Chapter Five: A Thirty-Million-Yuan Ticket

Thirty-six hours after its incorporation, Yellow Door Security was valued at six hundred million yuan. It had no office, no employees, and not a single formal badge. It had one public broadcast, three judicial escrow contracts, and a list from Zero of eleven technology companies close to collapse. Lin did not short them. He sent each the same offer: pay for a compliance audit and receive the evidence privately; refuse, and Yellow Door would deliver the evidence to regulators and investors in forty-eight hours. Seven accused him of extortion. Two called the police. One patched its vulnerability in secret. The last—Oceanic Data Insurance—agreed to meet.