“Wow, no wonder they call it the Sleepless City. The night scene is more than a hundred times better than outside!”

At night, neon lights flickered, colors reflecting everywhere.

Strips of colored light flashed above the high-rises like dancing dragons.

The city was more than twice as lively at night as it was during the day.

The broad streets were packed with young people, all dressed in stylish, distinctive outfits.

Some gathered in small groups on the roadside, sitting right on the ground.

Every so often, a burst of carefree laughter rang out.

The air of youth was especially thick in this magic city.

“Eh, that’s a food stall! Wooow~ I came here on an empty stomach just to enjoy the Sleepless City’s street food~”

Yu Mo was so excited, like a cheerful little deer, bouncing along.

The four of them hadn’t eaten anything that afternoon.

They’d done it just so they could fully enjoy the Sleepless City’s food.

The street was very wide.

Even with the heavy foot traffic, it didn’t feel crowded.

The four walked together, following the aroma drifting from the food stalls.

“It smells so good!”

The scent of cumin and chili powder from the barbecue stall woke up all four of their taste buds.

Their mouths watered like crazy.

Back outside, well-behaved kids like them would never have dared wander a night market.

But here, the shackles had come off.

Naturally, they were having a hard time holding themselves back.

“What would you four handsome boys like to order?”

The owner saw the four of them staring eagerly at the barbecue seasoning in her hand.

She kept working as she smiled and asked.

“Uh...”

The four looked at the price board, a little dazed.

The prices were a bit higher than outside, but still within what they could accept.

After discussing it, the four said, “Boss, eight skewers of pork intestines, twelve beef skewers, four pork belly skewers, four duck hearts...”

After giving their order, they sat by the stall table and watched the people coming and going around them for snacks.

“There are so many people here. And all these different smells... my nose can’t even sort them out anymore.”

Yu Mo sniffed the air and swallowed hard.

“I’m seriously jealous of those girls. They get to come out every night and enjoy this kind of time.”

“But now, can’t we enjoy it too?”

Leng Shuang pulled his gaze back from the passersby and spoke, a little pleased.

Starting today, they finally didn’t have to live in fear every day.

No more worrying about being followed.

No more being afraid of dark alleyways.

Now they could come out openly and enjoy this lively night.

“Judging by what you’re wearing, you four handsome boys came in from outside, right? Hahaha. In the magic city, other than the high spending, there’s basically no downside. There are cameras everywhere, almost enough to put them in bedrooms. If a camera spots even the slightest problem, the police move immediately. You really don’t need to worry about your safety...”

“And the Sleepless City isn’t just about good food. There’s plenty to do too. If you like going wild, there are bars, clubs, arcades. If you’re more conservative, there are amusement parks, movie theaters, fruit and vegetable gardens, and lots of trendy photo spots too. Look over there, that bridge over the Ping River. Lots of people go there to take pictures.”

The owner enthusiastically introduced the magic city.

Following where she pointed, the four stood up and looked into the distance.

There was an extremely wide river there.

A steel bridge stretched across it, one of the most famous bridges in the city’s west district—the Ping River Steel Bridge.

At regular intervals along the middle of the bridge stood main support towers.

Countless steel cables radiated downward from them, linking the bridge together.

It looked grand and magnificent.

The cables were lined with colorful neon lights.

They lit up in sequence, one after another, as if turning the bridge into a castle from a fairy tale.

The middle of the bridge was for cars.

On both sides were very wide pedestrian paths.

People were riding bicycles there, enjoying the breeze, chatting, and some were even swimming.

A few people, wearing swimsuits, jumped straight down from the bridge.

This was a scene Leng Shuang and the other three boys, fresh out of high school, had almost never seen before.

In an instant, they were stunned and dazzled.

A trace of longing slowly appeared in their eyes.

“Hahaha, the Ping River Bridge is one of the most famous sights in the west district.”

Seeing the light in their eyes, the owner seemed to remember how she had been when she first came here in her youth.

She smiled with a hint of nostalgia, then brought the grilled food to the table.

“Here you go, four handsome boys. Enjoy.”

Her gaze paused on Leng Shuang for a moment.

Beaming, she said, “This handsome boy here, my daughter still doesn’t have a boyfriend. Do you have a girlfriend? Come on, young people, let’s chat.”

“Sorry, I do have a girlfriend.”

Leng Shuang froze for a moment.

He didn’t sense anything unpleasant in her gaze, so he answered politely.

“What a pity. Such a pretty boy. Looks like my daughter doesn’t have that kind of luck.”

The owner laughed it off and went back to business.

“Wow! This is so good! Way better than delivery!”

The four dug in, looking a little shocked.

“What even is delivery food? With delivery, you can’t even see how it’s made. Mine uses real ingredients. How could delivery compare to me?”

The owner spoke with a proud look on her face.

“Boss, you’re amazing!”

The four laughed, and before long, they had finished eating.

“That’ll be 138. But since you handsome boys are new to the magic city, and you’re all so good-looking, let’s make it 100.”

When it was time to pay, the owner spoke generously.

“Okay, thank you.”

After settling the bill, the four kept wandering from one food stall to another.

They had clearly eaten a lot, yet somehow still felt unsatisfied.

Their mouths kept watering.

They practically wanted to eat tomorrow’s share too.

Only when the four finally sat down in chairs, drinking milk tea and unable to move, did they realize their stomachs were completely full.

“We kind of overdid it.”

Leng Shuang looked at his own belly, puffed out in a big round curve like he was pregnant, and smiled helplessly.

“The food here is just too good. I feel like if I don’t come out for late-night snacks from now on, I’d be wasting my youth.”

Yu Mo leaned back in his chair, sprawled out, looking blissful.

“Hahaha.”

The four looked at each other and laughed.

Once they’d eaten their fill, the next step was sightseeing and taking photos after they digested a little.

They stayed in the milk tea shop for more than two hours before they finally felt able to move again.

Without any hesitation, their first stop was the Ping River Bridge.

The bridge looked close, but it was actually quite a walk.

Facing the cool night breeze, the four felt like wild horses finally let loose.

Their hearts were so free that none of them even noticed it was already close to midnight.

Normally, around this time, Leng Shuang would already be getting sleepy.

Even if he stayed up late, midnight was usually his limit.

But this time, he had completely forgotten the hour.

The magic city’s neon lights shimmered, dazzling and brilliant.

It was as if everything here held some kind of magic.

Every blade of grass, every street, every building blurred Leng Shuang’s eyes.

Even though it was only his first day in the magic city, it already felt as if he had blended into it, become part of it.

Spellbound, he felt no drowsiness at all.

With his heart set free, his body brought out a stamina he had never had before.

He walked toward that castle of flashing lights in his sight.

A stream of cars sped down the road.

A luxury car in a mesmerizing blue tore across the highway.

In the back seat, a cold and stunningly beautiful woman rested her chin on one hand.

Her captivating phoenix eyes looked out the window.

Her gaze was slightly unfocused, as if she were lost in thought.

The driver was extremely focused.

She kept the speed perfectly steady, afraid that going even a little too fast or too slow would displease the young lady in the back.

“Grandmother wants to retire. She intends to leave the position to me, but...”

Soft streetlights fell across the window.

Kazue Iinoue’s wine-red hair lay lazily over her shoulders and the full, proud curves of her chest, basking in the touch of the neon glow.

Her reflection in the glass was exquisitely beautiful.

As Kazue Iinoue looked at herself, a faint trace of cold dominance showed through her indistinct pupils.

“I’m the granddaughter. Their family has so many people below them all eyeing that position too. This won’t be an easy test...”

The fact that Grandmother was willing to give Kazue Iinoue a chance, even making her one of the vice presidents, already showed her stance.

She thought highly of this granddaughter.

Because in Kazue Iinoue, she saw a shadow of herself.

But in this internal meeting, more than half the people had voted against Kazue Iinoue.

The reason was simple.

Kazue Iinoue was twenty-five.

She didn’t have enough management experience.

Most of them focused on her age.

And among those people, most were direct members of Grandmother’s side of the family.

Beautiful New World was, in truth, a family business.

For someone like Kazue Iinoue, who came from the outside branch, entering their family company was naturally a threat to their power.

But Grandmother favored Kazue Iinoue.

So in order to make those people acknowledge her, Kazue Iinoue was reassigned to a department under Beautiful New World.

She was given a new subsidiary and told to make of it what she could.

As long as, three years later, the net profit of the subsidiary under Kazue Iinoue’s management surpassed the others, that would prove her ability.

Kazue Iinoue accepted Grandmother’s proposal without much hesitation.

But in truth, she wanted even more.

“What if my subsidiary’s net profit ends up bigger than the parent company’s? I wonder what expressions those old fossils would make then.”

It was an absurdly bold thought.

They had given her one subsidiary, and she was already thinking of making more money than the parent company itself.

A vague, cold smile appeared on the reflected face in the window.

The smile was icy and wickedly charming.

Anyone who saw it would be captivated.

The driver secretly glanced at the rearview mirror.

The moment she saw that smile on her young lady’s face, a chill ran down her spine.

Everyone else thought her young lady was expressionless.

But after working for Kazue Iinoue for so long, she knew one thing very clearly.

Her young lady wasn’t expressionless.

It was just that almost nothing interested her.

But if something did catch her interest—

for example, if a wicked little cold smile appeared on her face without warning—

then it meant she was about to do something very frightening.

The last time the driver had seen Kazue Iinoue smile like that was a few years ago.

Back then, she had gotten bored and thought movies sounded fun, so she went into acting.

A blogger with nearly a million followers attacked Kazue Iinoue’s acting skills.

To farm traffic, he even used the title:

“Other than her face and body, she has nothing. How does she deserve Best Actor?”

It blew up at the time.

And by pure coincidence, the bored Kazue Iinoue happened to see it.

That brought out the “cold smile.”

Then that blogger disappeared.

He vanished in the magic city, the place with the best public security.

The next time anyone saw him, he was in some far-off lawless place.

He had been forced into filming “AK media,” eating all kinds of bizarre things.

It was grotesque.

There was no proof.

But the driver always felt it had something to do with her young lady.

And that was only one example.

According to the former driver, when the young lady was younger, she would occasionally let out that same “cold smile” by accident.

Every single time, either someone met with disaster, or some company went under.

There was never any evidence.

But it always felt suspicious.

The driver pulled her gaze back, lightly wiped the sweat from her forehead, and kept driving carefully, trying not to think about those strange things.

The mesmerizing blue luxury car continued forward and arrived at the entrance to the Ping River Steel Bridge.

At that moment, four bright, lively boys appeared.

Among them, one tall boy stood out the most.

Kazue Iinoue had been thinking about the subsidiary.

But at that instant, her eyes suddenly sharpened.

Her gaze was drawn to that boy as if by iron.

Shoulder-length short hair.

A flawless, handsome face.

His expression, drunk on the neon of the night, looked faintly tipsy and deeply alluring.

His eyes were clear and bright, like a still spring.

It was as if they had gathered the stars from the sky into them.

There was no color of worldly stain in them.

They still held a pure, romantic innocence.

With just that one glance, Kazue Iinoue’s heart was stirred.

She didn’t know what that feeling was.

There was just a sudden suffocation, followed by a violent thump in the next instant.

One glance, and it felt eternal.

The moment her eyes landed on that boy, it was as if fate had already decided it.

Once her gaze rested on him, it no longer wanted to leave.

“What’s wrong with me?”

That question appeared in Kazue Iinoue’s mind.

She had never once been interested in a man.

For twenty-five years, this was the first time she had wanted so badly to keep looking at a boy.

A boy who looked only eighteen.

Time didn’t stop for Kazue Iinoue. In the briefest instant, that boy had already vanished from her sight.

When she instinctively turned to look back, there were already a few cars and a tide of people behind her, cutting her off from that fleeting tug at her heart.

“Stop the car! Turn around!”

A cold, urgent voice came from the back seat. It made the driver’s body jolt.

Turn around here?

The driver glanced at the rearview mirror. There were still a few cars behind them.

But she couldn’t worry about that now. She switched on the turn signal and hurriedly made a sharp, practiced turn.

“What the hell, are you trying to get yourself killed?!”

Behind them, a car owner stuck his head out and cursed.

The driver ignored him and drove back the way they came, just as her young lady had ordered.

“Stop!”

At her young lady’s command, the driver pulled over by the roadside.

Kazue Iinoue swept her gaze across the bridge entrance. Her willow-leaf brows furrowed slightly, and a faint trace of regret appeared in her captivating phoenix eyes.

“Miss, what are you looking for?” the driver asked.

“Nothing. Keep driving.”

Kazue Iinoue waved a hand and spoke lightly, her calm and cool demeanor already restored.

The driver parted her lips, then stopped. It was the first time she had heard her young lady speak with such urgency. But since Miss didn’t want to say why, she didn’t dare ask further.

She turned the car around and continued on...