All the electronic devices found on the young man were handed over to the CEO's office by the security personnel. Jason was currently inspecting them one by one. Xie Chengnan sat behind his desk with his eyes downcast, his fingers tapping rhythmically against the armrest, lost in thought.
"How’s it going?" Shen Qinian asked as soon as he walked through the door.
"We still need a bit more time." Xie Chengnan looked up. Seeing the radiant smile on the Vice President’s face, he knew the contract amount must be substantial. "Is the contract signed?"
"Signed." Shen Qinian held up five fingers and flipped his hand over, saying excitedly, "This much."
Xie Chengnan raised an eyebrow. "Not bad."
"This CEO Yao is a straightforward man." Shen Qinian sat down in a chair, leaning forward with his elbows on the desk to talk to Xie Chengnan. "He didn't ask for a single discount. His only requirement was that their order be prioritized for expedited production."
"No discount?" Xie Chengnan was even more surprised. For such a large order, customers usually tried to squeeze the price; after all, even a small percentage off would be a significant amount of money.
Shen Qinian didn't find it strange. "He definitely knows he’s not the only one looking to expand in this direction. He’s buying time with money. The world's first nursing center to provide one-on-one medical robot services—doesn't that sound incredibly attractive?"
Xie Chengnan understood. Such a gimmick would certainly attract many affluent customers seeking high-quality service. Oushi Xianlin’s original positioning was already that of a high-end convalescence brand.
As they chatted, Jason finally finished inspecting all the devices and reported: 【This person is named Zhou Zhiliang. The pinhole camera captured every detail after he got out of the car, including the security check at the laboratory entrance. This video seems to have been uploaded in real-time to a cloud storage site, but it hasn't been sent to a third party yet. As for the call logs and chat history on his phone, he cleared them all himself.】
Shen Qinian leaned back heavily against his chair, annoyed. "Then we can't find out who he was in contact with..."
After a dramatic pause, Jason added triumphantly: 【So, I recovered all his recently deleted call and chat records.】
Shen Qinian: "..." *Is it really okay for you to be this mischievous?*
Xie Chengnan massaged his temples and tapped the desk. "Jason, stop beating around the bush."
The little robot sounded aggrieved: 【I found that he received a bank SMS notification for a 100,000 yuan deposit yesterday afternoon. Just before that message, he had finished a fifteen-minute call from an unknown number. After the call, he searched the internet for the legal consequences of stealing trade secrets.】
Shen Qinian’s eyes lit up. "So the owner of that number is likely the person who bribed Zhou Zhiliang."
Little Jason was eager to help: 【Nan, if you give me authorization, I can hack into the service provider's system to find out who the number belongs to for you~】
"No need." Xie Chengnan flatly rejected the little robot's illegal request and turned to Shen Qinian. "Do you have a way to get Vice President Jiang's phone number?"
"I'll try." Shen Qinian took out his phone and made a few calls. He quickly obtained two numbers, one of which was identical to the one Jason had found.
"Tsk." Shen Qinian was puzzled. "What does he want our company's secrets for? Is their company planning to change industries?"
Xie Chengnan asked him, "Did you notice that Yao Duo's expression turned very ugly when he heard Zhou Zhiliang was hired by Vice President Jiang?"
Shen Qinian had an epiphany. "Could it be internal infighting? This VP Jiang deliberately hired someone to cause trouble for Yao Duo? If a scandal about stealing trade secrets broke out, this cooperation would definitely fall through."
Xie Chengnan tapped the tabletop. "I've been thinking about something. Don't you think Yao Duo's reaction was a bit off? One of his people was caught with a hidden camera, and that person was hired by his deputy. After handing the man over to us, he didn't even mention wanting to be informed of the investigation results. Furthermore, in our subsequent interactions, I found Yao Duo to be someone who knows exactly when to push and when to yield. Under those circumstances, he should have taken the initiative to cancel the lab tour, but he didn't. So, I suspect that entering the lab was very important to him—so important that he didn't dare to cause further complications after distancing himself from Zhou Zhiliang."
"But he didn't do anything after he went in," Shen Qinian scratched his head.
"That's also what I can't figure out." Xie Chengnan leaned back, his fingers interlaced, resting his chin on his hands. "His behavioral logic feels wrong to me, yet he truly did nothing."
Shen Qinian waved it off. "Forget it, don't overthink it. The contract is signed. As long as we deliver on time and the payment is settled, this matter is over. Maybe he just didn't want to complicate things. For instance, if that VP Jiang has too much backing and he can't afford to offend him, or maybe he swallowed his pride for the sake of the bigger picture. Regardless, as long as our company's interests aren't actually harmed, it's fine."
Xie Chengnan rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. "I hope I'm just overthinking it."
"President Xie." The secretary suddenly pushed the door open, her tone panicked. "Two police officers just arrived downstairs and said they need to see you."
Xie Chengnan and Shen Qinian exchanged a look. "Please show them up," Xie said gravely.
Soon, two officers followed the secretary inside. One of them immediately produced his badge and said, "Mr. Xie, we received a report from a citizen claiming that you are illegally detaining his colleague, Zhou Zhiliang. Please come back with us for an investigation."
Xie Chengnan frowned. "Officers, Zhou Zhiliang is indeed at our company, but he is here to cooperate with an investigation regarding the attempted theft of trade secrets. We have not engaged in illegal detention."
"Mr. Xie," one of the officers interrupted. "Please cooperate. Regardless of why Zhou Zhiliang was kept here, procedure dictates that you need to accompany us."
Shen Qinian stood up. "I'll go with you. I'm the Vice President here."
The officer shook his head. "Sorry, the informant specifically named this as Mr. Xie's personal action."
Xie Chengnan put on his coat and patted Shen Qinian’s shoulder. "It's fine. I'll go. Arrange a lawyer for me and pull all the surveillance footage."
"Alright." Shen Qinian frowned. "I'll get there as soon as possible."
Xie Chengnan nodded, not particularly nervous. The accusation of illegal detention wouldn't hold water; he only needed to provide the full surveillance video to the police to clear his name immediately. What he couldn't understand was the true motive of the person who filed the report...
The case was straightforward. Xie Chengnan spent the afternoon drinking tea at the police station. Once it was confirmed the accusation was baseless, he was notified that he could leave.
His phone had been confiscated before he entered the interrogation room. As soon as he turned it on, he received an alert from Jason.
Jason: 【Nan! Someone broke into the home surveillance system this afternoon. After the intrusion failed, they cut the power to the cameras! They took King and your computer!】
Xie Chengnan froze in place. A second later, he resumed his stride, his mind suddenly clear. The purpose of that police report was to sever his connection with Jason, ensuring he wouldn't go home midway so they could successfully take what they were looking for.
Xie Chengnan put on his wireless headset as he got into his car. "Can you still contact King?"
Jason: 【Yes. they felt all over King, probably looking for... a switch? But they couldn't find it.】 The little robot's voice carried an unmistakable hint of doubt regarding the intruders' intelligence.
Xie Chengnan gave a light chuckle. Just as he was about to give Jason instructions, Shen Qinian’s call came in. "Are you out?"
Xie Chengnan: "Yes, I'm on my way back to the company."
Shen Qinian said anxiously, "Quick, check Weibo. SIMON just posted a statement accusing our company of stealing trade secrets and counterfeiting the medical robots they developed!"
Xie Chengnan switched to the Weibo interface and quickly saw SIMON’s official statement. It contained two images: one was a third-party appraisal result, and the other was a lawyer's letter.
Xie Chengnan ignored the lawyer's letter and looked at the appraisal document first. As soon as he saw the data, he knew that the comparison subject was the batch of medical robots he had donated to the Nancheng Municipal Government. The results showed a 97% structural similarity.
While he was reading this post, Shen Qinian sent another link: *Nanyuan Technology CEO Xie Chengnan taken away by police for investigation into trade secret theft!* Attached was a photo of him boarding the police car accompanied by the two officers earlier that day.
This interlocking series of events was clearly a long-premeditated trap!
When Xie Chengnan arrived at the company, he went straight to the top-floor conference room with his lawyer. Nanyuan Technology’s PR and legal teams were already gathered there, handling the emergency. The scene was somewhat chaotic.
Shen Qinian finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw him. "You're finally back..."
Xie Chengnan sat down in the center. "What's the situation now?"
Shen Qinian said, "The current public opinion is very unfavorable for us. Customers are already asking customer service about refunds. Did you see that appraisal document? What on earth is going on?"
Xie Chengnan clasped his hands and pressed them to his lips. "They counterfeited the medical robots we donated."
"How is that possible?" Shen Qinian said in disbelief. "A 97% similarity? They would have had to dismantle the whole thing and copy it part by part!"
Xie Chengnan looked at him calmly. "Don't forget, there was a full week between the donation and the robots being put into use. For SIMON, that was more than enough time."
Shen Qinian felt a chill down his spine thinking about the implications. "How can you be sure it wasn't a leak from someone in the lab?"
Xie Chengnan countered, "Have you forgotten that the lab started developing the second-generation model long ago? The second-generation is an improvement based on the first-generation, and the similarity is also high. If it were a leak from a researcher, why wouldn't SIMON counterfeit the second-generation robot? That would make their evidence of us 'copying' them even more substantial."
Shen Qinian slammed the table. "Then if we make the second-generation robot public, won't that prove they're slandering us?!"
"It won't." Xie Chengnan shattered the Vice President's illusion. "I just said it—the second-generation is an improvement on the first. The other side can simply claim that after we 'stole' their first-generation robot, we then independently developed the second-generation based on it."
Shen Qinian felt completely defeated. "This won't work, that won't work... I'm going to explode from frustration!"
***
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