There are things that destroy an empire—
not money,
not rivals,
not the tides of time.
But one word:
Trust.
And that very trust… is crushing Tống Group from within.
Three Days Later — Tống Hành Falls
Three days after the emergency meeting,
while the liquidity crisis still showed no signs of easing—
Tống Hành collapsed.
Right inside the conference room.
The entire family descended into chaos.
HR screamed for emergency services.
Shareholders rushed forward.
The corporate medical team flooded in.
Two hours later—
He regained consciousness.
Pale.
Weak.
He opened his eyes—
And searched for only one person.
Dĩ Yến.
She stood beside his bed.
Her throat tight.
Her hands cold, trembling beneath the surface.
Tống Hành grasped her hand—
A fragile grip, shaking with both weakness and pain:
"Yến… is there anything you're still hiding from me…?
Why… why are all the collateral assets… signed under your name?"
The hospital room fell into a suffocating silence.
She couldn't breathe.
Couldn't speak.
Couldn't cry.
She could not say:
"I was trapped by my husband."
She could not say:
"I thought he had stopped."
"I believed signing would save us."
"I didn't know I was destroying Tống Group with my own hand."
She could not say:
"I loved him for twenty years…and this is how he repaid me."
Her fingers clenched so hard they bled—
Yet not a single word came out.
Tống Hành looked at her.
In his eyes—
Pain.
Helplessness.
Collapse.
And then—
His gaze dimmed.
As if he saw someone else.
A woman from the past.
Lâm Uyển Du.
The woman he once drove into ruin
through a ruthless deal.
The woman whose death
planted hatred in the heart of a twelve-year-old boy—
Vũ Ngạo Thiên.
The pain in his chest—
Was not physical.
It was consequence.
A debt from the past—
Returning through the daughter he loved most.
A Truth She Cannot Undo
No one can reverse this.
No one can dismantle Ngạo Thiên's international strike.
Tống Group can defeat domestic rivals.
ÉCLAT can maneuver suppliers.
Tống Hành can repel acquisitions.
But no one—
Can undo a move built on the European financial foundation.
Not when:
– Zurich changes its standards
– Frankfurt raises risk thresholds
– London increases margin requirements
– Singapore tightens guarantees
– CRU locks all pledged assets
– and everything is completely legal
Dĩ Yến saw it all—
And her heart shattered.
She was powerless.
Completely powerless.
She watched a twenty-year chessboard collapse—
Over her head.
Before her father.
Before the empire she had carried since childhood.
Memory Becomes Needles
Everything came back.
Like needles piercing her mind.
– Ngạo Thiên's calm expression during the "public rescue"
– Trịnh Duệ Minh's silk-smooth voice
– The three pages she signed in exhaustion
– Two months of terrifying silence
– Subtle shifts across Italy, Germany, Singapore
– Minor deviations in interest rates
– His disappearance… letting her "handle it alone"
Now—
Every fragment aligned.
One answer.
Ngạo Thiên never targeted ÉCLAT.
He targeted—
Her.
Not:
– her company
– her family
– her marriage
But:
– the entire Tống empire
– the bloodline of generations
– the foundation of a family
She was:
The key.
The leverage.
The only weakness of Tống Hành.
And he struck—
At the one place she never guarded:
Trust.
The Night of Despair
The meeting adjourned.
Tống Hành was moved to a private room.
The board split into crisis teams.
Dĩ Yến stepped into the corridor.
White lights cut into her skin.
The air felt heavy.
She couldn't breathe.
Leaning against the wall—
Her eyes hollow.
All sound turned into distant static.
That night—
She lost all hope.
No plan.
No direction.
No strength left to face her own heart.
She drove.
No destination.
No thought.
No messages to the board.
No call to Ngạo Thiên.
No word to her parents.
Only one place came to mind:
Yến Tư An.
The place where:
– he once promised to bring her when she was tired
– he never took her, not even once
– she once felt deeply moved
– the truth was exposed
– she met Ngạo Thần… with eyes full of pain
And tonight—
It became the place she would seek her final answer:
Why?
Why did you destroy me?
Why use my love to end my family?
Why… you?
Yến Tư An was only thirty minutes away.
But that night—
It felt like an entire lifetime.
Message of Chapter 28
When an empire collapses,
it is not because of red numbers—
But because the one mos