I slipped back into the ballroom, smoothing my dress and breathing deeply, though my heart was still racing. The chandeliers still bathed everything in warm light, couples danced, and the orchestra played on as if nothing had happened. But for me, the air itself seemed tauter, thinner.
I tried to catch up to Yating and Jiahao, who were both chuckling over something by the refreshment stand, but my ears had other plans and listened in the direction of the swirling shreds of talk wafting through the crowd.
".did you notice him? He came alone. That family doesn't send anyone out without a reason—"
".as bad as his father, rumor has it. Ruthless, even. But he looks—too young, almost civilized. That's how they make you trust them—"
.why here, of all places? Zhang Yuxin wouldn't have invited him in unless—
My stomach twisted. I didn't know if it was the champagne I'd hardly touched or the realization that the man in the shadows wasn't just a visitor. He was a storm.
Across the room, two of the older matrons grumbled behind their bejeweled fans, looking toward the balcony doors. I crept closer, pretending to adjust my bracelet so I could catch what they were saying.
"They say that he's from the Xu family."
Their name itself carried meaning. Even in the fragmented memories of this new form, the Xu family were leaders—powerful, to be feared, respected in envy and dread. Their business extended far and wide, but rumors of other corruption clung to them like smoke.
"Xu Jianyu," she finally said, her voice a whisper as if speaking the name would summon him up. "Sharp as his name is. Jian—sword. He cuts without mercy."
Xu Jianyu.
The name slipped into the shadowy figure who had leaned so casually against the wall, speaking as if he had all the time in the world to talk.
My friends called me over, Yating shouting my name brightly, but my smile was artificial as I approached them. My mind reeled, racing back again and again to his eyes, to the way he had addressed me as being "memorable."
Memorable to a Xu was not safe.
And yet, laughing with my friends, the echo of his words clung around me like an unseen thread pulling at me, not to be cut.