“I’m human, for crying out loud.”
Chen Zhi shamelessly grabbed the chair and sat down in one go.
His movement was too big.
“Ah——”
Chen Zhi sucked in a sharp breath.
His left leg had just had the cast removed that morning, and he hadn’t brought his crutches on the way over. When he sat down, the bend at the knee was a bit too sharp, and his joint suddenly sent a searing stab of pain through him.
A cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and his face paled.
Pei Ningxue’s fingers stopped typing.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Chen Zhi’s slightly trembling left leg. Her lips parted, as if she wanted to ask something, but in the end she held back.
“If your leg’s broken, just stay home and rest quietly. Don’t come out here looking for trouble.” Pei Ningxue’s tone was stiff, her eyes fixed on the screen, as if she truly couldn’t care less.
Chen Zhi leaned back in the chair, catching his breath slowly.
“I’m in a hurry to catch the mole, that’s why I came.”
Pei Ningxue turned her head, her brow furrowing.
“What mole?”
“A former employee who withdrew his equity, settled all accounts, and blocked the boss’s WeChat. In the middle of the night, he secretly logged into the company intranet to peek at the financial statements.” Chen Zhi leaned forward, getting close to her computer screen.
Pei Ningxue’s cheeks flushed.
But she reacted quickly, suppressing the discomfort and retorting with a stern face.
“Chief Chen must be having a bout of persecution delusion. I was just checking whether the accounts before my resignation were handed over properly, so if Deep Space Technology ever goes bankrupt in the future, I won’t have to take the blame.”
“Oh?” Chen Zhi deliberately dragged out the syllable, pulling out his phone and waving it. “Checking accounts requires looking at next quarter’s revenue forecast, Vodafone’s channel distribution agreement, and the Series B term sheet?”
Pei Ningxue snapped her laptop shut with a slap.
“Deep Space Technology’s firewall is such a joke. I just clicked around and got in.”
Chen Zhi watched her stubbornly refusing to admit defeat and chuckled despite himself.
“Pei Ningxue, you’ve been running all over the world for four months—London, Edinburgh, Zurich. All to avoid me?”
“You’re overthinking it.” Pei Ningxue stuffed her laptop into her bag haphazardly. “I was just traveling to clear my head and take in some local sights abroad.”
“To take in local sights? You went that far?”
Pei Ningxue paused mid-motion.
“Did Sanya Haitang Bay’s sun feel comfortable enough on your skin?” Chen Zhi pressed, his tone laced with teasing.
Pei Ningxue couldn’t stay any longer.
She zipped up her backpack and stood, ready to leave.
Chen Zhi reacted instantly, grabbing her wrist.
“Chief Chen, please show some respect.” Pei Ningxue said coldly, struggling against his grip.
She couldn’t break free.
“Have you forgotten the agreement between us?” Chen Zhi asked.
“What agreement could I possibly have with you?” Pei Ningxue played dumb, still trying to pull her hand away.
“Four months ago, on the third floor of this building, in the Academic Affairs Office. You said it yourself.” Chen Zhi looked her straight in the face. “Once our company reaches a market cap of a hundred billion dollars within a year, you’d admit defeat and let me do whatever I want with you.”
Pei Ningxue scoffed, amused by his shamelessness.
“When did I ever say you could do whatever you want?” she said in a low voice, afraid of disturbing others in the reading room. “My actual words were: When you reach a hundred billion dollars, I’ll consider whether to pay you any attention!”
“Same difference.” Chen Zhi responded cheekily.
“Very different!” Pei Ningxue ground her teeth. “Let go! This is a library!”
"Not letting go." Chen Zhi not only didn't release her but used the pull to slowly stand up. "If you dare walk away today, I'll jump from the third floor again. This leg just got its cast off—worst case, I'll be in one for another four months."
"You're a scoundrel!" Pei Ningxue fumed.
"That's right, I am a scoundrel." Chen Zhi admitted openly.
A few students nearby had already started looking in their direction.
At Peking University's Guanghua School of Management, Pei Ningxue was no stranger, and Chen Zhi's face was even more familiar.
Seeing the growing crowd of onlookers, Pei Ningxue couldn't bear the embarrassment. She grabbed Chen Zhi's arm, dragged him out of the reading room, and led him down the hallway to a stairwell at the end where no one else was.
Pei Ningxue shook off his hand, crossed her arms, and adopted a defensive stance.
"Alright, no one's here now. What instructions does Boss Chen have?"
Chen Zhi leaned against the cold wall, his left leg slightly bent to relieve pressure.
"Come back and help me."
"No time." Pei Ningxue refused bluntly. "I still need to prepare my study abroad application materials."
"Stop pretending." Chen Zhi called her bluff. "When Old Zhao handed me that Singapore SPV structure proposal, I knew you never planned to leave."
Struck in her weak spot, Pei Ningxue's expression shifted.
"That was just out of past loyalty. I didn't want to see you ruined by overseas tax authorities."
"If you care so much, why didn't you give it to me in person?" Chen Zhi stepped forward.
Pei Ningxue immediately stepped back, her back pressing against the fire door of the stairwell.
Nowhere left to retreat.
Chen Zhi raised an arm and braced it on the wall beside her face.
A textbook wall slam.
"What are you doing!" Pei Ningxue panicked.
"Nothing much. Settling accounts." Chen Zhi looked down at her from above. "Series B funding is locked in. DeepSky Tech's current valuation is seventy-five billion US dollars."
Pei Ningxue caught her breath.
She had checked the internal data during her stay in Sanya a few days ago, but the final valuation figure was still being negotiated. She didn't know the outcome.
Seventy-five billion in Series B.
That number, for any startup in the world, was a myth worthy of being recorded in history.
"Only two hundred and fifty billion short of your billion-dollar bet." Chen Zhi lowered his voice. "So, why are you running now?"
"I'm not running." Pei Ningxue turned her head away, avoiding his aggressive questioning. "Even if it's seventy-five billion, so what? You lose if it doesn't hit a hundred billion."
"It will hit it soon."
Chen Zhi pulled his arm back, reached into his jacket pocket, and took out a folded document, slapping it into Pei Ningxue's arms.
"Take a look at this."
Pei Ningxue opened the file suspiciously.
The moment she scanned the title, her expression completely changed.
"Draft Letter of Intent for Global Computing Power Strategic Cooperation and Share Swap between DeepSky Tech and NVIDIA."
"You're swapping shares with NVIDIA?" Pei Ningxue blurted out, her voice rising two octaves. "Are you insane? Why would Jensen Huang agree to that?"
"Because of Moss's rapidly growing user base overseas and its future insatiable demand for computing power." Chen Zhi's tone was steady. "As long as this agreement is signed, it's only a matter of time before DeepSky Tech's valuation exceeds a hundred billion."
Pei Ningxue knew all too well the value of this agreement.
Once Deep Space Technology was deeply bound to NVIDIA, it would be like holding a get-out-of-jail-free card for the global AI era.
"Chen Zhi, negotiations at this level are riddled with traps that could drown you," Pei Ningxue said, her brows furrowed. "Hillhouse and Morgan Stanley will definitely attach extremely harsh betting clauses."
"I know," Chen Zhi said, spreading his hands. "That's why Deep Space Technology needs its CFO."
Pei Ningxue realized she had fallen for it again. That bastard had led her right into his trap.
She shoved the documents back into Chen Zhi's hands and let out a cold laugh.
"I've already cashed out my shares. Go find someone else."
"The option pool has always been kept open for you," Chen Zhi said, looking at her. "And for the past four months, you've been using my supplementary card to buy bags, watches, and spent nearly two million at SKP. Pei, the principle that 'a favor received is a chain unreleased'—didn't Guanghua School of Management teach you that?"
Pei Ningxue's face flushed bright red.
She had used Chen Zhi's card purely out of spite, testing his reaction. She never expected this bastard to hold it against her now.
"I'll pay you back!" Pei Ningxue gritted her teeth.
"I don't want it," Chen Zhi said, suddenly reaching out to pinch her chin, forcing her to turn and look at him.
Pei Ningxue struggled for a moment.
Chen Zhi took a sharp breath, clutching his left leg in feigned pain.
"Ouch... my leg..."
Startled, Pei Ningxue immediately stopped moving and instinctively reached out to support him.
"Are you okay? Did you strain it just now?"
Chen Zhi grabbed her hand, pulling her into his arms and holding her tightly.
Pei Ningxue slammed into his chest, her nose filled with the faint scent of laundry detergent on him.
The smell Li Zhiyi had washed into his clothes.
A sudden pang of bitterness struck Pei Ningxue's heart.
She pushed him away, her eyes turning slightly red.
"Chen Zhi, do you think you can just sweet-talk me with a few lines, play the victim, and I'll come back to be your free labor? And then watch you and Li Zhiyi live happily ever after at Wanliu Academy?"
Chen Zhi dropped his playful expression.
He looked at Pei Ningxue's reddened eyes and finally understood the real reason she had been hiding for the past four months.
She was afraid.
Afraid of being a fool, just one of many options in Chen Zhi's life.
"Lin Wanwan went back to Jiangcheng. She's taken a year off from the industry, and we agreed on a year of no contact."
Pei Ningxue froze.
"Li Zhiyi is at Wanliu Academy," Chen Zhi continued. "But this morning, when Dai Damai told me you were at Peking University, I dropped everything, didn't even grab my crutch, and just took a cab straight here."
Pei Ningxue bit her lip, her eyes locked on Chen Zhi.
"What are you trying to say?"
Chen Zhi stepped forward, cornering her again.
"I'm saying that next Wednesday, Deep Space Technology is holding a Series B funding launch at China World. I'll announce to the entire internet that the company's valuation has surpassed a hundred billion."
Chen Zhi raised his hand and gently brushed the stray hair from Pei Ningxue's forehead.
"Pei Ningxue, your deadline is up. It's time to come home."
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
] This is a dark fantasy-themed dating simulation game. The main gameplay involves containing various monster girls and investigating the truth of a world shrouded in mist alongside your companions. However, due to his love for the dark and bizarre atmosphere, Luo Wei ended up turning a dating game into a detective mystery game. Women? Women only slow down his quickdraw! To Luo Wei, the female leads in the game are more like tools to perfectly clear levels and squeeze out rewards. For Luo Wei, flirting with every girl he meets and then discarding them is standard procedure. Worried about characters losing affection points? No need. With his maxed-out charm stat, Luo Wei is practically a "human incubus." A little psychological manipulation and those points come right back. It's a bit scummy, but the paper cutout heroines in the game won't actually come at him with real cleavers. However... Luo Wei has transmigrated. He's accidentally entered the second playthrough of this game. His past actions have caused all the girls to transform into terrifying yanderes. Due to the game's setting, most of the heroines he once contained are "troubled girls." Obsessive, twisted, mentally unstable, all aggressive yanderes... The type who will kill you if they can't have you... Luo Wei wants to cry but has no tears left. "I really just want to survive..." In short, this is a story of battling wits and engaging in a love-hate relationship with yanderes.
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
