“Mom! Those bad guys are back!” Xiao Tao burst in from the front yard like a startled sparrow, his shout snapping the air like a twig.

“What!” His mom jolted like a spooked doe, then rushed into the living room like a gust. “Girl! Get to the basement and hide! When I say it’s safe, come out. It’s there!”

She pointed at a nearby table, her finger flying like an arrow; a draped cloth lay over it like a dull cloud, and under it a small wooden hatch like a sleeping burrow.

“What happened?” Little Loli asked, confusion rippling in her bright eyes like light on water.

“I owe a little debt,” the mom said, her voice quivering like thin glass. “The collector’s a neighborhood bully who keeps showing up. Girl, go down first, and take your case.”

Inside the basement, her nerves tightened like a coiled spring. “System, cooldown?”

“20 minutes.”

“Good.” The word dropped like a pebble into a still pond.

The blonde girl squeezed into the cramped space with her case like a fox into a hollow; tight, but enough to breathe like a hidden ember. Mom hurriedly put everything back like smoothing sand over tracks. Bang! The front door flew open like thunder cracking a dry sky.

“Well if it isn’t Brother Zhuo. What brings you down our humble road today?” Xiao Tao’s mom faced the men at the door with a practiced smile like a worn mask, the cadence too smooth for a first time. Xiao Tao shrank to a corner like a quail in weeds.

“I’m here for someone.” Brother Zhuo, the leader, snorted like a bull. “Did a blonde girl come by? Pretty one.”

“There’s no blonde girl here. In a place this shabby, even if there was, she wouldn’t come to my house,” the mom said, hands clasped tight like knotted rope, her eyes darting toward the table like a compass needle she couldn’t restrain.

“Talk’s cheap. Boys, search.” Brother Zhuo flicked his hand like tossing a stone, and five or six men poured in like a muddy tide. “Move, you eyesore.” He shoved her aside like pushing a broken chair and strode into the living room with heavy steps like drums.

“Mom!” Xiao Tao saw her hit the floor like a jar, and he dashed to hold her like a scared cub.

“I’m fine, Xiao Tao. Find a safe place, quick!” She stroked his hair like smoothing grass in wind, her gaze flicking to the table’s shadow like a moth to a lantern.

“Brother Zhuo, looks like nothing here,” someone called, his words thin as smoke. “Upstairs too!” Two men clattered down from above like rolling stones.

“You idiot, you blind? What blonde girl?” A thug slapped the skinny man’s head like swatting a fly. “I really saw her!”

“Shut up!” Brother Zhuo barked, his attention settling on the hall like a hawk. “I swear I smell jasmine.”

“Has a blonde been here? How does your house smell like jasmine?” He smacked the table like a thunderclap.

Down below, Little Loli pouted in the dark like a cat under a porch.

“How could a blonde come here? Even if she did, it wouldn’t be to me,” the mom said, climbing up with a strained smile like a cracked teacup.

“Fine, then pay what you owe,” Brother Zhuo muttered, scratching his head like a restless crow. “Didn’t you say tomorrow?”

“I’m here now, so it’s today. You want me to come again tomorrow?” he shot back, while his men bared their teeth like alley dogs.

“Can it wait till tomorrow? I can pay it tomorrow,” she pleaded, voice thin as smoke.

“Tomorrow? If you’ve got none today, who’re you fooling about tomorrow? Boys, hit them!”

“Don’t touch my mom!” Xiao Tao threw his arms wide like a small shield, heart pounding like a drum.

“Outta the way, brat.” A thug flicked him aside like a leaf, sending him skidding like a dry reed.

“Son!” his mom screamed, the word tearing out like cloth.

“You crazy brat, you wanna die?” The boy sprang up and bit the thug’s leg like a little wolf, his jaw set like iron.

The thug kicked him, the strike heavy as a boot on clay, and Xiao Tao crumpled like a snuffed candle, breath lost to the floor.

“Xiao Tao? Xiao Tao, what’s wrong?” His mom lunged like a storm tide and crashed into the thugs like waves against pilings.

“Give me back my son! Give him back!” she raged, wild as a cornered tigress. “Crazy woman—like mother, like son,” Brother Zhuo said, shaking his head like a tree shedding rain. “Take her too.”

“Enough! I’m here!”

Guilt twisted in Little Loli’s chest like a vine, and she slipped from the basement like a cat from shadow. “Holy—Brother Zhuo, that’s the blonde girl!” the skinny one crowed like a startled crow, and the room went still like frost.

“Well now, girl, you’re prettier than your photo,” Brother Zhuo said, a smile blooming like a knife. “Do you know how much you’re worth?”

“I don’t, uncle... you’re all so scary...” Her voice trembled like a reed in wind.

“Brother Zhuo, let’s just take her...” The skinny man slunk closer with a greasy grin like lamp oil.

“You know what I need that money for,” Brother Zhuo growled, a cloud crossing his face like shadow over fields.

“Sorry, Brother Zhuo.”

“Ahui, make the call.” He snapped a glance like a whip, and a bruiser hustled off like a dog to whistle.

“You... you’ll really take me?” Little Loli hugged herself like frost clutching a twig, backing to the wall like a cornered butterfly. Tears swelled in her golden eyes like dew, and a soft cry rose like morning mist. “I finally found a place to hide... I just want to go home... sob...” She crouched and cried, moonlit-beautiful like water on jade, and the thugs froze like statues, never having seen such beauty—or such tears.

“Sorry. I really need that money,” Brother Zhuo said, a thaw of pity melting through like spring under ice; he cleared his throat like scraping a bowl.

“I’m being framed... sob... it was... sob...” Her sobs gathered like rain drumming on tin, each beat a pinprick.

“Too bad. We only want the bounty. If you’re framed, tell the cops,” a thug muttered, voice flat as a shovel.

After a moment, the girl wiped her eyes like a brush clearing ink. “Sorry, uncles. I only needed a little time~” She lowered her hands, and her golden irises bloomed into crimson like maple leaves on fire.

“Brother Zhuo... I remember the news ended with ‘extremely dangerous’...” the skinny man whispered, voice quivering like a plucked string, sliding behind Zhuo like dusk shadow.

“What’re you scared of? We’ve got numbers.” Zhuo’s gut clenched like iron bands, but duty pricked like sleet.

“Brothers, go! Seize her!”

“Sorry~”

Her bell-clear reply chimed like glass, and a cold gust licked a thug’s back like winter wind; a fan of gold hair flashed like falling sunlight. “What—ah!” Pain bloomed at his nape like a sting hive, his eyes rolling white like shells. One burst and an elbow, and Little Loli dropped him like a felled pine.

“Ahui! Everyone, grab her!” Brother Zhuo roared, the sound cracking like thunder over hills.

“Sweetheart, lie in my arms!” a thug lunged, grin crooked like a hook.

The gold-haired girl slipped through their grabs like rain through leaves; a tiny back-step, a quick hook to the leg—crack! The sound snapped like ice.

“Ah! My leg—ugh...” An elbow fell like a smith’s hammer, and the man sagged, his leg bent like a broken reed; to the others, it happened in a blink like hidden lightning.

“Damn...” Her lips curved like a crescent blade; on that delicate face, a wicked smile flowered like nightshade, and sharp teeth flashed like frost. “She could kill us all...” Sweat ran down Brother Zhuo’s cheek like summer rain; he didn’t dare wipe it, letting it fall like beads. She’d only knocked them out and crippled, never killed—a shade of mercy like cool under noon sun. “Maybe there’s a chance...”

“Everyone, fall back!”

The thugs exhaled like surf and edged back like crabs, their eyes wary as foxes in brush.

“What, done already?” The gold-haired girl smiled like spring light, her earlier frailty gone like smoke in wind.

“Today’s on me... but please, help me,” Brother Zhuo said, and he dropped to his knees like a tree cut to stump. “Kneel!” he barked, and the men hit the floor with thuds like drums, knowing the price of standing tall.

“My mother has a tumor,” he said, voice low as dusk wind. “Surgery’s today. If I don’t have enough money... they won’t operate, and she may be gone by tomorrow.” He glanced at the fainted mother and son, guilt pooling like ink. “So I lost my head...”

Little Loli propped her chin with a small hand like a sparrow on a twig and thought for a beat like a held breath. “How about this: let’s make a deal, shall we?” She tilted her head, and her crimson eyes shone like twin lanterns in fog.