Why would Peninsula want to date a lazy dog ​​like me?

A summer rain is on its way, and the air is filled with a stuffy, humid feeling.

Starship Entertainment Building, first floor lobby.

"Still haven't found it?! I still can't get through on the phone?!"

A middle-aged man with balding hair and black-rimmed glasses was yelling at several assistants. He was Kim Sung-soo, the head of management at CJ ENM, specifically assigned to oversee IZ*ONE.

"Chief Kim, she's not in the dorm. She didn't go back last night at all. Both her personal and work phones are switched off," the assistant reported nervously, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.

Kwon Eunbi and Ahn Yoojin, standing to the side, also looked anxious.

As a limited-time group, IZ*ONE's schedule is extremely tight. They just finished their comeback tour in Japan yesterday and flew back to Seoul. Logically, this morning should have been a rare half-day of rest before they went to shoot a new magazine pictorial in the afternoon.

However, Zhang Yuanying, the absolute core of the team, has gone missing.

This is an unimaginable accident for a top girl group that is on the rise.

"When was the last time you saw her?" Kim Sung-soo asked, barely suppressing his anger.

"Around 5:30 pm yesterday, she said she had left something in the Starship practice room and needed to come back to get it, so she told the driver to leave first. After that, no one has seen her since." As the team leader, Kwon Eunbi tried her best to remain calm and reconstruct the timeline.

"Go check the surveillance footage! Now!" Kim Sung-soo ordered through gritted teeth.

Five minutes later, the message came from the security room.

Surveillance footage shows that at 5:40 PM yesterday, Zhang Yuanying rushed into recording studio number three on the basement floor. Since then, the soundproof door has never been opened again.

"An underground recording studio? What's she doing there? She can't even write songs!" Kim Sung-soo paused for a moment, then waved his hand, "Let's go! Let's go down and take a look!"

The group rushed to the elevator and headed straight for the basement.

The corridor of Recording Studio No. 3 was quiet, with only the low hum of the central air conditioning running.

Kim Sung-soo strode to the door, reached out and grasped the doorknob, then twisted it forcefully.

"Click".

The door was locked from the inside.

"Won-young! Won-young! Are you in there?!" Kwon Eun-bi pounded on the door and shouted loudly.

There was no response from inside.

"Get out of the way. Get the spare key!" Kim Sung-soo's face darkened completely. If anything happened to Jang Won-young inside, his career as the manager's office director would be over.

The security personnel, sweating profusely, ran over and used a master key to unlock the door.

"Click."

The heavy, soundproof door was slowly pushed open.

A foul, pungent smell immediately hit me.

"Cough cough..." Ahn Yoo-jin couldn't help but cover her nose.

The main lights in the control room were off; only the displays on the mixing console emitted a faint blue glow.

Once everyone's eyes adjusted to the dim light, they could see the interior clearly.

Then, everyone gasped.

The recording studio floor was covered with a thick layer of soundproof carpet.

At this moment, Zhang Yuanying, who always appears sweet, pure, and with not a single strand of hair out of place in front of the camera, was slumped on the carpet like a boneless mass of soft flesh.

Her posture was extremely strange.

She was wearing the same expensive outfit she wore yesterday, but now it was all wrinkled and the neckline was torn open, revealing a large expanse of her fair skin and delicate collarbone.

Her hair looked as if it had been washed, clinging to her cheeks and neck in strands.

What's most chilling is her face.

Zhang Yuanying's eyes were closed, her long eyelashes still glistening with tears that shimmered in the dim light of the screen. Her face was covered in fine beads of sweat, and even her slender neck was flushed with an unnatural redness.

But the corners of her mouth turned up high, forming an extremely exaggerated, extremely satisfied, and even slightly eerie and sacred smile.

She lay there on the ground, clutching a monitor headphone cable connected to the mixing console tightly in her hand, as if it were the last straw in her life.

This scene doesn't resemble an idol resting; rather, it looks like a fanatical cultist falling into a deep coma after undergoing an extremely brutal yet intensely pleasurable sacrificial ritual.

"Oh my god... Yuan Ying!"

Kwon Eun-bi was the first to react. She felt her heart was about to stop, screamed, and rushed in without hesitation, collapsing beside Jang Won-young.

"Yuan Ying! Wake up! What's wrong?! Are you feeling unwell?!"

Kwon Eunbi shook Jang Won-young's shoulders forcefully, her voice trembling with obvious sobs. She could feel the heat emanating from Jang Won-young's body; it was frighteningly hot.

Ahn Yoo-jin was also terrified and quickly ran over to help lift Jang Won-young's head.

"Water... Go get some water!" Kim Sung-soo panicked and immediately ordered his assistant to get bottled water.

Amidst violent shaking and shouts.

Zhang Yuanying's tightly closed eyes finally opened slowly.

For the first few seconds, her gaze was completely unfocused. Her pupils were unfocused, as if her soul was still wandering in another distant, frenzied dimension, not yet fully returned to this body.

"Cao Cao..."

Her lips twitched slightly, uttering a faint, hoarse, yet deeply tender murmur.

"What? What are you saying, Won Young?" Kwon Eunbi leaned closer, but couldn't hear clearly.

As consciousness gradually returned, Zhang Yuanying's gaze finally focused.

She saw Kwon Eun-bi's anxious face, Ahn Yoo-jin's worried eyes, and Kim Sung-soo standing at the door with an angry expression.

"Boom—!!"

The moment Zhang Yuanying saw the people in front of her, it was as if a thunderbolt had exploded in her mind.

The perfect world built upon the exquisite melody of "Violeta," a world consisting only of her and Wei Wu, was ruthlessly torn apart by the harsh light of reality at this moment.

She suddenly came to her senses.

What followed was an extremely violent anger and panic, like a volcanic eruption!

Why are they here?!

How dare they barge in here?!

This is her sacred domain! This is the secret chamber that Wei Wu left her, filled with Wei Wu's aura and soul!

Even more frightening is...

Zhang Yuanying's peripheral vision suddenly swept towards the mixing console.

The black USB drive with the "Violeta" sticky note was still quietly plugged into the computer. And on the computer screen, the audio file's playback progress bar was stuck at the very last second.

"No...don't..."

Zhang Yuanying's heart clenched suddenly, and an indescribable panic instantly swept over her.

Did they hear this song?

Did these vulgar, foolish, and utterly unworthy trash hear the song Wei Wu wrote for her, the abyss of his soul that Wei Wu revealed to her with his talent?!

Zhang Yuanying felt that her territory had been severely violated. It felt as if her most cherished and private treasure had been roughly stripped naked by a group of robbers and thrown into the street for everyone to see.

"Get out...all of you get out!!!"

Zhang Yuanying's mind was screaming wildly. Her fingers clenched tightly, almost drawing blood from Quan Enfei's arm. Her eyes instantly filled with a ferocious redness, and a morbid urge to kill surged wildly through her veins.

She wanted to stand up, kick all these people out, and then swallow the USB drive whole.

but.

Just as she was about to have an attack.

Her remaining rationality extinguished her impending outburst of anger like ice water.

"etc."

Zhang Yuanying's body stiffened.

If I went crazy right now, if I grabbed the USB drive and yelled "This is mine!"... what would happen?

Kim Sung-soo would immediately become suspicious.

Starship and CJ ENM will be involved in the investigation.

They will find out about Wei Wu, they will find out about the 20 million contract, and they will even find out about her morbid infatuation with Wei Wu that cannot be explained by common sense.

The most fatal thing is...

Zhang Yuanying bit her lower lip hard, tasting a hint of blood.

This song was originally written for IZ*ONE!

It was she herself who, in order to lock Wei Wu in the recording studio and to assert her dominance over him, personally went to threaten the senior management of Starship with the renewal of his contract, and personally used a budget of 20 million to force Wei Wu to sign the contract.

Even she herself, a few days ago, brought eleven women, including Kwon Eun-bi and Ahn Yoo-jin, into the recording studio one by one, so that Wei Wu could collect their voices!

In this world, apart from her and Wei Wu, everyone else naturally assumes that what Wei Wu has painstakingly written over the past three days is for IZ*ONE!

This is a perfect logical closed loop.

And this closed loop was created by Zhang Yuanying herself!

"I...I actually dug such a huge hole for myself..."

Zhang Yuanying gave a bitter laugh to herself.

She felt as if she were being strangled by a noose she had woven herself, making even breathing incredibly difficult.

She suffered a huge loss that she couldn't speak of.

She watched helplessly as the man she loved most used his unparalleled talent to write a masterpiece for her. However, because of her own arrogance and scheming, this masterpiece was about to be named "IZ*ONE" and shared by eleven women she looked down upon!

"Yuanying? Yuanying, what's wrong with you? Don't scare me!" Quan Enbi looked at Zhang Yuanying's face, which was pale and bluish, and her eyes were changing drastically. She was so anxious that tears fell down her face.

"I...I'm fine..."

Zhang Yuanying took a deep breath, locking the wild beast roaring inside her back into its cage.

When she raised her head again, her face had regained that perfect expression of weakness, pitifulness, yet with a hint of stubbornness.

"Unnie, I'm sorry for making you worry." Zhang Yuanying's voice was still hoarse, but her tone had become very steady.

"Last night... I was just listening to music here, and I got so engrossed that I accidentally fell asleep."

"Listening to music? What kind of music could make you sleep on the floor all night?" Kim Sung-soo walked over with a frown, his tone stern. "Jang Won-young, do you know your current status? Do you know the enormous public relations risks your group has to bear while you've been out of contact for over ten hours?!"

"I'm sorry, Chief Kim." Jang Won-young lowered her head, looking obediently apologetic, but her eyes, hidden in the shadows, were as cold as ice.

Just then.

Ahn Yoo-jin, who had been standing next to the mixing console, suddenly exclaimed in surprise.

"Oh my god... what... what is this?!"

Ahn Yu-jin had just curiously picked up the monitoring headphones that Jang Won-young had dropped on the floor. Because the headphones were unplugged from the splitter on the control panel, when Ahn Yu-jin accidentally touched the mouse and clicked the play button...

The powerful intro to "Violeta" exploded out instantly through the top-of-the-line monitor speakers in the control room, worth millions of Korean won!

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

The powerful Future Bass beats, accompanied by ethereal synthesizer sounds that sent chills down your spine, swept through the entire recording studio like a tsunami.

Everyone in the control room was stunned.

Kwon Eun-bi forgot to cry.

Kim Sung-soo stopped scolding him.

Ahn Yoo-jin stared wide-eyed at the audio track flashing on the screen, her mouth slightly agape, as if she had been frozen in place.

That's amazing.

It is gorgeous, eerie, and full of deadly allure, yet it polishes the texture of each timbre to the extreme.

Even the assistant, who knew absolutely nothing about music, felt goosebumps rise all over his body the moment he heard this melody.

"This...this is..." Kim Sung-soo's voice trembled.

As a seasoned agent who has been in the entertainment industry for over a decade, his business acumen is sharper than a dog's.

The moment he heard the song, only one thought remained in his mind:

Hot item!

An absolute, undisputed, super hit that will sweep all the music charts!

"Wonyoung, who...who wrote this song?!" Kwon Eunbi stared at Jang Wonyoung in shock, her breathing becoming rapid.

Zhang Yuanying sat on the ground with her head down, her long hair obscuring her face.

No one could see how distorted and pained her expression was at that moment.

Her heart was bleeding.

She listened as that divine song, which originally belonged only to her and allowed her to revel alone in the darkness, was now exposed without reservation to these people's ears.

She was driven almost mad with jealousy by the shocked and longing expressions on Kwon Eunbi and Ahn Yoojin's faces.

"This is... a new song... that Starship's outsourced producer... gave us."

Zhang Yuanying practically gritted her teeth to squeeze out those words.

Every word was like a knife, cutting into her flesh.

"For us?!" Ahn Yujin was so excited she almost jumped up. "Amazing! This song is absolutely amazing! If we make a comeback with this song, we can definitely win a grand slam!"

"That's great...that's great..." Kwon Eunbi covered her mouth in excitement.

"Outsourced producer? What's their name? Where can I contact them?!" Kim Sung-soo's eyes gleamed with greed.

This producer is absolutely a genius. If we could recruit him to CJ ENM...

"He...he left his things and left. I don't know his name," Zhang Yuanying said coldly, her tone carrying a hint of barely perceptible resistance.

"Gone? They just left such an important master tape here and left?!" Kim Sung-soo was incredulous, but his attention was completely drawn to the song.

He strode to the mixing console and looked at the black USB drive with a "Violeta" sticky note on it.

"Violeta...a violet? What a nice name."

Without hesitation, Kim Sung-soo reached out and pulled the USB drive out.

"Click".

As the USB drive was unplugged, the music from the monitor speakers stopped abruptly.

The control room fell silent once more.

But the moment the USB drive was pulled out, Zhang Yuanying's heart sank into an ice cellar.

Her gaze was fixed on the small black cube in Kim Sung-soo's hand.

Those were left behind by Cao Cao.

That was Cao Cao's talent.

That is the soul of Cao Cao!

"Give it back to me..."

Zhang Yuanying screamed inwardly. Her fingers dug deep marks into the soundproof carpet, and her nails even broke from the excessive force, oozing a trickle of blood.

She wanted to pounce on him, bite off Kim Sung-soo's neck, and snatch the USB drive back.

But she can't.

"Eunbi, Yoojin, please help Wonyoung back to her dorm to rest. I will communicate with them to postpone the afternoon's photoshoot."

Kim Sung-soo carefully placed the USB drive into his briefcase, as if it were a rare treasure.

"I'll take this USB drive back to the office and immediately hand it over to the A&R department for evaluation. If there are no problems, it will be our main product for our next comeback!"

Kim Sung-soo's tone was full of unquestionable authority.

"Yes! Thank you, Chief!" Kwon Eunbi and Ahn Yoojin bowed excitedly.

Then, they helped Zhang Yuanying up from the ground, one on each side.

"Yuanying, let's go back and take a shower and get a good night's sleep." Quan Enbi gently tidied up Zhang Yuanying's disheveled clothes.

Zhang Yuanying remained silent.

Like a delicate marionette, she was helped out of the dimly lit recording studio by her teammates.

The moment I stepped out of the soundproof door.

Zhang Yuanying slowly turned her head and took one last look at the empty computer.

Her eyes appeared empty in the dim corridor light, yet they concealed a terrifying obsession capable of destroying everything.

"Cao Cao..."

"The song you wrote for me, they stole it."

"You made me suffer such a huge loss without being able to speak out."

"You think you can just deliver the goods and run away?"

Zhang Yuanying's lips curled up again into a small, yet sickly, smile.

"It's okay. If they take the song, I'll come get you."

"I will let you know that in this world, I am your only true home. Whether it's your talent or you as a person..."

……

"Snoring...snoring..."

Wei Wu lay on the soft, wide Simmons bed, sleeping like a dead pig.

Sunlight streamed through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows onto the carpet, filling the room with a sense of absolute security that money brings.

He rolled over, smacked his lips, and seemed to be having a sweet dream.

In his dream, he held 20 million won and sat in first class on a flight back home, completely escaping the crazy Seoul filled with lunatics and yanderes.