Transmigration; Married to My Ex-Fiancé's Uncle-Chapter 180; Making the first step (j)

The criticism stung, particularly because it was accurate.

Lu Zeyan had spent his entire career choosing the easy path, the quick solution, the immediate gratification, and it had finally caught up with him in the worst possible way.

"The board is calling an emergency meeting," Lu Cheng continued, his voice returning to business mode.

"One hour from now. Main boardroom. Every director, every senior executive, and myself. We need to assess exactly how much damage you’ve done and how to contain it before it metastasizes further."

"Father, if we push too hard, she’ll destroy everything....."

"Then we won’t push hard," Lu Zhengyi interrupted with the cold logic of someone who’d been playing corporate power games since before his son was born.

"We’ll push smart. We’ll assess her actual capabilities, identify her vulnerabilities, and determine whether she’s truly as dangerous as she’s made herself appear or if this is elaborate bluffing."

He paused significantly.

"One hour, Zeyan. Be prepared to explain exactly what leverage she has, how she obtained it, and why you thought capitulation was the only option. And for God’s sake, have some better answers ready than ’I didn’t have a choice.’ The board will eat you alive with that kind of weakness."

The line went dead.

Lu Zeyan sat in his office, staring at his phone, feeling the walls closing in with claustrophobic pressure.

This was a disaster.

A complete, unmitigated, career-ending disaster.

And it was about to get so much worse.

Within thirty minutes, word had spread through the entire executive floor like wildfire through dry brush.

Lin Shuyin, the disgraced ex-fiancée, the woman who’d gone to prison for corporate espionage and murder, the fallen princess who’d lost everything, had now been given executive authority.

She had an office.

She had access to confidential systems.

She had power.

The whispers were vicious, speculative, and increasingly frightened.

What does she know?

What leverage does she actually have?

How much danger are we in?

Did Chen really embezzle that money?

What if she knows about the supplier kickbacks?

God, what if she knows about Singapore?

In her corner office, Shuyin felt the building’s attention shift toward her like a physical force, the weight of dozens of people suddenly focused on her presence, trying to assess the threat level, calculate their exposure, determine whether they needed to start preparing legal defenses or escape plans.

Let them scramble, she thought with cold satisfaction.

Let them fear.

Let them spend the next hour in mounting panic, imagining everything she might know, every secret she might expose. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

She’d been powerless for three years locked up in that research center.... And Shuyin was, trapped in a prison cell for several weeks, at the mercy of people who’d betrayed and discarded her without a second thought.

Now it was their turn to feel helpless.

Now it was their turn to wonder if today would be the day their carefully constructed lies finally collapsed.

LU YUZE’S POV

In his private office at the Yuyan Conglomerate headquarters, Lu Yuze sat behind his desk with the controlled stillness of a predator at rest, his attention divided between the physical files spread before him and the discreet monitor embedded in his desktop.

The screen showed multiple camera feeds from a different location entirely, the Lu South Branch Group building, where Lin Shuyin now worked. Each camera was positioned with strategic precision throughout that building, though no one there knew he had remote access to their security systems. His focus remained on one particular view: Lin Shuyin’s new corner office.

No one at the Lu South Branch Group even had an idea that he, operating from an entirely separate conglomerate, with no shares or stake in this Family’s Lu empire, had access to all their CCTV cameras.

He watched her every move through the space, noting every gesture, every interaction. But what held his attention most was the way she paused beside Yuyan, the unconscious softness that entered her posture when the child looked up at her, the protective instinct that flickered across her face before she remembered to school her features back to calculated control.

She had no idea she was being observed from another building entirely. The cameras were too well hidden, the angles too carefully planned, his access too deeply embedded in systems that predated any recent security audits. Standard security measures, he’d explained years ago when he still had influence over Lu installations. Executive protection protocols. Perfectly reasonable for someone with her... history.

"Mr. Lu," Ah Ling’s voice broke through his concentration as he entered with another stack of files, his movements efficient and familiar after years of service. "These are ready for your review. The contracts you finished are being processed."

Lu Yuze accepted the new files without looking away from the screen, signing off on the completed documents with practiced ease. On the monitor, Shuyin reached down to adjust Yuyan’s collar with a tenderness that no one could truly describe.

Shuyin was surprisingly, gentle and cruel, no one could tell her exact emotions.

"These are quarterly reports for Yuyan Conglomerate’s pharmaceutical division?" he asked, his tone carefully neutral.

"Already on your desk, marked with priority flags where you’ll need to make decisions." Ah Ling arranged the files with meticulous care, then paused, his expression shifting to something more troubled. "Mr. Lu... was it wise? Allowing Young Miss Yuyan to stay with her at the Lu South Branch?"

"What if an accident happens? What if something bad happens?" He was worried that for the first time, the young miss wasn’t following her father.

His pen stopped mid-signature, hovering over the page for a heartbeat before continuing its smooth motion.

"She’ll be fine," he said, his voice carrying absolute certainty. "Shuyin wouldn’t let any harm come closer to that child."

"That’s precisely what concerns me." Ah Ling’s tone was respectful but firm, the privilege of someone who’d known him since childhood, who’d watched him grow, who’d also watched Yuyan grow up motherless. "Young Miss has been yearning for maternal love since... since the Lady passed during childbirth. She’s finally found it, and in the most dangerous person imaginable. What happens when..."

"When what?" Lu Yuze’s eyes remained fixed on the monitor, watching Shuyin crouch down to Yuyan’s level, saying something that made the girl smile, and they all giggled. "When Shuyin inevitably gets hurt? When this all falls apart? When Yuyan loses another mother?"

The words hung in the air, heavy with implications neither of them wanted to voice.

"She’s attaching herself to someone we don’t know would stay," Ah Ling said quietly. "Young Miss is getting attached to someone, opening her heart to this person, you could tell her yearning, but what if this was just a fleeting person and would soon vanish? Have you thought of how you would have to nurse her broken heart?"

To begin with, Shuyin had requested for a contract marriage and probably had other plans. What would happen to the Young Miss then?

" What do you think would happen? I don’t do divorce, she won’t get one..." Lu Yuze affirmed his stand.

Lu Yuze’s expression shifted slightly, a flicker of something darker crossing his features as Ah Ling’s words hung in the air. He set down the pen with deliberate care, his gaze still fixed on the monitor where Shuyin and Yuyan giggled like they were biological mother and daughter, like they belonged together.

"You think I’m being unreasonable," he said quietly. "Controlling. Possessive beyond what’s warranted."

"I didn’t say that, sir...."

"But you’re thinking about it." Lu Yuze leaned back in his chair, fingers drumming a slow rhythm against the armrest. "Let me remind you of something, Ah Ling. I never wanted this. A wife. A marriage. Another person in my life to manage, to accommodate, to...." He stopped himself, jaw tightening. "After my wife died, I swore I wouldn’t do this again. Wouldn’t let anyone that close. Yuyan needed me, and that was enough."

He pulled up another file on his screen, one Ah Ling recognized, medical records from when she was zero years to now twelve. She had been frail and sickly. Yuyan’s coma. The desperate, sleepless weeks of searching for any solution, any cure that could bring her back to him.

"I exhausted every option," Lu Yuze continued, his voice taking on a harder edge. "Every specialist, every experimental treatment, every possibility. And then someone mentioned her. Shuyin....