After ninety-nine online romances, I finally met my ex in person when school started.

Meng Wanqing picked up her glass of red wine, tilted her head back, and drank it all in one gulp. She gave Zhu Xunchuan a deep look, said nothing, turned and walked towards the master bedroom, closing the door behind her.

There were four people left in the living room.

The sound of rain pattered against the French windows. Outside, the night sky was pitch black, but inside, it was warm and bright.

Several glasses of steaming warm water sat on the table, next to which were scattered top-secret files on bloody crimes that could overturn the fate of a century-old clan. A stark contrast filled the air.

With the tasks assigned, the previously suppressed ambiguity and rivalry resurfaced and surged beneath the surface.

Xia Wanying sat to Zhu Xunchuan's right. Her legs were crossed, and the hem of her burgundy silk trench coat slipped down. She deliberately used the tip of her red-soled high heels to lightly hook her toes on Zhu Xunchuan's trouser leg.

"Mr. Zhu, this is a billion yuan in pocket money." Xia Wanying leaned closer, her breath sweet as orchids. "After this is done, how will you repay me, your biggest sugar daddy?"

Gu Qinghan, sitting on the left, witnessed the entire scene. Instead of getting angry, she picked up a file and leaned against Zhu Xunchuan's arm.

"The technical investigation system exercise requires extremely complicated approval procedures." Gu Qinghan adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, his voice cool yet subtly alluring. "I've taken such a huge disciplinary risk. Shouldn't I personally go to your home to verify your attendance record next semester?"

Jiang Yao was even more direct. She squeezed herself between Zhu Xunchuan and Xia Wanying, grabbed Zhu Xunchuan's arm tightly with both hands, and pressed her whole body against him.

"Brother, I even went to internet cafes on the street myself," Jiang Yao said sweetly. "If that crazy girl comes back alive, you can't let her bully me. I'm going to be the boss."

Three women, different methods, but the same vying for favor.

The battleground descended once more. There was no noise, only a bone-chilling, pulling sensation.

Zhu Xun Chuan sat in the middle, perfectly composed. He didn't push anyone away; instead, he picked up his teacup and took a sip of water.

He put his left arm around Jiang Yao's waist, squeezed Gu Qinghan's palm with his right hand, and finally looked at Xia Wanying's proud face.

"Do a good job." Zhu Xun Chuan's voice was deep and carried a strong sense of control. "If you do a good job, I'll give you everything you want."

The highest level of being a master of impartiality is to set clear prices and reward merit accordingly.

The three women simultaneously received the signal, a hint of satisfaction flashing in their eyes. They didn't care how many people surrounded Zhu Xun Chuan; as long as they could establish their place in his heart, they were willing to be the vanguard generals in this man's world.

Time passed by, second by second.

In the early hours of the morning, the capital city was still fast asleep, unaware that the countdown to an information nuclear explosion had already ended.

It was exactly eight o'clock in the morning.

The sky brightened considerably. The autumn rain had finally stopped, and the sky was overcast and gray.

Xia Wanying sat on the sofa in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, looking at the progress bar of fund disbursement on her tablet, which had reached 100%.

She looked up at Zhu Xun Chuan, who was standing by the window smoking, her red lips slightly parted, revealing an extremely charming smile.

"Mr. Zhu, the game has begun."

At nine o'clock in the morning, the autumn rain in Beijing completely stopped, and the sunlight pierced through the thin clouds, shining on the glass curtain wall of the Guomao core area.

The living room of the spacious apartment was filled with the aroma of hand-ground Geisha coffee.

Zhu Xun Chuan leaned back in the large leather sofa. He had changed his black silk shirt into a pure white fitted sweater, which concealed the red marks on his collarbone, but the white gauze on the back of his hand was still conspicuous. He fiddled with the metal windproof lighter in his left hand, the "click" sound being the only idle noise in the room at that moment.

Across from him, an invisible war was unfolding.

Xia Wanying took off her burgundy silk trench coat, leaving her in only a well-tailored black pencil skirt. Her legs were crossed, long and straight, her red-soled high heels dangling from her toes, exuding a languid sexiness. She held a bone china coffee cup, her fingertips gliding across the tablet.

"It's out." Xia Wanying said with a smile, taking a sip of black coffee.

At the same time, on China's largest social media platform, a media influencer with five million followers posted a long article with pictures. The title directly accused Zhao Tingzhi of the inside story of a murder case when he was in charge of the old city renovation project in Jiangnan Road.

However, only three minutes later...

The page refreshed, and the link is broken. "This content violated relevant community regulations and has been deleted."

Outside Building No. 3 of the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, the Zhao family's public relations team sat in a makeshift dispatch vehicle, sipping tea. The head manager glanced at the back-end data, scoffed disdainfully, and casually tossed the processing report aside. Trying to cause trouble on Old Master Zhao's 70th birthday? Don't they know how dense the Zhao family's network in Beijing has been for thirty years?

Top floor of the China World Trade Center.

Jiang Yao stared at the blank webpage and slammed her hand on the marble coffee table in anger: "Damn it! These sons of bitches deleted it so fast!" She wasn't wearing her leather jacket today, but rather a loose white T-shirt from Zhu Xun Chuan, the hem barely covering her upper thighs, giving her a wild and rebellious vibe.

Xia Wanying put down her coffee cup, her red lips curving into an extremely cold smile.

"Just standard procedure." Xia Wanying looked up at Zhu Xunchuan. "Mr. Zhu, the trial run is over. The Zhao family clearly didn't take this little ripple seriously. So I won't be polite then."

Zhu Xun Chuan snapped the lighter shut and tossed it onto the coffee table.

"Smash it." Zhu Xun Chuan only said one word.

Xia Wanying tapped the tablet three times in quick succession. Authorization granted.

One billion yuan in cash instantly flowed through the shell companies under Dinghe Group into the corporate accounts of nearly a hundred MCN agencies across the country like a flood breaking through a dam.

This isn't some paid online troll. This is a pool of top-tier internet traffic in China, bought with real money.

One minute later, on Weibo, Douyin, Kuaishou, Tieba, and major portal websites, tens of thousands of videos, images, and audio recordings simultaneously exploded at the speed of viral spread!

Recordings Exposed Revealing the Inside Story of How Guangying Media Forced a Female Celebrity to Her Death!

Thirty-three lives lost in Jiangnan Road: Who is covering up for the Zhao family?!

Top Secret Files: The Dark Profit Chain Behind the Buying and Selling of QG!

Inside the Zhao family's PR dispatch vehicle, the manager, who was leisurely drinking tea, spat a mouthful of water onto the screen.

A piercing alarm blared throughout the carriage. The data monitoring dashboard instantly turned red, and the deletion request command crashed the server.

"Manager! We can't delete them all! We simply can't delete them all!" The technician's face turned ashen. "There are over 100,000 posts originating from these accounts, all from verified accounts and blue-verified accounts, and the popularity is jumping by tens of thousands of posts per second!"

"Activate root privileges in the background!" the manager roared frantically. "Call the internet monitoring department and unplug their network cable!"

Large single-level apartment in Guomao.

Gu Qinghan sat on a high stool in front of the bar. She was wearing black fitted trousers and a white shirt, with gold-rimmed glasses perched on her nose, her hands leaving a trail of afterimages on the keyboards of two top-of-the-line Alienware laptops.

Countless lines of green code scrolled rapidly across the screen.

"Want to unplug the network cable?" Gu Qinghan snorted.

Her slender fingers slammed down the Enter key.

"The Municipal Anti-Fraud Center's annual network attack and defense exercise is officially underway." Gu Qinghan adjusted his glasses, a ruthless glint flashing in his cold eyes.