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November 6, 2012, Westin Hotel, Washington, D.C.

The celebration banquet following Obama's successful re-election reached its climax.

The champagne tower shimmered with golden light under the lights as Democratic elites raised their glasses in celebration, their faces beaming with the joy of victory.

But in the VIP lounge in the corner of the banquet hall, the atmosphere was unusually heavy.

Attorney General Eric Holder downed a glass of whiskey in one gulp, the glass slamming heavily onto the mahogany table.

“Joe, we can’t wait any longer,” he said to Vice President Biden in a low voice, his eyes scanning the doorway warily. “Yongren has infiltrated every corner of our economy. Energy, finance, technology—they’ve even got their hands on defense contractors.”

Biden swirled the champagne glass in his hand, the bubbles rising and bursting in the pale golden liquid.

"The problem is, how do we investigate?" He narrowed his signature blue eyes, still displaying his rationality and clarity. "Their assets are like mercury; if you reach out to grab them, they disperse. Last year, the SEC's investigation only caught a few shell companies, and they couldn't even collect the fines."

Finance Minister Timothy Geithner gave a cold laugh and pulled a document from his inside suit pocket.

"Hmph! Then let's try a different approach." He opened a folder marked "Top Secret." "Instead of investigating their money, we'll investigate their people."

The first page of the document contained a photograph of an Asian man…

Suning is the founder and chairman of Yongren Group.

In the photo, he stands on the stage of the Davos Forum, wearing a well-tailored dark blue suit, with sharp eyes like an eagle.

“According to FBI intelligence, Su Ning frequently flew to Switzerland, Singapore, and the Cayman Islands over the past four years,” Geithner said, pointing to his travel records. “Each time, he used a private jet, and his entry records were specially processed. What was he preparing?”

Holder leaned closer for a better look: "Is he transferring assets?"

“Or worse,” Biden put down his champagne glass, tapping his fingers on the table, “he’s building some kind of architecture that we can’t access.”

The door to the lounge was suddenly pushed open, and White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew strode in.

“Gentlemen, the president wants to know the progress of the discussions,” he said, closing the door and lowering his voice. “He has just received a briefing from the CIA that Yongren’s cobalt mining deal in the Congo may involve arms smuggling.”

Biden and Holder exchanged a glance.

“Tell the president,” Vice President Biden finally said, turning to his chief of staff, “that we need a special task force, across agencies. This isn’t a routine investigation; it’s a war.”

"as you wish."

……

At the same time, on the 58th floor of the Wing Yan Asia Centre in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong.

Suning stood in front of the panoramic floor-to-ceiling window, overlooking the brightly lit harbor.

His encrypted phone had just received a message from Washington…

A candid photo taken in the lounge, and an audio recording from ten minutes ago.

"Boss?" Lin Shimin stood in the center of the office, looking at Su Ning's back.

As the chief legal officer of Yongren Group, he rarely saw the ever-composed founder remain silent for such a long time.

Su Ning turned around and handed the phone to Lin Shimin.

The screen displays clear photos of Biden and others discussing the topic, with a transcript of the audio scrolling below.

After quickly glancing at the document, Lin Shimin's expression changed drastically: "They're serious this time."

“They’ve always been serious! It’s just that they’re like a tiger trying to eat the sky, with no way to start.” Su Ning walked to the holographic projection table in the center of the office and lightly touched the control panel with his finger.

Instantly, a three-dimensional global financial network unfolded on the table, with countless blue lines connecting hundreds of shimmering dots of light...

Swiss private banks, Singaporean fund management companies, shell companies in the Cayman Islands, resource contracts in Africa…

"Obama won re-election, and the Democrats control both the House and Senate," Su Ning's voice was frighteningly calm. "If we don't slaughter the pigs now, when will we?"

His finger traced the projection, and the light spots shifted their positions, forming new connections.

“But they forgot one thing,” Su Ning said with a sneer, “Pigs can run, let alone us, who are the Marshal Tianpeng.”

Lin Shimin swallowed hard: "Then we need to activate the emergency plan?"

“No,” Suning turned off the projector, and the office instantly became bright again. “We need to accelerate the startup of the ‘Alpha Structure’.”

This word caused Lin Shimin's pupils to shrink slightly.

As a core member of the group, he knew that the "Alpha Structure" was the ultimate plan that Suning had been secretly preparing for ten years...

A system that made Yongren Group "disappear" in a legal sense.

However, Lin Shimin was unaware that Suning had already launched its plan, and Yongren Group was about to completely "disappear".

Like the Rothschild family, they are known to the world, yet seem to know nothing about them.

“Summon the ‘Alpha Group’,” Suning said as he walked toward the elevator. “Meeting in Zurich, within 72 hours.”

……

On January 15, 2013, a villa without a house number stood on the shores of Lake Zurich, Switzerland.

Five professionals who were strangers to each other sat around a long table designed to prevent eavesdropping.

They came from Switzerland, Singapore, Israel, the Cayman Islands, and Estonia, and each of them only knew that they had been hired at a high salary to complete a "special project," and knew nothing about the identities and tasks of the others.

Each room in the villa is equipped with a state-of-the-art signal jammer, the windows are specially made one-way glass, and even the indoor Wi-Fi has been replaced with a separate local area network.

This is the safest secret room in the digital age.

When the screen on the wall lit up, the five of them sat up straight in unison.

On the screen is a digitally processed, blurry human figure, and the voice has also been processed by a voice changer.

“The ‘Alpha Structure’ is officially launched today,” Suning said on the screen. “Each of you is a key piece of this puzzle, but you will never see the complete picture.”

The documents in front of the Swiss lawyers revealed a complex offshore structure design...

The foundation, trust, and special purpose vehicle (SPV) are nested in 17 layers, each located in a different jurisdiction.

The Cayman holding company is controlled by a Liechtenstein foundation, whose beneficiary is another Panamanian trust…

Legal jurisdiction has been meticulously designed into an unsolvable maze.

“An investigation in any single country will hit the jurisdictional wall,” the voice on the screen explained. “Even if a U.S. court issues a global freeze order, they won’t be able to find all the relevant points.”

The computer experts in Singapore were in charge of another part...

Blockchain-based asset registration system.

All equity changes and fund flows are encrypted and distributed across hundreds of servers, with no central database available for investigation.

“Imagine this is a ledger,” the voice continued, “but not a ledger, but one torn into countless pieces, each piece encrypted and scattered in safes around the world. Even if someone finds a safe, its contents are meaningless.”

Israeli security experts were responsible for designing the "digital signature fragments" system...

Yongren's core decision-making power was broken down by mathematical algorithms and distributed among anonymous directors in five jurisdictions.

Any major transaction requires authorization from at least three “fragments” simultaneously, and these “directors” are unaware of each other’s existence.

The meeting lasted a full twelve hours.

As the last expert signed the confidentiality agreement and left the villa, the surface of Lake Zurich was already shimmering with the morning light.

Three days later, at the Wing Yan Asia Centre in Hong Kong.

Lin Shimin placed a report in front of Suning: "The first phase is complete, and the 'Alpha structure' has been initially activated."

Suning flipped through the report, a slight smile playing on his lips. The report indicated that Yongren Group's core assets had begun to be transferred to the new structure…

The cobalt mining contracts in Africa are now held by a Luxembourgish entity, 75% of which is owned by a Seychelles trust, the beneficiary of which is another shell company registered in Malta…

“This isn’t a firewall,” Suning said, closing the file. “This is turning the entire company into a ‘digital ghost.’”

"Boss, I've always had a question in my mind."

"You said."

"Is it worth it for us to go through all this trouble? We are businessmen, we can sit down and talk with the Democrats. If we can get along peacefully with the Republicans, then it is possible for us to get along peacefully with the Democrats as well."

"Naive! Do you think Bush has no designs on our Yongren Group?"

"This……"

"Never rely on negotiation! This world has always been ruled by the strong."

……

May 2014, editorial office of Fortune magazine.

Editor-in-Chief Alan Murray stared at the latest Fortune Global 500 list, his brow furrowed.

“That’s impossible,” he told the data editor. “Yongren Group was ranked 37th last year, how could it be completely off the list this year?”

The data editor repeatedly checked the Excel spreadsheet: "They haven't submitted financial statements, and our research shows that their main operating entity has been restructured into several smaller companies."

The same question has spread throughout the global financial community.

The Wall Street Journal attempted to uncover the inside story, but discovered:
Yongren America's registered entity has changed to "Polaris Capital," and its office has moved from Manhattan, New York to a small town in Delaware. The number of employees has been reduced from 3000 to 12.

The largest shareholder of Hong Kong's "Wing Yan Holdings" has become a Panamanian foundation, and under the country's laws, the foundation's beneficiaries are not required to be disclosed.

Suning's last public appearance was at the Davos Forum three months ago, and since then, it has been difficult to find even a clear recent photo of him.

Even photos of him in public are nowhere to be found; he has disappeared from the internet and public information, to the point that he is now in a bizarre situation where "no such person can be found."

Financial analysts frantically dialed the phone numbers of Yongren's executives, but most of the numbers were no longer in service.

A few people who answered politely stated that they had left their jobs or been transferred to "affiliated companies".

"It's like watching a blue whale evaporate right before your eyes," a senior analyst at Morgan Stanley told CNBC. "A giant with hundreds of billions of dollars in annual revenue can't just disappear without a trace."

But in Washington, those in the know understand what happened.

January 2015, FBI headquarters conference room.

Chief James Comey slammed a thick investigation report onto the conference table, scattering papers all over the floor.

“Two years! We mobilized three special task forces, working with the SEC, the Treasury Department, and the IRS, and what was the result?” His voice trembled with anger. “Yongren’s core assets have long been transferred to a quantum-encrypted blockchain, and even the Swiss bank can’t get the complete ledger!”

The Vice Minister of Finance took a deep breath: "What about their cobalt mines in Congo and their numerous factories in China?"

The CIA representative took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes wearily: "Nominally belonging to a local state-owned enterprise or sovereign wealth fund, but with actual control?"

He gave a wry smile. "Who knows which offshore account they're in? We're not even sure if these entities still belong to Yongren—legally they may already be completely independent."

"Shit! Suning is a cunning devil; he's made us a laughingstock."

The conference room fell into silence.

Ultimately, all eyes turned to President Obama, who was seated at the head of the table.

Obama remained silent for a long time, his fingers lightly tapping the table.

“So,” he finally spoke slowly, his voice tinged with a rare sense of defeat, “we can’t even find a 'pig-slaughtering' knife now?”

"..."

……

September 2025, deep in the Qinling Mountains of China.

The afterglow of the setting sun spilled onto the snow-capped peaks, turning the entire valley golden.

A manor not on the map is hidden deep in the forest, with sensors and concealed cameras on the walls ensuring that no drones or satellites can spy on the inside.

On the terrace of the manor, Su Ning, wrapped in a black cashmere coat, held a cup of Wuyi Mountain Da Hong Pao tea in her hands, the aroma of the tea filling the cold air.

The holographic projection screen in front of him displayed real-time data streams from the global financial markets…

Cryptocurrency prices, commodity trading, cross-border mergers and acquisitions...

Yongren's influence is still everywhere, but no one can prove its existence anymore.

Lin Shimin stepped onto the terrace and handed over an encrypted briefing: "Boss, the last batch of assets has been migrated. The 'Alpha Structure' is now operating completely autonomously; it can iterate and defend itself even without human intervention."

Su Ning nodded slightly, her gaze fixed on the distant snow-capped mountains.

Sixteen years have passed. Starting with that victory celebration in Washington, this silent war has finally come to an end.

“We won,” he said softly, his breath dissipating quickly in the cold air.

Lin Shimin hesitated for a moment: "Are you really determined... to let go completely?"

Suning turned around, a genuine smile appearing on his lips for the first time in ten years: "Yongren no longer needs humans. It is now a true digital life form—a self-sustaining, self-evolving, and self-protecting financial life form."

He walked to the edge of the terrace and lightly touched the panel on the railing with his finger.

The holographic projection transforms to display a complex network diagram...

Thousands of nodes shimmered with light, connecting with each other to form a network structure without a center or a weakness.

“Five years ago, when Obama left office, he told his advisors that Yongren was his biggest failure.” Su Ning’s voice carried a hint of sarcasm. “Three years ago, Trump tried to freeze our offshore assets with an executive order, only to find that Yongren no longer existed legally.”

He turned off the projector. "Now, even Biden admits that censorship is pointless."

Looking at this man who once dominated the global business world, Lin Shimin suddenly realized that Suning was no longer that business giant, but had become something more abstract...

An embodiment of an idea, a symbol of a financial revolution.

"What are you planning to do next?" he couldn't help but ask.

Su Ning smiled slightly, but his gaze was fixed on the distant scenery: "It's time for me to retire."

"..."

Three days later, on a private island in the Pacific Ocean.

Amidst the azure sea and sky, a yacht named "Ghost" rests quietly in the harbor.

On the deck, a man wearing sunglasses was leisurely fishing.

His face bears some resemblance to Su Ning's, yet they are also distinctly different...

Deeper wrinkles, whiter sideburns—the look of a typical retired tycoon.

In a distant villa, television news was broadcasting the latest financial developments: "Today, the Federal Reserve announced the launch of a digital currency pilot program, with a technology partner called 'Polaris Fintech'..."

The man smiled, gently pulled the rod, and a tuna leaped out of the water, shimmering in the sunlight.

"The game continues," he murmured to himself, releasing the fish back into the sea.

...(End of chapter)