I didn't look at the names as people. I looked at them as structural loads.
The Qin Group's secondary ledger was a spiderweb of digital receipts. Every payout was a thread. To start a purge that would distract the Ministry, I had to cut a thread thick enough to cause a collapse, but thin enough that the rubble wouldn't bury us first.
Lu Sheng stood by the kitchenette, cleaning a serrated blade with a slow, rhythmic stroke. The sound of steel on cloth was the only clock in the room.
"Make a choice, Lin Xiao," he said. "The Ministry's morning briefing starts in four hours. Song needs a gift before he drinks his coffee."
"I'm looking for a specific signature," I said. My eyes scanned the scrolling data. "If I give them a mid-level manager, it's a waste. If I give them the Chairman's brother, the city goes into lockdown and we're trapped in the hotel."
I stopped at an entry from three months ago.
[PAYMENT ID: 099-X // BENEFICIARY: ZHOU, M. // AMOUNT: 4,500,000 // SOURCE: LOTTERY RESERVE]
"Zhou Min," I whispered. "The Director of Public Works."
Lu Sheng's blade stopped moving. He didn't turn around. "He's the one who signed off on the Substation 04 blueprints. He's the reason the grid had a back-door for your blackout."
"Exactly. He's not just a recipient; he's an architect of the mess we're in. If I expose him, it doesn't just look like a payout. It looks like a conspiracy to commit domestic terrorism. Song won't just arrest him. He'll mobilize every agent in the district to find out who else was on the payroll."
"And the distraction?"
"Zhou is popular," I said, my fingers hovering over the 'Confirm' key. "The moment the Ministry drags him out of his home in handcuffs, the legal fight will paralyze the District Office. The Ministry's surveillance teams will be split between the Hyatt and the courthouse."
I looked at the data one last time. There was a note attached to the payout: Tuition for daughter, London. I was about to destroy a family to buy back the life of a woman I'd never met.
"Do it," Lu Sheng said. He hadn't moved. He just waited.
I hit the key.
The file didn't just upload; it dissolved into the Ministry's secure drop-box. Within seconds, a confirmation notification appeared on my screen.
[DATA VERIFIED. AGENTS DISPATCHED.]
I closed the laptop. My vision was blurry from the blue light, but my mind was a sharp, clinical void.
"It's done," I said.
Lu Sheng finally turned. He looked at me, then at the laptop. There was no praise. He just sheathed the knife and walked toward the door.
"The clock is at sixty-eight hours," he said. "Get some sleep, Lin Xiao. Tomorrow, you'll have to decide which of his friends is next."
He didn't wait for an answer. He stepped out into the hallway to resume his post, leaving me in the dark with the ghost of a man I'd never met and the weight of a city that was about to wake up to a nightmare.