Volume 1, Chapter 36: Treasonous

At these words, Qin Shang bolted upright from the passenger seat, his eyes cold and razor-sharp.

He did not reply, but turned his head to stare fixedly at Xu Mingyang. His gaze was so intense that even his best friend felt a shiver run down his spine, and his expression turned slightly grim.

The headache that had not flared up for several days was surging back once again.

Four years ago, Qin Shang had just finished his vocational school studies when his mother, Li Youwei, with whom he had lived as his only companion, suddenly committed suicide by jumping from a building.

She left behind a note of apology.

To be precise, it was a suicide note.

In it, she described how she had been unable to afford Qin Shang’s tuition, was tricked into joining a fraudulent organization and a pyramid scheme, and fell into a trap step by step. This led to heavy debts she could not repay, leaving her with no choice but to end her life.

She wrote about how sorry she was to her son and how much she had failed society.

The content was tragic and helpless—a single mother who, due to her gullibility regarding "pig-butchering" scams, had walked into an abyss and been swindled out of everything she owned.

Qin Shang had still been at school that day; it was the day of his graduation photo shoot.

His counselor had been puzzled by the unexplained absence of the student’s mother, despite her having received the notice. Then, the news broke.

That day, the looks directed at Qin Shang by his classmates and their parents were filled with pity.

The first to discover the scene of his mother’s death was a reporter.

Ignoring professional ethics, he exposed the contents of the letter, and the entire internet was in an uproar.

In an instant, Qin Shang fell from heaven to hell. Countless classmates looked at him with mockery and ridicule.

He had always been a loner by nature.

Around the time of his middle school entrance exams, his father had gone missing. Qin Shang, unable to focus on his studies, performed poorly and could only attend a third-rate vocational school.

Yet, unwilling to give up on his education, he watched his mother’s hair turn gray day by day and swore to become a successful member of society.

He locked himself away night after night, studying hard, hoping that upon graduation, he could ease the burden on his mother.

Who could have known that the good times would be so short-lived? On the day of his graduation, just as he received his admission letter for a bachelor’s degree program, his mother jumped to her death.

And the reason given was the massive debt she had incurred after being lured into a pyramid scheme.

"If the family was that poor, he should have given up on school and gone out to work earlier!"

"Exactly. He acted like he was better than everyone else, as if he was too good to associate with us vocational school students, but he turns out to be a piece of trash who forced his mother to take out loans for his tuition."

"What’s the point of good grades? Isn't he still a loser? His mother went into debt to put him through school—this education isn't worth it!"

"His mom was a fool, too. How could she believe in a pyramid scheme?"

"It’s 2020. Is there really anyone who hasn't downloaded the anti-fraud app?"

His mother’s note was likely meant only for him to see, but because of that reporter, the entire world—everyone who knew Qin Shang—saw it.

He could not defend himself; he was condemned by all.

Netizens only believed what they chose to see.

And that reporter, in order to amplify the impact of the story, had fabricated a tale out of thin air about a poor student who forced his mother to provide him with a life of luxury, driving her into the abyss step by step.

"I didn't let my mother take out loans to send me to school..."

"I didn't know that my continuing to study was a burden to her..."

"If I had known, if I had only known..."

"I definitely would have dropped out!"

"I didn't know my mother had joined a pyramid scheme..."

"It’s my fault, it’s all my fault..."

"If I apologize, can I have my mother back?"

Tears welled up in Qin Shang’s eyes.

He had broken down.

He was clearly a sensible child, yet he had become an image of arrogance and pretentiousness in the eyes of outsiders. He had been cast as an unfilial son who forced his mother to go into debt for his education, ultimately driving her to her death.

The stigma of being an "unfilial, wicked son" was branded directly onto him.

The joy of being accepted into university was washed away in an instant.

That day, Qin Shang did not care about the condemnation of others. Only one thought echoed in his mind:

*Mother is the best in the world; a child with a mother is like a treasure.*

*From today on, I have no mother.*

When he went to claim her body, Qin Shang had been in such a rush that he hadn't even brought his wallet; it was Xu Mingyang who helped pay the fees.

Xu Mingyang was the only friend he had at the vocational school.

Because both of them shared the same goal—to turn their lives around through a bachelor’s degree program, to rewrite their destinies—they had grown close.

Qin Shang was not cold or arrogant; he didn't look down on the other students. He simply had too little in common with them.

Every day, he thought about where he could work and how to make money for tuition.

The other students thought about where to drink that night or which class had the prettiest girls.

They were not the same kind of people.

Others had the capital to play; he did not.

Others could slack off; he could not.

He still had his mother.

But after his mother passed away, his last pillar of support and the direction of his efforts were gone.

Revenge. Once he accepted the fact of his mother’s death, the fire of vengeance began to burn in his chest.

"Skull..."

"What!?"

That year, as he stood in the morgue taking his mother’s belongings, Qin Shang had been deathly pale, biting his lip as he muttered to himself:

"My mother’s note said she was swindled into an organization called ‘Skull.’ They are the ones who killed my mother. I will destroy it. I will destroy it with my own hands..."

That day, Qin Shang did not say another word to Xu Mingyang.

He knew that from that day forward, the two of them were walking down different paths.

Using the money he had saved from his part-time jobs, he cremated his mother’s body and burned his university admission letter as an offering to her.

Then, he resolutely began searching everywhere for that pyramid scheme called "Skull."

It is worth mentioning that the part-time jobs Qin Shang did at school were not things like shelving books or helping classmates carry items...

"Games—all games have mechanics. As long as you understand the underlying logic, you can easily break the mechanics of any game!"

He had made a lot of money playing games for others and acting as a professional booster.

In truth, he had already become self-sufficient.

He had not realized where his mother’s economic pressure truly came from.

Communication between the elders and children in single-parent families is rarely that close.

Qin Shang himself had only been desperately wanting to get ahead so his mother could have an easier life, but he had never calmed down to have a real, heart-to-heart talk with her.

Later, Qin Shang managed to infiltrate that pyramid scheme as he had wished.

Xu Mingyang did not know the details of what happened during that time.

But after just a few months, when they met again, Qin Shang had already risen to become the leader’s trusted confidant.

When "Skull" was conducting a deal with an overseas drug trafficking organization, Qin Shang, having gained the leader’s trust, became the person in charge of handling the money.

On the day of the critical transaction, he took the money and ran, vanishing without a trace.

That day, the overseas drug trafficking organization slaughtered every single member of the "Skull" fraud ring present at the scene.

The casualties were immense!

It was a major, high-stakes case.

The incident caused such an uproar that it finally caught the attention of the authorities.

The drug organization was raided; those present were either arrested or killed.

Perhaps to save their own skins, once their people were in custody, they reported the high-level members of the fraud organization and voluntarily turned over a list of names.

The higher-ups of the "Skull" organization were subsequently arrested and imprisoned!

And on that list of members provided to the police was the traitor who had taken the money and run... Qin Shang.