Your task is to rest.

At this moment, the "Galaxy" project, Dingsheng Capital, and family pressure all became insignificant in the face of Meng Yihe's pale and fragile face. A strong, almost tyrannical, protective instinct seized Cui Yu.

He took out his phone and walked outside the medical room.

Then, he dialed a number: "It's me. I asked you to keep an eye on Meng Ling's situation before. Now, add some fuel to the fire. Find some 'small things' to keep Meng Yihe's parents busy for the next few days."

He wanted to forcibly create a breathing space for Meng Yihe, even if the methods were not honorable.

After arranging everything, he returned to the infirmary.

Meng Yihe's breathing seemed to have calmed down a bit, but his face was still pale. Cui Yu pulled up a chair, sat on the edge of the bed, and silently watched him.

Several hours later, the IV bottle was changed.

Meng Yihe's eyelashes fluttered a few times, and he slowly opened his eyes. His vision was blurry at first, then focused on the ceiling, filled with the bewilderment of someone just waking up. Then, he suddenly realized where he was and struggled to sit up.

"Don't move."

A warm hand pressed down on his shoulder, the pressure gentle yet undeniably firm.

Meng Yihe turned his head and saw Cui Yu sitting on the edge of the bed. Cui Yu looked even more tired than him, but his eyes were as deep as a pool, churning with emotions that Meng Yihe couldn't understand.

"...What's wrong with me?" Meng Yihe's voice was hoarse and dry.

"I was so tired I fainted." Cui Yu said succinctly, then withdrew her hand and handed him a glass of warm water.

"The doctor told you to rest absolutely."

Meng Yihe took the water glass, took a sip, and her memories gradually returned.

The control room, the data, and that sudden dizziness... His expression changed, and he immediately tried to throw off the covers and get out of bed.

"Trial production data of 'Galaxy'..."

“If the data doesn’t run out, the project won’t grow legs and run away either.” Cui Yu interrupted him, his tone unusually firm.

"Meng Yihe, you're not made of iron. If you fall once, you'll fall again. Do you want all your efforts to be in vain?"

Meng Yihe froze. He had never seen Cui Yu speak to him in such a reprimanding tone. He pursed his pale lips, remained silent for a few seconds, and finally slowly leaned back against the headboard.

He knew Cui Yu was right; the loss of control over his body was the best proof.

"How is the situation now?" Meng Yihe asked in a muffled voice.

“Everything is under control.” Cui Yu’s tone softened. “You only need to do one thing: rest.”

Just then, Cui Yu's phone vibrated. He glanced at it and saw a message from Zhao Lei: [Director Cui, Dingsheng has made a move! They did indeed become suspicious of that 'incomplete' data. Ji Nan personally ordered the suspension of a pilot program based on that data, demanding a comprehensive reassessment! Our Plan B is working! They're stuck!]

Cui Yu looked at the message, but there was not much joy on his face. He turned his phone screen towards Meng Yihe.

After reading it, Meng Yihe closed her eyes and rubbed her temples.

"You saw it?" Cui Yu put away his phone. "The enemy is temporarily held back, so there's no need for you to rush into a fight right now."

He paused, his voice lowering, "The Star Sea isn't as fragile as you think, and the 'Milky Way' isn't as dependent on you as you think. Don't push yourself too hard."

Meng Yihe was forced to rest in the infirmary for most of the day.

It wasn't until evening that his blood pressure and heart rate returned to normal. Although his complexion was still pale, it was no longer a frightening deathly white.

Under Cui Yu's silent pressure, the doctor repeatedly confirmed the situation before reluctantly agreeing to let him leave, but strictly forbade him from returning to the lab or engaging in any work that night.

Cui Yu personally drove him back to his apartment.

The atmosphere inside the car was silent.

Meng Yihe leaned back in the passenger seat, his face turned to look at the city lights rushing past the window, his eyes somewhat vacant. The extreme physical exhaustion and the feeling of despondency after briefly escaping the high-pressure environment intertwined, leaving him in a rare state of stagnation where he didn't want to think about anything.

The car was parked downstairs at Meng Yihe's apartment building.

"Can you go up by yourself?" Cui Yu asked.

"Hmm," Meng Yihe responded, unbuckling his seatbelt. His movements were still a little slow as he pushed open the car door. His foot had barely touched the ground when his phone vibrated. He glanced at the screen; it was a call from the deputy team leader in charge of monitoring the night shift's progress.

He instinctively reached out to answer.

A hand reached out from the side and pressed down on his phone screen.

Meng Yihe looked up and met Cui Yu's disapproving gaze.

"Have you forgotten what the doctor said?" Cui Yu's voice was not loud.

"Even if the sky falls, there are tall people to hold it up. Tonight, your task is to sleep."

His warm fingers briefly covered Meng Yihe's cold hand, carrying a firm concern.

Meng Yihe frowned but did not brush his hand away.

The two stood frozen by the car for a few seconds, the phone ringing persistently. Finally, Meng Yihe was the first to look away, and also to remove her hand, letting the ringing continue without answering.

Cui Yu then withdrew his hand: "Go on up. If there's anything extremely urgent, they'll come to me."

Meng Yihe didn't say anything more and turned to walk into the apartment building. Cui Yu watched him enter the elevator before turning his gaze away. The gentleness on his face quickly faded, replaced by a cold and deep expression. He took out his phone and dialed the missed call.

"explain."

"President Cui!" The voice on the other end was urgent. "President Meng, he..."

“President Meng is resting. Tell me what’s wrong.” Cui Yu interrupted him.

The deputy team leader paused for a moment, then immediately reacted: "Yes! General Manager Cui, it's like this, the third batch of 'Galaxy' trial production just ended, and the quality control module alarmed, detecting trace amounts of abnormal metal impurities in the finished product. Although the content is extremely low and does not exceed the safety threshold, the source is unknown, and we are worried..."

"Has the batch been quarantined? Has the investigation into the source of contamination been initiated?" Cui Yu's questions went straight to the heart of the matter.

"They've already been quarantined! The investigation has just started, and the source hasn't been identified yet..."

"Continue the investigation, expand the scope of the investigation, from raw materials to equipment to the environment, do not overlook any detail, report to me as soon as there is any progress, and do not disturb General Manager Meng." The instructions were clear and decisive.

"Yes! Understood!"

After hanging up the phone, Cui Yu didn't leave immediately. He sat in his car, his fingers unconsciously tapping the steering wheel.

Trace amounts of abnormal impurities...source unknown...

This doesn't seem like typical equipment damage or operational error.

His eyes suddenly turned cold, and he immediately dialed another number, calling the security supervisor.

"Did the intruder in Warehouse 3, Area B, have any other unusual items on him besides the sampling tools? Or, were any extremely tiny, non-existent objects found inside the warehouse, such as metal shavings of a special material?"

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone, as if someone was rapidly recalling and verifying information: "At the time, we focused our investigation on him and the sampled target. As for the warehouse interior... Mr. Cui, please wait a moment. I'll have the on-site investigation team conduct another thorough inspection immediately! Especially the ventilation ducts and blind spots on the shelves!"

"Immediately! Investigate thoroughly! Tell me immediately if you find anything!" Cui Yu's voice carried a hint of ferocity.

If his guess is true...

Ji Nan's methods were far more ruthless than imagined.

That intrusion, perhaps, was just a pretext for stealing samples. The real killer move was to leave behind extremely difficult-to-detect sources of contamination, slowly undermining the product quality and stability of the "Galaxy" project from within.

That's a brilliant move to cut off the enemy's supply lines.

He took a deep breath, suppressing his surging anger. Now was not the time to lose his temper; he had to get the situation under control immediately.

He picked up his phone again, and this time dialed Zhao Lei's number: "Zhao Lei, make up for the 'return gift' we prepared for Dingsheng. 'Accidentally' let a little bit of the 'evidence' we 'accidentally' discovered about their attempt to sabotage Xinghai's key project production through industrial espionage to a financial reporter with whom we have a good relationship."

“Note that it must be ‘accidental’ and ‘vague,’ but enough to evoke associations. The words ‘Dingsheng Capital’ and ‘unfair competition’ must be subtly linked together.”

He also wanted Ji Nan to experience what it was like to be plagued by public opinion and suspicion.

...

The next morning, Meng Yihe's biological clock woke him up on time.

Although his body still felt sore and heavy from overexertion, the long period of deep sleep and the forced rest after leaving the high-pressure environment allowed him to recover most of his energy.

He quickly got up, washed up, and changed into a shirt and trousers, tightly wrapping up the brief vulnerability he had shown yesterday.

Back at Xinghai Technology, the atmosphere inside the company was quite different from the tense one he had expected. Instead, it was filled with a strange excitement. The employees were whispering among themselves and greeting him respectfully when they saw him.

Their eyes, however, gleamed with a kind of schadenfreude excitement.

He frowned slightly and walked straight to his office. As he passed through the common office area, a few scattered comments drifted into Meng Yihe's ears:

"Have you heard? Something happened at Dingsheng..."

"Really? It's all over the financial news?"

"They said it was using underhanded tactics to compete, and they even wanted to send people to sabotage us..."

"Serves them right! They slandered us before!"

Peak performance? Something went wrong?

He pushed open the office door, and Cui Yu was already waiting inside, leisurely flipping through a morning financial newspaper.

"Good morning, Director Meng." Cui Yu looked up, a familiar smile on his face. "You look much better."

"What happened?" Meng Yihe asked directly without exchanging pleasantries, her gaze sweeping over the newspaper in his hand.

Cui Yu pushed the newspaper over.

He pointed to a rather inconspicuous yet meaningful headline: "Where is the bottom line in business competition? A well-known capital firm is suspected of engaging in shady practices."

The article was written in a rather subtle way, without directly naming names.

However, the industry and methods implied between the lines precisely point to Dingsheng Capital and its recent friction with Xinghai.

“A little bit of public opinion backlash,” Cui Yu said casually. “Looks like it’s working quite well. At least it’s made some people temporarily restrain themselves and focus their energy on cleaning up their own messes.”

After quickly skimming through the article, Meng Yihe immediately understood: "Yesterday's unusual impurities were related to Dingsheng?" His voice instantly turned cold.

"Most likely." Cui Yu put down his coffee cup.

"That thief in Warehouse B probably wasn't just stealing things. Security conducted a new investigation overnight and found some special alloy fragments deep in the ventilation ducts that didn't belong to any of our raw materials or equipment. Coincidentally, they match the composition of the impurities precipitated in the third batch."

He then added, "It's a very clever tactic; the source of contamination is extremely small and difficult to trace. If our quality control system weren't so sensitive, we probably wouldn't have discovered it until a large-scale problem occurred with the product, at which point the losses would have been incalculable."

Meng Yihe's face darkened completely.

Is the evidence conclusive?

“The direct chain of evidence isn’t strong enough, but those alloy fragments and the resulting public outcry are enough to give Ji Nan a run for his money,” Cui Yu said, looking at him.

"The pressure is on her now. We should take this opportunity to conduct a thorough internal investigation, eliminate all potential risks, and ensure that the trial production of 'Galaxy' cannot be stopped."

Meng Yihe took a deep breath, suppressing his surging anger. He certainly knew what was important and what was urgent.

"How is the investigation into pollution sources progressing?"

"We've pinpointed the general area; it's a backup delivery pipeline used in the third batch. It seems the intruder implanted the contaminants through the ventilation system. The entire pipeline has been isolated and abandoned, and all related equipment is undergoing thorough cleaning and disinfection. Subsequent batches are not affected for now," Cui Yu reported.

"Speed ​​up the process," Meng Yihe said coldly. "I want to see a complete investigation report and a new protection plan by tonight."

“It’s already being done,” Cui Yu nodded.

"In addition, Ji Nan is currently in a state of chaos. The downstream application manufacturers that she originally wanted to contact through Chen Siyang have started to hesitate. This is an opportunity for us."

When the other party is embroiled in negative public opinion, it is the perfect opportunity for us to take the initiative and seize the trust of our partners and the market.

"Have the marketing and strategy departments prepare a plan immediately and proactively contact those manufacturers. They can appropriately reveal the progress and advantages of the 'Galaxy' project, but be careful not to go too far."

The two quickly exchanged opinions.

The next course of action has been determined.

Meng Yihe's phone rang again at an inopportune moment. It was from an unknown number, but the location indicated it was his hometown. He frowned and instinctively wanted to hang up.

Cui Yu raised his chin.

"Take it, Director Meng, it might be 'good news'?"

Meng Yihe glanced at him with a hint of doubt, but still pressed the answer button.

His mother's voice came from the other end of the phone.

But instead of her usual assertiveness and anxiety, she was filled with exhaustion, complaints, and panic: "Xiaohe... I don't know what bad luck has befallen our family... The tax bureau people are here again, this time saying they want to check accounts from several years ago... Your dad's client has completely fallen through, and they're even threatening to sue us for breach of contract..."

"What...what exactly is going on...?"

Meng Yihe listened to her mother's distraught complaints in silence, but her gaze involuntarily drifted to Cui Yu, who was leisurely sipping his coffee across from her.

Cui Yu felt his gaze, looked up, and gave him an extremely innocent smile.

Meng Yihe: "..."

He simply replied to the person on the other end of the phone, "I understand. Just cooperate with the investigation as required."

Then he hung up the phone.

He stared at Cui Yu, as if trying to read something from his face.

Cui Yu put down her coffee cup, her smile unchanged, and casually changed the subject:

"Director Meng, it seems the weather is nice today. It's a good day for cleaning up trash and expanding into new markets."