"Chen Lin!"
A furious roar erupted through the office hall of Changfeng Securities.
Everyone froze, and dozens of gazes swung toward him in unison.
His supervisor, Wang Lei, wore a terrifyingly dark expression as he slammed a stack of documents onto Chen Lin's desk.
Crash!
Papers scattered, littering the floor.
"What do you have to say for yourself?"
"President Liu's thirty-million-yuan account was targeted by malicious short selling. All the evidence points to the information being leaked from your computer!"
Wang Lei's finger nearly jabbed into Chen Lin's nostril, and spittle sprayed across his face.
Chen Lin stood.
At 185 centimeters tall, he could look down on Wang Lei, whose years of drinking and womanizing had left him greasy and bloated.
But his coworkers' stares weighed on him like invisible mountains, tightening his chest.
His gaze fell on the so-called "evidence" on the floor.
The IP address was indeed his.
But he hadn't done it.
"It wasn't me."
Chen Lin's voice was quiet, but every word struck the deathly silent office.
"Supervisor Wang, yesterday afternoon, I saw you copy all of President Liu's files onto your personal USB drive."
It was as though all the air had been sucked out of the office.
Everyone stared at Chen Lin as if he had lost his mind.
The fat on Wang Lei's face twitched violently before he burst into wildly exaggerated laughter.
"Well, well, Chen Lin. You really are something!"
"You screw up, and now you want to drag me down with you?"
He spun around and bellowed at the surrounding coworkers like a clown overacting onstage.
"Listen to him, everyone! Take a good look! This is our top graduate from Modu Jiaotong University! Just look at how rotten his character is!"
Whispers arose in the corners like insects crawling.
The looks directed at Chen Lin were a mixture of contempt, delight in his misfortune, and a deliberate distance that made it clear they wanted nothing to do with him.
No one believed him.
No one dared to believe him, either.
One was the supervisor who controlled their livelihoods; the other was just a hotheaded young man who had been there for two years and knew nothing about navigating office politics.
Chen Lin felt a chill spread from his chest, as though his blood froze wherever it passed.
He couldn't understand it.
All he had done was point out a fatal data error in Wang Lei's proposal during a department meeting.
Was that really enough for Wang Lei to destroy him?
"President Cai has already given the order. You're fired, effective immediately! And the company reserves the right to take legal action against you!"
Wang Lei's voice turned shrill, as though he were reading out a death sentence.
He leaned close to Chen Lin's ear, lowering his voice to an icy whisper that bored into it.
"As for President Liu, you're on your own. I hear that precious son of his is no one to mess with."
This was no longer just about taking away his livelihood.
They were after his life!
Blood surged to Chen Lin's head. He clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles gave faint cracks.
He wanted to smash that greasy face with a single punch.
But he couldn't.
If he struck, it would look like he had lashed out in guilty rage, playing straight into Wang Lei's hands.
He looked around.
The coworkers who had once called him their brother, worked overtime with him, and gone drinking with him now all kept their heads down.
Some stared fixedly at their screens; others kept rearranging documents on their desks. Keyboards clattered faster than ever, as though trades worth hundreds of millions were underway.
It wasn't their problem, so they stayed out of it.
Without a word, he silently packed his belongings into a cardboard box, one item at a time.
A cheap cardboard box held the burned-out remains of two years of his youth.
Holding the box, he walked toward the door.
As he passed Wang Lei, Chen Lin paused.
He didn't look at Wang Lei. Keeping his gaze straight ahead, he spoke in a whisper only the two of them could hear:
"Supervisor Wang, I'll remember what happened today."
"What goes around comes around. You'd better hope I never get anything on you."
He dragged his exhausted body back to his rented room.
The moment he shut the door, his phone vibrated violently.
The caller ID read: Li Wei.
His girlfriend.
Chen Lin swiped to answer. Before he could speak, a woman's utterly calm voice came through.
"Chen Lin, let's break up."
It was as though the world had been muted, leaving only a sharp ringing in his ears.
"...Why?"
He forced the word out.
"I heard what happened at the company."
Li Wei's voice was flat, without the slightest ripple of emotion.
"How did you find out?"
There was a brief silence on the other end.
"...Lei told me."
Lei? Wang Lei?
Chen Lin felt his scalp explode with shock as an unbelievable sense of absurdity swept through him.
"Li Wei, how the fuck are you in touch with him..."
"Weiwei, are you still on the phone?"
A sleazy, familiar male voice drifted lazily from the other end. Then the call was abruptly disconnected.
It was Wang Lei's voice!
All the color drained from Chen Lin's face. His phone slipped from his limp hand and struck the floor.
He slid down against the cold door, gasping for breath, yet his chest hurt like a broken bellows.
Ten minutes later.
His phone vibrated again. It was a text from an unknown number.
"Kid, I don't give a damn what kind of bullshit is going on between you and Wang Lei. You owe my family thirty million, down to the last cent. My people will find you soon."
Chen Lin's face was expressionless.
He stood, opened a ticket-booking app, and bought a ticket for the next high-speed train back to his hometown, Yicheng.
He turned off his phone.
Removed the SIM card.
And threw it into the toilet.
The high-speed train raced onward.
The city's neon lights stretched into streaks outside the window before endless darkness swallowed them.
Eight hours later, Chen Lin stepped out of a Dada rideshare car and stood at the village entrance, dragging his suitcase.
Chen Family Village!
The night breeze carried the fragrance of soil and plants, making him feel as though a lifetime had passed.
He made his way through the familiar alleys toward the courtyard of his second uncle, Chen Guofu.
The courtyard gate stood ajar, warm light spilling through it.
"Lin?"
His second aunt, Liu Shuqin, was trimming vegetables beneath the light. At the sight of him, she sprang to her feet in surprise, dropping the greens all over the ground.
"What are you doing back in the middle of the night, child? Why didn't you call ahead?"
Her voice was full of delighted surprise, but she couldn't hide the worry in her eyes.
A stocky middle-aged man emerged from the house. It was his second uncle, Chen Guofu.
At the sight of Chen Lin and the suitcase beside his feet, his brows drew together in a habitual frown.
"You're back."
Chen Guofu dusted off his hands and naturally took Chen Lin's suitcase, his voice steady.
"Trouble at work?"
Chen Lin's heart felt as though a large hand had clenched around it, aching and swelling.
Looking at the concern written across his aunt's and uncle's faces, he felt all his hurt, betrayal, and resentment threatening to burst from his throat.
But he couldn't tell them.
It would only make them worry and live in fear alongside him.
"It's nothing serious, Uncle."
Chen Lin forced a smile that looked worse than crying.
"I just got tired of the big city. Too much pressure. I wanted to come home and rest for a while."
Liu Shuqin came over and took his arm, looking him over with eyes full of aching concern.
"You've lost weight. You must not have been eating properly out there."
"Just wait. I'll make you a bowl of noodles with two poached eggs!"
Chen Guofu saw how hard Chen Lin was trying to act relaxed and asked no more questions. He only gave his shoulder a weighty pat.
"What matters is that you're home."
"The sky isn't going to fall."
After finishing a steaming bowl of egg noodles, Chen Lin said goodbye to his aunt and uncle and insisted on returning to the old house his parents had left him.
The night was deep and quiet.
He lay on the familiar hard wooden bed, eyes open, staring at the mottled patches of mold on the ceiling.
Fired, betrayed, threatened.
At twenty-four, his life had been reset to zero.
Where was his future?
Nothing but darkness.
He rolled over and buried his face deep in the pillow, which smelled of sunshine and soapberry.
Endless exhaustion and despair slowly dragged his consciousness into the abyss.
Just then.
Without warning, a cold, emotionless mechanical voice sounded deep inside his mind!
[Ding!] [Suitable stationmaster candidate detected... target's mental threshold has fallen below the critical point. Minimum binding requirements met.]
Chen Lin shot upright in bed, his heart pounding wildly.
A hallucination?
[Binding to the Myriad Worlds Garbage Transfer Station... 1%... 30%... 70%...]
The icy voice sounded again, carrying an unquestionable force that pierced his soul!
[...Binding successful!] [Welcome, junior stationmaster of the Myriad Worlds Garbage Transfer Station!]
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