Two days of suffocating tension passed. Inside the M&A war room, the continuous, rapid clicking of keyboards filled the air. Adisorn was scanning through a batch of newly digitized documents when Jingyi approached his desk, holding a thick sheaf of papers.
"Mr. Mark Rim... I’ve uncovered a highly significant irregularity," Jingyi said, placing the financial ledgers directly before him.
Adisorn shifted his gaze away from the data graphs on his monitor, turning his attention to the auditor’s findings. "What kind of irregularity?"
"In KCC’s expense accounts," she explained, pointing to a specific line item. "There is a highly suspicious account labeled as ‘Special Activity Project Advisory Fees.’ According to our preliminary audit, this expense is recorded every single time KCC launches a regional initiative." She handed him the breakdown. "Furthermore, these funds were systematically wired to a company named Feiyuan Asset. When I cross-checked their corporate registration, they were listed as a consultancy firm. However, when we sent a team to verify their physical headquarters, we discovered nothing but an abandoned, derelict building. The company doesn't actually exist."
"And who authorized the payouts for these individual initiatives?" Adisorn inquired, his eyes meticulously tracing the digits.
"Zhou Miling, the President of KCC herself," Jingyi said, her index finger tapping the signature on the document.
"Per corporate bylaws, a subsidiary President has the absolute authority to directly approve emergency expenditures under 800,000 Yuan. This created a perfect loophole. She intentionally structured a massive, singular budget into dozens of minor, fragmented invoices wiring them repeatedly, once or twice a month, to bypass board scrutiny. Individually, the numbers look trivial. But when aggregated over several consecutive years... it amounts to an astronomical pool of siphoned cash."
Adisorn fell silent for a brief moment. He flipped through every document tied to the account before setting them down with deliberate slowness.
The fragile, defenseless woman who supposedly possessed an unblemished record and loved the organization more than her own life... turned out to be nothing more than a carefully fabricated facade.
{"hr":true}
Flashback to that evening…
After his initial meeting with President Miling, Adisorn had headed straight for the parking lot, only for Tum to sprint intercepting his path.
"Mr. Sorn! Are you absolutely certain about choosing Ms. Miling to initiate our opening gambit?" Tum had asked, his face etched with grim seriousness.
The corner of Adisorn's mouth twitched into a microscopic smirk. "Yes. Is there a problem?"
"You might be placing your bets on the wrong person," Tum said, holding Adisorn’s gaze with absolute intensity. "When you were speaking with her, I saw a highly untrustworthy aura. I think we might have misjudged her entirely."
Adisorn listened intently, then offered a slow, knowing nod. "I know..." his faint smile left Tum frowning in confusion.
"How could you possibly know?" Tum wondered. Adisorn didn’t possess the mystical vision he did, yet the strategist’s analytical prowess seemed no different from possessing a clairvoyant eye.
Adisorn’s smile widened. The ruthless experiences he had accumulated trampling over others to ascend to the absolute apex of the corporate food chain functioned as his own demonic eyes. They allowed him to see right through individuals of his own kind.
"A person who clawed their way up to become the President of a CK Group subsidiary cannot possibly be a blank sheet of white cloth,Mr. Tum. If she were truly that weak, those corporate vultures would have torn her to shreds and picked her bones clean long ago," Adisorn stated, his lips curling with malicious insinuation. "But thank you, Mr. Tum, for confirming that my analysis was spot-on." He flashed a cunning grin.
{"hr":true}
Back in the present, Adisorn stared at the documents on his desk with deep, calculating eyes. His slender fingers tapped a rhythmic, steady beat against the paper.
"Just filth swept under the rug," he murmured flatly. Jingyi blinked in surprise.
"She obviously foresaw that a day of reckoning would come, so she quietly embezzled these funds through phantom projects over time." Adisorn flipped through the various initiatives that had sprouted up like mushrooms after rain. "Instead of launching a massive, high-profile project, she fractured them into micro-initiatives that could be approved under a president's direct spending limit, entirely bypassing the CFO."
Adisorn narrowed his eyes, a brilliant, dangerous glint flashing within them. "President Miling is far from the tragic victim we assumed her to be..."
He gathered the documents into a neat stack. "์Ms. Jingyi, keep this matter strictly confidential. Do not leak this to a soul... I believe this data will serve a grander purpose for us." He offered a smile laced with dark intent.
A secret was no different from a leash hooked to a nose ring. When the time was right to deploy it, he would simply yank the chain, forcing every player to dance to the exact rhythm of his game.