Shi Roulan had always believed that the Shi family name was a shield—
a protection, a pride, a legacy.
She never realized it could also be a knife.
The night the trap was set, the Shi mansion was unusually quiet.
Not the quiet of peace, but the heavy silence that comes before a storm.
Her stepsister, Shi Roulan, appeared at the doorway with a soft, practiced smile—the kind that only fooled strangers.
"Father wants you to handle something important tonight," she said gently.
"He arranged a meeting with a big investor. It's at Blue Phoenix Hotel. Room 1806. He said it concerns the future of our family."
Shi Roulan blinked in confusion.
Their father rarely trusted her with business matters.
Why tonight?
Why suddenly?
But Roulan continued smoothly, "You want to prove you're capable, don't you? This is your chance."
It was that sentence—subtle, cutting, precise—that landed perfectly in her heart.
She wanted to be useful.
Wanted to be acknowledged.
Wanted to believe she still had a place in the Shi family.
So she nodded.
She didn't notice the flicker of triumph in Roulan's eyes.
The car ride to the hotel felt unsettlingly long.
Her intuition whispered warnings she couldn't name.
She pushed them away.
The moment she stepped into Room 1806, the faint scent of incense drifted toward her—sweet, oddly heavy.
A courtesy drink was already placed on the table.
She hesitated.
But her sister's words echoed again—
"Father wants you to handle something important."
So she lifted the glass.
She never finished it.
Her vision dimmed too quickly.
Her limbs weakened too fast.
Her heart thudded with dizziness instead of fear.
Just before darkness swallowed her, she wondered—
If this meeting was real…
why was there no "investor" waiting for her?
At the same moment, in another part of the hotel, a tall man in a dark suit pushed open the door to the same room.
His expression was cold, his presence sharper than steel.
He was exhausted after a day of negotiations and assumed the room was prepared by his assistant.
He did not know someone was inside.
He did not expect anyone.
But by the time he realized something was wrong—
his vision had already begun to blur from the tainted tea he had been given earlier that night.
His name was Mu Lingchen.
The man feared by countless people in the business world.
A man who valued control above all else.
And this was the first time in his life
he completely lost it.
He left before dawn.
No words.
No memories.
No faces recognized.
Just an empty room…
and two fates quietly rewritten in the dark.
When Shi Roulan woke the next morning, trembling and confused, the room was silent.
The man was gone.
Her nightmare had already begun.