“Thanks for waiting, you three—here’s your ice cream.” At that moment, Lu Ke and Gu Wen were trading campus tales like sparrows under an eave. Xiao Qianxue sat aside, listening with bright eyes, palm covering her lips as she stole soft laughs. Under her hood, that moon-bright smile could silver the whole room and leave everything else dim.

The server set down the ice cream, then turned to other guests. “I’m digging in first!” The blonde girl tugged her chocolate banana split close like hauling a dinghy to shore. She picked up the little iron spoon, slid it into the boat of ice cream, then popped a scoop into her mouth.

“So good—mmm.” Her voice curled like a kitten purring, playful and claw-soft.

Seeing his sister’s happiness blooming like spring, Lu Ke’s appetite flared like wind through embers. With one chomp, he devoured a fifth of the red-bean shaved ice, a little mountain leveled in a bite.

“Lu Ke, slow down. Too much at once isn’t good for you.” Gu Wen ate her strawberry sundae in tiny sips, a willow drinking rain. Seeing his recklessness, she set her sundae down and leaned in.

Lu Ke felt his whole head turn to ice, a glacier grinding behind his eyes. His mouth flashed frozen, and even his blood seemed to thicken like winter syrup. He forced the mouthful down, then gulped air like a fish breaking the surface.

“You okay?” Gu Wen reached over and wiped the corner of his mouth with a napkin. Instant wifey vibes spiked like a meter redlining.

“Found you, punk!” The seven or eight jerks from the roller coaster shouldered into the shop like a dirty tide. The lead one spotted the trio at once. They ringed the table like wolves hemming a fire. The leader dragged a stool over, sat beside Lu Ke, and patted his shoulder like a war drum. “We just hit the coaster and we’re parched. You won’t mind treating the bros to ice cream, right?”

“Don’t touch me!” A standing man’s hand crept toward Gu Wen like a snake in grass. Compared to the hooded Little Loli, Gu Wen’s clear, inviting beauty drew him like moth to flame.

Nearby customers stood and drifted away like reeds in wind. The shop’s three employees stepped up at once, shoulders squared like young oxen. The tall one didn’t show a flicker of fear. The other two flanked him, chests lifted, students with summer jobs and hearts still hot.

“Yo,” the leader barked, slamming the table with a bang that shook spoons. He rose, smoke in his stare. “We’re just talking old times with my little brother. Nothing out of line, right?” He pushed through and faced the staff, voice oily. “We blocking the door so folks can’t buy? Or did we smash anything here?” He even glanced around as if counting intact glass. The others echoed like crows, “Yeah, we’re just standing—what’s it to you?”

“Damn it!” Lu Ke’s temper spiked like a flare. He snatched the glass bowl of red-bean ice and smashed it into the nearest troublemaker’s face, a comet hitting stone.

“Oww!” With a heavy thud, the man clutched his face and crumpled, groaning. He wouldn’t be up for a while; a concussion lurked like a shadow.

“He hit our guy! Get ’em!” They fed on chaos; fists flew as soon as the spark jumped. The three employees charged too, grabbing whatever lay nearby and rushing in like a sudden squall.

“Gu Wen-jie, go!” The blonde girl felt the shift like thunder rolling. She grabbed Gu Wen and pulled her toward the door. Inside, crashes and shattering glass filled the air, a rain of clinks and clatters.

“Xiaoxue, Lu Ke won’t get hurt, right?” Gu Wen’s voice shook like a leaf; it was her first storm. “He’ll be fine. I’m going to help him now.” Xiao Qianxue’s face darkened like a cloud swallowing sun. “Stay here. Don’t move.” She spoke, then flashed back into the shop with impossible speed, a golden streak like lightning.

Lu Ke and the three clerks were in trouble. The narrow space cramped movement like vines tightening, but it also turned the fight into a grinding alley brawl. Four against seven was bad math. For Lu Ke, even one-on-one was heavy; two-on-one pressed like twin hammers.

He barely shouldered one strike, then another crashed in and knocked him to the floor, breath scattering like leaves.

“You…” Xiao Qianxue saw it, and the old wound yawned open like a ravine. Back then, she’d watched helplessly as the Organization took her parents. Now—

Her pupils pulsed like storms; her body slipped free of its reins. Emotion surged first; reason thinned to mist. She wanted to destroy, to cut every hostile shape into shards of cold light.

“A-Lan, stop her.” Hoshina’s voice crackled in her earpiece like distant thunder. A blue figure appeared in front of the blonde girl without a sound, as if surfacing from deep water.

“Bloo?” Xiao Qianxue lifted her head. A needle slid into the side of her neck with a sting like frost. “Mm…” She stumbled and pitched against Bloo’s chest, soft as a falling feather. The injection ended in a breath. Bloo stepped back, breaking contact like a cut cord.

Her thoughts gathered again, cool as dew. Her golden eyes regained their light. “What… happened to me?” She pressed a hand to her brow. When she looked up, the troublemakers were all groaning on the floor like felled trees. Lu Ke and the clerks, already down, didn’t count. It had taken the span of two blinks.

“Put the earpiece on. Hoshina wants a word.” Bloo handed it over. “Xiao Qianxue, you fox! How dare you get that close to A-Lan!” Hoshina’s roar blasted her ear like a temple bell.

“I didn’t ask for it! What was my body doing?” Her protest came first, shaky as a spring stream.

“Ahem.” Hoshina caught herself, then steadied, voice cooling like steel. “If A-Lan hadn’t injected the special sedative in time, you’d be in trouble.”

“You mean the side effects of that modification agent?” The thought clicked, and fear pricked her skin like cold rain.

“Police are here!” The crowd outside shouted, a wave rising. “Let’s find somewhere to talk,” Bloo murmured, voice low as dusk. In a blink, the two vanished from the shop like sparks snuffed by wind.

—

“Doctor, we’re ready.” Ouyang Si spoke to an old man in a white lab coat, a scientist with eyes like hooked wire. “Good. We’ll start the plan soon. Tell that small family to get ready. Lure the target in.”

He turned, gaze sweeping over restraints and tools that chilled the air like iron in winter. “Let’s hope I get a fine specimen this time. Hahahahaha!”

His cold laughter filled the room like smoke.

“Lin Fan, this time I’ll make you suffer a price you’ll regret.”