The frost pond at dusk looked like a sheet of blackened glass under the bruised purple sky. Mist rose in slow spirals from the water's surface, carrying the faint metallic tang of impending rain. Xiao Qing was already there when Lin Feng and Yue Li arrived—sitting on a flat stone near the edge, knees drawn up, healer's satchel clutched to her chest like a shield. She looked smaller than she had this morning, as though the hours hiding had pressed her inward.
She stood the moment she saw them.
"You came," she whispered, eyes darting between Lin Feng and Yue Li. "Both of you."
Yue Li moved first—crossing the short distance in three quick strides and pulling the girl into a gentle embrace. Xiao Qing stiffened for half a heartbeat, then melted against her, shoulders shaking with silent sobs she had held in all day.
Lin Feng stayed back a step. Watching. The sight of Yue Li comforting the younger girl should have felt like progress—proof that trust could still exist here—but the system's penalty made every tender moment ache twice as hard. Guilt wrapped around his ribs like cold wire: *You put her in that cell by existing near her. You let Yue Li take the risk now because you're too afraid to fail again.*
Yue Li glanced over Xiao Qing's head, meeting his eyes.
"She's safe for tonight," she said quietly. "I've arranged a hidden compartment in the outer library stacks. No one goes there after curfew except the night scribes, and they owe me favors."
Lin Feng nodded once.
Xiao Qing pulled back, wiping her face with her sleeve.
"I don't want to be hidden forever. I want… I want to help. Like you helped me."
Yue Li smiled—small, pained.
"You already have. Just by surviving today."
Lin Feng felt the weight of the new side quest pressing against his thoughts: *Allow Yue Li to take primary protective role.* He had done exactly that. And yet the reward hadn't chimed yet. The system was waiting—for failure, or for something worse.
A twig snapped in the bamboo grove behind them.
All three tensed.
Lin Feng's hand drifted toward the small dagger he had taken from the punishment cell guard—nothing fancy, just sharp enough.
Yue Li drew her sword halfway from its sheath.
A figure stepped into the fading light.
Su Mei.
She wore a dark cloak over her inner disciple robes, hood pulled low, but the jade hairpin glinting at her temple gave her away. She stopped at the edge of the clearing, far enough that she couldn't be easily rushed.
"I'm not here to fight," she said quickly. Voice higher than usual—nerves, or calculation. "I just want to talk. To him."
Her eyes locked on Lin Feng.
Yue Li stepped half in front of Xiao Qing, blade still half-drawn.
"You have nothing to say that we want to hear."
Su Mei's gaze flicked to Yue Li, then back.
"I have plenty. Starting with the fact that Lin Hao plans to frame you both tomorrow during the second gate wave. He's bribed three outer guards to 'accidentally' push Xiao Qing into the rift when the hounds come. And you—" she pointed at Yue Li "—he's spreading rumors that you've been compromised by demonic cultivation techniques. That your sudden interest in the cripple is proof."
Xiao Qing made a small, frightened sound.
Lin Feng studied Su Mei's face. No tremor of guilt. Only calculation. And something else—jealousy so raw it almost looked like pain.
"Why tell us?" he asked, voice flat.
Su Mei laughed once—bitter, hollow.
"Because I'm tired of being his accessory. Because every time he mentions your name now, it's not with contempt anymore. It's with fear. And I hate that you still have that power over him… over me."
She took one step closer.
"I was wrong. Back then. On the platform. When I stood beside him and let them drag you away. I thought it would make me safe. It didn't."
Yue Li's grip tightened on her sword.
"You expect forgiveness?"
"No." Su Mei's eyes glistened. "I expect nothing. I just… I needed you to know. Before it's too late."
Lin Feng felt the black thread inside him stir toward her—testing, tasting for deceit. It found none. Only regret. Thick, choking regret.
And longing.
For the boy she had once promised forever to.
The boy who no longer existed.
He stepped forward—slow, deliberate.
"Tell Lin Hao this," he said quietly. "Tell him the needle he ordered ten years ago didn't just cripple meridians. It marked a debt. And debts are collected in full."
Su Mei swallowed.
"I will."
She turned to leave.
Then paused.
Without looking back:
"I still dream about the way you used to smile at me. Before everything broke."
She vanished into the bamboo.
Silence fell again—thicker now.
Xiao Qing was crying quietly.
Yue Li sheathed her sword with a soft click.
"She's playing both sides," she said. "Or maybe she's finally breaking."
Lin Feng stared at the spot where Su Mei had stood.
"Doesn't matter. The trap is set either way."
He turned to them both.
"We don't wait for tomorrow. We move tonight. Xiao Qing—you stay hidden in the library. Yue Li—you guard the approach. I'll draw Lin Hao's attention away from the gate zone. Make him think I'm running scared."
Yue Li's eyes narrowed.
"That means you alone against whatever he sends."
"I know."
She stepped close—close enough her breath brushed his cheek.
"If you die tomorrow because you're trying to protect us—"
"I won't die." His voice dropped. "But if I do… remember the pond. Remember that for one night I wasn't just a weapon."
Her hand rose—trembling—and rested against his chest.
"Don't make me remember you as a martyr."
He covered her hand with his own.
"I'm trying not to."
The system chimed then—soft, almost reluctant.
[Ding! Side Quest "Shield in the Storm" — Progress Update]
[Allies acting on your behalf: Yue Li (primary protective role accepted)]
[Emotional Resonance Stabilizer Reward Delayed until quest completion]
[Warning: Sovereign's Mask weakness increasing. Anomaly detection chance now 45%. Hidden bloodline fragment resonance rising—memories of your mother's final night surfacing uncontrollably in next 12 hours.]
Lin Feng closed his eyes for one heartbeat.
The memory was already leaking in: his mother's hand—thin, cold—reaching for him through the sickbed curtains.
*"Feng'er… don't hate them too much. Hate blinds you to the people still worth saving."*
He opened his eyes.
Yue Li was watching him—seeing the flicker of pain he couldn't hide.
"Whatever you're carrying," she whispered, "let me carry some of it."
He almost said no.
Almost.
Instead he leaned forward—forehead resting briefly against hers.
"Tomorrow," he murmured. "If we survive tomorrow… I'll try."
She exhaled shakily.
"Then survive."
Xiao Qing stepped between them—small, determined.
"I'll be brave. For both of you."
The three of them stood there a moment longer—fractured, flawed, bound by choices none of them could take back.
Then night fell fully.
And the second gate began to groan open in the distance.