Chapter 27 – Shadows in the Flame
Tang Xinyi sat calmly in the high-security interrogation suite within Bai Corp's underground vault—an area only a handful even knew existed. Monitors lined one side of the wall, and behind the glass, Mo Chen, Xueqing, and Zhihao observed in tense silence.
"She's not nervous at all," Zhihao muttered, chewing the end of a pen. "Creepy calm. Like she's rehearsed this."
"She has," Mo Chen said coldly. "Spies like her don't crack with pressure. They break only when it serves their plan."
Xueqing's gaze sharpened. "Then we'll burn the plan down."
She stepped into the room alone.
The door hissed shut behind her. Xinyi looked up, a ghost of a smirk on her lips.
"Miss Bai," she said. "You look tired."
"I've been hunting ghosts," Xueqing replied coolly. "And I just found one."
She sat across from her, setting a recorder between them. "Let's start with the man who recruited you. If it wasn't Yanshang, who was it?"
Tang Xinyi leaned back in her chair. "A man who wears a scentless cologne. Speaks with a slight southern accent. Gloves, always. Even when it's hot."
Xueqing's heart tightened. That description… it matched the man who had haunted her steps after she first woke up in this life—the same one who had appeared briefly in surveillance but left no trace.
"The same man who threatened Qiao Lan?" she asked.
Xinyi raised a brow. "Threatened? No. He promised her something. That's what he does. He knows what people want most—and twists it."
Xueqing's mind raced.
"And what did he promise you?" she asked, voice low.
Xinyi's smile faltered. "Freedom," she whispered. "From the shadows I was born into. But now I see… I traded one cage for another."
The tension in the room crackled.
Behind the glass, Mo Chen turned to Zhihao. "Trace everything linked to that brooch she surrendered earlier. I don't think it's just jewelry."
"On it," Zhihao nodded.
Back inside, Xueqing rose.
"Who is he working for?"
Xinyi didn't answer right away. Then, slowly: "He calls himself the Flame. Says he's here to rewrite the ending we stole from him in the last life."
Xueqing froze.
A name from the past. A threat reborn in fire.
She stepped out, face pale. "He remembers too."
Mo Chen's fists clenched.
"Then this just became more than revenge," he said.
"This," Xueqing whispered, "is war."