The room was dim, lit only by the glow of a dozen holographic screens. Jiayan sat at the center, fingers dancing across a translucent keyboard, code unraveling like a symphony he'd long forgotten but never truly unlearned.
Lines of encryption broke under his touch—quietly, beautifully.
What started as a simple breach trace had evolved into a deeper excavation. The three Xu Corp employees flagged yesterday? They weren't freelancing spies. They were installed.
{Agent Designation: Node 07-A Affiliated Tag: Network – Echo Branch}
He exhaled slowly, leaning back.
"This isn't just corporate espionage," he murmured. "This is systemic."
A soft ping.
The burner phone vibrated on his desk. The screen displayed one word:
Watchtower
His jaw clenched.
He remembered that codename.
They used it when targeting sovereign data systems—usually in developing countries without the infrastructure to fight back. It was the final stage before a digital takedown.
And now Watchtower was watching him.
---
📍Xu Corporation – CEO Office
Xinyue stood before the glass pane, her reflection painted across the skyline.
"You're not sleeping," she said without turning around.
Jiayan, entering quietly, set down a flashdrive on her table. "Neither are you."
She finally looked at him.
"What did you find?"
He hesitated—then flicked on her monitor. Lines of recorded employee communication played on-screen. Voices overlapped—some trivial, others coded.
Then came one that chilled the room:
"He's active. Confirm identity. Ensure Li Xinyue stays isolated. If she moves, initiate extraction."
Xinyue's eyes narrowed. "Extraction?"
Jiayan spoke slowly. "They're not after you. They're using you to control me."
Her mouth parted slightly. A flicker of understanding. "Why?"
Jiayan sat, gaze calm but dark. "Because I left a system they couldn't replicate. And now they want the original blueprint—me."
Silence bloomed like a cold fog.
Xinyue, after a pause, reached into her drawer and placed an old velvet box on the table.
Inside was a jade ring. Unmarked. Unassuming.
"This was left for me the night the Li family fell. No message. Just this."
Jiayan stared at it.
Then whispered, "This is the Li family's legacy key. I thought it was a myth."
"It isn't."
He reached for it. As his fingers brushed the jade, a faint electric pulse shimmered through the air.
Xinyue gasped.
"Did you feel that?"
He looked up at her. "It's encoded with biometric recognition. It just synced to my neural signature."
"…What does that mean?"
Jiayan's eyes gleamed with something between excitement and dread.
"It means your family's vault isn't just a room."
"It's a server."
---
📍Meanwhile – Qin Family Estate
Qin Liang poured himself a drink, his movements slow.
A voice over encrypted call spoke impatiently. "You were supposed to sever their connection, not escalate the situation."
"She brought him into her inner circle."
"And now he's found the vault."
Qin Liang gritted his teeth. "I'm not the one who failed to kill him before."
The voice hissed. "It was never about killing him. We need what's inside his head. If he unlocks the server before we do—"
Qin Liang cut the call.
He looked out over the grounds of the Qin estate, sipping slowly.
"Let him open it," he muttered. "Let him bleed the truth into the open. Then we'll burn it with him inside."
---
📍Zhao Yelin's Apartment – Late Evening
Zhao Yelin tapped her stylus against a screen, watching code scroll like stormclouds over digital hills.
"You're getting in too deep," she muttered, messaging Jiayan.
> "Hey. Still alive?"
He replied instantly.
"Depends on your definition."
"Not funny. I found another hidden protocol embedded in that USB."
"Which one?"
"It's not from the Network. It's from a ghost project. One I thought was urban legend."
She hesitated.
"Project Lantern."
Jiayan's blood ran cold.
Lantern was the kill switch. A silent purge command for any active system that got too self-aware. Including human components.
If Lantern had been embedded...
Jiayan typed back quickly:
"You need to get offline. Now."
---
📍End Scene – Xinyue's Office Balcony
Xinyue joined Jiayan outside, both staring at the city bathed in gold and neon.
"You're hiding something else," she said softly.
Jiayan nodded.
"I've always run. From my past. From people. From pain."
"But you stopped now?"
He met her eyes. "Because you didn't run. And I'm tired of being a ghost."
She reached out, brushing her fingers against his.
"You're not a ghost anymore."
His voice, low and steady, answered.
"No. Now I'm something they should be afraid of."
---
📍Unknown Underground Server Vault
A console flickered awake on its own. A synthetic voice began repeating:
"Lantern Protocol initialized… searching for target…"
"Jiayan. Jiayan. Jiayan."
In a steel room somewhere in the Alps, an old scientist lifted his head.
"He's awake."
Another whispered, "Then we don't have much time."
The countdown had begun.
---