Chapter Eighty: A New Year's Eve of Longing Across the Distance, with Undercurrents and Fireworks
Fireworks were going off everywhere in Yu'an on New Year's Eve.
Luo Yan leaned against the window of the guesthouse, her nose almost touching the cold glass. In the distance, towards the city, clusters of colorful lights exploded in the dark night, flickering and reflecting in her lifeless pupils.
There was no background music, no cheers, and even the muffled sound of fireworks exploding was barely audible, like a cheap special effect.
Looking at her blurry reflection in the glass, she pouted.
"Happy New Year, Comrade Luo Yan. You have successfully unlocked the New Year's Eve all-inclusive luxury package for one person."
For fourteen days and three hundred and thirty-six hours, most of the time was spent counting cracks in the mottled ceiling.
She used to hear people say that if you're single for a long time, even pigs will look like they have double eyelids. Now, after being isolated from the world for two weeks, she's even starting to miss Zhao Hongmei's braised pork with cherry tomatoes.
It's like experiencing the life of a concubine in the cold palace in ancient times. No wonder so many people went crazy. Who wouldn't go crazy living like that?
Liu Su next door's grand claim of "closed-door cultivation" was overturned by her own words on the third day. Last night, when I brought her food, I could hear her humming through the crack in the door: "My concert..."
Upstairs, Director Zheng remained as steady as a mountain, practicing Tai Chi in his room every day without fail. Occasionally, you could hear him chatting with the food delivery staff about the weather, his mindset as relaxed as if he were truly on vacation.
Only Luo Yan appeared calm on the surface, but her heart was constantly on edge.
For the first few days, she was able to hold on with her faith, but as time went by and the quarantine showed no signs of ending, the questions began to involve more details and assumptions. Her initial self-comfort deflated like a punctured balloon.
If Jiang Sui's leak is true, then what is she? An accomplice in an attempted crime? A victim of love-struck behavior? A negative example from a legal program?
"Ptooey! Ptooey! Ptooey!"
Luo Yan slapped her face hard, encouraging herself: "Comrade Luo Yan, you must trust the organization!"
She walked to the window, breathed on the glass, and drew a fox's head on it with her finger.
"You bastard, let's ring in the New Year together."
I used to think that the excitement of New Year's Eve was all about disturbing others, but now I realize that even that kind of noise is a luxury.
The greatest distance in the world is not between life and death, but between you watching fireworks in the city and me in the suburbs unable to tell if it's fireworks or welding sparks from the construction site across the street.
Under the cover of night, the curtains of a villa on the outskirts of the city were drawn tightly, and three laptops were placed on a long table.
Jiang Sui typed the last Enter key on the keyboard.
“It all matches up. Sun Zhicheng goes to the R&D center every Friday night, always during the shift change time for the technicians. He is very cautious, only copying a few items each time. Then, through a shell company, he sells the key module parameters of the database in several installments. The receiving account goes through several detours, eventually pointing to an overseas account of an affiliated company under Mingsheng.”
Xiao Huang's eyes lit up: "President Jiang, shouldn't this be enough?"
Another assistant, Kobayashi, nodded in agreement: "The evidence is conclusive, enough to call the police and send him to jail."
"No rush, wait for the big fish."
Jiang leaned back in his chair, rubbed his throbbing temples, and looked at the complex transaction path diagrams on the screen. He took out another phone and said, "President Luo, the buyer's account is indeed linked to Mingsheng, but it may not necessarily be Jiang Qiming. Based on my understanding of him, he wouldn't leave such obvious evidence. Next, we need to find out who is in Mingsheng who is dealing with Sun Zhicheng."
Luo Muyang sighed dejectedly: "Sigh, Yanyan is still locked up. It's already New Year's Day, aren't you worried?"
Jiang Sui's eyes darkened.
How could he not be anxious? The moment he learned that Luo Yan had been reported and taken away for isolation and investigation, he almost crushed the glass in his hand.
"What?! Where did you take it?!"
"The Culture and Tourism Bureau said they are investigating and it's not convenient to inquire about it."
Luo Muyang was so anxious on the other end of the phone that he was incoherent: "Someone reported that she was involved in a bribery scheme with you. What kind of nonsense is this? My daughter doesn't even want her own father's money, how could she possibly be greedy for other people's money?"
It took Jiang Sui a full five minutes to force herself to calm down.
"Mr. Luo, don't panic. This may not be a bad thing."
"What?!" Luo Muyang almost jumped up. "My precious daughter is suffering! No internet, no cell phone, can't even get a hot meal! Isn't this terrible?!"
Jiang Sui gazed at the city lights in the distance, remaining silent for a moment. "The person who reported me has only two motives: first, to delay the bidding for the second phase of the project; second, to force me to show myself. Luo Yan is our Achilles' heel. She is completely isolated from the outside world now, so at least those who want to exploit her can't reach her for the time being..." He paused, then continued, "A clear conscience fears no accusation. The investigation will only prove her innocence... What we need to do now is to speed up the process of finding the mastermind behind Mingsheng. Only in this way can Luo Yan emerge as quickly and cleanly as possible."
“I know…” Luo Muyang sighed, “I just feel sorry for Yanyan.”
"She's fine, I promise."
Jiang Sui hung up the phone and felt a tightness in her chest.
Two whole weeks have passed, and no one knows where Luo Yan was taken. Luo Yan doesn't know where he is either. She's probably overthinking things every day, and every night she's so upset that she curls up in bed, cursing him as a jerk while secretly wiping away her tears.
Xiao Huang handed over a cup of tea: "President Jiang, you haven't been sleeping well these past few days, please take a rest."
Jiang Sui hummed in agreement, leaned back on the sofa, and closed her eyes.
Two weeks ago, on the night he went to see Wu Yuzhou, he went to see Luo Muyang.
"Mr. Luo, there's something I have to confess to you. Actually... Jiang Qiming is my father."
Jiang Sui stood in front of his desk and calmly uttered those words.
Luo Muyang paused for a moment while brewing tea, then continued to slowly pour water into the teapot. "I thought you were going to keep it from me until the IPO bell-ringing ceremony." He looked up, without the anger Jiang Sui had expected, but rather with a smug "I saw through you a long time ago" attitude.
"You knew from the beginning?" Jiang Sui was both surprised and shocked. "Then why did you keep me?"
"When you came for the interview, your resume was so beautiful it looked fake, and you even wrote 'both parents deceased' in your family information. So I had someone check it out. I was surprised to find out that you are Jiang Qiming's only son, a graduate of a top-tier university, and you even worked in a nightclub. Your relationship with Jiang Qiming is like that of enemies. Tsk tsk... Even novels wouldn't dare to write a character like this!"
Luo Muyang poured a cup of tea and pushed it in front of Jiang Sui. He picked up his own cup and took a sip. "At first, I thought, Jiang Qiming's old fox son came to work for me. Is he trying to scheme against me? Interesting! Others are afraid to hire you because of Jiang Qiming's attitude, but I'm going to keep you here to annoy him."
Jiang Sui: "..."
Very good, very Luo Muyang.
"Later," Luo Muyang frowned, feigning seriousness, and crossed his legs, "I discovered that you're not just a pretty face; you're genuinely capable and have a good character. So I changed my mind. So what if you're Jiang Qiming's son? I, Luo Muyang, started from scratch, relying on my vision and courage, not on marrying anyone. As long as you can create value for Feiyang and treat Yanyan well, I don't care who your father is."
"Aren't you really afraid I'll betray you? Backstab Fei Yang?"
"I've lived half my life, do you think I don't even have the ability to judge people? If you really want to betray me, you have plenty of better opportunities. Do you think you can wait until Feiyang has grown to its current size?"
"..."
Jiang Sui was silent for a moment, "Thank you for your trust, President Luo... Now I need your trust one more time. The bidding for the second phase of the smart tourism project is imminent, and some people are envious of our gains in the first phase project and are already making moves."
Luo Muyang seemed to have anticipated this, saying, "I knew there were people outside watching our intelligent database."
"It's not just outsiders."
"What? You mean... Fei Yang might have a mole?"
"It's not a possibility, it's a certainty. I just went to see Wu Yuzhou, and he has no idea that he let it slip."
"That's troublesome. We're on guard day and night, but it's hard to guard against a thief within our own ranks..."
"I have a plan that requires your cooperation and absolute trust."
What are you planning to do?
"Last month, to ensure the security of the test data, I uploaded another database to the R&D center's cloud. On the surface, it looks no different from the real one, but I changed the core parameters at the deeper level."
Luo Muyang's expression shifted from surprise to seriousness, and then to thoughtfulness.
"You want to lure the snake out of its hole? But playing such a big game... your reputation and the second phase of the project could be ruined."
“There is no foolproof method.” Jiang Sui’s gaze was calm. “So we need to put on a show, a show where I am suspected and isolated, so that they can really get the core information. When they take their next step, we will have a chance to find evidence.”
Luo Muyang stroked his chin. "I have a question. What would happen if we used this fake system to deploy the project?"
Jiang Sui smiled slightly, "Let them suffer in silence."
Luo Muyang stared at him for a full minute, then suddenly slapped his thigh: "As expected of the old fox's son! So cunning! I like it! Okay, we'll do it your way!"
And so, the "leak incident" and Jiang Sui's "disappearance" came about.
As early as the beginning of the plan, Jiang Sui took two of his most reliable assistants and hid in Luo Muyang's private villa, continuing to remotely control the "leak" of fake data while collecting evidence in full swing.
"President Jiang? President Jiang!"
Xiao Huang's voice pulled Jiang Suicong back to reality from his reverie, "Should we continue to bait the area?"
Jiang Sui's gaze returned to the screen.
"Break the logical framework of the optimization algorithm into three parts, and release one part every two days in different ways to see if Sun Zhicheng is really that patient."
Xiao Huang nodded immediately: "Understood."
Jiang Sui turned around and walked to the window, lifting a corner of the curtain.
In the distance, the New Year's Eve fireworks display reached its climax, illuminating half the sky above the city.
At this moment, in some corner on the other side of the city, Luo Yan must also be gazing at the same night sky.
He exhaled softly, and a small patch of blurred warmth spread across the cold glass.
"How...do you want to insult me now?"
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