The Imperial Capital City.A place where power, money, and blood mixed together like ink in water — beautiful from a distance, deadly up close.
Yun Jiao had never set foot there in this life.
But in her last one? She had bled for it, schemed in it, and ultimately died because of the people who called it home.
Now…She smiled.She was going back.—
The morning sun stretched lazily across the orphanage courtyard as Yun Jiao stood by the window of the dean's office, her small fingers wrapped loosely around a warm cup of tea the dean's secretary had offered her.She hadn't touched it.
Her eyes were fixed on the iron gate at the orphanage entrance.
Outside, a sleek black car sat parked along the curb.Long. Expensive.
The kind that turned heads in any city — but especially here, where the children pressed their faces against the gate's iron bars to stare at it with wide, wondering eyes.
Yun Jiao recognized the emblem on the hood immediately.
The Yun family.
Her lips curved just slightly.
So they really came.
Behind her, Dean Han Ting cleared his throat softly."Yun Jiao," he said carefully, "are you… nervous?"She turned her head.Her large eyes blinked once. Twice.Then she tilted her head at him with the most harmless, doe-eyed expression a person could manufacture.
"Nervous?" she repeated softly, as if the word were foreign to her. "Should I be?"
The dean blinked.Then he laughed quietly, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I suppose not." He paused. "You're a very… composed young lady."
Yun Jiao turned back to the window."Mhm," she said sweetly.
Composed.
That was certainly one word for it.
Another might have been: calculating.
Another: waiting.
But composed worked just fine.
—The iron gate swung open.A man stepped through.He was somewhere in his mid-fifties, dressed in a perfectly pressed black suit with silver cufflinks that caught the morning light. His hair was neatly combed. His posture was straight. His expression was one of practiced composure — the kind that belonged to someone who had spent decades learning how to look neutral while inwardly judging everything around him.
Butler Ye.
Head butler of the Yun household.
A man who had served the Yun family for thirty years.Yun Jiao had met him exactly twice in her previous life.Once, when she had first arrived at the Yun estate — wide-eyed, confused, and desperately hoping for warmth.
And once, when he had personally handed her a one-way ticket out the door after Yunjinna framed her.
Both times, his expression had been exactly the same.
Perfectly neutral.
Perfectly cold.
Perfectly indifferent.
She watched him now as he crossed the courtyard, his leather shoes clicking against the stone path with the precise rhythm of a man who had never once been in a hurry because the world waited for him — not the other way around.
He barely glanced at the children who stared at him.
He barely glanced at the flowers along the path.
He barely glanced at anything that was not directly in his line of purpose.
Yun Jiao sipped her tea.
Hm. Still the same.
—The door to the dean's office opened.Butler Ye stepped inside.His gaze swept the room once — landing first on Dean Han Ting, then moving with careful deliberation to the small figure standing by the window.
He looked at her the way a person looks at an item on a checklist.
Noted. Confirmed. Moving on."Dean Han," he said with a polite incline of his head. "I am Ye Chuanfeng, head butler of the Yun household. I believe we spoke on the phone.""Yes, yes." The dean stood and extended a hand. "Please, sit down. Everything has been prepared—""I won't need to sit," Butler Ye said pleasantly. "I simply need to complete the paperwork and collect the young miss.
The Master's schedule is tight.
"Collect.Not meet. Not greet. Not reunite with.Collect.
Like a package.Like furniture being picked up from a storage unit.
Yun Jiao set her teacup down on the windowsill without making a sound.She turned around fully.And Butler Ye finally looked at her directly.
For a fraction of a second — just a fraction — something flickered behind his eyes.It was gone as quickly as it appeared.But Yun Jiao had spent years reading people in the dark. In interrogation rooms. In smoke-filled underground halls where a single misread expression could cost you your life.She caught it.Surprise.Quickly buried.She almost wanted to laugh.Even the stoic Butler Ye wasn't completely immune to her face, it seemed.
She gave him a sweet, small smile."Butler Ye," she said softly, her voice light and musical, like a little bell.He blinked."You know me?""The dean mentioned your name," she said simply, tilting her head.
"It's very nice to meet you."Another tiny flicker.This one was harder to read.He recovered quickly, straightening his cufflinks."Likewise, Young Miss Yun." His tone was precise. Professional. "If you would please gather your belongings, we'll depart as soon as the paperwork is finalized."
Yun Jiao nodded pleasantly.She turned back to the window for one brief moment.The iron gate. The black car. The road that led away from the only place she had ever known in this life — however miserable it had been.In her previous life, she had walked through that gate with her heart full of desperate, foolish hope.
She had wanted a family so badly she had ignored every red flag, swallowed every cold shoulder, excused every small cruelty.She had been so hungry for love that she had mistaken indifference for patience and manipulation for care.Not this time.Her eyes went quiet.Cold.Still.Like a lake in winter — beautiful on the surface, with something dangerous moving silently underneath.Then she blinked, and the sweetness returned.She picked up the small bag sitting neatly at her feet.She had almost nothing.A few changes of clothes.
A worn-out notebook. A small wooden box that no one had dared to ask about because the fingerprint lock on it looked distinctly out of place in a children's orphanage.She hadn't brought Hawk out in the open again after this morning.
But she could practically hear the little AI pouting in the hidden compartment of her bag.
Master, are we going somewhere exciting?
She had nearly laughed then.
She nearly laughed now.
Exciting, Hawk.You have no idea.