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墨書 Inktalez
As I left the hotel, I encountered the man with glasses who had been thrown out. He was smoking by the roadside, looking quite frustrated.
"Mind if we chat?" I offered him a cigarette. "I think you asked a good question earlier."
He eyed me warily. "Who are you?"
I lowered my voice. "Someone who wants to know the truth."
After a moment of hesitation, he pulled out a business card. "Let's talk in detail another day."
My heart raced as I looked at the card—he was a researcher at the National Key Laboratory.
Back at the newspaper office, I immediately called Old Ma. "Help me look into companies that have gone bankrupt or are struggling in the past six months, especially those under pressure from environmental regulations."
After hanging up, I opened my notebook and wrote down my findings from today. The lights outside were just beginning to twinkle, but I knew there were greater secrets hidden in the darkness. This was only the beginning of my investigation.
The business card from the lab researcher felt heavy in my hand. Li Wanqing, Deputy Director of the National Key Laboratory of New Energy Materials. We agreed to meet at a secluded teahouse, and he chose a private room deep inside.
"I know Oasis Environmental is up to something, but I can't find a breakthrough," Li Wanqing poured himself a cup of tea, his hands trembling slightly. "Their technology is pure nonsense, yet they've managed to deceive a large number of people."
"Even passing the review at the Ministry of Environmental Protection?"
Li Wanqing scoffed. "They never even went to the Ministry for approval; they used overseas testing reports. To put it bluntly, it's just a certificate issued by a shell company."
I pulled out the interview materials from a couple of days ago: "Is their carbon capture technology really as miraculous as they claim?"
"Carbon capture?" Li Wanqing adjusted her glasses. "You should check on the companies that bought the equipment. What’s their situation now? Those devices consume a massive amount of electricity. Even if they can capture carbon dioxide, the overall energy consumption far exceeds the reduction in emissions."
I recalled Xu, the General Manager's experience, and couldn't help but gasp. Wasn't this just a perfect trap? Companies spent a fortune on equipment to meet environmental standards, only to find it ineffective and exacerbating their problems due to high energy consumption. The more desperate they became, the more eager they were to find a way out, falling right into their next trap.
"The most infuriating part is that they actually published a soft article in Nature." Li Wanqing pulled out a magazine from her bag. "Look closely at this advertisement; it's full of misleading concepts. Foreign counterparts are laughing at them..."
Before she could finish, the door to the private room was suddenly pushed open. A waiter peeked in and said, "Sorry, we’re checking for fire safety."
Li Wanqing and I exchanged glances, both sensing each other's alertness. Once the waiter left, Li Wanqing lowered her voice. "Let's meet somewhere tomorrow to talk more; I have important information to share with you."
Early the next morning, I received a message from Old Ma: Over the past six months, at least twenty small and medium-sized enterprises had gone bankrupt or been acquired due to environmental issues. Moreover, all of them had purchased equipment from Oasis Environmental.
"I need to warn you about something," Old Ma said over the phone. "I found out that behind Oasis Environmental is a company called Azure Sea Investment, which specializes in acquiring struggling businesses. What’s even stranger is that after each acquisition, penalties from the Ministry of Environmental Protection mysteriously disappear."
A chill ran down my spine. This was no environmental company; it was a meticulously designed hunting ground! First, they drained companies' cash flow with environmental equipment, then acquired them at low prices through affiliated companies, and finally managed to smooth over environmental penalties through unknown connections.
As I pondered this, my phone vibrated. It was a text from Li Wanqing: [At the café behind New City Technology Park, I've discovered some clues regarding their financial transactions.]
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