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The next morning, Lin Ruoyin arrived at the company early.

She stood in front of the whiteboard for a long time, holding a marker in her hand.

Countering the "gem-coating" plan of the Ink Core is truly a difficult problem. Half of the Lu family's core value is built on the concept of "scarcity".

Lin Ruoyin closed her eyes, enduring the throbbing pain in her head.

The situation is indeed urgent, but science is not magic. Crystal growth, doping, and post-processing all take time, not to mention that there is still a long way to go from laboratory results to large-scale production and then to market impact.

She quickly estimated in her mind, and then told herself that there should be at least... at least a year's worth of time for high-end jewelry companies to develop a response strategy.

Just as she was starting to figure things out, her phone rang.

It was Lu Hongxuan. He rarely contacted her directly, and his voice was tense and urgent: "Did you see the live stream?"

Lin Ruoyin's heart sank. She opened the live stream that Lu Hongxuan had mentioned; it was the launch event for Mohe.

Xu Jia stood on a simple yet technologically advanced stage, with a huge circular screen behind him. He wore a well-tailored black suit, and his deep eyes seemed to pierce through time and space, precisely locking onto every viewer.

On the workbench in front of him was a black velvet carpet. A gemstone, under the carefully arranged lighting, reflected a breathtaking blue light.

Lin Ruoyin was all too familiar with that blue color.

Deep and rich, yet revealing a touch of vibrant purple as the light shifts, it resembles the purest night sky after a storm, or the coldest lake water atop the Alps.

It is Lu's proud flagship product, "Lu's Sapphire".

Exactly the same.

On the screen, Xu Jia explained the technical parameters in plain language: crystal structure, refractive index, dispersion value, hardness... Every piece of data perfectly matched the test report of natural Lu's Blue Sapphire.

Finally, he picked up the oval-cut sapphire, which weighed over 10 carats, and held it up to the camera.

“We call it ‘Newborn Sapphire’.” Xu Jia’s voice was cold and clear. “Its beauty stems from a profound understanding of human wisdom and the laws of nature, as well as from the freedom of thought and the democracy of creation. Beauty should not be defined and controlled by a minority, becoming a hypocritical luxury.”

He paused, and Lin Ruoyin, sitting in front of the screen, felt a chill run down her spine.

"Mohe and its partners have decided that the first batch of 'newborn sapphires' will be officially launched on the market through designated channels in one month," he announced. "The reference price will be about one-tenth of the fair market price of natural sapphires of the same grade."

It felt as if a nuclear bomb had been dropped next to her ear; Lin Ruoyin felt a buzzing sound.

Countless questions were swirling in my mind.

Why did he suddenly overturn the card table?

Was it because of her visit yesterday?

He knew she was on guard, so he simply didn't give her any time to prepare a response.

But why, why does it completely defy logic in terms of timing, why can it be copied so quickly?

Lin Ruoyin looked at the man on the screen.

He was unusually calm, his eyes and brows carrying a cold resolve, and the lines of his profile appeared particularly sharp under the cold light, exuding a cruelty that seemed capable of destroying everything.

There is only one possibility: this was not a spur-of-the-moment decision; the collaboration between Mohe and the laboratory had already begun long ago.

The reason for the temporary suspension is unknown, but what is certain is that Lu Yan gave him a reason to restart it.

Just then, her phone started vibrating incessantly. Countless names flashed across the screen: shareholders, purchasing director, marketing director, and even several of her most important clients…

Lin Ruoyin reached out and held onto the edge of the table, her fingertips icy cold.

The news quickly spread throughout the Lu Group.

Almost at the same second that the live broadcast ended, the ringing of phones, hurried footsteps, and suppressed exclamations and discussions, like a sudden tsunami, swept over the glass building that had once symbolized a century of glory and stability.

Lin Ruoyin stood in her office, the leaden sky outside the window seeming to press even lower. On her phone screen, the numbers for missed calls and unread messages jumped wildly. She didn't answer; she simply stood there silently.

The phone lines in the boardroom were ringing off the hook.

The trading department was thrown into chaos instantly, with panic selling orders raining down on traders like snowflakes.

The public relations department must be in a complete mess.

Lin Ruoyin could imagine all of these things.

She remained silent.

What else can she do besides that?

"President Lin!" Xiao Tang practically rushed in, his face ashen. "Several directors rushed up to us, saying they wanted to see you."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a cacophony of footsteps came from outside the door, accompanied by angry rebukes and hurried conversation.

"Get out of the way! I need to see Lin Ruoyin!"

The door was suddenly pushed open, and three senior board members rushed in, their faces ashen, their eyes filled with shock and anger.

"President Lin!" Chairman Chen, who was at the head of the group, trembled with rage, and questioned in a voice that seemed to come from his diaphragm, "Tell me what happened! That Xu Jia! How...how could he!"

"Everyone, don't be anxious." Faced with a barrage of angry and questioning gazes, Lin Ruoyin did not rush to explain. Instead, she simply swept her unusually cold eyes over the crowd.

The board members looked at them incredulously. "You're telling us not to rush?"

Before she could finish speaking, the office phone rang. Xiao Tang immediately answered it and then looked at Lin Ruoyin, "President Lin, President Lu requests your presence upstairs for an emergency board meeting."

Lin Ruoyin calmly looked at the board members, "Let's go together."

When Lin Ruoyin followed the three hurried directors into the conference room, it was already full of people. On both sides of the long mahogany conference table were the core decision-making level of the Lu Group, and at this moment, a gloomy look was shrouded on everyone's face.

Lu Hongxuan sat upright in the main seat. He was dressed in a well-pressed dark Zhongshan suit, his hair neatly combed, trying to maintain his usual imposing demeanor. But Lin Ruoyin keenly noticed his slightly pale lips and the undisguised weariness and tension deep in his eyes.

Lu Yan sat a little to the right of his father, his hands clenched tightly under the table. Hearing the door open, he abruptly looked up at Lin Ruoyin. His gaze was extremely complex; clearly, the harsh reality had finally made him heed the warning.

Xu Jiata could really destroy the Lu family completely.

"Everyone's here." Lu Hongxuan's voice was a little hoarse. He cleared his throat, his gaze sweeping across the room, deliberately ignoring the anxiety and dissatisfaction on some people's faces. "The situation is urgent, so let's skip the formalities. Everyone knows about the Mohe press conference. Now, we need to discuss how the Lu family should respond."

The meeting room fell into a deathly silence. Then, Li Sanquan, a major shareholder of Lu's Mining, slammed his fist on the table, his face ashen and agitated. "Respond? How can we respond?! Xu Jia is digging us out of our foundation! What kind of bullshit newborn sapphire... all those mines, that batch of top-grade rough stones, and those jewelry pieces passed down through generations in the hands of our old customers—overnight, their value has been halved, and that's the least of our worries! Everyone saw the stock market's reaction!"

"Old Li, calm down first," Lu Hongxuan said in a deep voice.

"Calm down? How can I calm down!" Li Sanquan's eyes were red. "Chairman Lu, this isn't a small matter, this is a matter of life and death for the Lu family! I just want to know, what grudge does this Xu Jia have against the Lu family? Why is he targeting us so relentlessly? Huh?"

After Li Sanquan finished speaking, several people's eyes shot towards Lin Ruoyin like arrows.

"That Xu Jia, isn't he an old acquaintance of Director Lin? Were they college classmates?" A female director surnamed Wang spoke sarcastically, her eyes filled with undisguised resentment. "Last time, when that old master Xu Jingming was poached, wasn't it Mohe's doing? And now they're pulling this stunt again... Director Lin, shouldn't you give everyone an explanation? What personal grudge do you have with that Mr. Xu that's dragging the company down with you and making the entire Lu Corporation pay the price?"

“Chairman Wang!” Lu Yan looked at the man with a stern face, his tone carrying a warning: “Ruo Yin has always been dedicated to the company. This incident is clearly a long-planned business attack by Mohe. What does it have to do with her?”

"Heh," another director surnamed Zhang, who was usually dissatisfied with Lu Yan's playboy lifestyle, sneered and retorted without any politeness, "President Lu, you haven't even cleaned up your own mess yet. Aren't your scandalous news stories making headlines every now and then, tarnishing the Lu Group brand enough? Not to mention the distant past, just look at the last two months, how many times has the stock price dropped because of you?"

Lu Yan choked, his face turning red and white in turns.

"Enough!" Lu Hongxuan suddenly raised his voice, trying to quell the out-of-control situation. "Now is the time to discuss countermeasures, not to dredge up old grievances and blame each other!"

"Old grudges?" The old director who had previously confronted Lin Ruoyin in her office was now ready to fight back. He stood up shakily, looked at Lu Hongxuan, and said indignantly, "Chairman Lu, it's not that we want to dredge up old grudges, it's that these old grudges have come knocking on our door! What was Lin Ruoyin's relationship with Xu Jia before she married into the Lu family? Was it because she mishandled things that she attracted this vicious wolf today? We can accept that Lu Yan is incompetent, after all, he is the only son of the Lu family. But what about Lin Ruoyin? She's an outsider, in charge of the company's core design business, and she has this tangled and complicated relationship with the competition. How can we, the old guys who have been with the Lu family for decades, feel at ease? How can we not feel disheartened?!"

"Exactly! Who knows if it's an inside job!"

"I think she's a femme fatale!"

"Chairman Lu, you must give us an explanation today! Otherwise, this board meeting cannot proceed!"

Accusations, doubts, and even malicious speculations flooded Lin Ruoyin like a tidal wave. The shareholders seemed to have found an outlet for their panic and anger, transforming all their fear of the future, their horror at Xu Jia's methods, and their despair at the huge losses they were about to suffer into attacks against Lin Ruoyin.

Lu Hongxuan's expression grew increasingly grim. He tried to maintain order, but the shareholders, who had suffered huge financial losses, no longer cared about dignity or hierarchy. Their long-standing dissatisfaction with Lu Yan, their criticism of Lu Hongxuan's conservative strategies in recent years, and their subtle resistance to Lin Ruoyin, this "outsider," taking power, were all ignited at this moment.

“You…you…” Lu Hongxuan pointed at the nearly irrational directors and shareholders before him, his chest heaving and his breathing becoming heavy. He wanted to refute them, to use his chairman's authority to suppress everything, but the overwhelming accusations and the equally heavy pressure in his heart left him momentarily speechless. Especially the insinuations about Lin Ruoyin and Xu Jia's past, like fine needles pricking his heart as an elder.

"Chairman Lu, stop protecting your own people!" Chairman Li shouted excitedly. "Someone must be held accountable for what happened today! Either thoroughly investigate the relationship between Lin Ruoyin and Mohe, or... she should resign! Otherwise, how can we explain this to the other shareholders? How can we explain this to the market?!"

Lu Hongxuan slammed his hand on the table, his face flushed red. "Have you all forgotten the contributions Ruoyin made to the Lu family?! Who was pushing forward the Xingyu project? Who resolved so many crises? Now that something's happened, you're trying to pin all the blame on a woman. Do you have any sense of responsibility at all?!"

"Responsibility?" Chairman Wang retorted sharply, "Chairman Lu, this is not the time to talk about credit! This is a time of life and death for the Lu Group! We were too responsible and too sentimental, which is why this hidden danger has been left until today! If only we had..."

She didn't finish her sentence.

Suddenly, Lu Hongxuan let out a muffled groan, clutching his left chest tightly with one hand. The color drained from his face instantly, leaving a terrifying bluish-gray hue. He opened his mouth as if trying to breathe, but could only manage labored, hoarse sounds. His body fell backward uncontrollably, knocking over a teacup beside him. The sound of shattering porcelain echoed jarringly in the conference room.

"Dad—!" Lu Yan was the first to react, rushing over in terror.

"Chairman Lu!"

"Chairman!"

After a brief moment of shock, the conference room erupted into chaos.

Lin Ruoyin stood up abruptly, her heart clenching. She saw Lu Hongxuan's face contorted in pain, saw the cold sweat instantly beading on his forehead, and saw his usually sharp eyes now filled with pain and shock at the loss of control.

Amidst chaos.

She quickly pushed aside the panicked people blocking her way, squatted down next to Lu Hongxuan, glanced at the terrified Lu Yan, and then looked up to find Secretary Chen. "Call for an ambulance! Immediately contact security downstairs and prepare a private elevator and passageway! Everyone else, disperse! Keep the air circulating!"

Her command was decisive and forceful, jolting everyone awake and causing them to frantically follow her instructions.

Lu Yan looked helpless and disoriented, terrified and completely lost. Lin Ruoyin carefully supported Lu Hongxuan, keeping him lying flat, and kept reassuring him in a low voice, "Dad, it's okay, relax, the doctor will be here soon..."