pjbooks Chapter 341 The Lighthouse!
Chapter 341 The Lighthouse!
"The port city is just the second one."
Nie Qingcheng pushed her phone to the center of the dining table; the screen displayed a chart showing the flow of funds.
Zhang Yan turned off the heat, but the noodles in the pot hadn't been added yet.
He glanced at the screen, his finger pausing on the edge of the table.
Six cities.
Jinghai, Gangcheng, and Huhai are three other coastal industrial cities.
Each funding line, after going through four or five layers, ultimately points to the same abbreviation.
TFC
Zefeng Consortium.
Nie Qingcheng didn't sit down, but stood by the dining table, her tone calm: "Shanghai is the seventh node, not because it's ranked seventh, but because they internally divide all the nodes in the country into zones. There are currently six known cities in the country, with Shanghai being the seventh node and Hong Kong being the third."
Zhang Yan picked up his phone and quickly scanned the screen.
The construction of the node spanned three years.
The earliest one was in the suburbs of Jinghai.
Abandoned substation.
It started operating three years ago.
Zhang Yan pointed at the two characters "Jinghai" and paused for two seconds.
three years ago.
He was still delivering food at that time.
The shadow of ruins has been buried underground in Jinghai.
This feeling is very unpleasant.
It wasn't the ambush that bothered me, but rather that a venomous snake had been coiled up right outside my door all along, but no one had seen it before.
Nie Qingcheng looked at him: "What are you thinking about?"
"I'm wondering why it didn't move sooner."
Zhang Yan put down his phone.
If the Jinghai node had existed three years ago, it should have caused problems long ago, following the model of the Shanghai factory.
However, no obvious abnormalities have been observed in Jinghai.
The first node is always operating at low power.
Either it's not for planting.
It is waiting.
Nie Qingcheng opened another document.
"In the past month, TFC has transferred money to nine accounts related to the Jinghai node. The amount is not staggering, but people are also moving around."
Several entry and exit records and vehicle tracks appeared on the screen.
After reading it, Zhang Yan already had a good idea of what was going on.
After the Shanghai-Haikou node was shut down, Zefeng Consortium did not choose to withdraw.
They are heading to Jinghai.
"It's not a contraction," Zhang Yan said. "It's an acceleration of construction."
Nie Qingcheng hummed in agreement.
She had already guessed it; she was just waiting for him to say it.
Zhang Yan opened the military's satellite interface and pulled up a heat map of the suburbs of Jinghai.
The abandoned substation is located in the southeast of the city, 18 kilometers away from the villa in a straight line.
There is a stable heat source in the underground area.
Grade B+
The edge reading is slowly rising.
Zhang Yan moved the timeline forward.
Six hours ago, the B-level cap was reached.
Currently, the B+ level is stable.
Give it another day, and it might just reach A-.
This is not a normal node.
This is the core node.
He looked at the heat source and began to devise a plan in his mind.
Jinghai is too close to home.
can not wait.
Large-scale lockdowns are also not advisable.
If the Zefeng Group is alerted, they may directly trigger the disposal process, injecting the contaminants into the groundwater network.
Fortunately, the discovery in Shanghai was timely.
As for Jinghai, nobody knows how much stuff has been laid underneath it.
Zhang Yan zoomed out of the satellite image and marked the roads around the substation.
I'll go tonight.
Nie Qingcheng did not object immediately.
She simply asked, "What percentage?"
"If it's only B+, then it's over 90%."
"What if it isn't?"
"Then let's dismantle the external transmission first, and then deal with the core."
Nie Qingcheng stared at him.
Zhang Yan added, "We won't tough it out."
She then looked away.
The noodles on the table hadn't been cooked yet, but the two of them had already put their dinner aside.
Nie Qingcheng sat down, picked up a pen, and drew three lines on the tablet.
"I'm in charge of three things."
Zhang Yan looked at her.
"First, cut off TFC's domestic funding chain. Not by completely destroying it, because that would make them back down. I'll only cut off the funding channels for the Jinghai node, forcing them to use backup accounts."
She swiped her finger downwards.
"Secondly, for the remaining five cities, I have people continue to locate them. We'll only investigate the outer areas, not the core ones."
She paused for a moment before saying the third thing.
"Third, all of Qingcheng International's water, chemical, and warehousing supply chains will be re-screened tonight. As for Jinghai, I don't believe they only buried one point."
Zhang Yan nodded.
Her proposal is suitable.
The greatest value of commercial channels is not fighting, but forcing the other party to take action.
Once TFC starts patching the holes, the wires will become visible.
Zhang Yan picked up his phone and sent a message to Qin Xiao.
"The abandoned substation in the suburbs of Jinghai is a B+ level core node. I will handle it tonight. For the other five city nodes, the military should simultaneously seal off the perimeter under the guise of a special environmental enforcement campaign, prohibiting anyone from entering within two kilometers."
Qin Xiao replied quickly.
"Jinghai also has it?"
"maximum."
Qin Xiao only replied with two words.
"Holy shit."
A few seconds later, he sent another message.
"I'll arrange it. The outer perimeter lockdown will be handled by environmental protection funds, and groundwater monitoring will be done through emergency investigation. Brother Yan, are you going alone?"
"Um."
"Does your sister-in-law agree?"
Zhang Yan glanced at Nie Qingcheng across from him.
Nie Qingcheng was looking down at the cash flow, seemingly unaware of his actions.
Zhang Yan replied, "She's right next to me."
Qin Xiao: "Then I won't waste any more words."
Zhang Yan sent over the coordinates of the Jinghai substation and the radius of its outer perimeter.
Qin Xiao's side quickly connected to the military's interface.
Zhang Yan could see several additional markers on the satellite image.
Outer road sections.
Groundwater sampling point.
Emergency vehicle standby area.
These won't directly alarm the nodes, but they can stop the spread when something goes wrong.
Zhang Yan felt a little more at ease.
Having the state apparatus behind him doesn't mean he can take fewer risks.
But at least I don't have to guard all directions by myself anymore.
Nie Qingcheng neatly stacked a pile of printed lists and pushed it in front of him.
"These are TFC's publicly known assets and suspected shell companies that can be found in China. The red ones are what I'll be dealing with tonight, the yellow ones are for now as bait, and the black ones are already out of control; I'll hand them over to Qin Xiao."
Zhang Yan turned two pages.
Clean.
ruthless.
Not a single word wasted.
She's more adept at business warfare than he is at battlefield planning.
Zhang Yan put the list away: "I'll have Qin Xiao take over the black section."
"Um."
Nie Qingcheng finally looked towards the kitchen.
"Are you still cooking the noodles?"
Zhang Yan glanced at the pot.
"cook."
"Let's cook the noodles first."
She spoke so naturally, as if the discussion hadn't been about urban pollution and ruins, but rather about tomorrow's meeting arrangements.
Zhang Yan resumed firing.
The water quickly started to boil.
Nie Qingcheng sat at the dining table and continued sending messages, glancing at him every now and then.
That feeling was strange.
Danger loomed over Jinghai.
But he was cooking noodles in the kitchen.
She was dismantling the financial chain of the Zefeng Consortium.
This is not procrastination.
This is how they handle crises.
Eat when you should eat.
Kill them if you must.
After the noodles were cooked, Nie Qingcheng ate half a bowl.
Seeing that she hadn't touched her chopsticks, Zhang Yan reached out and took the bowl from her.
"Don't force yourself to eat if you can't."
Nie Qingcheng leaned back in her chair, the beauty mark at the corner of her eye clearly visible under the light.
What time are you leaving tonight?
"Two o'clock in the morning."
"I'm not going."
Zhang Yan was somewhat surprised.
Nie Qingcheng looked at him and said, "Oh my god, you'll get distracted."
Zhang Yan did not deny it.
She knows her place better than anyone else.
She also knows better than anyone how to ease his worries.
Nie Qingcheng pushed the list towards him again.
"The substation is 18 kilometers away from my home."
"Um."
"Wash the dishes before you go."
Zhang Yan looked at her.
Nie Qingcheng raised her eyes: "What, you don't know?"
Zhang Yan smiled and took the bowl into the kitchen.
"meeting."
The sound of water could be heard.
The only sound in the living room was Nie Qingcheng typing on her keyboard.
Zhang Yan was washing the dishes when Nie Qingcheng suddenly spoke up.
"Zhang Yan".
"Um."
There's something I didn't mention earlier.
Zhang Yan and Guan Xiaoshui.
Nie Qingcheng's voice was flat.
"TFC knows I'm chasing them for payment. Yesterday they tried to buy out one of Qingcheng International's suppliers through a third-party company, but I intercepted it."
Zhang Yan turned around.
Nie Qingcheng looked up at him.
"They're looking for my weakness."