Under the dim light of a high ceiling, the expansive office of Lu Rong—the CFO wielding the iron scepter of CK Group's finances—was blanketed in a suffocating silence. He leaned back in his high-backed leather chair, his eyes as sharp as a hawk's watching its prey, fixed on a tablet displaying the progress report of the M&A team.
He knew well that Adisorn's speed was a gathering storm, poised to level his stronghold. If the M&A team managed to strip away the filth hidden beneath these complex accounts, the massive leverage he had gambled his future on would turn into nothing more than worthless scraps of paper.
"I will not lose... especially not to an outsider walking into my house," Lu Rong murmured to himself.
He picked up the internal line, his long, slender fingers dialing a direct extension to Sui Mei, the Senior Accounting Manager who had been loyal to him for over a decade.
"Mrs. Sui Mei... I hear the M&A team has started requesting deep-dive data, is that correct?" His voice was flat, yet laced with a pressure that forced the person on the other end to take a sharp breath.
"Yes, sir," Sui Mei replied with a hint of anxiety. "They've requested five years of transaction logs, including all supplier contracts valued over $5 million, by this morning. They are also demanding full access to the Master Data."
A cold smile tugged at the corner of Lu Rong's mouth. He tapped his index finger on the black wooden desk in a slow, rhythmic beat. "Good... as hosts, we must show our hospitality. Cooperate with them fully. Do not let even the slightest detail be missing."
He paused, his eyes gleaming with the cunning of a fox. "But our cooperation must fall under our strict security protocols. All documents... are to be delivered in Hard Copy only. Absolute prohibition on digital files. Cite it as a policy to prevent the theft of sensitive data. And every set of documents must pass through the warehouse approval process in sequence... which, as you know, for five years of records, is a monumental volume."
"And what about the Cloud system, sir?"
Lu Rong let out a soft, low chuckle. "Ah... as for that, have the IT team monitor their every access. Limit their bandwidth to the absolute minimum... Do everything strictly by the book, Sui Mei."
When Adisorn pushed open the door to the operations war room, he was met with a scene that looked like a defeated battlefield. Hundreds of brown cardboard boxes were stacked in towering piles that nearly reached the ceiling. The air was thick with the suffocating smell of ink and old paper. Thick binders were scattered everywhere, leaving barely any room to walk.
Jing Yi looked up from a mountain of paper. Her once radiant face was now pale, her eyes dark with exhaustion from lack of sleep. She stared at the documents before her with eyes full of resentment.
"Mr. Markrim... we have a massive problem," her voice was raspy as she threw her pen onto the desk in frustration.
Adisorn stood still, his gaze sweeping over the mountain of paper with a calm expression. However, his eyes reflected a chessboard moving exactly as he had anticipated. "It seems bureaucratic nonsense... is the last weapon they have left."
"They sent five years of records entirely on paper! And they're randomly sorted in these boxes!" Jing Yi exploded. "We've wasted two full days just sorting them, and we haven't even started analyzing the numbers!"
Jia Rui, who was losing his temper with a document scanner, added with mounting frustration, "It's not just the paperwork, sir. Digital access is nearly impossible. Their IT team has capped our download speed at a crawl. I tried to pull a vendor contract for audit, and the system claimed it would take 48 hours for a single file—all while citing 'maximum security.' We're practically paralyzed."
"If it continues like this... there's no way we'll finish in two weeks," Jing Yi sighed deeply. "This is blatant sabotage."
Adisorn slowly removed his suit jacket, draping it carefully over the back of his chair. He unbuttoned one cufflink, revealing the steady pulse in his wrist. He picked up a sheet of paper, scanned it briefly, and set it back on the desk. A thin, icy smile appeared on his face, but his eyes burned with the fire of a challenge.
"The CFO's plan, I presume..." Adisorn said, his voice low and resonant. His three team members fell silent, their eyes fixed on their leader. "Since he wants to use the rules to strangle us... we simply have to do what demons do."
He paused for a moment before leaning over the desk, his gaze filled with a complex and profound scheme.
"Since he wants us to play the role of rule-followers, I will make his attempt to buy time become the very blade that stabs him in the neck... Get ready. I am going to step on those ridiculous rules—and crush them out of our way myself!"