Night stretched like glass over Liangcheng, the city lights sharp and brilliant against the dark. Inside Luminar's headquarters, however, the air was heavy with silence.
The boardroom that usually echoed with pitches and laughter now hummed only with the faint buzz of screens. At the head of the table, Gu Ze Yan leaned back in his chair, long fingers pressed together, eyes narrowed in thought.
Across from him sat Su Shen Qiao, her posture perfect, her expression cool as steel. Chen Rui hovered near the window, restless, pacing in circles like a caged beast.
Ze Yan finally spoke, his voice low but cutting.
"From tonight, we investigate every line of code. Every log. Every access."
Shen Qiao's lips curved—not into a smile, but into a razor-thin promise.
"Leave it to me. If there's a ghost in our house, I'll drag it into the light."
Chen Rui stopped pacing, fists tightening. "Boss, someone inside did this. Only someone close could've planted those bugs. That's—"
Ze Yan cut him off, tone sharp enough to silence the room.
"We don't bleed twice. Find me the wound."
Rumors in the Wind
The next morning, Luminar's glass facade reflected the flashing lights of paparazzi cameras.
Headlines were everywhere:
"Is Luminar's AI Unreliable?"
"Zhao Family's Gamble Fails?"
"Gu Ze Yan—Visionary or Reckless?"
Inside Zhao Corporation, board members whispered over expensive tea. Some smirked behind polished cups, eager to use the scandal to weaken Ze Yan's standing.
Ze Yan read the news with an unreadable face. Not a muscle twitched. Yet inside, anger coiled like a blade too long left unsheathed. He knew this wasn't a stumble of fate. It stank of sabotage.
Amid the storm, Lin Qing Yun became the light no headline could extinguish.
She stayed late at Luminar, quietly brewing tea in the pantry, carrying warm buns to engineers who hadn't left their desks in hours. She walked between rows of tired coders, her calm voice gentle but firm:
"Don't let doubt eat your work. What you built is real. We'll prove it again."
Her presence worked like a soft anchor, keeping panic from pulling the team apart. Even Shen Qiao, who rarely praised anyone, muttered to Ze Yan as she adjusted her glasses:
"She steadies the storm. Don't let go of her."
Ze Yan's lips curved faintly. He said nothing, but his gaze lingered on Qing Yun as she knelt beside a junior engineer, patiently explaining a translation bug she had caught in the system's English manual.
She didn't know it, but every time she smiled, the weight on his chest lifted just enough for him to breathe again.
Three days later, Shen Qiao stormed into Ze Yan's office, dropping a thick file on his desk.
"Found it."
Ze Yan opened the file. Screenshots, timestamps, access logs. Lines of code so ordinary they might have been overlooked forever—except they weren't ordinary at all.
"These weren't mistakes," Shen Qiao said coldly. "They were planted. Tiny landmines, waiting for the demo to set them off."
Ze Yan's hand tightened around the file. "From outside?"
Shen Qiao shook her head. "No. Internal access only. Someone inside Luminar betrayed us."
The words cracked through the room. Chen Rui swore under his breath.
For a long moment, Ze Yan said nothing. His reflection in the window looked carved from shadow, jawline sharp enough to cut glass.
Finally, he spoke, voice low.
"Then we start inside. Trust is earned. Betrayal is unforgivable."
The revelation spread through the team like fire.
Whispers replaced laughter. Engineers who once worked side by side now eyed each other with suspicion. Meetings turned brittle; collaboration slowed.
Even the brightest screens couldn't mask the darkness between colleagues.
Ze Yan watched it all in silence. He knew the danger. Sabotage could be fixed. Code could be rewritten. But broken trust inside Luminar? That could kill faster than any external enemy.
One night, he stood at the edge of the office floor, watching the team from above. Qing Yun appeared quietly beside him, holding two cups of tea. She offered one, her smile soft.
"Don't let this poison you," she whispered. "They still believe in you. And I—"
She stopped, looking away, lashes trembling. But he heard what she didn't say.
His hand brushed hers as he took the cup. A small gesture, but it steadied him more than hours of sleep ever could.
The next morning, Chen Rui burst into Ze Yan's office, a letter clenched in his fist.
"Boss, you need to see this."
Ze Yan took the paper, scanning it quickly. A resignation letter.
The name at the bottom made his chest tighten. A senior engineer. Loyal for years. Quiet, steady, respected. Someone Ze Yan had trusted without question.
Chen Rui's voice shook with anger. "He says he wants to 'take a break.' But the timing? Right after the sabotage? If he walks out now, we'll never know how deep this goes."
Ze Yan set the paper down slowly. His expression didn't change, but the air around him seemed to darken.
He turned to the window. Liangcheng's skyline glittered like knives in the distance. His reflection stared back at him, eyes hard, voice quiet.
"No one leaves… until I have answers."