Ruo Yu went to the place her leader had told her about.
She had made a quiet decision—to walk into the lion's mouth with her eyes wide open.
No one forced her.
No chains around her wrists.
Just a silence so loud, it pressed on her bones.
She chose the trap because traps reveal things.
Especially the kind that don't spring shut at once.
Living in the middle of danger was the only way to separate herself from Jade.
If their lives became tangled enough, no one would suspect they were ever the same.
Their chaos would look like contrast.
And contrast... protects secrets.
She didn't want Hui Lang to be her ending, but she knew it had to be part of her rise.
Some thrones are climbed through the dirt.
Some names are earned in shadows first.
There were thoughts buried so deep inside her that even she couldn't fully see them.
Plans that had no names yet.
Motives that shifted depending on the hour.
Abilities that only bloomed when survival demanded it.
She walked forward. Her steps looked firm, but the ground felt strange under her feet.
Her eyes scanned every inch of the hallway as if she were still in a mission.
She didn't know how not to.
The building was large, spacious, overwhelmingly luxurious.
Silk curtains, polished floors, soft lighting—like a dream trying too hard.
More than anything she had seen.
But something felt... off.
It wasn't a restaurant.
It wasn't a shop.
It didn't look like any place meant for business.
It looked like a memory. But not hers. Someone else's fantasy.
A woman appeared.
She looked thirty—beautiful in a bold, unfamiliar way.
Her hair was dark red, flowing and sharp like fire that had grown calm.
Her eyes were too quiet for someone running a place like this.
"May I know why you came, miss?"
"I heard you're hiring."
The woman didn't speak right away.
She stared—like she was trying to guess which version of Ruo Yu stood before her.
Ruo Yu let her hands fall behind her back and drifted away in her gaze—into the role she wore like second skin.
This was the kind of woman who tested you with silence.
And Ruo Yu had learned to answer in stillness too.
The lady smiled after a moment.
"Okay. Come with me."
They walked through a long corridor hidden behind a door.
No windows.
No sound of life.
Just the brushing of their clothes and the hum of something unspoken.
The air changed. The walls grew quieter. Ruo Yu felt it.
A warning. A presence. Something in the stillness.
Why would a stranger be led through a private place without a single question?
Unless she wasn't really a stranger.
Or unless this place was used to strangers becoming something else.
At the end of the corridor was a door.
The woman opened it.
"Go in."
Ruo stepped forward.
Inside, Xue Yan was sitting—quiet, reading.
Like he knew the world couldn't touch him here.
He didn't speak.
He just looked up.
The door shut behind her.
A sound so simple.
But it echoed like a promise.
Ruo Yu felt a chill creep up her spine.
She took a breath she didn't realize she was holding.
Her fingers tightened slightly.
Then she let them go.
She stepped toward him.
She stood in front of Xue Yan.
The silence stayed.
And in that stillness, she began to wonder who was really walking into whose trap.
Was she still the spider?
Or was she slowly, surely, the fly?
"You ran away, and ran away, and in the end you came back to me," Xue Yan smiled.
His voice had something old in it. Something already tired.
"I didn't run away in the first place so there's no need for me to come back."
"But you came and that's a fact."
"Well that's how life works, it forces people like me."
"Is that why you became a dancer in a place like that?"
He spoke, his expression turning serious, as did Ruo Yu's.
"No, I was forced. And not just by life, the universe planned against me and I was helpless. That's the same reason why I'm in front of you today."
He didn't show sympathy, but at the same time he didn't seem cruel.
Which surprised her.
Which confused her.
Which made him dangerous.
Men like him were often more dangerous than monsters.
Xue Yan sighed, "And why did you come here?"
"I heard that you are looking for employees and providing them with housing."
"As a slave, is that allowed? Don't you want me to grant you your freedom under the name of a job and housing?"
"No, sir, I took my freedom and came with my own two feet. What I ask of you is a job opportunity and nothing more."
"You regained your freedom? Then where is the one who granted it to you? Why don't you serve him or go and thank him?"
"I did. But he can't help me with work."
Xue Yan smiled, "You ungrateful, opportunity-seeking girl. But well, I should have known the first time."
"Then, will you give me a chance?"
"If you prove yourself worthy. Why not? I'm not being unfair."
"How do I prove myself?" she asked.
"I'll give you a task."
He leaned closer to her and whispered,
"But keep your daggers in your pockets this time. Prove your skills without blood."
"I won't hurt anyone."
"You know I'm not talking about 'hurt'. You're more capable than just hurting. But regardless, I mean no blood of yours or anyone else's."
"That sounds like a big ask, but I'll do it."
She looked into his eyes as she finished with a defiant tone.
Ruo Yu knew very well—he expected a lot.
But all humans were like that.
And some humans…
expected too much because they didn't know what she had already survived.