10 p.m., West Coast time.
California, Palo Alto, the top-floor suite of the Rosewood Hotel.
Outside the window was Silicon Valley's iconic nightscape.
In the distance, traffic on Highway 101 streamed endlessly, stretching into the darkness like bands of light.
The campuses of Google, Apple, and Meta glowed a cool white in the night.
The temperature in the suite was pleasant.
Secretary Jin was dressed in loungewear, her thick chestnut hair loosely twisted into a bun, her whole body lazily sunk into the broad sofa. She wore a pair of gold-wire half-rim glasses and was listening intently to an English business podcast.
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She had flown straight from Europe to the West Coast, and the dozen-plus-hour long-haul flight had left a faint weariness between her brows.
On top of that, because of the time difference, she felt no sleepiness at all right now.
Her schedule for the next few days was still packed tight.
This trip to Silicon Valley was a routine quarterly inspection.
Only this year, the pace was a little more urgent than in previous years.
The reason was simple.
For this year's Spring Festival, she was going to give herself a short vacation.
To Jing County.
So before that, she had to finish all the work in her hands.
Thinking of Jing County, thinking of that family in that small city.
A faint smile appeared at the corner of her mouth, and even her attention drifted away from the business analysis in the podcast.
"Knock, knock."
A gentle knock sounded at the door.
"Come in."
International affairs assistant Sarah walked in quickly, holding an encrypted tablet, her expression carrying a trace of gravity. "Director Jin, we just received an internal motion from the Family Office Secretariat. Mr. Tang initiated it personally."
Secretary Jin lifted her