Extra Story - The Young Lady and Her Wolf Dog - Dimensional Reduction

Huangfu Chengshi's voice was no longer the clear, bright tone of a boy.

It carried the low, slightly husky quality of a man on the verge of adulthood.

His voice was filled with absolute seriousness.

"Wait for me to come back."

"Then I'll have the right to stand openly by your side."

"Not like now, where I can only... hide in your shadow."

Qin Ya was stunned.

She looked at him, at the utterly unconcealed determination and obsession in his eyes.

It had completely transcended a younger brother's dependence on an older sister.

It was a man's intense possessiveness.

And, a weighty promise.

Her heart gave a faint tremor in that instant.

She wanted to say something.

Wanted to say, "What nonsense are you talking?"

Wanted to say, "I don't need you standing by my side."

Wanted to say, "Stop dreaming, you little brat."

But, looking into those eyes, so earnest they stole her breath, she couldn't utter a single word.

The ambiguous zone in this relationship, which she had deliberately avoided, was brutally torn open at this moment by this young man about to embark on a distant journey.

In the end, she merely slowly curved the corner of her mouth.

Revealing a smile that was uniquely Qin Ya's.

Proud, radiant, and utterly arrogant.

"Alright."

She said.

"I'd like to see."

"What kind of success you can make for yourself."

She reached out and ruffled his hair, just like every time before.

This time, her movements were slow.

As if trying to memorize the feel of its fine, soft, yet stubborn texture.

Huangfu Chengshi didn't move.

He just looked at her deeply.

As if trying to etch her image into his very bones and blood.

"Ya-jie."

His voice was very, very soft.

"Wait for me."

After saying this, he stood up, picked up the backpack beside him, and turned to leave the dessert shop.

Resolute, without looking back.

Qin Ya sat there alone.

For a very, very long time.

She looked down at her fingertips, which had just touched his hair.

They seemed to still retain his warmth.

Recalling his firm words, "Wait for me."

Huangfu Chengshi was gone.

Qin Ya's life seemed unchanged.

She was still the unquestionable queen of the Qin Group.

Still attending long, tedious meetings every day.

Still signing contracts worth billions at a stroke.

Still appearing in various hypocritical social settings, dressed in her brightest red dresses.

Yet, something seemed to have changed.

Her office was missing the figure of a young man who would peel fruit for her.

Her car was missing a chatterbox who would babble about amusing things from school.

Her phone had also grown much quieter.

She would no longer receive a late-night call full of wheedling and unreasonable demands.

Qin Ya realized she felt somewhat unaccustomed to it.

This unfamiliarity was like a tiny splinter embedded in a fingertip.

The splinter was fine, soft, with no end to pull.

It didn't usually hurt.

But it was a constant, unreminding presence.

Something was already different.

Even causing a faint ache when accidentally brushed against.

On the campus of M University in Country A.

Huangfu Chengshi voraciously absorbed the most cutting-edge knowledge.

He was no longer that gloomy, silent youth.

He displayed an open, confident, even somewhat cunning demeanor.

He joined the university's computer club and quickly became its technical core.

He participated in Country A's national collegiate programming competition, leading his team to victory.

He became the most talked-about figure on M University's campus.

Handsome, dashing, pretty yet not effeminate.

Exceptionally capable, with a family background in Xia Country that seemed top-tier as well.

Many beautiful, blonde, blue-eyed girls showed interest in him.

He politely declined them all.

All his changes were for a single purpose.

To return faster to the side of his goddess.

He was like the most obsessive stock trader.

Spending hours each day studying a stock called "Qin Ya."

He followed every move of the Qin Group.

He analyzed her every decision.

He scrutinized every one of her opponents.

He lived as her shadow.

A shadow thousands of miles away.

Their connection was reduced to a transoceanic phone call every few days.

The time zones were inverted.

It was daytime where he was.

Midnight where she was.

"Ya-jie, I really miss the sweet and sour pork ribs made by your family's chef."

His voice on the other end of the line was full of youthful energy and complaint.

"If you can't have it, then don't eat it."

Qin Ya had just finished a four-hour meeting, her voice laced with exhaustion.

"Ya-jie, you stayed up late again?"

"None of your business."

"Ya-jie, there's a girl here who insists on chasing me, what should I do? She's even fiercer than you."

"Tough luck."

"Ya-jie, I can't write my thesis, scold me a few times, otherwise I have no inspiration."

"Huangfu Chengshi, are you out of your mind?"

"Ya-jie..."

He always had all sorts of trivial, nitpicky reasons to seek her attention.

Qin Ya would scold him each time, calling him childish, boring.

Even threatening to block his number.

But the next time the phone rang, she would still answer it immediately.

Even she hadn't realized it.

Hearing the energetic voice of that boy on the other end of the line seemed to dispel a whole day's weariness and scheming.

It had become a habit she couldn't break.

Qin Ya encountered the greatest crisis since she took the helm.

Perhaps even the greatest crisis for the Qin Group.

Lu Chenyuan.

Mo Qingli.

These two names, regarded as rivals since childhood, loomed like two insurmountable mountains, weighing heavily upon her.

Yuanlong Technology's "Boundless" automobile.

The Mo Group's absolute monopoly on the upstream new energy industry chain.

Coupled with the dimensional reduction strike that was the "Celestial Pivot OS."

The three forces have joined hands, stirring up a tsunami in the new energy market.

The Qin Group's new energy project, painstakingly built over many years, crumbled under the impact of this giant wave.

Stock price, plummeting.

Orders, collapsing.

Market share, being voraciously eroded.

Within the Qin family, the dissenting voices she had once forcefully suppressed rose up again, louder than ever.

"Qin Ya, is this the report card you deliver?"

"I never agreed to bet everything on new energy vehicles from the start!"

"Who will be responsible for the group's losses now?"

At the family meeting.

Her uncles, cousins, and brothers spoke one after another with righteous indignation.

As if they wanted to devour her whole.

Qin Ya sat at the head of the conference table, her face icy, silent.

A trace of mockery flickered in her eyes.

Mocking the clowns before her.

Then, a hint of powerlessness followed.

For the first time, she felt the crushing sense of defeat.

Lu Chenyuan.

That man had never intended to compete with her on the same playing field.

He had directly established new rules of the game.

And she and the Qin Group had become the old players discarded by the times.

Qin Ya was overwhelmed.

She shut herself in her office for two whole days.

She was reviewing.

Searching for that sharpest blade to cut through the deadlock.