“Hey! You two over there! Hold up!”

Nana Toki had barely taken a few steps when a sharp call lashed her back like a whip through mist.

She turned; two officers in full kit were sprinting toward them, boots drumming like rain on stone.

They ran with anxious momentum, like reeds bending under a sudden gust.

“What is it?”

Luo Shanshan slid in front of Nana like a shield, her pretty face pulled taut like a drawn bow.

The officers hesitated at her wariness, then shared a glance like silent thunder.

One stepped up, pulled an ID from his chest pocket like a card from a deck, and spoke.

“Excuse me—are you survivors from that heavy fog?”

“Hm?”

The word “fog” struck Luo Shanshan like a pebble dropping into a still pond.

She guessed he meant the place where Yu Xi had been, that cold gray sea of air.

Seeking a cue, she turned toward Nana Toki, her brows clouded with quiet doubt.

Yes—she held the same curiosity about where Nana had just been, that veil of haze.

“Do you two need something?”

Nana eyed the ID like a mirror catching light, then stepped up beside Luo Shanshan with a cool stare.

“Your agencies sure get jumpy around unknowns, like cats in a room full of rocking chairs.”

“It’s only orders from above,” the officer said, his face stiffening like frost on a window.

He smoothed his expression quickly, then squared up, voice firm as a baton. “Ladies, please come with us.”

“Did I say I came out of that fog?”

Nana lifted her chin like a stubborn ram on a cliff.

She had zero interest in running around with NPCs like a headless flock; her time was a blade, not to be dulled.

System: “...”

All your time goes to messing with the leads?

Yeah.

What, you got a problem?

System: “...”

Fine, Host. If you’re happy, my gears can rust.

System status: -1, like a needle dropping on an old gauge.

“But you—”

“I was just asking for fun.”

Nana cut him off before the next word could form, like snipping a thread mid-stitch.

Officer: “...”

You grab me by the sleeve then say it’s nothing? You’re a storm with no rain.

“Xi Xi...”

Luo Shanshan tugged Nana’s hand like pulling a kite string, puzzled at the sudden lie.

“What? I can’t ask random questions?” Nana waved the cops off like shooing flies from fruit.

“Go, go. ‘Serve the people,’ right? A couple of questions and you act like boiling water. I don’t even know where to start with you.”

Officer: “...”

Don’t moral-shame us, you wildfire of a woman.

If not for the uniform, both cops would’ve rushed in like bulls and pounded her flat as a drum.

“What’s everyone crowding for?”

A new voice came from behind, calm as a breeze sliding through bamboo.

They turned. A man in plain clothes and glasses walked out of the crowd, bookish and neat as stacked paper.

“Captain? You came too?”

The two officers started and hurried over, heads lowered like grass before wind.

“Hmm?”

Nana’s brows arched like a pair of drawn blades.

She hadn’t expected to bump into the leads again so quickly, like fate tugging a red thread tight.

Walking behind the glasses man were Bei Yuan and Jiang Xinli, the pair from the fog like figures stepping from a painted scroll.

Jiang Xinli had shaken off the shock like dew drying under morning sun.

She followed the glasses man and chatted with Bei Yuan, questions bubbling like a spring.

Nana’s stare was too plain, too direct, like a lantern shining through paper.

It hooked Bei Yuan’s attention as surely as a fishhook under a river’s skin.

“What are you looking at? Want me to gouge your eyes out?”

Nana raised two fingers and mimed plucking, a gesture like a hawk pinching prey.

The two officers beside her gaped like carp leaping from a pond.

This woman feared neither law nor thunder, her words sharp as a sickle.

Their captain stood right here. Did she have no sense of place, no chill in her blood?

“You two know each other?”

The glasses man didn’t frown; he smiled lightly, like tea steam rising.

“Your friend’s tongue is a riot. Funny, even.”

They thought the topic would die there, like a spark smothered under ash.

But—

“We don’t know each other.”

As a conversation-ender, Nana was a cold blade; she refused his bridge with a clean slice.

“I don’t know these two. Do you know them?”

Glasses Man: “...”

Officer: “...”

What is wrong with you? Someone offered you a soft cushion, and you threw it into the river.

“Yu Xi, you’re here too?”

Only then did Jiang Xinli see Nana; her face drained pale like paper under moonlight.

Yes—her mind jolted back to heavy memories like stones tumbling down a slope.

Around them, the officers exchanged looks like sparrows rustling in bamboo.

This is your “we don’t know each other”?

She called your name, and you call it wind?

“Why can’t I be here?”

Nana met their baffled stares without a blush, heart steady like a mountain bell.

“Is this plaza your family’s? Am I blocking your patriotism, or hogging the fresh air like a greedy squirrel?”

“...”

Can she not speak like a normal human, like clear water from a spring?

Jiang Xinli didn’t remember Yu Xi being so sharp, like vinegar in the mouth.

Wasn’t she the frail one? Now she sprayed acid like a storm on tin.

She lashed out at anyone, like a hedgehog bristling at shadows.

Even Luo Shanshan stared, stunned; she’d never seen this face of Yu Xi, a fire blazing where there used to be fog.

Ever since they walked out of that fog, Yu Xi felt changed, like a chrysalis cracking.

The old cowardice and self-doubt were swept away like leaves in a river.

All she saw now was swagger, unchecked, and a confidence rising like sun over snow.

“So, Miss Yu Xi also came out of that fog?”

The glasses man, seeing the air grow brittle like ice, hurried to shift the topic like turning a fan.

“I’m not—I am!”

Glasses Man: “...”

So are you a cloud or a stone?

“Ahem. I came out of that fog.”

Nana cleared her throat like tapping wood, then spoke coolly, voice even as calm rain.

“But just now you said you didn’t.”

The two young officers bristled, impatience fizzing like hot oil. “Why are you lying?”

“You two don’t look like good men,” Nana said, disdain a blade of grass cutting skin.

“A fragile girl has to keep her guard up like a door bar.”

She eyed their uniforms, then sighed. “You shame the clothes you wear, like mud on silk.”

Officer: “...”

“Heh...”

The System, lounging in Nana’s mind, snorted like a rusty hinge.

Fragile? When you soloed that alien, I didn’t see a single tremor.

Trash System, shut up!

System: “...”

As for her sudden turn—no, it wasn’t about spiting the male and female leads.

It was—

Ding! A chime rang through her mind like a bell in a temple.

Hidden Quest Prerequisite Triggered: National Local Government Inspection Agency.

Accept?

Default: Accept.

Quest: Follow Bai Junhui to the local government inspection office for a physical check.

Yes—seconds before she refused, the System dropped the quest like a sealed letter onto her desk.

Nana: “...”

Trash System, you did that on purpose, like a cat knocking cups.

System: “I didn’t, I swear. You’ve got no proof—don’t slander me like smoke.”

In any case, the storm settled for now, like rain easing off the eaves.

“Don’t worry. Come with me,” the glasses man—Bai Junhui—said, his smile mild as lamplight.

Then he turned and barked at the two officers, voice snapping like a bamboo rod. “Get the car. Now.”

“Y-yes!”

They jolted like birds startled, then rushed off, boots clattering like stones.

Nana and the others waited, time stretching like a string over a zither.

Ten minutes later, the police car carried them to the National Security Inspection Office, a building stern as a fortress.

Ranks of soldiers stood at attention outside, a forest of steel and breath.

Luo Shanshan shrank behind Nana, her head ducking like a turtle into its shell.

“Hey... Xi Xi, do you think they’ll do something to us?”

Seeing her nerves flutter like moth wings, Nana almost laughed, warmth a tiny ember.

This woman looks like a tiger, but her heart curls like a rabbit.

“Relax. If anything happens, it won’t happen to you,” she said, voice dry as wind over sand.

Nana’s gaze flicked to Luo Shanshan’s chest like a sparrow peeking at fruit; Luo didn’t catch the meaning, her eyes round as a pond.

“Eh? Why?”

“No reason.”

Nana patted her head, soft as palm on moss, then followed Bai Junhui into a corner room like stepping into a quiet grove.

“You’re here, Captain Bai.”

Inside, people rose at once, chairs scraping like chalk.

“Found more?”

“Yeah. Hard to track. Plenty refuse to admit it, like turtles hugging their shells,” someone said with a weary smile.

Captain Bai’s smile thinned like paper. “How did the evaluations go?”

“Not well.” A doctor held a stack of reports like a bundle of winter reeds.

“Twelve checked show no physical anomalies. But every single one has mental impact to different degrees, like frost nipping leaves.”

“They still can’t communicate normally, even now,” he added, tone heavy as rainclouds.

“I see.”

Bai Junhui’s brows knit like threads. “So something’s still hidden in there, like a thorn in silk?”

“Can’t rule it out,” the attending physician said, pushing his glasses up like lifting a gate.

“I’m counting on you. Check them thoroughly, like combing wool. If anything happens, report at once.”

“Yes!”

“These folks as well,” Bai said, exhaling like a kettle settling, and pointed toward Nana.

“They also came out of the fog. Give them a full workup, see if anything feels off.”

“Please follow us this way,” a nurse said, voice light as a wind chime, and gestured down the hall like guiding water.