Qin Group Headquarters.
Top-floor office.
Qin Ya stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing down at the city below.
She felt utterly exhausted.
On her desk lay a financial report, the numbers for marketing and price subsidies glaring red.
Profit margins had hit a three-year low.
The office door opened soundlessly.
Huangfu Chengshi walked in, carrying a steaming cup of coffee.
He was dressed in a well-tailored casual outfit today.
Without a word, he stepped behind Qin Ya and gently pressed the warm cup against her cold hand.
Qin Ya startled slightly, snapping out of her thoughts.
She didn’t turn around, simply accepting the coffee with a soft, "Thank you."
After a pause, she spoke again.
"Chengshi, I just got off the phone with Lu Chenyuan."
"Lu Chenyuan?" Huangfu Chengshi's voice was low, tinged with displeasure.
"What does he want?"
Qin Ya didn’t answer immediately, silently staring out the window.
Huangfu Chengshi wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, resting his chin on her shoulder like a large, comfort-seeking dog.
"Ya-jie, whatever he said, we shouldn’t listen. He’s obviously trying to shake our resolve."
His tone carried a hint of childish pleading.
"‘Feng Mang’s’ tech is just as good as ‘Kai Tian’s.’ If we push a little harder, we can crush him completely!"
His voice had taken on a stubborn edge.
Qin Ya felt the warmth of his embrace, but her weariness remained.
She used to relish this—his unwavering trust, the certainty in his eyes that "we’re the center of the world."
Now, it only drained her further.
"Chengshi," she said softly, "one of our core suppliers just declared bankruptcy."
"I know," Huangfu Chengshi replied dismissively.
"It’s business. Casualties happen. I’ll have the team find better replacements."
"We killed them with our price war," Qin Ya cut in, her voice hoarse.
"We drove them under, and now we’ll pay triple for alternatives."
She turned to face him.
"Chengshi, tell me—are we really winning?"
The ease on Huangfu Chengshi’s face froze.
He gripped her shoulders, forcing her to meet his gaze.
His eyes were no longer tender and dependent but sharp with wolf-like suspicion.
"Ya-jie, what are you implying?"
"What did Lu Chenyuan say to you?!"
"Are you doubting us now?"
His voice cracked with hurt.
Looking at his young, handsome face—so full of obsession and possessiveness—Qin Ya suddenly felt they were speaking different languages.
She saw an entire industry bleeding out.
He saw only their war against Lu Chenyuan and Mo Qingli.
Too tired to argue, she closed her eyes and pulled free.
"Chengshi, I need some time alone. Please leave."
The words struck Huangfu Chengshi like a knife.
He feared Qin Ya’s anger less than this exhausted distance.
"Tired?" He stepped forward, seizing her wrist with enough force to make her wince.
"Because I’m not good enough?!"
"Or because you think Lu Chenyuan’s right? You want to surrender to him?!"
The last words hissed through clenched teeth.
"That’s not it!" Qin Ya finally snapped.
"I just don’t want to keep pointlessly bleeding resources!"
"Pointless?" Huangfu Chengshi laughed, the sound edged with madness.
"Building ‘Feng Mang’ together, fighting Yuan Long, taking back the market—was all that meaningless to you?"
He leaned in, voice rising.
"Ya-jie, you weren’t like this before."
"You never used to sound so defeated."
Qin Ya watched the storm in his eyes.
Nothing she said would reach him now.
Her anger faded into something heavier—helplessness.
She gave up, waving a hand.
"Chengshi, just let me be. Please."
The quiet plea shattered him.
Huangfu Chengshi stared at her, realizing he’d hurt the person he cherished most.
Wordlessly, he released her, stepping back with pained eyes.
"Fine."
He turned and walked out, closing the door gently behind him.
Silence swallowed the office again.
Lu Chenyuan’s words echoed in Qin Ya’s mind:
"We could make the pie bigger together."
She’d always believed her war with Mo Qingli and Lu Chenyuan was fate.
Now, she saw it consuming everything—even those closest to her.
They were two beasts trapped in a mud pit, exhausting each other, while the hunter, Sitelar, smiled and raised his gun.
Sitting at her desk, she picked up the intercom, her voice eerily calm.
"Get me General Manager Li at Tianxin Tech."
She had to act.
At the very least, she’d sound out the others at the table.
---
Night fell.
The countryside stars burned bright; the campfire crackled nearby.
Lu Shi’an was already asleep.
Lu Chenyuan and Mo Qingli sat side by side before the tent.
"Mo Group has three auto-parts subsidiaries," Mo Qingli said abruptly.
"All losing money this quarter."
"Their clients are second-tier EV makers."
"With Yuan Long and Qin Group’s price war, those smaller players are squeezing suppliers to survive."
"The whole supply chain is bleeding."
Her perspective revealed the wider devastation.
"Those calls today—were you trying to wake them up?" She glanced at Lu Chenyuan.
"Just laying out the facts," he replied.
"The choice is theirs."
"They’ll choose wisely," Mo Qingli said with certainty.
"Ren Qian and Qin Ya are smart. They’re just trapped on a runaway train."
"You gave them a reason to hit the brakes."
She tossed another log into the fire.
Flames lit her profile—gentle yet resolute.
"But braking isn’t enough."
She turned to Lu Chenyuan, her dark eyes gleaming with insight.
"You need a new role."
"One beyond ‘Yuan Long’s Chief Advisor.’"
"Only then can you gather all these proud players at one table."
"You can’t be a player anymore. You must be the referee."
Lu Chenyuan looked at her.
He realized that his wife always had a way of seeing through the deepest schemes in his heart.
He smiled, reaching out to pull her into his embrace.
“Then, what kind of referee do you think I should be?”
Mo Qingli leaned against his shoulder, watching the flickering flames.
“One who draws a bigger arena for everyone.”
“Or perhaps…”
She paused, tilting her face up to meet his gaze with a hint of amusement in her eyes.
“A thinker.”
Hearing this, Lu Chenyuan chuckled as well.
He lowered his head and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
agon king storylines. At the start, I obtained the "Ultimate Lackey System" - the more I act as a lackey, the stronger I become. What else could I do? I chose to become the personal henchman of the ultimate villain, Su Muwan. I provoke all sorts of chosen ones, snatch away their opportunities, and commit every evil deed imaginable. You ask who's behind me? Hmph! You're not worthy of knowing my lady's name! ...... ....... I am Su Muwan, the eldest daughter of the Su family. Since childhood, I've possessed extraordinary talent in martial arts, which led to my arrogant and domineering personality in my past life. I was even foolish enough to repeatedly challenge those favored by heaven, ultimately resulting in a tragic death. In this life, I must behave and absolutely cannot walk the same path again!! However... SLAP!! "So you're the Dragon King, huh?!" When I saw my little lackey swagger over and viciously slap the Dragon King who was hiding his identity, I felt my heart sink. Su Muwan's suspended heart finally died as she watched Qin Luo, her utterly loyal lackey, standing before her. She fainted on the spot from shock. Heaven is determined to destroy me!! (Pure love 1v1, light-hearted, no angst, single female lead, villain, reincarnation, lackey)
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
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!
