Reform is easiest under scrutiny.
Its durability is measured in private.
Three weeks after initial intervention, oversight intensity tapered deliberately. Fewer direct prompts. Fewer structured reviews. Archival audits continued—but quietly.
If behavior reverted, it would surface now.
Han Zhe reduced monitoring frequency.
"Feels risky," he said.
"It's necessary," I replied. "Constant observation creates artificial compliance."
"We're testing autonomy?"
"Yes."
Autonomy under constraint is maturity.
Autonomy without constraint is drift.
Early signals were mixed.
Some teams maintained documentation standards flawlessly.
Others slowed.
Response times widened slightly.
Not alarming.
But noticeable.
Cultural inertia never disappears instantly.
Midweek, a consolidation adjustment appeared—minor, technical.
Previously, it would have been executed automatically.
This time, it came with a full rationale attached.
Three pages.
Transparent logic chain.
Variance impact projection.
Alternative scenarios considered.
No one requested it.
It was submitted proactively.
Han Zhe forwarded it with a single annotation:
Unprompted.
That was the metric that mattered.
In the next board briefing, I said little.
Data spoke.
Variance trending downward.
Documentation completeness rising.
Voluntary disclosures increasing.
The Chair noticed.
"You're quieter," he said.
"That's the objective."
He nodded slowly.
"Does that mean we're stable?"
"It means you're behaving consistently without reinforcement."
A different milestone.
Gu Chengyi updated investor positioning.
Risk models adjusting downward.
Long-term confidence strengthening.
No speculation spikes.
Market trust grows in silence.
Not in announcements.
Still, tension surfaced in one division.
An executive privately questioned whether the consolidation pause should lift fully.
"It's slowing competitive agility," he argued.
"It's calibrating risk exposure," I replied.
"We're losing momentum."
"You're replacing velocity with precision."
He hesitated.
"That's uncomfortable."
"Yes."
Precision often is.
Later that week, an internal survey surfaced organically.
Anonymous feedback on governance changes.
The results surprised even Han Zhe.
Majority support.
Moderate fatigue.
Strong agreement that transparency reduced internal friction.
Reduced friction.
The irony wasn't lost on me.
Short-term friction had produced long-term flow.
The former junior analyst sent a short note.
"You're not needed as much."
"That's success."
"Does it feel like it?"
I paused before responding.
"Yes."
Because intervention isn't about permanence.
It's about making yourself unnecessary.
By Friday evening, monitoring tapered further.
No escalations.
No concealed variances.
No corrective pressure required.
The system was operating under its own revised gravity.
That's when reform becomes architecture.
Not supervision.
Han Zhe called once more before the weekend.
"If they maintain this pace," he said, "you'll phase out."
"Yes."
"And then?"
"There will be another structure," I said.
"There always is."
He was silent for a moment.
"You don't create stability," he said finally. "You reveal whether it was possible."
"That's the job."
Outside, the skyline held steady again.
No tremors.
No compression.
Just calibrated movement.
Unobserved behavior had aligned with policy.
Which meant—
The threshold had been avoided entirely.
And that's the rarest outcome of all.