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

The rest of the process was completed faster than expected.

That framework for joint governance wasn't blocked at any particular hurdle.

The nation needed this capability, and Weiguang needed this stability. Once the framework was established, both sides breathed a sigh of relief.

In just a few days, the stamps were applied one by one, and the signatures were written one by one.

Abyss v4 has officially been released.

A phenomenon that appeared to be autonomous now had an official and legitimate place to exist.

It is no longer a handle in someone's hands; it is a topic that is out in the open and needs to be studied gradually.

Those forces that were chasing him for an explanation yesterday are now sitting at the same table, becoming co-builders of this framework.

The sky is still the same sky, but the situation is no longer the same situation.

On the day the framework was finalized, Lin Che kept Fang Yuan behind alone.

Fang Yuan already knew what was going on.

He made such a huge mess, digging out something that nobody dared to touch from hundreds of thousands of log entries.

Logically speaking, he should have only two options.

Either shut him up, make him sign a stack of confidentiality agreements, and then pretend you never saw anything.

Or just transfer him away, to some corner where he can no longer reach the core of Abyss, and let him slowly fade away.

He hasn't had a good time these past two years.

That discrepancy felt like a thorn stuck in his heart. He looked at it over and over again countless times, but the more he looked, the less he could sleep.

People around him advised him not to get stuck on this, saying it had nothing to do with him.

He didn't listen.

An engine maker can't tolerate any flaws; even if he knows something is wrong, he just can't let it go.

This inability to let go turned him into an unpopular nuisance.

So he accepts both paths.

He has no regrets about his two years of dedication. If things really come to that, he can always start over.

But Lin Che didn't mention the confidentiality agreement, nor did he say that he would be transferred.

Lin Che pushed the v4 framework file in front of him.

"This framework needs someone to take the lead and keep researching this problem."

Lin Che looked at him.

"This person has to understand engines, be meticulous enough, and be the first to discover it."

"I would like to invite you to come."

Fang Yuan stood there, stunned.

He came with the intention of exposing this matter.

He didn't expect that after he exposed it, what awaited him wasn't a hand to gag him, but a chair.

A chair was placed right in the middle of the matter.

Lin Che didn't tell him to shut up; instead, he asked him to continue asking questions.

However, from now on, every "why" he asks will be confined within this framework, and no matter how deep he asks, it won't leak out.

This is the only place in the world where he can continue to pursue his truth without taking it to the wrong places.

A person who has been serious for two years is never most afraid of losing.

No one was willing to take his seriousness seriously.

Lin Che took his seriousness as something of utmost importance.

He did not regard this person who knew the deepest secret as a troublesome person to be eliminated.

He invited this person in and gave him a place, a place where his stubbornness could finally find its place.

The easiest way to deal with someone who knows too much is to make them disappear.

But Lin Che refused.

He turned this biggest problem into the person he would become most indispensable to in the future.

The truth seeker wasn't silenced; instead, he was invited in to guard the secret he had unearthed himself, and he guarded it for the rest of his life.

This tactic is more effective than any confidentiality agreement.

What bound him was not a contract, but his own inability to let go of his worries.

Fang Yuan didn't say anything nice.

He remained silent for a while, then took out the black hardcover A5 notebook from his bag, unscrewed the untouched Nestlé 3-in-1, and took a sip.

Then he turned to a new page and, stroke by stroke, wrote a line at the very top.

That was the first thing he wrote down for himself in this new position.

After finishing writing, he closed the notebook with the same brisk movements.

After two years of taking things so seriously, I can finally put my mind at ease.

What he wanted was never to bring anyone down.

All he wanted was for someone to take this matter seriously.

Now, someone has joined.

On that same day, that folder was no longer empty.

Abyss v4 has remained completely blank since its inception.

It was empty all the way, empty past that encirclement, empty past that dead end no matter how you answered it, so empty that even Lin Che stared at it, unable to fill in a single word.

That day, it was written into the first document.

That document was none other than Fang Yuan's report.

Just a few days ago, it was a knife that threatened to pierce the fading light, a death knell hanging overhead.

Now, it has a different identity.

It became the first foundational document for the national project Abyss v4.

The folder that had been empty the whole way finally had its first entry.

And the very first stroke of the pen was precisely that of the knife that had once wanted his life the most.

The sharpest knife, the moment it fell into the folder, became the foundation stone at the very bottom.

This folder, when it was empty, was a dead end.

There are no answers inside; no matter how you fill it in, it's a dead end.

It's not empty now, but what it wanted was never the same answer in the first place.

What it wants is to carefully conceal this question, seal it away, and let it remain there, asking the same question over and over.

Once the folder was opened, the long threads that had been scattered everywhere were also gathered together one by one.

All the foundations Abyss laid in its early years, from cold chain logistics for pharmaceuticals to health data, have been incorporated into v4.

The items in Building 7 were incorporated into the state-backed system.

Even the backup copy that was taken from 607 a few years ago has come in handy now, serving as a basis for joint supervision and verification.

Things that once seemed scattered or even dangerous now all fall into the same framework and find their place.

Lin Che stood in front of the table, looking at the folder that was no longer empty.

From that blank space in a dead end, where not a single word could be filled, to writing the first stroke today.

Along the way, outsiders only saw that he won.

Only he himself knew that this stroke of the pen was painstakingly pulled back inch by inch from the edge of a cliff.

Just a few days ago, he was sitting at this table, staring at this blank space, unable to find a way out.

A few days later, in the same spot, the first line of text was written.

What has changed is not the question itself, but the person who set it.

But the story isn't over yet.

The framework has been finalized, and the first document has been written into it. From now on, that problem is official, it's sealed away, and it will be studied forever.

But those people were still inside the house.

When the people jointly supervising, the national security authorities, and the governing bodies come, they ask him to explain the situation.

He didn't say a single serious word about this situation.

But now it's his turn to speak.

This time, he wasn't the one being asked; he was the one providing the answer.

The answer he was going to give was something no one in the room expected.

Lin Che turned around.

He picked up Fang Yuan's report from the table and looked at the people still waiting in the room.