Luong's fingers lingered on her father's pulse point—*too slow, too weak*—before she pulled the blanket higher over his chest. **"Rest. I'll take flowers to Mother for both of us."**
Zhou Weng's eyelids fluttered. **"No… you mustn't go alone—"** But the sedatives dragged him under before he could finish.
*What aren't you telling me?*
The question burned in her throat as she stormed into her office hours later, burying her fear under merger contracts and threat analyses—until Li Shiyi exploded through the door like a grenade.
**"Why are you here?"** Luong's pen froze mid-signature. **"You were supposed to—"**
**"Zhang Yu happened!"** Li slammed the door, her cheeks flushed. **"That arrogant *peacock* ordered me to fetch his coffee like some intern! I told him to watch Father himself if he's so *perfect*!"**
Luong massaged her temples. **"I swear, you two argue like an old married couple."**
Li's scandalized gasp was cut short by her own realization. **"Wait—*the intruder!*"** She lunged across the desk, her whisper razor-sharp. **"Security footage shows a masked figure in your father's room last night. They injected something into his IV."**
Luong's chair screeched as she stood. **"Chen Ying."** The name tasted like poison. **"He's covering his tracks."**
**"Or planting new ones,"** Li countered. **"The nurse said Father's been murmuring one word since dawn: *'Qinglong.'*"**
*The Qinglong files.* Her mother's encrypted research. The reason she'd died.
Luong's phone buzzed. A message from Yin:
**>> Found something at the gravesite. Don't come alone.**
And beneath it, a second text—*from an unknown number*:
**>> Too late.**