Chapter 574: Limited Cooperation

The Assistant rushed into the conference room in a panic, holding a notebook: "General Manager, look!"

The interface was very strange, with gray borders and a black background, giving one a solemn and eerie feeling.

Looking at the domain name, Li Zhengwu's pupils shrank: TheOnionRouter, the famous Onion Routing. But that was not the point; the point was what was below:

Selling Agilent Chromatography System (GC, HPLC) post-system unrestricted access permissions... Price: 50,000 USD. Inspection before payment supported:... password...

Selling Elmer Mass Spectrometry (MS), Spectrum (Atomic Absorption, ICP) and other instrument post-system unrestricted access permissions... Price: 50,000 USD. Selling Bruker X-ray Diffraction (XRD), X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer... Price: 100,000 USD.

There were also Keyence, Rigaku, and Saishi... these three had the highest asking prices, 200,000 USD each.

What the Assistant wanted him to see was the code after "Inspection before payment," as well as the password: it was the Primary Security Lock among the Level Three security locks for each company's core products.

Ordinarily, it was only authorized for primary administrators to perform daily checks and browse access logs. Although one could do nothing with it, at least one could enter, but that was not the point; the point was the number of visits and comment requests: Saishi had the most, with nearly eight hundred people browsing.

The key was the comments: there were actually over fifty people requesting a transaction?

To put it another way, as long as the person who posted agreed to sell, he could earn tens of millions of USD in at most one minute.

"Thud," Li Zhenghao slammed his fist onto the table, his face turning bright red: "It was absolutely Lin Sicheng who did this..."

"Despicable, shameless, insane..."

The Assistant recoiled in fear: anyone knew that no second person would have such guts.

But there was no evidence, and not even a clue could be found:

The moment the post appeared, the National Security Agency began tracking it. But this ID had many layers of disguise; it was truly like an onion—you peel one layer and there is another, and you never know how many layers are left underneath after peeling one.

The key was that it was cunning and sensitive; if the tracking time was slightly long, the ID would automatically disconnect. The first time it disconnected in the United States, the second time in the United Kingdom, and the third time, slightly closer, it disconnected in India.

But everyone knew that these locations were all relay IDs. The person who posted, or perhaps the person who directed it, was right in Beijing.

And they met almost every day...

The more Li Zhengwu thought about it, the angrier he became, his teeth gnashing with a "clack-clack" sound.

Just as he was hating it so much he wanted to vomit blood, there were two "knock-knock" sounds.

Cha Er stood at the doorway.

He was Li Zhengwu's translator, but this was only a superficial identity; the Assistant knew very well who he represented.

The Assistant was tactful and took the initiative to walk out, not forgetting to close the door as she left: "General Manager, Mr. Cha Er, you two talk!"

Cha Er nodded and sat down opposite Li Zhengwu: "Mike, getting angry won't solve the problem!"

"Didn't we anticipate this long ago? When he realized we were intentionally stalling, he would definitely do this!"

"Of course, he certainly won't actually sell the permissions, because his goal is not money... so, there is no need to worry, and no need to be angry..." Li Zhengwu naturally knew that Lin Sicheng's goal was not money, but technology; he was the one who told Cha Er this.

He just didn't expect that Lin Sicheng would actually dare to do it.

And he didn't expect that he had only found an excuse to stall for a moment, and Lin Sicheng would suddenly launch an attack.

Li Zhengwu let out a breath: "Cha Er, what do we do now?"

"Don't panic!" Cha Er's tone was firm, "Believe me, he won't leak the password, and he wouldn't dare leak the Underlying Code... at most two weeks... oh no, one week, and each company will be able to rebuild their Firewall..."

"One week?" Li Zhengwu frowned, "I am willing to wait, but is the headquarters willing to wait? Are the other five companies willing to wait?" This was indeed a trouble.

Cha Er thought for a moment: "I will coordinate it!"

Li Zhengwu was noncommittal: he didn't feel that Cha Er had this ability.

His background was very big, but this was not the Roosevelt era, where hearing the three words "Security Bureau" could make capitalists tremble with fear. Capital pursues profit; whoever harms their profit is their enemy.

Not even one's own parents would be spared.

But he didn't say anything: once Cha Er knew the cruelty of reality, he would naturally compromise...

Cha Er stood up, preparing to report to his superiors and discuss how to use his power to exert pressure on these companies.

But before he could walk out of the office, the door was knocked on again. The Assistant stood at the doorway, looking panicked: "General Manager, Mr. George wants you to look at your email..."

Li Zhengwu was stunned for a moment: George was his grandfather and also the rotating chairman of this term's board of directors.

Something major must have happened, but why didn't his grandfather call him, instead notifying him through the Assistant?

Li Zhengwu's heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly opened his email.

Three new emails, all sent two minutes ago, from his grandfather's private email address.

The documents were not encrypted; one could see them upon opening.

The first was a news flash from a small tabloid in Wall Street.

Looking at the content, Li Zhengwu's face turned as black as the bottom of a pot: This report states that an anonymous source has revealed that a certain large technology service company headquartered in Boston is suspected of contract fraud and using backdoors to steal academic information in a certain Eastern country, and is currently under investigation by the relevant departments of that Eastern country. The fraud amount is approximately 2 billion USD, causing losses of over 10 billion USD... This is the largest and most serious commercial scandal in American history to date.

This newspaper has contacted the authorities and will travel to the Eastern country next week to follow up on the report for you...

The message was short, and after reading it again, Li Zhenghao bit his teeth.

This was just a small newspaper with limited circulation, limited influence, and even more limited interview channels.

It couldn't even report the news of the United States or Wall Street clearly, let alone a "certain Eastern country"?

This was absolutely someone who had paid money to write a vague, fake news story without specific targets.

No need to guess, it was Lin Sicheng who did it.

The problem was, this one was fake, but what about the next one?

Li Zhengwu clicked on the second email, which was a stock index chart.

Looking closely, the date: May 11, 2009, Monday.

Today was only the tenth, so this was a stock index forecast for next week.

This was very common in the United States, especially on Wall Street; regardless of size, every newspaper would release stock index forecasts.

But what was uncommon was that few newspapers would concentrate several technology companies on one page.

And even fewer companies would predict a decline for all three companies headquartered in the same state and the same city.

Look at this: Elmer, headquartered in Boston, expected to fall by three percent...

Bruker, headquartered in Boston, expected to fall by five percent...

Saishi, headquarters in Boston, expected to drop seven percent...

Thinking back to that previous news flash, Li Zhenghao wanted to curse: Lin Sicheng again?

What does he want to do?

Cha Er was right there and saw it clearly, but he was still relatively calm. At least, not as panicked as Li Zhengwu.

"Mike, calm down. These are all smoke bombs, all methods Lin Sicheng is using to force you to submit. Don't worry, he wouldn't dare..."

Li Zhengwu didn't speak; he opened the third email with a straight face.

Just one glance, and his heart began to beat like a drum. He could no longer hold it back and let out a roar: "Shit... Fuck..." The Assistant's face turned deathly pale, and Cha Er was dumbfounded.

This time, it was a Facebook account: it detailed the entire process of how he spent ten thousand US dollars to purchase the Level Two Password Lock for the software system of the Gene Sequencer produced by Saishi Technology on Onion Routing, and then browsed it in its entirety.

And it posted the complete screenshots.

The so-called Level Two Lock was only the maintenance permission for a mid-level Engineer; even if leaked, it would have no impact on the Underlying Code, let alone cause any destruction.

Nor could any core data be seen.

But the problem was, no one had ever leaked it before; those who dared to do so had long since been sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic.

Now, there was someone.

But that wasn't all. This post pointed out every single company that the Wall Street tabloid hadn't dared to name before: Saishi, Bruker, Emoer, Agilent...

It even specified that the so-called "certain Eastern country" was China.

At the same time, he also posted the thread published on Onion Routing that was "selling core system passwords for various companies."

The Wall Street tabloid, the stock index predictions, and the sales link on Onion Routing, combined with this post, effectively formed a closed loop.

Now, who would still dare to say that the Wall Street tabloid's report was fake news?

Li Zhengwu closed his eyes: he could already imagine how much Saishi's stock would fall by Monday.

Only seven percent?

More than double that.

Based on a market value of one hundred billion, that would be 1.4 billion US dollars...

Cha Er didn't know what to say: he had just been saying that Lin Sicheng wouldn't dare. But not even a minute after he finished speaking...

No, even earlier than when he said that, Lin Sicheng had already done it.

Although he was certain that Lin Sicheng was just bluffing, he wasn't sure if these companies could withstand the temporary losses.

Cha Er let out a breath and said with a sincere face: "Mike, please tell your grandfather that everything is temporary. What Lin Sicheng wants is the technology; these are just extortion tactics, he won't expose it... Once the rumors are clarified, the stock price will naturally rise. There might even be a significant rebound..." Li Zhengwu opened his eyes: "Cha Er, you don't understand Lin Sicheng!"

A long, long time ago, even when no one knew what he wanted to do, he had already hired bodyguards.

So, back then, Lin Sicheng had already made the plan: "If we can't reach an agreement, we'll die together."

Compared to that, this time, he had already been negotiating for two weeks; he had been patient enough...

Sighing, Li Zhengwu stared at Cha Er: "Cha Er, put yourself in his shoes: if he continues to leak information, but only leaks half, how will these companies respond?"

Publicize all the Tertiary Security Locks, but keep the Underlying Code.

That's right, the systems of each company have basically finished updating, leaving only the rebuilding of the Firewall. This means the original passwords are basically invalid; even if one could get in, they wouldn't be able to see the core data.

But the problem is, does the market believe it? Do the shareholders believe it?

The shareholders will connect all the speculations:

That tabloid report was true: several companies' security systems had huge loopholes, leading to the theft of a large amount of academic Information Detachment from Chinese clients. It was because of this that the companies urgently updated their systems to patch the loopholes...

No need to guess, it will inevitably cause market panic. And then, the stock will plummet.

It might not reach a circuit breaker, and it's impossible for it to drop more than ten percent every day, but if it drops five or six points every day, that's five or six hundred million; what if it drops for two consecutive weeks? As long as the Chinese government doesn't issue an announcement, these stocks will never be able to rise again.

But the Chinese government cannot issue an announcement, because the shareholders' speculations are all facts.

Why would a government agency endorse a group of scammers who have harmed them, especially with a fake endorsement?

But that's not the end of it: you clearly know this is Lin Sicheng's doing, yet you have to swallow your anger and continue negotiating with him, and reach a Technology Authorization Agreement as quickly as possible.

Because he still has more important leverage in his hands. And he is very clear that several companies are planning to renege on their debts, which is why they keep dragging it out.

So, who can guarantee that he won't leak the Underlying Code before the Firewall is built?

No one dares to bet...

Cha Er was at a loss: "Doesn't he want the technology? Is he not planning to ask for it anymore?"

"That's right, he does want the technology, but we didn't intend to give it to him..."

No, to be precise, it was that Cha Er didn't want to give it, and the department behind him wanted to give it even less...

Li Zhengwu spread his hands, "Cha Er, do you remember yesterday, the last thing he asked me: General Manager Li, how long will it take for you to report to the board of directors?"

"I answered one week; think about what he said at the time?"

Cha Er tried hard to recall: Lin Sicheng said, it shouldn't take that long?

At the time, it sounded like a question, but thinking about it now, it was clearly a statement: it definitely wouldn't take a week.

It wouldn't even take a day: from when we parted yesterday until now, it hasn't even been twenty hours.

Lin Sicheng was telling Li Zhengwu and those representatives: you don't need to report and ask for instructions; your board of directors will make a decision very soon...

"Cha Er, make your report, and at the same time report to your superiors: I will contact Lin Sicheng to reschedule. If nothing goes wrong, it will be tomorrow. By then, we will agree to all the demands he made yesterday..."

Cha Er frowned tightly: "All of them?"

Li Zhengwu looked solemn: "Yes, all of them!"

"What if he wants the technology and also demands billions in compensation?"

"Don't worry, he won't. I understand Lin Sicheng: he is a person with a great sense of proportion!" Li Zhengwu pointed to the stock index in his email, "Compared to losing hundreds of millions or over a billion every day, whether he wants ten million or tens of millions doesn't make much of a difference to me..."

Cha Er really wanted to refute, but he didn't know how to refute.

They had been negotiating for two weeks; except for when he proposed new demands and was certain no one would agree, only then would Lin Sicheng open his mouth like a lion. The rest of the time, as long as they entered the normal rhythm of negotiation, what Lin Sicheng asked for wasn't considered much.

For example, restrictive clauses, or supplementary agreements.

In European and American countries, these are originally the responsibilities and obligations that the second party should fulfill.

"Fine!" Cha Er shrugged, "I understand, but I also express my regret!"

Li Zhengwu did not speak, only let out a hum.

The official goal is very clear: it is best not to let China obtain a single code Talisman.

But they never consider whether this will bring huge losses to the enterprise.

Therefore, one can cooperate, but it depends on when.

Adjusting his mood, Li Zhengwu dialed Lin Sicheng's phone number...