Xia Xiaoman remembers everything—the blood on the pavement, the shattered glass, the whispers of a debt too large to repay—everything except how her parents truly fell to their deaths. As an investigative journalist, she infiltrates the world of Li Moting, the ruthless heir to a financial empire, armed with nothing but a recorder and her perfect memory.  

"Three therapy sessions a week," he offers, fingers steepled, his voice colder than the rain outside the window. "In exchange for your silence."  

But what begins as a calculated game of revenge spirals into something far more dangerous. He scales a crumbling factory to save her from kidnappers, his hands bleeding, yet claims it’s merely "asset protection." She discovers ledgers in his study that implicate his family in her parents’ ruin—yet finds her childhood lullaby tucked in his desk drawer, the notes still intact after twenty years.  

On the night the truth comes crashing down, he kneels in the snow, pressing a pair of worn ballet flats into her hands. "Hate me if you must," he murmurs, "but let me remember you properly this time."  

And when she plays back the tapes—the ones she swore were evidence—all she hears is the unguarded hitch of his breath when she entered the room, the quiet, damning confession: *", Xia Xiaoman you were never part of the plan."*

**Li Moting stood on the rooftop of the Li Corporation headquarters, clutching the copy of *The Little Prince* in his hand.**  


The book was open to Chapter 21, where the fox tells the prince: *"It's the time you spent on your rose that makes your rose so important."*  


In the margin of this page, Xia Xiaoman had left a doodle—a rose entwined with thorns, its center marked with a small red "Ⅶ."  


His fingertips traced the number, his knuckles whitening from the pressure.  


Since Xia Xiaoman deleted all the files at the press conference and vanished without a trace, the Li Group had descended into unprecedented chaos. The media buzzed with speculation, shareholders applied pressure, and Li Chenzhou—his so-called "father"—had finally dropped the pretense, activating the "Circuit Breaker Protocol."  


*"You've disappointed me, Moting."* Li Chenzhou's voice came from behind him. *"To waver over a woman—that's not the weakness an heir I raised should have."*  


Li Moting didn't turn around. His gaze remained fixed in the direction of the bay area—where Xia Xiaoman's parents had died, and where the original underground facility for the MN-07 experiment had once stood.  


*"You're mistaken,"* he said, his voice eerily calm. *"I never wavered."*### **


Chapter 39 - Male Lead's Perspective: On the Brink of Collapse