The Madness of a Mastermind

Tian Hao had always believed in control. Now, he believed in betrayal. The world had turned against him. The media mocked him. Investors fled in droves. The powerful men who once sought his counsel now spoke of him in hushed voices, as if he were already a relic of the past.

But Tian Hao refused to accept that his failures were his own.

No.

Someone had done this to him. There were traitors among them. And traitors would be erased.

Tian Hao no longer left his private sanctum. The vast, opulent suite—once a place of power and quiet calculation—had become a tomb of paranoia. Surveillance monitors lined the walls, flashing endless loops of footage. The screens cast his shadow in a hundred different directions, his own reflection watching him from every angle. He had reviewed the tapes thousands of times.

He had seen them hesitate.