Searching for someone in northern Myanmar, and you call that earning tuition fees?

【02:19】

After pressing the Enter key, Su Ming leaned back in his chair.

Old Zhao immediately lost his temper.

"Wait, wait, wait!" He lunged at Su Ming, grabbing his shoulders tightly with both hands. "You said if the factory blew up, he'd lose all his money—but we'd have to go down with him, wouldn't we?!"

"Don't worry, he can't afford to gamble," Su Ming said calmly.

"Can't afford to gamble?!" Old Zhao's voice cracked. "This is about to explode! What I need right now is science, not mysticism!"

Su Ming glanced at the countdown and stood up.

"Alright, we'll explain the details later, we're running out of time."

He walked to the control panel and his fingers clattered across the keyboard. Soon, a window popped up on the screen—the management backend of the factory's internal monitoring system.

"This system doesn't have physical isolation." Su Ming opened the monitoring list, quickly flipped to the "External Communication" tab, and brought up an IP address.

Ah Xue leaned closer, her voice trembling, "What are you going to do?"

"Let's video chat with Mr. Petrov," Su Ming typed a few lines of code, "and talk about whether he really wants to continue being a tycoon."

The screen flickered twice, and the image popped up.

A luxuriously decorated underground wine cellar, with oil paintings hanging on the walls and a half-empty bottle of Romanée-Conti on the table.

In the center of the screen, a middle-aged man in a velvet bathrobe is roaring at another screen. His hair is thinning, his cheeks are red, and the veins on his neck are bulging.

It was the oligarch Petrov.

He had no idea that he was being monitored in reverse.

Su Ming cleared his throat and began speaking in standard Russian.

Good evening, Mr. Petrov.

Petrov turned around abruptly and immediately saw the flashing red light above the camera in his wine cellar.

"Who are you?!"

"Su Ming." Su Ming bowed slightly. "Ms. Gu Axue's authorized asset agent. We are currently touring your factory. Thank you for the self-destruct program that created such a tense and exciting atmosphere for us."

Petrov slammed his fist on the table, looking like a madman: "You think you can threaten me?! I can rebuild the factory! I have plenty of money!"

"Regarding this," Su Ming said expressionlessly, "I may have some bad news for you."

He turned his laptop screen toward the webcam, which displayed the real-time balances and authorization status of Petrov's three offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein.

The same line of red text was flashing in the status bar of all accounts—

[Pending: One-click donation - Siberian Sphynx Cat Protection Association]

Petrov's face turned pale instantly.

"These assets of yours," Su Ming said in a cold tone, "will be donated free of charge to the Siberian Sphynx Cat Protection Association at the same time the factory is detonated."

He paused, then added a sentence.

"As far as I know, this association's current annual budget is $800, and they will be very, very grateful for your generosity."

Petrov suddenly stood up, spilling red wine all over the floor.

"You're talking nonsense! You couldn't possibly breach a bank's security system in a minute!"

Su Ming chuckled, unsurprised by his reaction. "I knew you'd say that." He tapped a few keys on the keyboard with one hand. "To verify the API's validity, I just performed a small authorization test using your account."

In the video, Petrov's cell phone, which was on the table, rang.

Old Zhao leaned over to look at the screen and saw that the oligarch had glanced down at his phone and his eyes were practically popping out of their sockets.

Su Ming thoughtfully read the notice aloud.

"Your account has been charged $99.99. Transaction party: Tencent Video Annual SVIP Super Membership - Auto-renewal enabled."

Petrov completely lost his temper and roared at the camera.

"Are you fucking crazy?! That's an offshore US dollar account! You're using it to subscribe to video streaming services?! And with automatic renewal?! Don't you know that cross-border transactions incur fees?!"

"This is a test of interface connectivity," Su Ming said calmly. "It's a routine technical procedure; please understand."

"I understand your mom!"

The countdown has reached [01:00].

Ah Xue's fingernails dug into her palm.

Old Zhao's lips were trembling, but he dared not utter a sound, afraid of disturbing Su Ming's "business negotiations".

Su Ming glanced at the countdown.

"Mr. Petrov, one minute left. The head of the Sphynx Cat Association is waiting for your donation. We heard they want to use the money to build a cat house with underfloor heating, comparable in size to your wine cellar."

Petrov's face turned green. He turned and yelled off-camera, "Check! Check the accounts now!"

Two seconds later, the assistant's mournful voice came from off-camera: "Boss, all the accounts are locked! The permissions are showing up on an external terminal! They're all...all in a pending donation status!"

"And..." the assistant's voice trailed off, "I can't turn off that automatic renewal."

【00:37】

Petrov was trembling, but he stubbornly insisted one last time: "You think I'm afraid of you? Fine, we'll fight to the death!"

Su Ming didn't reply, but simply zoomed in on the donation confirmation page on the screen.

The recipient field clearly states—

"Siberian Hairless Cat Protection Association (certified under 501(c)(3) tax exemption)."

Donation amount: All.

Donation Note: This donation is made voluntarily. Thank you to the Sphynx Cat Association; these adorable hairless animals have healed the severe mental anguish I suffered from hair loss. — Petrov Sergeyevich, fellow pet lover.

Petrov looked at the donation note, and his eyes began to twitch uncontrollably.

【00:30】

Su Ming said, "Thirty seconds."

Petrov's face contorted in pain. He stared intently at the camera, his lips trembling several times.

【00:25】

"you……"

【00:22】

"I……"

Petrov's mental defenses crumbled with each tick of the countdown. He watched as his entire fortune was about to be donated to a group of hairless cats on the screen, and finally broke down.

"father!!"

A heart-wrenching, distorted Chinese voice rang out from the screen.

Everyone in the control room was stunned.

Old Zhao's eyelids twitched, and he turned to look at Li Changfeng, his tone numb: "Why is there another one calling me 'Dad'?"

Ah Xue stiffly turned to look at Su Ming, her lips moved, and after a long while, she managed to squeeze out, "What...what did he call you?"

Petrov lunged at the camera, his face almost pressed against the lens, his expression distorted, tears streaming down his face: "I was wrong! Dad! Please! Stop!! I'll turn it off! I'll turn it off! I'll turn it off right now!"

Su Ming frowned.

"Sir, please watch your words. I am not your father. Moreover, from a DNA perspective, the probability of that is statistically close to zero."

"Shut it down! Shut it down right now!"

Petrov scrambled toward the control panel deep inside the cellar, his hands trembling as he frantically typed on the panel.

On the main control room display screen, a countdown began—

【00:09】

【00:08】

"Ding!"

"Incorrect password".

Petrov burst into tears, his face covered in snot and tears.

"My hand slipped! Dad! Wait for me! Just a second!"

Su Ming stared at the screen expressionlessly.

【00:06】

Old Zhao gripped Li Changfeng's arm so tightly that his nails were digging into his flesh.

【00:05】

Ah Xue closed her eyes.

【00:04】

Keyboard sound.

【00:03】

"It's done!" Petrov's scream came from the screen.

On the display screen in the main control room, the red numbers stopped at—

【00:02】

The alarm suddenly stopped.

The emergency lights returned to normal illumination, and the server's indicator light changed from red back to green.

The hydraulic lock of the explosion-proof gate clicked open.

Only the low hum of the ventilation ducts remained in the air.

And Petrov's heavy, survivor-like breathing came from the screen.

Three seconds later.

"Waaaaah..."

The ruthless oligarch who threatened to blow up everyone was crying in front of the camera.

Weighing 250 pounds, he was curled up next to the control panel, sobbing uncontrollably, looking even worse than the mercenaries in the heating workshop.

Su Ming listened quietly, and after he had cried for a full half minute, he turned the laptop back to the camera and, in the tone of a bank account manager reading out a repayment notice, said:

"Alright, Mr. Petrov."

"Now, we can talk about compensation."

The voice just fell.

"Thump!"

Old Zhao rolled his eyes and fell straight backward.

Li Changfeng reacted quickly, catching him and checking his breath.

"It's okay, my heart is still beating, I just fainted from fright."

Ah Xue was still standing there, completely dumbfounded.

She looked at Su Ming, then at the countdown timer on the screen, which was now zeroing out. Only one thought remained in her mind—

Is 50 million too little?

On the screen, Petrov also fainted.

He collapsed onto the keyboard, and his assistant's gasp came from off-camera.

Su Ming glanced at it and casually ended the video call.

He closed his laptop, put it back in his canvas bag, and dusted off his hands.

"Let's go get the receipt."

Ah Xue snapped out of her daze, her voice still lingering: "You...you even got real grades for your elective courses?"

"92 points isn't high." Su Ming slung his bag over his shoulder.

"Why wasn't it a perfect score?"

"Because I wrote in my paper that hacking is less efficient than social engineering fraud. My teacher said my thinking was flawed and deducted 8 points for attitude."

Ah Xue opened her mouth, then closed it again.

She looked down at the brown stain left by the nitroglycerin pill on her palm and made a decision.

The first thing I did upon returning to China was to ask Lao Zhao about the suppliers.

You can't buy by the box; you have to buy by the case!