Lu Shun witnessed He Qiuting fall with his own eyes, watching helplessly as his head struck the glass door with a dull thud.

He shuddered and cried out, “Be careful!”

He Qiuting’s hands pressed against the carpet, his first instinct being to get up on his own. But someone trapped in darkness easily loses balance his legs refused to cooperate, knees buckling as he collapsed to the floor again.

A sharp pain shot through his knees and temple, yet it was almost negligible compared to the overwhelming fear.

In the darkness, a warm, strong hand reached out, steadily supporting his unsteady arm.

“What’s wrong with you?”

Lu Shun’s voice was laced with urgency and panic. With one hand supporting him and the other wrapping around his waist from behind, he pulled He Qiuting closer, his tone slightly reproachful. “You… did you skip meals again?”

The corner of He Qiuting’s forehead was faintly red, starkly visible against his pale complexion.

Lu Shun stared for a moment before instinctively reaching out to touch his head. “Is your head okay?”

The touch in the darkness heightened his physical senses to the extreme, stirring a raw, physiological tension in He Qiuting.

He trembled slightly, instinctively turning his face away to avoid the contact, and shook his head.

Supported by Lu Shun, he regained his balance, but his vision remained pitch black.

He Qiuting’s lowered eyelashes fluttered. After releasing a heavy, slow breath, his eyes suddenly reddened.

He had always been fiercely independent so much so that he never needed anyone’s help, never bowed his head to anyone, and never believed anything in this world could truly trap him.

He Qiuting lived with a cold, sharp edge, yet he felt secure in his self-reliance.

Until this moment, when he realized he couldn’t even stand up on his own, that stubborn resolve suddenly crumbled.

Humiliation and helplessness washed over him. His throat tightened, and he felt an inexplicable urge to cry.

But he couldn’t cry especially not in front of Lu Shun.

He forced himself to calm down. “It’s low blood sugar. I’m dizzy and can’t see clearly right now.”

Suppressing his heartache, Lu Shun kept his gaze fixed on He Qiuting’s face, occasionally glancing through his disheveled hair at the red mark. He was both regretful and frustrated. “Then just say it! Say you have low blood sugar, that you’re dizzy, and that you want to sit here a while longer! Would I refuse you?”

Lu Shun guided him back to the sofa and sat him down, looking down at him from above. “He Qiuting, I just don’t get it. Often, it’s just a matter of saying a few words. Is it really that difficult?”

He Qiuting sat quietly on the sofa, rubbing his knee while blinking vacantly. The sunlight streaming through the window cast a hazy glow over him, creating an illusion of serene stability.

Lu Shun fell silent. After pacing in front of him a couple of times, he suddenly crouched down regardless of whether He Qiuting objected and roughly pushed up the other man’s trousers.

“Let me see your leg.”

“Lu Shun.” He Qiuting flinched, raising a hand to stop him. He moved Lu Shun’s hand aside and slowly pulled his trouser leg back down, his voice hoarse as he murmured, “Don’t… we…”

“We’ve already broken up that’s what you wanted to say, right?”

Lu Shun stood up with a grim expression and moved to the sofa nearby, staring at He Qiuting across the table as he sneered, “Even if it were a business partner I just met who fell in my office, I’d go over to check on them. You don’t need to remind me like this, President He.”

He Qiuting remained silent, holding the materials for the power plant cooperation plan, his slender fingers lightly tracing the pages.

Lu Shun and he faced each other for a long while, until Lu Shun, feeling thoroughly irritated, left him alone in the office and walked out.

As soon as he stepped outside, he ran into his assistant, Ruby, who was rushing over in a panic.

Ruby handed him a tablet, showing him the screen. “President Lu, the FDA rejected Azure Chase Pharmaceuticals’ core drug application. The stock price plummeted 70%. Team Two just held an emergency meeting and needs you there immediately.”

Lu Shun nodded and was about to leave.

“Wait.” The sharp-eyed assistant glanced through the slightly ajar glass door of the office. “President Lu, is it really okay to leave President He alone in your office?”

Lu Shun’s office contained stacks of financial reports, and his computer held various confidential and strategic information all highly sensitive.

Lu Shun wasn’t worried in the slightest. He knew He Qiuting too well. Even if those private documents were laid out in front of him, He Qiuting would neatly organize them and place them back in the drawer for him.

He Qiuting despised underhanded tactics.

Though he was fully aware of this, Lu Shun still said, “It’s fine. The office has surveillance, and the safe and drawers are equipped with alarms. President He is just reviewing materials here no issue.”

Lu Shun attended a meeting that lasted over two hours. By the time he returned to his office, He Qiuting had already left.

On the coffee table, the cooperation agreement documents were spread out, with several pages circled in red pen and annotated with comments.

He Qiuting had made revisions to a few specific clauses, added some terms, and on the last page, written a line in elegant handwriting:

【Let’s each take a step back. There will be plenty of time ahead.】

Looking over the meticulously calculated changes, Lu Shun gave a slight smile, quickly drafted the revised agreement, and sent it to He Qiuting’s email.

He Qiuting had refused to use Power Plant Access Rights as an equity contribution but agreed to provide a one-time high compensation, project dividends, and a long-term procurement agreement.

In essence, this arrangement could hardly be called a partnership anymore. To outsiders, it seemed clear that He Qiuting had been severely taken advantage of by Lu Shun.

Considering recent events He Qiuting outbidding Lu Shun for a plot of land at an auction, storming out of a class reunion, and now being bled dry over the power plant matter it painted a picture of former classmates turning against each other for profit. Yet, this was exactly what Lu Shun wanted.

He needed to create the appearance that CL and Cloud Horizon were irreconcilably at odds.

Leaning back in his spacious, comfortable chair, Lu Shun gazed at the sofa nearby, recalling how He Qiuting had sat there earlier, and felt an emptiness in his heart.

He knew Cloud Horizon was facing a tight cash flow recently and could see the immense pressure weighing on He Qiuting, whose health was beginning to show signs of strain.

Lu Shun furrowed his brow, feeling vaguely uneasy. For some reason, he had been experiencing inexplicable panic over the past two days. This sensation grew particularly intense whenever he saw He Qiuting’s pale, indifferent face.

CL Capital and Cloud Horizon were located close to each other, making gossip inevitable among employees and executives alike. News always spread rapidly between the two companies.

That evening, Lu Shun heard from his assistant Ruby that He Qiuting had erupted in anger during an executive meeting at the company.

He publicly rejected the CFO’s bond issuance proposal, slamming it on the table in front of all senior executives and demanding a revised plan within two days or else the CFO should resign.

Lu Shun found it strange that this news had reached Ruby’s ears, but even more puzzling was He Qiuting’s outburst itself.

Lu Shun knew He Qiuting maintained strict standards at work, but he rarely lost his temper, especially not with such dramatic displays.

What he didn’t know was that He Qiuting had suddenly gone blind during the meeting, forcing him to create an excuse for his outburst by violently throwing the documents.

The conference room fell into dead silence. Everyone lowered their heads to stare at their laptops, not daring to look up at him and therefore no one noticed his abnormal condition.

There he remained in darkness, clenching his teeth and enduring through the entire meeting.

By the time the meeting ended, his entire back was drenched in sweat. He Qiuting sat alone in the conference room for a long time, only rising to attend to other work when his vision gradually returned.

It was already past 11 PM when he left the company.

He went to Li Feng’s private clinic again.

He Qiuting picked up some stomach medicine and painkillers. Before leaving, he had his eyes examined again, but no issues were detected.

Unable to resist, he once again attempted to mention the system to Li Feng. “Li Feng, you might not believe this, but actually I ”

The moment he spoke, his throat immediately spasmed.

In an instant, asthma, blindness, and headache struck simultaneously.

The system issued a warning tone.

[Detection of host repeatedly disclosing my existence to others. Serious violation. This is only a warning. Next offense will result in infinite symptom stacking! Mortality rate: 99%]

As his constricted throat gradually returned to normal, He Qiuting swallowed his words and turned to drive home.

Click

A faint shutter sound.

Across from the private hospital, a white car was parked by the asphalt road. Behind the windshield, someone raised a camera and took photos.

He Qiuting remained unaware. Returning home, he changed clothes, his limbs aching with fatigue. After drawing a hot bath, he slowly lowered himself into the tub.

Steaming hot water rose in white mist, gradually submerging his ankles, calves, waist, abdomen, and chest slowly enveloping his slightly cool body.

He Qiuting leaned back, his nape touching the cool porcelain edge, releasing a soft sigh.

Closing his eyes, he finally relaxed somewhat, never expecting darkness to descend so abruptly.

The hot water continued flowing over his body, but the sensation felt utterly foreign now, completely unfamiliar.

He Qiuting abruptly sat up in the bathtub, water splashing noisily across the floor.

His hands gripped the tub’s edges tightly as his body suddenly grew stiff and numb as if frozen in place, both physically and mentally paralyzed, utterly unable to move.

He opened his mouth, instinctively wanting to call Lu Shun’s name, but ultimately no sound emerged. He simply trembled uncontrollably.

The surroundings fell into a terrifying silence. He Qiuting groped along the bathtub and slowly stood up, then reached out to feel for a towel, sluggishly wiping the water from his body.

He couldn’t see anything both from fear and the excessively high temperature in the bathroom, which made breathing unusually difficult.

He moved like an elderly person with limited mobility.

Clumsily drying himself, putting on clothes, and stepping out of the bathroom.

These simple tasks took him a full ten minutes to complete.

Feeling his way in the dark, he found the bedroom and slipped under the covers, only to feel his entire body turn cold, devoid of any warmth one would expect after a bath.

He Qiuting’s mind was in chaos. Recalling the experiences of the past few days, he still found it impossible to accept. He didn’t know how long this system would stay with him, nor could he predict when the next episode would occur or what symptoms it would bring.

It felt as though he were suspended in the clouds, where any misstep could send him plummeting into an abyss.

Why did it have to be him, and why now, during the most critical phase of his life…

Once this emotion surfaced, it quickly triggered a reaction in He Qiuting’s stomach. He turned on his side, curling up with his back hunched, feeling a tearing, intense pain spread wildly through his upper abdomen.

“Ugh… hnn…” He bit his lip tightly, his fingers clutching the pillow with force. Within mere seconds, the pain became so severe he could barely catch his breath.

Blindness magnified the stomach pain several times over. Drenched in sweat, he lacked even the strength to turn over and retrieve medicine from the drawer.

His hand fumbled blindly across the bedside until it closed around his phone.

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