"I know," Gu Jin answered. "We need to be ready before that."
Long Yifan grinned mentally. "I'll make sure she doesn't strike in weeks. I'll stretch it to a year."
Gu Jin blinked. "A year? How do you plan to do that?"
Long Yifan's voice became serious.
"I'll give her many reasons to keep us alive. I'll make her think we're still useful, that she needs us for her plan. If she believes that, she won't kill us. Not yet."
Gu Jin frowned. "That's a very rough plan, Yifan. You haven't even thought it through properly. How will you execute it?"
Long Yifan smiled faintly. "It'll only work if we seem harmless to her. If she thinks we're easy to handle, she'll stop being cautious."
Gu Jin looked confused. "Easy to handle? What do you mean?"
Long Yifan sighed. "We need to make her think we're broken. That we've lost our will to fight. If we pretend to fall apart, she'll relax."
Gu Jin blinked. "You mean… act?"
