Miracle Reappears [Only by Facing Death Can One Find Life; Only Today Do I Truly Know Who I Am]

Daybreak.

The night passed in the blink of an eye, and the next morning arrived, sunlight streaming in through the window.

"Hehe... huh, why is it light already?" The little secretary's not-so-bright smile froze on her face. She'd been reading way too intently, lost track of time, and accidentally pulled an all-nighter.

"No way, gotta get some sleep..."

The little secretary hurriedly put her phone down, hid it under her pillow, wrapped herself up in the blanket, and buried her head as she went back to sleep.

It looked like she was sleeping, but really, she was terrified that the President would come by to check on her later. The little secretary had zero acting talent, and in front of someone as hyper-intelligent as the President, there was nowhere to hide.

The best plan was to genuinely fall asleep, then when the President came to wake her up, just act groggy and stay in bed. That way, she could smoothly coast into a nice, comfortable sleep.

Anyway, she didn't have school today. Ugh... sleep, just sleep...

The little secretary hadn't been asleep for long when the sound of footsteps came from upstairs as Dongfang Zhixia came down. Yeah, that's right—she'd spent the entire night, a full night, up on the rooftop.

Throughout the night, Ye Cheng had been tied to a pillar outside, subjected to harsh interrogation, but in the end, nothing had been squeezed out of him.

At least... judging by Shen Qinghan's expression, nothing had been extracted. Her face showed no obvious change, still cold and stern, looking like a problem child.

Naturally, that was how the young lady appeared from Dongfang Zhixia's perspective.

To everyone else, the young lady was a different story altogether. Take the head maid, for example—she'd become even more terrifying. And Xia Tongxin? She'd become even more intimidating.

As for Ye Cheng... oh, forget about Ye Cheng. He looked like he'd already been left for dead, tied to that pillar.

Dongfang Zhixia was now rushing over to join Shen Qinghan and drag Ye Cheng to the hospital for an examination!

Delay would only invite trouble. If they waited any longer, Ye Cheng would definitely make a run for it!

Dongfang Zhixia hurried downstairs, pat-pat-pat, and casually called out to the little secretary who was still lying in bed with her head buried in the blanket.

"If you get hungry, call the auntie to come make you some food. I might not be back for lunch."

No response.

Dongfang Zhixia frowned. Normally, even if the girl was dead asleep, she'd have some leftover consciousness to respond when spoken to.

Even if the little secretary herself didn't know what she was mumbling in response, at least she'd make some kind of sound. But now? Complete silence?

There were more important matters at hand, so Dongfang Zhixia didn't overthink it, chalking it up to the girl sleeping extra deeply.

After changing clothes, she went downstairs and jogged straight toward Xia Tongxin's villa, about a kilometer away.

After Dongfang Zhixia left, the little secretary lay at home, still half-conscious. Ah, to be young—her body just hit the pillow and she was out cold.

Meanwhile,

At the villa entrance.

Ye Cheng, exhausted from a night of interrogation, had fallen asleep. Shen Qinghan glanced at him, then looked over at the head maid.

"Keep an eye on him. Don't let him get away. My people are on their way."

The head maid nodded. "Got it. You go ahead. I'll keep him pinned down!"

Xia Tongxin was nowhere to be seen at the entrance. Near dawn, she'd finally hit her limit—her body overloaded, and without any warning, she'd collapsed on the spot.

Yeah... flat on her back, which gave the head maid a scare. Fortunately, she still had a heartbeat and was breathing, and quite steadily at that.

She'd probably just fallen asleep.

That was a minor blip. The real main event was Ye Cheng. After a night of the young lady's interrogation, every trick in the book had been thrown at him—like recharging his zero-spend game account, opening all his hoarded free packs, burning his coins, draining his diamonds...

But Ye Cheng clamped his mouth shut, refusing to budge, no matter what.

The more he resisted, the stronger the knot of unease in Shen Qinghan's chest. This was a first. Ye Cheng had never been this tight-lipped.

Nine times out of ten... those things that certain gorilla woman mentioned yesterday were on the money. All that was missing now was the final step of verification. She couldn't trust anyone else—she needed the Du family to come personally and confirm it.

She wouldn't even wait around idly for them to arrive. Shen Qinghan had already contacted the Du family, and they were almost at the school.

The moment they got here, Ye Cheng was getting hauled away on the spot!

Negotiate?

Human rights?

Not up for discussion on this one!

Tap-tap-tap, the young lady's footsteps grew more distant, her voice fading, losing its usual calm and light rhythm, replaced by a restless, urgent pace.

The moment the sound of footsteps vanished, Ye Cheng, who had supposedly been dead asleep, snapped his eyes open. Revived. He strained!

BANG!

A muffled sound rang out as the ropes binding him snapped clean apart.

Head maid: "???"

Not even one second of wasted time, huh?

The head maid hadn't bought for a second that Ye Cheng could actually sleep at a time like this. The young lady probably knew that too, but she was too flustered and rattled to think straight.

"Xiaxia, take care of yourself. The mountains and rivers will meet again—fate will bring us back together in this world!"

Ye Cheng casually stretched his limbs and, without a single moment of hesitation, took off running, waving goodbye over his shoulder as he went.

Head maid: "???"

"Where are you going?"

"I'm gonna lay low outside for a while, wait till the heat dies down, then I'll come back. You know I don't have a choice, Xiaxia." Ye Cheng put on the look of a tragic hero, a "pain mask" stuck to his face.

In reality... yeah, that was accurate. Damn it, damn it all! My precious premium account is gone, waaah...

His heart was bleeding. After scheming all night, he'd finally made his move at this exact moment!

Ye Cheng had been worried—what if the young lady stayed posted up here the whole time?

He didn't have the guts to run right in front of Shen Qinghan. As for why...

Let's rewind a few hours.

Ye Cheng was tied to the pillar outside, about to face the young lady's brutal interrogation. Right now was a lull—the young lady had gone off to grab a whip and a cleaver, and oh yeah, her phone, so she could execute his game account with extreme prejudice!

In that moment of despair, those twisted black words appeared before Ye Cheng once again.

System, you're alive? Where the hell have you been all this time, showing up only when I'm at death's door, huh?

[Only through crisis comes rebirth. Only now do I know who I truly am!]

[Accept the examination openly. Reveal your body's true condition!]

[Mission reward: The hatred of the Dongfang family, the hatred of the Su family, the hatred of the Tang family, the hatred of the Shen family, the pursuit of the Du family, the bounty from the Xia family...]

[Where there's a will, there's a way—head west, keep your head down, and wait for the right moment...]

[Mission reward: The compromise of the Dongfang family, the compromise of the Su family, the compromise of the Tang family, the compromise of the Shen family, Du Wanyi's sneak attack, the support of the Xia family...]

Ye Cheng: "..."

Holy crap!!!

Dude, are you just stacking debuffs on me or what?

Even in games, Ye Cheng had never seen this many negative buffs piled onto one person. They just kept coming, denser and denser, chilling him to the bone.

Although this was probably the stingiest the system had ever been, with the so-called mission reward being nothing more than a painted pie in the sky—not even a crumb given—it was actually the most practical thing of all.

It had told you ahead of time what the outcome of your choice would be.

As for why there was so much hatred piling up... Ye Cheng thought about it. If he honestly submitted to the inspection, he'd end up locked away, unable to do a thing.

As for who would lock him up and where, that was anyone's guess. It was like tossing a spark into a pile of gunpowder.

Boom!

Who would explode first, nobody knew, but one thing was certain: he was dead meat.

The more he thought about it, the more it cemented his resolve to run. Finally, just as dawn was about to break, Ye Cheng pretended to pass out from exhaustion.

He fed the young miss a false signal, but unfortunately... it didn't fool the head maid. Still, the head maid kept her silence and didn't warn Shen Qinghan, who was already getting flustered.

The moment Shen Qinghan left, Ye Cheng dropped the act and snapped the ropes apart.

Time to bolt!

"Xiaxia, hope we meet again someday!" Ye Cheng waved, vaulted over the wall, his body as light as a feather, and disappeared from the head maid's sight.

The head maid stood there for a long while, and in the end, she could only let out a sigh...

"I hope I made the right choice."

Unlike the others, who showed support and concern, the head maid chose to trust Ye Cheng. She didn't think he was the type to court death, and besides... Ye Cheng himself was a man tied to miracles.

Never see through him, always has a backup plan—that feeling drew the head maid in deeply, and it was precisely that feeling that made her choose to cover for him at this critical moment.

In less than two minutes, Shen Qinghan came back with a massive swarm of people. The moment she saw the scene outside the villa, she froze in her tracks.

She stared blankly at the ropes scattered on the ground.

Her eyes began to lose focus. After a long pause... hearing the shouts of those around her, she snapped back to reality.

"Young miss, are you all right, young miss?" Niu Fen stood nearby, full of worry. He had come to handle the school matters personally, and had received word early in the morning that his young miss was rallying people.

He'd rushed over immediately.

Hearing the commotion outside, the head maid finally emerged from the house, "belatedly," and stared at the ropes on the ground with a shocked expression.

"Where is he? How is he gone!"

Shen Qinghan's face was cold as she watched the head maid put on her little act.

The instant she saw the ropes on the ground, Shen Qinghan understood. She'd been fooled—the two of them had played her together... She'd been tricked.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Shen Qinghan said calmly, looking at the head maid.

The head maid shook her head. "Sorry, I don't know what you're talking about. I should get back to cleaning the house."

The atmosphere dropped to freezing point, but it didn't last long. Shen Qinghan soon ordered the roads to be blocked off, and a huge crowd stood in the courtyard without any sign of leaving.

The slap and violence the head maid had expected never came. Perhaps it was out of consideration for Ye Cheng... or rather, it definitely wasn't out of consideration for their young miss.

Everyone had seen how unhinged Shen Qinghan could be before. She didn't think the young miss of the Du family would hesitate to hit her—not just her, she'd probably even dare to lay hands on their Madam.

The only reason she didn't lay a finger on her was because doing so would make Ye Cheng unhappy.

It seemed that the weight and status of that certain someone in the heart of the underworld heiress were even heavier than she had imagined.

Meanwhile.

On the other side of the road where help was coming, Dongfang Zhixia was jogging toward Xia Tongxin's villa when she suddenly spotted a ghostlike figure moving rapidly along the ridgeline not far away.

In the blink of an eye, it had covered dozens of meters, like a gust of wind, weaving ceaselessly through the trees...

Dongfang Zhixia: "???"