The story of the past came to an end.
Jiang Lingxue, leaning against the door, finished her third cigarette. She pulled out her phone and glanced at it, finding the contact labeled “Master.” That was the ID she had set back when she was still living at Lin Cheng’s place. She had set her note for him as “Master,” and then used his phone to change his note for her to “Little Dog.”
Being his Little Dog didn’t seem so bad at the time. But eventually, even that would wear thin and become something he’d grow tired of.
The chat window was still frozen at a message from half a year ago. Over these past six months, Jiang Lingxue had pulled it up again and again, reading through it obsessively.
He was the proud one, the one who should have noticed. All he ever had to do was send her a single message, tell her even a little that he missed her, and no matter where she was, she would drop everything and rush to his side.
But he had never needed her.
On countless nights, after getting drunk, Jiang Lingxue would clutch her phone in a daze, typing and deleting messages in the chat box. In the end, she always hit delete. It had been his idea for her to leave in the first place, so… as long as he didn’t reach out, what reason did she have to go looking for him?
Litchi and Grape were his good friends… though Jiang Lingxue suspected it went beyond that. Around him, she had never really had a clear place. Maybe once she was his Little Dog… but now, she didn’t even qualify for that.
She was just a foolish idol who had burned through tons of his money with nothing to show for it. Good looks were her only asset; otherwise, she was worthless.
A few days ago at the bar, she had seen him drinking with that girl named Lu Xiaoxiao. When she saw his arm around her waist, her heart had stabbed with pain over and over. She couldn’t quite name the feeling. It shouldn’t have mattered—he deserved his own life, someone to chat about his interests with, a cute girl to stroll around with… But in that moment, her chest had hurt so badly she could barely breathe. She slipped away while they weren’t looking and hid in the bathroom for a long, long time, tears streaming down her face no matter how much she wiped them away.
That spot should have been hers.
The night before last, when she returned to the apartment, her jewelry and favorite pairs of high heels were gone. She had told him herself to just throw them out… but she couldn’t help fantasizing that he might have kept them for her, waiting for the day she came back to reclaim a necklace or two. In reality, he had probably tossed everything the moment she said the words.
It made sense. She was the one with the explosive temper and lazy habits, the one who had turned his life into a mess. Of course he would get fed up with her.
That night before last, Jiang Lingxue had come over, but Lin Cheng never came home. He must have guessed she would show up. Was that why he stayed away on purpose? She spent the whole night lost in wild thoughts, sitting at the table and chain-smoking, but she never mustered the courage to send even one message.
A text might just interrupt whatever he was up to and ruin his good mood.
You were nothing to him—just an irritable, self-destructive layabout with no redeeming qualities. After living together for a year and a half, he had never once breathed a word about liking her or loving her.
What kind of girls were Lu Xiaoxiao and Xu Wanyue, the ones he actually liked?
Jiang Lingxue couldn’t help but start imagining.
Unknowingly, she had smoked her fifth cigarette.
Jiang Lingxue knew smoking wasn’t a good habit, and she had never been able to quit. Back then, Lin Cheng would always urge her to stop, but it never stuck. She did whatever she wanted. One time, she even lit the bedsheets on fire while smoking in bed. After Lin Cheng scolded her, she curled up in the corner hugging her knees all day long. No matter how he coaxed or apologized, she didn’t say a word to him.
Eventually, Lin Cheng stopped nagging her about it. When she smoked, he would open the window, empty her ashtray, and switch her to slim cream-flavored pearl cigarettes—one pack a day. Whenever she finished and came asking for the next, he would pin her to the bed and have his way with her roughly.
In the past six months, though, she had barely smoked at all. Whenever she felt that emptiness in her mouth, Lin Cheng’s disappointed gaze from the day she moved out would flash in her mind.
Whose fault was it, really? Jiang Lingxue often wondered, but she never came to any conclusion. At eighteen, she had thought she would never hope for anything from anyone. But people grow up.
The older she got, the more she resembled her younger self—afraid of being alone, terrified of loneliness, quick to tears and fragile.
In Lin Cheng’s room the night before, she had found those cigarette butts in the trash bin from a hidden compartment in his cabinet. She had always known where he stashed his smokes. It was so much fun to wheedle and whine until he gave in.
He would put on that helpless expression, and when pushed too far, he would snap—then pin her down and bully her mercilessly.
Jiang Lingxue didn’t hate it when he bullied her.
As her hand reached for the pack to pull out the sixth cigarette, her phone buzzed. She froze for a couple of seconds, then checked it. It was a message from “Master.”
“If you can… try to smoke less from now on.”
“Okay, no more smoking after this,” Jiang Lingxue typed back.
She finally made her way to the elevator and rode it downstairs. She tossed the pack of cigarettes from her denim jacket into a trash bin. Rain was falling outside, but her steps felt light and bouncy, like a little girl who had just scored some candy.
The next day.
It was the third day of dating Xu Wanyue.
Lin Cheng had chatted with her on the messaging app the night before and arranged to go to Peach Blossom Cove for photos. But the weather wasn’t cooperating—the sky hung low and overcast, though not entirely gloomy. Lin Cheng didn’t drive, so Xu Wanyue came downstairs to pick him up.
He sat in the passenger seat and glanced at Xu Wanyue in the driver’s seat. Her black hair was braided into a lily bun, but it was slightly off-kilter. She wore a light blue hanfu, the gossamer skirt hugging her figure and revealing a hint of collarbone—an ethereal, fairy-like beauty. Her ankles were sheathed in sheer white silk stockings. Hmm? Something a bit tantalizing there—garters or thigh-highs?
“Your hair’s crooked,” Lin Cheng pointed out.
“I spent an hour learning from a video.”
“Such clumsy hands.”
Xu Wanyue’s eyes darkened. “You know how?”
“Actually, yeah.”
Jiang Lingxue had forced Lin Cheng to learn all sorts of things. Once, for her short-video account, she wanted to film hanfu outfit videos, so he had picked up braiding techniques. After arriving at Peach Blossom Cove, Xu Wanyue changed into white embroidered shoes but carried a box containing a pair of glossy white high heels.
The thin heels were meant to make her legs look slender and elegant, enhancing her refined air. Her legs were plenty long already, but if she liked it, fine by him.
The peach blossoms in Peach Blossom Cove hadn’t fully fallen yet, but they soon would. Late spring had brought warmer weather. Early spring had drawn crowds, but with no maintenance, tourist trash littered the ground. Lin Cheng cleared a spot with good lighting—decent even in the dim light.
The location was remote enough; a small village lay about ten minutes away by road. Lin Cheng began instructing Xu Wanyue on poses. She was awkward about it, so he guided her hands-on, occasionally squeezing her small hand or slim waist.
Xu Wanyue would blush, but now she was perfectly obedient—no more brooding stares. She was clearly committed to playing the sweet girlfriend role. Lin Cheng started snapping photos in earnest. Xu Wanyue’s eyes sparkled with anticipation.
Near Peach Blossom Cove, on a mountaintop.
The air was damp and chilly, but their Alliance uniforms kept them warm. Futian and Solar Corona felt nothing of it as they watched the surveillance feed on their tablet. They weren’t wearing masks; both were around twenty-three, among the youngest SS-rank ability users in the Alliance despite their shallow seniority.
Futian had short hair, sharp features, and a stern, somewhat intimidating expression. Solar Corona looked milder and more scholarly, his long hair tied in a ponytail.
They didn’t understand why two SS-rankers like them had been assigned this bizarre mission, but obedience was the Alliance’s ironclad rule.
The task involved three people. Besides them, there was the one called “Shaman” in the Alliance—the core of this op. His ability… summoned creatures from the Abyss.
“Are you sure about summoning an S-rank Abyss creature? It’s random… and I can’t fully control it. If it dies, I’ll suffer backlash,” the shaman asked one last time before activating his power.
“We’ll step in before he kills it and take control,” Futian replied coolly. Solar Corona stayed silent beside him. With Futian’s assurance, the shaman gritted his teeth, raised his hand. He had already prepared the summoning ritual at Peach Blossom Cove. As his ability surged, a piercing buzz erupted from the cove, carrying straight to their ears.
“All right, that’s enough photos…”
The buzzing started suddenly.
Lin Cheng’s words cut off. He and Xu Wanyue both froze. Most people in this world had lived through a Catastrophe descent; that buzz was unmistakable—the sound of a space rift about to open.
Xu Wanyue had endured Catastrophes before. Bad memories flooded back. She instinctively looked to Lin Cheng. The gentle smile on his lips had stiffened into something dazed.
“Lin Cheng! Lin Cheng!” Xu Wanyue called urgently.
“It’s a space rift opening,” Lin Cheng snapped back to reality and answered her. But his expression turned unfamiliar—icy cold in a way that chilled her. In her memory, Lin Cheng’s eyes always held a trace of indifference, lazy and gentle no matter what. Now, they were frigid.
She couldn’t pinpoint the chill; it reminded her vaguely of Grape’s threat that day, but far more terrifying.
Space warped before them. Lin Cheng’s voice was soft. “An S-rank space rift. Get out of here. Call for Alliance backup. Evacuate that village nearby—tell them to run as far as they can.”
His tone softened further, carrying an odd compelling magic that made Xu Wanyue nod instinctively. She pulled out her phone to summon reinforcements, then caught herself. “What about you?”
Lin Cheng eyed the twisting vortex, touched his ear clip, buckled on the transformation belt, and flipped open the phone. “I’ll buy time. Should hold it off for a bit. Run fast—don’t look back.”
He slotted the flip phone into the belt.
“Standing by.”
