Wearing a pair of dirty, worn-out canvas shoes and wrapped in a white hotel bathrobe, Song Kening made her way to a nearby bus stop.
It was midsummer, right around noon, and the scorching sun was hot enough to melt asphalt.
By the time she reached the bus stop, her bangs were already soaked with sweat, sticking messily to her cheeks and neck. Her whole body was drenched in sweat, and she looked as miserable as could be.
Ignoring the strange looks from the people around her, she carefully checked the bus routes posted at the stop to find one that could take her to NEX Group.
She finally found that bus M319 would get her there—only to remember that she didn’t have a single penny on her.
Her entire body was still aching.
There was no way she could walk five stops, right?
Song Kening had no choice but to swallow her pride and ask a beautiful woman who was waiting for the bus for help.
“Miss, could you give me two yuan so I can take the bus? I’ve run into a bit of trouble.”
The woman warily eyed Song Kening’s bathrobe, looking suspicious.
“Young lady, you don’t even have a phone? You’re not a scammer, are you?”
Song Kening hurriedly shook her head.
“My phone and ID card are both lost. Don’t worry, I’m really not a scammer. I just need two yuan to take the bus.”
The woman sighed again.
“But who carries cash these days? How about this? I have two transit cards. Which bus are you taking?”
“Okay. I won’t take this one. When the next bus comes, I’ll help you tap in, and then I’ll get off.”
Song Kening finally breathed a sigh of relief.
She clasped her hands together and repeatedly bowed.
“Thank you, big sister! Thank you so much!”
When she finally arrived at the entrance of NEX Group, Song Kening was instantly stunned!
The entire entrance of the skyscraper was surrounded by people.
Uniformed law-enforcement officers, reporters carrying cameras, and curious onlookers were packed together in several layers, completely blocking the entrance!
One of the officers was announcing,
“NEX Group is suspected of stealing commercial secrets and engaging in illegal business practices. Effective immediately, the company is being sealed!”
Song Kening was completely dumbfounded.
This wasn’t how the plot was supposed to go!
The book clearly said Lu Zhiyu wouldn’t go bankrupt until three months later.
How had it been brought forward to the very next day?!
She desperately pushed her way through the crowd, wanting to go upstairs to find Lu Zhiyu, but a security guard immediately stopped her.
“The building is about to be sealed. No one is allowed inside!”
“I’m looking for Lu Zhiyu. President Lu. He’s upstairs, right?”
The security guard glanced at her and casually replied,
“He’s not here.”
Song Kening refused to give up.
She walked around the entire building and finally found an unguarded emergency exit at the back.
There was an emergency elevator inside.
She took the elevator to the top floor.
The door to the CEO’s office was slightly ajar, and voices could be heard from inside.
Holding her breath, Song Kening quietly approached the crack in the door and peered inside.
The office was a complete mess, with documents scattered all over the floor.
Two people stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows.
One was Lu Zhiyu.
His back was facing the door, his posture still straight and proud like a pine tree. He was dressed in an immaculate suit, looking completely composed despite everything.
Yet Song Kening could somehow sense that his solitary figure concealed an indescribable loneliness.
Standing opposite him was a young man wearing gold-rimmed glasses.
He wore a light-gray designer suit and had a refined, gentle appearance.
But the smile on his face was so sinister that it sent chills down one’s spine.
“Zhiyu, I had no choice.”
Lu Zhiyu didn’t turn around.
His voice was calm.
“Zhou Yuqing, why did you do this to me?”
Zhou Yuqing’s smile became increasingly fake.
“That’s how the business world works. When profits are at stake, if I don’t become ruthless, I’ll be stuck as NEX’s number two forever. Who wouldn’t want to reach the top and become king?”
Song Kening was horrified as she listened from outside the door.
Zhou Yuqing!
In the original novel, he was Lu Zhiyu’s most trusted brother-in-arms.
He was also the traitor who would betray him the most viciously in the end, taking everything away from him.
They had both grown up in an orphanage.
During college, they joined forces to establish NEX Group.
By the time they graduated, they had already built the company into a business worth tens of billions.
Three years after graduation, its market value had soared into the hundreds of billions.
But then Zhou Yuqing teamed up with a competitor to set Lu Zhiyu up, leaking confidential information about the military-grade chips Lu Zhiyu had developed.
It directly ruined Lu Zhiyu’s reputation and left him with nothing.
Zhou Yuqing, who had long been well-versed in the law, had secretly transferred all of the company’s assets elsewhere, waiting to reap the rewards.
“Lu Zhiyu.”
Zhou Yuqing threw a document onto the desk.
“All the assets under your name have been frozen. This is the list of assets being used to repay the debts. Sign it.”
Lu Zhiyu slowly turned around.
His gaze landed calmly on Zhou Yuqing’s face, as though he were looking at a complete stranger.
“I hope you’ll treat the company’s employees well.”
Zhou Yuqing let out a mocking laugh, his expression full of contempt.
“Don’t worry. NEX belongs to me now.”
“Oh, no. That’s not quite right. It’ll be renamed Zhou Group. How the employees are handled is none of your concern.”
Lu Zhiyu said nothing more.
He turned and walked toward the door.
The moment he reached the doorway, he ran straight into Song Kening.
Lu Zhiyu frowned.
“I’ve already gone bankrupt. I don’t have a single cent.”
He paused, then looked directly at Song Kening with a chilling, mocking gaze.
“What? Did you come here specifically to humiliate me?”
“No, I didn’t!”
Song Kening hurriedly shook her head and tried to explain.
But Lu Zhiyu didn’t listen at all.
He simply walked past her, taking long strides with his long legs.
Song Kening stood there blankly for a second before hurriedly chasing after him.
For the entire day that followed, Song Kening stuck to Lu Zhiyu like a little tail, following him everywhere as they ran all over Huacheng.
At the bank, his loan application was immediately rejected.
“Mr. Lu, all the assets under your name have been frozen. You don’t meet any of the requirements for a loan. I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do.”
Then they went to his friends.
Whenever he called, either no one answered, or they picked up only to brush him off with a few words before hanging up.
“Old Lu, I’m a little tight on money myself lately. I really can’t help you…”
“Zhiyu? I’m sorry. My wife handles the finances. I don’t have a single cent I can take out!”
“President Lu? Hello? Hello? The signal’s bad! I can’t hear you! I’ll hang up first!”
The brothers, business partners, and friends who had once surrounded him and showered him with flattery now avoided him as though he were contagious.
The harshness of human nature and the fickleness of relationships were on full display.
Song Kening silently followed behind him.
From the blazing midday sun until the sun began to set.
From the bustling city center to the remote outskirts.
Watching him get rejected again and again, hit one dead end after another, and endure one cold stare and mocking remark after another, she felt an inexplicable ache in her heart.
What she couldn’t understand was this:
The original novel clearly stated that Lu Zhiyu would obtain a lifesaving loan on the very day he went bankrupt.
And the real female supporting character would take that money and run away.
But now, he hadn’t managed to borrow even a single cent.
Instead, he had been humiliated everywhere he went.
Could it be because she’d transmigrated into the novel and completely distorted the plot?
The real female supporting character hadn’t slept with him.
She had.
The real female supporting character was supposed to run away with the money.
She wouldn’t.
The real vicious female supporting character’s ID card had mysteriously disappeared.
Could that also be because she herself had transmigrated into this world?
So had Lu Zhiyu’s last chance of survival been cut off because of her?
Had she taken the place of the real vicious female supporting character?
If she ran away now, would the plot correct itself and make her the one who took the lifesaving money and fled?
She had already transmigrated into the fictional world in such an absurd way.
What other bizarre things could possibly be impossible?
Did that mean that three years from now, she would also be thrown into the Golden Triangle by Lu Zhiyu?
A chill ran down Song Kening’s back.
Oh no.
This time, she was really screwed!