2244 AD.
This was a good year, as the saying goes: "Good things come in pairs."
2244—a rare double doubling!
According to the ancient divination texts, such a year was destined to be:
Auspicious.
The massive Ivory Land drifted overhead, its silver-gray hull adorned with festive lights, transforming the usually solemn space fortress into a dazzling spectacle. Even from a distance, the clamor of voices within could be heard.
Bai Shuang, wearing a nurse's cap and carrying a medical kit, stretched her arm out and waved toward Ivory Land. The magnificent fortress passed above her like a colossal meteor streaking across the starry expanse.
Someone inside noticed her. Within moments, a temporary comms channel connected to her small shuttle.
"Nurse-jiejie, starting work so early? Couldn't sleep in?" A leering face flickered onto the holographic screen.
Even as a projection, the man's expression made Bai Shuang's skin crawl—as if he were harassing her in person.
"Get lost!" She punched the screen, shattering the image, but the shuttle still echoed with the man's vulgar laughter.
"Nurse-jiejie!" His voice crackled through the unstable signal. "Come give me a shot sometime—boost my immunity! Hahaha!"
"Want a shot?" Bai Shuang smirked as Ivory Land drifted away. "Careful I don't sever your spiritual root with one jab—make sure even your mother won't recognize you."
Ivory Land was the largest spaceborne dynasty beyond Earth.
How large?
Standing in its capital—the very fortress that had just passed—people didn't float aimlessly. The artificial gravity held them firmly to the floor.
It couldn't compare to Earth or the Moon, but for a man-made satellite city, it was an engineering marvel.
There was just one flaw: Ivory Land was a boys' club. From cocky youths to withered elders, its inhabitants were as starved for female company as a pack of wolves.
The man who'd harassed her was clearly a new recruit—clueless about the rules. If he knew who Bai Shuang's father was, he'd be too busy crying to laugh.
She input coordinates into the shuttle's console, darting toward another bustling flight path.
Destination: Gold Hold, the second-largest orbital fortress.
A labyrinth of omnidirectional staircases twisted through Gold Hold, rendering conventional notions of time and direction meaningless. Every few steps, gravity shifted as the staircases curved, flipping the world upside down.
Yet this chaos was meticulously calculated. A century ago, its designers had woven every shop into a seamless network. Now, the colossal fortress glittered with treasures, its corridors pulsing with life.
Gold Hold was the heart of leisure, commerce, and entertainment in space.
Bai Shuang took a less-traveled path, leaping between the gilded staircases with impossible speed. In Gold Hold's low gravity, she moved faster than any Earth-bound sprinter.
She skidded to a halt outside a cluttered grocery.
"Shuang-guniang, you're here!" Granny Mo Li beamed, ushering forward a wide-eyed boy. "Mo Ran, say hello!"
"Hello, Shuang-jiejie." The boy's gaze locked onto her medical kit.
"Hi there, kiddo!" Bai Shuang smiled sweetly—for exactly three seconds.
Then—jab!
A scream louder than a slaughtered pig triggered every alarm in the vicinity.
[Danger! Warning!]
Red lights flashed as the boy wailed, his cries mingling with the monotone drone of security bots.
Tch.
What a scene: a beautiful nurse, a needle, and a chorus of alarms.
Bai Shuang calmly put the syringe away, ignoring the sobbing child and the guards converging from all directions.
"Bye, Granny Mo! Bye, Mo Ran!" She waved cheerfully and bolted.
The alarms weren't her fault. Let them clean up the mess.
The Mo family had refused to visit Whale Fall for the boy's vaccination, insisting on a house call. Well, the deed was done, the payment collected.
Time to disappear.
By the time security arrived, only a snot-faced boy and a flustered grandmother remained.
Bai Shuang made a few stops—a heart-shaped chocolate, a cute greeting card, the season's newest hairpin—then departed Gold Hold, her shuttle veering onto a quieter route.
Her final destination: Whale Fall.
As her shuttle approached, the massive fortress loomed into view.
A whale's death brings life.
When a whale dies, its body sinks to the ocean floor, sustaining the deep for a century—nature's final gift.
Whale Fall was the same: the most tender legacy of the spacefaring pioneers.
It had another name:
The City Without a Master.
Its builder, a veteran of the cosmic expeditions, had spent his life constructing this, the sixth-greatest orbital city. But when he died, his creation became lordless.
A saying spread through the stars:
"Seize Whale Fall, and the heavens themselves will bow."
The old lord had decreed:
Twenty-five years after his death, any resident of space could compete for ownership.
This year—2244—was the twenty-fifth.
Ambition stirred across the cosmos. Even Earth's inhabitants had caught wind, with a sudden surge in off-world migrants eyeing the prize.
But Bai Shuang couldn't care less about power struggles. She was here for one reason:
Xiao Hei.
The boy she dreamed of, the boy who made a single day apart feel like years.
"Xiao Hei!" She sprinted to the observatory deck.
Against the starscape, a radiant young man stood with his back to her, hands clasped behind him.
He turned.
The universe itself seemed to pale beside his smile.
A transport ship rumbled overhead, docking with Whale Fall's loading bay.
Bai Shuang grinned. Nothing was more romantic than this: vows whispered beneath the stars, promises etched into the cosmos.
"Shuang'er." Xiao Hei reached for her—a celestial being beckoning his mortal love.
Her heart raced. One step. Two. Three—
"BAI SHUANG!"
A voice like a vengeful ghost shattered the moment.
"Holy—!" She dropped her chocolates, her cards, everything. Survival was all that mattered now.
She ran, shrieking, "Reaper's here to skin me alive!!!"
"Running?" A black-robed figure blocked the exit, sealing all but two doors with a wave.
One exit was barred. The other—her only hope.
She lunged—
Dead end.
Trapped, she jabbed a finger at the man. "You'd ruin love itself! Xiao Hei and I are fated! Inseparable! How dare—!"
"Yes. I dare." The man flicked his wrist. A blade of pure light ignited, its edge crackling with enough energy to slice through steel.
Bai Shuang's face whitened.
He's serious.
No escape. No mercy.
So she screamed:
"DADDY!!! WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME?! NOW I CAN'T EVEN LOVE WHO I WANT!!!"
To outsiders, it was just a grieving girl's tantrum.
To the black-robed man, each word was a knife to the heart.
He extinguished the blade, his voice thick with frustration. "Your father was a legend. How did he sire such a disgrace?"
Bai Shuang's wails cut off. She glared at him—this monster who'd terrified her since childhood.
When he was angry, not even the gods could stop him.
Tears welled anew. "Daddy!!! I'm so miserable!!!"
The man exhaled sharply. With a gesture, the observatory platform detached, gliding toward Whale Fall's restricted core.
He flung open a door and shoved her inside. "Your father's memorial approaches, yet you'd hand his life's work to a stranger?"
A final command as the door locked: "You won't leave Whale Fall again."
Alone, Bai Shuang slumped to the floor—the very picture of tragic innocence.
To the world, she was just another nurse in Whale Fall.
In truth, she was its sole heir: Bai Shuang, daughter of the late lord Bai Qing.
And the black-robed man?
Wu Qiong.
The immortal who'd guarded her family for two centuries.