Director Fu’s tone was so flat it almost lacked any inflection.

"Guangda’s project leader regularly checks the shared folder, and coincidentally, two days ago was his review date. Once they noticed the cooperative risk, they immediately halted the current partnership and demanded a reassessment."

The boss was visibly stirred.

He finally could no longer just listen passively, took a large step forward and shouted, "Enough with this talk, what’s the result? I just want the result! Can we keep them? Can we catch our company’s mole and take them down?"

"That mole... What’s the gain from doing this? Why would they do this?! He operated illegally, he leaked company secrets!"

Boss Wang made the most direct accusation using his straightforward understanding.

The legal director leaned back slightly, subtly furrowing his brow.

"Boss, this is... very difficult."

"According to current laws, we can’t sue those four clients. As for the mole, even if we catch them, we can’t prosecute them. All their operations, whether it’s sending situational explanation emails, attaching product descriptions, or uploading archived data, theoretically comply with statutory requirements."

"Regarding commercial secrets, according to legal regulations, commercial secrets refer to technical and business information that is not known to the public, has commercial value, and has been subject to appropriate confidentiality measures by the rights holder."

The legal director explained as patiently as possible.

"And the content they disclosed—operation guidelines, product maintenance instructions, requirement lists, adaptation assessment reports—although internal documents of our company, aren’t really presentable, so these documents aren’t clearly marked with confidentiality restrictions such as ’strictly prohibited from disclosing to partners,’ and thus are not considered commercial secrets in the legal sense and naturally do not count as leaking commercial secrets."

...

Director Fu spoke diplomatically.

In the end, the reason the situation escalated to this point is essentially because Tongping Software—namely, Boss Wang himself—didn’t clean up their own mess and let the dirty things spill out.

Keeping things hidden within a project is actually a common latent rule in the industry. To retain clients and facilitate partnerships, deliberately concealing product maintenance issues, adaptation risks, and development cycles isn’t considered a big deal.

As long as the company smoothly goes public and has ample funding and technical support, the company can completely upgrade the product, improve maintenance, and accelerate development to solve these risks one by one. By that time, even if clients find out, they can only accept it begrudgingly.

Even if they don’t accept it, they can terminate their contract at that point and minimize the impact of the issues.

But the problem now is—the minor issues meant to be solved after going public were exposed prematurely.

Seeing the change in the boss’s expressions, Director Fu did not stop himself from continuing his analysis, avoiding soft talk.

"Let’s discuss our four clients."

"Jingcheng and Huatong terminated their partnerships, Xinrui abandoned the tentative contract, and Guangda reevaluated the partnership all based on product issues and their own needs, with legitimate reasons and compliant procedures. We can’t sue them for breach of contract."

"Even if we forcibly sue, we don’t have any evidence proving ’malicious breach of contract.’" Director Fu emphasized the last four words.

"At most, it would be spending some litigation fees, wasting time, causing minor inconveniences, and not achieving the effect you want, Boss."

...

The office remained silent for a long time.

From Nan Zhubin’s perspective, after giving this long string of professional analysis, the legal director, Director Fu, maintained a firm stance like a sailor bracing for the waves and gales at sea.

The other two directors by his side, although with their heads down, also seemed to habitually lean back.

Although Nan Zhubin lacked experience, his abundant professional knowledge let him mimic the two directors’ actions instantly.

Soon after—

"Useless? How could it be useless? As victims, are we just supposed to do nothing?"

Boss Wang’s words contained immense grievance.

"If those proper charges, articles are useless, then think of some other charges to sue them! There are several volumes of laws, surely there’s an appropriate charge! How could there not be?!"

Though not technically proficient in specific legal expertise, Boss Wang had evidently gleaned some insights into the legal realm through analogical reasoning.

"Besides, our contract has been breached! Regardless of before, now they aren’t following the contract, we are the victims, we can’t remain silent!" 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

"We need to adopt a tough stance!"

"If we let four consecutive partners breach contracts without saying a word, how would our other partners view us?"

"How would competitors view us?"

"How would other companies view us?!"

With every sentence Boss Wang spoke, his momentum grew more spirited.

He abruptly turned to the legal Director Fu: "Right now, go reconnect with all those lost clients, do everything possible to win them back; if you can’t, gather all evidence and sue them for breach of contract."

"Even if we don’t get severance pay, we need to display our stance!"

Nan Zhubin felt as though the other party was fantasizing about a very thrilling scene.

Unfortunately, the others within the room lacked the ability for such collective mindset, much less any empathy with the boss.

Nan Zhubin glanced toward the legal director facing Boss Wang, catching the sight of his expression seemingly stifled, unable to exhale.

Meeting the boss’s unflinching gaze, the legal director painfully said, "It can be done, but as I said... it may not be very effective."

"Just do it!" Boss Wang waved grandly.

Thus, the legal department’s tasks were settled, and after the last sentence, the legal director seemed to feel he fulfilled his duty, bowed his head and said nothing.

But Boss Wang had more arrangements.

After assigning tasks to the legal director, he turned toward Chen Lizhou.

"Lizhou... you engage with most of our partners frequently, and it was thanks to you that we could pinpoint where the problem lay."

The boss started with a soft comment, as if commending. But everyone knew this was only a prelude to the main topic.

"But that’s not enough. We need to know who the mole is, who exactly used these tactics to betray the company!"

"You need to inquire more thoroughly, investigate carefully." The boss’s gaze locked onto Chen Lizhou, "I know you’ve had issues at home recently, I understand, I have a family too."

"But you are a veteran in the company, the company is your home too, we are your family."

Although speaking seemingly warm words, Boss Wang’s tone was as hard as a rock: "You need to bear the responsibility during this time and find the mole!"

"Moreover, these operations can only be done by those who usually communicate extensively with clients. Finding the mole would undoubtedly be easier for you than others."

Chen Lizhou lowered his eyes, avoiding direct eye contact with the boss: "Okay."

Truth be told, as the only outsider present, Nan Zhubin didn’t feel the serious atmosphere of "the company facing difficulties" infect him—though Nan Zhubin thought none of the other three directors did either.

Nan Zhubin even subtly admired the "mole" for a moment internally, whose tactics were remarkably clever, managing to strike the company while distancing oneself securely.