Seventy-Two Hours

"Out of twenty-three million people, it was enough that one of them was me."

Gu Siyue did not comment on that.

"Falsifying data is commercial fraud. Fines and compensation—it's fundamentally a matter of money." Gu Siyue slowed her pace slightly. "But cross-border data transfers are different. The contact lists and GPS trails of twenty-three million users were sent overseas without security assessments. That crosses red lines under both the Data Security Law and the Personal Information Protection Law. The directly responsible parties face criminal liability—three to seven years. If the downstream data enters fraud rings, add the Crime of Infringing on Citizens' Personal Information on top of that. Multiple crimes, combined punishment."

"Do you know what that means?" She stared at Han Luyi and spoke slowly. "This isn't a commercial scandal. It's a criminal case."

"So I should report it directly to the police?"

"You were right to come to me." Gu Siyue said, "I don't recommend reporting it directly."

"First, a company valued at ten billion won't have simple social connections. Once the report is submitted, there's a time gap at every stage, from acceptance to filing to investigation. Flash's legal team only needs one phone call to shut down the overseas transmission channels and wipe the server logs clean. Your evidence would end up pointing at nothing but air."

"Second, it'll be difficult to keep your identity completely confidential during the reporting process. Flash's lawyers have a hundred legal ways to obtain the whistleblower's information. By then, someone may want to make your life unbearable."

"It should be reported, but not by you." Gu Siyue said, "I'll draft the reports for the Cyberspace Administration, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the cyber police, and submit them under my name as a lawyer. At the same time, we'll go through the media and build momentum through coverage. We'll push both lines together, and you can stay hidden."

Han Luyi nodded.

Gu Siyue began writing in her notebook.

"The plan has three layers." Her pen moved swiftly. "First, an anonymous report. Second, evidence notarization. Your analysis materials need legal validity, then you hand them over to me. Third, a legal firewall. Any contact Flash finds that leads to you will be routed through me."

She raised her eyes to look at Han Luyi.

"Do exactly as I say. They won't find you. If you try to be clever, even I won't be able to save you."

Han Luyi asked, "How do you charge?"

"Two thousand per hour for consultation." Gu Siyue closed her notebook. "I'll package the follow-up work for ten thousand."

Han Luyi had looked into it beforehand. This sort of work generally cost fifty to a hundred thousand. Ten thousand was a massive discount. He quietly opened Sight.

"Fine. We'll do it your way."

Gu Siyue stood and gathered her things. When she reached the door, she paused and added one more sentence.

"You have seventy-two hours."

Han Luyi froze for a moment.

"Flash has a closed-door investor meeting next Tuesday, the final stage of its Series B closing. It would be best to set this off before the meeting." Her tone was serious. "Once this window passes and the Series B financing is completed, the consequences of reporting it will become much harder to control."

Han Luyi did the math. Today was Friday. The closed-door meeting was Tuesday. Seventy-two hours remained.

"Also, do this cleanly. The people behind this company are not simple."

With that, she pushed open the door and left.

Han Luyi stood in the meeting room, turning her final two sentences over in his mind. He had learned far more from this meeting than he had expected.

The countdown had begun.

Day 1

After leaving the law firm, Han Luyi organized his thoughts in his phone's notes app on the subway. Once home, he spent two hours turning his technical analysis of Flash into a twelve-page anonymized report. It contained no non-public information, but the chain of logic was complete and its conclusions clear. Even someone who knew nothing about technology could understand what Flash had been doing.

Once it was finished, he split it into two versions: a full version for regulators and a condensed version for the media.

That afternoon, he went to the notary office.

The staff member's expression changed as they read the report, shifting from a polite smile to blankness, then from blankness to repeatedly flipping back through the pages to confirm what they had read.

"Sir, are you certain this material can be made public?"

"Yes. Everything in it is publicly obtainable information."

Stamp, signature, notarization certificate in hand. The whole process took forty minutes.

After leaving the notary office, Han Luyi made three calls.

The first was to Gu Siyue.

"The notarization is done. When will the report be submitted?"

"Tonight. The anonymous channel has already been arranged. My assistant will contact you."

The second was to Ma Xiaofei.

"I'm reporting Flash. Do you have any media connections?"

The other end went quiet for three seconds. Then Ma Xiaofei's voice switched into a serious mode Han Luyi rarely heard. "You've got something solid?"

"It's already notarized, and all the legal procedures are in place. But it has to be published first by a legitimate media outlet. If a self-media account posts it, Flash's legal department will sue you for defamation."

"I know Old Zhao, an editor at 36 Degrees. I'll contact him today. Old Han, let me tell you, those bastards scammed me out of thirty-two thousand. If this works out..."

"This isn't about settling your personal score. It's about the privacy and security of twenty-three million users."

"Sure, sure, you're noble. But I'll get my revenge on the side."

"Oh, and don't mention me. A lawyer is handling things for me."

The third was to Zhang Haoran.

"Can you help me sort through Flash's financing chain from the financial side? Public information only. I want to see whether the valuation logic holds up."

Two taps of a keyboard came from the other end. "Flash? You're making a move?" Zhang Haoran gave a snort. "I thought there was something off about their growth curve long ago. Give me a day."

All three lines began moving at once.

At nine that evening, Gu Siyue sent him a message: "The report has been submitted. From now on, do not proactively contact any reporters or post on social media. Assume that every word you say to anyone could potentially be collected as evidence."

"Understood."

"'Anyone' includes your two friends."

Han Luyi looked at the message and felt that this lawyer was excessively cautious.

Countdown: 48 hours.

Day 2

At two in the morning, Ma Xiaofei forwarded a message from Old Zhao. After reading the materials, Old Zhao's "voice was shaking," and he kept asking how Ma Xiaofei's lawyer friend had gotten such explosive information. The 36 Degrees editorial team had already begun cross-verification overnight.

But the second message that followed made Han Luyi sit upright.

Old Zhao said Flash's PR department seemed to have caught wind of something. Starting that afternoon, it had been intensively arranging "communications" with industry media, apparently preparing a public-opinion response plan. If they did not speed up, the other side might release a denial first and muddy the waters.

Han Luyi opened the Flash app and activated Sight.

His expression changed.

Flash had quietly pushed a hot update the previous night. The update log said "optimized user experience," but Sight showed clearly that the privacy-data collection channels were being gradually shut down. Three interfaces used to steal user privacy had already been disabled, while the remaining two were being obfuscated.

They were erasing the traces.

His energy dropped by 11 points. Han Luyi shut off Sight and messaged Gu Siyue.

"Flash urgently updated its app last night. They're shutting down the privacy-data export channels. They've started destroying evidence."

Thirty seconds later, Gu Siyue replied with a few words: "Move it up twelve hours."

Han Luyi stared at the message. The original plan had been to publish on Tuesday morning. Now it had to be moved up to Monday night, leaving 36 Degrees half a day less for editorial review.

That afternoon, Zhang Haoran's financial analysis arrived. He had finished it in a single day. Flash's financing chain, equity structure, and fund flows had all been mapped out using public data. The conclusion was clear: the logic behind its Series B valuation rested entirely on inflated data. Once the data collapsed, the valuation would be nothing more than a castle in the air.

The materials from all three lines were ready. All that remained was 36 Degrees' review.

Countdown: 22 hours.

Day 3, Morning.

Han Luyi sent Gu Siyue screenshots comparing Flash's data before and after the emergency update. The act of destroying evidence was itself the best evidence. It was submitted as an additional report through the anonymous channel.

At ten in the morning, Ma Xiaofei received a voice message from Old Zhao. It contained only one sentence: "Internal review passed," followed by a long exhale. A day and a half of cross-verification and supplemental interviews with three anonymous sources had passed. Zhang Haoran's financial analysis was also forwarded by Ma Xiaofei to Old Zhao as supporting material.

At four in the afternoon, a message popped up in the Dorm 404 Group. Four words.

"Eight tonight."

Han Luyi stared at the screen. His neck was so stiff he could barely turn it. Three cups of delivery coffee sat on the desk, each with half a cup left.

Gu Siyue sent one final message: "Ready?"

"Ready."

Han Luyi turned off his phone screen. Outside the window was Haicheng's afternoon sunlight. From next door came the faint sound of Lin Duoduo watching cartoons. Everything was calm.

He got up, intending to lie down and rest his eyes for two hours.

He set his phone alarm for eight.