The South City railway station was packed with people. Some were rushing to catch their train, some were returning from far away, while others were only here to pick someone. It was the month of July, and the hot season was at its peak. The soft wind did nothing to cool the skin. Instead, it pushed the warm air from one face to another, carrying the smell of sweat with it.
Nobody was paying attention to anyone else. Everyone was either looking for an exit, scanning for a familiar face, or dragging their luggage to catch their train.
And through that river of people, an older woman pushed the wheelchair.
In the wheelchair, a young girl was sitting. The girl was young, maybe seventeen or eighteen. But she looked rather thin for her age. She wore a simple cotton dress. The dress hung loosely on her frame, revealing arms as pale as milk. One hand propped up her chin, fingers curled lazily against her cheek.
People parted when they first noticed the pair. Some even stopped just to look at the girl because her face was breathtakingly beautiful with high cheekbones, a perfect nose, and full lips that naturally curved at the corners even when she wasn't smiling. Long black hair spilled over her shoulder, half-pinned back with a plain wooden hairpin. A single lock had escaped, dancing across her cheek with each breath of wind. Her bewitching fox-like eyes were slightly lowered, letting her long lashes cast a shadow on her cheeks.
Aunt Wen pushed the wheelchair toward the station exit and only stopped when they arrived at the parking lot. Her forehead was damp with sweat. She wiped it with the back of her hand, then squinted against the glare of the sun and searched the row of parked cars for a familiar face.
When she did not find the person, she pressed her lips together, pulled out her phone, and dialed the number. It was the same number that had called her two days ago just to inform her that Shen Yelan was needed to return to South City. Before this, no one from the Shen family had even bothered to send a text message to ask how her Young Miss was, let alone contact the Young Miss herself. The only reason they called her back now was because of Old Master Shen, who was currently bedridden and might not live for long.
The phone rang for a long time before someone picked it up. Aunt Wen hadn't even said a word when the person began talking.
"Young Miss had an accident and needed to be taken to the hospital. There's no one to pick you up from the station. You can take a taxi to the estate." Then the call ended.
Aunt Wen stared at her phone screen for a long second, then she looked at Shen Yelan hesitantly. "Miss..."
Shen Yelan raised her gaze, revealing a dark set of eyes so deep and bottomless that made you think of wells and caves and the space between stars. Looking into them felt like falling. Like drowning. Like standing at the edge of a cliff and feeling the ground give way beneath your feet.
Of course, not many people dared to look into them after the first glance because it made them feel as if they were looking into death itself.
Anyone who had seen Shen Yelan ten years ago would never be able to bring themselves to believe they were the same person. Of course, that might also be because the real Shen Yelan had died back then and the soul that resided inside this body now belonged to an assassin who had once made the world tremble at the mere mention of her name.
No, that's not right.
Li Mai was also dead, and so was Shen Yelan. What remained was something neither one nor the other. In the past ten years, she had shaped into someone who was carrying the memory of innocence and the bone-deep instincts of someone who had spent a lifetime staying alive.
"It's okay," Shen Yelan responded. Her voice was soft and void of any emotion, yet so elegant like the bells in the temple.
Aunt Wen bit her lips, wanting to raise a complaint, but swallowed it.
"I'll find us a taxi," she said instead. The railway station was packed, and it was hard to find a taxi. Aunt Wen parked the wheelchair under a tree at a silent corner and walked away to find a taxi.
Shen Yelan sat there lazily and watched the crowd of people at a distance. The leaves above her rustled in the weak breeze, making patterns of light and shadow dance around her.
Suddenly, her gaze moved across the parking lot and settled on a black sedan parked on the far side of the station.
Shen Yelan stared at it for a couple of seconds, then looked away uninterested.
______________________________________
In an inconspicuous black sedan that was parked at a little distance, Mo Shiyu was dying of boredom.
In the back seat of the car sat a man in a dark suit. His black hair was combed back without a single strand out of place. A pair of thin gold-framed glasses sat on his nose, hiding his sharp phoenix eyes. His gaze was lowered, reading a file in his hand.
Because of one small incident, where Mo Shiyu lost some money due to a scam, he was now forced to work as the secretary of this ice sculpture masquerading as a human being by his eldest cousin, so he could 'learn' some common sense. It had been two weeks into his sentence and he was already wishing he could go back. But what to do, if this man was a devil, his eldest cousin was King Yama himself.
So here he was, waiting at the airport for some mysterious boss of a company he wanted to collaborate with. Nobody seemed to know who this person actually was. They'd only heard that he was coming to South City today. Now, he was sitting here, looking at every face to look for anyone suspicious who might have undercover bodyguards following behind.
He suddenly sat straight when he noticed a girl sitting in a wheelchair.
"Why does she look familiar?"
For the first time, the man in the back seat raised his gaze from the file and looked outside. As if feeling his gaze, the girl looked in his direction. Through the tainted window, his gaze had met hers for a split second before she looked away. But that split second was enough for those dark fox-like eyes to be stored in his mind forever. He stared at the girl for a moment longer, and the corner of his lips curved into a barely perceptible smile.
Mo Shiyu, who noticed that smile shivered as if realizing something bad was about to happen. He glanced back at the girl and could not help but feel sorry for her.