The early morning sun bled gold across the skyline, but inside the Feng family's old ancestral grounds—long abandoned after the fire—ashes still clung to the stone like old scars refusing to heal.
Yuxi stood at the edge of the ruins, her coat fluttering in the wind. She hadn't returned to this place since the night it was engulfed in flames. The night she lost everything.
The message had arrived with no sender:"Return to the place where the phoenix died. You'll find what your father left behind."
Her heels crunched over broken tile and burned wood as she stepped through the skeletal remains of her childhood home. Memories tried clawing at her—her father's stern voice, her mother's gentle humming, her brother's laughter echoing through the corridors.
She pushed it all down.
There was no room for sentiment. Not now.
Her steps led her to the base of the old study. The wall had collapsed, but the floor remained mostly intact. She pulled out a small folded paper her brother had once scribbled on—a crude map drawn in secret. If she remembered correctly...
She crouched and pried loose a cracked floorboard.
Dust and ash spilled out—but there, hidden within a rusted box, was a small envelope, sealed in wax. The Feng crest.
She opened it slowly. Inside was a single sheet of yellowed paper and a photograph.
To my daughter, if you've found this, it means I've failed to protect you. You must learn the truth before they bury it again.
Project Firebird wasn't just military. It was personal. You and your brother were born for it. Trained for it.
And Li Zeyan was never supposed to be part of this.
Yuxi froze. Her heart stopped.
The photo was of her father, a younger version of herself… and Li Zeyan's father—General Li Xianhai.
The men were shaking hands, smiling.
In the corner, a faint handwritten code: FB-073: VICTOR-CHILD
Victor-child? That was… her? Or her brother?
Her pulse spiked.
Scene Shift: Li Corporation – CEO Office
Zeyan stared at the flash drive Yuxi had left him. He hadn't opened it all night, deliberately. He didn't want to cross a line. But now, with the phrase "Project Firebird" echoing in his head, and that haunting photograph burned into his memory, he slipped it into his laptop.
Lines of code ran across the screen, followed by a single decrypted document.
PROJECT FIREBIRD: EXPERIMENTAL GENETIC-INTELLIGENCE ENHANCEMENT PROTOCOL
Zeyan's jaw tightened. The document detailed a covert program launched two decades ago. Targeted at select children from elite bloodlines—Feng, Li, Cheng, and Jiang. The goal? To create high-IQ successors with enhanced memory, pattern recognition, and emotional suppression.
He recognized the names in the early trial groups.
FB-071: Feng YuxiFB-073: Feng Zhichen
He clenched his fists.
So it was real. They had experimented on children—including her.
And his father had been part of it.
No wonder she never trusted me. No wonder she ran.
A knock on his door pulled him from his thoughts.
It was Lu Nian, his most trusted aide.
"Sir, we've traced the encrypted email that breached our internal security. It didn't come from a foreign group. It was sent from Cheng Holdings."
Zeyan's eyes narrowed.
"Cheng Shao... so you're the one still playing puppet master."
"Also," Lu Nian hesitated. "There's something else. We have a confirmed sighting of Madam Feng... at the Feng ancestral estate."
Zeyan stood immediately.
"Get the car."
Scene Shift: Feng Estate Ruins – 20 Minutes Later
Zeyan arrived just as Yuxi was placing the sealed letter back into her coat. Their eyes met through broken glass and burnt wood. For a moment, neither spoke.
"I didn't expect you to come," she said softly.
"I should have come years ago," he replied.
He stepped over the rubble, stopping a few feet from her. "Was that the truth? The letter?"
She nodded, and offered him the photograph.
He took it, eyes scanning it with a frown. "My father was here the night your home burned, wasn't he?"
Yuxi's throat tightened. "Yes. And so was Cheng Shao."
The silence hung between them like smoke.
"I'm tired of secrets, Yuxi," he said, voice rougher than usual. "But if this—if we—are going to work, you need to start trusting me."
She met his gaze, eyes burning with conflicted emotion. "And will you still want me after you learn everything I've done?"
Zeyan's hand reached out, brushing ash from her cheek.
"I've already made my choice. I just hope you'll make yours."
Scene Shift: Cheng Holdings – Underground Surveillance Room
Cheng Shao slammed a fist on the table, shattering a wine glass.
"They found the letter."
Zhao Rulan looked unimpressed. "You said it was burned."
"It was supposed to be." His eyes burned. "But her brother must have moved it before the fire."
"She's too close to the truth now."
Cheng Shao turned to the screen showing a paused frame of Zhichen—calm, calculating, cold.
"I don't care about Feng Yuxi anymore. Take the boy."
Rulan's eyes widened. "That'll trigger her—"
"Let it," he snapped. "We'll use him to lure out the remaining key."
He stared at a wall of black-and-white photos—Yuxi's father, Zeyan's father, and one other man, face scratched out.
"The final piece of Firebird still hasn't surfaced. But once we have the boy, everything will fall into place."
Scene Shift: Elite Elementary School – Dismissal Time
Zhichen exited the school gates as usual, his backpack slung lazily over his shoulder. But his sharp eyes noted something off—his regular driver wasn't in the usual car.
Another sleek black vehicle idled at the curb.
A man in sunglasses stepped out, smiling too politely. "Your mother sent me. Emergency meeting. I'm to bring you to her."
Zhichen's eyes flicked over the car's license plate. The digits were altered—an overlay decal, poorly camouflaged.
He smiled slightly.
"Really? Then I suppose she'd have used the code word."
The man's expression froze. "Code word?"
Zhichen dropped his backpack.
"Wrong answer."
In a flash, he darted sideways and was already running toward the school's emergency exit, activating the silent GPS distress signal Yuxi had taught him to use only if he was in real danger.
Within moments, the guards were chasing after him, unaware that Li Zeyan's personal task force had already been alerted.