Chapter 18

The afternoon sky over Shanghai turned an ominous, bruised grey as heavy storm clouds began to roll in from the coast. The air felt thick, charged with the static electricity of an impending downpour.

Outside the Lin Group headquarters, a convoy of three sleek black SUVs sat waiting. Lin Mian stood in the private executive lobby, adjusting the cuffs of his shirt. Despite the chaotic smear campaign and the pressure of the upcoming live press conference at the Shanghai Media Center, his heart felt remarkably steady. He was no longer the defenseless boy from his past life.

A heavy, grounding warmth suddenly enveloped his hand. Lin Mian turned to see Lu Chen standing beside him. Lu Chen’s sharp jaw was tight, his dark eyes hyper-focused as he scanned the perimeter through the tinted glass doors.

“The Media Center is only a ten-minute drive from here,” Lu Chen murmured, his voice low and cautious. “But I don’t like the look of the traffic on the main bridge. My security detail will lead the convoy. You stay in the middle car with me.”

Lin Mian offered a soft, reassuring smile, squeezing Lu Chen’s large hand. “Don’t worry too much, giant wolf. We’ve already dismantled his legal and financial avenues. Shao Ting is cornered. He can’t do anything reckless in broad daylight.”

“A cornered viper is when it is most venomous, Xiao Mian,” Lu Chen replied grimly, pulling Lin Mian closer to his side as they walked out toward the waiting vehicles.

The convoy moved smoothly through the bustling streets of the financial district. Inside the luxurious interior of the armored SUV, the silence was palpable. Lin Mian was reviewing his speech notes on his tablet, while Lu Chen sat beside him, his eyes glued to a real-time security feed of the surrounding grid.

As the cars ascended the ramp toward the elevated coastal highway, the sky finally broke. A torrential downpour slammed into the windshield, reducing visibility to a blurry sheet of grey water.

“CEO Lu, we have an anomaly,” the head bodyguard in the passenger seat suddenly reported, his voice sharp with alarm. “Two heavy-duty commercial transport trucks just swerved into our lane from the slip road. They’re cutting off our lead vehicle.”

Before Lu Chen could even issue an order, the trap snapped shut.

*SCREECH!*

The lead SUV slammed on its brakes as one of the massive cargo trucks intentionally jackknifed across the highway lanes, completely blocking the path. From behind, a second cargo truck accelerated, ruthlessly ramming into the rear SUV of the convoy, crushing its engine block and trapping the security detail inside.

Lin Mian’s breath hitched as their own driver violently spun the steering wheel. The armored SUV skidded across the wet asphalt, its tires shrieking before slamming heavily against the concrete barrier of the highway.

*BANG!*

The impact deployed the side airbags, and the cabin filled with a white, powdery haze. Lin Mian gasped, his vision swimming. Before he could succumb to the panic, a pair of incredibly strong, desperate arms wrapped around him, shielding his head and torso completely from the impact. Lu Chen had thrown his own body over Lin Mian, taking the brunt of the collision against the car door.

“Xiao Mian! Are you hurt? Look at me!” Lu Chen roared through the chaos, his voice laced with a raw, terrifying panic that Lin Mian had never heard before. There was a small cut on Lu Chen’s temple, a thin trail of crimson mixing with his sweat.

“I’m fine! I’m okay!” Lin Mian choked out, his hands gripping Lu Chen’s soaked shirt.

Outside the shattered windows, the nightmare unfolded. Doors of the cargo trucks flew open, and a dozen men dressed in rain slickers and tactical masks poured out, wielding heavy iron crowbars and firearms. They completely ignored the dazed security guards in the other vehicles and marched straight toward the middle SUV.

“They’re after me,” Lin Mian whispered, his blood running cold. This wasn’t a corporate threat. Shao Ting had completely abandoned his sanity. He was trying to abduct him in the middle of the highway.

“Over my dead body,” Lu Chen growled, his eyes turning into a feral, murderous pitch black. He reached into the glove compartment, pulling out a sleek, heavy-caliber handgun. He checked the clip with a cold, terrifying efficiency that belonged to a man who had survived the brutal,
underworld-adjacent wars of global logistics.

*SMASH!*

A heavy crowbar shattered the reinforced ballistic glass of the passenger window. The masked mercenaries began raining heavy blows on the doors, trying to pry the locks open.

“Stay down, Xiao Mian! Don’t move!” Lu Chen commanded.

Lu Chen kicked his door open with a violent force, sending one of the attackers flying backward into the pouring rain. He stepped out into the storm, a towering, vengeful demon in a tailored suit.

*BANG! BANG!*

Two deafening gunshots echoed through the thunderous downpour. Two masked men dropped to the asphalt, clutching their legs as Lu Chen fired with surgical precision. He didn’t shoot to kill; he shot to disable, moving like a highly trained weapon, neutralizing anyone who dared to step within a meter of the car.

But there were too many of them. While Lu Chen was fighting off three men at the front, two others managed to rip the rear door open from the opposite side.

A rough, gloved hand forcefully grabbed Lin Mian’s ankle, dragging him out of the luxury cabin and onto the cold, wet asphalt.

“Let go of me!” Lin Mian screamed, kicking fiercely. He managed to plant his heel firmly into one attacker’s face, fracturing the man’s nose, but a second mercenary immediately lunged forward, pressing a cloth laced with a sweet, chemical scent over Lin Mian’s nose and mouth.

*Chloroform.*

Lin Mian’s limbs instantly turned heavy, his vision blurring into a dizzying vortex of grey and black. He looked through the blinding rain, seeing Lu Chen violently throwing a punch that shattered an attacker’s jaw.

“LU CHEN!” Lin Mian tried to scream, but it came out as a weak, pathetic whimper.

Hearing that faint cry, Lu Chen spun around. The sight that met his eyes made his soul completely fracture: Lin Mian, pale and semi-conscious, was being tossed into the back of a generic silver van that had pulled up alongside the barrier.

“LIN MIAN!” Lu Chen screamed, a sound of pure, agonizing torment that tore through his vocal cords.

He bolted toward the van, completely ignoring a crowbar that swung violently against his left shoulder, fracturing his collarbone. He didn’t feel the pain. He didn’t feel the rain. His eyes were locked entirely on the closing sliding door of the van.

He reached out, his fingertips brushing against the cold metal of the vehicle just as the driver slammed on the gas, the tires spinning furiously against the wet asphalt before roaring away down the highway ramp, disappearing into the blinding sheet of rain.

Lu Chen fell to his knees on the flooded highway, his chest heaving, blood dripping from his temple into the puddles below. The silence of his empty hands felt exactly like the morning he had knelt over Lin Mian’s dead body in the past timeline.

Slowly, Lu Chen stood up. The desperate, panicked lover vanished. The rain washed away the blood on his face, leaving behind a expression carved out of absolute, unadulterated madness. He pulled out his radio, his voice dropping into a register so cold and lethal it sounded like death itself.

“Activate every asset. Close the borders. Block the rivers. Shut down the airport,” Lu Chen whispered into the receiver, his body trembling with a terrifying, apocalyptic rage. “I want Shao Ting. Alive or dead, I don’t care. If Lin Mian has even a single scratch on him… I will burn this entire city to the ground to find him.”

To be continue