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

He Wei was the first to notice.

It wasn't because Lin Che said anything, it was because he didn't say anything.

Lin Che attended the routine operations meeting on Monday morning as usual, sitting in the main seat with a laptop and a glass of water in front of him.

The agenda had six items, which he went through one by one, asking questions, confirming, and giving feedback, just like any other day.

The first item was the monthly operational data report from the Hangzhou branch. Lin Che asked two questions: one about temperature control fluctuations and the other about the number of newly connected pharmaceutical companies.

The second item was the equipment maintenance progress at the Beijing branch, and Lin Che confirmed that the budget had not been exceeded.

The questions were asked accurately, the answers were confirmed decisively, and the rhythm was exactly the same as usual.

But He Wei felt something was wrong.

She was sitting in the second seat to Lin Che's left, so she could see his profile.

Lin Che looked at the person opposite him while he spoke.

But when he's not speaking, his gaze will fall down to the table, linger for two or three seconds, and then look up again.

It was not like this before.

In the past, when Lin Che wasn't speaking, his gaze was always fixed on the laptop screen, either looking at data or checking emails; he was always processing information.

His gaze now fell on the table, which was empty.

The meeting lasted forty minutes, and all six agenda items were completed.

The third item, "Chengdu stamping progress tracking," was skipped as instructed by Lin Che. He Wei simply said, "There are no new developments in Chengdu at the moment," and that was it.

No one asked any further questions.

After the meeting ended, the others left one after another.

He Wei did not leave immediately.

She closed her notebook, stood up, and paused at the door.

"Mr. Lin, the written feedback from the NMPA inspection should arrive around next week. I will continue to follow up on the supplementary materials submitted in Chengdu."

"good."

Lin Che's reply was normal, and his tone was fine.

But he responded a little faster than before.

He used to pause before replying "okay," as if to confirm his agreement.

He Wei's "good" came out almost immediately after she finished speaking, as if she hadn't thought it through before saying it.

He Wei walked out of the conference room.

Instead of returning to her workstation, she went to the break room.

There was no one in the break room. The lights were motion-activated and turned on when she walked in.

She poured herself a glass of hot water and took two sips while standing by the window.

Outside the window was the parking lot of the Weiguang headquarters, with several cars parked below. He Wei's white Civic was the third one from the far left.

She was thinking about something.

Lin Che went to Beijing last week.

Before going, He Wei asked if they needed to prepare any materials, but Lin Che said no, it was a personal matter.

He Wei did not press further about the phrase "personal affairs".

They didn't say anything before they went, and they didn't say anything after they came back.

But his assistant spoke to her briefly.

It is said that on the afternoon Lin Che returned, he locked the door in his office for more than an hour, during which time he neither made a phone call nor called anyone.

For more than an hour, the door was closed, and no one was called or greeted.

Lin Che doesn't usually work like this.

His office door is usually half-open; he comes in when someone comes to report, and otherwise he handles his emails himself.

Closing the door means "I don't want to be disturbed".

In He Wei's experience, an hour or so of "not wanting to be disturbed" usually means that something needs to be dealt with alone.

She finished drinking the water and placed the cup on the counter in the tea room.

Then I went back to my workstation and opened my email.

There's a new email in my inbox, sent by the Chengdu operations manager.

The title is "Signing Progress Update (Week 5)".

The main text is formatted exactly the same as the previous four weeks, consisting of only one line.

"The signature process is still in progress; no specific timeframe has been given at the window."

It's been five weeks.

He Wei glanced at the email, then opened her work log file.

She had a table in the document that recorded the status and timeline of all the items to be followed up.

She started memorizing the signature line in Chengdu in mid-November, and has been doing so for five weeks now.

Updated every Monday.

The status bar showed "Waiting" during the first week.

The status was changed to "Under expedited processing" in the second week.

The third week still shows "under expedited processing".

The fourth week still shows "under expedited processing".

The fifth week still shows "under expedited processing".

The four "under review" signs were lined up neatly, like they were copied and pasted.

She typed the same four words in her status bar during the fifth week.

Then I added a new line of content to the remarks column.

"Reason for status update: Week 1: System upgrade; Week 2: Supplementary materials; Weeks 3-5: No reason given, only 'Processing'."

She looked at the note and thought for a while.

There was a reason in the first week, a different reason in the second week, and from the third week onwards, there was no reason at all.

They couldn't even be bothered to offer an explanation.

This doesn't seem like a normal delay at an administrative window.

There will always be a reason for administrative delays, even if the reason is false.

Not giving a reason means the other party doesn't need to explain.

"No explanation needed" means that someone has authorized them not to explain.

Before becoming a legal counsel, He Wei worked at a law firm for two years.

She has seen all sorts of excuses given for delays at administrative service windows, and she has also seen situations where no excuses are given at all.

There is usually only one reason for not giving a reason: there are instructions from a higher level.

He Wei closed the work log file.

She didn't tell anyone about this deduction.

At 2 p.m., she went to Lin Che's office to deliver an annual compliance summary report.

The heating in the corridor was on full blast, and warm air was blowing gently from the vents in the corners of the walls.

The door to Lin Che's office was ajar, just like always.

She knocked on the door frame, and Lin Che looked up and said, "Come in."

He was looking at his computer; the screen displayed the CCPS backend, showing data panels for four cities.

Four columns of numbers are arranged in a row on the screen, green, with no anomaly markers.

She placed the report on the corner of the table.

"The annual summary is ready; you just need to sign it. There's no rush."

Lin Che nodded and glanced at her from the screen.

Just one glance.

But He Wei saw something she had never seen before in that glance.

It wasn't just fatigue. Lin Che would get tired when he worked late, but that kind of fatigue was physiological; his eyes would be red and his movements would be slow.

This is not that kind of thing.

It was something she couldn't explain.

If she had to choose one word, she would say "sinking".

Lin Che's eyes darkened.

In the past, when he looked at people, his gaze was flat and straight, with a calculating clarity.

The clarity is still there, but there's an extra layer underneath.

She couldn't describe that layer more accurately because she only saw it once.

But that one glance was enough.

Having worked in the legal field for so many years, she knows how to discern a person's state not through words, but through her eyes.

"Thank you, let me see."

After Lin Che finished speaking, he turned back to look at the screen.

The tone, speed, and content are all normal.

But as He Wei walked out of the office, a mark was left in her mind.

He Wei walked out of the office.

On her way back to her workstation, she passed the break room, but this time she didn't go in.

She walked a few steps down the corridor, then stopped, took out her phone, and glanced at the calendar.

Next Monday is the last working day before Christmas.

The next week is the New Year's Day holiday.

It's almost the end of the year.

She put her phone back in her pocket and continued walking.

After walking to her workstation, she sat down and turned on her computer.

There's a folder on her computer desktop that she created herself, named "Items to be Confirmed".

There are three files in the folder.

The first is the Chengdu signature and follow-up record.

The second is the NMPA inspection feedback tracking form.

The third one was created today, and its file name is "Anomaly Observation".

This file is not on the company's shared drive; it's only on her own computer.

The "Anomaly Observation" file contains only two lines of text.

First line: 12/15, Mr. Lin spent more than 1 hour alone after his business trip to Beijing.

Second line: 12/18, at the operations meeting, General Manager Lin's gaze was unusual, and his responses became faster.

Two lines of text, two dates, two details.

She stared at those two lines of text for a few seconds.

Maybe it's nothing at all.

Perhaps it's just that it's the end of the year, there's a lot to do, and people are tired.

Maybe things will be better after New Year's Day.

She closed the file and didn't open it again.

But the documents are there.

Just like Shennan's LM-001, it's there.