University President Gu took his seat in the center of the first row inside the Centennial Grand Auditorium, flanked by three senior inspectors from the Ministry of Education as five thousand spectators packed the tiered hall to capacity.
The sixty-eight-year-old president was known across the province for his incorruptible integrity, having spent forty years defending academic freedom. Behind him sat rows of prominent alumni, corporate partners, faculty members, and thousands of students facing a grand brass podium and a forty-foot LED display wall.
Vice-Dean Ma stepped up to the podium, adjusting the wireless microphone with a triumphant grin. His cashmere suit had been hastily brushed, though a faint coffee stain still lingered near his cuff from the incident outside the library.
“Distinguished President Gu, honored inspectors, and cherished alumni,” Vice-Dean Ma announced, his voice booming through the auditorium’s surround-sound system. “Today, as we commemorate one hundred years of academic excellence, our university receives its greatest corporate blessing!”
Vice-Dean Ma raised his hands toward the backstage curtains, his eyes gleaming with dramatic flair.
“Behold Young Master Zhao Kai and Miss Liu Yan’s generous ten-million-yuan alumni endowment!” Vice-Dean Ma shouted. “Unlike certain broke graduates who only know how to stir up trouble in the mud, Zhao Technology Holdings is investing real wealth into our future!”
Loud, polite applause rippled through the front rows, where several corporate donors sat.
The velvet stage curtains parted. Zhao Kai and Liu Yan walked out under the dazzling stage lights.
Liu Yan held one side of a six-foot gilded foam check, her backless crimson gown sparkling with rhinestones. She threw bright smiles toward forty television cameras, waving like a beauty queen. Around her neck, the diamond choker glittered under the television spots.
Beside her, Zhao Kai held the other end of the giant foam board. The gold-embossed lettering read: Pay to the Order of Jiangcheng University: Ten Million Yuan Only (¥10,000,000.00).
Zhao Kai stepped up to the microphone, adjusting his gold-rimmed glasses with an oily smirk.
“President Gu, fellow alumni,” Zhao Kai said smoothly into the microphone. “My family believes that true innovation requires corporate vision. This ten-million-yuan endowment will establish the Zhao Science and Graphene Research Center. Under my personal direction, our company will commercialize campus laboratory discoveries and guide young scholars into profitable enterprise.”
Liu Yan leaned in, purring into the second microphone. “True success is about high-society responsibility! Young Master Zhao and I believe in lifting Jiangcheng University to the global stage! We will ensure only cooperative, obedient scholars receive our research stipends!”
In the front row, President Gu listened with a calm, stoic expression, his hands resting on his knees. His sharp eyes studied the giant foam board with noticeable coolness.
Suddenly, footsteps echoed from the stage ramp.
Lin Mo strolled calmly onto the platform, wearing his clean white shirt and dark trousers. Beside him walked Su Wan, dressed in a sharp charcoal business suit, carrying a sleek matte-black electronic device.
The auditorium fell quiet. Murmurs broke out across the five thousand spectators.
Vice-Dean Ma’s face darkened with anger. He stepped away from the podium and pointed an accusatory finger at Lin Mo.
“Lin Mo!” Vice-Dean Ma hissed, trying to keep his voice low. “How dare you walk onto this stage during an official state broadcast?! Security, remove this intruder immediately!”
Four campus security guards moved toward the stairs, but Tie Niu and six Iron Guard veterans stood like iron statues at the base of the ramp, blocking their path with cold, unyielding stares.
Lin Mo ignored Vice-Dean Ma completely. He walked to the center of the stage and placed the matte-black device onto the podium right next to the microphone.
The device was the Taichu Live-Settlement and Morality POS Terminal, glowing with a steady emerald light.
Lin Mo looked down at President Gu in the front row, offering a respectful nod.
“President Gu,” Lin Mo spoke in a clear, measured voice that reached every corner of the vast hall. “In modern finance, pledged foam boards don’t buy electron microscopes. And printed cardboard checks cannot feed graduate students.”
The five thousand students in the upper tiers leaned forward, listening intently.
“Young Master Zhao Kai has made speeches about this ten-million-yuan gift for three weeks,” Lin Mo continued with deadpan humor. “Yet according to university donation ledgers, not a single cent has ever entered the school’s bank account. Since all five thousand of us are here, let us swipe Young Master Zhao’s corporate card in real time.”
A wave of laughter and whispers swept through the student sections.
Zhao Kai’s smile stiffened. His fingers gripped the edge of the foam board until the cardboard dented.
“Lin Mo, you insolent clown!” Zhao Kai snapped through clenched teeth. “This is a ceremonial endowment presentation! Corporate wire transfers of this magnitude require three weeks of board approval and multi-stage accounting audits!”
“Three weeks of board approval?” Su Wan said, stepping forward with her tablet. “Young Master Zhao, your personal press release issued two hours ago claimed that the entire ten million yuan had already been deposited in liquid cash. Were you lying to the municipal press, or are you lying to President Gu right now?”
The three Ministry of Education inspectors leaned forward, their brows furrowing with deep skepticism. One inspector began taking furious notes on an official government form.
President Gu stood up slowly from his seat in the first row. His sharp eyes bore into Zhao Kai like an eagle locking onto prey.
“Young Master Zhao,” President Gu said, his deep voice carrying natural authority. “If Zhao Technology has already allocated these funds, a real-time verification should present no difficulty. Our university laboratory accounts are equipped for instant merchant settlement.”
Up in the student balconies, a single voice cried out: “Swipe the card!”
Within three seconds, a second student joined in: “Swipe the card!”
Then, like a rolling thunderstorm, five thousand students and honest alumni began to chant in unison, their voices pounding against the ceiling:
“Swipe the card! Swipe the card! Swipe the card!”
The chanting shook the auditorium. Students banged their water bottles against the armrests, their eyes blazing with excitement. Hundreds of smartphone cameras focused directly on Zhao Kai’s face.
Liu Yan’s face began to pale. She tugged at Zhao Kai’s velvet sleeve, her voice trembling. “Kai... what are they doing? Can’t you just tell them your accountant is out of the country?!”
Zhao Kai felt a cold bead of sweat roll down the back of his neck.
Five thousand pairs of eyes were staring at him. Three state inspectors were watching his every move. If he refused to swipe now, his public reputation and his family’s corporate credibility would be destroyed on live television.
Damn it, Zhao Kai cursed silently. This POS terminal is probably just a standard bank reader. Even if the transfer fails, it will just show a network timeout or a daily merchant limit. I can blame the bank’s firewall!
Zhao Kai forced a cold, condescending smirk onto his face.
“Fine!” Zhao Kai barked into the microphone. “If Chairman Lin wants a demonstration of real corporate wealth, I will gladly educate him! Watch closely, broke delivery boy!”
Zhao Kai reached into his velvet breast pocket and pulled out a sleek titanium-alloy corporate black card.
He walked over to the podium, lifted the card high in the air for the television cameras, and tapped it firmly against the emerald sensor of the Taichu POS Terminal.
BEEP.
For two seconds, absolute silence gripped the 5,000-seat auditorium.
Then, the Taichu terminal detonated.
WHEEE-OOO! WHEEE-OOO! WHEEE-OOO!
A pair of bright crimson emergency strobe lights on the terminal began spinning wildly, bathing the stage in bloody red flashes.
The forty-foot LED display wall behind the podium instantly turned bright crimson. In giant, flashing yellow font, the terminal projected the real-time financial diagnostic for everyone to see.
Simultaneously, the auditorium’s surround-sound speaker array roared at a deafening 120 decibels:
[FRAUDULENT PR CHECK DETECTED!]
[CARD HOLDER: ZHAO KAI / ZHAO TECHNOLOGY HOLDINGS.]
[REQUESTED DONATION: ¥10,000,000.00 RMB.]
[ACTUAL LIQUID CARD BALANCE: ¥12,400.00 RMB!]
[TOTAL DEFICIT: ¥9,987,600.00 RMB!]
[ZERO FUNDS TRANSFERRED!]
[SYSTEM MORALITY AUDIT: DONOR ZHAO KAI (GOODNESS: 9/100) & LIU YAN (GOODNESS: 14/100) ATTEMPTED TO FAKE A ¥10,000,000.00 PLEDGE TO DEFRAUD TAX DEDUCTIONS, MANIPULATE STOCK PRICES, AND EXTORT STUDENT PATENTS!]
The electronic voice blasted through the stadium like a sonic boom.
The number flashed on the forty-foot screen in pulsing crimson letters:
[BALANCE: ¥12,400.00 RMB]
Silence hung over the hall for exactly one second.
Then, the five thousand spectators exploded into absolute, uncontrollable roar of laughter.
“Twelve thousand four hundred yuan?!” a student shouted from the balcony, laughing so hard he fell out of his seat. “The billionaire heir has twelve thousand yuan to his name?!”
“Twelve thousand yuan!” another alumnus roared, slapping his knee. “He pledged ten million on a giant foam board and his card only has twelve thousand four hundred! My credit card limit is higher than that!”
“Fraud! Shameless fraud!”
Laughter, catcalls, and mocking whistles shook the auditorium like an earthquake. Hundreds of students held up their smartphones, capturing the glowing red screen with Zhao Kai’s frozen face standing right beside the twelve-thousand-yuan balance.
Across social media platforms, clips of the detonated balance spread like wildfire. Comments flooded in by the tens of thousands: “Young Master Twelve Thousand!” “Fake checks on live television!” “Zhao Technology has no cash!”
Liu Yan shrieked in horror. Her diamond pendant bounced against her bare chest as she stepped backward, tripping over her long crimson train and tumbling hard onto the wooden stage floor.
“Twelve thousand... Kai, you told me your card had fifty million!” Liu Yan wailed on stage, her microphone broadcasting her panicked shriek to every television viewer in the province. “You lied to me! You don’t have ten million!”
Zhao Kai’s face turned from pale white to bright crimson, then to a sickly shade of green.
His knees shook violently. His mouth opened and closed like a dying carp, unable to form a single coherent sentence.
“This... this is impossible!” Zhao Kai screamed into the dead silence of the stage, his voice cracking hysterically. “My father’s company has thirty billion in assets! That machine is hacked! Lin Mo, you hacked the bank network! You forged my balance!”
Vice-Dean Ma stood beside the podium, clutching his chest. His round eyes bulged in pure terror as he looked down at President Gu and the Ministry of Education inspectors.
President Gu slowly rose to his feet.
The elderly university president did not smile. His face was carved from granite, his eyes filled with icy, unyielding fury.
“Young Master Zhao Kai,” President Gu’s voice rang out like thunder across the hall, instantly silencing the five thousand spectators. “You brought a six-foot cardboard check onto this sacred academic stage to deceive our students, defraud our faculty, and steal national patents with twelve thousand yuan in your bank account.”
President Gu turned his piercing gaze onto Vice-Dean Ma.
“And you, Vice-Dean Ma,” President Gu said, each word hitting like a hammer. “You attempted to evict our most dedicated researchers and sell our university’s honor for a fraudulent twelve-thousand-yuan playboy. You are an absolute disgrace to this institution.”
Vice-Dean Ma collapsed onto his knees on the wooden stage, his hands clawing at the podium as tears of terror streamed down his flabby cheeks.
“President Gu... hear me out!” Vice-Dean Ma begged, his voice trembling. “I was misled! Young Master Zhao promised—”
“Save your explanations for the judicial police, Ma Guoliang,” Lin Mo interrupted in a calm, deadpan voice.
Lin Mo stepped up to the podium, reached into his coat pocket, and pulled out his matte Black-Gold Card.
“Now that Young Master Zhao’s twelve-thousand-yuan circus is over,” Lin Mo said, looking down at President Gu with a faint smile. “Allow Taichu Group to show this university what real financial support looks like.”
Lin Mo held the Black-Gold Card above the emerald terminal.
Zhao Kai scrambled to his feet, screaming into the open air: “That machine is rigged! Nobody can transfer fifty million in liquid cash without a board meeting!”
Lin Mo tapped the card against the scanner.