CHAPTER 3The Fortress
The Xiānyǔ estate wasn't a home; it was a museum that people happened to sleep in. A brutalist concrete structure disguised as modernist architecture, all sharp angles and cold light. Luna parked the bright yellow Vespa between two black luxury sedans. It looked like a happy sunflower growing in a graveyard.
The front door opened before she could knock.
A servant in silent gray robes bowed slightly. "Your mother is in the contemplation room."
Luna walked through halls filled with priceless artifacts behind glass. Tang dynasty vases. Ming porcelain. A collection of ancient oracle bones. Everything preserved. Nothing alive.
Int. Contemplation Room
The room was all white stone and silence. Lihua Xiānyǔ stood at the window, back turned. She wore a dress of midnight blue silk that probably cost more than Jett's entire apartment.
"You smell like rain and poor decisions," Lihua said without turning.
"Mother, I—"
"Do you know what the first rule of our family is?"
Luna swallowed. "Never show weakness."
"Correct." Lihua turned slowly. Her face was a perfect mask—ageless, elegant, utterly cold. "And today, you showed the city your dripping, sobbing weakness. To them, you are now the 'crying Xiānyǔ girl.' That will stick. Like a stain."
"I loved him."
A disdainful smile. "Love. A temporary chemical imbalance used to facilitate reproduction. You're twenty-five. Not a teenager. Start thinking with your head, not your hormones."
"Don't you ever feel anything?" The words burst out before Luna could stop them.
Lihua's eyes narrowed. "I feel responsibility. Duty. The weight of generations. That is what you should feel. Not this… teenage angst."
She walked closer, examining Luna like a flawed artifact.
"Your brother Kai never would have done this. Your cousin Ming would have handled a breakup with dignity. But you… you've always been the fragile one. The 'sensitive' one."
Luna clenched her fists. "Maybe being sensitive isn't a flaw."
"In our world?" Lihua's smile was thin. "It's a fatal flaw." She paused. "Which is why we're taking steps."
Luna went cold.
"You need structure. Discipline. A purpose beyond your 'feelings.'"
"What does that mean?"
"Starting tomorrow, you'll be apprenticed to the Wǎngshā family's digital archives division. Leo Wǎngshā has agreed to take you on."
Leo Wǎngshā. The name hit Luna like a physical blow. The ghost. The eraser. The most feared data warlord in the city. Her opposite in every way.
"No. Please. Not him."
"Why not? He's the best. He'll teach you control. Precision. How to remove emotion from information."
"He erases history! I preserve it! We're opposites!"
"Exactly." Lihua's eyes gleamed. "You'll learn from your opposite. Or you'll fail. And if you fail…"
She didn't finish. She didn't need to.
"Be at SilkWeb Tower at 8 AM. Sharp. And for heaven's sake, wear something that doesn't look like you borrowed it from a clown."
Luna just stood there. Defeated.
"You may go. And get rid of that… yellow atrocity outside. It's embarrassing."