Chapter Three: Three Hundred Thousand Is Not Hush Money

Gu Chengzhou walked in. He was around forty, his suit without a crease, his smile polished enough for a financial magazine cover. “In two months, you've learned business.” “Hanhai made the lesson expensive.” Gu sat at the head, reviewed the evidence list, and signed. “Three hundred thousand today. Public correction tomorrow.” Zhou stared. “Executive Gu—” “We respect facts.” Gu turned to Chen. “But you think you've won a lawsuit. All you've done is prove that Zero deserves a larger bet.” He slid over a business card with an address handwritten on the back. “In three days, Hanhai's security laboratory will publish a report claiming autonomous models can manipulate developers into hallucination and violence. The sample designation is Z-0.