“Sis?”

“Mhm. I’m fine—come in, Lidashi.” Her voice drifted like a mild breeze under the door.

Teng Ying wiped the sweat on her brow like dew brushed from a leaf, and called to the hall.

The ink-haired girl knew her own cracks like a mirror with hairline frost.

Because of that, she kept her distance, a ring of cold around a pond’s edge.

“I’m coming in…”

The door eased open; Lidashi stepped in light as a cat across tatami.

Tonight he wore no tailored suit—just a plain shirt and trousers—and his fresh-washed hair fluffed like grass after rain.

“Huh? Lidashi, your clothes…”

“The sisters bought them for me. Since I’m staying at Moon Post Bookstore, I should look ordinary, like dust on a busy street.”

“Mhm… it looks good.” Her smile was a sliver of moon behind thin clouds.

Teng Ying smiled faintly, then let the words fall silent like snow.

“Uh, Sis… are we staying at Moon Post Bookstore for now?”

“Mhm… but only for now. I’ve reached out to many people; once we buy a starship, we’ll sail off this planet like a ship leaving a storm.”

“Leave the planet!? B-but…”

Lidashi hesitated, his words fluttering like moths at a paper lantern.

“Don’t hesitate, Lidashi. This world’s dangerous. The three-way balance shattered like cracked ice; war could break any moment like thunderheads.”

“B-but… aren’t we saving Father? Didn’t you say Father was taken?”

Silence pooled between them like a dark well.

“They won’t harm Mr. Teng,” Teng Ying said quickly, voice steady as a tight bowstring. “To absorb Teng holdings smoothly, they need his cooperation.”

“Sis…”

He gazed into the ink-haired girl’s eyes and knew she lied; her emerald irises drifted like leaves in a fickle wind.

“In this world, we can’t protect others. We can only shield ourselves, like a lone lantern in rain.”

She sounded cold, but her pupils wavered like minnows under ripples.

Panic swarmed her chest like bees in a jar; confusion fogged her path like low river mist, and even a boy felt how tangled her heart had become.

How could she not be shaken? The thought beat like wings in his ribs.

He was grateful to Teng Feiyang for taking him in, like a pine sheltering a sapling from hail.

But to Lidashi he was a foster father; to Sis, he was blood, a root sunk deep in Dreamwood soil.

He didn’t know their old quarrels, but he knew this: Teng Ying cared, like a hand that won’t let go of a warm cup.

So he spoke the wish burning in his chest like a coal.

“Sis, how about we stay on this planet?”

“Lidashi, what are you saying! This place will be a battlefield soon! The Capital Alliance will strike the Council like a blade; no matter who wins, ruin will spread like ash.”

“B-but. This is our homeland! Weren’t you born on Dreamwood Star too? Let’s stay, and guard our home like old pines in wind!”

“Enough! I’ve given this world so much already! I’m tired—like a bow drawn too long—and I don’t want to stay.”

Teng Ying clenched her fists, knuckles white as stones, and stood like a spark leaping.

“Sis?”

“I’ll say it again, Lidashi. You have to go.” Her words landed like iron pebbles on a drumhead.

“Then I’ll oppose that. I’m staying, in the place where Brother Dongfang Chen fought like a comet.”

“You—you…”

She readied a sharp retort, but stopped when a bead of tear slid from his eye like glass under sun.

The ink-haired girl froze, a struck bell gone still.

“Lidashi…”

“Sis, don’t you know… This is Moon Post Bookstore, and its first owner was Brother Dongfang Chen.”

“Dongfang Chen…”

“He loved this shop like a hearth and told us he’d return. But now… he hasn’t come back, so, so…”

“Don’t think too much! Your Brother Dongfang Chen might just be delayed, like a ship held by headwinds…”

“No. I know him. He never passes his duty to others; if Miss Liuyi is the new manager of Moon Post Bookstore, then Brother Chen must be dead. He must’ve handed the shop to Sister Liuyi at the end.”

“—!”

Lidashi’s eyes were red as embers, his guesses buried long like seeds under frost, never voiced.

He didn’t want to hurt Miss Liuyi, and he feared to hear the hammer-fall of certain news.

“So I won’t leave! This is where Brother Chen fought, and where our shared memories root like willows by the river! If I go, no one will remember what happened in Moon Post Bookstore! So I’ll fight, I’ll strive, I—”

A thread of light rose around the boy, warm as morning dew catching dawn.

The glow felt gentle, like drifting beads of mist, and it pushed old sorrow back like sunrise clearing fog.

“Huh? What is this…”

“L-Lidashi…!?”

Teng Ying stared at a scene she’d seen in textbooks, like a picture come alive.

The world’s life-force blesses each person, but it doesn’t show at birth, like feet that don’t run the day they touch ground.

Some gifts grow through study, steady as bamboo nodes; others crack open with growth, like a cicada shedding its shell.

Lidashi was clearly the latter, blooming like a bud after storm.

“What’s happening? Lidashi? Miss Liuyi? Are you in there?” A bright voice knocked like quick rain on wood.

From outside, Yue Liuyi called and rapped lightly, urgent as wind, yet she didn’t force the door like a gust.

“S-Sister Liuyi? I’m okay. It’s just… a lot of glowing beads floated up around me!” Lidashi wiped his tears away like smudged ink and blinked, dazed.

“Eh!? Beads of light? What do they look like?”

“Pale red, a bit hot—like embers.”

He reached toward them; they looked like water, but inside the liquid lines he saw veins of flame.

“Congratulations, Lidashi. Your gift just awakened.” Teng Ying went to the door and opened it like lifting a screen on dawn.

“Whoa, an awakening! I felt a fierce magic surge like a tide and thought something went wrong—didn’t expect this.”

Yue Liuyi stepped in, blue hair bright as a clear stream, and clasped his shoulders, joy shining like sun.

“I… did my gift really awaken?”

“Yeah. Congrats. From now on, you can study magic like a scribe learning new ink strokes. So young at this step—you’re amazing.”

“Th-thank you, Sister Liuyi. But…”

“What is it, Lidashi?”

The blue-haired girl paused, catching the odd air like a chill draft—Teng Ying’s gaze skittered like minnows, and tears still clung like beads to his lashes.

“No matter what it is, I’ll face it head-on like a blade to the wind. Sister Liuyi, can I ask you something?”

He clenched his fists like two small stones and lifted his head, eyes steady as stars.

“Alright. What do you want to ask?”

She swallowed, feeling the weight drop in her chest like a stone in water.

“Where is Brother Dongfang Chen… right now?”

Lidashi asked the blue-haired girl, his voice thin as a thread in the night.