“Good morning.”
White Li pushed open the unit door. Lin Du was still waiting downstairs.
“Morning.”
Lin Du replied and turned to leave.
White Li fell into step beside him. Her gaze casually swept over his right hand.
Bandages wrapped from his elbow to his palm, looking slightly pale in the sunlight.
“Huh? What happened to your hand? Are you okay?”
She moved closer, trying to get a better look.
Lin Du shook his head, raised his right hand, and flexed his fingers.
The fingers beneath the bandages bent slightly—the movement was still fairly agile.
“It’s nothing. Just a small crack in the bone.”
“A crack?” White Li’s eyes widened. “And you call that ‘nothing’?”
“It’s very, very minor. The doctor said I just need to rest for a few days.”
“Did you get it playing basketball?” White Li asked casually.
Lin Du’s eyes darted to the right, avoiding her gaze.
“Probably…?”.
White Li didn’t notice his evasive look. She just nodded and kept walking ahead.
“You young people need to be careful when you’re active. A little bump or knock and it can turn into something serious.”
They walked side by side for a while. Then Lin Du suddenly spoke.
“Um… I want to apologize to you.”
“Huh?”
White Li stopped in her tracks and tilted her head to look at him, her eyes full of confusion.
“Apologize? You haven’t done anything wrong to me lately, have you?”
“Uh…”
Lin Du paused for a moment. The corner of his mouth twitched, as if he was weighing his words.
‘I can’t just say, “I used to suspect you were a weirdo.” ’
‘I also can’t say, “I saw a strand of silver-white hair outside the locker room door and immediately suspected you were that weirdo from the Fox Clan.” ’
So he cleared his throat and said instead:
“Back at the museum, I should have waited for you to finish before we left together.”
“That’s an overreaction. And if you had waited, you’d have been waiting a long time,” White Li waved her hand and raised an eyebrow at him. “Is that it?”
“That’s… that’s all.” Suddenly remembering something, Lin Du said, “Let me treat you to lunch.”
“No need. This time it’s on me.”
White Li had already pulled out her phone. Her fingers flew across the screen, tapping a few times.
A second later, Lin Du’s phone buzzed. He took it out and saw a payment notification.
“Here, I’m also returning the money I borrowed from you earlier.”
Lin Du glanced at the amount, then looked up at her. The corner of his mouth twitched.
“Being a mascot pays that well?”
White Li’s expression froze for a split second, but she quickly recovered.
“It… it does,” she puffed out her chest and said with righteous indignation. “You know how exhausting it is to wear that mascot costume. It’s stuffy and hot, and I have to take pictures with kids, wave, pose—it’s not easy money!”
‘I can’t exactly say it was the bonus for stealing the staff.’
As she spoke, she gestured wildly, flailing her arms as if she really were complaining.
Lin Du silently watched her, not pressing further.
White Li quietly breathed a sigh of relief. She lifted her head, her mind drifting back to the events of the previous night.
…
When she nervously followed Martha into the hall, the first thing she saw was Madam sitting on the sofa, holding the staff in her hands, carefully wiping it with a soft velvet cloth.
The emerald light on the staff danced in the candlelight, as if it were extremely excited.
“Humans don’t know how to cherish things.”
Madam’s voice was languid, her gaze fixed on the staff.
“Such a precious item, and they just left it in a cabinet with a spotlight. Not even proper protection.”
She raised her eyes and gave White Li a slight nod.
“You’re here?”
White Li’s back tensed, and she instinctively straightened her posture.
“Good evening, Madam.” She gave a small bow.
“Sit down.”
“Thank you…” White Li peeked at the staff.
It lay intact in Madam’s hand, its emerald glow even brighter than it had been at the museum—as if it had finally returned to its owner.
She felt relieved.
So while she was unconscious, the staff had still been brought back.
But she remembered that before losing consciousness, she had clearly fallen from the rooftop.
From that height, who had caught her? And who had brought her back?
White Li pulled out a chair and obediently sat down, hands on her knees, her tail lying quietly behind her.
“You may leave now, Martha.”
“As you wish, Madam.”
Martha gave a slight nod, stepped back, and melted into the dark corner, silent and invisible.
Madam gently set the polished staff beside her seat, picked up her teacup, took a sip, and then spoke in a calm tone.
“You did well this time.”
Madam put down the teacup, her gaze falling on White Li’s wrists. She waved her hand.
“Come, let me see.”
Only then did White Li remember—she still had handcuffs on her wrists.
She quickly extended her hands, holding them up in front of Madam.
Madam looked down at the handcuffs, a hint of disdain in her eyes.
“What an audacious creation.”
She reached out her index finger and lightly tapped the lock.
Click, click.
Wherever she touched, the metal broke apart.
In just a few breaths, the cold, hard handcuffs crumbled into scattered fragments, sliding off White Li’s wrists and bouncing on the floor before rolling into the shadows.
White Li withdrew her hands and looked down.
Two faint red marks remained on her wrists, stark against her pale skin.
“It seems humans have developed some technology to deal with us,” Madam said, withdrawing her hand and leaning back into the sofa. “But unfortunately, they’re not very skilled at it.”
White Li rubbed the red marks on her wrists, hesitated, and then asked cautiously, “A technology that seals mana? But how could…”
“I suppose,” Madam said, lifting her teacup again, her tone indifferent, “there might be an informant. After all, not all of them were killed by the Blazing Knight.”
At the word “informant,” White Li’s heart leaped into her throat.
After all, earlier, she had tried to tell someone about the plan twice.
That alone was enough to get her shot eight hundred times.
“That’s why I placed a seal on you.”
Madam took a sip of tea, her gaze crossing the rim of the cup and landing on White Li’s face.
“So, did the seal work?”
Cold sweat broke out on White Li’s back. She nearly jumped out of her chair.
She waved her hands frantically. “No, no, of course not! I’ve kept my mouth shut! I haven’t said a single word!”
“Good,” Madam nodded, her tone unreadable. “The bonus for this mission has already been sent to you. Go home and get some rest.”
She paused, then added another sentence.
“There will be many more things I need you to do from now on.”
“Yes, thank you, Madam.”
Only after she walked out of the hall and turned into the corridor did she dare to breathe deeply.
…
“What’s wrong? Is there something in the sky?”
Lin Du’s voice suddenly sounded in her ear.
White Li snapped back to reality and found that Lin Du had somehow walked right in front of her and was waving his hand in front of her face.
“Ah… ah, no, nothing.”
She scratched the back of her head and forced a smile.
“Maybe I got a stiff neck. My neck feels a bit uncomfortable.”
“Want me to adjust it for you?”
Lin Du extended his hands, interlaced his fingers, turned his palms outward, and cracked his knuckles.
White Li instinctively jumped back two steps, shielding her neck with both hands.
“No thanks. With that posture, it looks like you’re trying to twist my head off.”
She glanced at the bandage on his right hand. “Besides, your hand is injured. You’d better not move it.”
Lin Du lowered his hands, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly.
“Alright. So what do you want for lunch?”
White Li thought for a moment, her eyes lighting up.
“Let’s have a treat… I want… buffet!”
“Well, thank you very much, boss.”