Wei lived by order.
Mornings for business.
Afternoons for strategy.
Evenings for everything else.
And tonight?
Tonight, he was supposed to meet Liu Shuyin for a drink.
She was leaving the country for a while—off to her next city, her next venture, her next entanglement. An old friend. A useful connection. A woman with a talent for knowing things she shouldn't. She had always floated between circles, always in the know, but never in the fray. Wei knew she had information on everything that happened in this city—including the factories, the rumors, and the curse.
But if there was one thing Liu Shuyin despised, it was direct questions. She gave answers the way a gambler dealt cards—casually, almost carelessly, but always with intention.
He had planned to see her.
A glass of wine. A little conversation. Perhaps even a lead.
And yet, here he was.
Still in his lab. Still unraveling a problem that refused to be solved.
His steps were unhurried as he entered, the sterile white lights reflecting off the polished floors. The quiet hum of machines working, the faint scent of metal and antiseptic.
This was where control existed. Where the unknown became the understood.
And yet—
"Something's wrong," Dr. Yao said, before Wei even spoke.
...
Wei had expected routine.
A simple progress report. Confirmation that today's simulations had set a threshold—a point at which the electromagnetic anomalies should have stopped escalating.
Instead, the data told a different story.
"The numbers aren't stabilizing," Yao muttered, swiping through the holographic interface with sharp, deliberate movements.
Wei raised a brow, setting his coat aside. "We aren't running live experiments today. What do you mean they aren't stabilizing?"
Yao exhaled. "We ran projected scenarios based on previous collapses. Every model should have led to a predictable limit. That's how systems work—eventually, they plateau."
A flick of his fingers, and the holographic projection shifted. Two sets of data appeared.
One graph, smooth and controlled—the expected results.
The other?
Unstable. Unyielding. Climbing.
Wei stepped closer, eyes narrowing.
"And this?"
Yao's expression hardened.
"This is the actual output. It keeps growing."
Wei's fingers tapped against the console. "That's impossible."
"It should be," Yao agreed. "But it's not. The system isn't just reacting to external changes—it's escalating on its own.There is no upper boundary."
Silence.
Wei stared at the data, at the ever-climbing lines, at the impossibility of it all.
- From what he knew of the curse, it shouldn't behave like a feedback loop.
- If there was no limit, what stopped it from consuming everything?
- What was the missing variable?
The muscles in his jaw tightened.
"This means the collapses weren't triggered at a specific threshold."
Yao nodded. "Something—or someone—is reacting to the energy instead of being overwhelmed by it."
Wei's gaze flicked to Feng, who had been silent up until now, watching with folded arms.
The strategist in him saw it first.
A system without a ceiling wasn't just a system. It was a war with no battlefield, a fight that had already started before they even understood the rules. And they were playing into it blindly.
"Run it again," Wei ordered, voice quiet but firm. "Full simulation. I want confirmation."
Yao hesitated. "You were supposed to leave by now."
Wei checked his watch.
8:12 PM.
Liu Shuyin was waiting.
Somewhere in a private lounge, sipping expensive wine, perfectly aware that he would not be showing up.
A text would come soon—something dry, something amused.
"Predictable as always, Wei. Good thing I didn't wait to order."
The thought almost made him smirk.
But there was no room for amusement tonight. The numbers were wrong.
The curse was reacting.
Something was changing.
And Wei Zhang never left before he had all the answers.
"Run it again," he repeated. "I want to see it break."
Yao exhaled, then nodded.
The lab came alive again, machinery humming, data recalibrating, as the air shifted with an unspoken certainty.
Something was about to change.
And for the first time in a long while—
Wei wasn't sure who would win.
...
Xinyi leaned against the back of the elevator, arms crossed, watching the floor numbers tick down.
The city lights flickered beyond the glass walls, neon bleeding into the skyline.
She had spent the day immersed in business.
Meetings. Logistics. Diplomacy.
A masterful performance of calm, while her mind had been elsewhere.
On the curse. On the collapses. On the system her father had left her to decipher.
The notebook from the box of documents had revealed what she had suspected—a pattern.
The collapses weren't random.
They followed a cycle. And she was getting closer to its rhythm.
A call earlier had set her next step in motion.
The contact had been hesitant, but ultimately agreed to meet.
"You ask too many questions, Ms. Liang."
"And you give too few answers."
A familiar exchange.
Now, as the elevator doors slid open, she stepped out into the night.
Her car was waiting. The bodyguards were in place.
She had grown up knowing how to handle threats—but for the first time, she wasn't sure what kind of danger she was walking into.
The driver opened the door for her, and she slid inside.
"Where to, ma'am?"
She exhaled, tapping a single address into her phone.
The location of her next answer.
The place where the curse's history was waiting to be uncovered.
And as the car pulled away, Xinyi's gaze lingered on the distant skyline—
Knowing that whatever she found tonight, there would be no turning back.