Lin Fang wiped his face with the back of his hand, drawing in a slow, steady breath. The tears stopped, but the heat in his chest did not cool. Instead, it condensed, sharpening into something far more dangerous.
"Southern Sky…" he muttered.
The name tasted bitter.
The moment he spoke it aloud, fragments that had once felt disconnected slammed together with cruel clarity.
The strange way Xuenyi had appeared at the docks that night. That muffled murmurs of the words he managed to hear that night, the words Northern Sky, Knight, Young Master, etc…
The way she carefully escorted him out of Peking City back during the Azazel reemergence incident...
The way she had escorted him all the way from Huaxi and right to the entrance of the military base during the trials, and how she gave him the watch, promising him that she would come for his rescue...
