Lu Financial Empire – War Council Room
The massive, dark mahogany doors closed behind Damian with a deep, ominous thud.
This was no longer his empire.
It was a battlefield.
Selina stood beside him, her face pale but eyes burning with a fire that refused to die. Her fingers reached out, curling instinctively around his clenched fist, offering silent strength even as her own shoulders trembled under the weight of impending war.
How did it come to this?
One wrong move, one moment of weakness, and everything they fought for would crumble like sand slipping through desperate fingers.
She looked up at Damian, the man who once walked away from her… now standing ready to destroy the very legacy that tore them apart.
The tension in the room was a taut wire stretched to its breaking point, one wrong word and it would snap—sending everything into chaos.
Damian's cold gaze swept over the traitorous board members gathered before him.
"Thirty days." His voice was steel wrapped in velvet. "Survive or fall. Those are the terms, aren't they?"
Grandfather Lu's hidden agents lined the walls like silent executioners, their eyes cold, waiting for the fall of a king.
Adrian's ghost still haunted this room—the reminder of betrayal too fresh, his blood barely dry on the marble floors.
Selina's heart ached.
But this time… she wouldn't be the woman who stood helplessly on the sidelines.
She stepped forward, her chin lifted high, her voice clear despite the tremor in her chest.
"Then let's play your game. But remember this—when you taught Damian to kill, you forgot to teach him how to lose."
Gasps echoed through the room.
Damian's eyes flicked toward her, a flicker of admiration breaking through his otherwise cold mask.
Her courage was a blade sharper than any weapon.
And for the first time in weeks, a strange, dangerous hope flickered to life.
Scene Switch – Lu Family Prison Wing (Hidden Underground)
But while the battle for the empire began above ground, a darker plot unfolded below.
Locked behind reinforced iron bars, a familiar face emerged from the shadows.
Adrian Jiang… alive.
His mouth curled into a slow, venomous smile.
"You think this is over? It's only just begun…"
He turned to the cell door as a shadowed figure unlocked it.
"It's time for the real king to rise," Adrian whispered, stepping into the darkness once again.