The System's Thorn: Officialdom

He wanted to debug the system. The system wanted him gone. Hydraulics PhD Shen Mo enters government with a reformer's zeal, armed with code, models, and dangerous ideals about optimizing a calcified bureaucracy. His first victory—exposing a fraudulent AI megaproject—earns him a one-way ticket to the complaints department. From county offices to provincial power plays, every reform he architects gets hijacked: industrial synergy plans gutted by interest cartels, financial innovations hunted by shadow capital, top-level designs that rattle the wrong cages. The system has survival instincts sharp…