# Prelude: Old Friends, New City
The first thing Constantyn saw stepping out of Hongqiao's VIP terminal was his old friend sprawled across the back seat of a Rolls Royce Phantom, window rolled down, designer shades perched crookedly on his nose.
"Yo, Mr. Perfect Credit Score!" Eugene hollered, totally shattering the premium car's dignity. "Check out my new ride!"
"That's Miss Caera's car," Driver Wang corrected quietly from the front seat, his practiced calm hiding decades of dealing with young master's friends.
"Details, details!" Eugene waved dismissively, then stuck his head out further. "Bro, you should see this interior. Real crystal everywhere. I've already scored with like three girls in here—"
"You most certainly have not," Driver Wang muttered under his breath.
Constantyn adjusted his wire-rimmed glasses, taking in the scene. "Still causing international incidents, I see."
"Get in loser, we're going spiritual artifact hunting!" Eugene kicked open the door, nearly scratching the car next to them. "Remember that Sichuan girl from the Halloween party in Tainan? The one I thought was just really committed to her ghost costume?"
"You mean the one you stalked because you thought her accent was 'exotic'?" Constantyn slid into the leather interior that smelled of sandalwood and old money. His carefully packed Rimowa found its place in the trunk under Driver Wang's professional handling.
"Culturally curious!" Eugene corrected, already mixing himself a drink from the crystal decanters. "But for real though - she cursed me. Look at this!" He pointed to his acne-spotted face. "Dark magic! Every time I try to drink boba now, it tastes like mud."
"That's not a curse, 白痴. That's what happens when you survive on McDonalds and street food."
"Says the guy who used to crush 7-11 instant noodles with me at 3 AM!" Eugene sprawled deeper into the leather seats. "But seriously, this is the life. You should see how the girls look at you when you roll up in this thing. I mean, technically it's Caera's family car but like, sharing is caring, right?"
"Miss Caera has specifically requested—" Driver Wang started.
"Yeah, yeah, I know!" Eugene cut him off cheerfully. "But think about it, Con - your brains, my charm, Caera's connections? We could build an empire! Remember our business plan from Sun Moon Lake?"
"Your drunk idea for a 'crypto-spiritual meditation retreat for stressed-out billionaires'?"
The Phantom glided through Shanghai's streets like a ghost ship through fog. Eugene had already made himself completely at home, feet up on the premium leather (much to Driver Wang's visible pain), taking selfies with the crystal champagne flutes.
"Shanghai's gonna be different," he announced, his reflection grinning in the crystal decanter. "No more small-time Taiwan stuff. We're playing in the big leagues now."
Constantyn's phone vibrated with a message from an unlisted number: "Package en route. Await further instructions."
He deleted it before Eugene could notice, but his friend was too busy trying to figure out how to open the mini-fridge. "Bro, is this caviar? Fancy! Hey Wang叔叔, can we stop for McDonalds though? I'm starving."
Driver Wang's eye-twitch was barely visible in the rearview mirror. For once, watching the city's shadows lengthen around them, Constantyn thought Eugene might actually be right – just not in the way his friend imagined.
Chapter 6: Enemies and Friends - where's the difference?
"他真的很懂事," Caera's mother gushed from the doorway of the family mansion, clutching the premium gift box of brown sugar boba tea that Constantyn had brought. Perfect temperature, from the exact shop her parents frequented in the French Concession. Of course he'd done his research.
"Very thoughtful young man," her father agreed in English, eyeing Eugene who was currently sprawled across their imported Italian sofa, dropping tapioca pearls on the fabric.
"Auntie, Uncle, you're too kind," Constantyn replied in flawless Mandarin, bowing slightly. The perfect angle, the perfect duration. Caera rolled her eyes so hard she felt her divine status slipping.
"Yo, Caera!" Eugene called out, either oblivious to or deliberately ignoring her parents' wincing. "Remember when you said Constantyn would be some stuffy professor type? Man, you should've seen your face when—"
"Don't you have homework to fail at?" Caera cut him off, but Eugene just grinned wider.
"Nah, got kicked out of business school last week. Now I'm full-time on Team Goddess!"
Her parents exchanged that special look reserved for discussions about Eugene's "temporary" residence in their guest wing. The same look they'd worn when he'd tried to feng shui their garden with anime figurines.
"Perhaps we should focus on the task at hand," Constantyn said smoothly, setting his messenger bag down with military precision. Everything about him screamed efficiency and control, from his wire-rimmed glasses to his calculated smile. "I brought some references about the spiritual network—"
"We have references," Caera said, gesturing to her desk where the jade sphere sat among ancient scrolls. "What we need is—"
"—is someone who actually knows how to use them," Constantyn finished, reaching for one of the scrolls. "Your current approach is—"
"If you say 'incorrect' one more time—"
"Inappropriate, then."
Lin Yu, who had been texting silently by the window, looked up with barely concealed amusement. "你们俩真是天生一对."
"We are NOT a perfect match," Caera snapped in English, while Constantyn simultaneously replied, "Hardly relevant to the situation."
Eugene glanced between them, slurping his boba loudly. "Wait, did I miss something? Are they finally admitting the whole hate-tension thing or—"
The lights flickered, cutting him off. The jade sphere pulsed with sudden warmth, its surface rippling like the Huangpu River at midnight. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, darkness began spreading across Pudong's gleaming towers, building by building.
"Look what you did," Caera and Constantyn accused each other in perfect unison.
"哎呀," Caera's mother sighed, setting down the boba gift box. "At least he brings good tea."
"Mom!" Caera protested, but the darkness was spreading faster now, racing across the financial district like spilled ink.
"Perhaps," Constantyn said, pulling a leather notebook from his bag with practiced efficiency, "we could focus on preventing Shanghai's spiritual collapse? Unless you'd prefer to continue our... discussion."
"Oh sure, *now* you want to cooperate," Caera muttered, but she moved toward the jade sphere. It was pulsing stronger, sending ripples through the air that made the ancestral tablets on the wall tremble.
Eugene rolled off the sofa, nearly knocking over a Ming vase. "Guys, I know you're having like, a whole ENTJ showdown thing, but the Oriental Pearl Tower just went dark and my followers are gonna notice."
"Your TikTok can wait," Lin Yu snapped, finally pocketing her phone. "This is serious."
"Says Miss CIA Secret Text-a-Lot over there," Eugene shot back. "Yeah, I noticed. I notice everything, I just pretend not to because it's more fun watching you try to be subtle."
Lin Yu's careful composure cracked for just a moment. "You—"
"都给我闭嘴!" Caera's father thundered, making everyone jump. Even Constantyn looked startled. "Fix now, fight later!"
"Typical," Constantyn and Caera said simultaneously, then glared at each other.
"The spiritual network is destabilizing," Constantyn continued, flipping open his notebook. "The sphere's resonance is interfering with the modern conduits—"
"You mean the dragon veins," Caera corrected, just to be contrary.
"The *traditional spiritual pathways*," Constantyn emphasized, "which have been integrated into Shanghai's architectural framework. Each skyscraper acts as a—"
"A modern pagoda, channeling and directing energy," Caera finished. "I know. I'm literally a goddess."
"The smallest one," Eugene helpfully added.
"The point is," Constantyn pressed on, stepping closer to examine the sphere in Caera's hands, "we need to stabilize the resonance pattern before—"
The sphere pulsed again, stronger this time. The remaining lights in the room exploded in a shower of sparks, making Caera's mother yelp "我的天啊!"
"Give me that," Constantyn reached for the sphere.
"No way," Caera pulled it back. "Just because my parents like you—"
"This isn't about likes!" But there was a flash of something in his eyes that made Caera pause. "This is about preventing a catastrophe. You know I'm right. You're just too stubborn to admit it."
"Pot, kettle," Eugene singsonged from behind the sofa where he'd taken cover.
Lin Yu's phone buzzed again. She glanced at it, then at the sphere, her expression hardening. "We don't have time for this. Hand it over, Caera. Now."
"Or what?" Caera challenged, but the sphere was growing hotter, its surface swirling with strange patterns.
"先生," Caera's father addressed Constantyn, ignoring the growing tension. "You mentioned you studied at Tsinghua?"
"Dad! Not the time!"
But Constantyn was already smoothly responding, "Yes, Uncle, before my research in—" He caught himself, jaw tightening. "Caera's right. Not the time. The sphere. Please."
He held out his hand, and for the first time since he'd arrived, there was no calculation in his expression. Just urgency. Real urgency.
In the distance, car alarms began to wail as the blackout spread. Behind them, Lin Yu whispered something into her phone that sounded suspiciously like "Initiate contingency plan."
Caera looked at the sphere, then at Constantyn's outstretched hand. "Fine," she said finally. "But we do this together. I don't trust you."
"Likewise," he replied, and their fingers brushed as she passed him the sphere.
"Get a room," Eugene stage-whispered.
"闭嘴!" everyone shouted in unison.
A deep rumble shook the mansion, making the ancestral tablets rattle against the walls. The jade sphere's surface swirled with dark patterns, like ink in water.
"Okay, that's definitely not supposed to happen," Eugene said, peering over the sofa. "Is it just me or does it look like it's getting worse?"
"The dragon veins," Constantyn muttered, his eyes fixed on the sphere. His fingers were still intertwined with Caera's around it, neither willing to let go. "They're not just destabilizing – they're being redirected."
"That's impossible," Caera started, but even as she spoke, she could feel it. The ancient spiritual pathways that had flowed through Shanghai for centuries were shifting, like rivers changing course.
Outside, the darkness continued its calculated march across Pudong. The Jin Mao Tower stood like a lonely sentinel, its lights still burning while buildings around it went dark one by one.
"It's following a pattern," Constantyn said, reaching for his notebook without releasing the sphere. "Look at how the blackout spreads – it's isolating specific nodes in the network. Almost like—"
"—like someone's mapping the dragon veins," Lin Yu finished. Her phone buzzed again, and this time she didn't try to hide her rapid response.
"You know," Eugene drawled, dangling upside down off the sofa now, "for someone who claims to hate modern technology interfering with spiritual stuff, you sure love your phone, Lin Yu. Or should I say—"
Lin Yu's head snapped up. "Finish that sentence, and I'll—"
Another tremor rocked the building. In the kitchen, they could hear Caera's mother exclaim "哎哟!" followed by the crash of breaking pottery.
"Focus!" Constantyn snapped. The sphere was growing hotter between them, its jade surface nearly burning. "Whatever's happening to the network, it's accelerating. We need to—"
"Let me see it," Lin Yu stepped forward, her hand outstretched. All pretense of casual interest was gone from her voice. "I've studied similar artifacts. If we don't contain this now—"
"Since when are you an expert?" Eugene asked innocently, but his eyes were sharp. "I mean, besides your extracurricular activities with—"
The sphere pulsed violently, cutting him off. A wave of spiritual energy rippled outward, and the last lights in the Jin Mao Tower finally went dark.
"It's done," Lin Yu whispered, then caught herself. Louder, she said, "We need to shut this down. Now."
"No," Constantyn and Caera said together, then glared at each other.
"The network isn't just failing," Constantyn continued, his analytical mind racing ahead. "It's being systematically—"
"—mapped," Caera finished, the realization hitting her. "Someone's using the blackout to trace Shanghai's spiritual pathways. But why would anyone..."
She trailed off as Lin Yu's phone lit up with a new message. In the darkness, the characters were clearly visible:
"Network mapped. Proceed with extraction."
"Oh," Eugene said into the sudden silence. "That's why."
The sphere crackled between Caera and Constantyn's hands, its energy making their hair stand on end. Caera tried to pull away again, but Constantyn's grip remained firm.
"Let. Go." She gritted out.
"So you can what? Drop it? Break it? Prove every theory I have about untrained divine entities?" His voice was maddeningly calm.
"对不起," Lin Yu's voice cut through their bickering. When they looked up, she had a slim black device pointed at them. "But I'll be taking that sphere now."
"Are you serious?" Caera stared at her friend – former friend? – in disbelief. "What is this, some bad spy movie?"
"CIA," Eugene supplied helpfully, still lounging on the sofa despite the gun pointed in their general direction. "Been trying to tell you for weeks but you were too busy with your whole divine crisis thing."
"Shut up, Eugene," Lin Yu snapped.
"Make me, Agent Whatever-Your-Real-Name-Is."
The sphere pulsed again, stronger now. Outside, car alarms were wailing across Pudong, and distant shouts could be heard as the city grappled with the expanding darkness.
"The dragon veins," Constantyn said, his analytical tone somehow more irritating than ever. "You're not just mapping them. You're trying to weaponize them."
"Gold star for the insufferable academic," Lin Yu replied. "Now, the sphere. Before I have to do something we'll both regret, Caera."
"You mean like betraying your friend? Because I think that ship has sailed." But Caera could feel the sphere's energy building, threatening to spiral out of control. And Constantyn – annoyingly, infuriatingly – seemed to be the only one who knew how to stabilize it.
"Friends?" Lin Yu laughed, cold and sharp. "We were never friends. You were an assignment. The smallest goddess in Shanghai, perfect cover for monitoring spiritual activity. Though I have to thank you – your complete incompetence made my job much easier."
"Hey now," Eugene protested, "only I get to make fun of her divine status."
Another tremor shook the building. In the kitchen, Caera's parents were arguing in rapid-fire Shanghainese, probably trying to decide whether to call the police or their feng shui master.
"The network's reaching critical instability," Constantyn muttered, his fingers adjusting their grip on the sphere. Caera hated that she found herself matching his movements instinctively. "If we don't stabilize it—"
"That's the point," Lin Yu cut in. "Let it destabilize. Let it break. Do you know how much power runs through Shanghai's dragon veins? How many nations would kill to control that kind of spiritual energy?"
"Boring," Eugene yawned. "Classic CIA monologuing. Very 2010."
"I said shut UP!"
The gun swung toward Eugene. In that split second of distraction, Caera felt Constantyn's fingers tap a pattern against the sphere. A code? A warning?
She was about to elbow him in the ribs when the sphere's surface suddenly went black as night. The same darkness that had been creeping across the city seemed to pour into it, making it dense and heavy as a black hole.
"What did you do?" Lin Yu demanded, gun swinging back to them.
"What did YOU do?" Caera hissed at Constantyn.
He met her glare with infuriating calm. "Buying us time. Unless you'd prefer to hand over Shanghai's spiritual network to the CIA?"
"I prefer you stop manhandling my artifact!"
"Guys?" Eugene's voice had lost its playful edge. "I think maybe we should—"
The sphere exploded with dark energy. The last thing Caera saw before everything went black was Lin Yu diving for the artifact, her phone clattering to the floor with a final message glowing on its screen:
"Target secured. Extraction team en route."
The sphere pulsed between their joined hands, its jade surface catching the last lights of Shanghai's fading skyline. Through the windows, darkness crept up the sides of the Shanghai World Financial Center like a rising tide.
"The spiritual network is collapsing node by node," Constantyn said, his analytical tone betraying a hint of awe. "See how the blackout follows the old canal paths? The dragon veins are—"
"Failing," Caera finished. She could feel it now, the ancient pathways stuttering like a heartbeat gone wrong. "It's worse than last time."
"Last time?" Constantyn's eyes narrowed. "You mean this has happened before?"
"不会吧," Caera's mother murmured, pressing a hand to her chest as she watched the city darken. "The tea shop..."
"Mom, please, not now." But Caera's grip on the sphere tightened. Uncle Bao's warning about the dragon veins echoed in her mind.
Eugene popped up from behind the sofa. "Okay but like, why's it spreading in that weird pattern? It's like someone's playing connect-the-dots with skyscrapers."
Lin Yu's head snapped up. "What did you say?"
"For once, Eugene's right," Constantyn said, pulling out his notebook with his free hand. "The pattern... it's not random. Look at the Jin Mao Tower – it's still lit, but it's surrounded by darkness. Almost like—"
"—like someone's isolating the major nodes," Lin Yu finished, her voice tight. She was typing furiously on her phone now, no longer pretending to be casual about it.
"You know something," Caera accused, trying to pull the sphere away from Constantyn. He held firm.
"Let go," he said quietly. "You're disrupting the resonance."
"Oh, *I'm* disrupting things? When you barged in here with your perfect manners and your fancy theories and—"
The sphere flared between them, bright enough to make spots dance in Caera's vision. A deep rumble shook the mansion's foundations.
"阿弥陀佛," Caera's father muttered, grabbing his wife's hand. "Maybe we should..."
"Yes, yes, we're going," her mother said quickly. "But Caera, 宝贝, please be careful. And Constantyn, you'll stay for dinner after? I'm making red-braised pork."
"Mom!"
But they were already hurrying out, leaving the four of them with a pulsing artifact and a dying city.
"The resonance pattern," Constantyn said as soon as they were gone, all pretense of politeness dropping from his voice. "It's not just about stabilizing the network. There's something else. Something in the foundations of those buildings."
"The vendor," Caera remembered suddenly. "At the tea market. He said the sphere was a key."
"A key?" Lin Yu's voice was sharp. Too sharp.
Eugene snorted. "Well yeah, didn't you see those weird marks in the basement of the—" He cut off as Lin Yu's phone buzzed again. "Okay seriously, who are you texting? Your secret spy friends?"
"Don't be ridiculous," Lin Yu snapped, but her fingers were already moving: "Asset compromised. Accelerate timeline."
The sphere pulsed once more, and this time the wave of darkness that swept across Pudong felt deliberate. Calculated. The Jin Mao Tower finally went dark, and in the sudden silence that followed, they could hear sirens starting up across the city.
"What did you do?" Caera whispered, looking at the sphere, at Constantyn, at the city slowly drowning in darkness.
But it was Lin Yu who answered, her voice cold and professional: "My job."
"Target secured. Extraction team en route."
Darkness swallowed the room whole. Somewhere in the void, glass shattered – probably the antique vase her mother loved more than her, Caera thought hysterically. The sphere had gone from burning hot to freezing cold between their hands.
"欸, 死了死了," her father's voice carried from the kitchen. "The entire block's out!"
"Let go!" Caera tried to wrench the sphere away from Constantyn in the darkness.
"If I let go now, the feedback could—"
A red beam of light cut through the darkness. Lin Yu's tactical flashlight. Because of course a CIA agent would come prepared.
"How convenient," she said, the light catching the sphere's surface, making it look like black ice. "You've done exactly what we needed. The network's completely exposed now."
"You're welcome?" Eugene's voice floated from somewhere near the floor. "I mean, that's what friends are for, right? Helping with corporate espionage, spiritual heists..."
"Eugene," Lin Yu's voice had turned dangerously soft. "You really should learn when to stop talking."
"Funny," he replied, and something in his tone made Caera's skin crawl. "I was about to say the same thing."
The sphere pulsed once more between Caera and Constantyn's hands, but this time it felt different. Calculated. Almost like...
"No," Constantyn breathed, finally showing a crack in his perfect composure. "That's not possible. The algorithmic resonance couldn't—"
"Shut up with your stupid analysis!" Caera snapped, but her eyes were fixed on Lin Yu's silhouette in the red beam. "Why? Just... why?"
"Because some powers shouldn't be left in the hands of children playing at being gods," Lin Yu answered coldly. Through the mansion's windows, they could see more figures moving in the darkness outside. The extraction team. "Especially not the smallest, most incompetent goddess in Shanghai."
The sphere grew colder still. Caera could feel Constantyn's fingers trembling against hers now, though whether from strain or fury, she couldn't tell. She hated that she was starting to tell the difference.
"Guys?" Eugene's voice had lost all its playfulness. "I think maybe we should—"
The mansion's front door burst open. Multiple red beams cut through the darkness as armed figures poured in. Professional. Silent. Efficient.
"手放开!" One of them barked. "Hands where we can see them!"
In the chaos of crossing red beams, Caera saw three things happen in rapid succession:
Lin Yu stepped forward, gun trained on the sphere. "Last chance, Caera. Let go."
Constantyn's fingers tightened against hers, his voice dropping to a whisper. "Whatever happens, don't let them—"
And Eugene, still sprawled on the floor, started laughing. Not his usual chaotic giggle, but something dark and ancient that made the tactical lights flicker.
"Oh Lin Yu," he said, his voice suddenly carrying echoes that shouldn't be possible in a modern Shanghai mansion. "Did the CIA really think they were the only ones who could infiltrate a goddess's inner circle?"
The sphere turned black as night between Caera and Constantyn's hands. And in its surface, like a mirror to hell, thousands of tiny red eyes opened all at once.
"What—" Lin Yu started.
The lights went out.
And Shanghai screamed.