Jin Yue did not return.
Not to the bookshop by the river where he sometimes lingered too long over old pulse records.
Not to the abandoned pavilion near the eastern wall where he liked to read when the crowds thinned.
Not even to the narrow street behind the apothecary where Jun Kai had once spotted him standing quietly, watching the rain as if it were something to be studied.
Three days passed.
Jun Kai checked every place twice.
He retraced routes he had already cleared, paused at intersections longer than necessary, and scanned faces not because they were suspicious…but because they were not the one he was looking for.
By the fourth morning, the city had begun to change.
