Chapter 98 - 99: Beneath Calm Waters – Seeds of the Next Storm
The early morning silence inside Lin Feng’s Jiangnan villa was deceptive.
Sunlight streamed through the tall glass panels, throwing golden warmth across the polished marble floors and soft fabric of the minimalist furnishings. On the surface, it was a serene start to a peaceful day. But Lin Feng’s eyes, fixed on the data projections hovering before him, were sharp and cold. His fingers tapped a slow rhythm on the armrest of his chair as lines of internal performance reports, audit breakdowns, and encrypted messages flickered across the holographic display.
Something didn’t match.
The recent dip in performance metrics from three subsidiary logistics vendors wasn’t dramatic enough to draw external attention, but to Lin Feng’s practiced eye, it had all the signs of embedded interference—slightly delayed shipments, bloated costs from rerouted deliveries, and a sudden uptick in supposedly "weather-related" disruptions. The most telling? All three vendors had, until recently, been part of Crimson Loop’s extended supply network before its hostile restructuring.
He turned to Qi Zhen, standing beside him with her tablet clutched to her chest. "Confirm something for me. Were any of these vendors blacklisted by us after the Crimson Loop resolution?"
Qi Zhen nodded. "Yes. All three failed post-acquisition audits and were flagged for risk. But then—"
"They reappeared under new shell names," Lin Feng finished grimly. "Someone’s feeding them contracts again. From the inside."
Qi Zhen hesitated, then said, "I’ve been compiling a list of internal project managers involved in those reactivations. No direct links yet. But it looks... coordinated."
Lin Feng stood and walked over to the window, his posture deceptively relaxed as he looked out over the garden where a pair of koi swam slowly under the lily pads.
"We’ve gained momentum too fast. This kind of pushback was inevitable."
His mind worked quickly. There were multiple layers here—economic sabotage, reputational landmines, and potential corruption within the ranks. He couldn’t afford complacency. Especially not now, when public sentiment was finally stabilizing in his favor after the Spectron revelation.