Being Cannon Fodder? Like Hell!

The other person moved too fast. Wen Shuang had not even seen who it was. Chills swept through the air around him, yet an evil fire surged from his heart and lungs through his limbs. Wen Shuang hurriedly calmed his breathing, worried he would be angered to death while still so young. He took out his phone and checked it. As expected, there was no signal.

Wen Shuang laughed in fury, then raised his middle finger at the sky.

He had come from a scholarly family in his previous life and had been properly raised since childhood, but lately, he had cursed out every filthy word he would say in this lifetime.

Wen Shuang ranted endlessly in his heart. Still, cursing had made him feel much better. Once his anger faded, he finally noticed the cold. He had come down wearing only a shirt. After scanning the area, Wen Shuang spotted several grimy work uniforms in a corner. He did not have time to care about that and quickly put one on before studying the buttons by the door. There were no labels whatsoever, but he tried them one by one, especially the red button in the middle. His phone still had no signal. Sniffling, he remembered that the company would receive its first inspection around seven. At the latest, someone would definitely find him then.

About three hours. Wen Shuang rubbed his hands together. You damned heavens, if you have the guts, kill me!

The heavens seemed to have heard his call and obligingly dropped the temperature again. Half an hour later, a layer of frost covered Wen Shuang's lashes. He huddled in the corner closest to the door, his limbs stiff, with only a ball of warmth left in his chest.

"Where is he?" Xuan Zhe frowned slightly when he saw Cao Nanyu enter looking utterly bewildered.

"President Xuan, we can't reach Wen Shuang." Cao Nanyu was equally confused. "The Publicity Department said he left all his things behind and went downstairs around four. He never came back up after that."

Xuan Zhe keenly sensed that something was off and made an immediate decision. "Pull up the surveillance footage."

Power One had extensive surveillance coverage. Xuan Zhe stood in the monitoring room while the staff barely dared breathe. They saw Wen Shuang take the elevator on the left, then appear on Basement Level One. Due to the layout of that floor, the section by the cold storage rooms on the left only had a camera installed every three rooms. After Wen Shuang passed the first camera, the second never captured him again.

Xuan Zhe's gaze turned icy. In an instant, countless possibilities crossed his mind. He turned and strode away, followed by a large crowd.

Of the three cold storage rooms between the cameras, two were locked.

Xuan Zhe did not waste words. "Open them."

The employee responsible for that area immediately stepped forward and entered the unlock code. It was not Wen Shuang's fault. The cold storage passwords changed daily, and once the doors were locked, they could only be opened from the outside. The red alarm system he had pressed simply did not respond.

There seemed to be some movement. Wen Shuang laboriously lifted his eyelids and struggled to raise a hand to knock on the door. He only managed one knock before his entire body toppled outward.

The door opened.

Wen Shuang thought a warm embrace with the ground would not be so bad. Better than freezing into an ice sculpture inside.

But he did not hit the floor. Xuan Zhe stepped forward quickly and caught him.

Even Wen Shuang's hair seemed frozen. His entire body carried a bone-piercing chill. He instinctively looked up, his cheek brushing against Xuan Zhe's jaw. Even Xuan Zhe shivered slightly.

"You came..." Wen Shuang's brain felt like it was about to split from the cold, and he truly could not think normally. With his reason gone, instinct took over completely. To Wen Shuang, Xuan Zhe was the only person he had encountered in this world who was worth trusting and relying on. Those three simple words instantly threw Xuan Zhe's thoughts into disarray.

Xuan Zhe took off his coat with a grim expression and wrapped Wen Shuang in it, then looked at the employee after standing up.

The employee had been thoroughly frightened as well. How had Wen Shuang ended up in the cold storage room? And the temperature inside was normally maintained at minus three or four degrees Celsius, so why did the sign on the door show minus fifteen? The temperature could only be controlled from outside after the valve had been shut. In other words, Wen Shuang could not have locked himself inside and then lowered the temperature. The more he thought about it, the more terrifying it became. There was a very high chance someone had targeted Wen Shuang. The employee looked ashen. "Rest assured, President Xuan. I'll investigate this thoroughly!"

Wen Shuang would definitely have kept silent around anyone else, but Xuan Zhe was different. His throat hurt terribly as he made a faint sound. "Someone pushed me."

"Mm." Xuan Zhe responded, then carried him away in long strides.

After the extreme cold, Wen Shuang felt as though he had been thrown into a brazier. The heat threatened to burn his skin to ashes. He felt awful and kept tugging at the blanket over him. A slight sting pricked the back of his hand, followed by an angry rebuke near his ear. "Don't move!"

The voice sounded somewhat familiar. Wen Shuang obediently settled down. His high fever had not gone away. The moment he grabbed that hand, it felt cool and comfortable, and he refused to let go no matter what.

The other person struggled a few times, then gave up.

Xuan Zhe let him hold on, pressing the call button by the bed and waiting for the doctor and nurses to come in and reinsert Wen Shuang's IV. Cao Nanyu came in with them, staring straight ahead and not daring to look at this "beautiful" scene. His boss, who seemed detached from the world and never touched mortal dust!

"His constitution is rather weak, but he's young. He'll be fine as long as he recuperates properly after he's discharged this time." The doctor secured the needle, gave a few instructions, and left.

"President Xuan." Only after everyone else had gone did Cao Nanyu lower his voice. "We reviewed all the footage. About five minutes after Wen Shuang was locked in, a blurry figure was caught at the corner of a camera near the right exit. But it was only a small portion. The person likely knew the surveillance blind spots well and moved very quickly."

"Understood." Xuan Zhe's expression did not change. When he had told Cao Nanyu to investigate, he had already prepared himself for an unsolved case. The other person's target was Wen Shuang. To act so brazenly inside the Power One building suggested a deep grudge. If the first attempt failed, there might be a second. As long as that person dared try again, Xuan Zhe would definitely drag them out.

As for this little thing... Xuan Zhe glanced sideways at Wen Shuang. The more he learned about him, the more he began to wonder whether the soul beneath that skin had been replaced. Why was his way of doing things completely different from before?

Cao Nanyu: ...

Was President Xuan this worried because Wen Shuang was sick? Look at that gaze—it was far too focused!

Wuwuwu, he was shipping them so hard.

If Xuan Zhe knew what Cao Nanyu was thinking right then, he would definitely kick him out of the hospital room.

Wen Shuang truly regained consciousness two days later. Every bone in his body felt as though it had been shattered and reassembled. After the high fever, he felt like a heap of rotten flesh. He opened his mouth, only to break into a fit of coughing. Someone immediately rubbed his chest, then held a straw to his lips. Wen Shuang took two hard sips. Everything before his eyes swayed until it finally settled on Fang Su's worried face. "Sister Fang..." Wen Shuang called.

Fang Su hurriedly said, "I'm here, I'm here."

Only after Wen Shuang was fully awake did Fang Su tell him something: she had indeed sent that WeChat message, but she had no memory of it whatsoever. More precisely, her memories of that period were completely blank. Last night, after hearing Wen Shuang had been hospitalized, she checked her phone because she wanted to ask how he was doing. That was when she discovered the WeChat message. Looking at the time, Fang Su was utterly confused.

Clearly, Wen Shuang had gone to the underground parking garage because he saw that message.

Fang Su kept apologizing and could only conclude that she had been so busy she was muddled, sending the wrong message by mistake. Wen Shuang smiled and said it was fine, but he understood very clearly that Fang Su had not done it on purpose, nor had it been some coincidence. Simply put—this world was targeting him.

There had to be some unknown force controlling the development of the plot. Wen Shuang had dodged too many landmines recently, and it was unhappy about it.

Fine then. Wen Shuang curled his lips. He would do everything in his power to avoid them one by one. Be cannon fodder? Like hell he would!