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

Lin Che did not speak again.

He didn't even glance at Martin.

After dropping that bombshell about "antitrust litigation," he acted like an Alibaba P7 employee who had just finished a report.

Reach out and press the power button on your laptop.

The screen went out.

The screenshot of the "Alibaba Cloud - High Voltage Cluster" backend that was enough to shake Tencent's stock price turned into a black reflector, reflecting Martin's frozen face.

Lin Che unplugged the power cord.

The adapter was very hot. That was the residual heat from thousands of servers running at full capacity.

He roughly tangled the messy cable in his hands. The cable end hit the table with a loud "thud." The sound wasn't loud, but it sounded like a dull thud in the conference room. The junior investment manager next to him shrank back slightly.

Lin Che unzipped his black backpack.

"hiss--"

The metallic clanging sound was amplified. The computer, power cord, and employee badge bearing the orange Alibaba logo were inserted one after another. The entire process was smooth and uninterrupted.

Only those who want to sell their products will hope to be retained.

Those who sell stolen goods just want to disappear before the police arrive.

He slung his backpack over one shoulder and looked down at his phone. The screen lit up with a red pop-up.

[Alibaba Cloud Security Center: Level 2 Warning. Your test cluster has been marked as "abnormally occupied" and will be forcibly reclaimed in 14 minutes and 32 seconds.]

Red text, bold.

14:31. 14:30.

Lin Che put his phone in his pocket, turned, and walked towards the heavy glass door. His leather shoes made no sound on the carpet of the Tencent meeting room.

Outside the glass wall, in the open-plan office area of ​​Tencent's headquarters, programmers walk around with their laptops, and someone laughs loudly in the break room.

Separated by a wall. Inside lies a commercial powerhouse, outside lies a prosperous era.

Lin Che's fingers touched the stainless steel door handle. The metal was cold.

"Click."

The door lock has a slight rebound.

The man at the end of the long table finally moved.

"etc."

His voice was dry and hoarse.

Lin Che's hand stopped on the doorknob. He didn't turn around. He was counting silently.

one two three.

"Mr. Lin."

Martin's voice rose a few decibels, and that air of superiority vanished. "Now that we're in Shenzhen, there's no need to rush."

"It's not that I'm in a hurry," Lin Che said, his back still turned to him. "It's that Boss Ma is in a hurry."

He turned around, his hand still on the doorknob.

"Fourteen minutes left." Lin Che raised his wrist and tapped the mechanical watch that didn't display the time. "In fourteen minutes, Alibaba's security scan will detect this cluster. At that time, not only will the network be cut off, but the logs will also be automatically pushed to the internal audit department's email address."

He looked at Martin.

"Mr. Martin, you only have ten minutes to decide whether to turn this data into Tencent's Series A funding business plan or into litigation materials on your desk."

Martin stared at Lin Che.

The number two figure at Tencent took off his glasses, took out a soft cloth, and slowly wiped the lenses. The copy of the "Alibaba Cloud Unauthorized Access Record" on the table looked like a red-hot branding iron.

If it's fake, Tencent will lose some due diligence time. If it's real... Alibaba's IPO is imminent, and they're just looking for an excuse to block WeChat.

Martin put his glasses back on.

"Sit down." He gestured to the chair opposite him.

Lin Che released the doorknob, walked back to the table, and sat down. His bag was still slung over his shoulder.

Martin put down his teacup and tapped his fingers lightly on the table, a habitual gesture he made during negotiations.

"Mr. Lin, we value not only the data from Weipintuan, but also you as a person. We're offering 50 million RMB for 20% equity. Tencent will provide you with top-tier traffic through WeChat. This is the starting line many entrepreneurs dream of."

This is a standard, even lucrative, investment offer.

But Lin Che didn't even reach out to take the document. He leaned back in his chair, his eyes filled with a kind of mockery that Martin couldn't understand.

"Martin, you've misunderstood."

Lin Che stated calmly, "WePinTuan will not seek funding. At least not now, not from Tencent."

Martin frowned: "Then why did you come to see me today? Just to humiliate Tencent's investment department?"

"No, I'm here to sell things."

Lin Che took a folded A4 sheet of paper out of his bag and pushed it in front of Martin.

The paper contained only one line of code, a low-level logic vulnerability in WeChat Pay on Android. A nuclear-level vulnerability powerful enough to cripple WeChat Pay for 24 hours.

Martin's pupils contracted instantly. With his technical background, he immediately recognized the destructive power of that line of code.

"You..." Martin suddenly looked up, staring intently at Lin Che.

"Don't be nervous." Lin Che smiled, like an insurance salesman. "Not only did I discover it, I also wrote the patch for you. Five million US dollars."

"What?"

"Five million US dollars. This is a 'technical consulting fee'." Lin Che's voice was as calm as if he were talking about the weather. "Once the money is in your account, I'll send you the patch code. We'll settle the matter evenly, and neither of us will owe the other anything. The group buying platform is still mine, and WeChat is still yours."

The air in the room seemed to freeze.

Martin's face went from shock to ashen, then to utterly defeated and resigned. He realized that the young man sitting opposite him wasn't there to find a backer, but to collect "tolls."

"How is this any different from extortion?" Martin asked through gritted teeth.

"The difference is that I provided an invoice." Lin Che stood up, straightened his suit, and said, "Besides, if I didn't sell it to you, I would have to 'hand over' this loophole to Alibaba. I think Mr. Ma would be happy to see WeChat Pay shut down for a whole day."

Martin's breathing became heavy.

As a top-tier professional manager, he quickly calculated the gains and losses. Spending five million dollars to secure a payment system was not only a worthwhile deal, but a must.

"make a deal."

Martin didn't even try to negotiate. He took the paper and was about to sign it.

"Wait a minute."

Lin Che's hand remained on the document, not moving away.

"There's also a small bonus." Lin Che pulled another list from his bag, which contained dozens of seemingly unrelated domain names. "To test the stability of this patch, I applied for a batch of test interfaces in the WeChat backend. But I don't want to be blocked by your risk control system every time."

He pushed the list of domain names over.

"Add these domains to WeChat's developer whitelist. This will be considered part of the 'after-sales service environment' for this technical consultation."

Martin glanced at them and saw they were all inconspicuous second-level domains like "Pinhaohuo" and "Weiguang Special Sales." For Tencent's vast ecosystem, opening a few traffic whitelists was a piece of cake, much easier to approve than five million US dollars.

He assumed Lin Che was doing this to make it easier to find loopholes later, and didn't take it seriously at all.

"Can."

Martin signed both documents.

The scratching sound of the pen tip gliding across the paper.

As Lin Che watched Martin put pen to paper, a barely perceptible glint of cold light flashed deep in his pupils.

Martin thought he was buying a vulnerability patch. In reality, Lynch was buying a "pass" to access the Penguin Empire.

That five million was just pocket money.

This "whitelist" that Martin casually approved is the real nuclear weapon that will allow WeChat group buying to grow wildly in the WeChat ecosystem and prevent Tencent from blocking it within six months.

"The legal and finance departments are downstairs."

Martin put down his pen, loosened his tie, and said, "Mr. Lin, you're the most robber-like product manager I've ever met."

"You flatter me."

Lin Che put away the documents. "At Alibaba, this is called 'embracing change'."

He took out his phone.

00 minutes 05 seconds.

"Wait a moment."

Lin Che pressed a non-existent dial button right in front of Martin. He held the phone to his ear.

"Hey, Lao Zhang? Yes, test complete. Cold backup of data, archive physical hard drive. Don't delete anything. Alert deactivated? Okay, let's go."

The tone was casual, like ordering takeout.

The countdown resets to zero the moment the call is disconnected.

On Martin's computer screen, the monitoring window flickered. The red network traffic curve plummeted. It went to zero. The screen turned a deathly gray "Connection interrupted" message.

Martin breathed a sigh of relief. It really stopped. Just one second after Lin Che finished making the call.

He looked at Lin Che, his expression changing. This young man's authority within Alibaba was terrifyingly high.

"It seems that Mr. Lin's execution ability at Alibaba is truly admirable."

Martin stood up and offered his hand.

Lin Che grasped it. His palms were dry.

"It's all for the company."

Lin Che said calmly.

Stepping out of the Tencent building, the Shenzhen sun was blinding. The wind along the coastal avenue carried a humid, salty smell.

Lin Che stood by the roadside, his shirt soaked through. The cold, sticky liquid clung to his back. He pulled out a cigarette, about to light it, but his hand trembled slightly.

I was just dancing on a cliff with 200 million chips, my heart rate kept at 70. Now that I've landed, my body is starting to feel fear.

He looked at Tencent's new building, which was under construction.

We just cut the fattest piece of meat off this giant beast.