Chapter 48 Gaining Recognition

The scanner in the General Affairs Division office had transformed from a dust-covered lump of iron in the corner into the most sought-after treasure. Every morning, the queue to use the scanner stretched from Li Yifei's desk all the way to the pantry. The familiar buzzing sound rose and fell in waves, becoming the most pleasant background music in the office.

"Li, come and take a look at this!" Sister Liu's booming voice penetrated the entire office as she stamped her feet in frustration in front of her computer screen. "This damn machine ate my spreadsheet again! I clearly placed it straight!"

Li Yifei immediately put down his work and strode over to Sister Liu in two or three steps. On the screen, the numbers of a financial report were twisted and squeezed together, looking precisely like a column of drunk ants.

"Don't panic, Sister Liu," Li Yifei said, bending over and gently resting his right hand on the mouse. "Look right here—" He clicked on an inconspicuous setting option. "OCR recognition sometimes treats gridlines as interference. Let's check this 'retain gridlines' option and recognize it again."

His fingers tapped lightly on the keys a few times, and the numbers on the screen immediately snapped back into their respective cells as if touched by magic. Sister Liu widened her eyes, the wrinkles on her face relaxing into a smile. "Oh my, you young people really understand these foreign gadgets!"

Li Yifei shook his head with a smile. "Sister Liu, this has nothing to do with age. It's just that you don't use it often enough. You'll get the hang of it after trying a few more times." He casually jotted down the operational steps on a sticky note and attached it to the frame of Sister Liu's monitor.

Returning to his seat, Li Yifei looked at the bustling scene in the office and fell into deep thought. During this period, he had noticed a clear dividing line: young people like Xiao Zhao used new programs as smoothly as fish in water, while veteran comrades like Sister Liu always got stuck on the simplest operations. Either they placed the document upside down, clicked the wrong button, or sometimes couldn't even find the save path.

"The program needs to be more foolproof," Li Yifei muttered to himself. He remembered the technical backbone of the Information Center mentioning "user experience optimization" during a conversation last week. Without wasting time, he pulled up the source code and began redesigning the interactive interface.

The crisp sound of typing echoed as the code rolled down the screen like flowing water. Li Yifei streamlined the original seven-step operation into five; added eye-catching icons and text descriptions to every button; and introduced a "one-click help" function so users could take a screenshot and send it directly to him when encountering problems.

Just as he was fully focused on debugging the new version, a shadow fell over his desk. Looking up, Division Chief Wang Heng was standing right in front of him, holding a bulging file bag, his expression graver than usual.

"Yifei, put aside what you're doing for a moment." Wang Heng placed the file bag heavily on the desk with a dull thud. "The complete set of materials for the 'Revitalization of Old Industrial Bases High-Tech Industrial Park' project submitted by XX Province is right here. The division has decided to have you deeply participate in the review."

Li Yifei took the file bag. It felt heavy in his hands, weighing easily four or five pounds. He carefully opened the seal, and a wave of fresh printer ink washed over him.

"Focus mainly on these three parts: industrial planning, investment estimation, and risk assessment." Wang Heng pushed up his glasses, his gaze behind the lenses carrying profound meaning. "Director Zhang gave special instructions—look deeper and think further ahead."

Wang Heng emphasized the last eight characters heavily. Li Yifei felt a chill in his heart, instantly grasping the weight of this assignment. This was no longer a simple formal review, but a true test—a test of whether he could see through the beautifully polished data on paper to expose the deliberately concealed risks and loopholes.

"Understood, Chief Wang. I'll start right away." Li Yifei's voice was as calm as water, but his eyes had grown sharp.

Once Wang Heng walked away, Li Yifei took immediate action. He first sorted the materials from the file bag by category and then fed them into the scanner in batches. The machine hummed cheerfully as page after page was swallowed and spat out as electronic documents.

Taking advantage of the scanning gap, Li Yifei launched the newly upgraded analysis program. The new version added a heavy-hitting feature—"logical consistency verification."

This function could automatically compare whether the data across different chapters were self-consistent, and benchmark them against historical data and industry baseline values to flag indicators with abnormal fluctuations.

Five minutes later, all materials were scanned. Li Yifei took a deep breath and clicked the "Start Analysis" button. A progress bar immediately popped up on the screen, wriggling forward rapidly like a snake in a video game.

Two hours passed. People in the office left for lunch one after another, but Li Yifei remained completely oblivious. His eyes were fixed on the screen, and his brows furrowed tighter and tighter.

The program had already flagged seventeen data anomalies and eight logical contradictions. The most shocking among them was a key indicator that had been deliberately obscured—the capacity utilization rate.

"This is practically playing with fire..." Li Yifei muttered. He quickly pulled up the original document and flipped to page 138. Sure enough, hidden among the dense text was a line of small print: "The capacity utilization rate is expected to reach 85% by the third year after the project's completion."

"Are they out of their minds!" Li Yifei almost cried out. He immediately opened the industry database and pulled up historical data for industrial parks of the same type.

In black and white, the data showed that the average capacity utilization rate of similar parks nationwide had never exceeded 65%, yet this project in XX Province dared to predict 85%!

Even more frighteningly, all calculations of return on investment were based on this inflated figure. If calculated according to reality, this project, which claimed an "annual output value of 30 billion," might actually fail to reach even 10 billion, and the payback period would be extended from the promised 7 years to over 20 years.

Li Yifei's fingers danced across the keyboard, quickly compiling a concise analysis report. He marked all suspicious points in red, appending industry data and calculation formulas alongside them.

At the end, he wrote in bold font: "Recommendation: Immediately suspend the project approval, require the local government to reassess, and hold the feasibility study report preparation unit accountable."

Just as the report finished printing, Wang Heng appeared at his desk as if by telepathy.

"Any findings?" Wang Heng's voice was kept very low.

Li Yifei handed the report over directly: "Chief Wang, the problem is much more serious than we imagined. This isn't a regular error, but a systematic falsification."

Wang Heng took the report, his expression growing darker the more he read. By the end, his fingers were trembling slightly. "These people... they are treating national investment like child's play!"

Without another word, the two headed straight for Director Zhang's office.

Director Zhang Aiguo was on the phone. Seeing the two burst in with solemn expressions, he quickly wrapped up the call in a few words.

"What's happened?" Director Zhang asked with a frown.

Wang Heng handed over the report. "Director, take a look at this. The data falsification in that industrial park project from XX Province is shocking."

Director Zhang glanced quickly through the report, his face instantly turning as gloomy as the sky before a storm. He slammed his hand on the desk. "Outrageous! This is throwing tens of billions down the drain!"

Suddenly, as if remembering something, Director Zhang looked up suspiciously at Li Yifei. "Wait, this material was only delivered this morning, how did you manage to..."

Wang Heng also snapped to his senses, looking at Li Yifei in astonishment.

Faced with the scrutinizing gazes of the two leaders, Li Yifei calmly opened his laptop. "Director Zhang, Chief Wang, this is a program I just upgraded. Aside from automatic information extraction, it can now perform data logic verification and industry benchmarking analysis."

He demonstrated the operational process on the spot. The previously complex operation interface had become extremely concise, with five prominent buttons lined up in a row: 1. Scan Documents, 2. Select Analysis Type, 3. Start Analysis, 4. View Report, 5. Export Results.

"I optimized the user experience so that even Sister Liu can easily get started," Li Yifei said with a smile. "The analysis engine has also been upgraded to automatically identify data anomalies and logical contradictions."

Director Zhang and Wang Heng looked at each other, both seeing hard-to-conceal astonishment in the other's eyes. In the end, Director Zhang spoke first: "Xiao Li, how is your brain wired? This isn't just a program, it's a demon-revealing mirror!"

That very afternoon, Director Zhang took the report to the Minister's office. After reading it, Minister Zhao Yuanchao called an emergency meeting on the spot.

The meeting lasted until eight o'clock in the evening, ultimately deciding to immediately suspend the project approval, dispatch a special inspection team to XX Province for on-site verification, and initiate accountability procedures against the responsible units.

When the news reached the General Affairs Division, the entire office erupted. Xiao Zhao excitedly patted Li Yifei's shoulder. "Brother Li, you've made a massive contribution this time! I heard that if that project had been approved, at least thirty billion would have been wasted!"

Sister Liu also hurried over, her face full of admiration. "Xiao Li, your computer skills are way better than those folks in the Information Center!"

Even the usually stern Wang Heng wore a rare smile. "Yifei, the Minister specially praised you, calling you a 'new-era compound talent'."

Amidst the chorus of praise, Li Yifei appeared unusually calm. He knew this was just the beginning. In the nerve center of the national economy that was the National Development and Reform Commission, countless such projects still needed screening, and more hidden risks awaited discovery.

Late into the night, only Li Yifei remained in the office. He looked out the window at the countless family lights and gently rubbed his sore eyes.

The computer screen was still lit, displaying the next version's upgrade plan for the program—he intended to incorporate macroeconomic forecasting models and policy simulation functions.

"The road is still long..." Li Yifei whispered softly, placing his fingers back on the keyboard.