“Do you still want Joanna to live?” The words fell like a cold blade, cold enough to fog the air.

Black‑red wings beat slow as storm fans. Xiao Qianxue hovered above like a crimson kestrel, staring down at Ouyang Si on the blood‑slick floor, his smile oily as smoke. “Who are you trying to fool? She’s probably long gone.” Her voice cut like winter wind. “Is cheap tricks all you’ve got?”

“You’ll find out,” Ouyang Si said, his grin a hook in the dark. “Bring her up.”

A man in black hauled Joanna in, slung over his shoulder like a small bird. He carried her into the hall, chaos like a ruptured painting. Once‑lush décor was now gilded with blood and meat, red flowers on white marble; anyone without iron guts would’ve retched like a river breaking.

“Damn it...” Pain bit first; then motion followed. Qianxue drove her nails into her palm, a thorn in flesh. Seeing her friend bound as a hostage, her fists knotted like iron knots, and her red eyes took on a feral glint, wild as a hunting wolf.

“That’s it. That’s the face.” Ouyang Si clapped. The crisp sound cracked the eerie hush, echoes circling the hall like bats. “Don’t be rash. On the ground, you might not be my match. And you’re out of bullets, right?” He pointed at the Star‑Red Twins abandoned on the dais, face settling like cooling wax.

“I got careless and let your sneak attack land. That luck’s over.” Water pooled in his palm like a spring, then rose and bound itself into a bow half a man high, a river turned into wood. He raised his right hand; another surge shaped an arrow near half an arm thick, a shard of blue glacier. He nocked it and aimed at Xiao Qianxue hanging in the air like a bright moth.

Thwang. The bowstring snapped like lightning. Qianxue dipped forward to dive, but a spike of danger hit like a thorn under the skin; her wings snapped open, blasting her backward like a gust.

In the same instant, the water‑forged arrow scythed past her feathers, punched the ceiling, and blew a gaping hole, dust blooming like gray snow.

Hiss. The sting at her feather tips pricked her nerves; her perfect face folded into a frown, petal lines creasing.

“Don’t move,” Ouyang Si said, voice flat as slate. “I didn’t buy my tenth‑rank in the organization.” Control returned to him like a tide. “This ability—to shape water into weapons—awakened only recently.”

“Oh? Then let’s see how many more shots you’ve got,” she said, gold hair glinting like sun on wine. Around her, blood‑crystal arrows condensed like frost from the air—red, sharp, ready to pierce at a single breath. “Looks like you’re running low too.”

“If you want to test me, fine.” Ouyang Si swung the arrow to Joanna, the point a cold star. “At the price of your friend.”

Helplessness flooded first, heavy as rain. Xiao Qianxue knew she’d lost the field; any move was a forced step on thin ice. If not for the hostage, she could’ve flown like dawn. But she couldn’t—across two lifetimes, that brown‑haired girl was her best friend, a lamp in her night.

“Say it. What do you want?” She bit her lip like a pale plum, then dropped to the ground, wings folding like nightfall. The long hover had drained her, breath thin as mist.

“If you’d done this earlier, none of us would be in trouble.” Seeing her yield, Ouyang Si flicked a signal like a shadowed wink. The man in black stepped in, set Joanna down like a willow branch. The giant bow unraveled into a puddle, water spreading like a dark mirror. Ouyang Si lifted a case and snapped it open on the table.

Inside lay a vial split in two colors, blue in front, green behind, twin rivers in glass.

“We injected something interesting into your friend,” Ouyang Si said, toying with a syringe like a silver fish. “In minutes, it necrotizes her brain. No fatal risk—she’ll just turn into a vegetable, a body without spring.”

Silence held like frost. But her eyes said she’d kill him a hundred times, burn him like dry leaves.

“The back half is the antidote. The front is a lethal poison,” he went on, mouth tilting like a knife. “Here’s the trick: unless you inject the front half first, you can’t access the antidote. Try to take it early, the syringe self‑destructs like glass under a hammer.”

“You want me to inject the poison?” Xiao Qianxue’s face hid behind gold like a veil, but urgency sharpened her voice like a blade.

“Exactly. I’ll hand you the syringe and Joanna. You’ll have time to dose yourself, then give her the antidote,” Ouyang Si said, tossing the needle like a flash of steel. “I’d rather not do this, but mission is mission. At the end, a little integrity goes a long way.”

“You’ve got the gall to talk ‘integrity’ now.” She caught the vial, moved to Joanna, and lowered herself like a falling leaf. Her form slipped back to ordinary, glamour gone like dew. Pale fingers touched Joanna’s cheek, a light press like snow, then brushed her brown hair, threads of chestnut silk.

Golden eyes flickered like candlelight. She bit down, little silver teeth against lip. The needle slid into her arm, a thorn in skin. Blue flowed in, a cold river; weight settled on her limbs like wet stone.

“Nana...” Her voice was light and sweet, a ribbon that frayed. Strength left her like dusk; she collapsed onto the brown‑haired girl, breath catching like a bird’s wing.

“This time… live.” She drew in Joanna’s scent, jasmine soft as spring. With the last scrap of strength, she drove the syringe into Joanna, gave the antidote like a final prayer, and sank into black, fainting like a candle snuffed.

“Boss, that vial’s got nothing special,” the man in black muttered, scratching his head like a puzzled crow. “Blue’s the old anesthetic. Green’s just a stimulant. And I didn’t inject Joanna at all—I just knocked her out like a tap on the temple.”

“I could force Xiao Qianxue to come with us by holding Joanna, sure,” Ouyang Si said, checking his comm, lights blinking like distant stars. “But where’s the fun? If she decides to flee, who stops her? You? Me?” His tone turned practical as iron. “That last arrow was near my limit. This trick drains stamina like a leech. I bet she’d sacrifice herself for Joanna, and the bet paid.”

“Brilliant, boss. In the end, handled without lifting a finger,” the man in black said, realization dawning like sunrise.

While Ouyang Si threatened Qianxue, Joanna woke beneath the weight, mind bright as flint, body pressed down like a ghost on the chest. She couldn’t move—awareness floating, limbs stone.

Rage and shame flooded her first, hot as ember rain. The blonde girl had paid for her again, price steep as a cliff. Why am I so useless? Why?

Jasmine, familiar as home, filled her senses like a quiet garden. Regret seeped from her closed eyes, slow tears trailing like silver threads.