Chapter 27: Declaration of War

"I only just learned that one of the preliminary judges for this competition is my... aunt."

Wen Ran’s voice, filtered through the cold door panel, remained gentle, even carrying a touch of well-measured helplessness and apology, as if he were truly acting in her best interest. Yet, to Xu Yuan, every word sounded like a silent, chilling sentencing.

Boom!

Xu Yuan’s mind went blank. Her blood seemed to freeze in that instant, only to surge violently upward the next second, rushing straight to her head. She finally understood. This was no well-intentioned reminder. This was a declaration of war, delivered in the most gentle and polite manner possible.

He was using this to tell her: The rules of this competition are set by me. Your fate and Jiang Yi’s are under my control. And you—you would do best to stay away from him.

A chill, far more intense and bone-deep than the one she felt when dreaming of the fire, instantly swept through her body. All the fear she had felt moments ago dissolved, replaced by a cold, biting rage.

"Is that so?"

Xu Yuan slowly loosened her grip on the doorknob and took a step back, distancing herself from the door. Her voice, carrying through the wood, was clear, calm, and even held a faint hint of a smile. "That is truly... quite unfortunate."

Outside the door, Wen Ran seemed caught off guard by her reaction. He remained silent for a few seconds before continuing in that same gentle tone: "Student Xu Yuan, please don't misunderstand. I mean nothing else by it; I simply feel that the fairness of the competition is paramount. To avoid any appearance of impropriety, perhaps... you might consider choosing a different competition."

"Choose another?" Xu Yuan laughed. The sound was crisp, yet devoid of any warmth. "Why should we? Senior, have you forgotten? Jiang Yi and I are here for the prize money. We go wherever the money is. As for who the judges are..."

She paused, then said, enunciating every word with absolute clarity: "I believe that 'Fengqi' Technology, as a top-tier national company, would certainly select judges who are professional and impartial."

"We believe in the judges, and we believe even more in our own abilities."

The response was airtight. It displayed confidence while using the words "professional" and "impartial" to corner Wen Ran.

Outside the door, a long silence followed—so long that Xu Yuan almost thought he had left. Finally, his voice returned, still gentle, yet seemingly stripped of its warmth.

"Is that so?" he chuckled softly. "Then... I wish you the best of luck."

With that, his slow, steady footsteps faded down the hallway.

Only when the sound died away did Xu Yuan’s strength desert her. She leaned against the cold door and slowly slid to the floor. In her eyes, which had been burning with cold fire just moments before, all the pretense and composure crumbled, leaving behind only an endless, overwhelming sense of dread.

"Damn it!"

Lin Feifei could no longer restrain herself. She kicked the trash can beside her with a loud crash. "That Wen Ran! He is absolutely despicable! A green tea, a hypocrite, a wolf in sheep’s clothing!"

She paced back and forth, fuming and cursing indiscriminately. "He’s threatening you! He’s telling you that he can make you win or make you lose! Who does he think he is?!"

"Feifei..." Xu Yuan felt a surge of warmth looking at her friend’s flushed, angry face.

"Don't speak!" Lin Feifei crouched down, grabbing Xu Yuan by the shoulders and shaking her hard. "Xu Yuan! Wake up! We aren't dealing with a brainless idiot like Li Wenfeng anymore! We are dealing with a venomous snake hiding in the shadows, playing dirty!"

"We can't remain passive like this! You have to tell Jiang Yi!"

"No!" Xu Yuan rejected the idea without a second thought.

"Why not?!" Lin Feifei grew anxious. "At a time like this, you’re still worried about his fragile pride?!"

"It's not about pride," Xu Yuan shook her head, her voice raspy. "It's about trust."

"He doesn't even trust me right now. How could I possibly convince him to believe in an 'enemy' that I am the one pointing out?"

"He would only think this is another ridiculous lie I’ve fabricated just to keep pestering him."

Lin Feifei froze. She was right. How could Jiang Yi, that stubborn, impenetrable rock, ever believe that the seemingly perfect, radiant Senior Wen Ran could be the mastermind behind all of this?

"Then... what do we do?" For the first time, Lin Feifei felt the true gravity of the situation. "Are we just going to let him pull our strings?"

"No."

Xu Yuan slowly lifted her head. For the first time, a cold yet brilliantly bright flame ignited in her eyes, which were swollen from tears.

"If he wants to play, I’ll play along."

"Doesn't he want to see our proposal?" She looked at the cold laptop on the table that belonged to Jiang Yi and said, word by word, "Then I’ll give him a proposal he will never forget for the rest of his life."

...

That night, the lights in Xu Yuan’s dormitory did not go out. She didn't work on her online part-time job. She poured all her focus, all her intellect, all her fear of the looming future, and all her rage toward the hidden enemy into that proposal titled "Deep Sea Echo."

She was no longer content with building a simple app for venting one's feelings. She elevated the scope of the entire project to a new, almost frantic level.

She introduced concepts of "blockchain" and "encryption algorithms" to ensure that every "voice" was unique, tamper-proof, and absolutely anonymous. She designed a complex "echo matching" mechanism, allowing those similar, lonely souls to find resonance with each other in this deep sea. She even conceived a complete, viral marketing plan for the project, spanning from online promotion to offline interaction.

This was no longer a simple student assignment meant to satisfy a competition requirement. It was a complete, logically rigorous business plan that would make any investor’s eyes light up.

When she typed the final word, the eastern sky was already beginning to pale. She rubbed her sore eyes and sent the fifty-page proposal, into which she had poured her heart and soul, to Jiang Yi’s email address.

There were no extra words, only a single sentence at the end of the email:

[This is my declaration of war. Do you dare to accept?]

After finishing, she collapsed into her chair, drained of all strength. She didn't know how Jiang Yi would react to the proposal. She only knew that she had staked all her chips on this table.

She was staring blankly at the computer screen when the dormitory door was suddenly unlocked from the outside.

It was Lin Feifei. She had two heavy dark circles under her eyes, and in her hands, she carried two steaming breakfasts and a thick stack of freshly printed documents.

"Here." She placed one breakfast and the documents on Xu Yuan’s desk, her face unusually grave. "My brother checked this overnight. Everything on the Wen family is here."

Xu Yuan’s heart leaped into her throat. With trembling hands, she opened the stack of documents, which still smelled of fresh ink.

The first page was Wen Ran’s resume. It was perfect. From childhood to the present, he had excelled academically, won countless awards, and was in everyone’s eyes a golden child, a dragon among men.

Until Xu Yuan’s gaze fell on the section regarding his family.

[Father: Wen Zhiyuan, Chairman of the 'Wen Group'.]

[Mother: Song Wanjun, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of 'Fengqi' Technology.]

Song Wanjun... Wen Ran’s mother was the CTO of 'Fengqi'. And his aunt...

Xu Yuan’s heart sank, bit by bit. She continued to flip through the pages.

The second page detailed the history of the Wen Group. A company that had once been obscure, ten years ago—the very year the Jiang family met its downfall—had suddenly risen like a rocket. They had acquired a massive amount of distressed assets that had been auctioned off by banks after the "Jiang Group" went bankrupt at extremely low prices, and within a few years, they had leapt to become the new elite of Binhai City.

But what made Xu Yuan’s entire body go cold was the last page of the document, where a segment about the trial of the "Jiang Group Financial Fraud Case" from ten years ago was specially highlighted in red font.

[Key Witness: Wen Zhiyuan.]

[Testimony: Identified Chairman Jiang Zhenhai of the Jiang Group as having used fraudulent contracts to deceive his company, causing his firm to suffer massive losses.]

Boom!

Xu Yuan’s mind went blank. Looking at those cold, emotionless words, she felt as if all the blood in her body had been frozen solid.

She finally understood. She understood the pure white space in her dreams. She understood the invisible black threads that were tightening around Jiang Yi. And she understood the smiling eyes of Wen Ran, hidden behind the curtain.

That was no dream. That was the truth.

It was a truth that had been buried for ten years, stained with blood and betrayal.