The invoice listed a "Supporting Process Service Fee."
The amount was 15% of the total procurement value over the past three months.
Li Qin was stunned.
’What "Supporting Process Service Fee"?’ She’d scoured every purchase contract and account statement on hand but couldn’t find any such item.
She hurried to call Shengda, but their reply was strictly by the book.
"This is stipulated in the contract terms. We advise your company to review it carefully."
Li Qin pulled out the contract to look at it again.
It was nowhere to be found in the main body of the contract.
But there, in the footer of the contract’s final page, was a supplementary clause printed in a tiny font:
"This supply batch includes a Supporting Process Service Fee, to be collected at a rate of 15% of the goods’ value and settled within the same payment period."
When Li Qin saw that line of text, her blood ran cold.
She didn’t remember that line being there when she signed the contract.
But the contract was indeed stamped with East Asia’s official seal.
She couldn’t be sure.
To make matters worse, Huaxuan Technology’s mid-term audit of East Asia was fast approaching.
This "accounts payable" that had appeared out of nowhere created a direct discrepancy between East Asia’s procurement ledger and its detailed accounts payable records.
East Asia had already paid the standard amount for the goods that month, but Shengda had unilaterally applied the funds to the so-called "service fee" first, and then issued a *Notice of Overdue Payment*.
On paper, it looked like East Asia had both a records discrepancy and a history of late payments.
And Huaxuan Technology had very clear "red lines" when it came to the financial compliance of its core supply chain partners.
If that red line was crossed...
Li Qin panicked.
She didn’t dare tell Li Yang.
Li Yang was in the middle of training at Huaxuan. If he found out about the trouble at home, the distraction could affect his progress, and all his hard work would go down the drain.
She couldn’t bring herself to tell Li Dong, either.
’In her mind, no matter how capable Li Dong was, he was still just a student. How could she let her child worry about something like this?’
So, she shouldered the burden alone.
First, she tried to negotiate with Shengda, but they just stalled. After half a month of going through official channels, she still hadn’t received a clear answer.
Then, she made a trip to Shengda’s office in the Capital City, hoping to clear things up in person.
In the end, she never even got to see the person in charge.
After waiting all morning, she was politely shown the door by a secretary.
Li Dong was silent for a long moment after she finished.
Then he took a deep breath.
"Mom, you should have told me sooner. Look at you... you’ve lost weight from all the stress."
Li Dong was echoing the words Li Qin had said to him at the airport.
"You’re just a student," Li Qin retorted stubbornly.
"Hmph."
Li Dong immediately bristled.
"A student?"
"What kind of student gets featured on CTV?"
"What kind of student has a room full of professors listening to *him* lecture?"
He grew more animated with each word, his voice rising in volume.
"Mom, do you have any idea who was sitting in Sunshine Hall that day? A Fields Medal laureate! Academicians! The world’s top mathematicians! And they all had to listen to *me*!"
To be honest, Li Dong was getting a little carried away.
This was the first time he’d ever felt like he was the one lecturing his own mom.
’That feeling...’
’...was awesome.’
’Incredibly awesome.’
Back home, his mom was always the one scolding him.
Now the tables had turned.
By the time Li Dong was repeating himself for the third time, Li Qin had had enough.
She shot to her feet with a glare.
Li Dong’s mouth snapped shut, and he instinctively took a step back.
"You’ve said plenty," Li Qin stated, enunciating every syllable.
"Stay out of it. I’ll solve this myself."
’Solve it herself?’
Li Dong had to bite back a laugh.
’If you could solve it, would you have needed to come all the way to the Capital City? You couldn’t even get past their front door.’
But he didn’t dare say that out loud.
He sighed and pointed to the documents in Li Qin’s hands.
"Let me see the rest of it too."
Li Qin was about to say, ’You’re just a kid, don’t get involved.’
But then an image flashed through her mind: Li Dong on stage, facing an auditorium full of top scholars, speaking with confidence and ease.
The boy she used to nag for half a month just for scoring an 87 on a test had, at some point, become... that person.
Li Qin fell silent for a moment, then pushed the document folder toward him.
Li Dong opened the folder’s clasp and emptied its contents onto the table.
Purchase contracts, account statements, bank transaction records, VAT invoices, Shengda’s *Notice of Overdue Payment*, East Asia’s detailed accounts payable ledger...
A dozen or so documents lay scattered across the entire table.
Li Dong instantly activated his Memory Palace.
A vast, empty hall materialized in his mind, its four walls lined with countless filing cabinets. Every drawer bore a blank label, waiting to be filled.
Li Dong picked up the purchase contract, his eyes sweeping rapidly over every line.
Simultaneously, within his Memory Palace, a complete copy of the contract was filed away in the top drawer of the first cabinet.
The label read: [Original Contract: Shengda vs. East Asia – Batches One through Three].
Next came the account statements.
The bank transaction records.
The VAT invoices.
The overdue payment notice.
Every document he scanned was automatically dismantled, categorized, and archived within the Memory Palace.
Correlations between figures were highlighted with red connecting lines.
The timeline was arranged along a long, horizontal axis, with a small flag marking each key event.
Discrepancies lit up like yellow warning lights.
As for the line of fine print hidden in the contract’s footer, it was isolated inside a locked glass case within the Memory Palace. Its label read:
[Questionable – Verification Required]
The whole process took less than five minutes.
Li Qin watched from the side, growing anxious as he flipped through the pages with incredible speed.

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