contract shackles：the hidden weakness of the cold -faced president

In the cold hospital corridor, the smell of disinfectant mixed with despair wrapped Lin Wei like a sticky film. The red light in the emergency room was glaringly bright, like a bloody blade hanging on her father's lifeline. The dying cry of Gu Heng described by Butler Zhou on the phone seemed to still echo in her ears, overlapping with the cold "tick-tick" sound of the heart monitor, tearing her nerves fiercely.

The tears slid down silently, hitting the cold floor tiles, and instantly soaked small dark marks. On one side was the loved one who gave her life and was now on the verge of death; on the other side was the man who had just been crushed by the truth, his soul sinking in darkness, and sent her a silent call for help.

Time passed cruelly in the dead silence, and every second was like a slow slicing.

Lin Wei closed her eyes, her father's pale but kind face lying on the hospital bed, and Gu Heng's lonely figure curled up in a dark corner, drowned in tears, flashed alternately. Her father's guilty muttering ("To save me..."), the cold drug data on Gu Heng's mother's autopsy report, Gu Heng's last screaming "I'm sorry"... all the fragments spun wildly in her chaotic mind.

The panicked voice of housekeeper Zhou with a crying tone sounded in her heart again: "...crying like dying! Please come back soon!"

"Die"... These three words pierced Lin Wei's heart like a poisoned ice cone! She opened her eyes suddenly!

Gu Heng can't die! Not because he is the helmsman of Gu's, but because... he is Gu Heng! The man who would lose control of his headache because of her stomachache, who would clumsily ask someone to send ginseng soup, and who would show weakness to her in desperation and say "help me"! He had just been stripped of all his armor by fate, revealing his bloody and most vulnerable truth! If even she abandoned him at this moment... he might really fall into the abyss and never recover!

And his father... Lin Wei looked at the closed door of the emergency room painfully. There are the most professional doctors and thoughtful care here. All she can do is pray and wait. And there is only her in Gu Heng's place.

An almost cruel choice was instantly clear in her mind. She took a deep breath, wiped the tears from her face, and only a desperate determination remained in her eyes.

She took out her mobile phone, her fingers trembled slightly because of the force, but she dialed Fang Wei's number with extraordinary determination.

"Fang Wei, listen," her voice was unquestionable calm, even a little cold, "I have an emergency and must leave now. My father is in the ICU for rescue, you come immediately and stay here! If there is any situation, notify me as soon as possible! Remember, it is any situation!"

"Director Lin? Where are you going? Uncle..." Fang Wei's voice was full of astonishment and worry.

"Don't ask! Come here immediately!" Lin Wei interrupted her, leaving no room for doubt. "Also, notify Li Zhe to activate the 'Silent Guardian' plan to ensure that the core data of the group and all the information of the 'Dawn Plan' are absolutely safe! Blackstone... may have even crazier revenge!"

Without waiting for Fang Wei to respond, Lin Wei hung up the phone. She took a last deep look at the red light that symbolized an unknown fate, as if to carve the image of her father into the depths of her soul. Then, she turned around abruptly, and her high heels knocked out a rapid and lonely echo in the silent corridor, like a horn rushing to another battlefield.

***

The heavy rain in the middle of the night was like the sky being torn apart, washing the whole world madly. The rain gathered into a waterfall on the car window, the wipers swayed left and right in vain, and the vision was blurred. Lin Wei gripped the steering wheel tightly, her knuckles turned white, and stepped on the accelerator to the deepest. The black car was like an arrow from a string, tearing through the rain curtain and rushing towards the direction of "Yunqi Waterfront". The roar of rain hitting the roof of the car sounded like Gu Heng's desperate roar on the other end of the phone.

She didn't know what was waiting for her. A completely broken madman? Or an empty shell swallowed by guilt and pain? She only knew that she had to go! Now! Right now!

The car rushed into "Yunqi Waterfront" and stopped in front of the main building with an emergency brake. Lin Wei couldn't even wait to get an umbrella, she opened the car door and rushed into the pouring rain! The cold rain soaked her instantly, and the expensive suit clung to her body, outlining a thin and embarrassed outline. She was completely unaware, stepping on the slippery ground, stumbling towards the door.

Housekeeper Zhou was like an ant on a hot pot, waiting at the door for a long time. Seeing Lin Wei, who was like a person in water, his old eyes were filled with tears: "Mrs. Gu! You are finally back! Mr. Gu... He is still inside! There is no sound at all! I... I am afraid..."

"Backup authority card!" Lin Wei interrupted him, her voice trembling with the rain and cold, but very clear, "Give it to me! Now!"

Housekeeper Zhou hurriedly handed Lin Wei a special encrypted access card with the highest authority. This was authorized to Housekeeper Zhou for use in an emergency when Gu Heng was in an extremely unstable mental state, and it had never been activated.

Lin Wei took the cold card and rushed to the spiral staircase leading to the third floor without hesitation! Her high heels slipped several times on the slippery metal steps, so she simply threw off her shoes and ran up two steps at a time barefoot! The cold rain flowed along her hair and cheeks, mixed with water marks that were not sure whether it was rain or tears.

Rushed to the heavy glass door that separated hell. She could even feel the deathly silence behind the door. Fear gripped her instantly! Did he really... have an accident?

She used all her strength to press the permission card hard on the sensing area!

"Ding-click!"

The heavy door lock opened with a sound! Lin Wei pushed the door open violently!

The scene in front of her made her gasp!

The medical room was in a mess, even worse than when she left last time. Broken instrument fragments, scattered documents and papers, spilled liquid medicine... It was like being swept by a hurricane. And Gu Heng, curled up in the center of the mess by the French window.

He didn't cry or scream. He just curled up there motionless, with his back to the door, his arms tightly hugging his knees, his head buried deep in his arms. The wet black hair was messily attached to the pale neck. The whole person was like an ice sculpture with the soul taken away, exuding a suffocating, dead despair. The heavy rain outside the window and the lights of the city reflected on him, outlining a silhouette of extreme loneliness.

The strong, bitter smell of herbs was replaced by a deeper, colder smell of despair.

"Gu Heng..." Lin Wei's voice was shaking uncontrollably, and she called softly.

No response. Not even a tremor.

Huge fear instantly overwhelmed Lin Wei! She was barefoot, stepping on the cold ground and broken glass shards (she was unaware of the stinging pain on the soles of her feet), and stumbled to his side!

"Gu Heng! Gu Heng!" She knelt in front of him, holding his face buried in her arms with trembling hands.

It was cold to the touch! Gu Heng's face was pale without a trace of blood, his lips were cracked, his eyes were closed, and his thick eyelashes cast a deep shadow under his eyelids. He seemed to be asleep, or...sunk into the endless darkness, completely cut off from the outside world.

"Gu Heng! Look at me! Look at me!" Lin Wei's voice was filled with tears, and she shook his shoulders vigorously. His body was cold and stiff, without any reaction.

Fear was like a cold tide, instantly drowning Lin Wei! She remembered her father's cardiac arrest! No! This couldn't happen! She couldn't lose the two most important people in her life at the same time!

"Gu Heng! Wake up!" Lin Wei almost screamed, tears mixed with rainwater pouring out crazily, "Listen carefully! I won't let you die! You won't let you hide like this! You owe me! You owe me an explanation! You owe my father an apology! You owe yourself an explanation! Do you hear me?!"

She held his face regardless, forced him to raise his head, and screamed at his closed eyes:

"Do you think that hiding here will make the world peaceful? Black Stone is still outside! Your father (Gu Zhenshan), that devil, is still at large! He killed your mother! He also wants to kill you! Kill all of us! Are you willing? Are you willing to let him win?!"

"Gu Heng! Look at me! Look at me!"

Perhaps it was the hoarse "Gu Zhenshan" and "devil", perhaps it was the burning of the hot tears on his face, or perhaps it was Lin Wei's desperate scream that penetrated the soul... Gu Heng's closed eyelashes, like the frozen lake, trembled almost imperceptibly!

Lin Wei's heart instantly rose to her throat! She stared at him closely, her voice with a broken cry and a hint of humble pleading:

"Gu Heng... please... don't leave me alone... don't let me... hate you..."

This sentence "don't let me hate you" was like a heavy hammer, hitting Gu Heng's frozen heart lake hard!

His tightly closed eyes finally slowly and with great difficulty... opened a crack.

There was no light, no spirit, only a bottomless chaos and confusion that was completely soaked in pain. He looked blankly at Lin Wei, who was in tears, soaked, and in a mess, as if he didn't know who she was.

But at least... he opened his eyes!

Lin Wei's tears burst instantly! She suddenly hugged his cold and stiff body tightly in her arms! She hugged him with all her strength, as if she wanted to pass all her body temperature and strength to him!

"It's okay... It's okay... I'm here... I'm here..." She choked and repeated incoherently, and her hot tears dripped onto his cold neck.

Gu Heng's body trembled slightly in her warm embrace. There seemed to be a very faint light in his chaotic and confused eyes, like a candle in the wind, struggling and very slowly... to light up again.

His stiff fingers, with great difficulty, as if he had exhausted all his life's strength, finally... moved a little, and then, very slowly, with an uncertain temptation, gently... hugged Lin Wei's body that was also trembling.

At this moment, the cold fortress of despair was torn open by the hot tears and the desperate embrace.

***

At the same time, on the other side of the ocean, on the top floor of a skyscraper overlooking the cold bay.

In front of the huge French window, an old man in an exquisite velvet robe, with a straight back but a sinister aura, was holding a glass of amber liquor, looking expressionlessly at the news on the screen about "Gu Group's stock price soaring" and the comment below about "Blackstone forged evidence and was nailed to the pillar of shame".

The cold light of the screen reflected his well-maintained face but full of years and calculations - it was Gu Zhenshan.

Behind him, a man in a black suit, like a shadow, reported in a low voice: "...Gu Heng had a mental breakdown and locked himself on the third floor. The woman surnamed Lin... rushed back in the rain."

Gu Zhenshan slowly took a sip of wine, and a cold and cruel arc appeared at the corner of his mouth. There was no worry about his son in his eyes, only the anger of the disrupted chess game and a deeper, chilling calculation.

"Waste." He spit out two words coldly, not knowing whether he was talking about Gu Heng or the failed Blackstone operation.

"The forged evidence was discovered... It seems that I underestimated that girl from the Lin family." His eyes were as sinister as a venomous snake. "It's interesting that they can find the flaws of the 'Shadow Workshop' so quickly." He put down the wine glass, walked to the huge desk, picked up an old photo frame with a photo of Shen Jing inlaid in it, and slowly stroked the cold glass surface with his fingers. His eyes were complicated and difficult to discern, and finally turned into a cold. "Since they want to play so much..." Gu Zhenshan's voice was low and dangerous, like a venomous snake spitting out its tongue, "Then let the game... enter the next round." "Notify 'Black Stone', plan B is launched. Target: Lin Wei's father, Lin Zhiyuan. I want to let that girl... thoroughly taste what true despair is." The rainstorm outside the window seemed to be stained with the chill in his words, becoming more manic and cold.