It all happened so suddenly. One second ago, Su Duan was still on the phone with his mother, who was nagging about "taking her baby to the ski resort to play tomorrow". The next second, the delicate female voice on the phone abruptly rose in pitch!

The violent crashing sound, signifying something ominous, exploded in Su Duan's ear.

Su Duan held the phone, his face turning deathly pale in an instant.

Su Zheng, who was originally looking at documents with his head down beside him, lifted his head upon hearing the strange noise from the phone and called out, "Duan Duan?"

Su Duan moved his eyes and just stared at him blankly, unable to speak.

Su Zheng saw a hint of abnormality in his pale complexion. He threw the documents in his hand onto the coffee table, reached out his long arm to take the phone from Su Duan's hand, and put it to his ear.

"Hello? Mom! What happened--"

Su Zheng's face grew more and more grim. Holding Su Duan's phone, he hurriedly said to him, "Duan Duan, you stay at home first and wait for your brother to come back." Then he turned and walked out of the living room without even grabbing his coat hanging on the side.

Su Duan didn't get up to chase after him. He remained seated on the sofa, his entire being dazed.

Watching Su Zheng's figure disappear behind the door, he called out in his heart, "System!" His voice revealed a rare hint of urgency.

System: "What are your orders, Host!"

Su Duan's throat tightened as he asked, "What... what's the situation with my parents now?"

System: "Okay, Host, please wait a moment! The system will go and check now!"

System: "It has been detected that the parents of the host's current body were in a car accident on the road. Their vital signs--"

The system said, "Disappeared 13 seconds ago."

Su Duan was silent for a while. His fingers involuntarily curled as he asked, "Why? Is this... a punishment for violating the rules?"

System: "Sorry, no abnormalities can be detected here! The system did not receive any violation warnings!"

Su Duan was silent for even longer before saying, "Okay, I understand."

He swallowed, but under extreme tension, his body wouldn't listen. His teeth and tongue collided, and the taste of blood spread in his mouth.

The butler seemed to have received a notification from Su Zheng. He quickly walked in from outside, his face even more solemn than usual, the nasolabial folds at the corners of his mouth forming deep grooves. Seeing Su Duan, he hoarsely called out, "Young Master."

Su Duan, his mouth full of the taste of blood, widened his eyes to look at him. Whether from pain or something else, a string of tears fell from the corners of his eyes.

......

The matter was quickly settled.

The investigation showed that this car accident was a very pure accident, with no coincidences like brake failure. The person who hit Su Duan's parents was not a drunk truck driver, but an ordinary white-collar worker on his way home from a 9-to-5 job. Due to a blind spot on a section of the road, he collided with Su Duan's parents' car.

The other party was also seriously injured, but compared to Su Duan's parents and their driver who died on the spot at the accident scene, he was lucky enough to be saved on the operating table.

Based on the footage, the police concluded that the responsibility for this accident should be shared equally by both parties. However, since Su Duan's parents had died on the spot, the other party's compensation amount would be slightly larger.

When the other party woke up in the hospital bed and learned the identity of the people he had hit, he was so frightened that he almost fainted again. Looking at the cold and stern Su Zheng, he tremblingly promised to gather the compensation as soon as possible.

However, in the end, Su Zheng did not take the money. Their family was not short of those few million. The people were already gone and couldn't come back. There was no point in haggling over these things.

Moreover, strictly speaking, the responsibility was actually slightly greater on their side. It was their driver who actively hit the other party's car due to the blind spot. The police had judged equal responsibility only in consideration of their family's status.

The funeral for Su Duan's parents was scheduled to be held half a month later.

After half a month of busyness, both Su Duan and Su Zheng had lost a lot of weight.

Not only were they busy with matters related to the car accident and the funeral, but there was also a lot of turmoil in the company. As soon as the news of Su Duan's parents' deaths was confirmed, those seemingly honest shareholders of the company couldn't sit still, especially those few who had some blood ties with their family. They were jumping more excitedly than anyone else.

Su Zheng worked tirelessly for a full half month before he finally managed to suppress the company's unrest.

If Su Duan's parents hadn't already made a will leaving the shares of the main company and subsidiaries to him and Su Duan, the matter might not have been so easily resolved.

On the day of the funeral, it was a rare sunny day in winter. The gentle sunlight fell on the black suits and dresses of the guests, but couldn't add a hint of warmth.

After the funeral, everyone left cleanly. Even those relatives who were unwilling to leave the Su residence were "sent off" by Su Zheng. The entire Su residence was unusually quiet.

In the mourning hall, Su Zheng went to the door to smoke. Su Duan stood in front of the memorial tablets, looking at the black and white photos of his parents, his eyes an indiscernible pitch black.

Su Duan's parents could be described as a talented man and a beautiful woman. The man was stern and handsome, the woman gentle and graceful. In the photo, his mother's eyes were gently curved, softly looking at Su Duan.

I'm sorry, Su Duan said in his heart. In the end, I still couldn't change anything.

Su Duan said to the system, "It seems this world has its own rules."

The fate of the healing target could be changed, but apart from the healing target, the fates of other people in this world seemed to have a predetermined trajectory.

Once any mistakes or omissions occurred, the world would automatically correct the deviations from the track.

The system said, "Sorry."

Su Duan shook his head and said, "It's not your fault."

System: QAQ

Looking at the photos of his parents, Su Duan thought of the unreasonable thing called fate.

In the era he lived in, all things had their own predetermined fates. From birth to end, every seemingly unintentional small twist could be the result of a slight tremor in the chain pulling at one end of fate.

Some people were born rich and smooth, living safely and peacefully all their lives. Some people were born with misfortune, destined to die young.

This applied not only to humans but to all living beings in the world.

Just take himself for example--

Actually, the era of cultivation was the most glorious period for spiritual beings like him. As long as they had a little aptitude, basically all of them could successfully take human form. However, although he had developed an independent consciousness early on, for some reason, there was never any sign of him taking human form.

Just as he finally felt he was touching the edge of his transformation, the Earth was overturned by a catastrophic disaster, with a large number of humans leaving their home planet to seek a new life elsewhere. Injured in the disaster, he ultimately failed to transform and eventually fell into a deep slumber along with his home planet.

After several thousand years of tribulations, he finally waited for an opportunity, though he was unsure if it was reliable or not.

Perhaps the inability to transform was the fate set for him by the Dao of Heaven, Su Duan thought.

Fearing that Su Duan would be saddened by looking at it for too long, Su Zheng took a few puffs before extinguishing the cigarette in his mouth. He returned, bowed deeply to the memorial tablet, then stood up and took Su Duan's hand, saying, "Let's go."

......

What followed was a very busy period. In order to deal with the group of shareholders eyeing the company like tigers, Su Zheng was so busy that his feet barely touched the ground, spending even less time at home than before. It was common for them not to see each other for a whole week.

However, Su Duan was not in a hurry, as he also had his own matters to attend to.

He was busy learning how to manage the company.

But obviously, for Su Duan, who couldn't even understand university textbooks, adapting to this highly specialized work was extremely difficult.

After persisting for a month, he realized that he couldn't even grasp the basics, so he helplessly announced his abandonment of the task.

Su Duan said, "System, I can't do it anymore."

The system comforted him, saying, "Host, don't panic. We still have many ways to solve the problem. The system can help the host select suitable managers."

Su Duan nodded, "Alright, that's the only way."

Su Duan's sudden decision to learn about managing the company's affairs was not due to a whim, but rather to prepare for the future.

In the world information provided by the system, the disasters suffered by the Su family were not limited to the accidental deaths of Su Duan's parents.

The Su company would suffer a meticulously planned attack a year later, causing the company's stock price to collapse, and Su Zheng would also be framed and sentenced to three years in prison.

Su Duan originally wanted to warn Su Zheng to be more vigilant in order to avoid this calamity, but the recent events with his parents had taught him a profound lesson.

Since fate cannot be changed, even if he tried to help Su Zheng escape this prison disaster, who knows if there would be even worse things waiting for Su Zheng?

Therefore, this time Su Duan did not plan to interfere.

However, even if he didn't interfere with Su Zheng's fate, there might be some small areas that could be handled better when dealing with this incident.

—After Su Zheng was imprisoned, the Su family's main household was left with only a young master who had grown up pampered and spoiled, and the young master had no idea how to manage the company. Faced with shareholders who constantly wanted to take a bite out of him, he barely managed to keep the Su company afloat by relying on his brother's connections until Su Zheng was released from prison.

This barely keeping afloat was meant literally. By the time Su Zheng was released from prison, under the relentless squeeze of competitors, the Su company's business had shrunk to one-fifth of its original size and was in constant danger of bankruptcy.

Su Duan thought that since he couldn't prevent Su Zheng from going to jail, he could only do his best to preserve the Su company during the time Su Zheng was in prison.

The author has something to say:

The older brother, who is completely unaware that he is about to suffer misfortune: Earning money to support his younger brother in the face of family changes...

Su Duan: Obediently worried.jpg

Qin Zhi: Who am I? Where am I?