The practice Gaokao was a full-day ordeal, a brutal simulation of the real thing. Ye Xia sat in the silent, tense examination hall, the scent of sweat and anxiety thick in the air. She finished each section with an hour to spare, using the extra time to mentally review her plans for dealing with Yun Zhong's Macau lenders.
As she walked out of the hall, feeling strangely drained despite the intellectual ease of the test, her phone buzzed. It was Mo.
[My grandmother has made contact with your former friend.]
Ye Xia wasn't surprised he knew. His intelligence network was, if anything, better than hers. [I know. I've handled it.]
[How?]
[I convinced her that her interests are now aligned with mine.] She didn't go into details. Some things were better left unsaid.
There was a long pause. [That was… efficient. And ruthless.]
[You disapprove?]
[No. I admire it. But it confirms my grandmother's fears. You are not a variable that can be easily controlled.]
[Good,] Ye Xia typed back. [I don't like being controlled.]
She expected the conversation to end there, but another message came through.
[The meteor shower is tonight. The coordinates I sent are still valid. The sky will be clear.]
Ye Xia stopped walking, standing amidst the stream of exhausted students pouring out of the school. It was a renewed invitation. A personal one, in the midst of their strategic war. She thought of the Mo matriarch, trying to break them apart. She thought of the cold calculus of her own life.
And for the first time, she made a decision based on something other than strategy or revenge. She made a decision based on want.
[I'll be there,] she replied.
She didn't go home. She went to her apartment, changed into warm, practical clothing, and had Silas drive her out of the city, towards the mountains. She told him it was a reconnaissance trip, a need for clear air to think. He didn't question it.
The coordinates led to a remote overlook, accessible by a rough track. She told Silas to wait at the bottom. She climbed the last stretch alone, her breath misting in the cold, thin air.
He was already there, standing beside a sleek, black off-road vehicle. He was dressed in dark, functional clothing, not a suit. He looked younger, more real. The city's lights were a distant, hazy glow in the valley below. Above, the sky was a vast, black canvas, utterly free of light pollution.
For a long time, they didn't speak. They just stood there, looking up. Then, the first meteor streaked across the sky, a brilliant scratch of light that vanished as quickly as it appeared. Then another, and another.
"It's… humbling," Ye Xia said softly, her voice small in the immense silence.
"Yes," Mo agreed. He didn't look at her; his gaze was fixed on the cosmos. "It reminds me that all our systems, our wealth, our power… it's all contained on this tiny rock. It's both meaningless and precious."
"Is that why you do it?" she asked. "The philanthropy? To give meaning to the meaninglessness?"
He was quiet for a moment. "I do it because the system I have demands it. It's a transaction. But tonight… tonight, it doesn't feel like a transaction."
He finally turned to look at her. In the starlight, his features were softer, the usual cold intensity replaced by a quiet wonder. "What about you, Ye Xia? What does your system demand?"
The question hung in the cold air between them, more intimate than a touch. He was asking directly now, under the witness of the falling stars.
Ye Xia took a deep breath. The secret she had guarded so fiercely felt too heavy to carry alone in this vastness. "It demands that I waste money," she said, the words feeling strange on her tongue. "I have to spend staggering amounts with no return. The more I waste, the more personal wealth and power I gain."
Mo's eyes widened slightly. He hadn't expected such a blunt confession. "A Money Wasting System," he murmured. "The inverse of my own. You consume to create. I give to receive."
The symmetry was breathtaking. They were two sides of the same impossible coin.
"Why are you telling me this?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper.
"Because you told me first," she said. "And because… up here, the secrets don't seem to matter as much."
A particularly bright meteor blazed across the sky, leaving a temporary trail. In its fleeting light, Ye Xia saw something in Mo's eyes she had never seen before: not calculation, not curiosity, but a raw, unguarded connection.
The ice between them had finally cracked.