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Chapter 4 - Chapter 4 – When Silence Breaks

Li Wei wasn't superstitious.

He had seen men die from paranoia… and others from trusting too much. But at that moment, while scanning the golden auction hall, something inside him vibrated.

Cold. Like an electric jolt down his spine. A slight tremble in his fingers.

It wasn't fear. It was… instinct.

He looked around. Everything seemed normal: elegant people chatting, full glasses, ancient artifacts glowing under soft lights. But beneath that harmony, something cracked—like a string about to snap.

A waiter passed by too quickly. A woman laughed too loudly. Two men by a statue spoke without moving their lips.

Li Wei tensed. The feeling grew. He couldn't explain it. But he knew what it was: danger.

"We have to go," he muttered.

Chen Yong, still stinging from Bai Xue's rejection, gave him an irritated look.

"What are you talking about?"

"Something's wrong."

"What exactly?"

"I don't know. But I feel it. Like the storm before the thunder."

Chen Yong scoffed.

"So now you smell invisible threats. You're paranoid."

Li Wei didn't press further. He adjusted the collar of his suit, scanned for the nearest exit, and started mapping escape routes in his head. If something happened, he had three seconds to react. No more.

He swept the hall again. A gray-haired man met his gaze. Just for a second. But Li Wei felt it: that look wasn't random.

The details didn't line up. The atmosphere was too perfect. Too calculated.

And that, he thought, was the most unsettling thing of all.

He didn't know what would happen.

He just knew that it would.

The auction began with surgical punctuality. The lights dimmed slightly, focusing on the stage, and the auctioneer stepped forward with the poise of someone who wasn't selling objects—but stories.

"Welcome," he said, smiling like a museum curator. "This collection comes from a recent excavation in the northern ruins. Every piece here has carried the silence of time for centuries. Tonight, you will break it with your bids."

The first lot included jars, bone combs, small stone idols. Old things, interesting only to those who loved dusty display cases.

Chen Yong shifted in his seat, bored. Li Wei, standing near a column, remained alert.

Then, the auctioneer presented a book.

"Lot number fourteen. Unidentified book. Visible damage, no signs of extraordinary content. Found sealed among other items. Estimated to be over fifteen hundred years old."

The volume was thin, with dark covers and a plain appearance. Nothing gleamed. Nothing stood out. If it hadn't been placed on a pedestal with gloves, it might have passed for junk in a secondhand shop.

But Bai Xue looked up.

Li Wei saw it first. She leaned forward slightly, eyes locked. No visible emotion—but something in her posture shifted: pure focus. Genuine interest.

"That one," Chen Yong murmured. "I want it."

"Why?" Li Wei asked.

"Because she wants it."

Li Wei sighed, still watching the book.

"What draws her attention isn't always something you can give her."

"It's not a gift. It's… a way to start a conversation."

"So you want to buy her silence?"

Chen Yong pretended not to hear.

The gavel struck sharply.

"Opening bid: one hundred thousand."

And just like that, the game began.

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