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

The title consists of two words.

mark.

Black printed text, bold, small font size, with a red horizontal line drawn below it.

Unlike the hand-drawn illustrations on the left, this page is printed, neatly formatted, like a specially prepared document.

Chen Wei did not explain the meaning of these two words.

He turned the page so it was facing Lin Che.

Below the horizontal line is a text, the font size is one size smaller than in the illustration, and the line spacing is very tight.

There are about seven or eight lines, and each line is full.

Chen Wei waited for about ten seconds, allowing Lin Che to finish reading the text.

He himself hadn't read that passage, but he had clearly read it many times.

Lin Che finished reading without looking up.

His gaze lingered on the last line of that text.

At the end of the last line is a handwritten note in Chen Wei's handwriting, with a date and a question mark.

"It's good that you've finished reading it."

Chen Wei leaned back in his chair.

He had been sitting very upright since he entered the room, and this was the first time he had leaned back.

The chair back made a soft thud, a brief contrast to the quiet of the office.

"This is a technical definition, and it's written in a rather convoluted way."

"Let me put it simply again."

He extended his right index finger and tapped a spot in the middle of the page.

"These four sums of money were not intended for investment purposes at Ark."

"It's not about buying equity, becoming a limited partner (LP), or making any form of investment."

"It has nothing to do with Ark's business."

He paused for a moment.

"They came in for only one purpose."

"Let the trackers know where the Ark's money is going."

The office was silent for a few seconds.

The buzzing sound from the air conditioner vents became very clear.

Chen Wei continued.

"There's a technology for tracking offshore funds that's been used in the industry for many years."

"The procedure involves depositing funds with specific coded characteristics into the target account."

"The amount of money is small and will not trigger a risk control alert, nor will it affect the normal operation of the account."

"The account holder won't even notice anything special about this money."

"But as long as this money stays in the account, every subsequent transaction in the account will carry this coded characteristic."

"It's like putting a drop of dye in a river."

"The amount of dye was so small that the river water showed no color change and remained clear to the naked eye."

"But by taking water samples and conducting tests at any point downstream, we can determine where this river has flowed through."

"If you put a drop upstream, it can be detected hundreds of kilometers downstream."

"Moreover, the dye doesn't disappear; the more branches the river branches, the wider the coverage area."

He withdrew his fingers and placed them on his knees.

"In the industry, it's called 'marking funds'."

"International anti-money laundering agencies have used it, intelligence agencies have used it, and hedge fund compliance teams have used it."

"Four sums of money are like four drops of dye."

"When it was put in, it was neither too big nor too small, just below the risk control threshold."

"The amounts of 87, 114, 152, and 120 are all different, deliberately avoiding duplication."

Lin Che did not move.

His hand was on the armrest, in the same position as five minutes ago.

He didn't sit up straight, lean forward, clench his fist, or make any gesture that could be interpreted as "shock."

The respiratory rate did not change.

Chen Wei glanced at him and continued speaking.

"Three out of Ark's six accounts are now infected."

"The BVI frozen account was the first one; all four sums of money went into that account."

"The coded features that mark funds will spread as funds move."

"Any transfer of funds from a BVI account to another account will also infect the recipient's account."

"It wasn't passive pollution; it was active diffusion."

"Dyes follow money; wherever the money goes, the dyes go."

He paused for a moment.

"I checked the internal accounting records of Ark."

"The BVI account transferred funds to two other accounts in the second half of 2022."

"One instance was in July, when 230 million was transferred to the Chengdu account for the second batch of advance payments for CCPS."

"In other words, the CCPS's funding chain has also been compromised."

"One instance was in October, when 180 million was transferred to the backup account for the purchase of hardware for the GAN-7."

"Both accounts now also have tagged characteristics."

Three out of six accounts were infected.

The remaining three are currently clean.

However, if funds are transferred out of the contaminated account again in the future, the clean account will also be contaminated.

Three will become four, and four will become five.

Until all the money in the Ark carries that coded characteristic.

Every allocation, every expenditure, every inflow and outflow.

Whether it's domestic or overseas, whether it goes through a bank or an offshore channel.

All of this will be detected by the trackers in real time.

For trackers, the flow of funds in Ark is like drawing lines on a transparent glass plate.

See clearly.

"The Ark wasn't robbed of its money."

Chen Wei's tone was exactly the same as before when he said this.

It's the same rhythm, the same volume.

It was as if he was just reading a line of annual report data, rather than saying that the Ark had been fitted with a tracking device.

"The Ark was equipped with a tracking device."

He paused for a moment.

"The money isn't for Fangzhou; it's for the people monitoring Fangzhou."

The office fell silent again.

This time the quiet lasted longer than before.

The afternoon sunlight filtering through the blinds cast a row of horizontal lines on the wall.

The angle of the horizontal stripes was moving very, very slowly, and from the outside of this quiet room, nothing seemed to be happening.

Someone walked by in the corridor; the footsteps approached and then receded before disappearing.

The buzzing sound from the air conditioner vents filled the space between the two people.

Lin Che did not speak.

They didn't ask "who did it".

They didn't ask "what to do?"

I didn't ask any of the questions a normal person would ask in this situation.

He leaned back in his chair, his gaze fixed on the water glass on the table that had been cold for a long time.

A thin layer of water vapor condensed on the cup wall, and the water vapor was slowly dripping down.

Someone started a car in the parking lot outside the window. The sound of the engine came through the gaps in the blinds on the seventh floor and then gradually faded away.

There was silence for about ten seconds.

Ten seconds is nothing in normal times, but after hearing that "the Ark has been implanted with a tracking device," those ten seconds felt very long.

Then he spoke.

Why are the intervals widening?

Chen Wei glanced at him.

The four payments were made at intervals of 17 days, 26 days, and 38 days, respectively.

This data has been there since day one, clearly listed line by line in the transaction details of the frozen BVI account.

Lin Che never asked.

Now all the background information has been laid out, the concept of marked funds has been explained, and the analogy of the tracker has been used.

His first question wasn't "Who is the tracker?"

It's about "why the intervals are widening".

"Two possibilities."

Chen Wei spoke a little slower than when he was explaining the tracing path.

It was as if he was choosing his words, or as if he was giving himself a few seconds to think about what to say.

"The first scenario is that the tracker believes the markings are sufficient."

"The four sums of money covered three accounts, and Ark's main fund flows are now under monitoring."

"No further investment is needed."

"If that's the case, the increased intervals are because they're pulling back."

"The task is complete; there's no need to continue investing in it."

He paused for a moment.

He lightly tapped his knee with his finger.

"The second possibility is that the trackers discovered that Ark had frozen the BVI account."

"The freeze means that Ark has noticed the anomaly."

"If we continue to send money in at the same frequency, it's like telling Ark, 'Someone is watching you.'"

"Therefore, widening the interval is not about giving up, but about reducing the risk of exposure."

"They are waiting for the Ark to lower its guard before continuing."

"Once Ark believes the risk has passed, unfreeze the account and resume normal allocation."

"Then continue dyeing until all six accounts are covered."

He looked at Lin Che.

"The first is good news, the second is not."

"I have no way of confirming which one it is."

Chen Wei stopped after saying that.

His hands were folded over the folder on his knees, the clasp still open, the red label facing outwards.

Lin Che did not ask any further questions.

The office was quiet for a few seconds, with only the sound of the air conditioner.