—
HAWK.
11 unread messages from Senior Sister Xuanxuan.
7 unread messages from Lu Jingxi (Dummy Head).
4 unread messages from Scorpion.
2 unread messages from Spotless Cheetah.
Hawk processed all of this while simultaneously monitoring fourteen security cameras, three communication lines, one encrypted frequency, and the real-time location of six individuals across the city.
He was very busy.
He was also, if he was being honest, slightly stressed.
Not about the cameras or the communications or the locations.
About the fact that his Master was currently sitting in a room with Liang Boshen — Liang Boshen, who had made eight people disappear in the last two years — and she was smiling at him and he couldn't do anything about it except monitor and wait and trust that she knew what she was doing.
He always trusted that she knew what she was doing.
It didn't make the monitoring less stressful.
His alert system pinged.
He checked it.
The investigators had arrived at Liang Boshen's hotel fourteen minutes ago. His financial records. His communication logs.
The documents that had been missing from a two-year investigation and had just been anonymously delivered to three separate agencies simultaneously.
His empire was cracking.
He just didn't know it yet.
Hawk sent a small notification to his Master's earpiece.
A single buzz. Their signal for: it's in motion.
——
THE SITTING ROOM
Yun Jiao felt the buzz.
Her expression didn't change.
She shifted her hands in her lap. Stretched one finger briefly. The signal back to Hawk: received.
Liang Boshen was talking again. Something about arrangements. Timelines. The comfortable monologue of a man finalising a deal he considered already closed.
Yunting responded in the appropriate places.
Ruan Suyin smiled and poured more tea.
And Yun Jiao sat in her corner and watched the second hand on the clock on the wall behind Liang Boshen's head.
any minute now.
Three minutes passed.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1...
Liang Boshen's phone buzzed.
He glanced at it. Dismissed it.
It buzzed again.
He frowned. Dismissed it again.The third time it rang — actually rang, out loud, cutting across the polite sitting room conversation like something sharp — he held up one finger at Yunting.
"Excuse me one moment."
He answered.
Listened.
The change in his face was slow at first. Like a light dimming. Then faster. The comfortable settled expression dropping away layer by layer until what was underneath it was something much less composed.
He stood up abruptly.
Turned slightly away from the room.
His voice dropped low. Fast. The words clipped and tense and utterly different from the smooth unhurried tone of thirty seconds ago.
Ruan Suyin's smile stiffened.
Her eyes went to her husband.
Yunting's face remained unchanged. Watching. Calculating.
Yun Jiao looked at her lap.
Liang Boshen hung up.
Stood there for one second with his back to the room.
Then he turned around."I apologise," he said. His voice was controlled. Barely. "Something has come up. I need to leave."
"Of course." Yunting stood. Unruffled. Extended a hand.
Liang Boshen shook it. His grip was slightly too tight."We'll reschedule," he said.
"Of course," Yunting said again.
Ruan Suyin stood. Gracious. Warm. "Safe travels, Mr. Liang. We'll look forward to—"He was already walking to the door.
His security detail moved immediately, closing around him, and then they were gone — through the door, down the hall, out the front entrance, the sound of car doors, the engine, and then nothing.
Silence.The formal sitting room sat very still.
Ruan Suyin's smile faded slowly.
She looked at Yunting.
He looked at the door Liang Boshen had just walked through while thinking about something.
His expression hadn't changed once.
He picked up his tea.
Finished it.
Set the cup down."I'll be in my study," he said.
And walked out.
Just like that.
No anger. No concern. No question about what had just happened.
A deal had fallen through.
He would find another one.That was all it was to him.
Ruan Suyin stood in the empty sitting room alone.
For the first time in a long time her face did something it very rarely did.
It showed what she was actually thinking.
Her eyes went to the corner where Yun Jiao had been sitting.
Empty chair.
The girl had slipped out so quietly during the commotion that Ruan Suyin hadn't even noticed.
She stood there.
Looked at the empty chair.
Thought about the jade necklace. The camera footage. The men on the east road. And now this.
Her jaw tightened.
Just slightly.
Just once.Then her face smoothed back out.
She picked up her phone.
_
At the Garden, Yun Jiao was at the koi pond.
She had a new stick.
Tangerine was losing his mind over it.
"Liang Boshen is currently in his car heading toward his hotel," Hawk reported. "His team has confirmed the investigators have frozen two of his accounts and are requesting access to a third." A pause.
"He is, by my assessment, having a very bad afternoon."
"Good," she said
She dragged the stick slowly.
Tangerine followed it with the dedication of someone who had found his purpose in life.
"Senior Sister Xuanxuan sent another message by the way," Hawk said.
"She says and I quote — little Jiao if you don't check in by tonight I'm flying there myself and I don't care what you're in the middle of, end quote."
Yun Jiao smiled at the pond.
"Tell her I'm fine."
"I've told her you're fine eleven times."
"Tell her again."
"She's not going to believe me eleven times in a row—"
"Hawk."
"Fine. Sending it."
Huh..
"She responded already. She says — tell that child I know what fine means when she says it and it never means fine, end quote."
Yun Jiao looked at the pond.
Felt something warm move through her chest.
Ghost Empress Xuanxuan. The most terrifying woman she had ever met. Who had trained her and screamed at her and thrown things at her head when she got something wrong and once sat with her through an entire night when she'd lost someone and hadn't said a single word, just been there.
"Tell her,"
Yun Jiao said quietly.
"Tell her I'm okay. Really. And that I'll explain everything soon."
"...Sending," Hawk said. Softer this time.
She looked at the pond.
Tangerine had given up on the stick and was just floating peacefully now. Living his best life. No schemes. No meetings. No men with bad intentions showing up at his pond.
Must be nice.
"Hawk,"
"Yes?"
"Yun Xiao."
A pause.
"I've located him," Hawk said carefully.
"He's at Mingde Orphanage. Eastern district. He's—"
A beat. "He's healthy. His file shows good marks in school. The staff there appear to treat the children well."
She looked at the water.
Healthy.
Good marks.
She pressed her lips together once.
Let out a slow breath.
"Okay," she said.
Just that She'd get to him.
She would get to him.
But first she had to build something stable enough to bring him into. A name. A position. A family — or whatever passed for one in the Yun house — solid enough that no one could take him away again.
Not this time.
She stood up.
Brushed off her knees.
Looked back at the house.
Ruan Suyin was in there recalibrating. Yunjinna was in there stewing. Yunting was in his study caring about none of it.
Liang Boshen was across the city watching his empire crack.
And somewhere two streets over—She looked at the estate gate.Thought about a black car with private plates that had driven past at one fifty-four and not quite kept driving.
She tilted her head.
Interesting.
—
Sixi was still parked.
Lin Feng had stopped asking questions about this approximately forty minutes ago and had started playing a game on his phone with the quiet acceptance of a man who had learned when not to push.
Si Xi sat in the back seat.
Looking at nothing basically.
Thinking about several things.
At two forty-seven his phone buzzed.
He looked at it.
A message from an unknown number.
Four words.
— He won't be back. —
He stared at it.
Looked up at the Yun estate gate two streets away.
Looked back at the message.
No name. No explanation. Clean and simple and delivered with the particular confidence of someone who knew something they shouldn't and wanted him to know they knew it.
He typed back: Who is this?
The response came in eleven seconds
— A neighbour. —
Then nothing.
He sat with that for a long moment.
Lin Feng glanced at him in the rearview mirror. Wisely said nothing.
Si Xi looked at the message one more time.Then he looked at the estate gate.The corner of his mouth curled up.
The closest thing to one that Si Xi ever produced.
"Drive," he said.
Lin Feng drove.
Si Xi looked out the window as the Yun estate slid past.
Somewhere in there, a girl was feeding her koi.
He looked forward.Thought: neighbour.
The corner of his curled up again.