Su Ran locked the door from the inside.
She didn’t turn on the lights.
The room was lit only by the city’s nightscape filtering through the window, a patchwork of colors spilling across the wooden edge of the desk.
She placed the manila envelope on the table and slit open the tape with her fingernail.
Inside were more than a dozen A4 pages.
By the time she finished reading the third page, Fu Yechuan pushed the door open and walked in.
He hadn’t knocked.
He had slipped the lock open from the inside with a thin piece of metal, moving so quietly that Su Ran hadn’t heard a thing.
“You can pick locks too?” Su Ran didn’t even look up.
“Self-defense skill.” Fu Yechuan tucked the metal strip back into his sleeve and stepped behind her.
His shadow fell over her, plunging the documents on the desk into deeper darkness.
He read the text clearly.
It was an asset transfer agreement for Hongye Real Estate, a subsidiary of the Fu Group.
The transferee was an offshore company registered in the Cayman Islands, with a foreign name listed as the legal representative.
In the annex, the true source of funds pointed clearly to an affiliated account of the Bai family.
At the bottom left was Shen Zhixing’s signature.
Fu Yechuan’s breathing stalled.
“This is just an appetizer.” Su Ran flipped through the documents. “The real highlight is here.”
She turned to the last page.
It was a record of fund transfers.
Three days before the Fu family declared bankruptcy, twenty million flowed from Bai Weiwei’s personal account, passing through seven different third-party accounts before finally landing in the overseas study account of the son of the presiding judge on the Fu family’s bankruptcy case.
Bribery! Executed flawlessly, almost impossible to trace.
The fact that Shen Zhixing could obtain this record meant he had long prepared an escape route.
Fu Yechuan’s fingers rested on the edge of the desk.
He said nothing.
Su Ran could feel the temperature around him dropping, as cold as the depths of winter.
“We can’t act on this yet.” She gathered the documents and slid them back into the envelope. “We don’t have a legitimate channel to submit evidence. If we expose it now, it will only alert them.”
Fu Yechuan gave a quiet acknowledgement.
At that moment, Su Ran’s phone screen lit up.
It was a push notification.
Not a text message, but a promotional post from a high-end private club in South City, with a gaudy headline: “A Night of Stars, A Hammer for Love: Annual Charity Auction Invitation.”
Su Ran tapped into it.
The digital invitation was lavishly designed. At the end, there was a list of special guests.
She saw her own name.
Miss Su Ran. Right after it was Fu Yechuan’s name.
Under the hosts, three organizers were listed jointly, with the Bai family at the top.
“A trap.” Fu Yechuan’s gaze left the screen, his voice icy. “Sent by Bai Weiwei.”
This was no ordinary promotional push.
Bai Weiwei had used special channels to deliver the invitation directly to her phone.
A declaration of war.
“What does she want?” Fu Yechuan asked.
“To humiliate and destroy.” Su Ran turned off the screen. “She knows we have nothing right now, yet she invites us to the most elite social scene in South City, just to tell us in front of everyone that we’ve lost, completely and utterly.”
A humorless curve tugged at Fu Yechuan’s lips.
“She’ll get her wish. We’re not going.”
“No, we are.”
Su Ran lifted her head, her eyes shining sharply in the darkness.
Fu Yechuan’s brows tightened instantly. “Are you out of your mind? This is a trap.”
“I know it’s a trap.” Su Ran stood and walked to the window, looking down at the busy street below. “But we’ve been on the defensive for too long. Tearing the check was reactive, buying stocks was covert planning, dealing with Bai Jingshan was survival. We’ve always been reacting.”
She turned back to face him.
“Now Bai Weiwei has given us a chance, a chance to walk into her territory and take the initiative.”
Fu Yechuan watched her in silence.
“They think we’ll be afraid, that we’ll hide. So we show up instead.” Su Ran spoke evenly, each word firm. “And we go in style. The more miserable we are, the straighter we stand. The more indifferent we appear, the more unsettled they become.”
“We don’t have money,” Fu Yechuan said bluntly.
At a charity auction, even entering required raising a paddle. They didn’t even have the money to bid.
“Who said we’re going to spend money?” Su Ran smiled. “We’re going for networking.”
Fu Yechuan didn’t understand.
“Bai Weiwei wants to see us make fools of ourselves, so we’ll prepare a bigger surprise for her.” Su Ran picked up her phone and dialed Zhou Zhe.
The call was answered after one ring.
“President Fu!” Zhou Zhe’s voice was as concerned as ever.
Fu Yechuan took the phone from Su Ran, his tone calm and unremarkable. “Ah Zhe, I need you to do something. Have you heard about the Bai family’s charity banquet?”
“Yes, President Fu, everyone in South City’s upper circle is talking about it.”
“Spread a message for me.” Fu Yechuan’s eyes rested on Su Ran’s face as he repeated her silent instructions. “Say that my investor, the one surnamed Ma, is very interested in one of the final auction items.”
There was a pause on the other end.
“The one surnamed Ma… the building materials businessman?”
“Yes.” Fu Yechuan said, “He can’t attend personally, so he’s authorized me to represent him fully. Budget, five million.”
Zhou Zhe’s breathing quickened audibly.
Five million. Fu Yechuan could still mobilize five million in funds.
“Understood, President Fu. I’ll spread the word immediately, don’t worry.”
After hanging up, Fu Yechuan looked at Su Ran. “What are you planning?”
“To build momentum for you.” Su Ran took back her phone. “The Bai family couldn’t find ‘President Ma,’ so they’ll assume it’s a smokescreen. But Zhou Zhe believes it, and he’ll pass the ‘five million budget’ straight to Bai Weiwei. What do you think she’ll assume?”
Fu Yechuan’s eyes lit up.
“She’ll start doubting whether I’ve found a new backer.”
“Exactly. A suspicious person, once she begins to doubt, will start making mistakes in all her arrangements.” Su Ran said, “She’s in the shadows, we’re in the open. Then we muddy the water so even the ones in the shadows can’t see clearly.”
Fu Yechuan looked at Su Ran for a long moment.
“You still need one thing,” he said.
“What?”
“A battle outfit.”
…
The next afternoon, Su Ran stood in front of a mirror in a high-end boutique.
She was wearing a black velvet gown, minimalist in design, with no unnecessary embellishments. The tailoring alone traced her figure perfectly, the hem falling to her ankles and accentuating her pale skin.
Fu Yechuan leaned against the doorway, hands in his pockets.
He tossed her a card with fifty thousand yuan on it.
“Where did this come from?” Su Ran asked.
“Advanced from Old Chen,” he said. “Consider it an investment.”
Su Ran didn’t press further.
She changed out of the dress, and the sales assistant packed it carefully into an elegant box.
Fu Yechuan paid.
As they walked out of the store, he said, “You don’t represent yourself. You represent our company. Don’t embarrass us.”
Su Ran scoffed inwardly. There wasn’t even a company yet, yet he was already putting on airs.
…
The night of the charity banquet.
The South City International Convention Center was ablaze with lights, luxury cars lined up along the red carpet, and elegantly dressed guests moved through the glittering crowd.
Su Ran and Fu Yechuan arrived by taxi.
The car stopped a few hundred meters away, and they walked to the entrance.
Fu Yechuan wore a black suit. It wasn’t a luxury brand, but the fabric was crisp, and on him it carried an air of quiet nobility. The injuries on his face had mostly healed, leaving only faint traces that added to his cold, unapproachable aura.
Su Ran held his arm.
The moment they stepped into the venue, nearly every gaze turned toward them.
Surprise! Disdain! Schadenfreude!
All kinds of looks landed on them like glaring spotlights.
Su Ran kept her eyes forward, chin slightly raised, walking steadily in her heels.
She spotted Bai Weiwei in the crowd.
Dressed in a white feathered gown, she stood by a champagne tower, surrounded like a star among admirers, smiling like an innocent angel untouched by the world.
When she saw Su Ran and Fu Yechuan, her smile froze for a brief moment before becoming even sweeter.
She raised her glass toward them.
A waiter in uniform approached with a tray and asked politely, “Mr. Fu and Miss Su? Miss Bai has reserved seats for you.”
Su Ran followed the direction he indicated.
The very corner of the hall, right beside the emergency exit and the service corridor.
Humiliation, blatant humiliation.
Su Ran smiled faintly and was about to speak.
A figure stepped in front of them. It was Bai Jingshan.
He wore a dark red suit tonight, his snake tattoo hidden beneath his collar, but the aura of violence around him was no less intense.
He didn’t look at Fu Yechuan. His gaze locked onto Su Ran, sliding from her face down to her collarbone, then to the black gown.
“My sister said,” Bai Jingshan leaned in slightly, his voice low enough that only the three of them could hear, his gentle tone laced with venom, “this outfit suits today’s offering perfectly.”
Su Ran tightened her grip on Fu Yechuan’s arm.
Offering? What offering?
Fu Yechuan stepped forward half a pace, subtly shielding Su Ran behind him, meeting Bai Jingshan’s gaze with killing intent in his eyes.
Su Ran lifted her head and met Bai Jingshan’s gaze, filled with malice and amusement.
The trap had already been set in motion.