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

Lin Che did not return to Hangzhou.

After the 607 incident, he settled down in Beijing and booked a budget hotel in Xicheng District, not far from that building.

It's not that I intentionally live nearby, it's just that I don't want to go too far.

People waiting for news should not stray too far from the signal source.

This is what Shen Nan taught him.

"While waiting for the results, don't run around. Stay quiet and make sure you can be found at any time."

These are Shen Nan's original words.

The hotel room was small, with a 1.5-meter bed, a table, a chair, and a wardrobe.

There was a mirror on the wardrobe door. He glanced at it when he came in but didn't recognize himself.

It's not that I've changed, it's that I'm tired; there are two bluish-gray patches under my eyes.

There's a half-second delay when you turn on the bathroom faucet, and it takes thirty seconds for the hot water to come on.

Outside the window is a narrow street, and the streetlights cast the shadows of trees onto the glass.

By the end of December, the trees in Beijing were bare, their branches resembling black cracks against the gray-white sky.

Unlike Hangzhou, which still has some greenery in winter.

No, Beijing doesn't. Beijing's winters are gray and brown.

He stayed in this room for three days.

He did nothing on the first day.

He placed the briefcase on the table without opening it.

I lay in bed staring at the ceiling.

The hotel ceiling had no cracks, unlike the rental apartments in Binjiang; it was clean, white, and completely bare.

He had been looking at the cracked ceiling in Binjiang for half a year, but now that the ceiling has been replaced, he's not used to it.

What I'm not used to is the ceiling, it's the quiet.

In Hangzhou, you can hear the traffic from your rented room on the elevated highway, but you can't hear it from your budget hotel in Beijing.

The soundproofing isn't good, but there's not much noise outside anyway.

He sent Shen Nan a message: "Arrived, settled in."

Shen Nan replied with four words: "Take care and get some rest."

He glanced at it but didn't reply.

The next day, he opened his laptop and glanced at the operating data of the four CCPS cities.

The data is normal.

The daily order volume in Hangzhou and Chengdu is stable, the SM4 latency threshold in Wuhan fluctuates around 16.8, and Xie Yu has already completed the parameter tracking for Zhengzhou.

He sent He Wei a message: "The compliance report for this week has been submitted as scheduled."

He Wei replied with two words: "Received."

He Wei's messages are always "received", "completed", or "no abnormalities", with the occasional "okay" added.

He glanced at the CCPS backend again to confirm that there was nothing that needed to be done.

The curves for all four cities are within the normal range, with no abnormal fluctuations.

I turned off the computer.

Then I opened it again and glanced at the entrance to the passport system query page.

The mouse hovered over the entrance for two seconds.

I didn't click on it.

It's closed.

On the afternoon of the third day, he did something.

He opened the passport system's query page.

The last time I checked was two weeks ago, in Hangzhou, sitting on the sofa in my rented room in Binjiang.

The status shows "Rejected," in bright red letters; the two words are very glaring.

It has been more than three months since the application was rejected.

For more than three months, he did not try to leave the country, did not buy a plane ticket, and did not do anything that required a passport.

A passport in a drawer is no different from a useless object.

He entered his passport number, clicked "search," and waited a few seconds.

The loading circle spun twice.

His heart skipped a beat as he turned.

Page refreshed.

The status bar color has changed.

It's not red anymore.

It is yellow.

Under review.

Three words.

The status changed from "rejected" to "under review".

It's not "passed", not "restored", not green.

It's under review, and it's in yellow.

Yellow, which falls between red and green, means that someone has reopened the process.

But the red color is gone.

The redness that had lasted for more than three months was gone.

Lin Che stared at the screen for about ten seconds.

His finger remained still on the touchpad.

He paused for a moment, then took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

He took a screenshot of the page, saved it to his desktop, and then closed the passport page.

Then he opened another page.

Chengdu stamp status inquiry.

Chengdu is the third city in CCPS to implement the signature process, which was suspended three months ago.

The reason given for the suspension was "materials to be supplemented," but Lin Che knew the real reason wasn't the materials.

The real reason is CR-1247.

The investigation by CR-1247 covered all of his ongoing business projects, with Chengdu being the first to be investigated.

He entered the query number, and the page refreshed.

Status bar: Pending approval.

Two words.

The status changed from "suspended" to "pending approval".

It's also yellow, exactly the same yellow as a passport.

Two systems, two states, changing on the same day.

It changed from red to yellow on the same day.

It's not a restoration, it's not a pass, it's a reassessment.

Someone has tampered with something in the system, and it happened simultaneously in both systems.

Lin Che turned off the computer and closed the screen.

He got out of bed and went to the window.

There were a few people walking on the street outside the window, their shoulders hunched and their hands in their pockets.

The frost on the road surface gleamed coldly under the streetlights.

A taxi turned from the street corner, its wheels hissing as they rolled over the road, and its taillights flashed as it rounded the bend.

Across the street, a convenience store was still open, its warm yellow light spilling out from its glass door.

He did not call Shen Nan.

No need.

If there are any changes on Shen Nan's side, she will take the initiative to contact him.

She doesn't speak easily, but when she does, she's confident.

He believed in her rhythm.

He stood by the window for about five minutes.

He thought of something in those five minutes.

The handshake with 607 took place around 5:30 pm.

Seventy-two hours have passed since the handshake.

Within 72 hours, the status of both systems changed from red to yellow simultaneously.

The system will not change color automatically.

Someone logged into the backend and changed the status.

Moreover, they are two different systems, belonging to two different departments.

A person who can simultaneously drive the development of two departments is likely to be of a high rank.

At least not lower than the head of national security.

But he didn't know who made the changes.

Was it pushed forward after the head of national security returned, or after someone at a higher level saw the materials?

He didn't know, and he had no way of asking.

Even if you ask, no one will answer.

There was only one thing he knew.

It's moving.

Slowly, quietly, somewhere he couldn't see, the gears turned.

Lin Che returned to the bedside and sat down.

The briefcase was still on the table, zipped up.

The fact that something is missing from the bag opens up a new possibility.

He checked the time on his phone.

7:42 PM.

Shen Nan did not send a message.

He Wei did not send a message.

Fang Yuan did not send a message.

The phone notification bar only showed one weather forecast: tomorrow's lowest temperature in Beijing will be -8 degrees Celsius.

He put his phone next to his pillow and lay down.

The ceiling was still white and clean.

He stared at the ceiling for a while, then closed his eyes.

The wind outside the window blew a withered leaf from across the street, and it lingered on the windowpane for a second.

Then it was blown away by the next gust of wind.