Silent smoke
The "Strategic Cooperation Memorandum" signed with Zhang Lei acted like an invisible boundary, forcibly confining Mingyu Technology's originally wild and uncertain growth trajectory into a pre-set track. On the surface, all external threats seemed to have melted away overnight. The harassment against the parents completely ceased, Zhou Ruilin's "Kuaituan.com" went quiet, and Zhao Zhen's "Zhenhua Commerce and Trade," backed by Lei Yao Capital, also curbed its near-suicidal price war and began to pursue profits. Even the malicious online criticism of Mingyu quietly subsided.
An eerie "peace" has arrived.
The atmosphere in the office, however, did not become more relaxed. Wang Hao became even more silent, burying himself in code most of the time, only occasionally glancing at Li Ming with a complex worry flashing in his eyes. Although Liu Qiang was happy for the company's stability, he also keenly sensed that something had changed in Li Ming—the once ambitious and seemingly all-powerful edge had been replaced by a deeper, calculated, and restrained calm.
Li Ming strictly followed the "recommendations" in the memorandum. Before launching any new data collection function or algorithm optimization, he would have Wang Hao prepare a thick "compliance consultation" document and submit it to the "security committee" designated by Lei Yao, composed of several faceless and mysterious technical experts. The process was standardized, and the attitude was humble, but each time he waited for the "consultation opinion," it was like a silent torment, a repeated test of his self-control.
The platform's iteration speed has slowed down significantly. Some features that Li Ming believed to have great potential based on his past life's memories, potentially involving in-depth user behavior analysis or personalized recommendations, were either directly rejected by the "Security Committee" on the grounds of "excessive data privacy risks" or "insufficient algorithm transparency," or required to be significantly cut down and modified, becoming neither fish nor fowl.
Li Ming didn't argue; he calmly accepted each suggestion and then directed the team to make the modifications. He was like a highly disciplined engineer, strictly following the blueprints and abandoning any more improvisational ideas.
"Brother Ming, isn't this... too stifling?" Once, Liu Qiang looked at the feature design draft that had been returned for revision again and couldn't help but complain, "We can't do this, we can't touch that, what's the difference between this and dancing in shackles?"
Li Ming raised his head, glanced at Liu Qiang, his gaze calm and unwavering: "Living is more important than dancing. Let's focus on doing what we can do well first."
His calmness made Liu Qiang swallow all his words.
During this seemingly calm but actually turbulent period, Li Ziqing returned.
Without prior notice, she appeared directly at the office door one weekend morning. She had lost some weight, but her eyes were clearer and more determined, and the girlish hesitation between her brows seemed to have faded considerably, replaced by a more mature strength.
“My dad… is all right for now.” She looked at Li Ming, her tone calm. “I convinced him. Besides, I feel that ‘Mingyu’ needs me more here.”
Her return was like a ray of sunshine, piercing through the oppressive clouds hanging over the team. Liu Qiang was so happy he almost jumped for joy, and Wang Hao also rarely showed a smile. Li Ming looked at her, his heart filled with mixed emotions—warmth, guilt, and an indescribable complex feeling. He knew that Li Ziqing's return must have come under considerable pressure from her family and the outside world.
"Welcome back." In the end, a thousand words were reduced to these four simple words, but the weight they carried was understood by both of them.
Li Ziqing's return did not change the company's established "safe" development strategy, but with her keen insight and excellent communication skills, she injected new vitality into the platform within the existing framework. She restructured relationships with small and medium-sized merchants, planned a series of online activities themed "Urban Memories" and "Craftsmanship Protection," and deeply explored the stories and cultural connotations behind the merchants, greatly enhancing the platform's community stickiness and humanistic value. This allowed "Mingyu Life" to maintain its unique competitiveness and user loyalty through content and community building, even without radical technological innovation.
However, the tree may wish to remain still, but the wind will not cease.
While Mingyu was slowly progressing along its "safe boundaries," Zhao Zhen's Zhenhua Commerce, with the support of Lei Yao Capital's resources, began a new round of more precise and efficient expansion. They stopped blindly burning money and instead utilized user profiles and data models provided by Lei Yao for targeted marketing and supply chain optimization. Their market share steadily increased, showing signs of becoming a regional e-commerce leader.
What alarmed Li Ming even more was that Zhou Ruilin had not truly given up. Although his "Kuaituan.com" had slowed its expansion, it had quietly transformed, beginning to deeply integrate with the commercial real estate under the Zhou family, focusing on the O2O model of "online experience and online traffic generation," attempting to build a closed-loop business model that links online and offline channels.
Former rivals are all leveraging their resources and advantages to rapidly develop under the new rules. But Mingyu's most imaginative wings have been bound by that memorandum.
Li Ming observed all of this, remaining outwardly calm and methodical in optimizing the platform's basic functions and improving the user experience, following the "Security Committee's" guidance. But deep within him, an unquenchable flame continued to burn quietly, as he observed and calculated.
He knew perfectly well that the "protection" Zhang Lei provided came at a price, and that price would become increasingly clear over time. He couldn't live under Lei Yao's wing (or rather, his cage) forever. He had to find, within this limited breathing space, the fulcrum that could break the deadlock and allow "Mingyu" to regain true autonomy.
He began to focus more of his energy on the domain name assets he considered a strategic reserve. With Wang Hao's assistance, he established an extremely secretive evaluation and transaction channel, carefully handling the inquiries and transfers of those domain names, and quietly transferring the proceeds into a separate account known only to him and Li Ziqing (for financial management purposes). He did not intend to use these funds for the platform's current operations, but rather to prepare for a future action that might exceed the "safety boundaries."
At the same time, he was constantly reviewing all the details related to Zhang Lei and that "Seventh Research Institute." He could practically recite the terms of that memorandum by heart. He was searching for the ambiguities in the terms, looking for the possible triggering conditions and loopholes for the "right to make strategic revision suggestions."
This is a silent and extremely mentally taxing game.
Late that night, Li Ming was alone in his office analyzing the latest operational data of "Zhenhua Commerce and Trade," trying to find weaknesses in Zhao Zhen's business model. Wang Hao walked in with a cup of coffee and placed it on his desk.
"Still looking?" Wang Hao pushed up his glasses.
"Know yourself and know your enemy." Li Ming rubbed his temples.
Wang Hao paused for a moment, then suddenly whispered, "Li Ming, there's something... I don't know if I should say it."
"Speak," Li Ming said, raising his head.
“Recently… during a routine check of the server logs, I discovered some… very subtle, unauthorized data read traces.” Wang Hao’s voice lowered further. “The target of the reads wasn’t our user data or business information, but… the backup area of those ‘compliance consultation’ materials that we submitted to the ‘Security Committee’. The read path… bypassed all our regular monitoring, and the method was extremely sophisticated, almost identical to the style of that previous ‘Seventh Research Institute’.”
Li Ming's pupils suddenly contracted!
The Security Committee is investigating them, but the mysterious Seventh Research Institute, or rather, the force behind it, is also secretly monitoring the interactions between the Security Committee and Mingyu?!
what does that mean?
Does this mean that Zhang Lei and Lei Yao Capital may not be entirely autonomous? Could they be under some higher level of "watching"? Or is there some unknown check and balance or game between them?
That silent "archive" mark is not the end, but only the beginning.
Li Ming felt a chill creep up his spine. He had thought signing the memorandum meant entering a relatively safe haven, but now it seemed the waters here were deeper and more murky than he had imagined.
"Clear the traces, just like last time, pretend we didn't find anything." Li Ming took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. "Continue to observe, but don't take any initiative to investigate."
"Understood." Wang Hao nodded and turned to leave.
Li Ming was left alone in the office. The city lights outside the window were dazzling, but they could not illuminate the deep fog in his heart.
He picked up a pen and unconsciously scribbled on the blank paper. One line represented "Mingyu," another represented Lei Yao, and yet another represented the "Seventh Research Institute"... The lines intertwined, their relationships intricate and complex.
He realized that he had oversimplified the problem. Zhang Lei's capital and the mysterious power of the "Seventh Research Institute" were merely predators at different levels in this deep sea. He and "Mingyu" were just small fish swimming among them, not yet swallowed.
To truly escape a life of being controlled, merely surviving under the existing rules is far from enough. He must possess something that these predators fear, or... something they cannot easily devour.
His gaze fell once again on the list of domain name assets, on the functional ideas in the platform's backend that had been rejected by the "Security Committee," and on the startling discovery about being monitored that Wang Hao had just reported...
An extremely bold, even insane, idea suddenly illuminated his mind like a flash of lightning in the darkness.
Perhaps... he could extract some seemingly harmless but actually highly promising "technical components" from those rejected "discarded proposals"? Perhaps... he could use that secret fund and domain name as cover to quietly build a... "backup" or "testing ground" out of the sight of some "security committee"?
The thought made his heart race and his blood rush.
He knew that this was tantamount to dancing on the edge of a knife, challenging Zhang Lei and the bottom line of that memorandum, and might even attract the attention of the "Seventh Research Institute" again.
However, if successful... "Mingyu" might have a trump card to break free from its shackles.
He slowly clenched his fist, and a long-lost light, a mixture of ambition and adventure, rekindled in his eyes.
The silent battle has never truly ended. And a new, more covert maneuver may have only just begun.
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