Who was it?
Countless possibilities and faces flashed through Lu Huan’s mind, but the shadow was too blurry for her to identify for certain.
She glanced up at the camera in the corner of the ceiling. No flashing red light.
It looked like someone had tampered with it.
She pulled out her phone, tapped the recording button, and aimed it at the office, capturing the intruder’s movements inside.
Judging by the vague shadow, the figure appeared to be a large-built man. Exposing herself rashly would be too dangerous, so Lu Huan hid herself first. After recording the evidence, she quickly sent a text to the company’s security guards.
Soon, the faint light inside shifted toward the door.
The intruder must have accomplished his goal and was preparing to leave.
Lu Huan switched off her phone and held her breath, planning to wait until he was gone.
But then her gaze caught the giveaway.
Lights from the high-rise across the street filtered through the window and spilled into the corridor.
A silhouette stretched across the floor.
…A shadow.
Lu Huan realized with a jolt that she was in trouble.
At the same time, the footsteps halted for a moment before drawing steadily closer.
—
The underground parking garage lay silent.
Bai Jin sat in her car, scrolling through her phone, when a new message popped up at the top of the screen.
It was from Lu Huan.
[Stay in the car. Don’t come out.]
Bai Jin’s finger froze mid-swipe. She narrowed her eyes, her gaze turning icy.
A mounting sense of foreboding told her something was wrong.
She recalled Lu Huan’s hesitant reaction when she’d seen the message just moments ago, and her heart tightened.
Her hand paused on the way to reply or make a call. Instead, she pocketed the phone, flung open the car door, and stepped out with steady legs. She slammed the door shut and strode quickly toward the elevators, ignoring the tug of her wound as blood seeped through the bandage. Her pace didn’t falter in the slightest, as if she weren’t injured at all.
She jabbed the elevator button and waited.
Just as the elevator neared her floor—
A piercing alarm blared through the entire building. Red lights flashed frantically.
The alarm.
Bai Jin’s pupils contracted sharply. She bolted toward the stairwell.
—
Thick clouds blanketed the night sky, blocking out the moonlight. Light from outside filtered through the windows. The corridor on the upper floors was dim, but once her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could make out details clearly enough.
The intruder had sensed something amiss and was heading toward the protruding shadow at the corridor’s bend.
The footsteps grew louder. There was no time to hide or flee.
Lu Huan groped along the wall beside her and found a length of discarded thick rope.
The moment the intruder came into view, Lu Huan struck first. With swift precision, she seized him and executed a brutal over-the-shoulder throw.
A deep, guttural roar of pain erupted beside her ear. Lu Huan pinned his arm, jammed her knee into his back, and forced him face-down to the floor.
She yanked off his mask in one quick motion.
A fleshy face with bushy brows and beady eyes stared back.
Lu Huan’s eyes widened. “Hong Shuo?”
“You dog bastard, let go of I, your father!”
Hong Shuo bellowed and thrashed wildly. Lu Huan had his throat in a lock and was looping the rope around it to choke him unconscious when the shadow ahead of her began to grow larger—something was approaching from behind.
There was another one!
Lu Huan released Hong Shuo and dodged to the side.
The figure behind her lunged and missed, crashing down onto Hong Shuo instead.
“Cough! Cough! Cough!! Haizi!”
The newcomer was Hong Shuo’s obsequious assistant. He scrambled up at once to check on him. “Brother Hong! You alright!?”
“Fuck, you landed right on top of I, your father!”
As Lu Huan dodged aside, the assistant’s fingertips raked across the skin beneath her eye, but she had no time to register the sting. She hurled a nearby potted plant at them, seized the opening, and bolted.
Hong Shuo’s vision swam with stars for a moment, but the sound of fleeing footsteps snapped him alert. “What are you standing around for? Chase her down!”
“She’s getting away!”
Haizi scrambled to his feet and gave pursuit. Hong Shuo flailed a few times before hauling himself up and lurching after them.
In her flight, Lu Huan smashed the wall-mounted alarm. Blinding red emergency lights flooded the building at once. The shrill siren pierced her eardrums like needles.
She spotted the stairwell and raced downward. Urgent footsteps pounded from above as the two men gave chase.
Their chaotic footfalls tangled together, each one pounding like a hammer against her heart.
Her blood surged, her breaths coming ragged and uneven. Lu Huan forced herself to keep a clear head.
As the gap widened and they neared the end of the stairs—where it would be harder to catch her—Haizi panicked. He shouted threats at her to stop while quickening his pace.
But he stumbled, missed a step, and tumbled head over heels down the stairs, barreling straight toward Lu Huan.
!
Lu Huan gripped the handrail tightly and held her ground, avoiding a plunge down the long flight with him.
Haizi latched onto her leg. He yelled upward, “Brother Hong! I’ve got her! I’ve got her!!”
Pinned in place, with footsteps closing in from above, Lu Huan wrenched free desperately. But Haizi clung to her like a stubborn plaster, preventing her from taking a single step.
“You thousand-knives bastard, just see if I don’t fix you good!”
Hong Shuo barreled toward her, claws outstretched, his bulky frame lunging forward.
Lu Huan used his momentum against him, yanking him off-balance to the side before delivering a solid kick to his rear. “Get lost.”
“Aaah!!” Hong Shuo tumbled down the stairs, howling in agony the whole way.
Disgust and contempt filled Lu Huan’s eyes as she finished with him. Now she turned to shake off the plaster clinging to her leg.
“Brother Hong!”
Haizi saw what happened and gritted his teeth. He lunged and grabbed Lu Huan hard.
“Tsk.” Lu Huan toppled backward off-balance, and Haizi’s arm snaked around her from behind.
His grip crushed her throat, suffocating her in an instant.
Her brows knitted in pain. She reacted swiftly, seizing one of his fingers and wrenching it outward with a sickening crack. Haizi let out a shrill scream and instinctively loosened his hold.
As the pressure eased, Lu Huan whipped around and drove her elbow into his head. While he reeled in dazed pain, she broke free, dashed down the stairs, and stomped over the unconscious Hong Shuo.
Rounding the corner to the next landing, a face suddenly loomed before her.
It was Bai Jin.
The flashing red lights bathed her face in crimson. They locked eyes for two seconds. Lu Huan narrowed her eyes and tsked.
“Didn’t I tell you to stay in the car? Go!”
Lu Huan grabbed her wrist urgently, trying to pull her downward. But Bai Jin glanced up, her pupils dilating in shock. She swiftly switched places with Lu Huan.
“Watch out.”
Lu Huan barely had time to react before a heavy thud rang out.
A red fire extinguisher smashed squarely toward her head.
“Bai Jin!”
Lu Huan’s eyes flew wide as she rushed to support her.
Bai Jin’s head lolled twice, her vision blurring before consciousness slipped away. Her body went limp and collapsed into Lu Huan’s arms.
Haizi seemed to realize only then the enormity of what he’d done. The hand that had swung the extinguisher trembled violently in terror.
“Oh heavens! Oh heavens!… Oh my mother!!!”
At that moment, heavy footsteps thundered up from the stairs below. Several security guards charged into view, bellowing at him to freeze.
They swarmed up, restraining the dazed and unconscious Hong Shuo on the landing. Haizi huddled with his legs drawn up, eyes wide in horror, frozen in place until the guards seized and subdued him too.
Beside them, Lu Huan cradled Bai Jin as she sank to a crouch. She tried calling out to her, but got no response.
The hand pressed to the back of Bai Jin’s head came away wet. Lu Huan withdrew it, trembling.
Her palm was smeared with dark crimson that gleamed ominously under the lights, carrying a thick, metallic tang.
Blood.
“……”
In the reception lounge, Qin Dian reclined in her chair by the floor-to-ceiling windows, gazing out at the familiar nightscape: the glittering neon sprawl, the ceaseless flow of traffic and crowds weaving through the streets.
In this era, things changed every day, every year. People came and went, never content to linger in one place. They pressed onward, toward their ambitions, toward what their hearts desired.
Along the way, the scenery shifted. The people around them did too.
In the end, when they looked back, those original companions were long gone.
Qin Dian’s eyes narrowed slightly, a distant haze in their depths.
“That person.”
After a long pause, she spoke softly. “The woman he mentioned in his ravings—who do you think she is?”
That afternoon, Chen Zhong had filled her in on the incidents at Qining and Hong Shuo’s intentions toward the Lin Group.
But what caught her attention most was his mention of overhearing Hong Shuo on the phone with some woman lately. They didn’t sound close, and he had no idea what they discussed.
The key was this woman.
Her assistant stepped forward. “Actually, I think you already know the answer.”
“Is that so?”
Qin Dian closed her eyes and let out a soft chuckle. She turned back to the view outside, overlooking the endless river of lights and motion below.
Yes, she already knew.
Bai Shan… is it you?
She narrowed her eyes, and the tangled glow of the city lights blurred into a haze.
“President Qin!”
A hurried voice called from behind her. Qin Dian pulled her wandering thoughts back and turned. “Speak clearly. What’s the panic?”
“Police cars at Qining.” The messenger panted heavily. “President Qin, Little President Lu’s in trouble.”
Qin Dian’s hand clenched tight.
“What?”
“……”
Beneath the night skyline, sirens from police cars and ambulances swelled at the base of the company building. A small crowd of onlookers gathered nearby after hearing the commotion, but no one pressed inside.
Hong Shuo and his lackey: one still groggy and unconscious, hauled to the police car by two officers on either side; the other, wild-eyed and frantic, jabbering at the police, “Comrade officer, listen to me, it’s not what it looks like!”
But no one paid heed to his babble. His protests fell on deaf ears, and he was dragged away by force.
Bai Jin was loaded into the ambulance. A full-force blow from the extinguisher to the head—the severity of the injury was all too clear.
She had taken it for her.
This time, Lu Huan owed her one.
Lu Huan stared at her palm, the blood dried into a sticky crust.
Her mind was still reeling. She started to follow the ambulance but was stopped by the police, who insisted on taking her to the station to give a statement.
“Got it.” It took her a moment to respond, and she nodded.
Zuo You, who had arrived just in time, spoke up. “Don’t worry. I’ll go with you.”
“……” Lu Huan fell silent for a beat, her voice coming out hoarse and faint. “Alright. Sorry to trouble you.”
She let them lead her away.
In the back of the police car, she stared out the window. The nighttime scenery whipped past, taillights from the convoy flashing red in the dark.
Lu Huan kept her head turned toward the window.
Everything had come too suddenly. She needed to take a moment to compose herself and sort through her tangled thoughts.
But midway through the process, she spotted something strange.
Her eyes widened slightly, a faint glimmer flashing deep in their depths.
It just so happened that Bai Jin’s injury had forced them to return early from Sumen.
And the exact moment they arrived back at the company was when they ran into Hong Shuo sneaking into the office.
…
Why was the timing…
So perfectly aligned?
