The richest man started taking advantage of loopholes after joining Alibaba.

The first rays of morning sunlight pierced through Beijing's Financial Street, shining on the floor-to-ceiling windows of the president's office on the top floor of the China Construction Bank building.

Liu Guoqiang sat behind a large mahogany desk, holding a newly printed document in his hand—"Recommendations on the Rectification of Irregular Business Operations and Asset Custody of Weiguang Technology".

The document was carefully worded; every clause was like poison coated in sugar.

On the surface, it claims to "help companies mitigate risks," but in reality, it completely drains Weiguang, leaving nothing behind.

"Manager, the legal department has reviewed it and there are no problems."

The secretary placed a cup of freshly brewed premium Da Hong Pao tea on the corner of the table, carefully observing the leader's expression. "As long as the Industry and Commerce Bureau cooperates, we can move into Weiguang to liquidate the assets this afternoon."

Liu Guoqiang nodded in satisfaction, picked up his teacup, and gently blew on the floating leaves.

"Young people always have to pay their dues." He took a sip of tea, his tone exuding a calm confidence that held the power of life and death. "Think you can change the rules just because you have a little money? How naive."

He glanced at the red landline phone on the table.

He was waiting for Lin Che's call begging for mercy.

According to his calculations, after a night of financial exhaustion, Weiguang should now be a corpse.

That arrogant young man should be kneeling on the ground right now, crying and begging him to show mercy.

"Ring ring—"

The phone rang right on time.

Liu Guoqiang's lips curled into a smile that seemed to confirm his expectation.

He slowly put down his teacup, deliberately paused for three moments, before reaching for the receiver.

"Feed." He adopted a businesslike, authoritative tone. "Who is it?"

The voice coming from the receiver wasn't the panic and sobbing I'd expected; instead, it carried a crisp, clear quality typical of early morning, and... an unsettling sense of relaxation.

"Good morning, President Liu."

Liu Guoqiang was taken aback. The voice was too steady, so steady that it didn't sound like someone on the verge of bankruptcy.

"I am Lin Che."

Lin Che's voice came through the electrical current, as clear as if he were sitting right across from him, "I called specifically to let you know that the system maintenance for Weiguang is finished."

Liu Guoqiang frowned slightly, his fingers tapping unconsciously on the mahogany table. "Oh? So, Xiao Lin, you've come to your senses? You're ready to sign the transfer agreement?"

"transfer?"

A soft laugh came from the other end of the phone. "No, no, Mr. Liu, you've misunderstood. I'm calling to inform your bank that, starting from this moment, Weiguang Payment is officially terminating all direct cooperation with your bank."

"What did you say?"

Liu Guoqiang thought he had misheard. He sat bolt upright in his chair, spilling a few drops of water from his teacup. "Terminate the cooperation? Are you crazy? Without my intervention, how are you going to move your billions of dollars? By transferring cash?"

"Who said I was going to follow in your footsteps?"

Lin Che's voice suddenly turned cold, with a metallic quality, "President Liu, have you forgotten that besides commercial banks, there is another path in this country called 'NetUnion'?"

Internet connectivity.

These two words were like two steel needles, instantly piercing Liu Guoqiang's eardrums.

His pupils contracted sharply, and his heart skipped a beat.

As a senior bank executive, he certainly knew that it was a national-level clearing platform specifically established by the central bank to rectify the chaos in third-party payment.

But in his mind, how could a two-year-old "wild" company like Weiguang possibly get a ticket to access the Internet?

"Impossible!" Liu Guoqiang exclaimed, his voice trembling with shock. "Accessing the Internet requires a full license! It needs special approval from the central bank! What qualifications do you have?"

"qualifications?"

Lin Che said coldly, "Just last night, I acquired 'Xinfutong' in its entirety. Although the company is a bit run-down, its license is a full-service permit stamped by the central bank."

"Furthermore, just now, my first transaction was successfully cleared in the central bank's reserve fund account through the NetsUnion platform. Governor Liu, would you like me to send you the central bank's receipt?"

Liu Guoqiang's face turned deathly pale instantly.

He abruptly turned to look at the computer screen next to him, his fingers trembling as he typed on the keyboard to bring up the background monitoring system.

The massive flow of funds that originally belonged to Weiguang Payment has completely disappeared from his system.

It wasn't cut off, it was bypassed.

Weiguang was like a train that was originally running on his private tracks, which suddenly changed tracks and entered a high-speed railway called "National Infrastructure".

That road is under the jurisdiction of the central bank and the state, but not under the jurisdiction of Liu Guoqiang.

"President Liu," Lin Che's voice continued, carrying a condescending tone of judgment, "Your previous disconnection of my internet was a commercial dispute, but now I'm using the NetsUnion channel regulated by the central bank, which is a legally mandated national financial infrastructure."

"If you dare to cut off my flow again, you are going against the national policy of 'cutting off direct connections' and hindering the central bank's financial reforms."

"Can you afford this hat?"

"Beep—beep—beep—"

The phone hangs up.

Liu Guoqiang stood frozen in place, holding the receiver.

The dial tone was like a series of slaps, striking his well-maintained face hard.

He lost.

We lost completely.

He thought he had the upper hand, but the other party smashed the jar and jumped into the sea.

"Manager..." The secretary, seeing Liu Guoqiang's grief-stricken expression, asked cautiously, "Should we still issue that trusteeship proposal?"

Looking at the meticulously prepared document on the table, Liu Guoqiang suddenly felt it was incredibly jarring, like a joke.

"What a load of crap!"

He grabbed the documents and slammed them to the ground, scattering papers everywhere. "Get out! All of you, get out!"

……

Beijing, Weiguang, Headquarters.

The wind was strong on the rooftop, making Lin Che's trench coat flutter loudly.

He stood by the railing, looking down at the city that had just awakened.

The traffic in the CBD is as busy as worker ants, and everyone is busy making a living. Every transaction will now flow through the pipelines laid by the glimmer of light.

After last night's life-or-death race, Weiguang not only survived, but also turned misfortune into blessing, completely breaking free from its dependence on banks and becoming a true "regular force in finance."

The iron gate behind me was pushed open with a creak.

Li Wenbo walked over with a tablet computer in his hand, a silly grin on his face that he couldn't suppress, and he walked with a swagger.

"President Lin! Amazing! Absolutely amazing!"

Li Wenbo was so excited he was almost incoherent, waving his tablet. "Just now, the four major banks sent letters! They said the 'system upgrade is complete' and requested the restoration of the interface! And... ICBC even offered to lower the fee rate by 0.2%!"

"You're already chickening out?"

Lin Che turned around, leaned against the railing, took out a cigarette case from his pocket, and lit one.

"As expected, that's how banks are. When you're weak, they're wolves; when you're strong, they're dogs. Now that we're connected to the online banking system, they're afraid we'll drain all their deposits, so naturally they're coming to grovel."

Lin Che took a deep drag of his cigarette, letting the pungent smoke swirl in his lungs, dispelling the fatigue of the night.

"Tell them to lower the rate by 0.5%, otherwise, I won't keep a single penny of Weiguang's reserve funds in their bank. Want to renew the contract under the old terms? No way."

"Five per thousand?!" Li Wenbo's eyes widened. "That's outrageous! That's practically the cost price."

"They will agree."

Lin Che flicked his cigarette ash, his gaze indifferent. "Because now, I'm the one who sets the rules."

Li Wenbo looked at the boss in front of him. Although he was only in his twenties, the aura emanating from Lin Che at this moment made him feel a deep sense of awe.

That's the aura that only true victors who have fought their way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood possess.

"Oh, right, Mr. Lin," Li Wenbo said, as if remembering something, "What about ofo...?"

"ofo?"

Lin Che sneered, "Dai Wei's mission is complete. He was just a sheepdog used to drive all users into Weiguang Payment. Now that the sheep are in the pen, the dog is no longer needed."

"Have the public relations department issue a statement saying that Weiguang has done its best to assist in refunding deposits, but ofo is poorly managed, and users should contact ofo to resolve subsequent funding issues themselves, thus severing all ties."

Li Wenbo shivered.

This is truly... they ate it all up, leaving not even the bones behind.

"Alright, go ahead and get busy." Lin Che waved his hand.

Li Wenbo withdrew.

Lin Che was the only one left on the rooftop.

He took out his phone and tapped on a black icon called "Abyss".

This isn't some magical system; it's a private business intelligence dashboard that he had Xie Yu create after using web crawlers to scrape financial data from across the internet.

On the screen, several line graphs are climbing rapidly.

Keyword tracking: [High returns], [P2P lending], [Investment defaults]

Overall online lending default rate: surged 15% month-on-month.

Number of platforms with net capital outflow: 142

Looking at these cold, hard numbers, memories from Lin Che's past life surfaced in his mind.

Spring of 2018.

It was a financial disaster that swept the entire country.

Fanya, Ezubao, Qianbao.com... those once invincible behemoths worth hundreds of billions began to collapse at this point in time.

Lin Che closed his eyes, and the news footage of investors from his previous life unfurling banners, crying, and even jumping off office buildings was as clear as if it had happened yesterday.

That was an avalanche that destroyed countless families and killed countless people.

But in Lin Che's eyes now, it was a once-in-a-lifetime "hunt".

"Thirty days left."

Lin Che muttered to himself, his voice carried away by the wind.

If the payment war was his way of laying the foundation, then the upcoming wave of P2P platform collapses is the perfect opportunity for him to use "Weiguang Score" to isolate risks and establish true credit hegemony by acquiring high-quality non-performing assets.

He turned off his phone screen and looked at his own cold eyes reflected in the black screen.

"The foundation is complete."

Lin Che threw the cigarette butt on the ground, crushed it out with his toe, and watched the wisp of smoke completely dissipate.

"It's time to send the next group on their way."