A master of both medicine and martial arts, he picked up a beautiful CEO as his wife.

The call came in at four in the morning.

The three were in the car going down the mountain. Cellphones only had a signal halfway up Baicao Mountain, just one bar, and it was intermittent.

When Lin Yuqing answered the phone, the first sound she heard wasn't a human voice, but the sound of shattering glass. Then came Zhu Wanqing's voice.

"Yuqing." Her voice was very steady, unnaturally so. "Listen, I have something to take care of here, don't panic."

Where are you?

"The company. The 35th floor," Zhu Wanqing said. "The elevator is locked, and I've blocked the fire escape from the inside. There are seven or eight people coming up from downstairs."

Ye Feng took the phone.

"Wanqing," his voice deepened, "how many people are on your floor?"

"Me, two legal counsel, and an intern," came the sound of a cabinet being pushed from Zhu Wanqing's end. "Oh, and there's a whole floor of accounts too."

"Is the debt more important or your life?"

"You're asking the wrong question," Zhu Wanqing chuckled. "Ye Feng, if I lose this floor's accounts, the three of us have worked for nothing for the past six months. Listen to me—"

"No time," Zhu Wanqing interrupted him. "I'll give you four sentences. First: Three days ago, five institutions joined forces to short Lin's Group. On the same day, two banks withdrew their loans, and seven suppliers in the supply chain simultaneously cut off their supplies."

"Second sentence: Tomorrow morning at 10:00 AM, Lin's temporary board meeting. The agenda is to remove the president. Proposer: Lin Guodong."

"Third sentence: Uncle Lin was sent to another city for rehabilitation last week. The sanatorium was arranged by your uncle. I called for two days but couldn't get in touch with him."

"The fourth sentence—"

A muffled thud came from the other side, like someone kicking the door. Zhu Wanqing's breath hitched, but her voice remained calm:

"Fourth sentence: Yuqing, you must return to Dongyang before 10 o'clock."

"The accounts are with me; I can keep an eye on them."

"The company is in your hands; you have to go and take it yourself."

The call ended. No one spoke in the car. Shen Yu floored the accelerator.

"How long will it take to get there?" Ye Feng asked.

"The fastest... is five and a half hours." Shen Yu gritted his teeth. "It's 800 li as the crow flies. The first two hours are on mountain roads; we can only really run after we get out of the mountains."

Ye Feng glanced at his phone. 4:12.

"It's too late," Lin Yuqing suddenly said.

Her voice was soft, but there wasn't a trace of tremor. Ye Feng turned his head. In the dark carriage, her back was ramrod straight, and she was looking down, rapidly tapping something on her phone.

"As for Wanqing, it was a trick they used to force me to show up early," she typed. "They calculated that I was in the mountains and couldn't get back in time. As long as I wasn't there by 10 o'clock, the board of directors could use 'the president's long-term absence and inability to perform his duties' as the reason to complete that procedure. And you—"

"I can still vote even if I'm not there."

She looked up and smiled for the first time. The softness she usually showed in front of him was gone. This was Lin Yuqing's smile in the conference room.

"Ye Feng," she said, "I've been in the mountains for the past ten days or so, but I haven't stopped playing chess in Dongyang for a single day. I'm waiting for them to make their move."

Ye Feng stared at her for a couple of breaths and then understood something. While he was searching through jade slips, practicing meridian cultivation, and fighting desperately in the mountains for the past ten days or so, she was also fighting a battle.

But in her battle, there was no bloodshed, no true energy, and no one to stand in front of her.

"What about Wanqing?" he asked.

"She figured it out before I did." Lin Yuqing pressed her phone. "The night she withdrew the loan three days ago, she had the legal department pull out last year's revised articles of association. She didn't tell me because she was afraid I would come back early—if I came back early, those five institutions wouldn't dare to make a move. She's stuck herself on the 35th floor."

"She was fishing," Ye Feng said with a wry smile.

"She took the dirtiest part of the journey for me." Lin Yuqing put down her phone and looked out the window. "Zhu Wanqing has always been like this. She never says a kind word, but when it comes to doing things, she's willing to risk her life. So this trip of mine isn't just about going back for a meeting."

As dawn broke, the car descended the mountain road and turned onto the highway. Ye Feng sat in the passenger seat. In the back seat, phone calls were being made one after another.

"Uncle Zhou, I need all the trading data from last Monday to today for all the securities brokerage seats in Dongyang that are involved in Lin's short selling. Half an hour."

"Attorney Chen, please retrieve the amendment to the articles of association from last November. Pay special attention to Article 47, which states that 'the disposal of core assets by related parties requires a two-thirds majority vote.'"

"Mr. Sun, I know it's 5 a.m. I only have one question: are you going to sell me your eight million shares, or keep them and wait for them to hit the daily limit down tomorrow?"

"...Yes. It hit the daily limit down."

"I'm not talking about the Lin family."

I was referring to theirs.

At 7:00 AM sharp, the car crossed the provincial border. Lin Yuqing put down her phone, leaned back in her seat, and closed her eyes briefly. Ye Feng handed her a bottle of water.

She took it, took two sips, and said, "Do you know what I'm most afraid of?"

"What?"

"What I fear most is not their short selling, nor my uncle's impeachment motion." She gazed at the shadows of the trees flashing past the window. "What I fear most is—when they come for me, I'll be in the mountains. For the past six months, I've followed you, into the mountains, into the temple, and been looked at by the thing in that well."

"Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and think: Lin Yuqing, who exactly are you?"

"You are the pure Yin of a thousand years, the key, the eye of the game—"

She turned her head and looked at him.

"I have to bear all these titles. But who was I originally?"

Ye Feng remained silent.

"I was originally the president of the Lin Group in Dongyang." Lin Yuqing screwed the water bottle on. "I was the one who took over a mess at the age of twenty-three and turned it into an 80 billion yuan company. In the past six months, everyone in the hidden world has been looking at me because of that thing in my blood. Not a single person has come for 'Lin Yuqing'."

She turned her phone over, and the screen showed a whole page of densely packed holding data.

"So I'll play this match myself."

"You are not allowed to interfere."

Ye Feng stared at her for a long time. Then he smiled, reached out, and ruffled her hair.

"OK."

"I won't get involved."

"I'll be your driver."

Upon reaching the provincial border, Shen Yu handed the steering wheel to him.

At 9:40 a.m., the car entered Dongyang. The elevated highway was completely jammed. The Lin's Building stood far away on the riverbank, its glass curtain wall dazzlingly bright in the early autumn sun.

Down in the plaza, seven or eight cars were parked, and a group of people were gathered, holding up their phones. (Financial media)

"They've even invited the media," Shen Yu sneered.

"Of course." Lin Yuqing unbuckled her seatbelt and straightened her shirt collar. "To dismiss a CEO, you need an audience."

It was 9:51. She opened the car door and got out. Ye Feng sat in the driver's seat, watching her walk step by step across the square.

High heels, a white shirt, hair pulled back, not even a bag in her hand. The group of people holding up their phones surged forward, flashes going off everywhere.

"Mr. Lin! Could you please respond to the rumors about him going missing?"

"Mr. Lin! Five institutions are shorting Lin's company. What's your opinion?"

"President Lin! I heard there's a board meeting today—"

She neither stopped nor quickened her pace. Only when she reached the glass door did she turn around.

"I'm back today to do only one thing."

She smiled.

"Meeting."