RETURN OF THE DRAGON: Made 100 Trillon in A Day

Chapter 7: Bankruptcy at Midnight

The cold weight of the night hadn't even settled before the world I had known for three years began to disintegrate for the Chu family.

Chu Haoran woke up on the floor of the Grand Hanhai ballroom, his face a purple ruin, his breath hitching in a throat that felt like it was filled with glass. The first thing he reached for wasn't a bandage; it was his phone.

"Xinyi..." he wheezed, looking at her as she sat shivering on a nearby chair, her designer dress torn. "Call the private doctor. Now."

Xinyi’s hands were shaking so hard she dropped her gold-plated iPhone three times. "I—I tried, Haoran. I tried calling the clinic. They said... they said our membership was terminated five minutes ago for non-payment."

"Non-payment? I have a pre-paid retainer of five million!" Haoran roared, then winced as his shattered jaw protested. "Use the Black Card. Just get them here!"

Xinyi swiped her screen, her eyes widening. "Haoran... I just got a notification. The card is declined. All of them. The platinum, the black, the corporate... they're all showing 'Account Frozen by Sovereign Order'."

"That's impossible!" Haoran scrambled to his feet, swaying. "I’m a Chu! My father is—"

The massive doors of the ballroom didn't open; they were pushed aside by six men in reflective vests with "REPOSSESSION UNIT" printed across their backs. Behind them stood Su Qinghe, my new "Secretary," looking like a statue of vengeance.

"Mr. Chu," she said, her voice devoid of any warmth. "You are currently trespassing on Hanhai property. Furthermore, the collateral for your luxury villa on the North Ridge has been called in. My men are currently stripping the premises."

"Su Qinghe!" Haoran shouted, blood spraying from his split lip. "We are allies! Our families have traded for decades! What are you doing?"

"I’m doing my job," she replied, glancing at me as I leaned against the far wall, shrouded in shadows. "And my boss doesn't like his debtors making noise."

"Your boss?" Xinyi gasped, looking at the Ice Queen. "You're... you're working for that trash?"

"That 'trash' owns the ground you’re standing on, Xinyi," I said, stepping into the light. The golden glow in my eyes had settled into a steady, predatory hum. "And he just called in the Chu family’s entire debt. Every cent. Every brick. Every breath."

"You can't do this!" Haoran screamed. "My father will have your head! He has the board! He has the—"

His phone rang. He fumbled with it, answering on speaker.

"Dad? Dad, tell these people to—"

"It’s over, Haoran," a broken voice came through the line. It was Chu Zhen, the man who had supposedly ruled this city’s shadow economy. There was the sound of heavy boots and barking dogs in the background. "They’re here. The auditors... the police... they have records I didn't even know existed. Every offshore account, every bribe... it's all on their screens. They’re taking the house, Haoran. They’re taking everything."

"Dad? No!"

"The man in the car..." Chu Zhen’s voice whispered. "He’s watching, Haoran. Tell Qin Ming... tell him he won."

The line went dead.

Xinyi let out a high-pitched, hysterical laugh. "Four hours. I was Mrs. Chu for four hours. I traded my life for four hours of a dream?"

She turned to her phone, frantically scrolling through her contacts. "I’ll call the Ouyangs. I’ll call the Lis. They owe me! We went to the Maldives together!"

She hit dial. The number you have dialed has been disconnected or has blocked your calls.

She tried another. User Busy.

Another. Blocked.

"They're gone, Xinyi," I said, walking toward the exit. "In this world, you're only as pretty as your bank balance. And yours just hit zero."

Thirty minutes later, I sat in the back of a blacked-out SUV parked across the street from the Chu Corporation Headquarters. The midnight air was punctuated by the flashing blue and red lights of a dozen police cruisers.

I watched through the tinted glass as Chu Zhen, the great tycoon, was led out of the lobby in handcuffs. He looked aged by twenty years, his silk tie pulled loose, his eyes glazed with the shock of a man who had fallen from the sun into a glacier.

Su Qinghe sat beside me, a tablet in her lap. "The liquidation is ninety percent complete, Chairman. The Chu family name will be removed from the stock exchange by the time the sun rises. What about the girl?"

"Leave her," I said. "Being a nobody is a fate worse than death for someone like Xinyi. Let her see what the world looks like without my blood to pay for her champagne."

"And Haoran?"

"He’s a Rank-1 with no resources. He’ll be hunted by the creditors he cheated within the week. I don't need to waste a bullet on him."

A soft tap on the window interrupted us.

I didn't roll it down, but the glass slid open automatically as the System sensed a specific frequency. A man in a sharp, grey suit stood there. He looked unremarkable—the kind of man you’d forget the moment he walked past—but his eyes were like flint. He bowed deeply.

"Young Master Qin," the man said. His voice was like a dry rustle of leaves.

"Who are you?" I asked. "And why aren't you running like the rest of the Chu lackeys?"

The man smiled, revealing teeth that were a little too straight, a little too white. "The Chu family was just a pawn, Young Master. A small, loud distraction meant to keep you occupied while the real board was set."

"The real board?" I felt a chill that had nothing to do with the night air.

[System: Warning! Unknown Signature Detected. Threat Level: Catastrophic.]

"You’ve caused a lot of noise with that 100 trillion," the man in the grey suit continued, leaning closer. "You've alerted people who have been waiting for the Qin bloodline to reappear for a century. People who make the Chu family look like children playing in a sandbox."

"Give me a name," I demanded.

"Names are for the living," the man replied. He checked a heavy silver watch on his wrist. "The people who really want you dead—the ones who funded the Chu family's 'treatments'—just touched down at the international airport. They’ll be here in twenty minutes."

I looked at Su Qinghe. She was staring at her tablet, her face frozen. "Chairman... there are three private jets that just bypassed customs. No tail numbers. No flight plans."

I looked back at the man in grey. "And you? Whose side are you on?"

"I'm just the messenger," he said, stepping back into the shadows. "But if I were you, Young Master, I’d start spending those coins on something that can stop a bullet made of pure spirit energy. The hunt is finally on."

He vanished before I could blink.

[: A deafening roar shook the city. Three streaks of silver light cut through the night sky, heading directly toward the Chu Corporation building. My phone screen turned blood-red with a new prompt: 'Ancient Sect Elders Detected. Would you like to spend 500 Billion to activate the 'Void-Shield' or 1 Trillion to 'Declare War' on the Sky Realm?']

[System: The true battle begins now. 19 minutes and 59 seconds until impact.]

"Secretary Su," I said, my voice hardening. "Clear my schedule for the rest of the night. We're going to see how much a god costs.”