She Smiled When All Her Thoughts Turned to Despair

Lin Yi, who came out of a small northern town, relied on his handsome appearance and excellent business ability to rise rapidly in the Shanghai Investment Company, and even won the favor of the daughter of a high-level executive. However, this enviable luck has become the catalyst for his inner imbalance - under the seemingly sweet cloak of love, dormant is a paranoid desire for wealth and power. He began to use his power to erode the company's interests and misappropriate public funds to speculate in stocks. Until the incident came to light, he was jailed for seven years and completely changed the trajectory of his life. The mysterious inmate he met in prison led him to the "gold rush" scam in northern Myanmar. When the bullet grazed his ear, and when the iron gate of the Electronic Fraud Park locked his freedom, Lin Yi was shocked to realize that he was not stepping into heaven, but a soul-devouring hell. With his financial expertise, he became a money laundering tool for criminal groups, twisting and growing in the cracks of black and white. As various countries crack down on electronic fraud crimes, foreign forces have extended their black hands to China's chip field. Lin Yi was packaged as a returnee elite and sneaked into Huaxin Group, which successfully developed the 10-nanometer process. When he received the task of escorting the core secret hard drive, his encounter with Ye Lan was not only the fetters of fate, but also the ultimate showdown between conscience and desire. Every time my fingertips touch the hard drive, I am asking: When did that young man who once harbored ideals lose his soul in the fog of interests? And when the truth tears apart the disguise, at what cost will this depravity that began with greed end? Foreword: Before the fireworks of the Lunar New Year had cleared up, I was stuck in the fog of choosing a topic for my second novel. The debut novel "Into the Dream of Thorns" was completed last year. Although all the enthusiasm was poured into it, it was like a pebble thrown into a deep pool, causing only sporadic ripples. After repeatedly chewing and failing, I was shocked to realize that I was trapped in the shackles of literature - the narrative was smooth and the rhythm was slow, completely ignoring the desire of contemporary readers for novelty, brain-burning and reversal. The turning point came from an Indian movie I watched. When the broken clues suddenly came together at the last moment, those layers of nested suspense and subversive reversals were like a heavy hammer hitting the heart. I suddenly realized: maybe the story does not have to unfold in a regular way. When the truth is folded into countless accidents, reading will become a hearty adventure. I spent thirty days disassembling every shot of the movie and trying to figure out the undercurrents behind the characters' micro-expressions. However, when the first draft of twenty chapters was submitted to the platform, it encountered obstacles one after another because of the sensitive issues involved. Seeing that my hard work was on the verge of dying, I repeatedly asked myself late at night: Is it possible to reshape the vitality of this story within the boundaries of the rules? Hence "She Laughed When All Thoughts Turned to Ashes". This title, which carries the warmth of ashes, hides the heroine's awakening in the darkest moment, and is also a metaphor for the work's resurrection from the dead. Every seemingly sudden turning point in the book and every cryptic dialogue are waiting for readers to uncover the mystery with their own hands. Limited by the power of writing, there are still many regrets in the book. But I am confident that those carefully designed narrative mazes and the gray lines buried in the details will allow you to enjoy the pleasure of entertainment while also getting a glimpse of the complexity of human nature and the impermanence of fate when you close the book. Zhaoqing May 24, 2025 in Lanzhou Preface The mood is deeper than the night. Every woman's heart is like a deep lake, hiding the broken shadows of moonlight; Every man's desire is like a flower with thorns, growing wildly in the abyss. When obsession and ambition collide, love and hate will eventually drown all pretense. Purpose: Regardless of whether the choice you make is right or wrong, you must persist through it, even if you face crime and punishment.