Chapter 3195 — Kang Jingming Makes His Move

Or was it just as Kang Xiaofeng had said—that there were several factions within the Xuandan Sect, and that Kang Jingming's faction happened to be the sworn enemy of Tian Canbian? In that case, the money lost was probably that faction's profit, and had nothing to do with Tian Canbian at all?

Wei Zhao could not puzzle it out, but there were some things he could hardly go and ask Tian Canbian about directly, so he could only take things one step at a time. "Since Tian Canbian has vouched for Xiao Taohong, you have nothing to worry about. Let her keep working at your company. Tian Canbian's face still has to be respected."

Wei Zhao was a man who repaid kindness with kindness. Tian Canbian had done him a good turn, so no matter what, he had to trust Tian Canbian this once. Besides, there were no core secrets in Kang Xiaofeng's company to speak of—the formulas for those medicines had been treasures to the Kang family of old, but to the present Xuandan Sect they were little more than gristle. If the Xuandan Sect wanted such things, they could easily compound them themselves; there was no need to steal from Wei Zhao. So in Wei Zhao's view, even if Tian Canbian harbored some ulterior design, it could never come to anything.

"I understand." Kang Xiaofeng nodded.

After hanging up, Wei Zhao called Liu Jinghan directly.

"Jinghan, there's something I need to tell you." With that, Wei Zhao explained how Kang Jingming intended to set his sights on the Yipin Automatic Medicine Cauldron. "You need to take precautions on your end. Since Kang Jingming can't find a way in through Fatty Lai, he'll turn his hand against you next."

"Brother Wei Zhao, I know. Kang Jingming has already made his move—he's bought off a foreman at our Liu family electronics factory and is stealing data from the plant. It looks like he's working both ends at once, not just going after President Lai's side," Liu Jinghan said.

"Oh? He's already made his move? And you know about it? How did you handle it?" Wei Zhao asked, somewhat surprised.

"I haven't dealt with it. But I've had someone keeping a close watch on Foreman Su," Liu Jinghan said. "On my end, if I get rid of Foreman Su, Kang Jingming will only find other ways to steal the data. Rather than that, it's better to keep these dangers in my own hands. As long as we keep watching Kang Jingming and Foreman Su, that will do."

"Oh? There's nothing worth stealing on Foreman Su's side?" Wei Zhao had not expected Liu Jinghan to have already noticed this. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"Right, that side is all production data. The core technology of the Yipin Automatic Medicine Cauldron is actually the source code inside the microcontroller. As for the manufacturing processes and plans, most high-end electronics companies could imitate them from our products. That's not the issue at all. If Kang Jingming wants to steal that sort of thing, let him—it doesn't matter," Liu Jinghan said.

"I see. Then where do you keep the source code?" Wei Zhao nodded and asked.

"The source code is at company headquarters, on the computer in the secret room of my office. No one in this subsidiary company knows about it. When the source code is written in, I do it all myself. I have the company's workers place the chips on the programmer in batches and bring them to me, and I operate the computer in the secret room to write the program in," Liu Jinghan said. "It's a bit troublesome, but fortunately our cauldron's output and sales are both low—only a few a day. I can manage it myself. Each session takes about half an hour, and I can write fifty microcontroller chips in a batch at once."

"That's good." Wei Zhao breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this. "But you should be careful too. If Kang Jingming can't get what he wants from that Foreman Su, he'll surely think of other ways."

"Don't worry, I'll be careful," Liu Jinghan replied.

On Kang Jingming's side, he had spent six hundred thousand yuan to obtain data from Foreman Su, only to find it was all dispensable stuff. Six hundred thousand was not much, but Kang Jingming was rather depressed about it—after all, it had wasted a good deal of his time, and what he got was nothing but manufacturing processes!

Anyone could find an electronics company to imitate these manufacturing processes! The circuit boards inside were simple too, and production posed no technical difficulty whatsoever. Getting this material only meant Kang Jingming could imitate the product a little more easily and save some time on designing molds for the imitation, but it was of no real help!

"Is this all?" Kang Jingming asked, looking at Foreman Su with some disappointment.

"Boss Kang, this is all the data I could get. You see…" Foreman Su looked at Kang Jingming's expression and knew he was not very satisfied with the data he had brought, but there was nothing to be done—Foreman Su had done his best.

"Why is there no data on this microcontroller and the source code inside it?" Kang Jingming asked with a frown.

"This microcontroller, I hear, isn't produced domestically, and the program is all written in by headquarters. Our electronics factory here isn't responsible for that sort of thing…" Foreman Su said with some difficulty.

"Oh? Written in by people at headquarters? Do you know who's in charge?" Kang Jingming's eyes brightened slightly. As long as the program was written in on this side, that was fine—otherwise he would have to run off to a foreign country, which would be a real hassle.

"I'm not too clear on that either. You know, I'm just a minor foreman at the factory!" Foreman Su said. "Matters at headquarters aren't something I can inquire into."

"All right, fine, you can go back. Don't tell anyone about my asking you this, understand?" Kang Jingming said sternly. "Otherwise, even if I'm exposed, you won't have an easy time of it either, selling out commercial secrets!"

"I understand, I understand!" Foreman Su said hastily.

"Good that you understand!" Kang Jingming nodded, stood up, and left. He had to find a way to inquire about the Liu family headquarters. Now it seemed the source code for this microcontroller was likely held in the hands of a select few; ordinary employees could not possibly know of it.

Still, Kang Jingming was rather lucky. After staking out the area near the factory for several days, he spotted the person who delivered the microcontrollers to the factory! This person delivered the programmed microcontrollers to the plant—and now Kang Jingming had found his man.

After this person made the delivery and got into his car, just as he was about to drive off, Kang Jingming pulled open the passenger door and climbed in.

"Brother, let's have a chat, shall we?" Kang Jingming said with a smile.

"Who are you? What do you want? I'm telling you, I don't have any money—I'm just a delivery man for the company, and this car is a company vehicle, not mine!" The man was startled when he saw Kang Jingming get in, thinking Kang Jingming meant to rob him!