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

The head of the National Security Bureau did not wait for Lin Che to speak first.

He opened the dark blue folder to the third page, pulled out an A4 sheet of paper, and placed it in the middle of the table.

The paper contains a table with time on the horizontal axis and events on the vertical axis.

The time span is from January 2020 to December 2022, nearly three years.

The event column lists 21 events, each with a source label that indicates the data source in parentheses.

Some are labeled "bank statements," some "customs records," and some "SEC letters."

"This is the complete timeline we've compiled."

His voice was as flat as the previous three times, but this time there was an extra word: complete.

The first three times he used "preliminary", "phased" and "currently mastered".

This time it's "complete".

The Twenty-One Demands incidents are arranged chronologically, from the earliest unusual transaction to the most recent entry/exit record.

Lin Che glanced at the first few rows of the form.

Some of them he had seen before, and they had been discussed in the previous three meetings.

Some are new.

The fourth line is new: In May 2020, a technology company in Hangzhou was registered, and the legal representative is a related party.

The eleventh line is new: In September 2021, there was a three-hour time difference between an offshore account transfer and a domestic fund subscription.

The seventeenth line is also new: In August 2022, a certain SPV was established in Qianhai, Shenzhen, and the equity structure points to Lin Che's related parties.

During the three meetings, there were only fourteen items on this form.

There are now seven more.

Each new addition goes deeper than the old ones.

It's not just the surface-level transaction records anymore; it's the underlying equity relationships and funding channels.

The head of the National Security Bureau didn't give him much time to look at it.

He pulled out the second document from the folder, placing it more slowly than the first, as if giving this document its own dedicated time to appear.

This form is not printed on A4 paper.

This is an original document.

The paper is rather thick, with creases along the edges, and a blue circular official seal in the lower right corner.

The SEC's seal.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Lin Che recognized the seal.

He had seen the same format in an industry report three years ago, but it was a copy, black and white, and blurry.

No, that's not it.

This is the original document; the blue stamp is bright, and the paper is one-third thicker than a regular A4 sheet.

There is a line of English numbers in the upper left corner, followed by the date.

The national security official placed the SEC's cooperation documents next to the timeline table.

The two documents were placed side by side in the middle of the table, about forty centimeters away from Lin Che and about twenty centimeters away from the man on the left.

The man's gaze shifted from his screen to the blue-stamped document, paused for two seconds, and then looked back.

"The SEC requested our assistance in the investigation during the second quarter of 2022."

His finger tapped the first page of the cooperation document.

"This involves seven trading accounts under your name or associated with you, spanning three jurisdictions."

Seven.

The first three meetings mentioned four things.

Lin Che knew about the three new ones, but he didn't expect that Guoan also knew about them.

One of them was linked to him through two layers of nominee shareholding, with a BVI company and a Hong Kong trust in between.

The national security official removed his finger from the document and placed it on the table.

He didn't look at Lin Che's expression, but instead looked down and flipped to the next page of the folder.

I found a comparison table.

The comparison table is divided into two columns, left and right.

The left column title is "Abnormal Transaction Time", and the right column title is "Public Information Release Time".

Each line represents two time points of the same event.

The time in the left column is always earlier than that in the right column.

One day earlier, three days earlier, the longest was eleven days earlier.

The head of national security began reading each point aloud.

He read slowly, pausing for a second between each line, as if giving the person opposite him time to process it.

"2021年3月8日，南美大豆期货异常建仓，金额470万。公开信息发布日期：3月12日。提前四天。"

He turned to the next line.

"2021年7月15日，稀土板块集中调仓，涉及三只标的。公开信息发布日期：7月19日。提前四天。"

Turn it over again.

"2022年1月4日，美元汇率对沖头寸建立，规模820万。公开信息发布日期：1月15日。提前十一天。"

Eleven days.

This is the entry with the longest lead time of all entries.

When the head of national security read this part, his tone remained the same, but the pause after reading it was one second longer than the previous two.

He continued reading three more.

Article 4 involves Hong Kong stock ETFs, Article 5 involves copper options, and Article 6 involves a cross-border fund transfer.

All six points point to the same pattern: the operation time is one to eleven days earlier than the publicly available information.

Each time a line was read aloud, the man on the left moved his finger across the keyboard.

It wasn't typing, it was clicking, like marking something.

The woman on the right changed the brightness of her screen, as if she was switching pages.

After reading the six points, the head of national security closed the folder.

It wasn't completely closed; there was a gap, as if it might open again at any moment.

The room was quiet for about ten seconds.

The sound of water flowing from the radiator became very clear in the quiet.

Lin Che sat opposite him, his hands on the table.

His briefcase was still on his right, the zipper still closed.

Two documents were placed in the middle of the table: a timeline and the original SEC investigation document, both with black text and blue seals on white paper.

The head of the national security agency looked up.

The gaze behind the thin-rimmed metal glasses was steady, neither aggressive nor compassionate.

I was just watching him.

"Mr. Lin Che."

It paused for a second.

He closed the folder completely, this time with the dark blue cover facing up.

The folder had no labels, just like the previous three times.

But this closing motion has a sense of completion.

"Is there anything you'd like to say?"

Seven characters.

This is not an interrogation.

It's not a question.

This is giving you a chance.

How great is this chance? It depends on what you say next.

Lin Che looked at the two documents on the table.

The timeline has 21 lines, the original SEC document has a blue stamp, and the comparison table has 6 lines.

All of these lead to the same conclusion: he knew in advance.

This is not speculation; it is a logical closed loop.

A soft gust of wind came from outside the window, like someone closing a car door downstairs.

The radiators in the room made a faint sound of running water.

He removed his right hand from the table and placed it on the zipper of his briefcase.

The metal zipper pull feels cool.

The bag contained three folders, a compliance report, a sealed envelope, and thirteen pages of unsigned printed material.

The person on the other end of the line had no idea what was in the bag.

But they gave him a chance to speak.

The three people opposite him were all looking at him.

The head of national security looked into his eyes.

The man on the left is looking at his hand resting on the zipper.

For the first time, the woman on the right completely lifted her head from the screen and looked at his face.

The three people's eyes met on him.

Lin Che grasped the zipper pull.

No.