The Curtain Falls

A "Wuju" white car continued its journey down the road.

Inside the vehicle, Su Yang drove in silence while Lu Ruoxi quietly studied a difficult problem on her tablet.

As Su Yang steered smoothly across the elevated bridge of Riverside Boulevard, sunlight spilled onto Lu Ruoxi's face. Just then, she solved the problem that had troubled her all night, and a faint smile graced her lips.

Neither she nor Su Yang noticed.

Just moments ago, they had narrowly brushed past a meticulously planned death.

...

Meanwhile, in another corner of Jingzhou, atop the International Trade Center, a café sat quietly.

Li Jinchuan occupied a seat by the window, elegantly holding a cup of Blue Mountain coffee.

Gazing outside, his face bore a smile of absolute confidence.

He was waiting for a call—one that would announce Su Yang's death.

He had already envisioned how, once the news arrived, he would approach and console Lu Ruoxi under the guise of a "grieving friend."

He had even rehearsed his lines.

As time passed, his phone finally rang.

The caller ID displayed an unfamiliar number.

Li Jinchuan answered, his smirk growing more triumphant.

"Hello?"

But the voice on the other end was not Black Panther's.

Instead, it was cold, devoid of emotion—an official tone.

"Is this Mr. Li Jinchuan? This is the Ninth Major Case Unit of Jingzhou South District. You are suspected of masterminding a premeditated murder and multiple commercial crimes. Please remain where you are and cooperate with our investigation."

Li Jinchuan's smile froze instantly.

The coffee cup slipped from his hand, shattering on the floor.

"No... impossible!"

"Who are you? You've got the wrong man!"

Before he could utter another word, the café door swung open.

Several uniformed officers, their expressions stern, strode directly toward him.

The leader flashed his badge.

Then, one of his colleagues produced a pair of cold handcuffs and clamped them around Li Jinchuan's wrists.

"No! This isn’t real! This isn’t how it’s supposed to go!"

Li Jinchuan finally snapped.

He thrashed wildly, his voice hoarse with screams.

"I’m the protagonist! You can’t arrest me! You’re all just NPCs!"

"Let me go! I need to fix the world!"

His madness drew the stares of every patron in the café.

People gaped at the well-dressed man now behaving like a lunatic.

The officers ignored his ravings and forcibly escorted him out.

As Li Jinchuan was shoved into the police car, he looked up at the sky, at the sunlight.

Yet all he felt was an endless abyss swallowing him whole.

The "divine destiny" he had believed in crumbled into dust before the harsh reality.

...

In the interrogation room, the lights were blindingly white.

Li Jinchuan, still cuffed to the chair, muttered incoherently.

"You’re wrong... all of this is wrong..."

The interrogating officer, a veteran of twenty years, had never encountered a suspect like this.

The evidence was irrefutable, the case airtight.

Yet he refused to confess, spouting nonsense no one could decipher.

Just as the interrogation hit a deadlock, a young officer entered, carrying a thick file box.

"Captain Li, the bureau just received an anonymous tip—sent through the highest encryption channel."

"It contains... every piece of evidence on Li Jinchuan’s crimes."

The man referred to as Captain Li frowned.

He opened the box.

Inside was a mountain of documents.

Bank statements, transfer records, call recordings, contract copies, witness testimonies...

From Li Jinchuan’s first act of corporate espionage early in his career to market manipulation, illegal fundraising, and more recently, embezzlement and premeditated murder.

Every single crime was meticulously documented, forming an unbreakable chain of evidence.

The level of detail surpassed their months-long investigation tenfold.

It was as if an omniscient god had compiled Li Jinchuan’s life into a comprehensive crime report and handed it directly to them.

Captain Li inhaled sharply.

His gaze toward Li Jinchuan shifted.

This man was no madman.

He was a pitiful prey ensnared in an invisible web, manipulated by forces beyond comprehension.

And the weaver of that web operated on a scale he couldn’t fathom.

"Read him every charge," Captain Li ordered his subordinate.

"Let him wake up and see who really wrote his so-called 'script.'"

With multiple convictions stacked against him, Li Jinchuan faced an eternity behind bars.

The original protagonist of his own story, after just a few short days of "awakening," had barely stirred the waters before being swept away like dust in a new era.

...

Qin Group, top-floor office.

Qin Ya skimmed the briefing her secretary had just delivered.

It detailed Li Jinchuan’s arrest and the subsequent exposure of a series of shocking crimes.

Her face showed no surprise—not even a flicker of emotion.

Only the dull satisfaction of a foregone conclusion.

She had chosen Li Jinchuan for his ruthless ambition.

She thought he would be a sharp blade, capable of drawing blood.

Instead, he turned out to be nothing more than a rusted piece of scrap, crumbling at the first sign of real resistance.

So foolish, in fact, that he left behind a trail of fatal mistakes.

This wasn’t a matter of capability.

It was sheer idiocy.

Qin Ya picked up her phone, pulled up Li Jinchuan’s contact, and decisively hit delete.

To her, this was simply a failed investment.

Cutting losses was Business 101.

She had no intention—nor would she ever—of mobilizing the Qin family’s resources to salvage a worthless pawn.

She didn’t even care to see him again.

Just then, her private phone rang.

The screen lit up with a name that radiated sunshine: Huangfu Chengshi.

Qin Ya’s lips curled almost imperceptibly.

She answered.

"Ya-jie! Our 'Edge Fund No. 1' outperformed the market by ten points this month!" The young man’s voice brimmed with excitement and pride.

"Is that so? Not bad," Qin Ya replied, her tone lighter.

"So... to celebrate, can we have dinner tonight?" he asked tentatively, hope threading his words.

Qin Ya glanced out the window.

The sunset bathed the city in a warm, golden glow.

"Sure," she said with a smile.

......

Li Jinchuan’s "awakening" and downfall were like a pebble dropped into a lake.

It sent ripples across the surface, but they faded quickly.

To the sprawling metropolis of Jingzhou, one man’s disappearance meant nothing.

But for some, it marked the definitive end of an era.

And the dawn of a new one.