The elevator chimed softly.
Ji Yanluo glanced toward the hallway just as the doors slid open and Han Su stepped in, followed closely by Xiao Lin. Neither of them looked calm. Han Su's phone was still in his hand, his face drawn with restrained tension.
"They've gone haywire," he announced without preamble.
Ji Lanxue straightened. "Who?"
"The netizens," Xiao Lin answered, eyes flicking to Bai Zhiqi who was still standing near the window, the invitation card now limp in her hand. "It started twenty minutes ago. There's a thread already climbing trends. Some are saying Lanyue's throwing the banquet to smoke out the veiled musician. Others..."
"Others are digging up Bai Zhiqi's old case again," Han Su finished. "It's starting to spiral."
Zhiqi didn't move.
The storm brewing outside her mind seemed far away, unimportant. The walls around her were growing tighter by the second, the air inside the penthouse suddenly too thick, too heavy. The words on the invitation blurred, not from emotion but from something deeper—detachment.
Ji Yanluo stepped forward. "Zhiqi."
She turned slightly, her eyes dull but alert. "I'm going to rest."
"Zhiqi—"
"I said I'm going to rest."
Her voice wasn't raised, but it cut through the room like glass cracking under pressure. Ji Yanluo paused, jaw tightening.
Lanxue watched silently as Zhiqi turned and walked away, not in haste, but with the deliberate distance of someone who no longer wished to be seen.
The bedroom door clicked shut behind her.
A silence stretched.
Xiao Lin exhaled slowly. "She didn't look good."
"She didn't sound good either," Lanxue muttered.
"She's rattled," Han Su said.
"No," Yanluo corrected, eyes still fixed on the hallway. "She's shaken. There's a difference."
Han Su tapped his phone screen, scrolling through the chaos spilling online. "They're already analyzing her old piano competition footage. Some are even comparing her movements to the veiled musician's clips."
"They're not completely wrong," Xiao Lin added cautiously.
Lanxue narrowed her eyes. "But they don't know the truth. And that's what makes this dangerous."
"She's trapped," Yanluo said quietly. "No matter where she turns, Lanyue's pulling the strings. First the billboard. Now the banquet. The invitation wasn't just a formality."
"It was a provocation," Han Su agreed. "And Zhiqi felt it."
Another hush fell.
Outside, clouds gathered slowly, like the city was holding its breath.
"She needs time," Lanxue said after a moment.
Ji Yanluo gave her a side glance. "We don't have time. The banquet's in days, and if Lanyue really plans to unveil everything that night…"
Xiao Lin bit her lip. "Then the person behind that veil has to make a decision before the world does it for her."
They all turned toward the closed door again.
A fragile stillness lived behind it. One built not on peace, but pressure—one whisper away from crumbling.
And somewhere in that silence, Bai Zhiqi stood alone.
Balancing between the identity the world buried…
And the truth Bai Lanyue refused to let die.