---
INSIDE THE VAULT ROOM
Yueying's fingers grazed the pendant — it was warm now, pulsing like a heart nest.
A strange humming filled her ears. Not from outside… but from within. It vibrated like a lost memory crawling its way to the surface, it scared the hell out of her. And as her fingertips lingered on the ruby pendant, a sudden bolt of pain shot through her spine.
She cried out, clutching the edge of the box in pain. Her knees gave out.
"Yueying!" Lu Quing rushed forward with worry over his face , catching her before she fell to the ground.
Her eyes glowed for a split second — not brown, not gold… but crimson.
He froze.
"It's starting," he whispered.
"What's starting?" she gasped, breathing hard, she couldn't even hear herself.
"The awakening."
He held her closer, whispering so low only she could hear.
"I was supposed to prevent this, your mom wanted to prevent this. But it's a good thing you're awakening ".
She looked up at him, sweat on her temple. "It's a good thing?." She didn't know why she felt like she was going to be used for something or someone.
---
FLASHBACK – TWENTY YEARS AGO
A woman with crimson eyes stood in a burning hall. Corpses lay all around her like petals, yet she stood barefoot, untouched by fire or blade.
Behind her, a baby cried — hidden in a silk-wrapped blanket inside a red cot.
"You'll come for her one day," the woman whispered into the smoke. "But she's not your weapon or tool. She's my child, I warn you."
A hooded man stepped from the shadows. "The Han bloodline does not belong to a single woman."
The woman turned, eyes blazing. "Then let it burn every hand that tries to claim her."
Soon, there was sound of fighting and clattering of blades.
---
IN THE VILLA – HOURS LATER
Gu Ni leaned against the hallway wall, her wounds hastily bandaged. Her hands shook, not from pain — but from truth.
Her child…
Her body…
The manipulation…
She didn't remember how the child was taken. Only that she woke up in a hospital with blood on her legs and nothing in her arms.
And now Biao's words haunted her.
"You carried master's child."
She needed answers. Not from a file. Not from just a memory.
From him.
But right now, there was someone else who needed her.
Yueying.
---
GARDEN – NIGHTFALL
Yueying sat alone on the marble bench beneath the moonlight. The ruby pendant sat against her skin. Faint heat radiated from it, and she was starting to feel everything differently — the cold air, the distant footsteps of guards, the blood in her own veins and the buzzing of the streets.
It scared her.
Lu Quing appeared again, quieter than usual. He stood for a moment, watching her.
"I feel like I'm not human anymore," she said without looking at him.
"You're still you." He said.
"No. I'm someone else… Han Yueying. I don't even recognize the name. But everyone else does."
She finally turned to him. Her eyes were tired and slightly red from crying.
"Who was she, Lu Quing?" she asked. "My mother."
His gaze darkened.
"She was a weapon who chose to love," he replied. "And they punished her for it."
Yueying's lips parted. "And what about you?"
He sat beside her.
"I was sent to kill her daughter."
Her body tensed.
"But I couldn't. From the first moment I saw you, I knew she had given birth to something more powerful than fire or blood. She gave you choice. I wanted to protect that."
Yueying looked at him, searching for lies. She didn't find any.
"Then why is everyone treating me like a ticking bomb?" she whispered.
"Because you are," Gu Ni said from behind them, she staggered forward .
Gu Ni stepped into the garden, her face pale and her voice tight.
Yueying stood up quickly. "What do you mean?"
Gu Ni stared at the pendant. "That thing around your neck doesn't just awaken your blood. It awakens memories that aren't yours. Revenge that you know nothing of"
Lu Quing frowned. "What?"
"Biao said it," Gu Ni continued. "Your pendant is a key. But someone else already unlocked the door long ago — your mother. She has her own memories and most of them are stored inside that jey". She pointed to the ruby pendant.
Yueying touched the ruby nervously. "Then what happens when all my memories return?"
Gu Ni's voice lowered. "You'll remember how to destroy nations. The power would be so overwhelming. You would seek revenge for your mother and ...."
" And what ?" Yueying asked with worry ached on her face .
" Maybe revenge to anyone who tries to hurt you".
The words fell like lightening.
---
SOMEWHERE ELSE — THE BLACK STRING CLAN CHAMBER
The man in the white velvet suit stood before a white and golden coffin, etched with ancient runes and diamonds around the edges.
"She's almost ready," he whispered. "But she must remember pain. Power is born from pain."
He turned to the figure behind him — a tall, cloaked woman with a veil.
"She will need to see you." He said
The woman nodded once.
"If she does," she said in a voice smooth as silk, "She will burn everything down to touch me."
"Exactly," he replied, lips curling. "Let her."
---
MIDNIGHT — YUEYING'S ROOM
Yueying paced. Sweat clung to her skin.
Images flashed in her mind again — burning cities, black serpents, a crown made of bones. Her mother standing before an army, laughing, defiant, beauty etched on her face like a second skin,her crimson eyes blazing with wild fire.
Yueying fell to her knees.
A circle of light bloomed around her feet.
And for the first time…
She spoke in a voice not her own, smooth but yet frightening_.
"Let them come. Let them kneel. For the First Flame shall rise again."
Her eyes snapped open — glowing.
That same time Shanghai experienced an earthquake that changed many people's life.
– – –
The silence of the night was shattered by a sharp beep from the biometric lock. The door clinked open.
Gu Ni stepped inside. Her breathing was shallow. Her fingers clutched the last file she stole from Biao's office before everything went to hell.
It was labeled:
PROJECT CHRYSALIS: SUBJECT 002
Inside the folder were photographs, medical scans — and a single ultrasound. The name of the mother had been removed, but the date matched exactly nine months before she woke up in that hospital. Nine months before everything was erased.
Then came the last page:
> Subject 002 has displayed heightened resistance to flame, genetic anomalies indicating dual bloodline inheritance. Recommended to be raised off-site under Black String supervision. Priority: Terminate mother upon recovery.
Gu Ni dropped the file.
Her knees trembled. Her son — or daughter — hadn't died.
They had taken the child away from her.
And now, they were raising them… to kill Yueying. Not just Yueying but as a weapon for the entire world.
---
YUEYING'S ROOM
Yueying awoke on the floor. Sweat drenched her. The circle of light had vanished, but the echoes of power still hummed in the air.
She gripped the ruby pendant, her breath ragged.
A memory was clawing at her like a disturbed kitten. But it wasn't hers.
It was a vision.
A girl or boy( she couldn't see clearly) —maybe eight—standing barefoot in a snow-covered forest, staring at a burning house in the distance. His or her eyes… red. Familiar.
The child turned and whispered a name.
"…Yueying."
Yueying sat up with a gasp.
That wasn't her.
That was someone else.
Someone watching her from inside her own mind.
Someone was watching her, a child at that.
She hung her head low, she felt like screaming but she didn't want to raise alarm.
---
LU QUING'S SECRET ROOM
The door burst open.
"She saw her," Lu Quing said as soon as he saw Gu Ni's face.
Gu Ni nodded, pale and shaken.
"She's not the only one awakening, Lu Quing. They have a child… my child from Ren ( her former boss). And they've trained it to kill her."
Lu Quing's face didn't change — only his fists clenched slowly.
"Biao knew," he said bitterly. "They all did. The Black String never let a power like that go to waste."
Gu Ni shook her head. "Yueying needs to know. If she doesn't—"
"She'll hesitate," Lu Quing finished. "And hesitation is death."
---
ROOFTOP – BEFORE SUNRISE
Yueying stood under the sky as the first light touched the horizon.
The pendant was warm again, beating softly now. It's beginning to give her inner peace.
"You're awake early," came Lu Quing's voice behind her.
"I saw a child," she said. "In my mind. In the snow. Eyes red like a burning furnace ".
He said nothing.
"Who is she?" Yueying asked. "Was she me… or someone else?"
Lu Quing stepped beside her.
"He's the Blood Child."
Yueying turned to him sharply.
"He's your mirror. Raised by those who believe only in destruction. He'll be sent after you, Yueying."
"And if she's my sister?"
"No," Gu Ni's voice came softly behind them. "She's my daughter."
Yueying froze.
The silence was unbearable.
"…Your what?"
Gu Ni stepped forward. "She was taken from me before I ever held her. Before I could give her a name."
Yueying's hands shook. "And now they've turned her into a weapon."
"He'll come for you," Gu Ni said. "Not because he hates you. But because it's all he's ever known." She paused" right from birth ".
" Then if he's right years, how old are you Gu Ni?" Yueying was utterly confused.
Gu Ni felt lightening hit her, she's didn't think of it.
" It could only mean they messed with your memory making you think that you're still 20 this year whereas you're 24" Lu Quing said like it wasn't surprising at all.
Gu Ni slumped on the ground, all this while she felt like she woke up from the hospital just 2 years ago. But they held her child for a good eight years.
---
SOMEWHERE REMOTE – BLACK STRING TRAINING HALL
The boy in the snow stood atop a pillar of black rock, blindfolded.
Below him, armed soldiers waited with swords drawn. Flames roared around his bare feet, yet he didn't move.
"He feels her," the white-suited man said with a satisfied grin. "The connection has awakened."
The cloaked woman stepped into the light. Her eyes were blue. Her voice like silk.
"Is he ready?"
The man nodded. "Give the order. Send the Blood Child."
The boy suddenly opened his eyes behind the blindfold. Crimson burned through the cloth.
"I will find her," he whispered. "And I will burn the world for her."