The gates of Imperial Tech University were forged from iron and arrogance. This was the training ground for the nation’s elite the place where Lin Xia had been branded a "shameful dropout" after a series of failed exams and a strategically leaked video of her "partying" during midterms.
A sleek black SUV pulled up to the curb. When the door opened, a pair of sharp, silver stilettos hit the pavement.
Lin Xia stepped out. She wasn't wearing the emerald gown from the night before. Instead, she wore a sharp, tailored white blazer over black slim-fit trousers. Her hair was pulled back into a high, cold ponytail. She looked less like a student and more like a CEO coming to buy the campus.
"Yan," she said, glancing at Lu Jingshen’s assistant who had been sent to 'escort' her. "Wait here. This won't take long."
"But Miss Lin, the Dean is in a board meeting"
"Perfect," Lin Xia interrupted, her eyes flashing. "Then everyone will be there to witness the update."
[The Administration Building - 3rd Floor]
Inside the plush boardroom, Dean Wang was laughing with a group of wealthy donors. Among them was Zhong Wei, the son of a tech mogul and the man who had led the bullying campaign against the original Lin Xia.
"It’s better for everyone that she’s gone," Zhong Wei said, swirling a coffee. "A girl like that was dragging down the curve. Imperial Tech only has room for"
The heavy mahogany doors didn't just open; they were kicked inward with a resounding bang.
The room went silent.
Lin Xia walked in, her footsteps echoing with a rhythmic, lethal precision. She didn't look at the Dean. She didn't look at the donors. She walked straight to the head of the table where a high-end laptop was connected to the room’s massive projector.
"Lin Xia?" Dean Wang gasped, standing up. "How dare you! You were expelled! Security"
"I wasn't expelled," Lin Xia said, her voice cutting through his protest like a diamond through glass. "I was 'voluntarily withdrawn' based on fraudulent data. I’m here to correct the record."
"You’re delusional," Zhong Wei sneered, recovered from his shock. "Your GPA was a 0.5. You failed every coding challenge in the National Invitational. You’re a joke, Xia."
Lin Xia finally looked at him. It was the look a biologist gives a particularly ugly insect. "Zhong Wei. Line 12 of the Invitational server logs. You used a brute-force script to scramble my submissions and replace them with gibberish. Did you really think you deleted the breadcrumbs?"
Zhong Wei’s face paled. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Then let's look at the screen."
Lin Xia’s fingers blurred across the laptop’s keyboard. She didn't need to ask for a password; she bypassed the university’s mainframe in four seconds.
The projector flickered.
Suddenly, a series of logs appeared—dated, timestamped, and linked to Zhong Wei’s personal MAC address. It showed exactly when he had entered the system to sabotage Lin Xia’s grades.
But she wasn't done.
"And Dean Wang," she said calmly, "I see the $200,000 'donation' the Zhong family made to your offshore account the day my expulsion papers were signed. Shall we see if the Board of Regents finds that as 'charitable' as you do?"
"Shut it down! Shut it down now!" Dean Wang screamed, reaching for the laptop.
Lin Xia stepped back, crossing her arms. "Too late. I’ve already mirrored this presentation to the student body’s forum, the local news, and... oh, look at that... the Ministry of Education’s tip line."
The boardroom erupted into chaos. Zhong Wei lunged at her, his face twisted with rage. "You bitch, I’ll kill you!"
Before his hand could even reach her, a hand made of iron gripped his shoulder and slammed him back into his chair.
Lu Jingshen stepped out from the doorway, his presence casting a long, terrifying shadow over the room. He hadn't stayed in the car.
"Who wants to kill my business partner?" Lu Jingshen asked, his voice low and vibrating with a dangerous edge.
The donors practically tripped over each other to stand up. "Master Lu! We didn't... we weren't..."
Lu Jingshen ignored them. He looked at Lin Xia, noting the calm, almost bored expression on her face as she watched the powerful men scramble in fear.
"The grades are restored," Lin Xia said, closing the laptop with a satisfying click. "My GPA is now a 4.0. And since this university is clearly beneath me, I’m officially withdrawing. On my own terms."
She turned to leave, but paused next to Zhong Wei, who was shaking in his seat.
"By the way," she whispered. "I noticed you're using a 'secure' wallet for your crypto. I'd move your funds in the next ten minutes if I were you. Or don't. I could use a new server rack."
[Outside the Building]
Lu Jingshen walked beside her, his pace matching hers. "You could have just asked me to handle the Dean. It would have taken one phone call."
Lin Xia looked up at the bright morning sun, a rare, genuine smile touching her lips—one that didn't reach her eyes, which remained cold and sharp.
"Where's the fun in that, Mr. Lu? A ghost doesn't need someone else to haunt her enemies."
Lu Jingshen’s phone buzzed. He looked at the message and his eyes narrowed. "It seems your 'explosive' stunt has reached the dark web. Someone just put a bounty on the 'Ghost Queen' signature."
Lin Xia didn't look worried. If anything, she looked hungry.
"Good," she said. "I was wondering when the real competition would show up. Tell your driver to go to the hardware district. I need to build something... bigger."
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