Super Rich: Starting the game by going back ten years to buy Bitcoin

Miao Miao bounced around with the drawing paper all night, and even slept with the crooked rocket drawing in her arms.

Over the next few days, the production line on the 66th floor ran day and night. The second set of armor rolled off the production line on the sixth day. The third set had already entered the assembly stage. Efficiency was even higher than expected.

As for Li Yichen himself, he has completely given up.

Zhou Dahai looked out the kitchen window and saw that he had moved a deck chair to the lawn in the backyard to sunbathe. A fishing rod lay beside him, the line cast into the artificial stream behind the villa. There were no fish in the stream at all.

"Boss, that stream is for ornamental purposes; there isn't even a loach in it." Chu Feng stood under the eaves, unable to hold back for a long time.

"It's about the state of mind you're fishing for." Li Yichen pushed his sunglasses up a bit. "You wouldn't understand."

Chu Feng: "..."

The next day, he went for a walk along the Huangpu River, bought a grilled sausage, and leaned against the railing watching cargo ships come and go. Passersby walked past him, and no one would have guessed that this young man in a white T-shirt, with a grilled sausage in his mouth, had just signed a military contract worth tens of billions of yuan with the military a few days ago.

Life is relaxed.

But at the future space base, everyone is working themselves to the bone.

Lingxiao-1. A pure white rocket, 105 meters tall, stands atop the launch tower. The nozzles of its twelve Aurora engines point downwards, their metallic reflections cold, hard, and blinding. Two days until the test launch. Everyone in the base walks at a brisk pace, and everyone shouts.

This is the most powerful privately-made rocket in human history.

Success or failure hinges on this moment.

Two days before launch. 11 PM.

Liu Ruyan sat in the command center, the data from the final round of system integration testing spread out in front of her. She was on her fourth cup of coffee, and her stomach was starting to churn.

My phone suddenly vibrated.

An anonymous text message.

"There is a problem with the No. 4 Aurora engine. We recommend a follow-up inspection."

Liu Ruyan's fingers stopped on the keyboard.

She stared at the text message. One second. Two seconds. Five seconds. Ten seconds.

There was no signature. There was no caller ID. The number was a one-time virtual number.

mischief?

Her thumb hovered over the delete key.

Three seconds later, it was withdrawn.

What if not?

Liu Ruyan stood up, her chair sliding back half a meter as she kicked it. She immediately pulled up the latest inspection report for the twelve Aurora engines and dialed the structural engineer's number.

"Old Wang, get dressed and come to the base now, right now. Yes, right now. Don't ask any questions, you'll know when you get here."

Two o'clock in the morning.

Beneath the launch tower. Searchlights cast a stark white glow. Liu Ruyan, wearing a safety helmet, looked up at the white rocket piercing the sky. The wind blew in from the open fields, carrying the smells of engine oil and concrete.

An ultrasonic testing device was attached to the outer shell of engine number four.

beep-

The alarm went off.

The ultrasonic image revealed that a critical bolt inside the No. 4 Aurora engine had come loose.

It wasn't just a little loose. It was almost two turns loose. If it were to run at full power after ignition, the high-frequency vibration would completely dislodge it within thirty seconds. The bolt would fall off, the combustion chamber would lose pressure, and high-temperature gas would leak—

boom.

The entire rocket will be reduced to ashes in an instant.

Liu Ruyan's back was instantly soaked with sweat.

Cold sweat trickled down her spine, and her hair clung to her forehead inside her helmet. She stood there, her legs feeling weak, but she stubbornly refused to move.

Pick up your phone. Dial a number.

Three o'clock in the morning.

Tomson Riviera villas.

Li Yichen was jolted awake. He grabbed his phone and glanced at the caller ID—Liu Ruyan.

connected.

"President Li, something's happened." Liu Ruyan's voice was trembling.

Li Yichen lifted his head from the pillow.

"A critical bolt inside the No. 4 Aurora engine was loose. This was confirmed by ultrasonic testing. If it hadn't been discovered, the test launch would have been delayed..."

She didn't finish the second half of her sentence.

Li Yichen sat up abruptly. The blanket slipped off.

"Loose bolts?"

"Yes."

When was the last test done?

"Two days ago," Liu Ruyan bit her lip. "The report two days ago showed everything was normal. All data was in the green zone."

The room was silent for a few seconds.

It was normal two days ago. Now it's looser.

Either the testing equipment is faulty and missed the detection.

Or—someone will go up and twist it within the next two days.

Li Yichen's mind was completely clear.

"Ling'er".

The watch glowed faintly. Ling'er's holographic image didn't pop up, but her response rang out immediately.

"Brother, I'm here."

"Retrieve all surveillance footage of the launch tower area from the past three days. Analyze it frame by frame. Mark any unusual personnel entering or leaving the area."

"receive."

Fifteen minutes.

Li Yichen sat on the edge of the bed, his feet flat on the cold floor. The light was off. Moonlight streamed in through the gaps in the curtains, falling on his bare shoulders.

Ling'er's projection appeared. Her little face was taut.

"Brother, we found it."

A surveillance video is floating in mid-air.

Timestamp: Two days ago, at 4:23 AM.

In the footage, a figure in overalls and a hard hat appears at the base of the launch tower. He keeps his head down, deliberately avoiding a frontal view. However, the side camera at the base of the tower still captures his full silhouette.

He stood next to the No. 4 Aurora engine for seven minutes, holding an open-end wrench in his hand.

The image was blurry, but Ling'er cross-referenced the gait, height, and body type with the data of all registered personnel at the base.

"98.7% match." Ling'er tossed a photo next to the screen.

Employee ID photo.

Zhang Feng.

The former deputy chief technology officer whose power was stripped and whose position was removed by Li Yichen.

Li Yichen stared at the furtive figure on the screen. He tapped his right index finger three times on the edge of the bed.

Once. Twice. Three times.

Stopped.

"Liu Ruyan".

"Yes!" came the immediate reply from the other end of the phone.

"Immediately conduct a comprehensive re-inspection of Lingxiao-1. Every bolt, every pipe, every weld. Leave no stone unturned."

"Okay, boss. A full check will take 24 hours, but it won't affect the launch window the day after tomorrow."

"Okay." Li Yichen got up from the bed. "I'll leave this to you."

There was a pause.

"I'll come to the base in person tomorrow. There's someone I need to deal with in person."

It's over.

Who sent that anonymous text message?

Li Yichen had already made up his mind. Someone in Zhang Feng's team had witnessed what happened that morning. They didn't dare to publicly report it—after all, although Zhang Feng had been dismissed, he still had a group of old subordinates at the base. But this person's conscience wouldn't allow it. So they anonymously sent a text message.

"Ling'er, have you done the signal tracing for that text message?"

"It's done." Ling'er handed over the data. "The sending device was located on the third floor of Building C in the base dormitory area. Cross-verification using the resident information and mobile phone MAC address of that floor—the sender is Chen Lei, a structural engineer. Twenty-six years old, and has been with the company for eight months."

Li Yichen remembered the name.

This kind of person can be used in the future.

The next day at 10 a.m.

Conference room on the first floor of the administration building of the future aerospace base.

Li Yichen arrived very early. He was wearing a black polo shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms. He sat in the center of the long table. The 80-inch screen behind him was already on, playing surveillance footage on a loop.

The door opened.

Zhang Feng walked in.

He was fifty-three years old, and his hair had turned considerably whiter than when we last met. He had two dark circles under his eyes and had lost weight. Clearly, he hadn't been doing well lately.

The moment he entered, he caught a glimpse of the screen behind him.

My own back view. Work clothes. Safety helmet. Engine No. 4. Wrench.

He stood frozen in place.

The color drained from her face within three seconds. From red to white, from white to gray.

"Zhang Feng."

Li Yichen spoke. He didn't stand up. He sat there with his legs crossed, his hands folded on the table.

"Deliberately sabotaging the group's key aerospace project facilities."

"Do you know what crime this is?"

Zhang Feng's knees buckled, and he collapsed to his knees on the floor. The 53-year-old man knelt on the cold tiles, trembling uncontrollably.

"I...I..."

His lips trembled for a long time before he managed to squeeze out a few broken syllables.

"I'm just not convinced... Why should she, a young woman, be above me... I've worked in this industry my whole life..."

Li Yichen stood up.

The chair leg scraped against the ground with a sharp sound.

He walked up to Zhang Feng and lowered his head.

"You've spent your whole life building rockets, burning through 3.5 billion dollars, and you haven't accomplished anything."

Zhang Feng lowered his head even further.

"In just two months after Liu Ruyan took over, the rocket went from blueprints to reality. You're not just resentful. You're jealous. Jealous to the point of madness."

Li Yichen squatted down, meeting Zhang Feng's gaze.

"If no one finds that bolt today—the launch fails, the rocket explodes, and hundreds of people here die—"

He didn't finish speaking.

But Zhang Feng was completely paralyzed. He lay sprawled on the ground, his forehead hitting the tiles, wailing and crying uncontrollably. His dignity at fifty-three years old was utterly gone.

"I was wrong...I was wrong...Please..."

Li Yichen stood up straight and took a step back.

The meeting room door was pushed open from the outside.

Two men in plainclothes walked in. One of them took out his identification and opened it.

police.

"Take him away." Li Yichen turned around. "Prosecute him for the most serious crime."

Zhang Feng was lifted up and dragged out by two men. His desperate cries echoed down the corridor. The sound dragged on and on, growing fainter and fainter until it finally disappeared completely.

The meeting room fell silent again.

Li Yichen walked to the window.

Outside the window, the white rocket body of Lingxiao-1 stood silently in the midday sun. One hundred and five meters tall. Over five thousand tons. Twelve Aurora engines.

"Ling'er".

"exist."

"From now until the end of the launch, the area within a 500-meter radius of the launch zone will be under 24-hour surveillance with no blind spots. Even if a mosquito flies in, it will be marked."

"Understood, brother."

He turned and walked out.

In the corridor, Liu Ruyan leaned against the wall. Her hands were behind her back, and her back was ramrod straight. Her eyes were a little red, but she didn't shed a tear.

"Mr. Li." She straightened up. "The loose bolt has been replaced. A full re-inspection is underway; all seven engines have been tested and are functioning normally. It won't affect tomorrow's launch window."

Li Yichen glanced at her.

"Thanks for your hard work."

"Of course." Liu Ruyan raised her chin slightly.

Li Yichen took two steps forward, then stopped.

"By the way—there's someone named Chen Lei in the structural engineering group."

Liu Ruyan was taken aback. "Chen Lei? That young man who's only been with the company for less than a year?"

"Hmm." Li Yichen put his hands in his pockets. "This time, we owe it all to him. Don't ask about the details. Promote him and transfer him to your direct team."

Liu Ruyan didn't press further. She nodded. "Understood."

Li Yichen continued walking towards the end of the corridor. He pushed open the glass door of the administration building, and sunlight poured down on him.

On the distant launch tower, Lingxiao-1 points straight to the sky.

"We'll see this big guy take to the skies tomorrow," he muttered to himself.

My phone vibrated.

A voice message from Miaomiao. The little girl's voice was so loud it almost blew the microphone out of the microphone.

"Brother Li! Does that mean we can watch the rocket tomorrow?! I've already packed my backpack!!!"

Li Yichen smiled but didn't reply.

He raised his head, his gaze passing over the base's fence and landing on the top of the 105-meter-tall white arrow.

Tomorrow, the whole world will be watching this place.