The Overbearing CEO Is Driven Mad by His Frail Canary 16

Chapter 16

Fu Yan woke up in the middle of the night and wanted to slap himself. Why did he have to poke at someone’s wounds by bringing up unpleasant memories?

But amidst his guilt, he suddenly noticed something amiss—

“I still think something’s wrong. How can someone be so indifferent when talking about their past trauma?” The more Fu Yan thought about it, the more it didn’t add up.

If he had chosen to hide it before, wouldn’t revealing it now be pointless?

Unless something worse had happened recently, making concealing the previous incident irrelevant.

“What has Xia Wansheng been up to lately?” Fu Yan asked.

The best-case scenario was that he had finally decided to open up, but usually, things weren’t that simple.

Perhaps he simply felt it was meaningless.

“The variety show he’s participating in starts in half a month, he should be practicing these days.”

Yu Congyan opened the daily schedule report sent by his assistant and, as he read, hesitated: “He recently…connected to Old Man Feng’s livestream? And even gained recognition from the netizens.”

Had he been deaf before? How had he never noticed Xia Wansheng’s musical talent?

“It’s also possible that, for so many years, due to family or contractual reasons, he had to deliberately hide his talent in exchange for safety.” Fu Yan pondered.

If he had endured for so long, what kind of blow could have made him suddenly give up now?

It was like a bolt from the blue.

Yu Congyan was suddenly struck by a realization, feeling a pang of discomfort as he stared at the building not far from the window.

He hadn’t decided what industry to invest in in that area. Because of his vivid past life memories, he had simply instructed everything to remain as is, not planning to invest or change anything, merely becoming an aloof observer.

He suddenly realized he had treated Xia Wansheng the same way.

He wouldn’t interfere or care about his emotional fluctuations, merely observing with interest to see where he would end up.

Would it be the same predetermined ending as before?

Thinking about it now, perhaps he was also a cog in the wheel of fate, his indifference perhaps the final straw.

Yu Congyan’s face darkened, as if he had made up his mind about something.

…

At this moment, Xia Wansheng had just finished his vocal lesson. He was staring blankly at the bustling street, chin in hand, not wanting to go back to “work.”

He was discussing strategies with the system, his expression grave.

“Yesterday, we were constantly on the verge of exposure. If we make even a slight mistake now, they’ll have a ready-made template for suspicion.” Xia Wansheng said with a headache.

“Host, why don’t we find a chance to leave? If we drag this on and get exposed, both our bonuses will be gone.” The system was still apprehensive.

The system itself didn’t care about the bonus, it could just work a few more years. But once Xia Wansheng returned to the real world, this money would likely be his only chance to change his life.

He had no choice.

“How about we just disappear? Leave a suicide note and vanish. Pay attention to the timing, so the protagonist’s halo doesn’t interrupt the offline process.”

Xia Wansheng was starting to develop PTSD from Yu Congyan’s powerful protagonist halo, always saving him from danger.

It would be even better if they didn’t lose the bonus.

“Then I’ll apply right away!” The system was excited.

Even with a new exit strategy, Xia Wansheng couldn’t act too out of character and be discovered. He had to pretend to be cheerful to avoid suspicion.

An afternoon passed, and Xia Wansheng felt drained.

Unfortunately, Yu Congyan was acting unusual today. The usual workaholic actually came home early. Xia Wansheng had originally planned to sneak out after dinner, but he had to abandon that plan, postponing his escape to midnight.

This time, he specifically charged his phone in advance to prevent his impaired vision from hindering his escape.

Then, he would just leave the suicide note somewhere visible for everyone to see. By the time Yu Congyan discovered his disappearance, he would be long gone, returning to the real world with five million yuan to enjoy life.

That was how things were supposed to go.

But Yu Congyan was currently investigating Xia Wansheng’s unusual behavior, wanting to shift from his role as an observer and pay more attention to his psychological changes.

What if the plot changed because of this?

But his timing was unfortunate. It was precisely the moment Xia Wansheng was clutching the suicide note, ready to place it.

Xia Wansheng tightly held the freshly written note, preparing to hide it in the corner of the sofa. Just as he finished and straightened up, he saw Yu Congyan quietly watching him.

He lost his balance and knelt in front of the sofa, his knees hitting the floor painfully.

Xia Wansheng was so hurt he almost cried. Wasn’t this protagonist halo a bit too strong?!

“Um…could you help me up?” Xia Wansheng asked with difficulty.

He prayed he could get away with it this time.

Yu Congyan reached out and pulled him up.

He wasn’t suspicious at first, but seeing Xia Wansheng’s hesitant and nervous expression, he instinctively felt it wasn’t just an ordinary piece of paper.

Sure enough, Yu Congyan snatched the paper, ignoring Xia Wansheng’s attempt to stop him. The two large characters “Suicide Note” came into view.

“…”

As expected.

Xia Wansheng was also a bit dazed.

Yu Congyan didn’t actually have a tracking device on him, did he? Then why did this person always appear and stop him whenever he was closest to the five million?

Was this some magical passive skill of capitalists?

“Have…you encountered any problems recently?” Yu Congyan’s tone held a rare, stiff concern.

But he still kept the note, with no intention of returning it to Xia Wansheng.

He felt like this person’s every move was beyond his expectations.

“No, I just…” In Xia Wansheng’s eyes, this was the beginning of an interrogation.

What should he do? He wasn’t prepared. He couldn’t use the same excuse as yesterday, saying it was for practicing a role, could he?

He was clearly about to leave a suicide note and run away in the middle of the night. Yu Congyan wouldn’t believe him unless he was an idiot.

He could only play along.

“I can’t explain it to you right now, Yu Congyan.”

He rarely addressed him by his full name, as if deliberately creating distance. But aside from himself, no one else called him that.

Xia Wansheng reached out to take back the note, but Yu Congyan refused to let go.

The two were locked in a stalemate for a long time. Just as Yu Congyan was about to give in, Xia Wansheng suddenly lowered his arm.

“Forget it, keep it if you want.” Xia Wansheng gave him a deep look, as if all his energy had been drained. He ignored the confiscated suicide note and returned to his bedroom without looking back.

To maintain his heartbroken white moonlight image, he didn’t even dare to turn on his flashlight, almost bumping into the wall.

Xia Wansheng: Help me, guys, I feel like I’ve been exposed, but I don’t dare to look back!

Yu Congyan, standing there, naturally witnessed everything, conflicted internally.

Reason told him he shouldn’t pry further, as this essentially had nothing to do with him, but emotionally, he wanted to know why Xia Wansheng was so distraught that even talking to him became difficult.

Waiting here wasn’t a solution. Since Xia Wansheng wouldn’t tell him the truth, he could only approach it from other angles.

Like his agent, who had recently reconnected with him.

At 1:00 am, Ji Yang was still on his way home from work when he received a call from an unknown number.

He was wondering who would call so late at night. After hearing the caller’s introduction, he almost fell out of his chair.

“Did that really happen?!” Ji Yang thought, this wasn’t good.

He had sensed something was wrong when Xia Wansheng came to him before, but he was too overjoyed at the time to think carefully. Now, looking back, he realized something was amiss.

“I don’t know the details, I wasn’t in charge of Xia Wansheng back then. But that director’s incident did happen around that time, and Xia Wansheng was assigned to me afterwards.” Ji Yang added.

Although his previous resume was impressive, he had always been rather passive in his work, making Ji Yang doubt whether he truly had the claimed experience.

Now that he knew the reason, it was probably psychological trauma. It was remarkable that he had endured it alone for so long.

“You’re saying you never knew about this before?” Yu Congyan grasped the key point.

People only reveal their scars to those they trust. Xia Wansheng acted like he didn’t need anyone, but in reality, this might be a cry for help.

“I understand, I’ll investigate this thoroughly.” Yu Congyan hung up the phone after speaking.

The plot could be changed; he couldn’t remain a mere observer.

Inside Fu Yan’s clinic.

“Do you know why you’re here?”

“No.” Xia Wansheng’s tone was flat.

He silently complained in his mind that it was obvious.

It was because his suicide note had been intercepted, and now he had to undergo psychological counseling arranged by the CEO.

The clinic had a lot of high-tech equipment. Xia Wansheng remembered from the original plot that this place was used for legally interrogating unfortunate businessmen who had failed.

Thinking of this, Xia Wansheng didn’t dare to move. The system had only promised to take him away the moment he went offline, but it didn’t say whether it could shield him from psychological damage.

Why did a law-abiding citizen of the 21st century have to go through this?!

“Don’t be nervous, this is just a regular counseling session, we’ll just chat.” Fu Yan sat across from him, scrolling through videos on his phone, seemingly unconcerned about the session.

Xia Wansheng thought, you think I haven’t read the original book?

In the book, Fu Yan had used this trick countless times to trick people into lowering their guard, then turning around and betraying them.

He wondered where he had revealed his flaws. He hadn’t acted out of character, so why was he suddenly here for psychological counseling?

Seeing him remain silent, Fu Yan, thinking he hadn’t gained his trust yet, said casually, “Actually, regular psychological counseling is beneficial to your health.”

Then, he steered the conversation towards his area of expertise, preparing to reason with him and use his own experiences to evoke empathy.

But Xia Wansheng’s specialty was zoning out during his boss’s meetings. Emptying his mind was a piece of cake for him.

So, after Fu Yan finished his lengthy introduction, the next step should have been the patient lowering their guard and actively communicating, but Xia Wansheng only felt his zoning out session had ended, and he became even more nervous.

Fu Yan: Why did he feel like opening up had backfired?

The person across from him now seemed to be looking for any opportunity to escape.

“I’m really fine, the suicide note was a misunderstanding, I didn’t intend to harm myself.” Xia Wansheng tried to explain.

If this dragged on, he would miss his vocal lesson.

Every time he failed to go offline, he had to come up with an excuse for his previous behavior. If it weren’t for the five million carrot dangling in front of him, he wouldn’t bother with this charade.

Now, the carrot had been dangled in front of him countless times, always snatched away by the protagonist just as he was about to reach it.

It was like his boss dangling a bonus in front of him repeatedly but never actually giving it to him.

Xia Wansheng felt like he could conquer the world with his rage.