... She was Zhenxi's mother.

Not Fu Yuxin.

Not Chen Meili.

Lin Xue.

He had found it in the records.

Buried under seals and bribes.

Anran had traced the hospital visits. Exactly eight months after his disappearance, Lin Xue vanished from public view. Shut down Velvet Shadows. Transferred every asset to Chen Meili. Changed inheritance paperwork. Faked trails.

And then…

Killed the mayor.

The man who had once broken her life.

The man who kept her brothel untouched... because silence kept his own secrets safe.

With her own hands, she ended it.

She never planned to survive.

Only to disappear.

To leave her child clean.

To protect his legacy, even after his death.

She didn't care about prison.

To her, it was just the epilogue.

And now…

He stood before her, silent.

Zhenxi was his daughter.

Born from a moment he barely remembered.

When he was twelve, stupid, reckless, already drowning in blood.

She had realized it too late.

When he vanished, when the rumors came. She had tested the result once and shoved it away in denial.

Tested again, and couldn't deny it anymore.

He was gone.

So she made the choice.

She buried herself…

To raise his child untainted…

She had taught him to use women.

To despise the sluts.

To discard the unnecessary.

It wasn't wisdom.

It was self-hatred, passed down like an heirloom.

He was too young when it happened, too young to understand what he left behind.

And she... she hadn't considered the risks.

The red eyes that once marked Wang Xiao's own cursed childhood, a genetic disorder, had passed into his daughter.

The blindness.

The years lived in darkness.

Even if it had been cured now,

Those years wouldn't return.

And even if they could…

He wouldn't take them back.

To undo the pain, would be to undo who she became, the same way he could never rewrite his own path.

Even if it broke him.

Even if it bled him dry.

Because to change it—Would be to kill the version of himself that survived.

"Wait!"

A voice called behind him.

Wang Xiao paused mid-step.

"Are you leaving?" Lin Xue muttered bitterly, watching him leave with Zhang Sisi.

The words she really wanted to say...never left her lips.

"You want to leave too?" he asked without looking back.

"Hm..." She hesitated, then nodded.

Fickle beings.

Change of heart, born too late.

Wang Xiao shook his head.

"Nothing I can do about it."

He turned, grabbed Zhang Sisi by the wrist, dragging her along. She flinched at his sudden grip, still processing everything.

Still trying to make sense of the things no human heart should bear.

How was he still walking normally?

How did he survive the kind of truth that would shatter most people?

Crash!

"D-Did ... He left me here to... rot?"

Behind them, Lin Xue collapsed to her knees, her clenched palms hit the cold concrete with a soft echo.

Dust kissed her fair skin, her breath curled in the stale air mist, she hadn't hoped for much.

But... could he not spare atleast even one moment to bury her properly?

Her heart beat again.

Not from fear.

From something else.

Zhenxi… has she grown? What does she look like now?

She lifted her face slowly.

Once, it had turned heads in smoky halls and silent boardrooms, not just for beauty, but for the danger behind her eyes.

Now, that same face bore the wear of time,

But the bones of power still remained beneath the tired flesh.

A wilted rose, yes, but thorns remained sharp.

She stared at the rusted bars, the empty hallway.

No guards.

Only silence.

Her hair, grey streaks scattered in a tangled mess, fell across her face.

She brushed it back absently, blinking against the sting of emotion.

"Is this my retribution?..."

For all she had done.

For what she became.

For what she tried to bury.

The cold of the prison had crept deep into her joints, but that moment… felt warm.

The warmth of possibility.

Then it came.

A voice, like smoke behind her ear:

"No one cares if a woman escapes from an unarmed prison…"

Her head snapped up.

Eyes misty, lips parted.

And there, just at the edge of the corridor, his back.

Fading.

Already turning the corner.

She noticed, the chains, already unlocked, the door, unbarred.

Freedom had been left casually.

Like a forgotten coat.

"..."

A second passed.

Lin Xue bit her lip, made up her mind, and then moved...Like a ghost in her own story, one final act to claim.

The hallway stretched before her, abandoned and grim, flickering lights hummed above. Cracks lined the wall like veins in old marble.

Peeling posters whispered rules no one enforced anymore.

The door at the end was slightly ajar, and the dark night beyond it was still.

She stepped through it.

Outside, the city coughed in the distance, smog above rooftops like a dying memory, a broken neon sign crackled down the street, painting red onto the wet alley floor.

She paused, and breathed.

Hiss~!

The air stung her throat, but she smiled anyway.

Isn't it just a jailbreak?

What could they do? Throw me back in?

She chuckled. Need character sheets and glossaries? Visit NovelBin.

The night wrapped around her like a faded lover's coat.

And for the first time in years...Lin Xue escaped.

_____

A few minutes after leaving the prison…

The night air was cold, streetlamps flickered over cracked asphalt, and the hum of distant engines filled the silence.

Zhang Sisi walked beside Wang Xiao.

She couldn't read him.

She rarely could.

"I thought you were going to free her…"

Her voice was soft, careful.

"She's… the mother of your child. Even if you don't want her, couldn't you at least show some mercy?"

Wang Xiao didn't stop walking. He didn't even glance at her.

"A person imprisoned by their own mind," he said flatly, "can't be freed."

Zhang Sisi frowned.

"She surrendered willingly," he continued. "Chose her cell. Chose her rot. Who am I to steal that from her?"

Zhang Sisi's steps slowed.

She wanted to argue.

On one hand… she understood.

But on the other, Can't he just… tap her head a few times, flip a switch, break the mental chains the way he breaks bones?

He could. She knew he could.

But he didn't.

And somehow… that made it worse.

Then he added, casually:

"Also, if you're so worried about her… she's two blocks behind us."

He paused, then smirked faintly.

"Don't look back."

Naturally, she did.

Wang Xiao sighed and rubbed his forehead. "People never listen."

Just as expected, Lin Xue was there.

Ducking behind a broken signpost.

Their eyes met for a breath.

She flinched, tried to vanish into shadow.

Zhang Sisi snapped her gaze forward again, breath quickening.

"She's following us…"

The neon lights reflected on the passing cars, but even the traffic couldn't drown the pulse of surprise on her face.

"Wang Xiao? What do we do—shouldn't we stop for her? Ah—" Zhang Sisi, flustered, glanced between alleys, her shoulders stiff with indecision.

Wang Xiao sighed.

Then, without a word, he took her hand.

She stumbled slightly, nearly falling if not for his grip.

"Huh?"

Wang Xiao stopped her in her tracks and exhaled again, thinking to himself.

This spy is seriously lacking in discipline.

Her legs were long, her figure like a magazine cover beauty...

But her brain…

Needed firmware updates.

Zhang Sisi, of course, had no idea she was being silently evaluated like a livestock.

If she did, she might've turned into a dog and bitten his hand off.

They stopped.

The street fell into that late-night quiet where even the wind seemed hesitant.

Lin Xue, realizing she'd been discovered, couldn't run.

She didn't hide.

She stepped out slowly.

Her silhouette emerged from the shadows, a dusty grey robe covering her shoulders like a forgotten hospital gown.

Torn at the edges, smudged with city filth.

She looked like the ghost of a woman who once ruled hearts.

No makeup. No heels. No weapon.

Only the echo of who she used to be.

She just walked forward—

One step at a time.

Like a prisoner approaching her own judgement.