Chen Zhi received the refund notification while his phone was still vibrating on the office desk.
He glanced down.
Five million had been returned to the original account.
The memo had only three words:
She doesn’t want it.
Pei Ningxue had just finished retying the red string bracelet around her wrist and was about to review the overseas encirclement plan that Pei Dongcheng had sent over. She heard the vibration and tilted her head to glance at it.
“What’s up—did the Los Angeles team land safely to check in?”
Chen Zhi handed her the phone.
Pei Ningxue read the memo, her fingers pausing mid-air.
The office fell silent for a few seconds.
She handed the phone back to him, her tone softening slightly.
“Pretty strong-willed.”
Chen Zhi leaned back in his chair and rubbed his brow.
“I was just worried she wouldn’t have enough money over there.”
“Does she need your little charity?”
Pei Ningxue rolled her eyes. “Chen Zhi, sometimes you’re really ridiculous. Do you think throwing money around counts as taking responsibility?”
Chen Zhi didn’t dare to argue.
Pei Ningxue continued, “Right now, the last thing she wants is exactly the stuff you keep arranging.
If you give her money, she’ll feel like she still hasn’t escaped your circle.”
Chen Zhi turned the phone face-down on the table.
“Then what should I do? Nothing?”
“You promised to leave her alone for a year—isn’t that basically doing nothing?”
Pei Ningxue spun her computer screen toward him. “If you’re really that bored, take a look at this first. Google, Microsoft, Meta, plus Baidu—they’re planning an open-source pincer move. If they take you down, how can you still fantasize about marrying three wives?”
Chen Zhi was caught off guard.
“You’ve got a way of comforting people that’s starting to sound like my mom.”
“Don’t take advantage of me.”
Pei Ningxue sat back in front of her computer and opened the meeting report.
“It’s clearly spelled out in the plan. They’re not going straight after the Moss phone directly. Instead, they want to grab the developer ecosystem first.
Microsoft offers free cloud computing credits, Google offers models, Meta offers community buzz, and Baidu handles domestic public opinion and search traffic.”
Chen Zhi took the document and scanned a few lines.
“Free doesn’t mean it tastes good.”
Pei Ningxue tapped the desk impatiently.
“Don’t get cocky. Developers are very sensitive to free resources, especially early-stage startups. Right now, your Moss ecosystem has a foothold through the phone, but the developer ecosystem hasn’t taken shape yet.”
Chen Zhi looked up.
“Then we open-source too.”
Pei Ningxue frowned.
“Have you lost your mind?”
“Not the Moss model itself.”
Chen Zhi picked up a pen and wrote a few words on a sheet of white paper:
MossOS
Plugin Marketplace
Revenue-sharing
“They want to use open-source models to snatch developers away. So we open up the phone-side system capabilities instead.
Let developers not just write apps for Moss, but write skill sets for Moss.”
Pei Ningxue took the paper, studied it for a moment, and asked, “Skill sets?”
“For example, when you order food delivery, hail a ride, edit a video, or write a PPT, it’s all essentially Moss calling underlying functions,” Chen Zhi explained rapidly. “From now on, third-party developers can create a plugin that teaches Moss more professional workflows.
Accounting plugins, legal research plugins, medical imaging screening plugins, music composition plugins.
The user says one sentence, and Moss calls the plugin to complete the task.
Developers earn subscription fees, and we take a cut.”
Pei Ningxue tapped the paper lightly with her finger.
“This is the AI ecosystem you mentioned before?”
“Exactly.”
“Free models capture basic users. We capture paid scenarios.”
Chen Zhi leaned back. “They open-source it and force developers to set up their own servers, adapt to their own devices, and find their own users. We provide the gateway, the payments, the distribution, and the cloud support.
Developers can do the math.”
Pei Ningxue lifted her head.
“So you want to build an AI-era App Store?”
Chen Zhi smiled.
“Ms. Pei, think bigger.”
“I want to build the AI-era operating system.”
Pei Ningxue stared at him for two seconds, then slapped the paper on the table.
“Then why are you still sitting here letting ‘All Out of Love’ play on repeat?”
“I just got dumped by my childhood sweetheart. Can’t I be a little dramatic?”
“You deserve it.”
Pei Ningxue grabbed her phone and dialed Dai Damai.
The moment the call connected, Dai Damai’s end sounded like a chaotic marketplace.
“Ms. Pei? You’re back? Holy crap, Bro Zhi finally got you to come around?”
Pei Ningxue’s face darkened.
“Dai Damai, shut your mouth in three seconds or I’m deducting your quarterly bonus and turning it into Moss test accounts.”
The line went dead silent.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Notify the core technology team. Meeting in the big conference room in half an hour. Topic: Moss developer ecosystem.”
Dai Damai was stunned.
“Now? The launch event just ended, and the investors haven’t even left yet.”
“Perfect, that makes the meeting even easier.”
She hung up.
Pei Ningxue closed her laptop, stood up, and straightened her sleeves.
“Let’s go, billionaire CEO.”
Chen Zhi didn’t move.
“What’s wrong?”
“My leg hurts.”
Pei Ningxue looked down at his leg, which had just come out of a cast.
“You put on quite an act in front of my dad just now. Now you feel the pain?”
Chen Zhi reached out his hand.
“Help me up.”
Pei Ningxue stood still.
“Don’t you have crutches?”
“Crutches aren’t as good as a wife.”
Pei Ningxue grabbed a folder from the table and almost threw it at him.
Chen Zhi quickly corrected himself: “CFO, CFO is better.”
Pei Ningxue was so angry she almost smiled, but in the end, she walked over and helped him up by the arm.
“Chen Zhi, let me make this clear. I’m here to manage the company, not to be your nanny.”
“Got it.”
“And not because I forgive you.”
“Got it.”
“And definitely not because I’m okay with all your messy entanglements.”
“Also got it.”
Pei Ningxue stopped walking.
“Got it my ass.”
Chen Zhi glanced at the red string bracelet on her wrist.
“At least I get this much.”
Pei Ningxue followed his gaze and felt her ears grow warm.
She quickly tugged her sleeve down.
“Keep staring, and I’ll gouge your eyes out.”
The two walked out of the office. Just as they reached the hallway, Li Zhiyi stepped out of the legal department’s temporary conference room, holding a stack of photocopies.
The three of them met.
Li Zhiyi first noticed the red string on Pei Ningxue’s wrist.
She paused for a moment, then quickly looked away and nodded at Pei Ningxue.
“Ms. Pei.”
Pei Ningxue nodded back.
“Ms. Li.”
The way she said it made Chen Zhi’s spine chill.
Li Zhiyi handed the copies to Chen Zhi.
“I’ve checked the photocopies of the letter of intent from earlier. The changes Ms. Pei made were very important—especially the Nvidia exclusive binding clause. If it wasn’t deleted, it would have blocked us from bringing in other cloud service providers down the line.”
Pei Ningxue was a little surprised.
“You understood it?”
Li Zhiyi spoke softly. “I only caught the legal risks—I don’t know much about the tech or financing parts.”
Pei Ningxue took the documents and flipped through them.
The annotations were very detailed.
A few of them even matched her own assessments.
She looked at Li Zhiyi with a slightly changed attitude.
“Renmin University Law School?”
“Yes.”
“Strong fundamentals.”
Li Zhiyi lowered her head and smiled.
“Thank you.”
Standing nearby, Chen Zhi barely felt relieved when Pei Ningxue suddenly turned to him.
“She’s more reliable than you.”
Chen Zhi: “?”
Li Zhiyi couldn’t help but curl her lips into a smile.
Chen Zhi looked stricken with grief.
“This is your first official appearance together, and you’re already ganging up on the boss?”
Pei Ningxue shoved the file back into his arms.
“The boss’s legs aren’t good right now, and his mind’s unstable too. A little attack is good for his recovery.”
Li Zhiyi draped Chen Zhi’s jacket over his arm.
“I’ll take your anti-inflammatory medicine to the meeting room.”
Chen Zhi watched as the two headed off toward the meeting room one after the other, and suddenly felt the whole scene was a bit absurd.
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.
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
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?!
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!
