CHAPTER 100 — The Collapse of the Shi Empire
The conference room of the central police headquarters buzzed like a hornet's nest. Detectives ran from one desk to another; telephones rang without pause; screens flickered with new data. The storm outside hadn't slowed anything—if anything, it fueled the frenzy inside.
Shi Yunxi sat at the center of it all.
Calm.
Straight-backed.
Expression unreadable.
But Mu Lingchen, standing behind her with one hand on her shoulder, could feel it—the electric tightness in her muscles, the way her fingers tapped every few seconds, the almost imperceptible tremors she was fighting to suppress.
Rui was safe.
Alive.
Sleeping peacefully in the medical wing with a nurse watching him and his siblings curled beside him.
But this… this was far from over.
Roulan's arrest earlier that morning had opened the door to hell.
And the Shi family had just stepped through it.
"Sir, we've finished reviewing the first set of files she handed over," a young officer reported to the chief. "…and… well, you should see this yourself."
The chief rubbed his temples. "Give it to me straight, officer."
The young man swallowed.
"She wasn't lying. There are years of evidence—financial fraud, illegal medical experimentation, bribery, political blackmail, attempted murder—"
Lingchen stiffened.
"Attempted murder?" he demanded.
The officer nodded shakily. "Several… incidents. And one specifically involving Miss Shi."
Yunxi's head lifted.
The officer tapped the folder he held. "Roulan submitted a flash drive the moment she realized her sentence could rise beyond twenty years. She's trying to trade information for leniency."
Yunxi's expression didn't move. "And she thinks betraying the Shi family will save her?"
"No," the officer said honestly. "But she thinks dragging them down will make her feel less alone."
Lingchen's jaw tightened with disgust.
Yunxi didn't speak. Her eyes had already drifted downward, distant, as if something cold and old had awakened inside her.
The officer cleared his throat nervously. "Should I… start the playback?"
The chief nodded.
The projector clicked on.
A grainy video filled the screen.
A young girl—tiny, thin, terrified—sat in a corner of a dark room. Her arms wrapped around herself, knees drawn to her chest. Her hair was tangled, clothes torn.
Yunxi.
At twelve.
Lingchen inhaled sharply, fury searing his veins.
The young Yunxi flinched every time a door slammed outside the room. She rocked herself slowly, whispering something under her breath.
"Pause it," Yunxi said quietly.
The officer froze the frame.
Lingchen turned toward her immediately. "Yunxi—"
"It's fine," she said.
It wasn't.
Her voice was too calm.
Too flat.
Too detached to be normal.
She kept her eyes on the screen, but her mind was somewhere else—back in that room, back in those years.
"Continue," she whispered.
The officer pressed play again.
The door burst open in the video.
Roulan stepped in—young, angry, full of venom even at that age.
"Mother said you're being dramatic," Roulan snapped in the video. "She said to stop crying."
The child Yunxi shrank back.
"It hurts," she whispered. "I didn't do anything wrong."
Roulan rolled her eyes. "Stop lying. If you didn't do anything wrong, why would Father order you punished?"
Lingchen felt something inside him crack.
Yunxi watched herself silently, expression unchanged. But the muscle in her jaw twitched.
Roulan stomped closer in the footage and grabbed the younger girl by the arm, yanking her upward. Yunxi cried out in pain.
"Get up," Roulan hissed. "Mother said to take you back to the medical room."
"No—" the child gasped. "I don't want to go—please—please no—"
Roulan slapped her.
The sound echoed across the conference room.
Lingchen's fists clenched hard enough to tremble.
The video cut abruptly.
Silence.
Thick.
Suffocating.
Lingchen's voice was low and dangerous. "How much more of this is there?"
The officer swallowed. "Over thirty videos. And hundreds of financial files, testimonies, audio logs…"
The chief stepped forward. "Miss Shi… this confirms everything you told us years ago. Everything the Shi family denied. Everything they hid."
Yunxi finally looked up.
Her eyes were strange—steady but far too calm, the calm of someone whose emotions had been scraped raw long ago.
"I told them," she said simply. "No one believed me."
Lingchen reached for her hand.
This time, she didn't pull away.
"Miss Shi," the chief continued slowly, "with this level of evidence, the Shi family will not survive. Not legally. Not socially. Not economically."
Lingchen spoke before Yunxi could.
"Destroy them."
Yunxi didn't move, didn't blink.
Just exhaled once.
Soft.
Cold.
Final.
"Officer," she said. "Continue."
The second projection displayed financial records—embezzled charity funds, human trafficking networks tied to overseas branches, forged hospital trials, bribes paid to silence injured workers.
It was a mountain of corruption.
The officer explained, "Roulan said she kept copies of everything as… insurance. Her words were: 'Everyone in that family is a monster. Including me. But I'm the only monster smart enough to keep receipts.'"
The chief sighed. "She'll still go to prison for decades, but yes, this will force us to open a national investigation into the Shi group."
Yunxi sat motionless.
Lingchen shifted, reaching out again.
But this time, Yunxi stood abruptly.
The room fell silent.
She turned toward the window, where the morning sun was beginning to break through the storm clouds.
For a moment, she looked impossibly small.
Then impossibly strong.
Then she spoke—
"…Good."
Her voice was quiet, but it struck like thunder.
"They turned my childhood into a weapon. They hurt me for years. They chased me even after I left. And now—"
She turned back toward the officers.
Her expression finally cracked.
Not into sadness.
Into a fierce, burning resolve.
"Now they finally face consequences."
Lingchen stepped beside her, giving her space yet grounding her presence.
"You're not alone," he murmured. "Not anymore."
Yunxi nodded once.
The chief closed the file.
"This begins the formal dismantling of the Shi empire."
The officers rose to begin the process.
But Yunxi wasn't looking at them.
She was looking at the door.
Because standing there silently, hugging each other, were her three children—Yichen, Qing'er, and Rui (now awake, holding a nurse's hand).
"Mommy…" Rui whispered.
He ran.
Yunxi dropped to her knees and caught him, burying her face in his hair.
Lingchen knelt beside them, pulling the other two children close.
The storm had passed outside—
But inside the Shi family?
A new one was just beginning.
The empire that built itself on cruelty and lies—
Was finally about to fall.