“Mr. Xie, Mr. Xie.”

The unceasing calls in his ear made Xie Yan feel utterly vexed. His head was heavy, his body leaden. He wanted to wake, yet could not pry his eyes open.

Then a voice came through, slightly cool in tone: “Xie Yan, get up!”

Xie Yan’s eyes snapped open abruptly. But the person he saw before him was not the owner of that voice — it was Old Liu.

A look of delight crossed Old Liu’s face, and his voice carried unmistakable excitement. “Mr. Xie has awoken — wonderful, Mr. Xie has awoken.”

“Where is Shen Ruoxi?” Xie Yan shot upright from the bed. Old Liu tried to stop him, but could not — the sudden movement pulled at the IV stand beside him, sending it crashing to the floor.

Xie Yan glanced at the back of his hand, and without a moment’s hesitation, pulled out the needle. “Where is Shen Ruoxi? Where is she?”

Old Liu said quickly, “We did not see Miss Shen. The other day, you insisted on going to the apartment by yourself and wouldn’t let us follow, but Gui Shou was still worried about your safety. When he had not seen you come out for a long time, he went up and knocked on the door — and eventually broke it open together with Hong Jie.”

As Old Liu spoke, Xie Yan also began to recall the events of that day.

He and Shen Ruoxi had been passionately together, and then she had asked him what it felt like to love someone… after that, his eyelids had begun to grow heavy. She seemed to have said many things in his ear, but he could not make out a single word.

“When we entered, we found Mr. Xie lying in bed, already unconscious.” Old Liu omitted the detail that Xie Yan had been completely unclothed at the time — it was obvious at a glance that he had just been intimate with a woman.

And who that woman was, Old Liu did not even need to think about. It could only be Shen Ruoxi — no one else.

“After we brought Mr. Xie to the hospital, the doctor said Mr. Xie had been put under by a drug and fell unconscious, but the medication was extremely potent, and the doctor could do nothing but wait for Mr. Xie to wake on his own.” Old Liu said with relief, “Thankfully, Mr. Xie has finally awakened. Heaven be praised.”

“Old Liu.” Xie Yan seized Old Liu’s arm. “Go tell Gui Shou to find out where Shen Ruoxi is — right away.”

Old Liu said, “Mr. Xie, Miss Shen is already gone. She most likely will not be coming back. She and we stand on opposing sides. Even if Mr. Xie finds her, what then? You have already shown great mercy by not killing her.”

“She has not gone.” Xie Yan said flatly. “Her latest mission is to kill me. Before she completes the mission, she will not leave. If she leaves, it is betrayal — her organization will not forgive her, and they will not forgive her family either.”

“She wants to kill Mr. Xie?” Old Liu was stunned. Shen Ruoxi wanted to kill Xie Yan, and yet Xie Yan had still shared a bed with her.

“If she had truly wanted to kill me, you would have found a corpse when you arrived.” Xie Yan rubbed his still-foggy head. “She didn’t kill me — so how will she answer to her organization? What is she trying to do?”

Old Liu had watched the dynamic between these two with his own eyes, puzzling over it in his heart. He knew Xie Yan — Xie Yan had never been attached where matters of the heart were concerned. Those women had been nothing more than passing amusements he toyed with on a whim. But this Shen Ruoxi was different from the rest — there was nothing particularly outstanding about her compared to others, yet she had somehow managed to bewitch Xie Yan completely.

From the moment Xie Yan turned back and went into the snow to save her, even sacrificing the use of one hand for her sake, Old Liu had known that Xie Yan had fallen in deep. A man like him, who never let himself feel anything — once he did, it would overturn heaven and earth, and there would be no reining it back in.

“Old Liu, how long was I unconscious?”

Old Liu answered, “Two days and two nights.”

Two full days and nights — more than enough time for many things to happen.

Xie Yan threw back the covers and tried to get out of bed. His legs buckled the moment he stood, and he collapsed to the floor.

“Mr. Xie.” Old Liu and a nearby aide rushed forward to support him. “Mr. Xie, you have not eaten anything for several days. You have been sustained entirely by the IV. On top of that, the poison you were given caused some damage to your body. The doctor strongly recommends that you remain in bed for at least one week.”

“Go find Mu Bai. Now.” Xie Yan’s eyes had gone scarlet. “Tell Mu Bai to come immediately — Old Liu, mobilize everyone who can be mobilized. Quickly.”

Old Liu did not know exactly what Xie Yan intended, but the fact that he was calling for Mu Bai told him that the situation was grave. The last time Mu Bai had been deployed was to rescue Shen Ruoxi from the prince’s residence.

Old Liu suspected that calling on Mu Bai again most likely had something to do with Shen Ruoxi.

~

When Shen Ruoxi came to, she found herself in a cold, dim, and gloomy place.

The moment she moved her wrists, she heard the clinking of iron chains.

She smiled faintly, then stayed still in her seated position and did not move again. There was no need to guess — her hands and feet were bound in heavy iron chains.

There was no light in the room; only a single oil lamp burning in the corridor outside cast a dim and murky glow. A damp chill pressed in from every direction, seeping all the way to the bone.

This was a dungeon. Shen Ruoxi had seen one before, but this was the first time she had been locked inside one. It was said that no one brought here had ever walked out alive. Even those who died were carried out without their bodies intact.

Shen Ruoxi did not know how long she sat there before footsteps finally approached from outside.

Soon the lock on the cell door was opened. A tall silhouette was cast inside, and a pair of black leather shoes appeared in Shen Ruoxi’s field of vision.

A hand reached out and tilted her chin upward, forcing her to look clearly at the person standing before her.

Shen Ruoxi recognized the familiar face and her expression remained largely neutral, though a faint ripple passed through her eyes.

“Ruo Xi!” Dai Jing crouched partway down in front of her. In contrast to her composure, his expression was marked with profound pain. “Why? Why does it have to be you?”

Shen Ruoxi smiled slightly. “I’m sorry.”

“Why didn’t you keep yourself better hidden?” Dai Jing’s voice trembled. “Why did you let my people find you? If you had hidden yourself, or found a way to flee, you could have left all of this behind. You would not be sitting here as a captive.”

“Mr. Dai.” Shen Ruoxi looked at him. “I know you mean well, but I was outmatched. Now that I have been caught by you, I have accepted my fate.”

“Ruo Xi, from the very beginning, when you approached me, were you trying to extract intelligence from me?”

Shen Ruoxi said, “To be truthful, I never really had high hopes of getting anything from you — because I knew exactly what kind of man you are. You keep no concubines, you stay away from drink and smoke, you are disciplined in your personal conduct, and you take your work with absolute seriousness. I don’t know how many people have tried and failed to extract intelligence from you. I am not the sort to throw myself against a wall for nothing. Getting to know you happened entirely by chance — outside of anything I had planned.”

Hearing this, Dai Jing’s expression shifted slightly, and a thread of softness entered the gaze he turned on her. “So at the beginning, you had no intention of using me?”

“Mr. Dai, thank you.” Shen Ruoxi smiled. “I had no thoughts of using you — but that changes nothing. What I was supposed to do, I still did, and arresting me is your duty. We have never owed each other anything.”

“Ruo Xi.” Dai Jing suddenly said in a serious tone, “Tell me the locations of your organization and a list of your members. I will let you go.”

The aide standing outside the door heard these words, and his brow immediately furrowed deeply.

Dai Jing had always been impartial and incorruptible. In all his time managing the intelligence bureau, he had never bent the rules for personal reasons. It was precisely because of this that he had been able to sit securely in his position.

And yet today, he was negotiating terms with an enemy spy — even considering releasing her.

What fate awaited an enemy spy after capture, Dai Jing knew better than anyone.

“You’ll let me go? And where would I go?” Shen Ruoxi shook her head. “For people like us, our lives have long since ceased to belong to us, and our fates are not ours to arrange. So whether I live or die will not be decided by me.”

“Why can’t it be?” Dai Jing gripped her shoulders with a barely contained urgency. He was normally composed and refined, but this was one of the rare moments his agitation showed. “I can take you somewhere safe — somewhere no one will find you. You can live freely, without ever having to do this work again.”

“Mr. Dai, you know it’s not that simple — don’t you?” Shen Ruoxi met his gaze. “I understand the rules here. And I will not reveal any information you want from me.”

“Ruo Xi!” Dai Jing was almost thunderous. “Why must you be so stubborn? You clearly have a way to save your own life.”

Did she?

Shen Ruoxi turned her face away, avoiding his gaze.

She had accepted the order from above to kill Xie Yan, but she knew her own heart well — she would rather die than kill Xie Yan.

But refusing to kill Xie Yan was tantamount to betraying the organization. Not only would she suffer, but her family would be dragged into it as innocent victims.

So the only path was to be captured by Dai Jing before she could carry out the mission. And so she had deliberately exposed her trail and left a string of clues, allowing Dai Jing’s agents, who had been lurking in the shadows all along, to arrest her without trouble.

She knew what awaited her in the hands of the intelligence bureau. But compared to taking Xie Yan’s life, she was more than willing to choose this path of no return. It was, for her, the most fitting end.

She had not betrayed the organization. Her family would not be implicated. And here, she would end her days and close out a life.

She had lived a life full of brokenness and ruin. At the very end, all she wanted was to die without lingering regrets. For her, that was already an immeasurable blessing.

She had no regrets.

“Ruo Xi!” Dai Jing saw her close her eyes, her lips pressed tightly into a thin line, clearly unwilling to say another word or look at him again.

He had seen many spies. Some could keep secrets locked behind iron lips; others were fiercely unyielding even to their deaths. Yet under the intelligence bureau’s severe interrogation methods, nearly half of them eventually broke and confessed.

But no one needed to see those instruments of torture with their own eyes — even hearing a description was enough to make your skin crawl.

“Ruo Xi!” Dai Jing gripped her shoulders with force. “The things we use on others — I don’t want to use them on you. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Shen Ruoxi kept her eyes closed, as though she had not heard a word.

“Tell me,” Dai Jing said, his eyes reddening. “Your organization’s base of operations. A list of your members. Just tell me, and all of this will stop.”

Shen Ruoxi’s lips parted slightly — but she uttered only three quiet words: “Go ahead.”

—