Saving the male protagonist in the dungeon only resulted in him becoming cannon fodder.

On the other side, Liu Cheng was watching the show with smug satisfaction. He secretly rejoiced that his plan had succeeded, while also anticipating Lu Ze's reaction.

Meanwhile, after tireless efforts, Li Yan finally found some clues. Through his investigation, he discovered that Liu Cheng had participated in a hacker competition in the United States and achieved a commendable third place. Combined with today's news, Li Yan began to suspect that Liu Cheng was behind it all. Therefore, he immediately went to Lu Ze's company to report the situation to him.

When Li Yan arrived at the company, Lu Ze was in his office, looking extremely anxious. Seeing Li Yan enter, he immediately asked if there was any news.

Li Yan comforted him, "President Lu, please don't worry. I think it's Liu Chengan's doing. But we will definitely find a solution."

At this moment, Bai Mengmeng also learned about this and rushed to the company. After understanding what had happened, she calmly analyzed, "Don't worry, he couldn't have stolen our secrets so easily. Someone must have helped him."

Lu Ze frowned, lost in thought. What Bai Mengmeng said was indeed reasonable, but the more pressing issue at hand was how to avoid a similar situation with the Qi family's publicity.

Bai Mengmeng thought of the Bai family team's current formidable strength. If she entrusted this matter to them and found a new breakthrough, perhaps they could solve this problem. She tried to comfort Lu Ze: "The most important thing now is to handle this conflict over the new product."

Lu Ze knew this was his first investment in the mobile phone industry, and it was of great significance and could not afford to fail. He said apologetically, "I originally thought I could do a good job, but I never expected this to happen."

Seeing his self-blame, Bai Mengmeng quickly comforted him, saying, "Someone is deliberately framing you, so how can you be blamed? The Qi family is taking advantage of you and still putting on airs. If we sue them, we'll only be giving them free publicity. And I should let the Bai family's technical team show off their skills."

Li Yan could only agree and comfort Lu Ze: "Mengmeng is absolutely right. Since they want to watch the show, let them watch to their heart's content."

Liu Cheng had expected further news, but a whole day passed and nothing happened. Instead, the Qi family became increasingly worried about the matter.

Meanwhile, upon returning to the company, Bai Mengmeng immediately issued an order: "This technological breakthrough is our secret. Anyone who dares to leak it will face the consequences!" Everyone usually thought Bai Mengmeng was easy to get along with, but in reality, she was a two-faced person who could turn on you at any moment. Therefore, everyone knew that going against the Bai family would end badly, and they all perked up and threw themselves into their work.

Meanwhile, Lu Ze wasn't idle either. He began investigating the Qi family's network of connections and received news from the people tracking Li Ming. It turned out Li Ming had already arrived in City A; it seemed this wasn't a coincidence. He realized someone wanted to use the newly rising Lu family as cannon fodder. But he would absolutely not allow that to happen again. A true contest was about to unfold…

After much effort, Lu Ze finally made some progress. Although he had only gathered some evidence so far, it was enough to convict the employee.

However, they couldn't implicate Liu Cheng, indicating they came prepared. There's no breakthrough yet. They need to either confirm that the Qiao family did indeed steal the Lu family's technological achievements, but that's difficult to handle, given the close relationship between the Qiao and Liu families, and Liu Cheng's actions this time were too swift, leaving no time to react.

Lu Ze felt that waiting like this wasn't a solution, so he began investigating Li Ming's whereabouts in the United States, hoping to find some clues. After some effort, he finally discovered a lead: Li Ming went to the same coffee shop every time, but no one met with him there; he would just stay for a while. It seemed that Li Ming must be able to contact the person behind the scenes.

At the same time, Li Yan finally remembered that Li Ming had brought Liu Cheng to their house before; no wonder he looked somewhat familiar. Because the Li family had a rule against bringing friends or other people home, Li Yan unfortunately caught Li Ming secretly bringing someone home.

Li Yan understood. It turned out that they had been planning a grand scheme all along, and in order to satisfy their own selfish desires, they did not hesitate to involve multiple families.

Lu Ze followed him all night and indeed found that Li Ming had gone to find Liu Cheng, and the two were chatting and laughing.

There were no findings from the Qi family's side for the time being. Late at night, Lu Ze sat alone in his car, lost in thought. He couldn't understand why someone would be so persistent in setting traps, repeatedly drawing him into them. After careful consideration, he realized that the target's goal seemed to extend beyond him personally; it was to completely destroy all businesses in City A to solidify their position in the city. Suddenly, a name flashed into his mind—Lu Zhanping, his father.

The next morning, before dawn, Lu Ze got up and went to the prison to visit his father. Thanks to Zhao Ming's help last time, Lu Zhanping's sentence had been reduced. This was Lu Ze's first visit in several years. Knowing his son was coming, Lu's uncle had already tidied himself up and was eagerly awaiting their meeting.

The prison guard shouted, "1546, come out!" Hearing the call, Uncle Lu stood up and hurried to the meeting room. The moment he saw his son, tears welled up in his eyes. "Dad, I'm sorry," Uncle Lu said guiltily.

Lu Ze knew in his heart that if he hadn't let the wolf into the house, he wouldn't have suffered those slanders, and things wouldn't be like this now. "It's my fault for being unfilial and causing you to suffer." Uncle Lu didn't want to talk about those painful memories anymore, and forced a smile as he said, "Let bygones be bygones. Everything is fine now."

Lu Ze knew that no amount of apology could undo the damage done, and his mother always wept after visiting his father in prison, a heartbreaking sight. She had always been the pillar of the family. "Dad, this time I want to ask some complicated questions. Do you have any relevant information you can provide?" Uncle Lu carefully considered the implications and replied seriously, "Son, this time, I'm afraid we can hardly escape this disaster!" Lu Ze was puzzled and asked, "Dad, what do you mean by that?" His father calmly explained, "Back then, there was another family—the Lu family. They were incredibly powerful and influential. Our small companies could only survive by relying on their protection and support. As their business flourished, they became increasingly greedy. At that time, the Lu family's son even embezzled company funds to lend money at exorbitant interest rates."