Chapter Five: A Thirty-Million-Yuan Ticket

“Your premiums use five years of failure statistics,” Lin said. “But after last year’s Mirrorsea upgrade, maintenance nodes flag faults before coverage begins. You buried those warnings in offline appendices, then sold policies to shipping firms that never saw them. The Southern Three trunk goes down next week, and you have already shifted liability to a shell company.” Du did not touch the alarm, call security, or flee. He tore the check in half. Then he drew a gun from beneath the table. It was the eighteenth and least likely response. Su Lan cut the lights from the adjoining room. Lin dove aside as a bullet tore through his chair. When the emergency lamps came on, Han Che was forcing Du’s pistol into the tabletop.