CHAPTER 279: CHAPTER 279: ALL RIGHT...

Even Tang Fei smiled as she held her seatbelt, glancing over her shoulder at her mismatched but perfect little team that was resting and snoring.

"You all did something important today," she said softly. "You showed people they are not alone. You made them feel human again and feel like they have companions."

"Hehehe...." They giggled happily.

The van rolled through the quiet city streets, its reflections scattered across glass towers and roadside puddles.

No one spoke for a long time. They didn’t need to.

In that silence, hearts stitched together, across generations, across stories untold, and stories just beginning.

And somewhere far behind them, in a hospital ward now dim and resting, an old chessboard and a Go board waited quietly for their next game...

...and the return of the children who brought springtime with them.

---

THE KINGDOM OF AERITHYA, ROYAL PALACE

The long marble corridor echoed with footsteps as a cloaked figure stormed into the War Chamber.

A man in his early fifties, bearing a crown heavy with silver and responsibility, stood beside a young prince with hollow eyes.

"She was declared dead, Your Majesty," a guard stammered. "And yet... There was a hit on our internal surveillance system. A 99% facial match. Gone before we could verify."

The prince’s jaw clenched. "Where?"

"Taizhou. But the signal was scrubbed moments after it appeared."

Suddenly, there was silence.

The king turned slowly to his son. "You told me she died when the convoy was attacked. That there was no hope."

The prince didn’t flinch. "She was supposed to. I don’t know what happened."

His voice was calm. Too calm.

"Find her," he said coldly. "And this time... make sure there’s no body left to be found."

"Yes, Prince...."

The chamber fell into a heavy silence as the guard bowed and exited swiftly, boots echoing down the cold corridor.

The King’s eyes, aged by war and regrets, narrowed at his grandson. "What are you not telling me, Zaire?"

Prince Zaire’s expression remained impassive and nonchalant, "Nothing that will change the fact that she should have died that day. Her being alive would only be a threat!"

"Then why didn’t you do things cleanly? Do you think it would be that easy to be a crown prince? You have to be careful... Or else things would only end up backfiring! If she resurfaces....."

The King’s fist slammed onto the polished table.

"She won’t," Zaire interrupted, his voice steel. "I will make sure of it."

The doors creaked open again, and a tall woman stepped inside, her cloak dusted with ash-gray embroidery, eyes hidden behind a silver mask.

"Commander Sylha," the prince acknowledged her presence. "You heard the orders."

She nodded once. "I will bring her back. Dead or... broken."

As she turned to leave, the King’s voice cut through the air.

"Wait. If she is alive... and survived that plan... then she may not be the same girl we remember."

Zaire’s lips curved, just slightly. "I’m counting on it."

— — — — — —

The hum of the engine was low, steady, like a beast barely leashed. City lights blurred past the tinted windows, swallowed by the dark sweep of the highway.

At the back of the SUV, Huo Ting Cheng, with a cold expression pasted on his face, sat in silence, his posture relaxed, but his presence unmistakably dominant. One hand rested on his knee, the other loosely curled over Tang Fei’s fingers.

Zhihao was totally exhausted, so he closed his eyes and slept off It was the same with Minghao, Qingqing, and Tinghao, and only Feihao was awake.

Twilight was happy too, having to spend time with her momma like this fulfilled her worrying heart. While seated close to Xu Xie, she sneaked a peek at Tang Fei, who was leaning against her husband’s shoulders, and all she could see was calmness and happiness.

Qin Xinyu was also seated close to his sister; he didn’t need to say anything, but seeing his sister happy and alive made him relax and calm. He felt like everything else was good and ready to live this life.

"Fei Fei, you haven’t seen my parents for years now, can you drop me home, mnnh?" Xu Xie suddenly suggested that they had been friends for several years since they were just five years old, and they recently reunited.

She was looking forward to restoring her relationship with her parents, as they had treated Tang Fei as their baby girl; all the time, they would ask her how she was doing... But she felt like it was time she saw them. She was nervous and could still understand her if she declined her request.

"All right...." Tang Fei didn’t decline her request even though the kids were exhausted; she knew she had her guards that could pick her up, but since it was a polite invitation, she couldn’t decline, and it was just 7.

Huo Ting Cheng held one of her hands intimately while he got his tablet with the other hand going through emails. The hospital director wanted to talk to him at the hospital, but he declined. They knew there was a time for everything, and he was going through the emails he had received from him before forwarding them to Secretary Li.

Tang Fei wondered if they would recognize that she wasn’t the original Tang Fei, after all, the real Tang Fei had died. She was never that proficient when it came to these kinds of reunions and never emotionally intelligent.

From the memories, she couldn’t recall much about Xu Xie’s family apart from the two brothers who had come over to their home. How many family members were there? What did they look like?

She began tensing, and Huo Ting Cheng immediately noticed from her palm that it was sweating.

He placed the tablet to the side before holding both of her hands in his palm. He thought she could be feeling guilty that she hadn’t gone over to see them for a long while and was nervous meeting them again after abandoning them.