The first lie Luo Hanying told was with her smile.
She stood across from Yan Shaoxing in a private lounge buried beneath a silent art gallery in Hong Kong. Everything about the room was curated — the minimalist bonsai at the corner, the backlit wine wall, the glass of untouched red at her side. But her hands trembled.
Yan watched her carefully, like a man unwrapping a gift he knew was booby-trapped.
"You came back fast," he said.
"I always knew where I belonged."
"Is that so?" He reached forward and tilted her wine glass toward her lips. "Then drink. To loyalty."
She hesitated.
Then drank.
System Log –
Whisper Mode Enabled
Subject: Luo Hanying
Status: Deep Infiltration Active
Voice Line Capture: Secured
Emotional Stability: 83%
Facial Pulse Readings: Clean (Deception Within Tolerance Threshold)
Back at SkyInk, Zeyan stood in front of the tactical wall — a massive digital display blinking with threat markers. The center glowed with one word: PRAGUE.
Jiang Yue's next role had come fast — faster than anyone expected.
It was a multi-national, European-Asian co-production. Artistic. Ruthless. Politically dangerous.
She'd been cast in The Black Swan of Bohemia — a film about an underground resistance ballerina who led Nazi assassinations in 1943 Prague.
The film had already lost two actresses before her.
One for "scheduling conflicts."
One who disappeared from the industry completely.
And now they wanted her.
No translators. No hand-holding. Just immersion. And risk.
System Warning:
Global Industry Notice – FL Casting Under Review by Eastern Regulatory Boards
Probability of Regional Blacklist if Political Narratives Clash: 68.2%
System Recommendation: Proceed Only With Total Public Alignment Management
Jiang Yue read the script twice.
Said nothing.
Then packed.
Meanwhile, Yan Shaoxing pulled the trigger.
It was precise. Planned. Layered.
He didn't leak a scandal. He built one.
A fake audition video — stitched together from old clips of Jiang Yue, her Blackbridge monologues, her Cannes delay interview. Paired with fabricated behind-the-scenes whispers from an unnamed "international casting director."
The clip made it appear as if she had mocked a wartime martyrdom scene.
The caption: "Talent or Treason?"
The moment it went live, it hit top three trends in three regions.
System Alert:
False Narrative Surge Detected
Viral Index Spike: 4.7m views/hour
Damage Projection: -16.4% trust in target regions (JP/KR/CN) if unmitigated
Suggested Response: Denial = Weak
Recommended: Emotional Reversal via Performance Proof
Zeyan didn't flinch.
Instead, he opened the locked tier of system interface and triggered the Onsite Burn Recovery Protocol.
"Let them try. We're going to answer with art."
In Prague, Jiang Yue walked onto the soundless set of a ruined opera house repurposed as a shooting location.
Her co-star approached her — tall, clean-cut, fluent in Czech and French. He smiled too easily.
His name: Matias Lorne.
She remembered him.
Yan Shaoxing's former poster boy.
She said nothing.
System Passive Detection:
Emotional Drift Found – Co-Star Intentions: Mixed (51.9% Loyalty to FL, 47.2% Compromise Probability)
The first scene required her to dance. No music. No cues. Just silence, and grief, and the soft creak of the wooden floor.
Matias was instructed to corner her, interrogate her, and slap her character. It was meant to be restrained.
But as the cameras rolled.
Matias slapped her — too hard.
Everyone froze.
Except Jiang Yue.
She kept moving.
Eyes wide. Mouth shut. One tear. Then she pushed him back with one hand — not in violence, but in choreography. A ballet spin. A pirouette with rage built into its joints.
She danced around him.
And he looked small.
The director whispered: "Keep rolling."
Back in the Hong Kong gallery, Yan watched the feed in silence.
Luo Hanying sat across from him again.
He leaned forward.
"She's resilient. But everyone has a fracture."
She nodded slowly.
"And what happens when she doesn't break?"
He smiled.
"Then we bend the world around her until something else snaps."
That night, Jiang Yue's impromptu dance — blood still in her mouth — was leaked anonymously.
No caption. No defense. Just performance.
It silenced the scandal.
Completely.
System Report:
Public Sentiment Reversal: Complete
Viral Index Overwrite: "Silent Swan" clip trending 3.2x more than fake scandal
Passive Buff:Grace Under Strike unlocked — +12% crowd empathy when enduring real pain onscreen
Matias: Flagged – Scheduled for System-Initiated Loyalty Evaluation
And back in SkyInk, Zeyan received a private system ping.
From Luo Hanying.
A name. A location. A time.
Yan Shaoxing would be at a closed-door party in Lisbon. No guards. No cameras.
A soft trap.
Zeyan said nothing.
But his system whispered:
"Would you like to finish the fire, sir?"
He smiled.
"Not yet."
"Let her dance a little longer."