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

Chen Wei returned to Hangzhou on Tuesday afternoon.

He spent five days in Singapore handling a routine coordination matter for the Ark Foundation.

The partner in Singapore is an institution that handles cross-border settlements. Chen Wei goes there once a quarter to confirm accounts and operational procedures.

The connection went smoothly this time; all the data matched, the signing and procedures were completed in just three days.

He could have returned earlier with two days remaining, but he didn't.

He stayed at the hotel for two more days.

He didn't go out much during those two days, spending most of his time sitting in his room with his computer in front of him and various documents open on the screen, but he didn't look at them much.

After returning, I went to the headquarters of Weiguang, sat down at my workstation, and turned on my computer.

My inbox is overflowing with over forty unread emails.

He spent half an hour reading through each letter, looking at the title and the body of each one, replying to those that needed replying, and confirming those that needed confirming.

Most of the work involved routine operation confirmations and report synchronization, with no issues reported.

The last three emails were sent by Lin Che.

The first letter was a notification to prepare supporting materials for the NMPA inspection, which he had already replied to before leaving.

The second email was a receipt confirmation of an internal document, which he clicked "Received".

The third email was sent this morning, and its title is "Year-End Work Arrangements".

The main text is very short, instructing each department to submit its annual summary by December 25th.

Chen Wei replied with two words.

"receive."

After dealing with the emails, he closed his email account.

Then I opened the file manager.

His computer has many folders, categorized by year and project, arranged very neatly.

The folder related to the Ark Foundation is located in the third-level directory and is named "FA-Operations".

He opened FA-Operations, which contained more than a dozen subfolders, divided by quarter.

He did not open any of the subfolders.

He was looking at another location.

At the very bottom of FA-Operations, there is a folder with a different name than the others.

FA-R-2022.

He created this folder three months ago.

When he created it, he set the permissions to "visible only to this user".

"Visible only to this user" means that on the company's intranet server, no one except the system administrator can see the existence of this folder.

He double-clicked to open FAR-2022.

There are twenty files in the folder.

These are all screenshots.

Arranged in chronological order from the first to the twentieth.

Each screenshot is a comparison between an operation record of Ark Fund and the corresponding market event.

The first screenshot is from the first quarter of 2021, with a two-week time lag between the operation and the market event.

The seventh and thirteenth screenshots use the same opposing team.

The nineteenth screenshot has a 100% match rate.

The twentieth screenshot involves a cross-border remittance, with the counterparty located in Southeast Asia.

The twenty screenshots were neatly arranged in the folder, like a file without a cover.

Chen Wei looked at these screenshots.

He didn't open any of them; he just looked at the filenames and thumbnails.

He thought about many things during his five days in Singapore.

It wasn't work-related; he dealt with work-related matters very quickly.

He was thinking about the folder FAR-2022.

This folder has been on his computer for three months.

He hadn't opened it many times in the past three months, but he knew it was there.

Every time he turns on his computer and sees the FA-Operations directory tree, his gaze lingers on the bottom folder.

Stop for a moment, then move it away.

It's been three months. I stop every day and move it away every day.

He created this folder three months ago because he noticed some patterns in his daily operations.

There is an unusual coincidence between the timing of each of Ark Fund's operations and subsequent market events.

One or two times could be a coincidence.

Three or five times is just good luck.

Twenty times is neither a coincidence nor luck.

He hadn't discussed this with anyone.

I didn't discuss it with Lin Che, I didn't discuss it with Shen Nan, and I didn't discuss it with anyone in the company.

He simply saved the screenshot, changed the permissions, and left it there.

The meaning of "leaving it there" is: he saw it, but he hasn't decided what to do yet.

During his five days in Singapore, he made a decision.

It's not about the decision regarding screenshots.

It's about my own decision.

He closed the FAR-2022 window.

Then I right-clicked the FAR-2022 folder.

A menu popped up, and he glanced at the options.

attribute.

Permissions.

Rename.

delete.

The four options are located in different positions on the menu.

His mouse hovered over "Properties" for a moment, then moved down one notch to "Permissions".

I clicked it.

The permissions settings window popped up.

Current permissions: Visible only to this user.

There are three options in the drop-down menu.

public.

Departmental visibility.

Visible only to this user.

He looked at the three options.

The mouse cursor is hovering over "Visible only to me" without moving.

About ten seconds passed.

Then he closed the permissions settings window.

No changes.

It is still visible only to the user.

He stood up.

There aren't many people in the office at this time; most people are either in meetings or running around outside.

He left his workstation and walked down the corridor toward Lin Che's office.

The corridor wasn't long; it was about forty steps from his workstation to Lin Che's office.

The walls on both sides of the corridor are white, with several notice boards hanging on them, displaying this month's operational announcements and safety tips.

He took thirty steps.

I walked to a spot about three meters from the door of Lin Che's office.

The door to Lin Che's office was ajar, and there was light inside, with the sound of a keyboard clattering.

I pause occasionally, then continue typing.

Lin Che is inside.

Chen Wei stood in the corridor, three meters away from the door.

It takes less than two seconds to walk across a distance of three meters.

He was thinking about something.

What would he say if he went in?

"Mr. Lin, I've saved twenty screenshots of Ark's operation logs."

"Every transaction was perfectly timed to coincide with subsequent market events."

"I don't know what this means, but I think you should know that I do."

He went over the words in his mind.

Every word is true.

No speculation, no evaluation, no stance.

Only facts matter.

But he wasn't sure what would happen after he said it.

He didn't know how Lin Che would react.

Lin Che might explain, he might remain silent, or he might ask him to delete the folder.

She might not say anything, just look at him.

He stood there for about five seconds.

The lights in the corridor were always on, white fluorescent lights that illuminated everything clearly.

Then he turned around and walked back.

Thirty steps, and I returned to my workstation.

Sit down and turn on your computer.

FA-Operations is still on the screen, while FA-R-2022 lies quietly at the bottom.

Visible only to this user.

He closed the file manager and opened his work email.

Start writing the annual summary.

The first line has a title: "Ark Fund 2022 Annual Operation Summary".

Then he began typing the main text, starting with an operational overview of the first quarter.

In the first quarter, Ark Fund conducted three routine portfolio adjustments.

He listed the time, amount, and counterparty of each of the three transactions, in the same format as last year's annual summary.

I typed very slowly, slower than usual.

He usually types very fast; most traders have fast typing speeds.

But today I have to think about each word before typing it.

He paused after typing two lines.

The cursor is flashing on the screen.

Then backspaced to delete an extra comma and continued typing.

There was a glass of water on the table. He took a sip, but the water had already gone cold.

The sky outside the window darkened.

Someone turned off the lights at the end of the corridor, the footsteps faded into the distance, and the whole floor became much quieter.

He continued typing.

FAR-2022 will not appear in the annual summary.

Those twenty screenshots are not part of the annual summary.

They belong to another category, a category he has not yet named.

The annual summary must be submitted before the 25th.

Today is Tuesday.

There is still time.