[Flashback – 19 Years Ago]
The facility had no name.
It was buried beneath Longhai's eastern tech district—long before the skyscrapers, back when the skyline was still teeth and smog. Officially, it was a research annex. In practice, it was a vault for failed ideas.
And among those failures… was a file labeled:
PROJECT: GHOSTLANTERN
Classification: WR-1 / CR-A
Purpose: Adaptive Intelligence Cultivation for Shadow Governance
Status: Conditional Human Trial Approved
Lead: Codename ORCHID ROOT
Test Subject: [Redacted] – Male, est. age 5–6
Notes: Subject displays exceptional retention, deductive mimicry, and early adaptive reasoning. Memory suppression protocol pending. No known family registry.
The boy had no name then.
He had tasks.
He solved puzzles most adults couldn't complete.
He learned city maps by touch.
He learned how to lie by being punished for truth.
And the woman with the softest voice—and the coldest eyes—called herself "Ms. Qiao."
She never smiled.
But she always said:
"You were born to see what others can't. You are GHOSTLANTERN."
Present – Crimson Circle HQ, South Archives
Xu Shanyue stood before the decrypted footage—old film reels digitized in silence. In one, a small boy sat alone, drawing out traffic patterns on a glass wall with markers. A woman in a white coat observed him. Orchids sat in a vase nearby.
The woman was unmistakable.
Qiao Liyuan.
Still alive.
Somehow untouched by time.
Guo Yuwei stared. "She didn't just survive. She continued the project."
Xu's eyes narrowed. "Then what is Lin Feng now?"
Elsewhere – Lin Feng's Hideout, Upper Market District
He stood in front of a cracked mirror. The flower from the child earlier wilted in his coat pocket.
Su Qingyue spoke behind him. "You saw her, didn't you? In Luo's eyes."
Lin nodded.
"I've seen her too," he said. "But only in fragments. A voice in my dreams. A pattern in the dark."
Qingyue stepped closer. "You were made for something. So what now? Do we find her? Or do we destroy what she left behind?"
Lin didn't answer immediately.
Then, softly: "She knows what I am. But I need to know why she left me behind."
Underground Relay Hub – Night
Mouse decrypted the final signature in Ravel's chip.
It wasn't just a kill list.
It was a timeline.
One final event listed at the bottom, marked in red:
Final Signal – Orchid Root Reemergence Trigger: Lin Feng Public Dominance Level 7+
ETA: Now Active
Mouse stared at the terminal.
And said only one thing into the comms:
"She's coming back."