The Genius Behind the Empire

Right after I finished the final technical review meeting, I noticed my phone wouldn’t stop vibrating. I glanced at the screen. It was the PhD group chat I hadn’t checked in ages, and everyone was tagging me like crazy. “Ethan, today is our senior’s wedding day. How dare you make him wait? Who do you think you are?” That was when I remembered. Today was Ryan’s wedding—the former leader of our PhD group. “Sorry. Something came up recently, so I won’t be attending.” I typed the message calmly. I wasn’t close to anyone in that group. I had always been focused on cutting-edge technology. Their childish little projects weren’t worth my time. After years of that, we’d naturally drifted apart. “Ethan, give it up. I know you’re living like a stray dog now. That’s what happens when you keep yourself outside the core team.” “Maybe you’re just too useless to find a research team. Are you living off your parents at home, or sweeping streets somewhere?” “Once Ryan joins the Apex Technologies research division, maybe he’ll be in a good mood and give you a job as a cleaner. Six thousand a month isn’t bad.” “Other people would beg for that kind of job!” I almost laughed. Apex Technologies was nothing more than one of the research teams under my command. And I had more than a dozen teams like that. “I bet he’s only hiding because the prettiest girl in our group, Chloe, is marrying Ryan. He’s too embarrassed to show his face.” The moment I read that message, my brows drew together. What did that mean? Wasn’t Chloe supposed to be my fiancée? I quickly scrolled up. When I saw the wedding certificate Chloe had posted in the group, my gaze turned icy. Out of the corner of my eye, I looked at my phone’s lock screen. Chloe was leaning against my shoulder, smiling brightly. “Chloe?” I returned to my office. Heart-shaped stickers were still plastered everywhere. Chloe had covered my office with little heart-shaped notes because she wanted me to think of her whenever I saw them. I opened our chat history. “I have something urgent to deal with back home, so I need to go away for a few days. Take good care of yourself while I’m gone, okay?” I sent her a message. “There’s an urgent issue at the company. Can you come back?” It didn’t take long for her reply to arrive. “Sweetheart, there really is something urgent going on back home… Please understand.” I opened the PhD group chat again. They were still taking turns mocking me. I wanted to see what exactly had happened. “I’ll be there soon!” After sending that message, I grabbed a trench coat, called my driver, and left. Inside the black Maybach, I kept scrolling through my chat history with Chloe. Because of me, Chloe had become the chief administrator of Apex Technologies. She wasn’t particularly capable. In fact, she was probably the weakest person on the entire technical team. But that didn’t matter. I always covered for her. As long as I was there, Chloe would remain Apex Technologies’ chief administrator forever. Sitting in the car, I kept reading through our old conversations. Then I noticed a pattern. Every two weeks, Chloe would take about two days off. At first, I assumed she simply wanted a break. I never questioned it. I approved every request, and I handled her work for her. But considering that she was marrying Ryan today, those two days off suddenly seemed very different. A light rain began to fall outside. The Maybach moved quickly, and before long, we arrived outside the hotel where Ryan’s wedding was being held. It was the largest wedding venue in the city. Anyone who could hold a wedding here was either powerful or extremely wealthy. I didn’t have the Maybach pull up to the main entrance. Instead, I ordered the driver to take us around to the back. The driver looked confused. “Mr. Carter, why aren’t we going through the front entrance?” I stared at the wedding hotel through the window, my eyes cold. “I want to see what they’re really up to.” Soon, the Maybach stopped by the rear entrance. The driver hurried around and opened the door for me. I stepped out in my trench coat and strode inside. My driver followed close behind. After passing through the kitchen, I arrived at the grand wedding hall. I immediately spotted Ryan on the stage, wearing a smug expression. A large group of sycophants surrounded him. Several of them noticed me entering through the back. “Look! Why is Ethan coming in through the back?” “Oh, this is exactly what Ryan guessed. Couldn’t this guy make it in research, so now he’s working in the hotel kitchen?” “Once Ryan joins Apex Technologies with his wife’s help, he can probably give this guy a cleaner’s job.” “I think Ethan should crawl between Ryan’s legs first before he earns that privilege.” “No, he should lick Ryan’s shoes clean every day. Then maybe Ryan will consider giving him such a great job.” Led by Ryan, the group burst into laughter and walked toward me. I stood perfectly straight, staring directly at Ryan and the others. “You’re marrying Chloe?”One of Ryan’s lackeys shoved me hard. “Who gave you permission to call her by her name?” “Ethan, do you still think we’re students? Do you think we’re still on the same level?” “Things are completely different now. Being allowed to see Ryan is already a privilege. And you still dare to call his wife by her first name?” The other lackeys began shoving me too. I lost my balance and was pushed onto the red carpet. My driver tried to step forward, but the men shoved him to the floor as well. The hotel staff watched without doing anything. They all knew who the real boss was today. They probably assumed I was some broke nobody who had shown up to cause trouble. Better to avoid getting involved. Ryan waved his hand in false politeness, and his lackeys finally stopped. “Back when we were doing research, people were always saying you were chasing Chloe.” “So what happened? You heard that the woman you loved is marrying me, and you couldn’t handle it?” “How about this? Get on your knees and bark a few times. Then I might let you become a junior cleaner at Apex Technologies.” Ryan walked up to me and kicked me hard. The lackeys around him began shouting in agreement. “Six thousand a month? You really hit the jackpot!” “If Ryan hadn’t remembered your old friendship, you wouldn’t even have a chance at such a valuable job!” “Hurry up and thank him!” My expression grew colder. I had never pursued Chloe back in school. I had been completely absorbed in genuine cutting-edge research. The truth was, Chloe had been the one chasing me. She checked on me every day and constantly tried to get my attention. After months of persistence, she finally succeeded. I remembered her. After graduation, I brought Chloe into my company. I had founded that company through my own groundbreaking research. Everything we developed represented the nation’s most advanced technology. Chloe joined the research company without hesitation—a place she could never have entered through her own abilities. And now these clowns, who had never even touched the highest level of science, thought they were qualified to discuss research? My phone fell out of my pocket during the struggle. At Chloe’s insistence, my lock screen showed her smiling face. The moment Ryan saw it, his smile disappeared. “Ethan, I can’t believe you’re still obsessed with her!” He picked up my phone, his expression growing darker. “But today, I’m going to make you watch the woman of your dreams marry me.” He raised the phone, preparing to smash it against the floor. “Ryan, put my phone down!” I suddenly shouted. That phone contained a huge amount of my research data. Most of the core files were stored on it. If Ryan damaged it, the losses would be impossible to calculate. Seeing my reaction, Ryan assumed I was simply worried about Chloe’s picture. He sneered. I had just started to rise and reach for my phone when Ryan’s men forced me back down. My driver tried to protect me, but there were too many of them. The hotel staff rushed over as well. They knew who was paying the bills. They immediately surrounded my driver and began beating him. I could only watch as Ryan slammed my phone onto the floor. The phone had been specially reinforced. It was extremely durable, so the impact didn’t destroy it. Ryan stared at the unharmed device. Why was this phone so tough? When I saw that it was still intact, I breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly reached out— Ryan noticed and immediately gave me a mocking look. “What? You want your phone back?” “Keep dreaming.”Ryan stomped down hard on the phone and ground his heel against it. The screen cracked in every direction beneath his shoe. “Do you know how important that phone is?” I asked through clenched teeth. My entire body was burning with pain, but I had only one goal now: getting my phone back. The core research stored inside it was critically important. I reached out, trying to grab it. When Ryan saw my hand extending toward the phone, his eyes filled with viciousness. “You think you’re worthy of using my wife as your wallpaper?” He stomped down again, this time crushing my hand beneath his shoe. The pain was so intense that my eyes turned red. The data inside that phone contained some of the nation’s most important technological breakthroughs. If it were lost, the consequences would be disastrous. Ryan’s lackeys dragged me farther away. “How dare you disrespect our sister-in-law like that?” “You really don’t know when to quit!” Ryan calmly brushed off his hands and motioned for the hotel staff to bring him something better for destroying the phone. The device was unexpectedly difficult to damage. A few staff members quickly returned with a sharp metal awl. It was perfect for piercing through the phone. At Ryan’s gesture, one of them handed it over. Ryan gripped the awl and aimed it at my cracked phone. My eyes were already bloodshot. “Ryan, do you understand what that phone represents?” “If you destroy it, you’ll spend the rest of your life in prison!” I struggled desperately against the men holding me down, trying to get my phone back. Ryan looked at me with amusement. “What’s wrong? You can’t bear to see a phone with my wife’s picture destroyed?” “It’s just a few-thousand-dollar phone. I’ll give you one of those fancy tri-fold models later.” The lackeys around us immediately looked envious. “Damn, a tri-fold? You’re so lucky!” “I wish Ryan would destroy my phone so I could get one too.” My fists were clenched tight. If those men hadn’t been holding me down, I would have punched Ryan in the face. What good was a tri-fold phone? A thousand of them—or ten thousand—wouldn’t equal even a fraction of this phone’s value. “Give me my phone!” “Do you even understand what you’re doing? There’s classified national information inside!” Ryan burst out laughing. “Do you know why we wanted you to come here?” “Because you’re hilarious like this. I wanted to see you make a fool of yourself.” “And now you’re bringing the nation into it? Do you even know what ‘the nation’ means?” “Go on. Keep shouting!” “You always had to act special back in school, didn’t you?” As he spoke, Ryan stomped on my head. His lackeys joined in. “Ryan is about to become a researcher at Apex Technologies. That’s what being part of the nation’s true core looks like.” “Do you even know what Apex Technologies is?” My driver, still being held down and beaten, shouted desperately. “Let Mr. Carter go!” The moment he finished speaking, more fists as large as hammers rained down on him. The pain forced him to scream. “Still calling him ‘Mr. Carter’? Ethan, the actor you hired is really dedicated!” Ryan mocked. Ryan slowly walked over to me. Right in front of my eyes, he drove the awl deep into my phone. Bang! I could only watch as the phone in Ryan’s hand was completely destroyed. Sparks burst from the device. It was ruined beyond repair. The circuit board had been shattered. No one could recover the data now. My eyes grew even redder. A powerful force suddenly surged through my body. I broke free from the men restraining me and punched toward Ryan. Just before my fist reached him, several of his lackeys grabbed me and forced me back down. “Ethan, you’re asking to die!”