THE LATE NIGHT WARNING
773 Words
The elevator doors slid open into the brightly lit lobby of Hengsheng Tower.
Lin Wei stepped out, adjusting the strap of her handbag as she walked across the polished marble floor. The security guards at the reception desk nodded politely, and she returned a faint smile before passing through the revolving doors.
Outside, Jianghai City was alive.
Neon signs painted the wet streets with streaks of red and blue. Office workers hurried toward the metro station, while luxury cars rolled silently through the financial district. To everyone around her, it was just another weekday evening.
To Lin Wei, something felt different.
She couldn't explain it, but the duplicate transactions kept replaying in her mind.
Forty-two million yuan.
Two companies.
One invoice.
The numbers simply refused to make sense.
She reached the metro entrance when her phone vibrated.
An unfamiliar number flashed across the screen.
She hesitated before answering.
"Hello?"
Silence.
Only a faint crackling sound.
"Who's calling?"
Three seconds passed before a calm, mechanical voice spoke.
"Some files are meant to remain buried, Auditor Lin."
She froze.
"Who is this?"
"The Seaborn Trading records have already been reviewed by the appropriate people."
Lin Wei's eyes widened.
"How do you know what I was working on?"
The voice ignored the question.
"You are a talented auditor. Continue with equipment depreciation and logistics reports. Leave offshore transactions alone."
Her heartbeat quickened.
"Are you threatening me?"
"No."
A brief pause followed.
"I'm warning you."
The line went dead.
Lin Wei stared at her phone.
The number had already disappeared from the call history.
She searched again.
Nothing.
It was as if the call had never happened.
A chill ran down her spine.
Someone had known exactly what she had accessed inside Hengsheng Tower.
Someone had contacted her less than fifteen minutes after she left the building.
She looked around the crowded plaza.
Businessmen.
Students.
Street vendors.
A cyclist waiting for the traffic light.
Anyone could have been watching.
Trying to remain calm, Lin Wei entered the metro station and boarded the next train.
Throughout the twenty-minute journey, she couldn't shake the feeling that someone was observing her.
Each time the train stopped, she caught herself scanning the reflections in the windows.
A man reading a newspaper.
A woman speaking quietly into her headset.
Nothing unusual.
Yet the feeling remained.
When she finally reached her apartment in the older district of Jianghai, it was almost nine o'clock.
She locked the door behind her, drew the curtains, and placed the encrypted USB drive on the dining table.
After making herself a cup of tea, she opened her personal laptop.
Instead of connecting to the company network, she searched public corporate records for Seaborn Trading.
Very little appeared.
The company existed on paper but had almost no public presence.
Its listed office address led to a commercial registration service in the Marshall Islands that hosted hundreds of businesses.
Its directors were hidden behind nominee registrations.
Everything about it felt designed to conceal ownership.
She then searched for Apex Digital Systems.
Unlike Seaborn, Apex had employees, contracts, tax records, and years of operating history.
It was a real company.
Which raised an even bigger question.
Why had both companies received payment for the same invoice?
A soft notification appeared on her laptop.
A news article.
Hengsheng Group Announces Record Annual Profits.
The accompanying photograph showed Chairman Lu Zhenhua smiling confidently as he shook hands with city officials.
Lin Wei studied his face.
He looked composed.
Successful.
Untouchable.
Could a man who built one of China's largest corporations truly be connected to fraudulent payments?
Or was someone inside the company manipulating the accounts without his knowledge?
She closed the article.
There wasn't enough evidence to accuse anyone.
Not yet.
Tomorrow morning she would quietly verify the physical authorization vouchers stored in the archive.
If the signatures matched the digital records, she would report everything through official channels.
If they didn't...
She didn't allow herself to finish the thought.
Before going to bed, she removed the USB drive from the table and hid it inside a small compartment beneath a loose floorboard in her bedroom.
Only then did she switch off the lights.
Outside, rain began falling over Jianghai.
Across the street, a black sedani sat with its headlights off.
A man inside lowered a pair of binoculars.
He spoke into a small encrypted radio.
"Subject has secured a backup copy."
A brief pause followed before a voice answered.
"Understood."
"Maintain surveillance."
"Do not engage."
The engine started quietly.
Moments later, the sedan disappeared into the rainy streets, leaving Lin Wei unaware that her ordinary life had already become someone else's operation.
- Writer
