Morning – Shen Corp Archives, Basement Level
The room smelled like time.
Dust, paper, and memories sealed away in silence. Shen Yue pulled on gloves as she opened the old file cabinet that had been locked since the company's collapse.
The system had flagged this location in a recent scan:
[Item flagged: Original Host's private diary. Location: Shen Corp archive vault]
She found it in a brown box labeled "Personal – S.Y."
A leather-bound notebook.
Plain.
Unassuming.
Fragile.
She sat at the metal desk and opened it.
[First Page – Handwritten]
January 3rd, 20XXToday, I watched Yichen lie in a meeting while holding my hand. He said everything would be fine.I think the worst part of betrayal isn't the act itself. It's realizing how long they planned it.
Shen Yue's chest tightened.
The original's writing was neat. Soft. Too trusting.
Page after page detailed the slow, suffocating descent.
He said my father's legacy would be protected.Bai Lin said not to worry.Mother told me to be obedient.I smiled too much. I apologized for breathing too loudly.
March 11thI heard them laughing about me in the boardroom.I think I became a joke in the company I was born to inherit.
April 7thIf I disappear, I want someone to read this.Not to pity me.But to remember, I was never weak.I just loved the wrong people.
Shen Yue swallowed thickly, her fingers trembling just once.
She wasn't supposed to feel this.
But somehow…
The pain in these pages echoed. Loud.
She flipped to the last entry.
April 15thI think today will be my last meeting.Lu Yichen looked me in the eyes and didn't see me at all.If there's another version of me, in another timelineDon't forgive them.Don't cry for them.Make them regret.
Burn it all if you have to.
[System Alert: Emotional Fragment AbsorbedNew Skill Unlocked: "Heartsteel", immune to emotional manipulation for 24 hoursHost Morality Shift: +5% Vengeance BiasSide Story Unlocked: "The Truth About the Original Shen Yue's Death"]
Shen Yue closed the diary carefully.
No tears.
Just silence.
"I won't cry for them," she said quietly. "I'll make them wish they'd never been born."
Meanwhile…
Lu Yichen sat in his office staring at a photo of her from three years ago.
Bai Lin stood across from him.
"She's not the same woman," Bai Lin said quietly. "You know that, don't you?"
Lu Yichen looked up.
"I don't know who she is," he admitted.
"But I think I'm falling for her anyway."