Chapter Five: The Flood That Never Happened

Five million for the audit, twenty million more for Chenzhou's signature. Gu Changgeng received him personally. “Young people imagine corporations as dragons,” Gu said, pouring tea. “We simply know about disasters five minutes earlier.” “Was Cloudrest a disaster?” “An unauthorized commercial trial. Tao Wu will answer for it.” Gu slid over an audit terminal. “Inspect every line. Find fraud and I'll pay another five million.” The code was inhumanly clean. Celestial Balance predicted traffic, disease, and collective emotion at ninety-seven percent accuracy, without leakage. After six hours Chenzhou understood: the question was not how the model knew the future, but why the future always obeyed it.