The room was warm.
But Su Nian felt cold.
Not from the air-conditioning, not from the morning breeze slipping in through the curtains.
Cold from what Qin Zhen had said.
"Li Sheng has already decided… to take you."
No one spoke immediately.
Dr. Fang looked confused and frightened, like he had walked into a conversation that belonged to a different world. Madam Duan's expression did not change, but Su Nian could tell—she wasn't calm.
She was calculating.
And Duan Yichen…
Yichen's gaze stayed on Su Nian.
Not on Qin Zhen.
Not even on the black box.
His eyes stayed on her the way a person watched someone standing too close to the edge of a cliff.
Quietly.
Carefully.
Ready to pull them back without making them feel ashamed.
Su Nian tightened her fingers around her needle case.
"Take me?" she repeated softly. "He thinks I'm an object?"
Qin Zhen's voice stayed calm. "Li Sheng doesn't think in objects."
Su Nian's eyes narrowed. "Then what does he think in?"
Qin Zhen held her gaze for a moment.
Then he said, quietly:
"Assets. Leverage. Weak points."
Dr. Fang's brows knit together. "That sounds like business."
Qin Zhen looked at him.
"It is," he said. "That's why he's dangerous."
Su Nian's eyes lowered slightly.
She could see the black qi in the room shift again, faint and deliberate like smoke responding to breath.
It was sensitive to tension.
Sensitive to names.
Sensitive to fear.
And the name Li Sheng sat in the air like a blade laid gently across a throat.
Yichen spoke, voice controlled.
"What exactly is Li Sheng?" he asked.
Not who.
What.
Su Nian's gaze flicked toward him briefly.
Yichen's expression wasn't hostile.
But it was serious.
It carried that quiet Duan family pressure—an expectation that the truth should be spoken plainly, cleanly, without dramatics.
Qin Zhen leaned back slightly.
"He is not the kind of man you meet once," he said. "He is the kind of man you meet… and then you realize he's been in your life for years."
Madam Duan's eyes sharpened. "Speak properly."
Qin Zhen nodded. "Fine."
He looked at Su Nian.
Then he said, word by word, deliberate:
"Li Sheng is the Li family's face.
The person they show society when they want to appear harmless.
The man who shakes hands, smiles, donates money, and buys loyalty."
Su Nian's jaw tightened.
She had seen the smile.
Polished.
Measured.
The kind of smile that made people relax before they realized their wallets were missing.
Qin Zhen continued.
"He is also," Qin Zhen said quietly, "the Li family's knife."
Dr. Fang's face paled. "What—?"
Qin Zhen didn't raise his voice. He didn't dramatize it. That calm made it worse.
"He doesn't fight in the open," Qin Zhen said. "He doesn't ruin people loudly. He doesn't need to."
He glanced toward the black box.
"He sends a gift.
He creates inconvenience.
He stirs conflict inside a household."
Su Nian's eyes dropped to the box.
Her family hadn't dared to send something like that without confidence.
So the question wasn't why the Su family sent it.
It was…
Who gave them the courage?
Su Nian spoke, voice steady. "You're saying Li Sheng instructed them."
Qin Zhen didn't deny it.
"I'm saying your family is too shallow to understand black qi," Qin Zhen said. "But they're very good at following orders when they believe it benefits them."
Madam Duan's voice was cold.
"Su family," she said, "is not strong enough to offend the Duan family without a backer."
Yichen didn't speak, but Su Nian could feel the shift in his mood.
He wasn't angry at her.
He was angry at the people who kept trying to drag her back into ugliness.
Su Nian swallowed slowly.
"So what does Li Sheng want from me?" she asked again.
Her voice was calm.
But it had sharpened.
This time, it wasn't a scared question.
It was a dangerous one.
Qin Zhen looked at her carefully.
Then he spoke softly:
"He wants your eyes."
Dr. Fang blinked. "Her eyes?"
Madam Duan's gaze tightened.
Yichen's expression darkened instantly, but not into cruelty—into something more controlled, more protective.
"Explain," Yichen said.
Qin Zhen nodded once.
"You're the only person here who can see black qi," he said, looking directly at Su Nian. "And Li Sheng knows it."
Su Nian's chest tightened.
No one had ever said it so plainly.
It made her gift sound like an illness.
Or a sentence.
"How does he know?" Su Nian asked quietly.
Qin Zhen's eyes narrowed slightly.
"He tested," he said. "He didn't come yesterday to socialize. He came to confirm."
Su Nian recalled the moment.
His hand extended.
His eyes watching her refusal.
That small pause.
That small silent exchange where she didn't move.
And the way his smile didn't change when she denied him.
He had known.
The entire time.
Qin Zhen continued.
"Li Sheng is patient," he said. "But he's not kind."
Dr. Fang muttered, "Patient and not kind… that's terrifying."
Madam Duan ignored him.
"What does he do with her sight?" Madam Duan asked.
Qin Zhen's expression stayed calm.
"He uses it," he said simply.
"To locate where black qi is planted.
To track where it spreads.
To know which house is weak.
Which person is cracking.
Which family can be turned against itself."
Su Nian's fingers tightened.
So black qi wasn't only a spiritual sickness.
It was a weapon.
A political instrument.
A silent assassination method.
Not of bodies.
Of reputations.
Of stability.
Of families.
Yichen's voice came low. "If he wants her, he'll have to come through me."
Su Nian's throat tightened slightly.
She didn't want to feel comfort.
Comfort was dangerous.
But she did.
Because Yichen didn't say it like a threat.
He said it like a fact.
Qin Zhen looked at Yichen for a moment.
Then he nodded, acknowledging the weight of Duan power.
But his next words were for Su Nian again.
"He doesn't need to grab you," Qin Zhen said. "He just needs to corner you."
Su Nian's eyes narrowed. "How?"
Qin Zhen's voice stayed steady.
"He creates situations you can't ignore," he said. "Black qi incidents. Collapses. sudden sickness. a frightened staff member. a dying person."
He paused.
"And every time you treat it," he said, "you expose more of yourself."
Su Nian's expression stiffened.
In other words:
The more she helped…
The easier she became to capture.
Madam Duan's gaze hardened. "So your solution is to stop her from treating?"
Qin Zhen's eyes shifted to Madam Duan.
"Would you let your son rot to protect her secrecy?" he asked.
Madam Duan didn't answer.
And the silence was answer enough.
Yichen's voice came quieter. "Then what's the solution?"
Qin Zhen turned his gaze back to Su Nian.
"Teach her control," he said. "So she can treat without being traced. So she can contain without leaving herself exposed."
Su Nian stared at him.
Her instinct didn't like him.
But her instincts weren't screaming danger.
They were warning her of something else.
Truth.
Su Nian's voice turned colder. "Why would you help me?"
Qin Zhen's expression didn't soften.
"Because your grandmother asked me to," he said.
Su Nian's throat tightened.
"She trusted you," Su Nian said quietly.
"Yes," Qin Zhen answered.
Su Nian's eyes sharpened. "Then tell me something only she would know."
Qin Zhen was silent for a moment.
Then he spoke softly:
"She always boiled her medicine too long," he said. "On purpose."
Su Nian froze.
That was real.
Her grandmother did that.
She would boil herbs until the kitchen smelled bitter, until the liquid turned dark, until Su Nian complained the tea tasted like soil.
And her grandmother would only say:
"Better bitter than dead."
Su Nian's fingers loosened slightly.
Qin Zhen continued calmly.
"She knew," he said, "the world would not let you live sweetly."
The air in the room tightened.
Su Nian could see the black qi shift near the doorway again, faint but restless.
Something outside moved.
Approached.
The black qi responded the way a shadow responded to a body walking toward the light.
Yichen noticed her expression change.
His voice lowered. "Su Nian… what is it?"
Su Nian didn't look away from the doorway.
Her voice was quiet.
"They're near," she said.
Dr. Fang went pale. "Who's near?!"
Su Nian didn't answer.
She only stood.
Needle case in hand.
Calm, steady.
But no longer hesitant.
Qin Zhen rose as well, unhurried, like a man who had lived through worse mornings.
He looked at Su Nian and spoke softly:
"This is the first rule."
Su Nian's gaze stayed on the doorway.
"What rule?"
Qin Zhen's eyes narrowed.
"When black qi moves," he said, "it always leaves footprints."
Su Nian inhaled slowly.
She began to understand the shape of her enemy.
And the name behind the smile.