The Immortal of Plague begins by establishing the root of lung fire.

Meng Meng pressed the answer button but did not speak first.

"It's me, Song You. Time is tight, so let's get straight to the point," a steady male voice came from the receiver.

Meng Meng leaned back in her chair, her tone flat: "Say it, how much do you want?"

There was a two-second pause on the other end of the phone.

"Did you run away to Southeast Asia and get detained? How much did they ask for your ransom?" Meng Meng pressed.

Song You glanced at Priya, who was standing behind the door keeping watch, and lowered his voice: "I wasn't kidnapped."

Meng Meng's heart, which had been pounding, returned to its place.

"The collaboration between Ruikang Pharmaceuticals and Bharat is a trap. The contract contains a default trap. Bharat and the American consortium are working together to manipulate your stock price, using huge default penalties to drag Ruikang down." Song You spoke quickly, summarizing the key points of the plan he had heard earlier, and talked for about ten minutes.

Startled, Meng Meng sat up straight, her fingers tapping on the table. She had investigated Bharat's background; he had a vast business empire in India, and given their previous contact, Ruikang had a very high opinion of this collaboration. How did Song You gain access to such core secrets?

"How do you know all this?" Meng Meng asked.

"It's a secret." Song You didn't explain.

"I'll help you avoid this pitfall, but you have to do me a favor," Song You demanded. "Expose all the shady dealings online about the Second Municipal Hospital and the people behind them taking kickbacks and illegally reselling medical supplies. I want them to cause a ruckus so they can't target me for a while."

If the information provided by Song You is true, it will save the entire Ruikang Pharmaceutical Company's life, so this small request is nothing at all.

"Okay, I'll have someone take care of it." Meng Meng agreed. "Where are you right now? I'll send someone to pick you up."

"Don't look for me, I'll show up when it's time."

The phone beeped, and the call ended.

Song You put down the receiver, retrieved the call log, pressed the delete button, carefully wiped the phone and buttons with a tissue, and put it back in its original place.

Priya turned her head and gestured in the direction of the building below, indicating that the security shift was about to end.

Song You nodded, and the two of them pushed open the door and walked out of the office, going downstairs along the same route.

At the fork in the corridor on the second floor, Priya stopped. She took out a notebook, quickly wrote something, and handed it to Song You: "My room is to the left; security can't get in. There's dinner the chef just brought in; you can hide there for now."

Song You looked at the note. This girl was being held captive by Barat, and there was a conflict between them. She was someone who could be won over.

Thinking of this, Song You suddenly realized that Priya's identity could be used to his advantage.

He suppressed the thought, making sure the threat was effective and didn't give the other party any inappropriate ideas.

"No need." Song You refused, his cold gaze falling on Priya's face. "If you reveal even a single word about what happened today, I will kill you."

Priya nodded repeatedly, not avoiding Song You's gaze.

"Give me the notebook." Song You held out his hand.

Priya obediently handed over the notebook.

Song You grabbed the notebook and tore out all the pages from which the two of them had just exchanged ideas. After thinking for a moment, he finally held the entire notebook in his hand.

Flames burst from Song You's mouth, instantly engulfing the few pages of paper and turning them into a small clump of grayish-white powder.

Song You walked to the window, pushed it open a crack, and the night wind scattered the powder from his palm into the darkness.

Priya stood there, watching Song You conjure fire out of thin air again, her breathing becoming rapid.

"Will I ever see you again?" Priya wrote this sentence on her hand and held it up.

"I'll come find you when I want to see you." Song You said this, then turned and disappeared into the shadows of the corridor on the right.

At the headquarters of Ruikang Pharmaceuticals, Meng Meng dialed Meng Wenyuan's number. After half a minute, the call was answered, with soft music and the clinking of wine glasses playing in the background.

"I just received a call from an overseas number. I thought it was another scam call," Meng Wenyuan said, sounding tired.

"That was Song You who made the call," Meng Meng said, getting straight to the point.

"Song You, didn't he go missing at the airport? Where is he now?" Meng Wenyuan's tone became serious.

"That's not the point." Meng Meng relayed the information provided by Song You verbatim. "Have someone check the breach of contract clauses in the contract immediately."

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone.

"I'll check right away." Meng Wenyuan hung up the phone.

A banquet hall at a high-end hotel in Khalidwa, India.

Meng Wenyuan walked to a corner, beckoned to his accompanying legal manager, and whispered a few instructions. The legal manager's expression changed slightly, and he immediately opened his laptop, pulled up the electronic version of the cooperation agreement, and checked it word by word.

Because the question was very precise, the search process was very fast.

Ten minutes later, the legal director, sweating profusely, turned the computer screen toward Meng Wenyuan.

The contract contains an additional condition: if one party ceases to be able to perform its obligations, the contract will automatically terminate, and the breaching party will be liable for an exorbitant penalty. Such a clause is easily overlooked in routine reviews, but if the other party is acting intentionally or unintentionally, it can be fatal.

Meng Wenyuan closed his laptop, his face darkening. If what Song You said was true, then this was a trap set by the other party.

Barat approached with a glass of red wine and a broad smile: "President Meng, I wish us a successful signing ceremony tomorrow."

Meng Wenyuan did not raise his glass. He looked at Bharat and said calmly, "Mr. Bharat, we need to renegotiate Article 34 of the contract."

Barat's smile froze, his fingers tightened around his wine glass, and he barely managed to maintain his composure: "Mr. Meng, these are standard business terms, but for the sake of our cooperation, I will have my men double-check them."

He did not offer any explanation; since the other party had specifically brought it up, it meant that his plan had already been exposed.

"Mr. Barat, it would be best to double-check the entire contract. We also need to review it again." Meng Wenyuan left the banquet hall.

Bharat maintained a polite smile, but the moment he turned around, his face turned ashen.

The news of the cooperation between the two companies has already been leaked. If Ruikang terminates the contract now, not only will Ruikang suffer losses, but he will also suffer huge losses and will not be able to explain himself to the conglomerate.

Meng Wenyuan had been kept in the dark for the past few days, so how could he suddenly pinpoint the most hidden trap with such precision?

Someone must have leaked the information. Barat gritted his teeth. He was proud of the security and secrecy measures he had personally planned, but now something had gone wrong. He racked his brains to think of the list of key personnel who knew about the plan.

Meng Meng received a safety message from Meng Wenyuan, and her tense nerves completely relaxed.

She accessed a hidden webpage, entered a complex password to log into a secret forum, found a highly reputable account, and sent a private message containing the prepared damaging information.

"Post Zhang Lihong, a cardiologist at the Second Municipal Hospital, and Li Man, their hospital representative, along with all the evidence of their violations, on major social media platforms and buy trending topics to completely ruin their reputations."

The other party quickly replied with a number, and Mengmeng immediately transferred the money to the designated anonymous account.

"It's a pleasure working with you." came the reply from the other end.

Meng Meng paused on the keyboard for a moment, then sent another message: "Help me find out the real source of a phone number."

She sent over the number that Song You had called.

Five minutes later, the other party sent back a quote.

Meng Meng looked at the number, clicked her tongue, and typed a reply: "Cancel query".

She closed the webpage, leaned back in her leather chair, and turned to look at the city night view outside the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Song You's style of doing things has completely changed.

"Song You, where did you go?" Meng Meng muttered to herself.