2026-07-16 18:23:01"He's already inside Jiangzhou General Hospital." The call had ended less than thirty seconds ago. Yet my pulse hadn't slowed.
Across the dining table, Lillian stared at me. "What happened?" I slipped my phone into my pocket. "Nothing." Her eyes narrowed instantly. That answer had stopped working on her a long time ago. "You're standing." I looked down. She was right. The moment I'd heard the hospital's name, I'd risen from my chair without even realizing it. My tea sat untouched. The chair behind me remained slightly pushed back. My body had reacted before my mind could catch up. Lillian folded her arms. "Someone called." "Yes." "You looked worried." "I wasn't." She raised an eyebrow. The expression somehow carried an entire conversation. Really? That's your answer? I looked away first. A mistake. Because Lillian noticed everything. Always had. Even when she pretended not to. The silence stretched. Then she stood. "I'm going to bed." I nodded. Part of me felt relieved. The other part felt guilty. She paused halfway toward the hallway. "Zane." "Yeah?" For a moment, she looked as though she wanted to say something important. Something personal. Instead, she simply sighed. "Never mind." Then she disappeared into her room. The apartment became quiet. I waited until her bedroom door closed. Then I grabbed my jacket and left. Twenty minutes later. Jiangzhou General Hospital. The emergency entrance remained crowded despite the late hour. Ambulances came and went. Doctors hurried through automatic doors. Patients filled the waiting area. Normal. Ordinary. Exactly the kind of place someone dangerous would choose. Because nobody expected danger in a hospital. I stepped onto the sidewalk and surveyed the building. Fourteen floors. Multiple exits. Hundreds of people. Too many variables. A vibration came from my phone. Unknown Number. Again. I answered immediately. "Report." The same younger voice from before spoke. "We lost him." Not what I wanted to hear. "When?" "Ten minutes ago." I glanced toward the hospital entrance. "How?" A frustrated curse echoed through the line. "He disappeared." Nobody disappeared. Not really. People only disappeared when the people searching for them weren't good enough. "Where were you tracking him?" "Third floor." Interesting. Not the emergency department. Not intensive care. Third floor. My eyes moved upward toward the building. "What is on the third floor?" A pause. Papers rustled. Then "Records." My expression hardened. Medical records. Someone wasn't looking for a patient. Someone was looking for information. Or someone. "Keep searching." "Yes, Young Master." The line disconnected. I remained where I was. Watching. Thinking. The assassin wasn't random. People like that never were. Which meant there was a reason he had chosen this hospital. The question was why. A familiar sensation settled over me. The feeling that a puzzle piece was missing. And somewhere nearby, someone knew exactly where it belonged. "Zane?" I froze. The voice came from behind me. Slowly, I turned. My stomach immediately sank. Lillian stood near the hospital entrance. Still wearing the same clothes from dinner. Still looking surprised. "What are you doing here?" Of all the people I expected to encounter tonight... She wasn't one of them. I recovered quickly. "What are you doing here?" She pointed toward the building. "My father." Right. Her father still attended monthly follow-up appointments after his health scare three years ago. I'd completely forgotten. Not good. She frowned. "You never answered my question." Think. Fast. "I couldn't sleep." Her stare remained fixed on me. "And your solution was visiting a hospital?" Fair point. I adjusted my jacket. "Late-night walk." "You walked eight kilometers?" Another fair point. Apparently tonight wasn't my night. Lillian stepped closer. For some reason, that made me more uncomfortable than any assassin. Because she wasn't looking at me the way she usually did. She was studying me. Examining me. Searching for something. "You're acting strange." "I always act strange." "I know." That wasn't reassuring. The hospital doors slid open behind her. Several nurses emerged. A doctor followed. The normal chaos of the night continued. Yet somehow the space between us felt strangely isolated. Lillian tilted her head slightly. "Who called you?" There it was. The question she had been waiting to ask. I smiled. "A friend." "The same friend from the banquet?" "Yes." "What does he want?" I hesitated. Only for a second. Unfortunately, that second was enough. Lillian noticed. Of course she noticed. She always noticed. Her eyes narrowed. Then something unexpected happened. Her phone rang. She glanced at the screen. Immediately frowned. "Victor." I almost laughed. Nothing good ever followed those words. She answered. "What?" Even from several feet away, I could hear Victor shouting. Loudly. Angrily. Lillian's expression darkened. "What happened?" A pause. Then "What do you mean the investor canceled?" My attention sharpened. Investor? Victor continued speaking. The conversation became increasingly heated. Lillian's shoulders stiffened. Not a good sign. After nearly a minute, she ended the call. The moment she lowered the phone, I knew something was wrong. "What happened?" She hesitated. Then sighed. "The investor for our new project just withdrew." I frowned. Shen Group was already struggling. Losing a major investor now could be devastating. Lillian rubbed her forehead. "We spent three months negotiating." Three months. Gone. Just like that. The timing bothered me immediately. Too convenient. Too sudden. Too deliberate. "What reason did they give?" "They didn't." That bothered me even more. People withdrew from deals all the time. But they usually had reasons. Excuses. Explanations. Something. This? Nothing. Which meant someone was applying pressure. The question was who. Lillian looked exhausted. For a moment, I almost told her. Almost promised I would fix it. Almost reminded her that financial problems weren't actually problems. Not for me. But that would create questions. Questions I wasn't ready to answer. So I remained silent. The hospital doors opened again. A man in a white coat hurried outside. His eyes scanned the crowd. Searching. Frantically. Then his gaze landed on me. Everything changed. His face drained of color. Shock. Recognition. Fear. Three emotions. All at once. The doctor froze. I froze too. Because I had never seen him before. Or at least... I didn't think I had. The man took a step forward. Then another. His hands trembled slightly. Lillian noticed. "So strange." I kept my gaze on the doctor. "What's strange?" "He keeps looking at you." The doctor stopped directly in front of us. His breathing sounded uneven. His eyes remained locked onto mine. Then something happened that made my blood run cold. The doctor lowered his head. Not slightly. Not politely. Deeply. Respectfully. Like someone greeting a superior. Or a king. And when he finally spoke, his voice barely rose above a whisper. "Young Master..."
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Chapter 190
The message from the Council arrived on a Tuesday, unremarkable in every way that once would have made my stomach drop the moment I saw the notification. I opened it at the kitchen table, laptop balanced beside a half-finished cup of coffee, Yue asleep in the bassinet across the room while Lillian worked through her own correspondence on the couch.It was a procedural matter. Nothing more dramatic than that. The Council wanted my input on expanding the charter's protections to a small community Mei's outreach work had recently identified, families in a rural province carrying faint bloodline markers none of them had ever known the significance of. I approved the measure and sent it back through proper channels. Lillian glanced up."Everything alright?""Yeah. Just Council business. No emergency. No hidden threat." I laughed. "Just paperwork."She smiled, crossing the room to sit beside me. "Get used to it. I think t
Chapter 189
The hall looked different this time, though nothing about its architecture had changed. Same high ceilings, same long windows overlooking the garden, same arrangement of tables that had once hosted a banquet where I'd sat silent while a room full of relatives decided who I was without bothering to ask me. Lillian had chosen this space deliberately, and I understood why the moment I walked through the doors, the past and present standing close enough together to touch."You didn't have to do it here," I told her earlier, watching the staff finish the final preparations."I know," she'd said. "I wanted to."Now the hall filled with people who actually knew us, not the careful strangers and skeptical relatives from three years ago, but the coalition that had become, gradually and without either of us fully planning it, something like an extended family. Han stood near the drinks table in quiet conversation with Corvin, both men more at ease in
Chapter 188
The letter arrived through official Dragon Palace channels, sealed with Marchetti's territorial mark, the kind of formal correspondence that used to mean crisis or negotiation, back when every message from the Five Lords carried the weight of something urgent behind it. I noticed the shift in myself as I turned it over in my hands, the absence of the old tightness in my chest that once accompanied any communication from the Western territories.Lillian was feeding Yue in the next room, close enough that I could hear the small, contented sounds of our daughter eating, and I settled into the chair by the window to read, the afternoon light warm across the pages.Marchetti's handwriting opened the letter formally, as it always did, though the tone beneath the formality had changed considerably since the days of her recovery, when every exchange between us had carried the careful, guarded distance of two people still uncertain what t
Chapter 187
Cho requested a formal meeting through proper channels for once, no quiet knock at the door or unannounced arrival the way most of his visits had gone since he'd rejoined our lives. Elder Han passed along the request with a note of mild surprise in his voice, like even he found the formality out of character.I met him in the small conference room Dragon Palace used for matters that fell somewhere between official business and personal conversation, and Cho was already there when I arrived, a folder in front of him that looked considerably thicker than anything I'd seen him carry before."You look nervous," I said, sitting across from him."I am, a little." He gave a short, humorless laugh. "It's strange. I've walked into rooms full of people trying to kill me with less nerves than this.""What is it?"He slid the folder across the table, and I opened it to find pages of names, dates, locations, a careful accounting that took me
Chapter 186
Kael asked to meet with Corvin and me together, which was unusual enough on its own that I nearly asked him what was wrong before he could get a word out. He caught the look on my face and held up a hand before I could speak."It's not bad," he said. "I promise. I just need to ask both of you something, and I wanted to do it right instead of over a text like a coward."We met at the house instead of anywhere formal, Corvin arriving before I expected him to, like he'd anticipated something significant even without knowing the details. The three of us sat in the small study off the main room, and Kael took a long moment before speaking, hands clasped in front of him, the posture of a man who'd rehearsed something and still found the actual saying of it harder than expected."I've been part of Dragon Palace's structure for a while now," he began. "Officially, on paper, with all the formal recognition that comes with it. Title, respo
Chapter 185
Mei called ahead this time, which was new. In the months since the charter's protections had formally folded her into Dragon Palace's structure, she'd stopped arriving the way she used to, quiet and unannounced, like someone still testing whether she was actually welcome somewhere before committing to the visit. Now she texted Lillian a day in advance, asked what she could bring, and showed up at a reasonable hour like anyone else in our lives did.She looked different too. Not in any dramatic way, but in the small details that told the real story, a backpack instead of the sparse single bag she used to carry, a university lanyard looped over one strap that she seemed almost embarrassed about when she caught me noticing it."Don't make it a thing," she said, sitting down at the kitchen table."I'm not making it a thing.""You have a face like you're making it a thing."I held up my hands in surrender, and she allowed herself
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