The yacht would dock in two hours.
Chu Yiran sat in a corner of the deck, the wind turning her hair into a bird’s nest, but she couldn’t care less about her appearance.
She had to come up with a perfect escape plan before then.
No, it wasn’t just about escaping—she also had to figure out how to deal with the mess of fourteen million.
Otherwise, even if she dodged this time, what about the next?
And the time after that? Who was Shen Yu?
The number one man in the business world of Hecheng—if he really wanted to find someone, she could crawl into the sewers and still be dragged out.
“Chu Yiran! Sunscreen spray!” Song Qingwan called from the upper deck again.
“Coming!”
Chu Yiran rummaged through Song Qingwan’s designer handbag beside her, pulled out a bottle of spray, and ran up to hand it over.
Song Qingwan took it, removed her sunglasses, and glanced at her. “Why do you look so pale?”
“Seasick.”
“Hang in there a little longer, we’ll dock soon.” Song Qingwan pushed her sunglasses onto her head and took a sip from the champagne glass beside her.
Chu Yiran stood nearby, but her mind was racing.
A buffet table was set up on the yacht, piled high with a seafood tower—lobster, king crab, oysters, so fresh they still carried the briny scent of the sea.
A few of Song Qingwan’s friends were chatting and laughing around the table, occasionally turning to greet Song Qingwan.
Chu Yiran stared at the seafood, her pupils slightly widening.
A not-so-clever but absolutely effective idea was taking shape in her mind.
She walked over to the buffet table, picked up a plate, added two shrimp and a piece of salmon sashimi, and stuffed them into her mouth.
Then she waited.
Three minutes later, Chu Yiran began her performance.
First, she coughed lightly twice.
Then she touched her neck, frowning as she whispered, “It’s a little itchy.”
No one paid attention to her.
She raised her voice. “It’s so itchy. Is my neck breaking out in a rash?”
A girl sitting closest to her turned around, glanced at her, and immediately widened her eyes. “Your neck is all red!”
Chu Yiran took advantage of the moment when no one was looking and scratched her neck frantically several times. The result was spectacular—red and swollen.
“What’s going on?” Song Qingwan frowned as she walked over.
Chu Yiran began to gasp, her voice trembling. “Qingwan, I think… I think I’m having a seafood allergy.”
“But you’ve always been fine with seafood, haven’t you?”
“I used to be fine, but I’ve been taking an anti-inflammatory medication recently, and the doctor said I shouldn’t have seafood at the same time…” Chu Yiran clutched her throat, her voice growing thinner. “My throat feels a little swollen. I’m having trouble breathing.”
The impact of those words was immediate.
The atmosphere on the deck instantly grew tense.
Song Qingwan called for the yacht’s private steward. After examining Chu Yiran’s neck and face, the steward’s expression changed.
“Miss Song, it looks like an acute allergic reaction. We have anti-allergy medication on board, but if laryngeal edema occurs, we won’t be able to handle it. She needs to be taken to a hospital.”
Chu Yiran seized the moment to add fuel to the fire, looking at Song Qingwan with reddened eyes. “I’m sorry, Qingwan. I didn’t mean to ruin everyone’s fun. You all keep enjoying yourselves. Just have the steward take me ashore.”
Song Qingwan looked at her reddened neck and the tears welling in her eyes, then sighed.
“Alright, stop crying. If something really happens on the yacht, I’ll be held responsible.”
She turned to the steward. “Contact the dock. Head to the nearest port and arrange a car to take her to Hecheng First Hospital.”
“Qingwan, what about your duty-free shopping…”
“Another day.” Song Qingwan waved her hand. “First, make sure you stay alive.”
Chu Yiran felt a hundred apologies in her heart, but on the surface, she cooperatively continued to clutch her throat and gasp for breath.
If acting skills weren’t enough, physical methods would have to make up for it.
When no one was looking, she gave her neck a couple of hard pinches, making it swell even more.
The butler urgently contacted the dock to adjust the course, and the yacht sped toward the nearest port.
Half an hour later, Chu Yiran was seated in a business car arranged by the Song family.
As soon as the car door closed, she instantly straightened up.
The gasping stopped, the coughing stopped, and even her neck wasn’t itching much anymore.
The driver glanced at her through the rearview mirror. “Miss Chu, straight to the hospital?”
“No need. Just stop at the nearest pharmacy to buy a box of loratadine.”
Her neck was indeed red from scratching, but it was miles away from anaphylactic shock.
As the car headed toward the city, Chu Yiran finally had some time alone and began seriously thinking about her next steps.
Tomorrow night’s seven o’clock appointment had to be canceled.
She took out her phone, opened the chat with S, hesitated for a few seconds, and typed: “Brother, I just had a seafood allergy and am on my way to the hospital.”
“I’m having a bit of trouble breathing, so I might not be able to go out tomorrow. I’m sorry.”
After sending it, Chu Yiran added another message: “The doctor said I need to stay in the hospital for observation for two days.”
Not long after the messages were sent, a reply came: “Which hospital? I’ll come over.”
Damn, she had shot herself in the foot.
She quickly backtracked: “No, no! It’s just a regular allergy. A shot will fix it. Don’t make the trip. I don’t want you to see me like this—I’m all swollen and look terrible.”
The other end of the phone fell silent for a while.
Just as Chu Yiran thought he had finally given up, one last message popped up.
“Three days later.”
“If you still can’t meet me in three days, I’ll come find you myself.”
Chu Yiran placed her phone face down on her thigh and leaned back against the seat.
She had bought herself three days.
But what about after three days?
Chu Yiran closed her eyes, her fingers unconsciously rubbing the edge of her phone case.
She had to do two things within three days.
Find a way to repay the money and completely cut ties with Shen Yu.
And the only prerequisite for both of these things was: money.
She checked the original owner’s bank card, and the balance left her utterly hopeless.
Seventy-three thousand two hundred yuan.
Fourteen million spent, leaving only seventy-three thousand.
How on earth had the original owner managed that?
Chu Yiran scrolled through the spending records—luxury goods, cosmetic treatments, high-end hotels, Michelin-starred restaurants—the transaction history stretched six pages long, each entry making her heart ache.
Seventy thousand yuan wasn’t even a fraction of a fraction of fourteen million.
Then she opened a new document in her phone’s notes app and typed four words as the title.
“Self-Rescue Plan.”
Option One: Run away.
Unrealistic. Shen Yu’s reach extended from Hecheng to the entire country. She could run, but she couldn’t hide forever.
Option Two: Confess.
Even more unrealistic. Confessing would be suicide.
Option Three: Repay slowly.
Difficult, but at least it was a way to survive.
She added a question mark after Option Three and a note: “With a monthly salary of twenty thousand, it would take fifty-eight years to repay without eating or drinking.”
Chu Yiran wanted to throw her phone.
But she had no other choice.
Unless she could find a higher-paying job.
High income.
Her gaze lingered on the phone screen for a few seconds before she slowly opened the browser and typed a few words into the search bar.
“Shen Group Recruitment.”
Shen Group, the largest commercial empire in Hecheng.
With a market value in the hundreds of billions, its business spans real estate, finance, and technology.
It’s said that even the monthly salary of the dishwasher in the cafeteria is twice that of the industry average.
Not that she wanted to wash dishes.
Rather, she had found a position—Administrative Affairs Specialist, essentially a miscellaneous job.
The monthly salary was twelve thousand, plus quarterly bonuses and year-end rewards, adding up to around two hundred thousand a year.
Two hundred thousand.
Though still a drop in the bucket compared to fourteen million, it was better than sitting idle with seventy-three thousand.
More importantly, it was Shen Group.
Working in Shen Yu’s territory to earn money and repay Shen Yu’s debt.
The idea sounded utterly absurd, but as Chu Yiran thought it over, she felt a strange sense of security instead.
Shen Group had thousands of employees. As the CEO, how could Shen Yu possibly notice a low-level, invisible worker like her?
She could blend in, work diligently, save up money, and once she had accumulated a decent amount, find a way to transfer it back anonymously.
Hiding in plain sight.
The most dangerous place was also the safest.
The more Chu Yiran thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. She immediately clicked into the recruitment details page and began studying the job requirements.
The business car stopped briefly at a pharmacy. She went in to buy a box of loratadine and, on a whim, also picked up a bottle of calamine lotion for her neck.
Back in the car, she applied the lotion while muttering to herself about the job posting on her phone screen.
“Bachelor’s degree or higher required… The original owner at least went to college, so that’s fine.”
“One year or more of administrative experience… I’ll just make it up, go all out.”
“Proficient in office software… Surely I don’t have to make this up too.”
She opened the original owner’s resume template, growing more and more frustrated as she looked at it, until she finally deleted everything and started from scratch.
Halfway through, the driver leaned over from the front seat and asked, “Miss Chu, we’ve arrived. Should I take you upstairs?”
The car had stopped outside the apartment building where the original owner rented.
Chu Yiran put away her phone, slung her bag over her shoulder, and got out of the car.
“Thank you, driver. That won’t be necessary.”
The elevator took her to the fourteenth floor. She pushed open the door to the small rented apartment and stood in the entryway, looking around.
Forty square meters, one bedroom and one living room, with a monthly rent of forty-five hundred.
Given the original owner’s spending habits, this was considered living modestly.
Chu Yiran tossed her bag onto the sofa, turned on the computer, and continued refining her resume.
By one-thirty in the morning, she had finally submitted it.
After sending it off, she slumped over the desk, staring at the “Sent Successfully” notification in her email for a long time.
Then she opened her phone and glanced at S’s chat window.
The message still lay quietly on the screen.
Chu Yiran turned off the screen, stood up, washed her face, and lay down on the small bed.
Glow-in-the-dark stars bought by the original owner were stuck to the ceiling, emitting a faint green light in the darkness.
She closed her eyes and said to herself:
“Chu Yiran, you owe someone fourteen million.”
“Starting tomorrow, you’ll be the hardest-working employee in Hecheng.”
She rolled over and added:
“Provided I get an interview notification tomorrow.”