Chapter 8: Instant Sainthood

Those scenes in the Boundless Void—once glimpsed, they were unforgettable, etched indelibly into Su Bingyao’s mind.

Li Qingshu nodded.

“Very well. I want to see exactly what’s going on.”

They reached the control room, where the head of security from the Security Company was already waiting. He greeted them as they arrived.

“Good day, Mr. Su. Good day, Lady Li.”

“Pull up the footage.”

Li Qingshu strode up to the screens and claimed the frontmost chair, issuing her command.

As the manager operated the controls, several speed-excess warnings appeared, followed by the corresponding video clips.

“Right here,” the manager said.

Su Bingyao held his breath.

Infected by his tension, Li Qingshu found herself growing anxious as well, her eyes glued to the screen.

The footage that had been pulled up was utterly serene. Nothing happened—no movement, not even a single soul in sight.

Su Bingyao was completely dumbfounded.

How could there be nothing? How?

He snatched the mouse from the operator and began searching on his own, slowing the playback to one-thirty-second speed in a desperate bid to scrutinize every frame.

But no matter how Su Bingyao dragged the slider—even at the slowest setting—he detected not the slightest anomaly.

The most he saw was Su Shang’s personal assistant, Liang Minghua, panting as he dashed down the road, as if chasing something.

The manager’s words drifted into his ears piecemeal: “…so the surveillance system malfunctioned. It probably needs repairs…”

“Disable the speed testing and alert functions,” Li Qingshu instructed.

Installing speed checks in one’s own home was downright paranoid. She had no idea what Su Tiancheng had been thinking when he bought that entire module with such a feature. Li Qingshu grumbled about her husband in her heart.

“Impossible,” Su Bingyao declared, his eyes bulging wide.

Li Qingshu turned to her eldest son, a flicker of sympathy in her gaze.

He must be under far too much stress. Perhaps they should hire a psychologist on a long-term basis?

“Is it because of Mingyao…?” Li Qingshu ventured.

Su Mingyao was the true young master of the Su Family, lost to the world for over twenty years—the very star of today’s Recognition Banquet.

The old Su Shang had been an utter wastrel, the quintessential ne’er-do-well scion of B City, with the family fortune all but guaranteed to pass to Su Bingyao.

Now a biological younger brother had suddenly appeared, which just might be weighing on Yaoyao… Li Qingshu mused.

“No, Mother. Su Shang absolutely has a problem! You heard it too—his Heart Voice was all wrong!”

Su Bingyao cried out, clutching at this last straw.

Gone was the steady demeanor of B City’s celebrated young entrepreneur. He looked frantic, utterly unhinged.

“Enough of this,” Li Qingshu said firmly, dismissing it all as a farce. She sensed the sidelong glances being cast toward Su Bingyao in the control room and immediately grasped the peril.

If a scene erupted here, tales of the Su Family heir apparent’s mental instability would spread across B City by morning, potentially crashing their stock price.

“I’m not fooling around, Mom. You have to believe me,” Su Bingyao pleaded.

“Su Shang, he—”

“Silence!” Li Qingshu snapped, cutting off Su Bingyao’s outburst.

“We’ll discuss it later.”

Su Bingyao realized this was no place for debate and fell silent.

“After the banquet ends, I’ll have someone come fix it. For now, just turn off that speed alert module,” Li Qingshu said.

“Yes, ma’am,” the manager replied with a nod. And with that, the matter was shelved.

On the walk back, Li Qingshu felt a deep unease.

She began to question if she’d been too hasty. A banquet meant to welcome her second son had somehow frayed the nerves of both her fine boys.

Had she foreseen this, she would have taken a gentler tack.

Yet when she thought of her biological youngest son adrift in the world for over two decades, denied the privileges Su Shang had always known, her resolve softened.

Looking further ahead, Su Bingyao and Su Shang were bound to face far greater trials.

The business world was a treacherous sea, rife with deceit and hidden daggers. If this minor setback could shatter their composure and spawn anomalies in their minds, what then when greater storms arose?

Unavoidably, Li Qingshu found herself comparing the two to Su Mingyao. Back when they’d first found Luo Mingyao, she had harbored biases against him, figuring that without growing up in the Su Family, he couldn’t possibly rival Su Shang in poise or sophistication.

But in their subsequent interactions, he overturned all of Li Qingshu’s prior assumptions. Though Su Mingyao hadn’t grown up in the Su Family, his poise and bearing were in no way inferior to Su Shang’s. He even rivaled the old Su Bingyao from before his breakdown, leaving Li Qingshu to marvel that he truly was her flesh and blood.

By contrast, Su Shang—who wasn’t her biological son but had been raised in the Su Family—was undependable on the best of days. And when Su Mingyao returned? He went and caused trouble, speeding down the mountain road in his wheelchair until he plunged off the cliff, without a thought for anyone else.

Su Bingyao was no better. Shouldn’t he be thrilled to have his little brother back? Instead, the mere prospect of a rival for the family fortune had him so stressed he started spouting nonsense. With mental resilience like that, how was he supposed to shoulder the weight of the entire Su Family down the line?

Better to hand the reins to Mingyao, who had just come home!

From that moment, the scales in Li Qingshu’s heart began to tip.

Could it be that her eldest son had felt threatened and deliberately stirred up trouble at the banquet welcoming his brother home—just to put Mingyao in his place? That was what Li Qingshu suspected.

Su Bingyao, oblivious to all this, had only one thought in his head: he had to convince Li Qingshu that Su Shang really had ceased to be human.

“But Mom, don’t you think something’s fishy? Little Shang doesn’t seem like the type to say things like that,” Su Bingyao said.

“What’s so strange about it? We really aren’t his birth parents, after all. Getting that news out of the blue, it’s only natural he’d feel some resentment,” Li Qingshu replied.

“Look on the bright side—at least it shows he’s grown up, learned to play it smart.”

Su Bingyao was at a loss for words.

As for the anomaly in the surveillance footage, Su Bingyao had his own theory. That speeding alarm might have been spot-on; maybe Su Shang really had raced by in his wheelchair, then pulled some trick to erase his image from the cameras…

With power like his—enough to destroy the world—tampering with a bit of video should be child’s play… Hold on!

Back in the Control Room, Su Bingyao had been too flustered to notice. But now, thinking it over calmly, he spotted the inconsistency in the footage.

In the speeding alert clip, a few minutes later, Liang Minghua appeared on-screen, looking like he was chasing after something.

Liang Minghua was Su Shang’s personal aide. Su Bingyao had previously told him to wheel Su Shang around for some fresh air. And just minutes before, Su Shang had texted him, saying he’d taught himself to drive the wheelchair and was off on a solo tour—no need for Liang Minghua’s help.

Put it all together, and think big: when Liang Minghua showed up in the footage, was he chasing after Su Shang in that wheelchair?!

Eyewitness testimony!

Su Bingyao’s eyes lit up.

Plus, Su Shang had admitted in the Heart Voice that he wasn’t strong in mental manipulation. He couldn’t twist my perceptions, so he’d reset the world instead—which meant he couldn’t have messed with Liang Minghua’s mind either!

With that figured out, Su Bingyao doubled down. He pulled out his phone to call Liang Minghua and have him testify right there in front of Li Qingshu.

But the instant he did, a ferocious gust of wind roared past Li Qingshu and Su Bingyao, pelting them with grit and dust.

The blast came so close it nearly grazed their faces. Li Qingshu’s sleekly combed hair flew into wild disarray, leaving her a pitiful mess. Su Bingyao fared little better—his impeccably tailored suit was now speckled with cheap grass clippings and dirt, plummeting his refined young-heir vibe straight to that of a street hawker.

“Who was that?” Li Qingshu demanded, seething.

She had barely opened her mouth when the wind whipped back around, shoving a mouthful of dust down her throat.

When it finally died down, there sat Luo Shang in his wheelchair, right in front of them—having arrived so fast it looked like teleportation.

“Hello, Mother. Hello, Big Bro,” Luo Shang said with a wave.

“Sorry, I didn’t see you back there.”

[Look what you’ve done to them,] the System said.

[I told you, you should’ve just pretended not to notice and kept driving. Why back up for a hello?]

Su Bingyao noticed this System thing was getting snarkier by the minute.

[Can’t do that,] Luo Shang thought cheerily.

[I’m a well-mannered kid. How could I spot them and not say hi? I was just going a little too fast and missed them. Good thing Mom called out to stop me.]

[Greeting your elders is just what normal people do, right?] Luo Shang added.

In theory, sure—but not in this situation!

Realizing Luo Shang was behind it, Su Bingyao didn’t dare get mad. On the contrary, with Li Qingshu watching, he had to cover for him.

“Wait…” Li Qingshu blinked, dazed.

“You mean that was you who just blew past?”

The culprit behind that ferocious gale—the one that had ruined her makeup—was actually Su Shang, rolling along in a wheelchair??

That couldn’t be right. He had figured it was some spoiled, blind rich kid recklessly speeding down the road! Could a wheelchair even whip up wind like that??

And he’d gotten so far away already, only to pop back in the blink of an eye. Teleportation, maybe?

Could it be that everything the Boss said was true?

“Ah, is something wrong?” Luo Shang hesitated.

“It really shouldn’t be able to go that fast.” His gaze hardened with resolve, as if he had made up his mind.

[Then I’ll just have to destroy it again…]

[Holy shit, Host, what are you doing?! No! It’s still salvageable! Say a couple more things, defend it a bit longer! Don’t go blowing up the world at the drop of a hat aaaaaah!!!!]

The System’s wail threatened to pierce the heavens.

[No helping it—you know I’m no good with words.] Luo Shang soothed it. [Relax, just once more. It’ll be quick.]

As the world before him blurred once again, that terrifying pressure bearing down relentlessly, Su Bingyao spoke up at once.

“Wait—it’s still possible!”

The world’s destruction screeched to a halt. The perpetrator who had pushed everything to the brink tilted his head and peered at him. “Hm?”

[What’s Big Bro up to? Looks like he wants to argue on my behalf.]

[Exactly! You’re bad at talking? No problem—you’ve got your big bro for that!!!!!] the System blurted out.

That’s right—there’s still me! I’m saving the world again!

Su Bingyao shed silent tears in his heart. He felt that if his merit could take tangible form, he would probably achieve instant sainthood right on the spot.