Location: Crimson Safehouse "Featherfold" – Nightfall
For two days, Yan had slept for the first time.
Not system-regulated rest.
Actual, unmonitored, human sleep.
Qingyue left him undisturbed, though Mouse kept whispering about movement on the edge of their dead-zone buffer.
"Someone's probing us," Mouse said, squinting at the anomaly graphs. "But not like EON. This is surgical."
And that meant only one name.
Xu Shanyue.
Perimeter – 02:13 A.M.
A faint knock.
No alarms. No breach.
Just three gentle taps on the armored door.
Lin was already awake.
He opened the security viewport and saw her—crimson coat, hair caught in the wind, lantern sigil gleaming on her collar.
"You said I could knock," she murmured.
"Not like this," Lin replied coldly.
"I came alone."
A pause.
"To meet him."
Inside the Safehouse
Qingyue didn't like it.
Neither did Mouse.
But Lin overrode the lock and let Xu Shanyue in.
She entered as if walking into a memory—gaze calm, steps soft, as if she'd been here before in some other life.
Yan was awake already.
He stood at the far end of the hallway, watching her.
Xu stopped ten steps away, then bowed slightly.
"Do you know who I am?"
"A storm," Yan said. "Wrapped in velvet."
Xu blinked.
Then smiled faintly. "Close enough."
The Conversation
They sat opposite each other at the table.
No weapons. No surveillance.
Lin and Qingyue watched through one-way glass.
Xu poured tea.
"You're not a project," she said gently. "You're not a file or a flag or a legacy."
"Then what am I?"
"A mirror," she said. "And I came here hoping not to see her in you."
Yan sipped the tea. His voice was steady.
"Do you?"
Xu didn't answer right away.
Then: "Not yet."
She set the cup down. "But you could be anything. And that means the world will shape you—unless you shape it first."
Yan nodded. "So you want to teach me?"
She hesitated.
"No. I want to ask you. Who do you want to become?"
Observation Room
Qingyue looked at Lin.
"She's not manipulating him," she whispered. "She's… offering."
Lin said nothing. But his eyes were colder than before.
Because Xu Shanyue never offered without a price.
Final Scene – The Boy's Answer
Yan looked into Xu Shanyue's eyes.
"I want to become someone who scares you—not because I'm dangerous, but because I make you hope."
Xu leaned back slowly.
And for a flicker of a moment, her façade cracked.
Then she rose.
"Then you're already becoming more human than she ever was."
She turned to leave.
But before she reached the door, Yan called out:
"I'm not yours."
Xu paused.
Smiled.
"Not yet."
And vanished into the night.