Chapter 30: Diverting the Disaster

"What is this?" Su Jin looked at the medicine bottle, then at Yang Rui’s slightly eased expression, filled with uncertainty.

"An ancestral... life-saving pill... to hang onto one's last breath..." Yang Rui leaned against Su Jin. His voice remained weak, yet it held a hint of vitality. He pointed to his back. "The gauze... help me... change it..."

Su Jin gritted her teeth, suppressing the panic and embarrassment in her heart. There was no time for hesitation now. She carefully helped Yang Rui lie prone on an old sofa in the living room, fetched a pair of scissors, and with the utmost gentleness, cut away the blood-soaked gauze and clothing on his back. The ghastly wound was exposed; its edges were red, swollen, and everted, while the center had torn open again due to his strenuous movements, slowly oozing fresh blood. Su Jin endured the visceral shock, used a clean towel soaked in warm water to gingerly clean the bloodstains around the wound, and then sprinkled on it the other equally ancient-looking golden medicinal powder from the wooden box, as instructed by Yang Rui. The powder carried a cooling, herbal scent, and as it touched the wound, Yang Rui’s body tightened imperceptibly. Finally, she carefully re-dressed the wound with clean gauze.

Throughout the process, Yang Rui kept his teeth clenched, not uttering a single sound. Only the cold sweat rolling down his forehead and his slightly trembling body betrayed the immense pain he was enduring.

Once finished, Su Jin felt nearly drained, her forehead beaded with fine sweat. She looked at Yang Rui’s pale but steadily breathing face, then turned her gaze to the eye-catching pool of blood on the bedroom floor and the ashes that were all that remained of the burned items. A sense of lingering fear and anger surged within her once more.

"Bai Shi... and that Master Qu... they are absolutely insane!" Su Jin’s voice was filled with irrepressible fury. "They failed this time, but they will never give up! What do we do now? Are we just going to sit here and be targets?"

Yang Rui lay on the sofa, eyes closed, silently sensing the power of the life-saving pill and the cooling, analgesic effect of the powder on his back. Hearing Su Jin’s words, he slowly opened his eyes. Though his gaze was weary, a cold fire burned deep within.

"Sitting targets?" He curled his lips into a cold, blood-stained sneer. "Old Ghost Qu suffered the backlash from my broken formation; he won’t be getting out of bed for at least a year or eighteen months. As for that mad dog Bai Shi... since he’s bitten onto me and refuses to let go..."

Yang Rui’s gaze shifted toward the window. The dilapidated building, stripped down to its skeletal frame, stood in the night like the remains of a hideous beast—the very source of the baleful energy Master Qu had channeled.

"He likes to play dirty, likes to use Feng Shui to harm people..." Yang Rui’s voice dropped, carrying a cold, calculating chill that seemed to see through the human heart. "Then I shall... present him with a ‘grand gift’! Let him taste... what it means to ‘let a disaster befall one's neighbor’!"

Three days later, at the headquarters of the Hengtai Group.

The heavy mahogany door of the top-floor CEO’s office was tightly shut, sealing out the rest of the world. Bai Shi paced back and forth in front of the massive floor-to-ceiling window, his expensive, handmade Italian leather shoes making dull, restless echoes on the mirror-like marble floor. His face was gloomy, his eyes bloodshot, like a raging beast trapped in a cage.

Master Qu had been severely injured by the backlash and was now a cripple; not only had he failed to eliminate Yang Rui, but he had also cost Bai Shi one of his most important trump cards. What infuriated him even more was that everything had gone wrong these past few days! An overseas contract that had been in negotiation for a long time and was practically a done deal had been abruptly terminated by the other party without warning! A well-performing subsidiary of the group had suddenly seen its core executive team collectively tender their resignations to jump to a competitor! Even a top-tier luxury riverside mansion he had recently purchased had suffered mysterious, severe water leakage during renovations, ruining millions worth of antique furniture that had just arrived!

Taken individually, these events might seem like accidents, but happening one after another to him felt incredibly sinister! An indescribable sense of misfortune, like a maggot feeding on bone, shrouded him, leaving him restless and irritable to the point of explosion.

"Trash! A bunch of trash!" Bai Shi grabbed a crystal ashtray from his desk and hurled it against the wall! With a deafening "bang," the ashtray shattered, crystal shards flying everywhere!

Secretary Xiao Zhao, cowering by the door, turned deathly pale and didn't dare to breathe.

Just then, the private phone on Bai Shi’s desk vibrated. It was an encrypted number with no saved contact name. Bai Shi suppressed his rage, answered the call, and spoke in a cold voice: "Speak!"

A deliberately lowered, panicked voice came from the other end: "Boss... something has happened! The ‘Jinxiu Huafu’ construction site in the south of the city! The foundation that was just poured... it... it has completely collapsed!"

"What?!" Bai Shi’s pupils constricted, and a chill surged from the soles of his feet straight to his scalp! Jinxiu Huafu was the Hengtai Group’s most important real estate project this year; with its massive investment and prime location, it was the group’s cash cow for the next few years! The foundation collapsed? This wasn't just a matter of astronomical losses; it was a major safety incident! If this were exposed, the consequences would be unimaginable!

"How could it collapse?! Where is the supervisor? Where is the construction team? Are they all dead?!" Bai Shi roared at the phone, his voice distorted.

"I... I don’t know, Boss!" The voice on the other end was on the verge of tears. "Everything was fine yesterday! This morning, when the workers went down to prepare for pouring, it suddenly... suddenly collapsed! It collapsed for no reason! There was no warning! Now the pit is full of mud and water, and the few brothers who went down to check the situation... haven't been pulled out yet..."

A cold sense of despair instantly gripped Bai Shi’s heart! His vision blurred, and he nearly lost his footing. A major accident! Loss of life! Media! Investigations! Stock price crash! Banks pulling loans... countless terrifying consequences flashed through his mind like a revolving lantern!

"Suppress it! Suppress the news for me! At any cost!" Bai Shi screamed at the phone, his voice twisted by extreme fear and rage. "Seal off the site! Gag every worker! If anyone dares to leak a single word, I’ll have their entire family buried with them!" He slammed the phone down, his body shaking violently from agitation and terror.

However, before he could even catch his breath, the office internal line began ringing frantically, like a summons to the grave!

"Ring—ring—!"

Bai Shi grabbed the receiver and shouted, "What the hell is it now?!"

"Bai... President Bai!" It was the panicked voice of the Group’s Chief Financial Officer. "Just... just received a notification! That critical two-billion-yuan bridge loan we applied for from ‘Huitong International’... has been... has been rejected! The reason is... the reason is that it failed the risk assessment!"

"What?!!" Bai Shi felt a surge of hot blood rush to his head, stars dancing before his eyes! The loan from Huitong was the life-saving money he was using to keep the Jinxiu Huafu project afloat and fill other holes! Without this money, the capital chain would break immediately! The avalanche was right before him!

"What’s the reason?! Didn't the risk assessment get cleared already?!" Bai Shi’s voice had turned hoarse with despair.

"The... the other party didn't give a specific reason... they only said... said that our group’s recent... energy fluctuations are too violent... and the risk... the risk is uncontrollable..." The CFO’s voice was filled with disbelief and panic.

"Energy fluctuations?! That’s a load of bullshit!" Bai Shi smashed the receiver down! The expensive custom-made phone shattered upon impact with the mahogany desk!

Energy! It was energy again! The constant string of bad luck! The inexplicable foundation collapse! The rejection of the critical loan! Everything pointed to one name—Yang Rui!