktop.

"This is an inconvenient seat."

Governor Liu chuckled. "You won't get a good seat. The first joint meeting of the five provinces is scheduled for next Wednesday in Jiangsu. The executive vice governor of Zhejiang will lead the delegation, the director of the Development and Reform Commission of southern Anhui will be there, the director of the Industry and Information Technology Department of central Shandong will be there, and the representative from northern Jiangxi hasn't been decided yet. You have three days to prepare your proposal."

Three days.

Chen Ping stood up.

"I'll have a first draft of the plan tonight. But there's one thing I need your approval on—the issue of redundant wafer production lines in Zhejiang East. If we voluntarily give up some of our packaging and testing capacity in exchange for exclusive access to their photoresist supply chain, can you accept this trade-off?"

Governor Liu tapped his thumb on the table.

"Have you done the math?"

"I've done the calculations. In the short term, Sujiang will suffer a loss, giving up 15% of its packaging and testing capacity, resulting in an annual output value loss of about 600 million yuan. However, once the photoresist supply chain is established, our chip manufacturing costs can be reduced by 22% within three years. 600 million yuan for a 22% cost advantage—it's a worthwhile deal."

Governor Liu stared at him for two seconds and nodded.

"Dry."

That evening, Chen Ping stayed in the policy research office until 2 a.m. The table was covered with industrial distribution maps of five provinces, technical parameter comparison tables, and supply chain node analysis reports.

The core logic of the plan is only one thing: break the artificial division of the industrial chain by administrative divisions, and let every link of chip design and packaging fall in the place with the greatest comparative advantage.

Suzhou and Jiangsu provinces handle design and packaging/testing, Zhejiang province focuses on wafer foundry services, southern Anhui province supplies materials, central Shandong province manufactures equipment, and northern Jiangxi province handles backend applications.

Only by clenching five fingers into a fist can one break through the wall of overseas technological blockade.

The joint meeting next Wednesday was even more contentious than expected.

The executive vice governor of Zhejiang Province was the first to raise the issue: "Secretary-General Chen, your plan forces us to abandon the expansion of the packaging and testing production line, which is tantamount to overturning Zhejiang Province's entire three-year industrial plan. On what grounds?"

Chen Ping didn't rush to respond. He pulled a form from his file folder and placed it in the center of the conference table.

"This is the market share distribution of the global semiconductor packaging and testing market last year. The top five companies are all located in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. The packaging and testing capacity of mainland China accounts for 7.3% of the global total, of which the overlapping production lines in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces contribute less than 1.2 percentage points."

He picked up a pen and circled a line on the form.

"Even if our two provinces win this 1.2% battle, what good will it do? We still won't have pricing power in the international market. But if we pool our overlapping resources and reach 3% within three years and 5% within five years, that's what it means to fight against external forces, not to fight amongst ourselves."

The meeting room was silent for a few seconds.

The director of the Shandong Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology spoke first: "I agree with Secretary-General Chen's approach. However, for equipment manufacturing, we need technical support from Su Jiang's design team. Could this be included in the agreement?"

"Sure. The Microelectronics Research Institute of Jiangsu University of Technology will officially establish a joint laboratory next month, and I have already finalized the list of the first batch of resident engineers with the university."

The executive vice governor of Zhejiang took the form, looked at it over and over again, and then put it down.

"I'll take the plan back and study it. But there's one condition: exclusive access to the photoresist supply chain must be written into a provincial memorandum, not just a verbal promise."

"The draft of the memorandum is on your desk," Chen Ping said, patting the file bag. "I brought five copies."

The man from eastern Zhejiang paused for a moment. The director of the Development and Reform Commission in southern Anhui looked down and flipped through the folder in front of him. Sure enough, he found a printed draft memorandum with clear terms, even outlining the liabilities for breach of contract.

The meeting lasted until 5 p.m., and all the representatives from the five provinces signed the agreement.

When the news reached the provincial party committee building, Cheng Yuan sent Chen Ping a WeChat message: "You little rascal, you got people from five provinces all sitting on the table signing documents?"

Chen Ping replied with four words: "The work isn't finished yet."

The signing was just the beginning. Over the next two months, Chen Ping made fourteen trips to other provinces to coordinate production line integration, standardize technical specifications, and resolve local conflicts of interest. On one occasion, he spent three days at a materials factory in southern Anhui, managing to reduce the technical parameter differences between two suppliers from 0.3 micrometers to within 0.05 micrometers.

The results of "Corefire 2.0" came faster than anyone expected.

On the day the first batch of domestically produced photoresist passed certification, three overseas monopolistic suppliers simultaneously announced a 30% price reduction.

Price cuts.

This is the first time in thirty years.

On the afternoon the news was trending, Chen Ping received a phone call in his office.

Governor Liu.

"Lie flat and come to my office."

When I entered the sixth floor, Governor Liu was tidying up the documents on his desk. The books in the bookcase were piled up in several heaps, and his secretary was packing things into cardboard boxes.

Moving offices.

No, it's moving.

Chen Ping paused at the doorway.

Governor Liu turned around and waved.

"Come in."

The official document on the table hadn't even been put away yet—it was a central government order transferring Governor Liu to the position of Director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.

"I'm leaving next week." Governor Liu stuffed the last document into his briefcase, zipped it up, and turned around.

Sunlight streamed in through the window, slanting down onto the floor between the two people in the office.

Governor Liu raised his hand and patted Chen Pingfang on the shoulder. The force of his palm was solid, and he paused for two seconds.

"Plain down, the future of Sujiang is in your hands."