You're dumping me, huh? Fine, then I'll just pick up the school beauty and make her my wif

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Che sent the message to their chat group.

Xu Wenbin replied the fastest: "What's going on, Lao Jiang? Did something happen?"

Song Mingxuan: "Could it be that the review has been approved, and we can start preparing for the defense?"

Lu Ziang: "It's unlikely. Based on the pattern of the past few years, the defense won't start so soon. It will take at least another half month."

Jiang Che didn't reply to the group messages anymore. Instead, he called Su Qinghe, "Qinghe, where are you now?"

"The library." Su Qinghe sensed something was wrong with his tone. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"It seems there's been a problem with the Challenge Cup. The organizing committee wants us to go there now, but don't worry too much, it might just be some normal procedures."

Jiang Che paused after speaking, then added somewhat heavily, "But we also need to be mentally prepared."

Su Qinghe tightened her grip on her phone. "Okay, I understand. I'll head over now."

"Okay, you pack your things and go downstairs first. I'll pick you up on the way."

Half an hour later, the group met at the entrance of the organizing committee office.

Xu Wenbin lowered his voice and asked, "Old Jiang, do you think... someone might actually have reported us?"

"Who knows? Let's go in and check the situation first." Jiang Che shrugged and pushed the door open.

Besides the person in charge, Mr. Zhou, there were two strangers sitting in the office.

One of the women, a middle-aged woman in a formal suit, appeared to be a school leader.

"You're here, please have a seat." Manager Zhou pointed to the chair opposite him.

After everyone sat down, Jiang Che didn't waste any time and went straight to the point, asking, "Teacher Zhou, what brings you here?"

The person in charge, Zhou, did not answer immediately, but looked at the middle-aged woman next to him.

"I am the deputy director of the school's academic affairs office, my surname is Li," the woman said in a very businesslike tone. "I called you here today because the organizing committee received an anonymous tip-off letter."

Xu Wenbin's expression changed. "A whistleblower letter? Accusing us of what?"

"I'm reporting that your project involves data fabrication, using family resources to inflate user numbers, and buying students' cooperation with money."

As Deputy Director Li spoke, he pushed a printed document in front of the group, saying, "This is the content of the whistleblower letter; you can take a look."

Song Mingxuan picked it up and flipped through a few pages, his expression growing increasingly grim.

The letter not only accused them of manipulating data, but also listed several suspicious points in detail.

This includes the fact that the platform accumulated a large number of users in just a few days after its launch, the registration period for some textbooks was too concentrated, and even the act of giving away drinks was accused of bribing students with money.

"This is utter slander!" Xu Wenbin slammed his fist on the table in anger. "We have records of every step; how could we possibly fabricate anything?"

"Don't get agitated." Deputy Director Li gestured for him to sit down. "The school will investigate thoroughly, but your eligibility to participate will be temporarily suspended until the investigation is complete."

Jiang Che looked at the letter of complaint on the table and suddenly asked, "Director Li, may I ask a question?"

"you say."

When was this whistleblower letter received?

"The day before yesterday afternoon."

"Then why were you only notified today?"

Jiang Che stared at her. "According to normal procedures, after receiving a report, we should contact the person involved to verify the situation immediately, instead of freezing their qualifications first and then notifying them."

Deputy Director Li was taken aback, clearly not expecting Jiang Che to question the procedure.

"This is the organizing committee's decision; I'm just following along."

"Then can I meet with the other members of the organizing committee?" Jiang Che did not back down at all. "I have the right to know who froze our qualifications without conducting an investigation."

The person in charge, Zhou, coughed somewhat awkwardly: "Jiang Che, this matter was indeed handled according to procedure, and there was no shady dealing involved. I can assure you of that."

"You should cooperate with the investigation first. If there are no problems, your qualifications will be restored soon."

"Cooperating with the investigation is no problem," Jiang Che stood up, "but I request to recuse myself."

"Avoidance?" Deputy Director Li frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I'm voluntarily withdrawing from the qualification verification and handing over the team leader position to Song Mingxuan." Jiang Che looked at his roommates. "We've all worked on this project together from beginning to end, and I shouldn't be questioned because of my position."

Song Mingxuan looked up abruptly, "Old Jiang, are you crazy?"

"I'm not crazy. You can check all the data once you log into the backend. You have all the financial records and stuff. You cooperate with the school's investigation. I won't participate."

Xu Wenbin immediately became anxious: "And what about you?"

"I'm withdrawing from the competition." After saying that, Jiang Che looked at Deputy Director Li and said, "Is that alright? Without Jiang Sheng, the project shouldn't be accused of using family money to inflate data anymore."

The office fell silent.

Su Qinghe bit her lip and looked at Jiang Che with concern. She knew that Jiang Che was protecting the project in the most direct way.

But doing so would put even more pressure on Jiang Che himself.

Deputy Director Li looked at Jiang Che, remained silent for a few seconds, and then asked, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Sure."

"Alright, I'll keep your decision in mind."

Deputy Director Li put away the letter of complaint. "The next investigation will be conducted jointly by the Academic Affairs Office and the Organizing Committee. Prepare all the materials and cooperate at any time."

After leaving the office, Xu Wenbin couldn't hold back any longer. "Old Jiang, are you fucking crazy? We're all working on this project together, why should you be the only one to quit?"

"Because the whistleblower letter was targeting me."

Jiang Che looked at the window at the end of the corridor. "As long as I'm here, this project will continue to be questioned. Rather than let everyone's efforts be dragged down by me, I'd rather withdraw voluntarily."

Song Mingxuan: "But if you do that, all your efforts over the past few days will have been wasted."

"It wasn't a waste of time." Jiang Che turned his head. "The project is still here, and you're all still here. That's enough."

Su Qinghe walked to his side and took his hand.

Jiang Che felt the warmth of her palm and gently squeezed it back.

"Qinghe, are you scared?"

"What are you afraid of?"

"I'm afraid I'll drag you down with me."

Su Qinghe shook her head, "I'm just afraid you'll have to carry too much on your own."

Jiang Che smiled and didn't say anything more.

Back at the villa, the group sat in the living room, but no one spoke.

Lu Ziang turned on his computer and checked the backend data again. "I've looked at it, and all the records are fine. The doubts mentioned in the whistleblower letter are completely unfounded."

"Then why are our qualifications still suspended?" Xu Wenbin protested. "Isn't this clearly targeting us?"

"Because there's one thing that's right in the whistleblower's letter." Jiang Che handed over his phone.

The screen displays the last paragraph of the whistleblower letter, which mentions that the initial budget for the project was 500,000.

This figure was only discussed in internal team meetings and was never made public.

Song Mingxuan's expression changed. "This was decided in our meeting that night. How did outsiders find out?"

"There are only two possibilities." Jiang Che put his phone away. "Either someone is eavesdropping outside, or someone on our side has leaked the information."

Lu Ziang looked up. "You mean, there's a mole within the team?"

"I didn't say it was an inside man, but the news definitely came from us." Jiang Che looked at the group. "Besides us, who else was there that night?"