The morning dew had yet to dry, and I was alone in the garden, pruning the blue crystal orchids. Since breaking through the soil on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, these mystical flowers had grown at an astonishing pace—now reaching nearly waist height. The moment my fingertips brushed a petal, a warm, familiar sensation surged through me—exactly the same as when I touched the Stone of Destiny.
"Mom… Look!" A child's clear, lilting voice rang in my ears. I turned sharply. The garden was empty.
A hallucination? No—it was too real. I touched the petals again.
This time, a vivid image appeared before my eyes: Xinglan, five years older, stood in the very same spot, holding a painting. It depicted me—just as I looked now.
"Sophia?" Zhou Yuchen's voice snapped me out of the vision. He approached, holding a cup of coffee, still sleepy but clearly concerned. "What did you see?"
"Future Xinglan," I whispered, taking the cup. My hands trembled. "These flowers… they show glimpses of the future."
His expression shifted instantly—from surprise to cautious alertness. He crouched and used a pocketknife to carefully cut a petal. "I'll have Dad run a test on this."
Ever since discovering I was pregnant, supernatural occurrences had become more frequent. At first, it was just fleeting dreams—memories from my mother's youth. Then came waking conversations with echoes of the past. Last week, I even dreamed of Zhou's mother, a woman I had never met. She sang lullabies, showing me how to soothe the child growing inside me.
"Prenatal appointment today, remember?" Zhou Yuchen wrapped a shawl over my shoulders. "I canceled my morning meetings."
Just as I nodded, a sharp pain shot from my lower abdomen to my spine. The coffee cup slipped from my grasp and shattered on the stone path.
"Sophia!"
The pain passed as quickly as it came. I clutched Yuchen's arm for balance. Around us, the blue orchids turned toward me, glowing faintly.
"That wasn't a contraction," I panted. "It felt like… an impact. Like being hit from the inside."
Zhou Yuchen didn't hesitate. He called Professor Lin. Ten minutes later, we were en route to the underground lab.
Professor Lin's lab was hidden three floors beneath the Zhou Group's headquarters, outfitted with state-of-the-art genetic equipment. Though he and Chen Mo had long been separated, they had resumed their research partnership—now focused entirely on the residual effects of the Stone of Destiny.
"Fascinating," Professor Lin murmured, inserting the petal into a spectrometer. "The cellular structure contains the same silicon-carbon compound as the stone itself!"
Zhou Yuchen frowned. "So what does that mean?"
"These flowers are a biological continuation of the stone." The professor's eyes gleamed as he adjusted the microscope. "Look—these crystalline structures mimic human neural synapses!"
I gently touched my growing belly, a realization settling over me. "So they can… remember. And predict."
"Exactly," he said. Then he switched the screen, displaying Xinglan's original genetic map. "Do you remember this? When your daughter was born, 0.3% of her DNA didn't match any known human genome."
Next, he pulled up my latest blood test results. Several segments blinked red on the screen.
"Oh my God," Zhou Yuchen leaned in. "Has that percentage… increased?"
Professor Lin nodded. "Your unborn child now shows 1.2% of unknown genetic sequences. If I'm correct, this baby may carry even stronger 'stone traits' than Xinglan."
As we left the lab, I felt a growing unease. Zhou Yuchen squeezed my hand. "What's on your mind?"
"If our children are really like this… what kind of life are they stepping into?" I murmured, staring out the car window at the blue sky. "Will they be studied? Hunted? Like…"
"Like our mothers were," he finished softly. He ran a finger along my wedding band. "But this time, we're ready. And we'll protect them."
The ultrasound showed that the fetus was healthy, though its heartbeat was slightly lower than average. "Still strong though," the doctor noted cheerfully. "Almost like a drumbeat. Maybe a calm little boy."
On the way home, we stopped by the new jewelry studio—specially built for the Eternity collection. The space was fully enclosed, with air-filtration systems to capture even the smallest gem particles. Zhou Yuchen had insisted I avoid all exposure to harmful materials during the pregnancy.
"Mr. Zhou!" Assistant Xiaoyu rushed over, holding a completed sample. "The custom order from Milan is ready."
It was a brooch—crafted with petals from the crystal orchid, encased in synthetic amber. At the center was a cluster of micro sapphires. The moment I touched it, a familiar warmth radiated through my fingertips.
"The client asked us to incorporate her mother's hair," Xiaoyu explained. "She said… you would understand."
I did. In the past three months, we had discovered that the crystal orchids could be used as conduits—amplifying human emotions and preserving memory. This woman wanted to immortalize her mother's love within a piece of jewelry.
"You need to activate it yourself." Xiaoyu handed me a velvet pouch. Inside was a delicate strand of silver-white hair.
I wrapped the hair behind the brooch and began humming the lullaby my mother had once taught me—the same melody Zhou's mother had used to soothe him. Gradually, the brooch began to glow. The strand of hair moved as if guided by invisible hands, weaving into intricate, feather-like patterns.
"Every time I see this, it feels like magic," Xiaoyu said quietly. "Like a soul sealed in art."
That night, I tossed and turned. When I got up to check on Xinglan, I noticed the orchid glowing in the moonlight. I reached out—
A sudden wave of sleep washed over me.
When I opened my eyes, I was standing in an unfamiliar lab. My mother and Zhou's mother were there—much younger, working around a transparent chamber. Inside floated three Stones of Destiny.
"Frequency tuning complete," my mother noted, jotting down data. "Next phase: genetic encoding."
Zhou's mother glanced up—and met my eyes directly.
"You're here," she said, as if expecting me.
She could see me? "Is this a dream? Or a memory?"
"Both. And neither," my mother said, placing a hand over my abdomen. "This is a conversation across time. And it's working."
"Listen carefully," Zhou's mother added urgently. "There's more than one fragment of the third stone. Lu Zhentian scattered them around the world. Find them—before they do."
"They? Who are they?" I asked.
My mother's form began to blur. "They don't have a name. But they mark the 'stone-born'—with…"
The vision cut off.
I awoke on the garden path. Zhou Yuchen was kneeling over me, panic etched in his face.
"Sophia! Thank God!" He pulled me into his arms. "You vanished for three hours. Everyone was looking for you."
Surrounding us were our family—my mother, Chen Mo, Professor Lin, and Xiaoyu, who was holding Xinglan. All looked shaken.
"I saw them," I said, gripping Yuchen's hand. "My mother and yours. They warned us—there's an organization hunting down the stone-born."
Professor Lin's expression changed instantly. "How do they identify their targets?"
"Some kind of… mark. I think… behind the ear?"
Xiaoyu gasped and instinctively touched the back of her left ear. Slowly, she parted her hair—revealing a tiny, lotus-shaped blue mark.
"Xinglan and I both have it," she whispered. "I thought it was a birthmark."
Further testing confirmed our worst fear: Xiaoyu, Xinglan, and the fetus all bore this hidden mark. Professor Lin called it a coded imprint—a biological fusion of stone energy and unique DNA.
"We need to tighten security immediately," Zhou Yuchen ordered. "Especially for the children."
Three days later, the Milan showcase was a global success. The Eternity collection sold out, and the memory brooch made headlines. They called it "the embrace of the departed."
But celebration was short-lived.
"Agent Morris. Interpol's Transnational Crime Division." The tall man in our living room flashed his badge. His piercing blue gaze swept across our family. "We need to talk about the Stone of Destiny."
Zhou Yuchen moved instinctively, shielding me and Xinglan. "Who sent you?"
"Your mother, technically." Morris pulled out an old photo—Zhou's mother as a young woman, standing beside a blue-eyed man. "I was her first student. One of the few outsiders who knew the truth."
He handed over a sealed bag filled with blue fragments. "Found last week in the Brazilian rainforest. Six ch
The moment I touched the bag, the fragments glowed.
Morris narrowed his eyes. "So the rumors are true. Ms. Harrison can activate the stone's energy."
"What do you want?" Yuchen asked flatly.
"Cooperation," Morris replied. "There's a group—we call them Polaris. They're hunting 'stone-born' children worldwide. We believe they plan to exploit their abilities to develop mind-control weapons."
Just then, Xinglan began to cry, pointing out the window.
We turned.
The orchids were thrashing wildly—though there was no wind.
Morris's expression hardened. "They sense danger. Closer than we think."
And then—another jolt. A wave of energy surged from within me. My unborn child was reacting. Zhou Yuchen reached to steady me, and our wedding rings touched—producing a sharp chime.
We locked ey
The real battle had only just begun.