139: 139. Stupid

Chu Man took the document bag and could hear something rattling inside.

As soon as Yu Tianxiong hurried away, Chu Man immediately returned to her workstation. After glancing around and seeing no one was paying attention, she carefully opened the document bag. Sure enough, besides a few documents, there was also an ordinary black USB drive!

Her heart pounded, almost leaping out of her chest.

Her intuition told her that there must be something extremely important inside, perhaps even part of the core data!

Without time to examine the contents, Chu Man put her laptop and documents into her bag, tidied everything up, and quickly left the office, pretending as if nothing had happened.

The company provided shared cars, available for use whenever needed.

Chu Man picked up the last remaining car key and drove the last car out of the company.

She stopped at a corner in the university town, locked the car doors, and eagerly inserted the USB drive into her portable laptop.

Indeed, there were many files inside.

Although she couldn't understand some of the technical jargon, the astonishing data charts, test reports, and analyses compared to existing technologies convinced her that these were the core materials she had dreamed of!

"It's done!! It's really done?! Hahahaha... It was too easy, truly too easy. This small company really has no sense of precaution at all, tsk tsk tsk... No challenge."

Chu Man's heart was filled with extreme disdain for Yu Tianxiong and Tingfeng Capital.

She triumphantly took out her phone and dialed Li Wanrong's number. When it connected, her voice, filled with barely suppressed excitement, said, "Miss Li! I got it! I got Tingfeng Energy's core technical data for the new battery!"

However, what came from the other end of the phone was not the expected praise and excitement, but Li Wanrong's hysterical roar: "Chu Man! You bitch! Do you still have the nerve to call?! Did Yu Tianxiong send you to test me?! Are you two colluding to frame our Li Family, aren't you?! I'll kill you!!"

Chu Man was utterly stunned by this sudden torrent of abuse. She had no idea what was happening and frowned, saying, "Miss Li! What are you saying? What frame-up?"

"Still playing dumb? If we hadn't believed the information you gave us, why would we have bothered with that Jialan mine site!? Now there's a riot there, causing my Li Family to be..."

Chu Man finally understood what was going on. Her heart also sank in shock. Her own information was completely fine, so could it be that she had been tricked?

She immediately shook her head. Impossible. No one had ever known her identity. If they had, Yu Tianxiong wouldn't have let her join the company.

She hadn't been exposed!!

Realizing this, Chu Man said in a deep voice, "Miss Li, I only transmitted the information I found. How you differentiate it is your business. After all, this is an investment project; there are wins and losses. It's not appropriate for you to blame me just because you failed, is it? Also... I'm calling you today because I discovered Tingfeng Energy's core technical data."

To prove her innocence and value, she didn't even think twice and immediately sent several key files from the USB drive to Li Wanrong.

"In this information..."

Before she could finish her sentence, a "bang" on the car window startled her.

The moment Chu Man looked up, her pupils suddenly constricted.

Outside the car window, Yu Tianxiong's expressionless face was calmly looking at her.

Then he pressed the spare key, the car door was pulled open, and Yu Tianxiong, his voice devoid of any emotion, said, "Give me the phone."

Chu Man panicked, the phone slipped from her hand. She racked her brain but couldn't understand how Yu Tianxiong could appear here. She stammered, "President Yu... I..."

Yu Tianxiong didn't look at her. He reached out, picked up the phone, and calmly held it to his ear.

On the other end of the line, Li Wanrong had clearly heard Chu Man's panic and the sound of the car door opening. She sharply questioned, "Chu Man?! What's going on?! Speak! Your side..."

Yu Tianxiong chuckled into the receiver, a low, mocking laugh that clearly reached the other party's ears.

"Your Li Family is still so insatiably greedy."

His voice was terrifyingly calm. Li Wanrong felt as if she had been instantly choked, all sounds abruptly stopping.

A deathly silence lasted for a full two or three seconds, followed by her sharp voice: "Yu... Yu Tianxiong?! How is it you?!"

Yu Tianxiong's tone was icy cold: "If I hadn't just noticed something amiss, you would have almost succeeded... Li Wanrong, you are indeed a treacherous villain."

Li Wanrong frowned slightly, pondering the meaning of his words. "Just noticed?" Could it be that the previous mine site wasn't a setup?

She calmed down and then tentatively said, "Yu Tianxiong, don't get too smug! So what if you found out about Chu Man? She's just an insignificant pawn! Moreover... she just sent me your battery technology data, you can't stop it now."

Yu Tianxiong deliberately remained silent for a few seconds, as if stunned, then slowly, with a hint of belated surprise, he spoke, his tone suddenly becoming somewhat urgent: "Wait... Did you just say Chu Man... already sent the files?"

His voice was deliberately tinged with a subtle hint of panic.

"Did she just... already send the lab data..."

He paused at just the right moment, as if suddenly realizing the gravity of the situation, even his breathing became heavier.

Li Wanrong, on the other end of the phone, keenly caught the change in Yu Tianxiong's tone and instantly concluded that the data Chu Man sent was very likely real!

Yu Tianxiong was panicking! He was afraid of core technology leaking!

The anger of being tricked was thrown to the back of her mind. Li Wanrong was overwhelmed by a twisted euphoria and the pleasure of revenge, cackling triumphantly, her voice piercingly harsh:

"Hahaha! Yu Tianxiong! You finally know fear?! That's right! Didn't expect it, did you? You calculated everything, but you were still one step too slow! The ultimate winner is still our Li Family!"

Yu Tianxiong held the phone, listening to Li Wanrong's unrestrained laughter on the other end. The panic on his face vanished without a trace, replaced once again by cold mockery and a hint of pity.

He said nothing more, simply hanging up the phone in silence.

"Idiot."

After Yu Tianxiong said this, he suddenly realized that he had previously had his family property stolen by such an idiot, and instantly felt a bit bored.

He looked at the dazed Chu Man. Chu Man shivered, wanting to escape but having nowhere to go. In her panic, she picked up the documents, one hand on the keyboard, and said in terror, "Don't come closer, if you do, I'll tear these up. I... I... I'll distribute all the information, let you all..."

Yu Tianxiong looked at her ridiculous appearance and shook his head, saying, "From the day you joined, I knew your identity. Everything you did was under my nose. Do you think the information you got... would be real?"

Chu Man instantly felt as if she had fallen into an ice cellar, her face ashen as paper, saying, "Didn't you just say... these..."

"You believe me just because I said it? You're so foolish, how did you become a commercial spy?"

Chu Man slumped in the driver's seat. Only at this moment did she fully understand how foolish she had been, thinking she had done everything perfectly, unknown to anyone... Yu Tianxiong didn't bother to speak further with such a person. He reached out and took down a device from inside the car, then turned to the police behind him and nodded, saying, "Thank you all for your hard work. The culprit and evidence are all here, the evidence is conclusive."

Behind him, the economic investigation police, who had been waiting for a long time, stepped forward, showed their badges, and said, "Chu Man, you are suspected of stealing commercial secrets. This is an arrest warrant. Please come with us."

As Chu Man was handcuffed, her face ashen, and was escorted into the police car, this meticulously designed sting operation finally came to a successful conclusion.

Meanwhile, Li Wanrong, clutching that fake information, was immersed in a false fantasy of victory: "There's still hope! With this information, the company can still be saved!!"