Chapter 32: The Burning Defense Line

"Beep... beep... beep..."

The busy signal of the disconnected call felt like cold needles piercing Xu Yuan’s eardrums.

The nerves she had stretched to their breaking point—fueled by rage, madness, and the desperation of burning her bridges—snapped in that very instant.

She collapsed into her chair as if all strength had been drained from her. Her phone slipped from her burning palm and hit the floor with a dull thud.

It’s over.

She told herself this in the silence of her heart.

There was no one in this world as insane as she was. She had used a riddled, improvised lie to hijack a man already deeply suspicious of her, dragging him along to a slaughterhouse that threatened to tear him to shreds.

And the reason she had given him was—

User research.

Xu Yuan buried her face deep in her hands, her shoulders beginning to shake uncontrollably. She wanted to laugh—to laugh at her own absurdity and pathetic state—but before she could even curl her lips, hot tears welled up and spilled over.

The lingering fear of having barely survived, mixed with the terror of the battlefield she was about to enter, gripped her heart like two invisible, giant hands.

She gasped for air, trying to calm her body, which was heaving violently and no longer felt like her own. But this time, her body refused to obey her brain's commands.

A powerful, undeniable wave of dizziness slammed into her skull without warning.

The world before her eyes began to spin. The lights in the dormitory fractured into countless blurry spots, and the monotonous busy signal in her ears seemed to stretch infinitely, morphing into a harsh, nauseating buzzing sound.

She wanted to stand up and get a drink of water, but her limbs felt as heavy as lead, unresponsive to her will.

So, this was it: human willpower truly could not overcome the body’s instincts.

Between the sleepless nights, the recurring nightmares, and the grueling, high-stakes confrontation that had just drained every ounce of her spirit... her taut string had finally snapped right at the finish line.

Xu Yuan felt as if she were sinking into a freezing ocean; her consciousness was rapidly fading, while her body grew hotter by the second.

Just a second before she was to be swallowed by the darkness, the dormitory door clicked open.

It was Lin Feifei.

She looked exhausted, sporting two dark, heavy circles under her eyes, yet she clutched a small, freshly printed ATM receipt in her hand.

"Yuanyuan! I found it!"

She burst in like a victorious general, but her excitement froze the next second.

She saw Xu Yuan slumped in the chair, her face as pale as paper, her lips burned to a deep purple, and her entire body trembling unnaturally.

"Xu Yuan?!"

Lin Feifei’s scream was the last thing Xu Yuan heard before losing consciousness.

...

Xu Yuan had a dream.

She dreamed she was back in that familiar, endless sea of fire.

This time, she did not cry out, nor did she run in vain. She simply stood still, letting the scorching flames, powerful enough to consume everything, wrap around her.

It was hot.

So hot it felt as if it were burning her very soul to ash.

Yet, strangely, amidst the excruciating pain of the inferno, she felt a sliver of... relief.

If this was the ending, if this was the fate she could never change...

Then, so be it.

At least she would no longer have to carry those heavy, unspeakable secrets alone, wandering through the endless darkness.

She closed her eyes slowly, preparing to welcome the final, destructive blackness.

But just then, a pair of cold, calloused hands suddenly reached through the layers of flame and grabbed her wrists with a death grip.

Those hands were strong, with an unrelenting force that felt as if they might crush her bones. Then, a cold, raspy voice—one she felt engraved in her very bones—exploded in her ear.

"Xu Yuan!"

"You dare to try dying, just you try!"

...

"Ah!"

Xu Yuan screamed and bolted upright in bed.

She gasped for air, her entire body soaked in cold sweat.

The sight before her was no longer a sea of fire, but the familiar, stark white ceiling of the Binhai University infirmary. The air was filled with the faint scent of disinfectant.

"You’re awake?"

Beside her came Lin Feifei’s voice, raspy and thick with exhaustion.

Xu Yuan turned her head to see Lin Feifei slumped by the bed, her eyes red, her face etched with worry and lingering fear.

"Feifei..." Xu Yuan opened her mouth, only to find her throat so dry it felt like it was smoking; her voice was hoarse beyond recognition. "How... how did I end up here?"

"Don't even get me started!" Upon hearing this, tears streamed down Lin Feifei’s face. She punched the mattress, torn between heartache and anger. "You had a high fever! Nearly forty degrees! The doctor said it was an acute viral infection combined with extreme exhaustion. If you had come in any later, you would have burned your brain to a crisp!"

A high fever...

Xu Yuan reached up to touch her forehead.

It was scorching.

So, the burning agony in her dream hadn't just been a dream.

"I'm sorry..." She looked at Lin Feifei’s rabbit-red eyes, a wave of guilt surging within her. "I made you worry."

"Now you know you made me worry?" Lin Feifei wiped her tears, rolling her eyes, but she quickly and efficiently poured a glass of warm water from the table and held it to Xu Yuan’s lips. "Even if you were made of iron, you couldn't take this kind of abuse! Tell me, what exactly are you hoping to gain?"

What was she hoping to gain?

Xu Yuan leaned against the headboard, sipping the water slowly, her eyes unfocused.

Yes, what was she actually after?

"Feifei," she set the glass down, looked at her friend, and told her everything—the phone call with Jiang Yi and the insane "user research" plan—word for word.

...

"So..."

After hearing it all, the face of the usually vibrant Lin Feifei showed, for the first time, a genuine, fractured look of shock.

She looked at Xu Yuan’s unnaturally flushed face, thought back to the insane plan, and after a long silence, she spoke in a voice mixed with disbelief and boiling rage:

"So, not only did you fail to clear his name, but you also voluntarily dragged yourself into the mess?"

"And you did it with a... 'user research' excuse?"

Lin Feifei felt her temples throbbing.

"Xu Yuan! Have you lost your mind?!" She grabbed Xu Yuan’s shoulders and shook them. "That’s a court of law! Not the vegetable market downstairs! You’re going there to do user research? What are you researching? Whether those reporters prefer telephoto lenses or wide-angle ones?!"

"I’m not crazy." Xu Yuan let her shake her, her eyes firmer than ever. "Feifei, listen to me."

She grabbed Lin Feifei’s hand and spoke in a raspy, calm voice: "Why did Wen Ran orchestrate the KTV incident? He wasn't trying to take Jiang Yi down; he was testing him."

"Testing Jiang Yi’s bottom line, and testing how many people he still has left at his disposal."

"And now, I am his next target."

"I cannot retreat."

"I must go. And I cannot go as a 'sympathizer,' let alone as a 'friend of Jiang Yi.' I must appear in that slaughterhouse—a place that should have been his—as someone he never expected, someone he can't fathom, someone he might even find completely irrational."

"I want him to know that I am not a soft persimmon he can squeeze at will."

"I am Jiang Yi’s... ally."

Lin Feifei was completely stunned. She looked at Xu Yuan, who, despite her fever, held the calm, crazed eyes of a lone wolf preparing for a desperate counterattack. She suddenly realized she had never truly known her.

"You're a lunatic..." Lin Feifei murmured. "Both of you are lunatics."

Despite her words, she pulled a crumpled bank transfer slip from her bag.

"Look at this. My brother found it." She handed it to Xu Yuan. "That hypocrite Wen Ran used a bank card linked to the phone number on that application form you were given. There was a transfer of thirty thousand. The recipient was that idiot Li Wenfeng’s Alipay account!"

This news hit like a bucket of cold water, instantly clearing Xu Yuan’s fever-fogged mind.

As expected, nothing was a coincidence.

"That bastard!" Lin Feifei gritted her teeth in fury. "This is it! We have to show this evidence to Jiang Yi immediately! Let him see exactly what kind of person that Wen guy is!"

"It's too late." Xu Yuan shook her head. "If I show him now, it will only make him think I’m helping him out of pity or guilt because I found this out."

"Then..." Lin Feifei panicked. "What do we do? Just watch?"

"No."

Xu Yuan stared at the receipt, a cold, sharp light flashing in her eyes, which were unnaturally bright from the fever.

"We will use this evidence at the most critical moment."

She finished speaking and struggled to get out of bed.

"What are you doing?!" Lin Feifei quickly held her back. "Are you trying to kill yourself?!"

"Going back to the dorm." Xu Yuan’s voice was raspy but firm. "I need to draft a real user research plan."

"A plan so professional that even Jiang Yi won't be able to find a single flaw in it."

"He wants to watch a show? Fine."

"Then I will write the script for this show and make it absolutely airtight."

She wanted Jiang Yi to believe she was a professional.

She wanted Wen Ran to know that she was not to be trifled with.

As she struggled, her phone, which Lin Feifei had placed on the nightstand, suddenly lit up with a "buzz."

It was a text message.

From an unknown, anonymous number.

Xu Yuan’s pupils constricted.

Lin Feifei saw it too; she snatched the phone and opened the message.

Her face instantly turned as pale as Xu Yuan’s.

On the screen was only a single, short line.

[Heard you were sick.]

[The Binhai Municipal Intermediate People's Court doesn't have an infirmary.]