One hour later, within the Western Jin Academy's austere Hall of Judgment.
The very air tasted of stale authority and cold stone. Yao understood that the academies of this world bore little resemblance to the scholastic institutions of her memory. Under the core mandate of the Imperial Education Ministry, they wielded power that extended to life and death. And now, that power had her in its grasp, summoned for 'investigative questioning' regarding a murder. Legal counsel? Denied. Cooperation was not a request, but a demand enforced by grim-faced enforcers in severe uniforms.
The interrogation room was a gray, windowless cube. The walls, a cheerless shade of concrete, seemed to leach warmth from the very light of the solitary glow-crystal hovering near the ceiling. The chill of the metal chair seeped through her thin clothes. On her wrists, cold manacles clicked shut with a finality that echoed in the silence. Dried blood from the village massacre still smeared the steel and her skin—a stark, rust-brown contrast against the pallor of her flesh. She frowned slightly, not at the restraint itself, but at its pointed pettiness. The Sage's Clinic held significant prestige; formal cuffs were an unnecessary provocation. Was Qin Minfeng's influence here so deep? Or was someone else pulling strings from the shadows? This theatrical display of dominance couldn't harm her, but it was clearly designed to provoke a reaction, to make her lash out.
They want me angry. They want me to slip up.
She remained silent, a pool of calm in the sterile room. The interrogators, two men whose faces were etched with the grim satisfaction of petty power, let the silence stretch before breaking it. The older one, perhaps forty-five, took a deliberate sip from a steaming cup of bitter-smelling tea. The scent of over-brewed leaves did little to mask the room's odor of dust and anxiety.
"Yao," he began, his voice a dry rasp. "What is your relationship to Qin Minfeng and Oaks?"
"I don't know them."
"Which one don't you know?"
"I don't know either."
"Is that so?" He leaned forward, the glow-crystal casting deep shadows under his eyes. "Our investigation indicates both individuals hail from the same origin point—X5 Star. There, they both knew a girl named Yao. A slave girl. The name matches yours. The physical description… bears a strikingresemblance. Are you certain you are not her?"
The pressure was blunt, a hammer trying to crack a diamond. Yao feigned contemplation. "A resemblance? May I see this documentation?"
"Answer the question first."
A faint, almost imperceptible smile touched her lips. "Should we move straight to torture, then? To see what I might confess to? And before we proceed, perhaps activate the recording crystal in the corner? Keeping it deactivated for an interrogation—should anything happen to me, alive or dead, it would constitute illegal detainment. A rather messy scandal, wouldn't it?"
The interrogator's eyes widened a fraction. How did she know the recorder was off?His colleague shifted uncomfortably. This was a private, driven errand; exposure was the last thing they wanted. With a barely perceptible nod from the older man, a faint hum signaled the crystal's activation, its light now pulsing softly.
"It's active. Do not change the subject. Why did you take that specific alley last night? Was it to lure Qin Minfeng?"
"I don't know him. How could I lure him?"
The younger interrogator's patience snapped, a flush rising on his neck. "You arethat Yao! Don't deny it! The coincidence is impossible—"
"Last night," Yao interrupted, her voice a calm, clear stream cutting through his heat, "I was also 'coincidentally' assaulted in my own residence. I was rescued by agents of the Provincial Intelligence Bureau. They are investigating the identity of my assailant. They also informed me of a body found in a nearby alley and asked me similar questions. Given that both your academy and the Intelligence Bureau represent imperial authority, I cannot provide contradictory statements. So," she leaned forward slightly, her manacled hands resting calmly on the table. "My official account is aligned with the Intelligence Bureau's investigation. And in the hierarchy of informational authority within the Empire, even at the provincial level, the Bureau's findings significantly outweigh those of an academic disciplinary committee. Tell me, how should I reconcile giving you a different answer?"
The older man's face tightened. "Are you threatening us with the Intelligence Bureau?"
His colleague placed a restraining hand on his arm, offering a thin, professional smile. "Of course, you could claim coincidence. After all, records of that slave girl are… spotty. You might think denial is enough. But we have two avenues: a full genealogical and DNA scan, and…" he gestured to the door, "…we have located individuals from your past."
The door hissed open. A young man entered, spectacled, with a scholarly, almost fragile demeanor. His skin was pale, his features unassuming. But his eyes, behind the lenses, held a glint of something ugly and familiar as they landed on Yao. A sickly-sweet smile spread across his face. "Chuan-chuan. It's been so long."
Recognition was instant, a cold knife in her gut. The eldest son of Madame Maisie. A non-entity in the grand narrative, a forgotten speck of background misery, now thrust onto the stage.
Here for revenge for his butchered family? Qin Minfeng… you really did scrape the bottom of the barrel to find a lever against 'Yao.'
She regarded him with the detached interest one might show a strange insect. "When you saw me, your eyes held shock and doubt. If someone hadn't drilled this narrative into you, forcing you to identify me, I doubt you'd believe I was the girl you knew yourself." Her voice was flat. "But, that's your business. So, the charge?"
Her preternatural calm was unnerving. The lead interrogator recovered, his voice grave. "The murder of Qin Minfeng."
The Western Jin Academy was notoriously porous to external influence and internal factionalism. Yao had no idea which faction these men served, or which high-up was a creature of the TK Consortium. She simply nodded. "I see. Then please submit the charge to the judicial courts for review. Have you prepared the indictment report?"
The question landed like a physical blow. They had a body, yes. They had a corpse in their morgue. But fabricating a report that would contradict the inevitable findings of the Provincial Intelligence Bureau? That was a suicide mission. One corpse, one case, two investigating bodies. The Bureau's forensics would dismantle any academic report. The silence grew thick and uncomfortable.
The Maisie boy, sweating now, wiped his palms on his trousers. "You… you are still a slave girl! Illegally freed! That is a capital offense! You can be executed for that alone!" He stared, but a deeper terror was in his eyes. Was this that little slave? The one we could beat and scorn?The creature before him now seemed made of different material. A single strand of her hair felt more valuable than his whole life.
Yao glanced at her wrist chronometer, a delicate piece at odds with her situation. "It seems you haven't yet discovered that I recently spent thirty thousand Blue Notes on a skill tome at the Sage's Clinic. The value of my time operates on a different scale than yours. I'll give you thirty more minutes. If you cannot produce questions of substance, this conversation is over."
She was not some easily-cowed prey. They had to know that. They were waiting—waiting to see if 'Oaks' would react, waiting to force herto reveal her hand. Her steadiness was clearly unexpected. But she was aware of the tiny lens embedded in the lead interrogator's badge. She was on display for an unseen audience.
The interrogator suddenly smiled, a cruel, knowing twist of his lips. He took another sip of water. "Are you expecting rescue from the Sage's Clinic? It is a venerable institution, yes. But the Grandmaster… he detests trouble. Do you know why he hasn't accepted a new physician in years? Once, a doctor fleeing his own disasters sought sanctuary there. The trouble followed. It got several Clinic physicians killed. The Grandmaster was… displeased. He executed the refugee himself." He let the words hang, watching for fear. "You overestimate the protection of that title."
Yao was silent for a beat. Then, "And those who brought the trouble that killed the Clinic physicians… how tall is the grass on their graves now?"
The man choked on his water. His colleague looked away, face flushing.
Yao continued, her tone almost conversational. "Whether the Clinic intervenes, I cannot say. But I believe your superiors in the Western Jin enforcement division have already arrived. Haven't you noticed the recorder has been deactivated again?"
What?!They spun. The glow from the recording crystal had indeed died.
"A small matter, creating such a large stir. It suggests the underlying trouble is immense. You think you can manage this, but your superiors know you cannot." She leaned back. "You also seem to have missed my performance metrics from recent dungeon protocols. My comprehensive coefficient surpassed 10.0. That comes with a Commendation Sigil from the Arcane Sanctum. By Sanctum rules, a coefficient over 10 grants unconditional associate membership. If I were to access the Sanctum network through this," she tapped her chronometer, "and submit an application, it would be approved instantly. As a Light-aligned healer, my entry rank would be substantial. The next time you visit the Sanctum for rewards, you would be required to bow."
With a twist of her wrist, a sigil of shimmering, opalescent light appeared in her palm, resting on the table. Then she turned her head, looking directly at the dark, one-way glass that dominated one wall, as if meeting the gaze of someone standing behind it.
"To interrogate your quarry without first understanding its full nature… that is why you are here, engaging in this charade, while your superiors stand outside weighing the costs. Now. Do you still believe you can manage me?"
One minute later, the door opened. The Vice-Director of the Academy's enforcement division entered—a fox-like man with a politician's smile, oozing unctuous charm. He spoke of misunderstandings, of the Clinic's noble standing, of simple cooperation. Yao matched his polite hypocrisy perfectly. The two interrogators slumped in defeat. The Maisie boy's hand crept to a necklace at his throat, fingering a hidden data-crystal.
The interrogation itself was the trap, Yao realized. Not to break her, but to scanher. The badge-camera was a decoy. The boy's necklace was the real sensor, unshielded and thorough.
Elsewhere, in a plush office smelling of aged leather and fine brandy, a man with impeccably groomed hair watched data stream across a screen. He swirled blood-dark wine in a crystal glass. "Eighteen. Base attributes all over five hundred thousand. Such a profile is unheard of in contemporary Beiluk… yet it still shouldn't allow for the silent, traceless elimination of a predator like Ridgeback. Either she has unseen support, or she possesses a means to bypass arcane defenses entirely." He tapped the glass thoughtfully. "If she is connected to Oaks… Oaks, the victor of the selection, likely claimed the Forbid-Ore. She could have used it to nullify Ridgeback, sever Qin Minfeng's support, then nullify Qin Minfeng himself, using a method to delay his time of death and craft an alibi. Or, Oaks has returned, handled the killing, and is using her as a public face to divert suspicion." He took a sip. "Proceed as planned. Force her hand."
Stepping out of the severe enforcement building, Yao was met with a cacophony of sound and color—the main thoroughfare of Western Jin was a river of incoming students and anxious parents. The air buzzed with excited chatter, the scent of street food, and the ozone-tinged energy of youthful magic.
"Early enrollment?" she asked the Vice-Director walking beside her, his presence now a guard of sorts.
"Registration day," he said smoothly, his eyes still probing. "Might I ask, where did you receive your foundational education, Doctor Yao?"
Still probing."If I said I received none, that I was a slave… would I need to return to that cold interrogation room?"
His smile became strained. "Of course not, of course not…" But the doubt was there. Could this poised, powerful young woman really have been a slave mere months ago?
Her gaze swept over the crowds, picking out familiar figures—Li Cang, Yun Baobao. Of course they'd chosen Western Jin, the nexus of resources and talent. She paid them little mind, focusing on her exit.
Then the sky tore.
With a shriek of rending metal and a gust of wind that smelled of hot oil and lightning, two dozen armored figures on massive mechanical steeds ripped through the air. At their head, astride a golden, ten-meter-wingspan mechano-eagle, was their leader. Crimson hair blazed like a battle standard under his winged helm, a scarlet cape whipping behind him. He held a long, wicked-looking lance casually in one hand. The Seventh Sky-Cavalry Squadron.
The mechano-eagle landed with a ground-shaking thud, its great head swiveling, glowing optic sensors fixing on Yao. The rider looked down, his handsome face set in a mask of arrogant wrath.
"Qi Xuanying, Captain, Seventh Sky-Cavalry Law Enforcement Detachment. You are Yao, the junior physician from the Sage's Clinic?"
Yao's mind raced. Sky-Cavalry. The elite.Their speed was legendary, their authority vast. "I am."
"Did you kill my sworn brother, Minfeng?" His voice was cold steel. "He saved my life. I will not suffer his killer to live."
For a moment, Yao was utterly speechless. The protagonist's halo truly knew no bounds, did it? Her expression must have shown her profound distaste, a curl of her lip she didn't bother to hide.
Qi Xuanying's eyes narrowed. The Vice-Director hurried to interpose himself, speaking of lack of evidence.
"Evidence? A DNA scan? Is she not the 'Yao' from the same trash-heap as Oaks and Qin Minfeng?"
The mention of 'Oaks' was a spark to tinder. Among the watching students, Li Cang, Yun Baobao, and the others, who had been about to go about their business, suddenly stilled. Oaks?Ears pricked up. Yun Baobao's eyes lit up with gleeful scandal. She nudged Zhang Doudou, who, with a sigh, pulled out his communicator. If there was drama involving their 'friend' Oaks, certain interested parties—like a certain overprotective future brother-in-law, Fu Jiang—needed to know. Fu Jiang, attending the neighboring Beiluk University, could be counted on to arrive with volcanic haste, likely dragging his icy sister Lang Hao along to mitigate the damage. Popcorn was metaphorically procured.
"DNA analysis is pending," Yao replied, her voice still calm. "If you have a way to expedite the report, you're welcome to send it to me." She turned to leave.
Thwack!His lance buried itself a hand's breadth from her feet, cracking the flagstones, its shaft humming with residual power.
She looked back up at him. He remained arrogantly aloft. "My squadron patrols the Sage's District. There was an incident at your residence last night—an intrusion. Your statement to Intelligence claims you were attacked. Given the perpetrator's skill and escape speed, how is it you emerged unscathed? Your account is flawed."
"I said he may not have intended to kill me, but to capture me. Perhaps I hold value to some."
The Vice-Director tried again to soothe, suggesting they retire to his office.
Qi Xuanying tapped his armored cheekpiece. "I've seen the street surveillance. The angle covers your bathroom window. It's fascinating. The intruder struck once, then fled immediately, evading Director Qin's own guards. A man of that skill, inside your bathroom… he wouldn't miss. Unless he was… distracted." His gaze raked over her with deliberate insult. A few of his men chuckled coarsely.
Yao's frown deepened.
"Angry? If you wish to prove you're not just a decorative vase, face me in combat. Prove your worth isn't just in your appearance."
As the last word left his lips, his hand shot out. The lance tore itself from the ground, sheathed in a distorting nimbus of spatial energy, and shot like a thunderbolt towards Yao's throat. It was a blatant, murderous ambush disguised as a provocation.
He wanted to force a reaction, to gauge her power.
What he gauged was speed beyond his comprehension.
Her current merged attributes, augmented by Xiao Huang and Da Hong, sent her agility soaring towards two million. The world seemed to slow. The lance, a blur to everyone else, drifted into her grasp. Her fingers closed around the shaft. Empty-handed catch.
Then she was simply elsewhere.
Qi Xuanying, a veteran, reacted instantly, his body flaring as he began to merge with his golden eagle. But a chill breath whispered against the back of his neck. His own lancewas there, gripped in her hand, its point aimed at his throat from behind. He twisted away, the tip grazing skin, but her wrist flicked, angling it upward towards his brain.
"Shatter!" he roared, willing his bonded weapon to disassemble. It dissolved into motes of light, reforming in his grasp. He stabbed backward at where her face should be.
She was already gone, a phantom. He felt space warp around her last position. "Spatial Implosion!" he bellowed, unleashing his signature technique. The air where she had been crumpled inwards with a sound of shattering glass, a miniature vortex of annihilation.
Miss!
The impossible had happened. His ultimate area-denial attack had missed a target at near point-blank range. Dread, cold and sharp, stabbed through his battle-fury. He completed the merger with his eagle. Armor plates slid and locked, wings of light and metal erupted, his power surged. But a shadow fell over him. He looked up.
It wasn't a nullification field. It was a descending sun.
A wheel of concentrated, furious light, a miniature storm of photons, fell upon him. Photonic Corrosion. The glorious, hardened alloy of his mechano-eagle mount hissed violently. Dense metal dripped away like wax under a blowtorch, sizzling as it fell. The searing liquid slag splashed onto him beneath. Alarms shrieked in his mind. Armor integrity plummeted. His status indicators flashed red.
Then he saw her above, one hand outstretched. Her veins ignited with an emerald fire visible through her skin. The very air thinned as elemental energy was violently ripped towards her. Blood Incineration—a noble's desperate gambit, pushing her green-blooded vitality to its azure limit.
"Help me! Now!" he screamed to his stunned squadron.
Twenty status-afflicting spells and binding rays lanced towards Yao. Twenty times, they found only afterimages. Miss. Miss. Miss.
The attacks came—blasts of force, lightning, searing plasma. They struck empty air or the ravaged courtyard.
And Yao, hovering within her nimbus of stolen light and burning life-force, merely manifested a weapon. It was elegant, almost delicate: a golden, rune-engraved revolver.
It barked once. A single, crisp crackthat echoed over the din.
A beam of solidified sunlight, thin as a needle, brilliant as a supernova, punched through the melted chest plate of the mechano-eagle, through Qi Xuanying's torso beneath. There was a brief, terrible flare of light from within, then the upper and lower halves of man and mount simply… parted. The glorious eagle, now a bisected wreck, began its grim descent.
The beam continued, slanting into the ground.
BOOM!
A five-meter crater erupted, not with fire and dirt, but filled with a pool of lingering, beautiful, deadly radiance, like captured sunset.
And she hovered above it all, her tempest-wings of wind and light weaving the aftermath into a haunting, aurora-like display. It was mesmerizing and terrifying.
Under a blossoming tree, Lang Hao, who had indeed been dragged by a furious Fu Jiang, stared, her cold composure shattered for a single, stunned second. She glanced at her brother. Fu Jiang's nose was bleeding. He hadn't even noticed. With a sigh of profound exasperation, she snatched a rough leaf and swiped it under his nose.
"Ah! That hurts!" Fu Jiang's yelp broke the spell of silence.
Chaos returned. The remaining cavalrymen stared, horrified. "You killed our Captain! You're insane!"
The Vice-Director, pale but seizing the opportunity, signaled. Academy enforcers swarmed, surrounding Yao. "Apprehend her!"
"I'd wait on that," a voice, cool and authoritative, cut through the noise. Space twisted, and three hundred elite soldiers in Intelligence Bureau black appeared, led by Qin Liechuan. He stood before the Vice-Director, a spatial spear-point materializing to hover at the man's throat. "You're in quite a hurry. Is impatience the new hallmark of Western Jin's prestige?"
As the head of Provincial Intelligence, his word carried immense weight. He ignored the sputtering Vice-Director and walked to the cooling remains of Qi Xuanying. A spatial nudge caused the Captain's dimensional pouch to spill its contents.
A sky-cavalry officer found his voice. "Director Qin! By military law, even if our Captain struck first in the line of investigation, her lethal retaliation was excessive! She must answer for it!"
Qin Liechuan picked through the items: an Orange-Grade blizzard orb, several encrypted communicators. "I revere the Sky-Cavalry. But truth and recent events compel me to inform you: during the Red Lion Manor operation, we confirmed the enemy had foreknowledge. They triggered an avalanche to bury us. Provincial orbital scans recorded the unique energy signature of that avalanche spell." He held up the blizzard orb. "The signature is a fingerprint. And your Captain, in his fight for survival just now, used a Spatial Implosion. The orbital archives show the two signatures are identical. He was on that mountain. He caused the avalanche that nearly killed hundreds of soldiers. He was a traitor, in league with the TK Consortium." He tossed a communicator. "I'm sure the logs here will confirm it. Your concern should be avoiding a charge of treason by association. Now. Dismissed."
His voice, though calm, held the weight of a landslide. The cavalrymen, their arrogance evaporated into pure terror, saluted shakily and fled.
The Vice-Director tried to bluster about handling the Qin Minfeng case internally. Qin Liechuan's communicator chimed. He listened, then looked at the gathering academy elders. "That won't be possible. The Economic Ministry is taking over."
As if summoned, a rift opened. Men and women in the stark white robes of the Economic Ministry's Audit Division stepped through. Their leader, a man whose sharp eyes missed nothing, politely shook hands with the fuming academy elders. "Qin Minfeng's body shows traces of blood from a known TK operative, Ridgeback. Ridgeback's body, recovered, was found with classified data from our ministry. This is now a matter of economic integrity and espionage. We'll be taking all relevant persons for questioning." His gaze swept the crowd. "Which one of you is Lian Sujin?"
As if on cue, a wail cut through the air. Lian Sujin, her face a mask of tragic fury, stormed into the square, fighting off friends trying to hold her back. "Let me go! A-Feng is dead! That vixen killed him! She lured him to a secret rendezvous and murdered him because he loved me! Oh, A-Feng! My love! If our love doomed you, I would have stepped aside! I'll make her pay! I'll die with her!"
Her dramatics were a hurricane of misplaced passion. She spotted Lang Hao, who had been trying to melt into the background, and lunged, grabbing her wrist. "Sister Fu! You're here! Perfect! We must unite against that home-wrecking harlot! She's stealing ourman!"
Lang Hao's usually ice-cold face displayed pure, unadulterated horror. "We are notthe same!"
The crowd's attention whiplashed between the sobbing, vengevous Lian Sujin, the mortified, stunning Lang Hao, and the blood-stained, serene Yao still standing amid the enforcers. Yun Baobao was practically vibrating with glee. The returned-from-the-dead white moonlight! The current ice-queen fiancée! The scheming male rival! This is better than any tele-drama!
Qin Liechuan watched Yao, who met the spectacle with a look of profound weariness. "Is she referring to you?" he asked, deadpan.
Yao sighed. "I almost wish she were."
The lead auditor from the Economic Ministry approached Yao. "Doctor Yao, we may need your—"
"She's not needed," a new, gruff voice interrupted. Head Nurse Bear, all two meters of fluffy white intimidation, ambled down the steps holding two large cups of bubble tea. She handed one to Yao and took a long slurp from the other, fixing the auditor with a stare. "Done here?"
"All settled, Head Nurse. Our apologies for the inconvenience."
"I'm large, I move slow. Don't get cute with me." She turned to Yao. "Let's go, junior sister. The Grandmaster hates it when our people get tangled in this nonsense."
"Junior sister?" The auditor's eyebrows shot up.
"Yep. The old man decided the day she was hired. He's taking her as a personal student."
The auditor's professional demeanor softened into something approaching awe. He offered Yao a much deeper bow. "The Grandmaster's discernment is, as ever, peerless. Our deepest respects."
Yao, perplexed but accepting, nodded. As Lian Sujin was led away, weeping, and Lang Hao extricated herself with palpable relief, Yao prepared to leave. She walked with Head Nurse Bear, passing a group of new students and their wide-eyed younger siblings. One little girl, seeing the blood on Yao's robes, looked ready to cry.
Yao paused. With a subtle motion of her wrist, a bouquet of deep red roses, velvety and perfect, appeared in her arms. She cradled them, the vibrant blooms juxtaposing strangely with the gore on her clothes, and continued her conversation with Head Nurse Bear about the mute boy from the village.
Qin Liechuan moved, a spatial step putting him before her. He had something to say, but for a second, the sight arrested him—the brilliant roses against the stark white and red of her attire, the quiet elegance underpinned by the steel he'd just witnessed. It was a dissonant, captivating image.
"Was there something else, Director Qin?" she asked.
"I… wanted to thank you. Your cooperation helped resolve this."
"Resolved?" She smiled faintly. "Perhaps this thread is. The Red Lion matter… it needed closure. For your peace of mind." She understood. He'd suspected his own men. Using her as bait had confirmed the traitor was an external asset, a sky-cavalry captain, cleansing his unit of suspicion.
"Then I owe you a favor."
"I'll collect. I'm very direct about these things." Her smile was polite. Then, she gently placed the bouquet of roses in his arms. "They'll only get stained on me. They suit you better. Consider the debt settled."
The children had passed. She turned and boarded Head Nurse Bear's waiting transport, shedding her bloody outer robe as she did.
Head Nurse Bear slurped her tea noisily. "So, not curious why the old fossil picked you?"
"Why did he?" Yao finally asked.
The giant bear-like being tilted her head, a strangely gentle gesture. "You're pretty. Prettier than all the rest."
Yao stopped, looking back at the receding scene—the academy, the soldiers, the remnants of chaos. A soft, complex smile touched her lips, holding a world of unspoken thoughts: weariness, irony, a hint of sorrow for paths chosen and selves left behind. "Looks… they change so quickly on the outside."
"And on the inside?"
"Even faster."
Later, in the quiet of her bathroom, steam rising around her, Yao looked at her communicator. A notification glowed—a missed connection from Zhou Linlang. Gone. Perhaps the first person in this world who had shown her a form of kindness, however professional. A twinge of something like regret touched her heart.
The communicator rang, a different number. She answered.
"Why frame Xie Qingyan?" Zhou Miao's voice, cool and amused, came through.
"Is this an interrogation, Aunt?"
"Just passing time. I'm between tasks."
"He was there. The man who accosted me at the market was him."
"Really? Has your perception improved so much, or is he slipping?"
"It's not that. He has… an air. A fastidiousness. A habit of using specific incense, likely for prayer. Hard to mask completely." She paused. "Or, he let me see it. To test if I'd recognize him. To see if I was connected to Oaks. He was on my trail because of Qin Minfeng."
"So you were angry."
"Wouldn't you be, if someone invaded your bath?"
"That depends entirely on the invader."
Yao said nothing. Zhou Miao chuckled. "I don't think he's that careless. Perhaps the one in your bathroom was someone else."
"Perhaps."
After the call ended, the bathroom door opened. Another Yao entered, identical, offered a glass of water, then dissolved into a swirl of semi-transparent tendrils that reabsorbed into the original's body.
It was all a snare.The 'assassin' in the alley (Ridgeback), the 'intruder' in her bath, the 'Oaks' enrolling at Dongguan Academy—all were her, different facets of a single, divided will. The evidence on Ridgeback's body, the blood-ties to Qin Minfeng—all carefully planted threads to weave a narrative that ensnared not just a dead protagonist, but a troublesome, shadow-walking cousin. She had the omniscient cheat of knowing Qin Minfeng was involved in Zhou Linlang's disaster. By linking him to the TK conspirator Ridgeback, she handed the Economic Ministry a shortcut, ensuring Qin Minfeng would be posthumously branded a traitor. It was clean, efficient, and offered her plausible deniability and potential reward.
As for Xie Qingyan… it was a preemptive strike. She couldn't kill him yet, the variables were too many. But she could use the TK whirlwind to sweep him out of the province, out of her immediate game with Zhou Miao.
Zhou Miao's voice echoed in her memory. "Two. You can only keep one."
Yao smiled, a real one this time, in the steamy solitude. "My dear Aunt, you'll just have to get used to me. After all, I'm not eighteen. I'm twenty-eight. Grown women are greedy. I want both." She hung up, a small thrill of victory coursing through her. Stop calling me a kid.
The next morning, a pile of deliveries awaited at the flower shop—bouquet after bouquet from admirers, anonymous and named. Yao sorted through them with mild bemusement until her eyes fell on one particular arrangement: a spray of exquisite, rare ghost orchids. The card, in elegant, crimson script, read:
Dearest Sister-in-law,
A pity to have missed the bathing fragrance. There will be a next time.
- Xie Qingyan
Yao stared at the flowers, then at the note, and began to laugh, a soft, soundless laugh that held no mirth, only a sharp-edged acknowledgment of a game that was far, far from over.