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

The document arrived on January 8th.

Three days after leaving conference room B, Lin Che returned to Hangzhou, and Shen Nan returned to Beijing.

There was no news for three days. 010's email was quiet, and Shen Nan didn't send any new WeChat messages.

CCPS data is updated daily as usual, averaging over 5200 per day, with a temperature control of 99.7°C, and everything is proceeding as planned.

Every day, Lin Che would go to the office to check the data, the Ark backend, and see if there were any new abnormal inflows into the BVI account.

No.

BVI also fell silent.

He didn't urge anyone.

Shen Nan said, "He doesn't need time anymore," which means he doesn't need it, but "not needing time" and "giving results immediately" are two different things.

Processes have their own speed.

The email arrived at 10:00 AM on January 8th.

The sender was still the 010 email address, and the subject was "Operational Plan for Emergency Circuit Breaker Mechanism during the Verification Phase of Abyss System (Revised Draft)".

He downloaded the attachment, a seven-page PDF.

The first page is a summary of the plan.

He flipped directly to the third page, the core terms.

Article 1: Circuit breaker activation method.

The joint signature system requires both parties to sign a written instruction. Once the representative of Party A (a person designated by the National Security Bureau) and the representative of Party B (Lin Che himself) sign the written instruction simultaneously, the circuit breaker mechanism will take effect immediately.

He paused on the words "signed at the same time".

Simultaneously.

It wasn't a matter of order, nor was it one party signing while the other waited; it was simultaneous.

This means that the act of signing itself is a ceremony that requires the presence of both parties.

Article 2: Validity period for signing.

Once either party issues a request to initiate the process, both parties must complete joint signing within 24 hours.

24 hours, consistent with what was discussed at the meeting.

Article 3: Emergency Exception Clause.

If Party A cannot contact Party B's representative within 96 hours, Party A may unilaterally initiate a temporary circuit breaker, but must obtain Party B's signature within 24 hours of initiation. If the signature is not obtained, the circuit breaker will be automatically lifted.

He read the third point again.

If the supplementary signature is not obtained, the circuit breaker will be automatically lifted.

This sentence was added; it wasn't discussed at the meeting.

The 96-hour unilateral activation was agreed upon at the meeting, but the clause "automatic termination if supplementary signing is not obtained" was not on the meeting agenda.

This means that even if the other party unilaterally initiates the circuit breaker, the system will automatically resume operation if Lin Che does not re-sign within 24 hours.

Unilateral initiation is not the end; supplementary signing is.

Even if you don't sign up again, it will reopen once it's closed.

This is a concession.

It's not big, but it's enough.

The rule has changed from "one party can unilaterally close it" to "one party can temporarily close it, but it will automatically reopen if you disagree."

Shen Nan's USB drive contained five solutions, and the final version was roughly somewhere between B and C, leaning towards B.

It wasn't the best outcome, but it was better than his bottom line.

He continued flipping through the pages.

Articles four through six are procedural clauses, covering signing methods, notification channels, and dispute resolution.

Article 7 is the effective condition: It shall take effect immediately upon signature by both parties and shall be subject to a verification period of 60 days.

The last page is the signature section.

Party A's signature: Signed.

A name he recognized—the person in charge of national security.

Next to it is the date: January 7, 2023.

A red, round stamp was placed below the name. The text was so small that it was hard to read the whole thing, but the words "Special Stamp" were visible.

Signature of Party B: Blank.

He picked up his phone and sent a message to Shen Nan.

"I see, the terms have changed."

Shen Nan replied quickly.

"The latter half of Article 3 is newly added. I've confirmed it; it's legally valid and in your favor."

Another half minute passed.

"You can sign."

Lin Che printed out the PDF.

The office printer hummed, and seven pages slid out one by one from the output tray, with about two seconds between each page.

He walked over and picked it up; the paper was still warm and smelled of ink.

The seven pages felt thin in his hand, lighter than he had imagined.

Turn to the last page.

The client already has the name, date, and official seal.

The signature field for Party B is empty, with a horizontal line drawn below it, and the word "Date" printed in small print at the bottom right corner of the line.

He took a ballpoint pen from the pen holder.

It was the pen he put back on the first day he came back, the one with the nib dried out.

I unscrewed the cap and tested it on a piece of white paper. The ink came out smoothly, black.

I wrote my name on the horizontal line in the signature column for Party B.

Three words: Lin Che.

I wrote slowly, pressing down hard on each stroke, and the elastic tip of the pen offered slight resistance on the paper.

Then I wrote the date next to it.

2023 1 Month 8 Day.

The pen tip made a very soft sound as it glided across the paper. The ink from the ballpoint pen bleed slightly on the laser-printed paper, and the edges of the words were not very neat.

He screwed the pen cap back on and put it back in the pen holder.

I glanced at the last page.

Two names, two dates, one red stamp, one black signature.

Party A, January 7th; Party B, January 8th.

There was a one-day gap in between.

He took a picture of the signed page with his phone and sent it to Shen Nan.

The two signatures in the photo are one above the other. The signature of Party A is written very neatly, with all the strokes being compact, while the signature of Party B is one size larger than that of Party A.

Shen Nan replied with a single word.

"receive."

He then put the printout in the drawer on the right side of his desk, next to Chen Weiliu's printout.

There are now two documents in the drawer.

One document is a summary of Chen Wei's Ark accounts, with sticky notes still attached to it.

One proposal is a circuit breaker scheme, but the ink hasn't completely dried yet.

He closed the drawer.

Leaning back in his chair, he let out a long sigh.

It wasn't the kind of long, relieved sigh, but the kind of breathing that comes after finishing something, as your body relaxes on its own, from your shoulders to your fingers, joint by joint.

He didn't know how long he had been holding back; from the first meeting with 607 until now, it had probably been more than two months.

My shoulders have been sore, always sore, but I just hadn't had time to pay attention before.

The sunlight outside the window shone on the table, and it was the same color as the sunlight in Conference Room B in Beijing.

The early January sun, the tail end of winter, was bright but not warm.

The light shone on the drawer handle, and the metal handle reflected a little light.

The four icons on the desktop are still there.

Lv4, Abyss-v4, if, screenshot_20221226.

The four icons are quietly arranged in the upper right corner, just like when I came back on the first day.

The phone rang.

It's not a WeChat message notification sound; it's a text message.

Those old-fashioned SMS ringtones are rarely heard these days; most notifications are sent via WeChat or email.

He picked up his phone, and a text message notification popped up on the screen.

Sender: A number he had never seen before.

It doesn't start with 010.

It's not Shen Nan's number.

It's not any number from the Guoan team.

It's not Chen Wei's, not Lao Zhou's, not Xie Yu's, and not Fang Yuan's.

He went through the number in his mind, but it didn't match any of the contacts he had saved.

The message contained only three words.

"African Affairs"

There is no punctuation.

No signature.

There was no follow-up.