Late that night, Yuxi stood in front of her bedroom window, the skyline of Zong Capital stretching beyond her reflection in the glass. Her mind wasn't here. It was six years in the past — in a mansion ablaze, in screams swallowed by silence, in the face of her little brother as she shoved him into the secret tunnel beneath the Feng estate.
She clutched the pendant hanging from her neck.
The last thing he gave her before disappearing.
The image from the footage replayed in her head. The man who entered that night... Cheng Shao.
She hadn't seen his face clearly back then. But now she remembered something. The scent of gunpowder. The briefcase he carried. The whispered conversation with her father before everything fell apart.
"If he was there… then the fire wasn't an accident."
A knock came at the door.
She turned. "Come in."
Li Zeyan entered, tall and silent. He held a thin folder in his hand — nothing unusual — but his eyes were unreadable.
"I thought you'd be asleep," he said.
"I could say the same for you," she replied, cautious.
Zeyan's gaze fell on the pendant around her neck.
"Where did you get that?"
Yuxi's fingers curled around it instinctively. "It was my brother's."
Zeyan stepped forward, placing the folder on the desk. "That symbol on the pendant—it's the crest of a division under a defunct black-ops unit. One only known to a handful of the country's elite families."
Her breath caught. "What are you saying?"
"That maybe your brother wasn't just a child in the wrong place."
He opened the file. Inside were printed images — some of Cheng Shao, others of Feng Yuxi's father... and one, shockingly, of her brother — wearing the same crest on a lapel pin during a private banquet hosted by military financiers.
Yuxi stared. "This doesn't make sense. He was only thirteen—"
"Or he was trained to be more than just a Feng heir," Zeyan said, voice low. "Just like you were trained to survive."
Their eyes locked, tension thick between them.
"You're hiding more than just your past," he said quietly. "A boy like Zhichen doesn't come out of nowhere. Not with eyes like his. Not with skills that surpass even my best cybersecurity team."
Yuxi's lips trembled for a moment, but then she composed herself. "You think he's yours?"
Zeyan didn't answer right away. "I think I want the truth. And I think you're too used to being alone to realize you don't have to do this by yourself anymore."
Yuxi turned away.
"If I tell you everything… will you still choose me?"
She didn't say it aloud, but the words echoed in her mind.
Scene Shift: Cheng Estate
Meanwhile, deep beneath the Cheng Estate, in a locked underground vault, a secret room stirred with movement. The lights buzzed overhead. A technician adjusted a monitor showing live surveillance feeds — not of the Li Corporation, but of Feng Yuxi's private apartment.
Cheng Shao entered, his face as cold as his reputation. Behind him trailed Zhao Rulan, her lipstick perfect, her smile tight.
"She's getting close," Rulan said.
"She's always been dangerous," Cheng Shao replied. "Her father trained her too well."
He tapped on the screen showing Zhichen's face.
"And the boy?"
"I told you, there's something wrong with him. He decrypted our firewall in twenty-three minutes. Even my best agents took over an hour."
Cheng Shao stared at the footage of the boy typing.
"He's not wrong," he murmured. "He's the key to everything."
Rulan raised a brow. "Then why not eliminate him?"
Cheng Shao's lips curved into something cruel. "Because if he dies, she'll come for blood. And we're not ready for a phoenix to rise."
Scene Shift: The Next Morning – Li Corp HQ
Zeyan arrived at the office early. The moment he stepped into his private elevator, a silent alert pinged in his watch. Intrusion detection. Internal systems. Restricted access log — last night, 3:17 a.m.
Only three people had clearance.
Zeyan. His head of security.
And his emergency backup account.
A ghost login — created once, buried, and forgotten.
Except someone had used it.
The elevator doors opened to his office. Awaiting him at the desk was a small black envelope. No name. No seal.
Inside was a single flash drive and a message in delicate handwriting:
"Look into Project Firebird. Ask your 'partner' why he was there that night." – F.Y."
His heart clenched.
Project Firebird — a military initiative buried in sealed archives.
He hadn't heard that name since…
Since the night the Feng estate burned.
Scene Shift: School Library
Zhichen sat quietly at the library table, flipping through a math textbook he didn't need.
Across from him sat the little girl from before — Qingyu.
She leaned in, voice a whisper. "Your mommy lied to you, you know."
Zhichen didn't look up. "About what?"
"Your daddy. He's not the one who died in that fire."
He looked at her then, eyes sharp.
"I saw you in the picture," she continued. "In my house. In the secret room. My uncle says you're important. But if they find out what you are…"
She trailed off, giggling.
"You'll disappear."
Zhichen closed his book with a quiet thud. "I'm not afraid of disappearing."
She smiled wider. "Good. Because the game's already started."