The first thing she noticed was the silence.
Not the quiet of a hospital room or an empty corridor, this was the kind of silence that pressed in on her skin, like the world had been erased and she was floating in the leftover blankness.
When Jiang Yue opened her eyes, there was no ceiling above her, no floor beneath her feet. Just… endless white mist, stretching in all directions.
She looked down. Her body was there, or something shaped like her body, but it shimmered faintly, like light trying to hold form. Her hands weren't solid.
[System Suspension Mode: Manual Override Possible.]
"Override?" she whispered, her voice echoing too far, bouncing back wrong.
[Warning: Core Soul Anchored.]
[Separation from Anchor will result in termination.]
Her pulse spiked. "Anchor? You mean Li Zhenkai?"
Silence.
The mist swirled, and suddenly, shapes began to form, faint outlines like memories bleeding through paper. She saw flashes: the café explosion, the scaffolding falling, his hand catching hers, his eyes meeting hers in that sharp, assessing way.
Every moment he'd saved her… was a tether.
The realization hit like a cold wave: her life here wasn't just tied to her bad luck, it was tied to him. Literally. If that link broke…
She swallowed hard. "So if he dies—"
[Anchor Link: Bidirectional Risk Detected.]
Her blood ran cold. Not just her, Him too, it was all connected
The mist shifted again, revealing a faint pathway with smooth black stone floating in the void. It stretched ahead, fading into nothingness.
Her instincts screamed not to follow it. But the moment she thought about stepping back, the white mist darkened, swallowing the space behind her.
"Seriously?" she muttered. "A creepy death walkway?
Is that supposed to be subtle?"
Still, she moved forward. Her footsteps made no sound, but the deeper she went, the clearer the shapes became.
The path ended in a glass wall. On the other side, she saw Li Zhenkai, real, solid, and he was sitting beside her hospital bed. His head was bowed, one hand loosely gripping the chair arm. There was no expression on his face, but something in his stillness made her chest ache.
She reached out, her fingers touched the glass, but didn't pass through. The surface rippled slightly, like water, but wouldn't break.
[Anchor proximity detected. Stability increased: 54%.]
Her system's calm tone made her grit her teeth. "Great. So I just have to… sit here staring at him until I wake up? What kind of sick romance setting is this?"
A low chuckle broke the silence.
She spun. The mist behind her had coalesced into a figure, that was tall and thin his features blurred except for a sharp smile.
"Not romance," the figure said. "Fate."
"Who are you?"
"A shadow," it replied. "A consequence. And if you keep staying this close to your anchor…" It leaned closer, voice dropping. "…you'll drag him down with you."
Before she could answer, the figure dissolved into mist again.
---
Meanwhile, in the real world…
Xu Jianyu leaned against the wall outside the hospital room, tablet in hand. His brows were drawn tight as he scrolled through the report.
"I've gone over everything," he said quietly as Li Zhenkai stepped into the hall. "Her employment records have inconsistencies. Dates don't match. Her education file's missing two years. Her ID number… it's flagged in a closed system I can't access."
Li Zhenkai didn't reply, only glanced at the closed door.
"She could be a liability," Xu Jianyu said.
Li Zhenkai finally turned his gaze to him, eyes unreadable. "Or," he said, voice like tempered steel, "she's the key to something bigger."
---
Inside the coma…
Jiang Yue was back at the glass wall, watching him. Something about that moment, him standing outside, talking to someone she couldn't hear, made her press harder against the surface.
The ripple under her palm spread wider this time, almost as if it wanted to break.
[Stability Surge Detected.]
[Override Possible.]
She closed her eyes and pushed.
The mist roared. The glass shattered soundlessly into light. And through her heartbeat, she thought she could feel his hand, warm and real, gripping hers.
Then the white swallowed everything.