Zhou Heng stood with his two assistants like three stone sentinels in the corridor of the Neurology Department at Provincial Third Hospital.
Li Jianmin and his wife huddled in the corner of a bench. The freshly signed disclaimer was clutched tightly in Li Jianmin’s hand, his knuckles pale from the force of his grip.
Now, when he looked at Chen Zhi, his gaze no longer saw a "wealthy young man" but a living demon who could have him locked up at any moment.
"Zhiyi, we’ll be heading back now," Li Xiuqin said, forcing a smile as she picked up her bag.
"If your grandfather wakes up, remember to call your aunt."
Li Zhiyi, standing beside Chen Zhi, gave a slight nod. "Sure, Aunt Xiuyun. Take care."
Once the relatives had slunk away into the elevator, the air in the corridor finally cleared.
Zhang Guifang let out a long breath, turned to Chen Zhi, and scolded in a low voice, "You little rascal, calling a lawyer over without giving any warning. You scared your grandmother half to death."
Chen Zhi leaned his cane aside and plopped down onto the bench.
"Mom, reasoning doesn’t work with these family matters. You have to use the law."
"People like that—you give them face, and they think they can push you around. You have to put a knife to their throat before they figure out who’s boss."
Li Zhiyi walked over to Chen Zhi, crouched down, and picked up the jacket that had fallen off him.
"Chen Zhi, thank you," she said softly, her voice still carrying a trace of lingering exhaustion.
Chen Zhi reached out and ruffled her hair. "Alright, don’t mention it. Lawyer Zhou and his team are still here. They’ll stay in the provincial capital for the next few days until Grandpa is discharged."
"If your uncle and the others try anything again, just call Lawyer Zhou directly."
Li Zhiyi bit her lip and rested her head on Chen Zhi’s knee.
...
Fifteen days later.
DeepSpaceTech headquarters, Beijing.
The once spacious CEO office was now piled high with blue folders and thick financial reports.
Dai Damai barged in with a file, full of energy.
"Boss, the SEC cleared the review!"
"Morgan Stanley and Hillhouse sent over the final subscription list. Oversubscribed forty times!"
Chen Zhi was sitting behind his desk, staring at code on his screen.
He looked up at Dai Damai with a calm expression.
"What’s the rush? Expected."
Dai Damai slapped the file onto the desk.
"Expected? Boss, this is the biggest IPO in Nasdaq’s history!"
"An initial valuation of $520 billion. If it doubles on opening day, we’ll be the most valuable tech company in the world!"
"Don’t you know the media’s gone crazy? Reuters, Bloomberg—even Time magazine wants an exclusive interview with you."
Chen Zhi closed his laptop, leaned back in his chair, and turned to look out the window.
In Beijing’s early summer, the sunlight was already starting to glare.
"Old Dai, listing is just a means, not the end."
"What about the computing resources I asked for from NVIDIA?"
Dai Damai froze for a moment, then quickly flipped to another report.
"For the next three years, priority chip supply goes to DeepSpaceTech, ahead of Microsoft and Google."
"The condition is that we open up MossOS for deep adaptation."
Chen Zhi let out a cold laugh. "Dream on. Adaptations are fine, but the underlying architecture is off-limits."
Just then, the office door swung open.
Pei Ningxue walked in, dressed in a sharp black pencil skirt suit.
She carried a tablet and wore an expression even colder than usual.
"Mr. Chen, the private jet is ready. Departure at 2 p.m., direct to New York."
She looked at Chen Zhi with a scrutinizing gaze.
"Have you arranged things with Li Zhiyi?"
Chen Zhi rubbed his nose. "She’s staying in Beijing to take care of Grandpa. He just got discharged, not fit for travel."
Pei Ningxue gave a soft snort and handed him the tablet.
"Here’s the Nasdaq bell-ringing schedule. Oh, and about Lin Wanwan..."
She paused, her tone becoming slightly teasing.
"Su Man said Lin Wanwan’s at an exclusive music festival in Boston—can’t be reached."
Chen Zhi’s hand faltered for half a second as he took the tablet.
"Got it."
Pei Ningxue didn’t miss his slight reaction. She leaned in closer.
"Tomorrow, the world’s cameras will be on you. If the media catches a shot of this hundred-billion-dollar CEO looking lost on the streets of New York, DeepSpace’s stock might drop by a whole limit."
Chen Zhi looked up at her and suddenly smiled.
"Pei Ningxue, are you jealous, or are you just worried about the company’s market cap?"
Pei Ningxue straightened up and smoothed her collar.
"I only care about my stock options. After all, I haven’t seen what a $500 billion firework looks like yet."
...
New York, Manhattan.
On the massive screens in Times Square, DeepSpaceTech’s logo occupied the most prominent spot.
A black-and-blue emblem reading "DeepSpaceTech" exuded an undeniable ambition.
Chen Zhi stood on the top floor of a hotel across from Times Square, holding a cup of black coffee that had already gone cold.
"Boss, four hours to go," Dai Damai said from behind, squirming in his suit.
He’d never worn such expensive clothes and couldn’t get comfortable.
"I checked the dark pool earlier—price has already hit $120, up 50% from the offering price."
Chen Zhi didn’t turn around. He just asked calmly, "Is it raining in Boston?"
Dai Damai blinked. "Huh? Let me check."
"No need," Chen Zhi said, setting the coffee cup down.
He pulled out his phone and opened the chat with the pinned contact he hadn’t dared to message in a long time.
Lin Wanwan’s avatar was still a picture of a cactus.
He typed a few words: [I’m about to ring the bell.]
Thought for a moment, then deleted them one by one.
Finally, he sent just one line: [You there?]
The message went out like a stone sinking into the sea—no response at all.
Chen Zhi put the phone back in his pocket and took a deep breath.
"Let’s go. To Nasdaq."
...
Nasdaq Trading Floor.
The room was packed with the world’s top investment banking elites and media reporters.
Chen Zhi walked in, surrounded by a team of bodyguards and executives.
A representative from Hillhouse smiled broadly and shook Chen Zhi’s hand firmly.
"Mr. Chen, congratulations. After today, you’ll be the idol of young people worldwide."
Chen Zhi smiled back. "Mr. Zhang, you flatter me. Let’s make money together."
Pei Ningxue stood on Chen Zhi’s left. Li Zhiyi wasn’t there, but her name appeared first on DeepSpaceTech’s legal advisory list.
"Ten, nine, eight..."
The entire room began the countdown.
Chen Zhi’s hand rested on the button that symbolized the pinnacle of wealth.
A flood of images flashed through his mind:
The helplessness of his first day after rebirth, lying in a cradle.
Nights of coding with Dai Damai until dawn at Peking University.
The despair of chasing Pei Ningxue through a rainstorm in Jiangcheng.
And Lin Wanwan, playing him that song, A Kind of Farewell.
"Three, two, one!"
"Bang!"
A shower of golden confetti rained down from the ceiling.
From the moment trading began, the curve on the screen climbed at a nearly vertical angle.
Five hundred and twenty billion.
Six hundred billion.
Seven hundred billion.
The shifting numbers had lost their financial meaning; they felt more like a ritual of power.
Chen Zhi stood on the stage, looking at the frenzied crowd below.
Suddenly, it all felt a bit meaningless.
Just then, his phone buzzed in his pocket.
He ducked away from the cameras and furtively took it out for a look.
It was a WeChat message.
From: Lin Wanwan.
Attached was a photo. In it, a girl in a simple white T-shirt, with short-cropped hair, stood before a massive screen on a street in Boston.
On that screen was a live broadcast of Chen Zhi ringing the opening bell.
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
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.
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
