CHAPTER 109: CHAPTER 109; PAYING LU ZEYAN A VISIT 7

But they’d added context, text overlays explaining Shuyin’s story in heartbreaking detail, showing side-by-side comparisons of evidence that didn’t add up, highlighting contradictions and inconsistencies.

The comments were ruthless:

"She spent WEEKS in prison for crimes she didn’t commit and this man couldn’t even visit her once?"

"The way she’s crying for him and he DESTROYED her life. I can’t. This is too much. I’m actually sobbing."

"Lu Zeyan needs to be investigated immediately. This is criminal. He needs to be in prison, not running a billion-yuan company."

"The Lin family too! They testified against her knowing it was all lies! Her own family betrayed her for MONEY!"

Lu Zeyan’s hand was shaking as he scrolled, trembling like he had palsy. "This is... this is a coordinated attack. Someone planned this meticulously. Someone with significant resources and access...."

"Sir, that’s not even the worst part." Feng Ting looked like he wanted to be anywhere else in the world, maybe on another planet entirely. "The stock price."

"What about it?" Lu Zeyan asked, though he already knew the answer would be bad. Everything today was bad.

Feng Ting looked like he’d rather be literally anywhere else, maybe on fire, maybe drowning, anywhere that wasn’t delivering more terrible news to a boss who looked two seconds away from a complete breakdown.

"The stock price, sir. It dropped eight percent in the last hour. Trading is getting volatile, with lots of panic selling. The board is already calling emergency meetings. They want answers. They want..." He trailed off, unable to finish.

"They want my head," Lu Zeyan finished for him, his voice flat. "They want someone to blame, and I’m the obvious target."

"Sir, that’s not...." Feng Ting tried, but they both knew it was true.

"What else?" Lu Zeyan demanded, because there was always more. Today was the kind of day where disasters came in waves, each one bigger than the last. "Just tell me. All of it."

Feng Ting swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing. "Your uncle is on line two. He’s been calling repeatedly for the last fifteen minutes. I tried to tell him you were busy, but he said..."

"Let me guess," Lu Zeyan interrupted bitterly. "If I don’t pick up in the next sixty seconds, he’s coming here personally to drag me to a conversation."

"Actually, sir, he said he’d be here in thirty seconds. That was about twenty seconds ago."

"Of course he did." Lu Zeyan felt something that might have been hysterical laughter bubbling up in his chest, but he forced it down. Breaking down now would only make everything worse. "Of course."

His face had gone from pale to grey, the color of someone watching their entire life circle the drain in real-time. His uncle, Lu Chen, the family patriarch, the man who controlled the main Lu conglomerate like a king ruling his empire, wasn’t someone you ignored. Wasn’t someone you disappointed?

Lu Zeyan had spent his entire life chasing that man’s approval. Had built his career trying to prove he was worthy of the family name. Had sacrificed everything, including, apparently, an innocent woman’s life, to climb high enough that his uncle would finally look at him with something other than vague disappointment.

And now it was all falling apart.

"Tell him I’ll call him back..." Lu Zeyan started, but even as the words left his mouth, he knew it was pointless.

"I don’t think that’s an option, sir," Feng Ting said gently, with the kind of careful sympathy you’d use on someone standing on a ledge. "He was very clear. Very... insistent."

"Fuck." The word exploded out of Lu Zeyan like a pressure valve releasing. He dragged both hands through his hair, fingers catching in the carefully styled strands and completely destroying any pretense of composure. The expensive styling his personal groomer had spent twenty minutes perfecting this morning was now a disaster, making him look exactly like what he was, a man losing control.

He looked at Shuyin, who’d been standing quietly by the window this whole time, and for the first time since she’d entered his office, she saw something raw in his eyes. Not calculation. Not desire. Not even anger.

Pure, genuine fear.

"Did you know about this?" The accusation came out desperate, searching for someone, anyone, to blame. "Did you do this?"

Shuyin’s eyes went wide with shock that looked absolutely perfect, absolutely genuine. She’d always been good at presentations, at performing for audiences, but this? This was masterful.

"What?" Her voice cracked just slightly, surprise bleeding into hurt. "No! Zeyan, I’ve been in prison! How would I.... I don’t even have a phone! I couldn’t have...."

"Someone did!" He was spiraling now, panic overtaking the careful calculation that usually governed his every move. His hands gestured wildly, knocking over a pen holder that scattered expensive fountain pens across his desk. "Someone with access to sealed evidence, to court records, to financial documents that were supposed to be confidential! Someone who knew exactly how to destroy me!"

" How did you manage to get out?" He hadn’t asked and thought of this crucial thing.

" I don’t know who did it! I was just called to court and soon the case was done... I don’t know anything else..." She weakly shook her head denying.

His breathing was coming faster, shorter. The walls of his perfectly appointed office seemed to be closing in.

"Someone orchestrated this. Someone with resources, reach, and motivation. Someone who wanted to..."

The phone on his desk started ringing.

Not his mobile, his office line. The private number. The one that only senior family members and board directors had. The one that never rang unless something was catastrophically wrong.

Lu Zeyan stared at it like it was a live grenade.

The ringtone seemed impossibly loud in the suddenly quiet office. Each trill felt like a countdown timer ticking toward detonation.

"You need to answer that," Feng Ting said quietly, and there was something almost like pity in his voice.