Chapter Four: A Dead Man's Voice

He Linchuan was not behind the iron door. A white corridor descended to an abandoned refrigerated server room while his warning repeated from a speaker every seven seconds. “A recording,” Su Jianwei said. “Generated live.” Shen struck the door three times instead of answering. The voice paused. “Still testing latency first. Why didn't you cut the power when I told you to on the wedding day?” Only He and Shen knew about that call. Inside the server room, an obsolete Obsidian disaster machine still blinked. A countdown marked SHEN YAO DEATH-ASSET SETTLEMENT. Eleven minutes remained. If the ring did not authenticate him before zero, Zhou Jiming's assets would be liquidated and his location sent to investigators.