Night lay like ink across the windowpanes. After dinner with Ye Yiyi and the others, Tang Coco returned and clicked the lock shut like a seal on water. Lately, whenever solitude pooled around her like a still pond, she worked on the matter of her Anomaly Power.
"You mean... we can fix it at that berserk state?" Her heart flared first like a struck match.
She flicked off her slippers like falling leaves and sank into the soft bed like a snowdrift, keeping the wordless line open to the system.
"Yes. By the system's calculations, if you reenter that state, there's an eighty percent chance to record your body data. It will use the Anomaly Power to alter your inner energy field like reshaping a current, forcing the body to hold a perfect state."
"Then... what about my face?" Worry rolled in first like low thunder. "From Ningxin, I learned that when I lose control, my looks and my temperament both change. If that happens again, how do I explain it to Ye Yiyi?"
Tang Coco's brows tightened like a knotted cord, the trouble piling up like wet clouds.
"That falls beyond the system's gate; the system can't intervene."
She sighed, the sound like wind over reeds. "If I hadn't met Ye Yiyi and the others, maybe I wouldn't be tiptoeing like this."
Memory rose like lanterns on a river. That first meeting with Ye Yiyi and Li Muyan was a chain of coincidences that tied a new tether in her chest.
But... am I really made for this quiet life? The comrades who died before my eyes still lie like stones under clear water. A father killed by betrayal cuts like a rusted blade. Too many frames refuse to fade, like soot on snow.
In the end, my road was set like tracks in frost. Before this ends, I have no right to idle in spring sunlight.
"System, register a backup emergency protocol," she said, resolve cooling like quenched steel after a long hush. "Next time the Anomaly Power runs perfectly, if I still can't control my body, run your plan."
"Shall we factor in the change in your appearance?" The question hovered like a moth at a lamp.
"... " Her silence weighed like a closed fan.
"No. This calm will end sooner or later like a tide hit by wind. If the future spins out and puts Yiyi and the others at risk, I'd rather cut the knot early myself. I'll talk to Ningxin. If I really turn into that... let her handle the identity."
"Understood. Backup protocol setting... permissions locked... no cancel or change," the mechanical voice fell like iron stamps on paper.
With the orders given, Tang Coco put the system on standby. She stared at the tea-white ceiling like pale porcelain. In her eyes, reluctance and resolve braided like dusk and dawn. Her thoughts drifted to her late father.
"Father..." The word left her like a breath on glass.
"Right!" The spark of a thought leapt like a firefly. She sat up and hurried to her laptop, the lid opening like a clam shell.
"Su Xinhua." She typed her mother's name, the keys tapping like rain.
From Hong Wei, she had learned her mother was in business, and a big company at that. There had to be traces online, like footprints after snow. Most of all, Mother must know about her transformation and that strange watch, like a silent eye. She hadn't figured out how to face her in this body, but it was time to gather the threads.
Soon, pages bloomed across the screen like fields after rain. She read: Su Xinhua, Chairwoman of Huacheng International Co., Ltd.—Huacheng International, the world's largest financial enterprise, the name stark as steel. Its business spanned automobiles, services, transportation, and heavy manufacturing, a net cast wide across seas. It operated in over ninety countries, with its headquarters in the U.S. economic center, a tower spearing the skyline.
"My god... is that really my mother?" The shock rang like a bell in an empty hall.
Back in the Shadow Division, she had never looked into her mother's file. The Division demanded members sever family ties like cutting a kite string. Otherwise, she wouldn't have hunted for her father's trail in secret, like a fox on frost. And Meng Yuting wouldn't have stayed out of touch with her family for over a decade, like a door kept bolted. Even so, she hadn't imagined her mother alone could helm such a vast enterprise, a mountain shouldering clouds.
"If all this is true, that's trouble..." The thought furrowed her brow like plow lines.
Her mother's status alone put her far above, a tower hard for an ordinary person to approach. She couldn't use other channels to tell her mother she was her "son"; the leak risk was a tinder field in summer. There had to be Shadow Division people near her mother, like shadows at noon. If she exposed herself rashly, the fallout would burst like a snare underfoot. And another thing: the headquarters was in the U.S.; in this identity, leaving Ninghai was a steep ford, let alone leaving the country.
She read the info again, then wiped the browser history like a hand over wet ink and closed the laptop with a soft clap.
"Sigh... After the National Day holiday, I'll start moving," she murmured, promise tugging like a red thread. "I did tell Yiyi I'd take her out for the holiday," she added, the promise glowing like a small lantern.
She headed for the bathroom, steam already in her mind like morning mist.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, Huacheng International's headquarters rose in the U.S. In a high-floor office, an elegant woman sat like a swan at rest. Her skin was flawless, her face baby-smooth, looking twenty-eight or twenty-nine, a spring blossom that hid its years. Only those close knew the true count, like gardeners who know a tree's rings.
Right now, the baby-faced woman listened intently, her gaze steady as a calm lake. A bespectacled young man delivered his report, words lined up like files.
"Ms. Su, just now, the trap you told me to set paid off," he said, words crisp as snapped twigs. "We checked—someone entered the site we laid down."
"The address?" Her voice was cool water. "Don't tell me it's the Shadow Division's address," she added, the words held like a thorn.
"No. The login address is in Huaguo." His answer fell like a pin on tile.
