At 6 a.m., Assistant Yang woke up from a night of chaotic dreams. He pushed open the window, took a deep breath of the fresh morning air, and began preparing for the new day.
By the time he finished getting ready, leaving himself plenty of time for breakfast, he suddenly remembered he didn’t have work today.
Accustomed to being busy, he felt oddly restless in this unfamiliar small town where he had nothing to do. He absentmindedly scrolled through his phone—then abruptly sat up, gripping the device tightly.
The boss… posted on social media?
He stared at the photo again and again. Did his boss really like the food at this hotel?
And whose hand was that in the bottom right corner? Could it be Chao Musheng’s?
Recalling last night’s dream—where he had seen the boss and Chao Musheng holding a wedding while he and a crowd of colleagues scrambled for red envelopes—he shook his head vigorously.
When he stepped out of his room and into the elevator, he ran into Chao Musheng and some faculty members from Jinghua University. Feeling inexplicably guilty, he greeted, "Good morning, Assistant Chao."
"Morning, Assistant Yang." With limited space in the elevator, Chao Musheng moved aside to make room. "Heading to breakfast?"
"Yeah." Assistant Yang smiled politely at the others. "You’re going to the project site this early?"
"The sooner we finish, the sooner we can return to campus and save some local funding." Chao Musheng chuckled. As the elevator stopped at the restaurant floor, he called out just before Assistant Yang stepped out, "If Mr. Su hasn’t woken up by 9, remind him to eat breakfast."
"Got it." Assistant Yang nodded, but after the elevator doors closed, he turned back with a puzzled look.
Since when did employees manage their boss’s schedule?
At lunch, Chao Musheng wolfed down his meal and immediately returned to his workload.
"Xiao Chao." Professor Zhang approached him with a bowl in hand. "Work is important, but so is your health. Today’s tasks aren’t heavy—you can take your time."
"Professor Zhang." Chao Musheng looked up with an ingratiating smile. "I have something to do later and need to leave early. Could you approve that?"
"What’s so important that our Jinghua prodigy can’t even finish lunch properly?" Professor Zhang teased. "Give me a good reason, and I might consider it."
Leaning in, Chao Musheng whispered, "A date. Professor, I just got into a relationship. You wouldn’t want me neglecting my partner, would you?"
"Fine." Professor Zhang laughed. "Finish your part, and you’re free to go. I won’t be the one to break up lovebirds."
"Thanks, Professor. May your next fishing trip be bountiful—and may your wife not scold you for it." With a grin, Chao Musheng’s fingers flew across the keyboard, leaving afterimages.
Professor Zhang shook his head in amusement.
True affection made even anticipation and waiting sweet. It was a good thing.
"We’ve combed the streets from start to end but still can’t find those people who stole sweet potatoes out of hunger," muttered a town official, fanning himself. Thankfully, last night’s rain had cooled the temperature, or else today’s rounds would’ve given him heatstroke.
"Just our luck—even the surveillance from that day was down," his colleague grumbled, wiping sweat from his forehead. "They might’ve already fled to another district."
Their town was small. If strangers kept appearing, locals would’ve noticed.
"Normally, it wouldn’t be an issue, but with the big project underway, there are too many outsiders around. No photos, no voice recordings—trying to track them down through interviews is impossible." The official finished his water and bought another bottle from a corner store.
"Disgusting. Who knows how long it’s been since he last bathed?"
"The stench was unbearable—almost made me vomit."
Outside the store, a group of elderly folks chatted. Even after the official walked far past them, he could still hear them complaining about a foul-smelling man.
"Boss, it’s past 2 p.m., and Gouzi still hasn’t reported back," said a lackey, handing over a takeout box. "Should we go check on him?"
"A whole group of us barging into a school? You want to raise suspicions?" The boss eyed the lackey’s face. "Out of all of us, those two have the best looks—they blend in as parents."
With decent enough disguises, two grown men should have no trouble taking one little girl.
As they spoke, a clattering noise erupted from across the street. The boss frowned, and the lackey immediately offered, "I’ll go shut them up!"
"Stay put!" the boss snapped. "Until the job’s done, we keep a low profile. No unnecessary risks."
The lackey sat back down, sulking.
Whatever those idiots were doing, the noise was unbearable.
"Sister Juan, why are you collecting all this?" Peng pulled out bits of wire and rebar from the concrete, stuffing them into a burlap sack.
"Big plans." Xiaojuan tied the sack shut. "Heavy rain’s coming tonight, and temperatures will keep dropping. I need to buy you all some jackets."
Scrap metal could be sold for cash!
And jackets cost money.
While Xiaojuan and the others were still scavenging, Chao Musheng was already strolling happily through Hanyue County with Su Chenzhu.
"Hanyue’s downtown might be small, but the street food is great." Chao Musheng tossed his empty wrapper into a bin.
Su Chenzhu’s gaze lingered on a couple across the street.
"What’re you looking at?"
"Couples outside… they all seem to hold hands while walking."
"Huh?"
Before Chao Musheng could react, Su Chenzhu had already taken his hand, interlacing their fingers firmly.
"Alright then." Amused by Su Chenzhu’s solemn expression, Chao Musheng curled his fingers in response, locking them together. "Let’s take our time."
Under the shade of aged trees lining the street, Chao Musheng noticed a faint layer of sweat on Su Chenzhu’s palm.
Pretending not to, he pointed ahead. "I think that’s the famous sweet potato jelly shop from the reviews."
To reach it, they had to cross the road. As they waited for the pedestrian light to turn green, Chao Musheng was about to step onto the crosswalk when a grimy minivan suddenly sped toward them.
"Watch out!" Su Chenzhu pulled Chao Musheng back, his arm protective. His icy glare locked onto the fleeing vehicle.
BANG!
The van’s front end smashed into a guardrail, the bumper cracking on impact. The loud crash drew stares from everyone on the street.
"Damn it!" The driver jumped out, inspected the damage, then spat on the ground after noticing Chao Musheng and Su Chenzhu standing shoulder-to-shoulder. He climbed back in and sped off.
"Brother Gou, you okay?"
"Just a busted bumper. Still drivable." Gouzi checked the rearview mirror. "See those two guys back there? Hugging in public—disgusting."
The young man glanced at the back of the car—one of the guys looked vaguely familiar, as if he’d seen him somewhere before.
A celebrity?
No way. Why would a celebrity come to a place like this?
His gaze shifted to the little girl bound tightly in the back, her mouth gagged. "Finally got her. We’re leaving this dump today."
The place was bad enough, but it was downright haunted at night.
Tears streamed uncontrollably down the girl’s face, her eyes wide with terror.
"Don’t blame us. Blame your mom for being too capable. If she’s willing to pay the ransom, we’ll return you in one piece."
He touched his own face, which bore no disguise. Whether she’d make it back alive, though—that was another story.
The near-collision earlier hadn’t dampened Chao Musheng’s appetite. He sat with Su Chenzhu in the cramped little diner, watching schoolchildren skip out hand-in-hand with their parents.
A customer asked the owner, "Why are the kids out so early today?"
"The school’s holding some kind of event," the owner replied between serving customers. "It’s been lively."
As the diners chatted about how schools these days had so many activities, urgent voices rose in the distance.
"What’s going on?"
"Something happened?"
"Someone said a child went missing. All the parents are helping search."
A missing child?
Chao Musheng set down his chopsticks and stepped outside just in time to see two parents showing a photo on their phones to passersby.
The commotion quickly drew attention. People offered suggestions, and some even shared the photo on social media.
Chao Musheng caught a glimpse of the missing girl—round-cheeked, grinning like a little apple, no older than ten.
Strange. He didn’t know many people here, yet something about her features felt familiar.
"I’ve already sent bodyguards to search the area with this photo," Su Chenzhu said, noticing Chao Musheng’s stare. "Is there something wrong with it?"
"The girl looks familiar." Just then, a voice in the crowd caught his ear. He turned—and actually recognized the person.
Factory Manager Chen from the processing plant.
Compared to their last meeting, she looked disheveled now, her hair hastily tied back, still wearing the factory uniform, her face etched with panic.
That’s why the missing girl had seemed familiar. She resembled Factory Manager Chen.
Upon hearing her daughter was missing, Factory Manager Chen had rushed over from the plant, her legs giving out beneath her.
Her little girl was always so well-behaved, never one to wander off. How could she just vanish?!
The reassurances around her fell on deaf ears. All she wanted was to see her child safe and sound.
"Manager Chen, don’t panic. The police are already searching."
"They’re checking the school’s surveillance footage. We’ll have news soon."
So the child still hadn’t been found?
Factory Manager Chen’s knees buckled.
"Manager Chen." A firm hand steadied her. "Stay calm. This is critical—you can’t fall apart now."
"Chao… Chao Consultant?" The words snapped her back slightly. She looked up at the young man supporting her. "Chao Consultant, you’re amazing with computers. Can you help track her through the cameras? Please!"
"I can try." Chao Musheng kept his grip on her. "But without your authorization, I can’t intervene."
"Right. I can’t lose it." She wiped her tears. "Chao Consultant, I’ll take you to the school’s surveillance room now."
In her distress, she barely registered the man behind Chao Musheng—the top executive of Kunlun.
Su Chenzhu followed silently. The surveillance room was packed with school staff and police. When they saw Factory Manager Chen leading two strangers inside, they moved to console her—only for her to push through and seat the young man at the console.
"Chao Consultant, please!"
"The school doesn’t have Kunlun’s facial recognition system," Chao Musheng said, navigating the interface. "The only option is to link it to Kunlun’s mainframe, but that requires authorization from the school and local police."
The principal and officers had no idea who this sudden newcomer was. "Of course the school agrees if it helps find the child," the principal said. "But Kunlun is a massive corporation. How do we even contact them?"
"Manager Chen, as a Kunlun-affiliated factory head, could you request access from headquarters…?" The officer hesitated. "If we file an official request, Kunlun’s response might take too long."
"No need for that." Chao Musheng sent an authorization form to Factory Manager Chen. "Get the school and police station to stamp this. I’ll handle the rest."
"Right away!" She hurried off. The principal called after her, "My office has a printer. We’ll stamp it as soon as it’s printed."
With everyone cooperating, things moved swiftly. By the time Chao Musheng used his internal codes to link the school’s cameras to Kunlun’s system, the signed and stamped documents were already in hand.
"Chao Consultant." Factory Manager Chen had regained some composure, though her eyes were still red. "Won’t this cause trouble for you?"
She might just be a small factory manager, but she knew how strict Kunlun’s protocols were.
"I’m Kunlun’s tech consultant. For this, all I need is the CEO’s approval." Chao Musheng glanced at Su Chenzhu beside him. "My boss is understanding. He won’t punish me for this."
Since it involved external footage, the system’s processing was slower—though to everyone else, it was lightning-fast.
Soon, facial recognition matches for the missing girl populated the screen.
"Her last sighting was at 3:14 PM." Chao Musheng narrowed it down to two masked men. "These two were near her multiple times today."
Kunlun’s system enhanced their faces, sharpening the details. He turned to the officers behind him. "I’ve seen one of them before. He drives a dirty gray van with a license plate obscured by dust. I didn’t catch the number."
Pulling up the school gate’s footage, he pointed to a slow-moving van. "That’s the one."
The van had lingered at the gate for minutes, inching forward as the crowd of parents and students poured out—before vanishing from view.
"I'll contact the traffic department immediately to track that suspicious vehicle."
"Thank you, Advisor Chao. Really, thank you." With a lead on finding her child, Factory Manager Chen felt a renewed sense of direction. Wiping her tears, she added, "Advisor Chao, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. If the company holds you accountable, just tell them I forced you into it."
The others in the room were equally surprised. None had expected the young man Factory Manager Chen had invited to possess such high-level authority—even access to Kunlun Corporation's internal software.
A police officer staying behind in the surveillance room with Factory Manager Chen suddenly recalled a recent major project launch in Hanyue, where even Kunlun's top executive had personally attended the groundbreaking ceremony. Advisor Chao had even been interviewed by the local news station.
This was the Kunlun CEO's personal assistant!
"I remember who that pretty boy is now!" Brother Gou slapped the steering wheel excitedly. "He's Kunlun's big boss's right-hand man. I just saw his interview video yesterday."
A bunch of netizens were gushing over how handsome he was. Brother Gou couldn’t see the appeal—what was so special about some scrawny-faced pretty boy?
"Would Kunlun’s boss’s right-hand man really be holding hands with another man while strolling down Hanyue’s streets?" A lackey sounded skeptical. "Brother Gou, are you sure you didn’t mix him up with someone else?"
"No mistake." Brother Gou sped down the road, only slowing once they left the city and hit the rural cement paths. He tossed his phone to the lackey. "See for yourself."
The lackey opened the phone and saw a flood of notifications under Brother Gou’s account.
[The jealousy of men is truly terrifying. A wild boar dares to call a swan ugly?]
[Pig-faced cretins shouldn’t be allowed online. Understood?]
What had Brother Gou—no, wait, Brother Gou—done to get roasted like this?
He clicked on the original comment.
[What’s so special about this pretty boy? I could take down three of his kind with one punch. Netizens these days have no taste.]
The lackey glanced between the interview video and Brother Gou’s face. Honestly, the netizens weren’t entirely wrong.
"Seems like it really is the same guy." He studied the young man in the video with envy. If he had looks like that, he’d have become an influencer selling merch ages ago—no need for this shady line of work.
"People in the comments even snapped photos of him in town. Apparently, he’s a top graduate from Jinghua University, here for some local project." The lackey scrolled further. "Who says life doesn’t have an audience? Seems like plenty of people are watching him."
"He’s staying in the same town we’ve been hiding in?" Brother Gou’s eyes lit up. "Which means he’ll be coming back this way later?"
If they kidnapped someone like him, the ransom would be huge.
"Brother Gou, even if he does come back this way, we don’t know which car he’ll be in..."
"Are you stupid?" Brother Gou pulled the car into the roadside grass and parked. "Big shots like him drive luxury cars. We just wait for one to show up."
"Tomorrow night, let’s try the town’s cold pot fish." Chao Musheng slid into the car and took Su Chenzhu’s hand, giving him a playful wink. "Stay a few more days with me?"
"Sure." Su Chenzhu smiled. "How about we try the firewood chicken the night after?"
Before Chao Musheng could reply, his phone rang urgently.
"Xiao Chao!" The R&D team leader sounded frantic. "I just checked the logs—you accessed the backend and linked external data. Did you get the boss’s approval?!"
A few months back, a secretary had been caught leaking company secrets, so security was tight. He didn’t want his star team member getting in trouble.
"He did." Su Chenzhu took the phone, his tone calm. "I’m here with him. No need to worry."
The… the boss?!
The team leader checked the caller ID. He’d dialed Xiao Chao’s number, not the boss’s. Why was the boss answering?
"Anything else?" Su Chenzhu waited patiently when the team leader fell silent. "Chao has full authorization from me. You don’t need to worry about this in the future."
"Understood, Boss." The team leader hung up in a daze, staring at the digital portrait of the Cyber God of Literature on the wall. Did the boss really trust Xiao Chao that much?
If the boss had given Xiao Chao all his permissions, wasn’t that basically making him the company’s second-in-command?
"Team Leader, did Xiao Chao cause trouble?" Colleagues gathered around, worried by his expression.
"No." The team leader stood up and bowed three times to the Cyber God of Literature. "Start preparing. We’re going to cozy up to Xiao Chao and secure more funding for our team."
"Team Leader…" The colleagues exchanged uneasy glances. "Are you okay?"
Had the recent funding rejection finally broken him?
"Hah." The team leader turned to them with a knowing smirk. "You wouldn’t understand."
No wonder the boss had posted that cryptic WeChat update—everything made sense now.
He pulled up the boss’s post from yesterday.
[Boss, whose hand is that next to yours? Your lover’s? You two look perfect together!]
"Team Leader, have you lost it?!"
The colleagues nearly lost more hair from sheer panic.
Just because funding got rejected once doesn’t mean you should throw your career away.
Kunlun’s benefits are great—don’t sabotage yourself!
The team leader only responded with another cryptic smile.
A risky move—but the payoff could be huge.
Colleagues: "..."
He’s definitely lost it.
"The sky’s getting dark again. I hope Factory Manager Chen finds her daughter soon." Chao Musheng glanced out the window, concerned. "Is it going to rain?"
As the car turned a corner—Hanyue’s roads winding between towering mountains and thick wild grass—Chao Musheng reached to roll down the window. Suddenly, a van shot out from the roadside, slamming straight into the driver’s side.
BANG!
The airbag deployed as the cars collided. Su Chenzhu and Chao Musheng instinctively shielded each other, their arms wrapping tight.
Behind his glasses, Su Chenzhu’s eyes flickered with golden light. "You okay?"
"I’m fine." Chao Musheng spotted a man with a machete stepping out of the van—someone he’d seen earlier at the traffic light and on the surveillance footage.
"Pretty boy, get the hell out here!" Brother Gou swung his machete at the rear window.
The window… didn’t budge.
Brother Gou, embarrassed, kicked the door a few times before yelling at his lackey, "Grab the steel pipe and smash this open!"
The lackey rushed over with the pipe but froze when the car door suddenly swung open. Brother Gou was sent flying two meters by a kick, tumbling like a gourd into the roadside ditch.
"Armed robbery?" Chao Musheng stepped out, planting his foot on Brother Gou’s machete hand. A howl of pain followed as the weapon clattered to the ground.
Picking up the machete, Chao Musheng tilted his head at the lackey. "You his accomplice?"
The lackey trembled, hiding the pipe behind his back and stumbling backward.
Brother Gou, is this the pretty boy you said could take on three guys with one punch?
If he says he was just passing by now, is it too late?
