yournovel Chapter 440 Counter-Espionage Scheme
Chapter 440 Counter-Espionage Scheme
Lingyun sat in her office until 2 a.m.
He spread all the materials Zhao Hu had brought out on the table—Zhang Wei's access control records, bank statements, Hualian Technology's company files, surveillance photos of Liu Jun and Yang Peng shaking hands in the teahouse, and the note that read "This is just the beginning." He arranged these things one by one, like he was playing chess.
Then he picked up the phone and called Zhao Hu.
"Tomorrow morning, go find Li Mo and tell him to cooperate with me in spreading a message at the company tomorrow." As Ling Yun spoke, he held the note in his hand and looked at it under the desk lamp. "Say that after the first version of the StarCore chip came back from the tape-out, a major design flaw was discovered during testing. The power consumption is twice as high as the design value, and the yield rate is less than 30%. The release of StarPhone may be postponed until the end of next year."
Zhao Hu was silent for two seconds on the other end of the phone. "You want to—"
"Let them think that we are in chaos internally."
"Understood," Zhao Hu said. "I'll go when it's light."
"There's one more thing. Tomorrow morning at nine o'clock, notify all department heads to attend a meeting in conference room number three. Don't send the agenda in advance; just say it's an emergency meeting."
After hanging up the phone, Ling Yun put the note back on the table, picked up a stack of blank A4 paper, and began to write. He wrote for two whole hours, filling five pages, then put it in an envelope, sealed it, and locked it in a drawer.
The next morning at nine o'clock, meeting room number three was full. Li Mo sat to Ling Yun's left, Wang Jianguo to his right, Ni Guangnan opposite him, and other department heads sat scattered in two rows. There was a lingering smell of cigarette smoke in the air; someone had smoked one before the meeting.
When Ling Yun pushed the door open and came in, everyone looked up at him. He didn't sit down, but stood in front of the table, his hands supporting him on the edge of the table.
"I called everyone here today to discuss something."
His voice wasn't loud, but everyone in the conference room had a tense expression.
"The first version of the StarCore chip has passed the tape-out test results." Ling Yun paused, his gaze sweeping across everyone's faces. "Power consumption exceeded the standard, the GPU displayed screen artifacts, and the USB controller experienced a 7% packet loss rate under high load. The yield rate is less than 30%."
Li Mo's face turned pale instantly. He opened his mouth to say something, but Ling Yun didn't give him a chance to speak.
"The root of the problem lies in the design. The architecture didn't undergo sufficient power consumption simulation during the project initiation phase, and the verification coverage was inadequate when integrating the GPU IP cores. These problems should have been discovered during the RTL phase." Lingyun's voice rose half an octave. "And what happened? They only surfaced after the tape-out."
No one dared to utter a sound in the conference room. Ni Guangnan kept his head down, his fingers tracing the surface of his thermos. Wang Jianguo stared motionlessly at the wood grain on the table.
"Li Mo".
Li Mo's shoulders trembled slightly. "Yes."
"You're the technical lead. You're responsible for these issues."
Li Mo stood up, his lips twitched, and finally he only said one word: "Yes."
"Put the chip issue aside for now," Ling Yun said, shifting his gaze from Li Mo to the others. "Everyone should focus their resources on the supply chain. Zhang Weinuo's OLED yield rate is low, Ma Baoguo's battery supplier is being dishonest about delivery dates, and Zhao Weiguo's distribution channels in Southeast Asia are being pressured by Nokia—these problems are far more urgent than a single chip. The StarPhone's release date is yet to be determined; we'll notify you of the specific date later."
The air in the conference room seemed to have been sucked away. Someone whispered from behind, "What about the Starcore team..." Ling Yun didn't let him finish. "The Starcore team has suspended all new project development," he said, "and is shifting entirely to supply chain technical support."
Li Mo was still standing, his hands resting on the edge of the table, his knuckles white. Ling Yun glanced at him, then said, "Meeting adjourned."
The people in the conference room filed out without a word. Li Mo was the last to leave, pausing at the door and glancing back at Ling Yun. Ling Yun was looking down at a document, not looking up. Li Mo closed the door quietly.
The news spread by the afternoon.
First, people in the break room were talking about the chip, then people in the cafeteria were discussing it too. Later, even the workers on the assembly line knew—the StarCore chip had failed, and no one knew when StarPhone would be released. Someone posted on a forum asking if it was true, but the post was deleted within ten minutes, yet the more it was deleted, the faster it spread.
Zhao Hu's men kept watch outside, reporting back every few hours. Two of his men took turns guarding the house Liu Jun rented, 24 hours a day. On the afternoon of the third day, Liu Jun went out to the same teahouse as before, to the same spot, and to the same two men.
Zhao Hu was eating a boxed lunch in his car when he received the call. He threw down his chopsticks, started the car, and drove towards the teahouse. When he arrived, Liu Jun and Yang Peng were still chatting animatedly, and the brown paper envelope on the table was thicker than before. Zhao Hu parked his car across the street, took a few photos with his phone, and drove off after the two had left.
"They completely believed it," Zhao Hu reported that evening. "Yang Peng told Liu Jun that Yixiang had started to increase its purchases of MP3 components, preparing to seize the supply chain after Xinghuo Mobile failed. Liu Chuanzhi personally approved the additional budget of 50 million."
Ling Yun didn't speak, but opened the drawer, took out the envelope that had been locked for two days, and handed it to Zhao Hu. "This is the second version of the Star Core chip's tape-out plan, the real one."
Zhao Hu pulled it out and glanced at it. The first page stunned him—it contained the complete improvement plan for the second version, including power optimization targets, GPU reconstruction plan, and mass production timeline. It was completely contrary to what Ling Yun had said in the conference room.
"Are you giving this to Liu Jun?" Zhao Hu asked.
"Not for him," Ling Yun said, "but for him to steal. Schedule a server maintenance session next Wednesday night, and put this document in a location that is easy to find but not too obvious. Set the permissions so that only the system administrator account can access it, and then add a note after the record—'Approved by Ling Yun, only known to the three core members.' Do nothing else."
"You don't have to do anything?"
"You don't need to do anything. He'll come and get it himself."
Zhao Hu stuffed the envelope into his coat's inner pocket. "What if he stole the real plan—"
“He won’t steal the real thing,” Ling Yun interrupted him. “He’ll steal a copy, put it back exactly as it was, and pretend nothing happened. The thing people in this line of work fear most is revealing that they’ve already joined your business. Stealing the real thing or the fake thing makes no difference to him; all he needs to do is pass on the information.”
Zhao Hu pondered those words for a moment, then nodded.
"There's one more thing," Ling Yun said, his tone suddenly becoming very low, "There's a piece of data in this document that's fake. I wrote the GPU clock frequency target as 10 percent higher. If they ever want to copy or reverse engineer it, this fake data will lead them into a dead end."
Zhao Hu tucked the envelope further into his inner pocket, pressing it down as if to prevent it from flying away. "What if Liu Jun finds out?"
"He won't find out. This data looks perfectly reasonable, and you won't see the difference without further verification," Ling Yun said, then paused and looked up at Zhao Hu.
"Should we notify Li Mo first? After that meeting, he's been staying in the lab until the early hours of the morning these past few days, not seeing anyone, and having his assistant bring him his meals."
"No need," Ling Yun said. "The more distressed he is, the more people outside will believe it. Just proceed according to plan."
Zhao Hu didn't say anything more. He stood up, patted the envelope on his chest, and turned to leave.