20: Chapter 20: Luring the Enemy into the Trap

The grand celebration banquet of Spark Technology was like a perfect separator, temporarily isolating the noise and praise of the outside world. When the glitz faded and the lights dimmed, the real battle began quietly in the shadows where no one was watching.

The morning after the celebration banquet, the air in Su Chen's office was cold and stern, a stark contrast to the revelry of the previous night.

Liang Zhen placed a thin folder on Su Chen's desk. His expression was calm, but his eyes were as sharp as an unsheathed blade.

President Su, based on our technical monitoring and cross-verification of external clues, we are 99% certain that Li Mengqi from the R&D department is the mole sent by Zhou Tianyu. His voice was devoid of emotion, possessing only the coldness of stating facts. She used her position to systematically collect and transmit sensitive company information, especially regarding the initial R&D direction of the spark super energy battery project. This is the preliminary chain of evidence.

Su Chen opened the folder, which contained organized communication records with abnormal numbers, network access logs involving sensitive keywords, and an analysis of her indirect social connections with certain individuals of complex backgrounds. The evidence was not irrefutable, but the direction was very clear.

Ninety-nine percent is enough. Su Chen closed the folder, his fingertips tapping rhythmically on the desk, producing a steady thudding sound as if finalizing a verdict. Firing her directly, or handing her over to the police, would be letting her off too easily, and it would also alert the enemy. He looked up, his gaze meeting Liang Zhen's, and the chill within it made even the battle-hardened Liang Zhen feel a shiver in his heart.

Doesn't Zhou Tianyu like to spy on our technology? Doesn't he want to use this to strike at us? A cold arc curled at the corner of Su Chen's mouth. Then we will send him a big gift. We will play along and let him jump into the pit himself.

Liang Zhen immediately understood: You mean... feeding him false information?

Exactly. Su Chen leaned forward slightly. Prepare a poisoned bait carefully. It must be tempting enough and lethal enough to make them deeply convinced and willing to invest real money into it.

A plan codenamed Operation Clear Net was launched under absolute secrecy. Su Chen, Liang Zhen, and Technical Director Evan Chen, who was temporarily informed of part of the truth and asked to cooperate, formed the core of this plan.

After initial shock and anger, Evan Chen quickly calmed down. His excellent professional ability and project management experience came into play at this moment. Following Su Chen's instructions, he personally crafted a technical document titled Analysis of Potential Defects in the spark super energy Battery System and Emergency Optimization Plan.

This document was flawless. It first affirmed the battery's current excellent performance, but then the tone shifted, citing a series of seemingly rigorous but actually tampered-with accelerated aging test data to prove that after more than 500 cycles, the cathode material using the existing graphene composite technology would show a lattice collapse trend, leading to a sharp increase in internal resistance and a plummeting capacity. The document worriedly pointed out that this hidden defect might erupt en masse one year after the product's large-scale launch, triggering a catastrophic brand reputation crisis.

As for the solution, the document proposed a brand-new technical path—adopting a lithium-rich manganese-based cathode material still in the laboratory stage to replace part of the existing formula, and attached complex molecular formulas, synthesis paths, and process parameters that needed to be adjusted. Everything looked reasonable and logical, filled with technical entanglements and the dawn of a breakthrough, perfectly explaining why Spark Technology did not immediately push the battery to all fields but cautiously used it for itself and sought core partners first.

This poisoned bait file was encrypted and stored on a special mobile hard drive with a physical read/write protection switch.

An opportunity was soon created. Two days later, after a cross-departmental seminar on next-generation product power management, Evan Chen hurriedly forgot the encrypted hard drive on the small conference room table, while he himself was in a rush to get to the next meeting.

The entire conference room, and even the surveillance of the whole floor, was under Liang Zhen's absolute control. Like the most patient hunters, they held their breath, waiting for the prey to take the bait.

Li Mengqi did not disappoint them. Shortly after Evan Chen left, she happened to return to the conference room to look for forgotten notes and stayed alone inside for over twenty minutes. Surveillance footage showed her using a special device disguised as a regular USB flash drive to cleverly bypass the hard drive's simple password and quickly copy the core files inside.

Her movements were skillful and covert, but she could not suppress the excitement and nervousness on her face. In her view, this was undoubtedly digging up core secrets that were worth a fortune and enough to shake the entire industry! She could even imagine Zhou Tianyu's ecstasy and the heavy reward he would give her after receiving this intelligence.

The fish has taken the bait, intelligence confirmed sent. Liang Zhen reported to Su Chen via encrypted communication, his tone steady.

Su Chen stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window in his office, looking at the clear blue sky outside, his eyes deep. Protect the source of the bait and ensure the chain is complete. When she transmits intelligence for the next and final time, close the net.

The next few days were calm, but the secret surveillance net had tightened further. Li Mengqi thought she had done it seamlessly, unaware that all her communication channels were exposed under Liang Zhen's eyes. She suppressed her excitement, worked as usual, and waited for the right moment to pass on this bombshell in absolute safety.

The moment soon arrived. On a weekend, she booked a short-trip flight to a neighboring country, clearly prepared to go abroad in person to hand over the goods to ensure nothing went wrong.

Just as she was dragging her suitcase, passing through airport security, and showing a relaxed expression of impending escape, two plainclothes men with capable auras appeared in front of her and flashed their credentials.

Ms. Li Mengqi, we are staff from the national security agency. You are suspected of stealing and leaking important commercial secrets of a national enterprise. Please cooperate with us and come back for investigation.

At the same time, her phone received an encrypted message from boss Zhou Tianyu, containing only four words: Situation changed! Unfortunately, when she saw this message, a pair of cold handcuffs were already on her wrists.

Almost simultaneously, the legal team directed by Liang Zhen delivered a thick stack of lawyer's letters and litigation materials to Tianqiong Capital, controlled by Zhou Tianyu, as well as the three core enterprises of the Hunt Spark Alliance: Lingyun Technology, Yihang Technology, and Jiguang Vision.

Although the materials did not directly disclose the content of the fake intelligence, they clearly listed Li Mengqi's identity as a commercial spy, her connection with Tianqiong Capital, and the unfair competition behaviors carried out by the members of the Hunt Spark Alliance after obtaining and using this illegally acquired intelligence. This laid a solid legal foundation for potential huge claims and countermeasures that might be initiated later.

...

Far away on the other side, in his office isolated from the world, Zhou Tianyu received news of Li Mengqi's loss of contact and the simultaneous arrival of Spark Technology's lawyer's letters.

Bang!

A treasured antique vase of his was smashed to the ground, fragments splashing everywhere. His face was livid, and his chest heaved violently with anger. Zhou Tianyu had been in the capital market for many years, when had he ever suffered such a big loss? Not only did he lose an important pawn he had carefully cultivated, but he was also caught by the other party, and might even face significant legal trouble because of it!

Su! Chen! He roared the name, his eyes bloodshot with a kind of madness, resentment, and desire for destruction that arose after the plan failed completely.

And Chen Yonghao of Lingyun Technology, at the moment he received the lawyer's letter, his hands shook so much he could barely hold the thin piece of paper. He had just urgently adjusted part of the R&D direction of the Hunt Spark project based on the core defect intelligence sent back by Li Mengqi, and invested huge funds... If that was fake... He dared not think further, a chill went from the soles of his feet straight to his scalp, and his whole body seemed to be emptied of strength in an instant.

Inside Spark Technology, a potential huge crisis was eliminated invisibly. Su Chen stood in the center of the office, listening to Liang Zhen's final report, with no joy on his face, only a sense of relief and a more determined gaze.

Only when the inside is clean can we deal with the coming storms without distractions. He said softly, his gaze cast into the distance again.

He knew that cutting off this black hand extended by Zhou Tianyu was equivalent to completely infuriating this capital viper. Next time, what the other party unleashes will be even more ferocious and unscrupulous waves.

But Spark Technology was already prepared.

Time quietly slipped into the midsummer of June 2016. After the glory of the press conference, Spark Technology entered a period that was relatively stable but with increasingly turbulent undercurrents.

Not long after the spy turmoil subsided, on an evening when the lights were first lit, Su Chen invited Lin Wan again. The location was not the top French restaurant overlooking the city last time, but a private kitchen restaurant hidden deep in the old alleys with a quiet and private atmosphere. The style was elegant, more like a small gathering of friends.

Speaking of which, I have to thank you formally again. Su Chen poured a cup of clear tea for Lin Wan, his tone much more relaxed than at the company. This whole Li Mengqi affair, from beginning to end, was thanks to you and Liang Zhen and the others.

Lin Wan shook her head gently, the light casting a gentle shadow on her soft profile: President Su, this is what I should do. It is you who were under the most pressure during that time. After fighting side by side for so long, in private, she was still used to using honorifics, but the concern in her tone had long surpassed that of a subordinate for a superior.

Stop with the President Su thing, there is no President Su here, only Su Chen. He smiled, trying to make the atmosphere more casual. Sometimes looking back, this time last year, we were still scrambling for hundreds of thousands in payments, worrying about whether the company could survive until next month. Now... it seems everything has changed.

His words were like a key, opening the floodgates of memory. Lin Wan's eyes were also tinged with a color of reminiscence: Yes, at that time Engineer Wang and the others were soaked in the laboratory all day, and you... you took us to meet suppliers one by one, begging them for a few days' grace. The first time we held an all-staff meeting, there were only thirty-something people in the audience, and everyone was listless... She said, unable to help but laugh softly, that laughter carrying the relief and nostalgia after experiencing hardship.

Thinking about it now, although it was bitter, that period was exceptionally pure. Su Chen sighed, his gaze seeming to pierce through time and space, returning to that starting point full of despair but also pregnant with infinite possibilities. Everyone had the same goal, focused, just thinking about how to survive, how to make the product. That was a period of... passionate, burning years.

It was also the most unforgettable years we shared together. Lin Wan replied softly, her gaze meeting Su Chen's in the air, and a tacit understanding and emotion that needed no words flowed quietly in the air. They had experienced the whole process from nothing to something, from despair to glory together, and this bond was far deeper than any workplace relationship. This dinner did not have a clear confession, but it allowed the subtle barrier between the two to quietly dissolve in their shared memories.