The club had quieted down, the neon lights now dimmed to a gentle blue hue. An'ran stood alone on the upper floor balcony, a cigarette between her fingers—not lit, just resting there as a habit she never really indulged in.
She stared out at the early skyline, her sharp features cold in the dawn light.
"Miss Meng," her assistant approached cautiously, holding a sleek tablet. "Everything's been cleaned. Yu Feifei is resting in the side suite. The man has been taken care of. No traces left behind."
An'ran didn't move. "And the media?"
"No leaks so far. We paid off the three club-goers who overheard something near the VVIP hallway. They signed NDAs."
A long silence.
Then, An'ran exhaled slowly—not from relief, but calculation. "Keep a leash on Feifei. If she's as smart as she pretends to be, she won't try anything stupid…" She turned her gaze toward the dim lights of the city. "…and get me a three-generation background check on Yu Feifei. I want to know who she's related to, who raised her, and who whispered in her ear growing up. If a rat crawled through her family tree, I want to know its name."
The assistant stiffened. "Yes, Miss Meng. Right away."
Just as he turned to leave, An'ran's voice rang out again—cool and commanding. "Also, find out who orchestrated the rotten egg incident in front of the police station on Zhiqing. I don't believe in coincidences."
The assistant gave a respectful nod, then disappeared down the hall.
An'ran tapped her nails against the edge of the railing. "Let's see which rats have been nibbling at the wrong cheese."
An'ran stood still for a moment after the assistant left, her reflection blending with the city skyline through the tall glass. The night was calm—but her instincts weren't.
Rotten eggs in front of the police station? That wasn't spontaneous.
Someone was pulling strings. Someone wanted to humiliate Zhiqing publicly, strategically.And if they were smart enough to time it right, they were smart enough to hide their tracks.
Her fingers tightened on the railing.
This wasn't just about Zhiqing anymore. It was about whoever thought they could move against her—An'ran Meng—in her own city.
She turned around, her heels clicking against the marble as she walked back into her study.A soft knock came on the door just before she reached her desk.
The assistant had returned, panting slightly, urgency in his eyes.
"Miss Meng," he said quickly, "there's something strange about Yu Feifei's records. Her early life is clean… too clean. It's as if the first fifteen years of her existence were scrubbed out."
An'ran's eyes sharpened.
"…Scrubbed out?" She repeated, her voice dangerously calm.
"Yes. We can't find a school record, hospital file, or even a photo of her before she turned fifteen."
A pause.
Then An'ran smiled.Not the warm kind. The kind predators wear when they sense the prey has slipped.
"Interesting," she murmured, sitting down. "Looks like our little chick has feathers dipped in ink and secrets."
She leaned back, eyes narrowing.
"Keep digging. The past always stinks more than rotten eggs."
On other side of the mansion Yu Feifei
What no one knew—not Zhiqing, not An'ran, not even Feifei herself at first—was that Yu Feifei didn't belong in this world.At least, not originally.
She wasn't supposed to be here.Not in this body.Not in this mission.
She was just a reader—someone who had devoured every word of an R18 thriller-romance novel where Yu Feifei, an alluring undercover agent, infiltrated the Meng An'ran through her connections with Jiang Zhiqing.
But she wasn't the original Feifei.She was the reader who had suddenly woken up as Yu Feifei… right at the moment in the story when Zhiqing had started suspecting her.
"Yu Feifei... why do I feel you didn't end up here accidentally but it's your scheme to get An'ran's attention?"
That line hit her differently now.Because it was true.In the novel.
The original Yu Feifei was planted by the Intelligence Bureau to seduce and extract secrets from An'ran, who had links to the city's underground elite. But now, with a reader inside her mind, she didn't want to follow that path anymore.
Only… it was too late.
An'ran had taken the bait.
Feifei wasn't sure how long she had before the real timeline caught up to her.
She didn't know if Zhiqing had already started suspecting her again.
And worst of all—she didn't know how much of the novel An'ran had already subconsciously played into.
Because if the story went exactly as written… it wouldn't be Feifei holding the script by the end.
That's when she heard An'ran say it.
"She sold herself," An'ran said lazily, reclining in her chair with that same disinterested elegance, not even glancing toward the girl. "Not out of bravery… but desperation. She thinks playing the pawn will get her on the board."
Those words struck Yu Feifei like a bolt of cold lightning. Her breath caught.
This… this is the beginning of the novel.The one she had read. The one where things began to spiral. The one where she spiraled.
Yu Feifei's heart pounded like a war drum in her chest. Her fists slowly clenched at her sides, nails digging into her palms as memories of plotlines flooded back—of how she, the undercover agent, was reduced to a tool in An'ran's game. Of how her mission was compromised. Of how she was...
Controlled in An'ran's bed.
"I—I don't want to be a pawn," she blurted, her voice cracking despite her efforts to hold steady. "I just wanted a chance. I didn't know what was happening in this room, I swear—"
An'ran slowly raised her eyes then, cool and sharp, slicing into Feifei's trembling form like glass.
Yu Feifei swallowed. This is where it all starts… but maybe I can change it.
But after hearing just a few more words exchanged between An'ran and Zhiqing, Yu Feifei's hope of slipping away quietly shattered.
She wasn't going anywhere.
Not yet.
Not with the way Zhiqing's sharp gaze lingered on her—not with the way An'ran spoke about her like a disposable piece on a game board.
Feifei's chest tightened. I'm trapped.Whether it was her desperation, her identity, or the game she walked into—she was already marked.
An'ran's tone was cold but amused. "Keep her close," she said to Zhiqing, as if Yu Feifei was just another asset to be filed. "If she runs, we'll know where her loyalty truly lies."
Zhiqing didn't speak. She just looked at Feifei with something unreadable in her eyes—something between curiosity and quiet warning.
Feifei's heart sank.
So this is how it begins. Again.
But this time, she wasn't the naive undercover agent from the novel.This time, she knew what was coming.And this time, she would write her own ending.
After thinking through everything—An'ran's words, Zhiqing's eyes, the cold reality of her situation—Yu Feifei's mind spun like a broken reel.
Her body ached, but not from the physical strain. It was the pressure, the fear of being exposed, and the weight of knowing she was living out a plot she once thought was fiction.
She curled up on the edge of the unfamiliar bed An'ran had assigned her to, clutching the thin blanket tighter around herself.
I have to find a way to survive. To outplay them. I know what's coming… I just need time.
But exhaustion hit her like a wave.
She didn't know when her eyes fluttered closed—only that the last thing she saw was the moonlight spilling across the floor, sharp and cold like the truth she couldn't run from.
And then… she slept.
For now, at least, the battle paused.