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

That smile didn't last long, only about three or four seconds.

It wasn't mockery, it wasn't smugness, and it wasn't the kind of "it's okay, it's okay" that you would comfort Xie Yu with.

Xie Yu had seen Lin Che with many different expressions.

His expressionless face when calculating, his cold-bloodedness when making decisions, and the chilling calmness when pressuring BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent).

But he had never seen this kind of laughter before.

It's very light.

Like in a game of chess, your opponent thinks he has made a checkmate move, but you have already led him down that path seven or eight moves in advance.

On the chessboard, he thinks he's attacking, but in reality, every move he makes is within the squares you've drawn.

"Let them come."

Four words.

Lin Che leaned back in his chair, his smile fading, but his relaxed tone didn't sound like he was talking about the frozen 4100 billion.

Xie Yu stood in front of the table, his fingers unconsciously pinching the seam of his trousers.

"I'll arrange the auditors' onboarding; you don't need to worry about it."

Xie Yu waited for the next part.

That was the last time.

Lin Che glanced at him and added, "Continue with the legal procedures that need to be pushed forward. Don't stop just because of the suspension notice. Do what needs to be done, sign what needs to be signed, and don't let the other side think we're panicking."

Xie Yu opened his mouth.

The question he wanted to ask lingered on the tip of his tongue.

"Why aren't you worried? How can you be laughing when 410 billion is stuck?"

But when you look into Lin Che's eyes, the calmness isn't feigned; it's a certainty that comes from the very core of his being, as certain as someone knowing the sun will rise tomorrow.

He swallowed his words.

"clear."

He nodded and turned to leave.

The moment the door closed, he heard Lin Che's chair turn slightly, probably so that he was facing the computer.

..........

After Xie Yu left, the office became quiet.

Lin Che's laughter completely vanished. Not because it wasn't funny anymore, but because the calculations he was about to do didn't require him to be smiling.

Sun Zheng was able to find peripheral records of the Ark Fund's external accounts.

This fact itself is a message.

The first layer of SPV isolation in the Ark is not thick enough.

The transaction in Singapore was a little too volatile, triggering a yellow alert from the anti-money laundering system.

It's not red enough to warrant a case, but it's enough to be noticed by someone with ulterior motives.

Sun Zheng was that thoughtful person.

He picked up his phone and dialed Singapore.

"All subsequent purchases should be made through the third-tier SPV. The original account should be deactivated and should not be used anymore."

Chen Wei paused for a moment on the other end of the phone: "The passageway to the third floor isn't fully completed yet, so walking will be a bit slow..."

"It's okay to be slow, but we can't leave any more traces; someone's watching."

"clear."

After hanging up the phone, he put it down and leaned back in his chair.

The central air conditioning vents on the ceiling hummed, and tiny dust particles floated under the light, visible but intangible.

He was calculating the second level in his mind.

Sun Zheng brought in the auditor.

The Big Four accounting firms have teams of a dozen or so people who are professional, independent, and have no vested interests with any party.

They will review all of Weiguang's financial statements for the past 90 days, examine the approval process for every large expenditure, and investigate related-party transactions.

And what will they see?

500 billion, not a penny touched.

The Abyss warning report, numbered PH-2020-001 and dated January 3, concluded with "high risk."

Every medical supply purchase has a corresponding approval form, and the decision basis column of each approval form has the same number.

The process is complete, all signatures are present, and the logic is consistent.

After their investigation, they will only come to one conclusion: this company has an extremely healthy financial situation and a very strong sense of risk control.

and then?

Then you just wait.

Wait until January 23rd.

Waiting for the day Wuhan is locked down.

On that day, the auditors were still inside the shimmering light.

They will witness the nationwide logistics collapse firsthand, and then witness the full operation of Weiguang's 12 city cloud warehouses.

They will dig out the Abyss report from January 3rd and discover that the company predicted the risk of the epidemic 20 days before the lockdown.

The auditors aren't here to investigate him.

They came to have it notarized for him.

By sending an "independent third party" into Weiguang, Sun Zheng essentially sent a witness to the enemy's territory.

After the city is locked down, the audit report written by this witness will become the strongest credit endorsement for Weiguang.

"An independent audit has confirmed that Microlight Technology had completed comprehensive emergency deployments before the national state of emergency, and its finances were fully compliant."

This report carries more weight than any PR document.

There's one thing Sun Zheng will never learn.

Do not send your weapons to the enemy's positions.

He sat up, his gaze falling on the cup of tea on the table.

cold.

He picked it up and took a sip; it was still bitter. The tea leaves had been steeped until they turned black, and the soup was so dark it could be used as ink.

All the moves that needed to be made have been made.

Now, wait.

........

Xie Yu left Lin Che's office but did not go straight back to his seat.

He stood in the corridor for a while.

The corridor lights have been switched to energy-saving mode, with only one out of every three lights on, resulting in dim lighting and long shadows.

Outside the window, it was a winter night in Hangzhou. A convenience store downstairs was still open, with warm yellow light shining through its glass doors.

Two people stood at the door, holding hot drinks in their hands. White steam rose from the rim of the cups, which was then dispersed by the wind.

"Let them come."

Four words.

He laughed when 410 billion was blocked.

Xie Yu stood in the corridor, his right hand in his pocket and his left hand on the edge of the windowsill, his fingertips touching the thin layer of dust that had accumulated on the windowsill.

He began to recall.

It started in that classroom at the Yong Sheng Garment Factory.

Back then, Weiguang had nothing but a drafty office and a bunch of whiteboards covered with numbers.

The first time Xie Yu felt like the sky was falling was the night his DAU dropped to 720,000.

He resigned, wrote a plan to force his way out, and almost overturned the table.

and then?

Then 100,000 items were cleared out in 7 seconds, credit purchases exceeded 10 billion overnight, and then cross-shareholding agreements were signed.

Every time he thought it was all over, it turned out to be over.

Every time he thought he had no way out, Lin Che was like...

It's as if we knew all along that the sky would fall.

It's not "foresight," not "analysis," and not "keen business intuition."

He's the kind of person who can tell you exactly what time the sun rises tomorrow, down to the minute, without even thinking.

He used to think of this as a skill.

Now he thinks it's not just about ability.

He dared not think any further.

The thought had barely surfaced when he shoved it back down, forcefully, like stuffing something you shouldn't see into a drawer and locking it.

forget about it.

I can't think about it.

He returned to his desk, turned on his computer, and began preparing the materials for the auditors' arrival.

Document directory, financial statement index, and approval process archive.

He can do these things very quickly, without having to think; his fingers fly across the keyboard, and his mind can wander.

My phone vibrated.

Xu Mingyuan's message: "I heard the auditors will be moving in next Monday? Should we double-check our statements beforehand?"

Xie Yu took a look.

For caliber.

For what caliber?

Why did they buy 500 million yuan worth of face masks?

What could he say?

"Because Chairman Lin asked me to buy it?"

"Because the Abyss report said it was high-risk"?

The next question the auditor will definitely ask is...

"Why did your AI system detect the risk earlier than all other health institutions in the country?"

He couldn't answer that question.

He replied with two words.

"Need not."

After sending it, he stared at the screen for a few seconds.

The cursor is blinking in the chat box.

He didn't know which caliber to use.

Because he himself didn't know the answer.