Stacks of quarterly reports littered the conference table, page after page of dense numbers and projections. Most of the directors barely glanced at them, relying instead on summaries and whispers fed from Han Rui Sheng's camp. But Li Na sat with a pen in hand, marking, circling, cross-checking.
At first, it was overwhelming with a sea of digits and jargon. But she had always been meticulous, always attuned to detail. And tonight, in the quiet of Yen Rui's office while he paced with yet another phone call, she saw it.
"Yen Rui," she said, her voice firm.
He ended the call and turned. "What is it?"
She pushed the reports toward him, her pen tapping the same line on three different sheets. "These numbers don't add up. The Shanghai division's shipping costs jumped by thirty percent in one quarter but the supply routes didn't change. Here, the revenue projections for imports were lowered, but the contracts on file show no such reduction. Someone manipulated this deliberately."
He leaned over the papers, his brow furrowing as he scanned her markings. For a moment, silence. Then his lips pressed into a hard line.
"You're right," he said, low and sharp. "It's sabotage."
Her chest tightened, but she forced her voice steady. "And it's not sloppy. Whoever did this knew you wouldn't catch it quickly because of how scattered the reports were."
His eyes darkened, the fire in them barely restrained. "Han Rui Sheng is bleeding us from the inside. He's feeding false data to sow distrust in my leadership. If the board believes these figures, they'll hand him the company on a silver platter."
Li Na swallowed, then said the words before she could stop herself. "Then we have to show them the truth publicly."
He looked at her, really looked, his gaze heavy and searching. "You would stand in front of them?"
"Yes." She straightened her shoulders. "They'll expect silence from me, maybe fear. If I can dismantle his lies in front of them, if I can prove the numbers are false, it'll give them no choice but to question him instead."
For a heartbeat, the room was still. Then Yen Rui stepped closer, his hand brushing hers as he lowered his voice. "You're braver than half the men in that room."
The heat of his touch, the intensity in his eyes, it shook her more than the numbers ever could.
"Li Na," he said quietly, "you may have just saved this company."
Her breath trembled, but she met his gaze without flinching. "No. *We* will save it. Together."
And in that moment, among the scattered reports and ink-stained pages, she knew the truth: numbers could lie when manipulated, but her choice, her loyalty did not.