As Ye Yiyi stepped over the doorway like crossing a thin stream, she ran into Meng Xiaoxiao and Xu Yinuo, just back like windblown leaves.

"Yiyi, where’s Coco?" Meng Xiaoxiao asked, eyes bright like little lamps. Earlier, Ye Yiyi and Gu Xin had told them Coco had been found, like a sparrow carrying news.

"Mm... Coco stepped out on some business, like a gust past the reeds. She’ll be back soon."

Ye Yiyi couldn’t tell Meng Xiaoxiao and Xu Yinuo about Anomaly Power; the secret sat in her throat like a stone, so she lied.

"Oh... really? Hmph, Coco comes back and doesn’t even look for Xiaoxiao," Meng Xiaoxiao pouted, cheeks puffed like a goldfish.

"Alright, go see your sister first," Ye Yiyi said, forcing a smile like a paper lantern struggling in wind.

"Mm." Meng Xiaoxiao answered, and the door swallowed her like a quiet mouth.

"Then I’ll head back to my room," Xu Yinuo said, her steps ready to fall like light rain.

She turned toward her guest room, and panic flared in Ye Yiyi like a struck match. Xu Yinuo shared that room with Tang Coco; if she went back now, everything would be exposed. Ye Yiyi hurried after her.

"Wait!"

"What is it?" Xu Yinuo asked, brows drawing together like a tightened bowstring.

"I just went to the rooftop; a section of the roof caved in, like a moon with a bite taken out."

"What!?" Xu Yinuo’s heart dropped like a pebble into a well; she was the general manager here, and rumors would run like wildfire.

The hotel should be solid as bedrock, yet doubt scurried in her mind like ants.

"Yeah! Go check it now, before the crack spreads like frost."

"Alright, I’ll see what’s going on, like lifting a curtain."

She ran for the elevator, heels tapping like hail on stone.

Watching Xu Yinuo vanish down the hall like a receding tide, Ye Yiyi turned and headed for Tang Coco’s room.

Bang, bang, bang.

Ye Yiyi knocked at Tang Coco’s door, knuckles drumming like rain on tile.

Inside, Tang Coco sat on the bed in a black short dress, midnight ink made cloth, a sultry glow like foxfire at dusk.

Her long legs were crossed like twin blades at rest; one hand propped on the bed, the other sketched across a light screen like frost tracing glass.

"Who is it?" Tang Coco asked the system, voice cool as shaded water.

"Identity analysis—Ye Yiyi," the system’s cold female voice replied, like ice ringing in a cup.

Tang Coco’s bright eyes tightened like a drawn bow, then smoothed like still water. She stayed seated, not rising to open the door.

"C-Coco, it’s me... can we talk?" Ye Yiyi asked, sorrow pressing her chest like wet cloth.

Click.

After a breath, the door opened by itself, like a mouth parting in the dark; no hand turned the handle.

She had braced for this; after learning about Abnormals and their Anomaly Power, small wonders fell like drizzle, no longer startling.

Ye Yiyi eased the door shut like laying a lid, then saw Tang Coco on the bed, chin high and cold as frost.

"You disturb me now—what for?" Tang Coco asked, voice as flat as ice on a pond.

Ye Yiyi’s heart sank like a stone into deep water.

"Coco..." Her breath trembled like a candle in a draft.

Grief washed through her like a winter tide; it felt like losing someone she loved.

"Heh. So weak," Tang Coco said, a smile cutting like a thin knife.

"No... you’re not Coco. Coco wouldn’t be like this..." Ye Yiyi whispered, voice shaking like reeds by a river.

"I never said I was that cute little thing," Tang Coco said, tone smooth as lacquer. "We share a body like two moons on one river."

"I’m here to fulfill some of her wishes," she added, a delicate hand tracing her cheek like a brushstroke.

"Wishes?" The word hung in the air like mist.

"Do you really know her past?" Tang Coco asked, gaze pin-sharp like a needle.

"I..." Ye Yiyi hesitated, a bird clinging to the eaves before flight.

"You seem smart," Tang Coco went on, words tapping like beads. "You’ve long doubted the story she spun, but you chose not to tear the veil."

Silence fell like ash; Ye Yiyi felt laid bare, as if those eyes cut her open.

"But... you... will you change back?" Her hope was a thread trembling in wind.

"Heh. What if I told you I exist because she planted me in advance, like a seed set to sprout?"

"What!" Shock cracked through her like a thunderclap.

"You don’t know her. In her heart, revenge outweighs everything, like a blade on the scale," Tang Coco said, a cold smile curving like a crescent.

"And I have my own mission for being," she added, words settling like iron filings.

"Revenge?" The word tasted like iron on Ye Yiyi’s tongue.

"Go back. You two were never a fit, like oil and water," Tang Coco said, mouth lifting with proud ease.

"But when my mission is done, I might consider taking you in, like a stray under my eaves."

"No—no way! I’ll find a way to bring you back!" Ye Yiyi cried, a vow flaring like a torch at night.

She spun and fled, tears scattering like broken beads.

Tang Coco watched her back recede, face blank as carved jade.

"Boring." The word snapped like a dry twig.

"Continue the Armor upgrade."

"Acknowledged," the system replied, cold as a north wind.