The compliance review email arrived on Wednesday.



Anonymous internal reporting channel, polite wording: Executive President Gu Lingfeng and the actual controller of the cooperative partner Tianxing Kindergarten, Su Qing, have an undisclosed personal relationship. Requesting to suspend the project and initiate an independent investigation. I took each word apart and put it back together.



Auntie's words from last night were still fresh - someone was already making preparations. This email was the opening move.



Gu Lingfeng asked me to come to his office. Not Gu Group headquarters, but a three-story building next to China World Trade Center. Only the house number was at the entrance. Security checked ID before letting people in. Going up to the third floor, only one office on the entire floor had its lights on.



"Sit. I'm going next door to get something, two minutes."



He left the door. On the desk was spread a pile of documents. On top was a draft contract - letter of intent for cooperation between Gu Group education division and Tianxing Kindergarten. I hesitated for a moment, then picked it up and flipped through it.



Underneath the letter of intent was a kraft paper folder. On the cover was pasted a yellow label, hand-written: Su.



I did not hesitate. I opened it directly.



The first page was my photo. At the entrance of Tianxing Chaoyang campus, profile, in the middle of talking to a parent. The shooting date was three months ago. Below the photo, a line of small text: Target contact person. Tianxing Kindergarten teaching supervisor, core contact for daily kindergarten operations.



Teaching supervisor. Not legal representative, not actual controller.



The second page was an analysis of Tianxing's organizational structure. The equity penetration of the three campuses was extremely detailed, but penetrating to the bottom layer was an education consulting company registered in Suzhou. The legal representative's name was not mine - it was my mother's.



At the bottom of the third page was a line of bold annotation: Tianxing actual controller to be verified. Confirmed that Su Qing is not a registered shareholder. Speculated to be a professional principal hired at high salary.



He did not know.



The fourth page was a photo of the cafe. Below it, a line of text: Target person lingers at this location for about half an hour after school every day. Marketing team's first three external research attempts did not make contact. Fourth time, I came in person. Target person actively sat across from me and requested I pretend to be her boyfriend. Identity not yet exposed. Recommend establishing trust relationship. A checkmark was drawn next to it.



The fifth page had a hand-written annotation. The date was the day I broke up: Plan cancelled. The first thing she said to me was "Sir, do me a favor," not "Excuse me, are you President Gu?" She thought I was a stranger. Does not know who I am.



Below that was another line, the ink lighter, written very quickly: Not an acquisition target. No further investigation allowed.



The door opened. Gu Lingfeng walked in carrying two cups of coffee. Seeing the folder in my hand, he stopped.



"I didn't lock the drawer. But I didn't expect - "



"You placed it under that contract draft on top. You did it on purpose." I turned the folder toward him. "Your marketing team staked me out three times. The fourth time, you came personally. In the end, I walked over and sat across from you myself."



He was silent for a few seconds.



"Correct. The first three times were the team doing external reconnaissance. I did not need to go personally. The fourth time you walked over, you said 'Sir, do me a favor.' You didn't call me President Gu. You didn't know who I was." He placed the coffee on the desk. "A girl who had just been dumped, a stranger collected three years of rent for her, and she turned around and didn't talk about feelings first - she asked about salary. I watched from beginning to end in that cafe. When I got back to the office, I stopped the report."



My finger pressed down on that line of hand-written text - Not an acquisition target. No further investigation allowed.



"Su Qing, I did not continue investigating you. But you flipped open this folder yourself today. You now know who I am, why I was sitting in that cafe. The choice is now yours. Walk out that door and pretend we never met. Or stay, and we'll settle the compliance review matter together."



I looked down at the cafe photo in the folder. 4:30 PM, window seat. The lens shot from across the street. Every day I walked from the kindergarten gate to that cafe, pushed the door open, ordered a latte, sat for half an hour. I thought that was the quietest moment of my day.



Someone shot photos from across the street for four afternoons.



"That report of yours wrote that I'm a 'teaching supervisor.' When did you discover that I'm actually the boss?"



"At the old residence banquet. When Auntie asked about your salary, you put down your chopsticks and pressed down on the back of my hand." He picked up the coffee cup, his gaze landing on my face from above the cup rim. "That move was not a teacher stopping her boyfriend. It was a boss stopping someone who was standing up for her."



"Then why didn't you say anything?"



"Waiting for you to tell me. This kind of thing, you have to be the one to say it. You telling me - that's trust. Me finding out myself - that's intelligence. What I want is trust."



I picked up the other cup of coffee. Bitter, but without sugar it was okay.



At 1 AM, my stomach growled. He looked at me, turned off the computer.



Downstairs there was a 24-hour wonton shop. He squatted on the curb holding a bowl, the trouser legs of his suit getting dusty and not caring, eating with slurping noises. Under the streetlight, his face had a touch of human warmth - completely different from the person who slammed tables in the boardroom during the day.



I looked at him and laughed: "President Gu, your image management is lacking."



"Don't call me President Gu." He looked up, a fragment of green onion stuck to the corner of his mouth. "Call me by my name."



"...Lingfeng."



He paused, then lowered his head and continued eating. But I saw his ear tips turn red.



He put down the cup and opened the computer: "Let's talk business. This compliance report isn't just coming for you. The person behind this is buying time. Reporting, fishing for information at the banquet, hearing process - the entire sequence's goal is to drag Tianxing past the board of directors' leadership change. To turn this around, we can't just passively take hits."



On the screen was a supplier list and partial payment records - internal data that the audit team had retrieved earlier. Auntie had pushed from her side to make this happen.



"Three days. You do the data comparison, I'll monitor the audit team's progress. The kindergarten's financial foundation wasn't built for nothing."



He took the coffee and went into the next room. I opened the computer and pulled out the payment records of seven suppliers and arranged them in a column.



When the third row jumped into my eyes, the coffee in my hand nearly spilled.



Chen Li. The legal representative of this consulting company was called Chen Li. Registered for two years, but had taken annual service contracts from the Gu Group education division for three years - one year before the company was even registered.



How did a company that did not yet exist sign a contract?



I traced this company up one layer. The controlling party was registered in the Cayman Islands. When the name of the actual controller surfaced from the shareholder penetration, I stared at the screen for a full five seconds.



Zhao Yuwei.