Saw a Ghost

At this moment, inside the chairman's office.

Brring brring brring...

A phone rang. Qi Zhenxing glanced at the number on his phone and saw it was the same one he had dialed for Lin Chen earlier. He immediately picked up.

But no sooner had he answered than a fierce confrontation erupted from the other end of the line.

Hearing this, Qi Zhenxing's heart sank. From the sounds of the argument over the phone, he could roughly piece together what was happening.

And that was exactly why he was so frantic.

"That Deng Wenji—what the hell, is he trying to stage a mutiny?"

With that, Qi Zhenxing slammed his phone down on the desk, then stood up and strode quickly toward the door.

As he walked out, he bellowed at the secretary beside him.

"Quick, call every department manager in the group right now. Tell them to get to the marketing department immediately. Anyone who's even a step late, I'll have them pack their bags and get the hell out."

"Yes, sir."

It was the first time the secretary had seen the chairman so furious. Not daring to dawdle, she immediately dialed the internal line and began calling them one by one.

At the entrance of the marketing department.

When Lin Chen said, "If you don't want to work, then get the hell out," Deng Wenji's face turned extremely ugly.

His eyes blazed with fury, his expression twisted as he glared at Lin Chen. "You want me to get out? Who the hell do you think you are? Since you're asking for death today, don't blame me for what happens."

"Impersonating the group's major shareholder to commit fraud and disrupting normal business operations—just those two charges alone are enough to land you in jail for a good while."

With that, Deng Wenji pulled out his phone and started to dial the police.

But just as he finished keying in the emergency number and was about to press call, the elevator indicator light suddenly lit up.

Then, with a ding, the elevator doors slid open.

Tap tap tap—

A series of footsteps echoed through the entire marketing department the moment the doors opened.

The arrivals were the department managers from across the group, summoned by the secretary's notice. They barely dared to breathe.

From what the secretary had told them, they knew the group's major shareholder had arrived—and that he was the young man standing right before them.

Gulp—

A wave of swallowed saliva rippled through the ranks of managers.

Of course, the marketing department manager, Deng Wenji, was not among them.

When he saw all the group's department managers converging on the marketing department, a realization dawned on him.

"This is bad. If all the department managers are here, that means the major shareholder is coming."

At that thought, Deng Wenji's face went pale. He immediately barked at the staff behind him.

"What are you all standing around for? Get this bastard out of here right now—don't let him disturb the major shareholder!"

Clearly, even now, he still refused to believe Lin Chen was that major shareholder.

"Yes, sir."

A few of the stronger marketing department employees acknowledged the order and charged straight at Lin Chen, ready to throw him out before the major shareholder arrived.

Seeing this, every department manager except those from marketing felt their hearts skip a beat. They all thought the same thing.

"What the hell is this? Has the marketing department lost its mind?"

Just as they were about to step forward to stop them and explain, another elevator lit up.

The moment the doors opened, someone rushed out in a panic.

And as luck would have it, that person happened to witness the marketing department's attempt to throw someone out.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Everyone, stop right now!"

A sharp shout rang through the entire marketing department, startling everyone present.

They all turned their heads in unison to see that the newcomer was none other than their chairman, Qi Zhenxing.

His face was flushed with rage as he glared darkly at the middle-aged man at the far end.

"Deng Wenji, you'd better give me an explanation. What the hell do you think you're doing? Huh?"

Deng Wenji's face cycled through red and pale, but he dared not talk back. In his heart, he hated Lin Chen—that brat impersonating the major shareholder—more than ever.

"Kid, once I get through this, I'll make you pay."

He thought to himself, and was about to step forward to apologize and explain the situation to Qi Zhenxing.

But the scene that followed nearly scared the soul out of him.

Qi Zhenxing bent over, his face full of fawning deference, and said to Lin Chen, "Mr. Lin, my sincerest apologies for putting you through this."

"Rest assured, I, Qi Zhenxing, will give you a satisfactory resolution to this matter."

These words seemed to freeze time itself.

Then, a moment later, the entire marketing department drew in a sharp, collective breath.

Clearly, Chairman Qi Zhenxing's words had utterly stunned them all.

"J-Just now... what did Chairman Qi call him? Mr... Mr. Lin?!"

"Could it be that what he said before—about being a shareholder of the group—was all true? Th-this... this..."

"It's over, it's over. We were all cursing him just now. I hope Mr. Lin didn't hear it. If he heard us badmouthing him, we're really done for."

"Yeah, what do we do now..."

The male employees who had secretly mocked Lin Chen and waited to see him make a fool of himself now felt their scalps go numb.

Then, in unison, they swallowed hard.

One could imagine the shock and fear churning inside them.

But it wasn't just the men—the female employees were equally stunned.

When they heard Qi Zhenxing address Lin Chen as Mr. Lin, their mouths fell wide open, as if they could swallow an ostrich egg.

"H-he... he's really that Mr. Lin Chen? The group's largest shareholder?!"

"If Chairman Qi says so, then it must be true. I just never expected Mr. Lin to be so low-key..."

"Yeah, earlier I even thought he was poor and wanted to take care of him. Turns out he's our group's biggest shareholder, worth who knows how much."

"I have to say, he's really perfect—handsome and rich. I want to be his woman, even if it's just his mistress."

"Mistress? Who do you think you are? Are you even worthy? Forget mistress—if he's willing, I'd be anything he wants. Even a bitch on a leash."

"Lin Chen... is our group's largest shareholder? Th-this... how is that possible!"

Shang Zhiyi also looked as if she'd seen a ghost. Even now, she still couldn't believe it.

But the facts were right before her eyes, forcing her to accept them.

And that was precisely why a storm raged in Shang Zhiyi's heart.

As an old high school classmate, she knew Lin Chen's family background well—a genuine subsistence allowance household, the lowest rung of society.

Yet what Shang Zhiyi never expected was that in just seven years, Lin Chen had leaped from the bottom of society to the very pinnacle of Zhonghai's upper class.

It was utterly staggering.

"So earlier, when he was surprised downstairs, it wasn't because I worked at Shilin Guomao Group—it was because he was surprised that I was his employee..."

"And here I was showing off to him. Thinking about it now, I'm so embarrassed."

Recalling her behavior downstairs, Shang Zhiyi's face shifted from shock to shame, then flushed bright red.

But what she couldn't quite understand was why her heart was pounding so uncontrollably right now.