Zi Zhen unscrewed his bottle of juice and finally sipped his juice. "Strange men are either harmless or dangerous," he said blandly. "Reyes is the second kind. Don't talk to him again unless one of us is beside you."
"Noted," Ting Zhou said, still watching where the man had vanished to.
Just then, Lu Ting Cheng spoke up, his voice low. "Father, one of our internal frequencies just got blocked for twenty seconds. Signal jamming or redirection. Very subtle. I'm still trying to trace the breach."
Lu Zhi Hao's expression darkened. "Tighten formation. No one goes anywhere alone. Wan Ruyi, can you…"
"Already done." She tapped lightly on her phone. "Our personal jammer is on. If anyone tries to access our signals again, they will trip a deadlock."
As the gala continued around them, laughter and clinking glasses filled the air, but beneath it all, the Lu family moved like seasoned warriors behind silk masks—elegant, watchful, waiting.
And somewhere in that glittering maze of smiles and secrets, Nathan Reyes watched back.
A few minutes later, a sudden hush rippled through the grand hall.
It began in a corner, then spread like wildfire—conversations faltered, heads turned, and curious eyes tilted toward the entrance once more. The string quartet stumbled over a note before regaining its rhythm.
Lu Ting Cheng, who had just updated his father, froze for a second before regaining his calmness.
Lu Ting Zhou, mid-sip of his drink, lowered the glass slowly as his heart skipped a beat.
Standing beneath the archway, illuminated by the golden light of the chandelier, was a woman neither of them had seen in six years. But time had done little to soften the sharp, delicate features of Song Yuyan, the woman who had once been their mother.
She wore an ivory gown that shimmered like glass, and her fingers were elegantly laced with those of a man they didn't recognize—tall, lean, with silvered temples and a predatory calm in his stride. His eyes scanned the room like a hawk, calculating, memorizing. Dangerous.
Song Yuyan's gaze swept the crowd with effortless poise, but the second it landed on her sons—on Lu Ting Cheng's clenched jaw and Lu Ting Zhou's trembling hand—her smile faltered.
Not by much.
Just enough.
Lu Zhi Hao, who had noticed that the woman who had vanished leaving him behind with the kids, squinted his eyes before regaining his calmness and went on chatting with the other prominent figures he had been talking to.
Wan Ruyi didn't look surprised. But there was an edge to her eyes now, like a blade sliding free of its sheath. She hadn't expected that they would meet up so soon. No wonder her husband notified her that he had seen her.
"Ting Cheng…?" Lu Ting Zhou whispered, but his voice slightly cracked. Lu Zi Zhen stood there, leaning against a tall chair, nonchalantly checking out the twin brothers and that woman from time to time.
"I see her," Ting Cheng replied, tightly regaining his calmness. "And that man. He's Gabriel Shaw. Ex-intelligence, current head of Manticore Capital. Ruthless. Opportunistic. They have been seen together in London and Tokyo this past year, got news from our men a few minutes ago." he had just received news about her, and Lu Zi Zhen was the one who had given him that information.
Song Yuyan walked further into the room, her posture that of a queen entering her stolen kingdom. She didn't flinch. Not even when she reached the space in front of her sons.
"Cheng'er. Zhou'er," she greeted them beaming ear to ear, voice soft, honey-laced with practiced warmth. "You have grown so much. It's been a long time..." she spoke up, her eyes glistening with tears, she wanted to stretch her arms and hug them, but suddenly noticed their resistance and took a step back.