460: Chapter 455 A Plan to Leave No Clues

Shen Yan turned around and looked at him.

"Guang Ke, a foundation is built by people, not by waiting."

His tone was calm, yet it carried an indisputable power.

"Jingzhou is our headquarters, our home base; that won't change."

"But in Artificial Intelligence, what is the core?"

Chen Guangke answered instinctively, "Talent?"

"Correct, top-tier algorithm talent."

Shen Yan's gaze seemed to pierce through the night outside the window, looking toward a more distant future.

"T City has three of the best science and engineering universities in the country, as well as two research institutes under the Chinese Academy of Sciences."

"This place is a reservoir of algorithm talent and our future gold mine."

"This house will serve as the studio's temporary office and talent apartments from now on."

His words were logically sound and far-reaching in their vision.

Most of the doubts in Chen Guangke's heart were dispelled by this grand blueprint.

He looked at Shen Yan, the brother he had grown up with since childhood.

Ever since that hellish turn of events, Shen Yan had changed.

He had become steady, sharp, and even somewhat inscrutable.

Every decision he made might have seemed bizarre at the time.

But in hindsight, every step landed exactly on the most critical point.

He chose to believe.

To believe unconditionally.

"I understand, Yan Zi."

Chen Guangke nodded heavily.

"Whatever you need me to do, just say the word."

A faint smile finally appeared on Shen Yan's face.

He walked over and patted Chen Guangke on the shoulder.

"No rush."

"Eat one bite at a time, walk one step at a time."

The next morning.

Before the sky was fully bright, Chen Guangke slipped out of the hotel alone.

Two hours later, he returned laden with bags, a satisfied smile on his face.

T City's famous traditional cloud-slice cakes, smoked fish, soy-sauce duck, and several other local snacks he couldn't name.

He had practically brought back half the food street.

"Yan Zi, hurry up! Let's send these back to the company so the brothers can have a taste."

Shen Yan watched his frantic energy and said nothing.

The two of them called an express delivery service and sent dozens of pounds of local specialties to the company.

Afterward, they checked out and headed to the airport.

As the plane pierced through the clouds, the silhouette of T City shrank rapidly outside the window until it vanished.

Jingzhou, Xingyan Technology.

When Shen Yan and Chen Guangke pushed open the company doors, a wave of heat rushed toward them.

It wasn't thermal heat.

It was the atmosphere.

The sound of typing was as dense as rain, phones rang one after another, and discussions, though hushed, were still clearly audible.

Everyone was like a wound-up gear, operating at high speed, precise and efficient.

On the whiteboards, the dense flowcharts and code snippets left almost no empty space.

This was his team.

Chen Guangke felt as if he had returned to his own battlefield, a fighting spirit instantly igniting in his eyes.

He stripped off his coat, tossed it onto his seat, rolled up his sleeves, and dove into a technical group that was in the middle of a heated debate.

"There's an issue with this interface parameter, let me see..."

His voice was quickly absorbed into this boiling ocean.

Shen Yan stood in place, watching quietly for a moment.

He walked to the center of the office.

Clap, clap.

He clapped his hands twice lightly.

The crisp sound wasn't loud, but it seemed to possess a kind of magic, instantly drowning out all the noise.

The entire office fell silent.

Dozens of pairs of bloodshot but still bright eyes turned to look at him in unison.

"Good work, everyone."

Shen Yan spoke; his voice wasn't loud, but it reached everyone's ears.

"I know everyone has been very tired lately."

"Hold on just a little longer."

His gaze swept over every person.

"Once this project is successfully concluded, I'll take everyone to a tropical island for team building."

"Sunshine, beaches, seafood—play as much as you want, eat as much as you want."

After a brief silence, a suppressed cheer erupted from the crowd.

"The boss is awesome!"

"We've been waiting for those words!"

"Brothers, for the island, charge!"

Morale was ignited once again.

Shen Yan's face remained expressionless.

He turned and walked into his office.

He closed the door, sealing the noise outside.

On the other side of Jingzhou, in the CEO's office on the top floor of Qinghe Group, Su Wan's palms were sweating as she stared at an encrypted email.

The email had been sent by Shen Yan two minutes ago.

The content was the final step in liquidating Zhou Li's Faction—the most dangerous step: the final showdown at the Board of Directors meeting.

Every link, every possible variable, and the corresponding countermeasures were written clearly.

For the past two days, she had been like a marionette, acting strictly according to Shen Yan's script.

On the first day, she used the ten-million-dollar gambling debt incurred by Zhao Dehai's son, Zhao Kai, at the 'Caesar' underground casino to force the CFO to hand over Zhou Li's accounting loopholes and dirt.

The process had been smoother than imagined.

Zhao Dehai offered almost no resistance and handed everything over, only begging to save his son's legs.

On the second day, an anonymous package appeared on the desk of Sun Qing, the Marketing Director.

Inside were high-definition photos of him and a popular actress in a hotel.

Half an hour later, Sun Qing's resignation letter was delivered to her desk.

Su Wan could even imagine how pale that usually flirtatious and conceited director's face must have turned when he saw the photos.

Shen Yan's methods were precise, ruthless, and struck directly at the vitals.

The more Su Wan executed them, the deeper the chill in her heart became.

This man seemed to stand from a God's perspective, seeing through everyone's weaknesses.

He was like a hunter hidden in the shadows, quietly driving his prey into a dead end.

Inscrutable.

This was Su Wan's only evaluation of Shen Yan now.

At this moment, Shen Yan's attention was not on Qinghe Group.

His fingers were tapping rapidly on his laptop.

On the screen was a satellite map of the Port of Rotterdam, along with dense shipping data.

He was formulating a solution for Wang Haidong.

For that task, the system had only given the goal, not the process.

He needed to fill it in himself.

Two hours later.

A ten-page PDF file titled "Breakthrough Plan for Dysprosium Oxide Customs Clearance at the Port of Rotterdam" was generated.

He read through it once and confirmed there were no errors.

The core of the plan was not to clear the path, but to trigger an explosion.

He had discovered that Wang Haidong's competitor, Zhao Hong of Hongyuan Trading, had a shipment stuck at the Port of Rotterdam in the same batch.

And Zhao Hong's cargo was far more sensitive than a rare earth material like Dysprosium Oxide.

It was several crates of undeclared military-grade drone components.

Shen Yan's plan was simple.

Step one: anonymously report Hongyuan Trading to the anti-smuggling department of Dutch Customs.

Step two: once the anti-smuggling department intervened, causing chaos at the port and indefinitely delaying all customs clearance, use an offshore consulting firm registered in Europe to contact the overwhelmed customs supervisor, Van der Sar.

Step three: "provide" precise intelligence to Van der Sar, pinning all the issues on Hongyuan Trading, helping him close the case quickly and calm the storm.

In exchange, Wang Haidong's twelve "clean" containers would be the first to be released.

Each step was linked to the next.

Using others' strength to strike, driving the tiger to swallow the wolf.

This plan would leave no leverage for anyone to use against him.