"Are you open-minded, Zhang Xi?" I ask, shifting a little on the cushion, resting my arms on my knees. I need to steer this conversation carefully. She doesn’t seem like someone who accepts moral shortcuts easily.

"I believe so." Her voice comes out calm, almost meditative. "Nothing in the universe has a single explanation. Everything has two sides... sometimes more than two. What matters is deciding which one you wish to remain on."

The more Zhang Xi speaks, the more the initial image I had of her starts to crumble. She isn’t just some docile, altruistic healer. There’s depth in her. Conviction. Maybe even a dangerous strength, but one shaped in a way completely different from the people of Thirstfall.

Before I can respond, the door opens without a single knock.

Veric comes in first, followed by Rhayne and Oliver. The flow of energy in the room shifts at once, but Zhang Xi only casts a tranquil glance over her shoulder, as if she already knows exactly who’s arriving.

That catches my attention. Her perception of presence is refined. Very refined. Maybe on the level of Lola.

"Well, well... if it isn’t the little bald healer." Veric opens his mouth the instant he steps inside, carrying that offensive sincerity only he possesses.

I’m already about to scold him when Rhayne simply walks past us in quick steps. She kneels beside Zhang Xi and hugs her.

’...What?’

Veric, Oliver, and I look at one another at the same time, completely lost.

The hug doesn’t last long. Four, maybe five seconds, but something about it feels quietly important. Zhang Xi breaks into a genuine smile as Rhayne pulls back slowly, taking an extra instant to let go of her hands.

"Thank you, ma’am," Rhayne says gently.

"There’s no need to thank me, child," Zhang Xi answers in the same serene tone.

Rhayne then comes to sit beside the table with us as though nothing strange just happened. The entire atmosphere of the room feels different now, as if the two of them traded something invisible that none of us managed to follow.

Veric is the first to break the awkward silence.

"Hold on... why are you two acting like aunt and niece?" He points between them. "You’re practically the same age. Twenty, maybe?"

Rhayne covers her mouth, holding back a laugh. Zhang Xi only tilts her head slightly.

"I’m thirty-nine years old, young prince."

I choke on my own breath.

Cough! Cough! Cough!

"What?!" Veric nearly leaps off the cushion. "Thirty-nine? You look like somebody’s older sister, not an aunt!"

He isn’t exaggerating. Zhang Xi looks barely past twenty. Smooth skin, soft features, that calm posture... nothing about her gives away her age. The only thing that betrays experience is the absurd serenity with which she watches the world.

Oliver lets out a muffled laugh beside me, clearly satisfied to watch Veric embarrass himself all on his own.

"I already knew..." Rhayne murmurs quietly.

I turn to her immediately.

"What do you mean, you knew?"

"They traded energy," Oliver answers before she can. His smile fades gradually as he studies Zhang Xi more closely. "Or rather... Zhang Xi read hers."

The room goes strangely quiet. Then Zhang Xi speaks again.

"When she embraced me..." Her eyes settle on Rhayne. "I felt as though I were being pulled into another world. A sensation very close to the pre-nirvana."

My instinct reacts before I even think.

"Don’t hug her for too long," I say immediately. Everyone looks at me. "Or you really will find nirvana."

It isn’t a threat, and it isn’t sarcasm. It’s a literal warning.

Zhang Xi stares at me without fully understanding, but she doesn’t press. And I don’t intend to explain it here. Not yet. Rhayne already carries too many problems inside her for me to start spilling truths across the table before their time. I decide to cut the subject before she starts asking the wrong questions.

"Now that we’re all here..." I prop my elbows on the low table. "Let’s get to what matters."

The group’s focus snaps back to me.

"I explained part of the plan to Zhang Xi and raised her share to ten percent."

Veric arches an eyebrow.

"You raised her share? For free?"

"It wasn’t for free," I reply. "It was an investment."

Over the next few minutes, Zhang Xi and I lay out the project as plainly as possible. The orphanage. The need for capital, the reasons to improve the future of Thirstfall, and the veiled terror of the top-ranking Divers who make the rules.

Oliver listens with absolute attention. Veric interrupts now and then to ask practical questions. Rhayne just watches in silence, probably trying to fit all the pieces together.

When I finish, I turn my gaze back to Zhang Xi.

"So let’s settle the main part." I lace my fingers on the table. "I need to reach the leader of the Silver Fangs. And you’re going to be my bridge."

She tilts her head slightly.

"What exactly do you want to propose?"

"A monopoly."

The word lands heavy in the room.

"A monopoly over the future of Azure Prime, maybe all of Thirstfall, and as a result... Earth."

Veric lets out a low whistle, mimicking the descending shriek of a falling bomb, but I continue before anyone can interrupt.

"Have you ever heard of cleaning OXI ducts?"

"Of course..." This time even Zhang Xi frowns. She understands the gravity of it.

The old ducts of the lower city are practically dead zones, saturated with toxic residue, rotten or poorly burned OXI, and impurities piled up over decades. Cleaning them carelessly could cost lives, which is exactly why it’s a long, dragging process nobody wants to pay for or carry out.

"The old ducts are dead money. Even specialists take far too long to purify them, and speed gets people killed," Zhang Xi says in a low voice.

"Because they’re using the wrong method," I reply.

I let the silence work in my favor. In my past life, this was exactly how the power of Silver Flow was born. They turned purification into an empire. They controlled the distribution of OXI. They controlled survival. And whoever controls survival... controls cities. This time, though, I hold the advantage. I know the future.

"I have a new method," I say calmly.

Her eyes narrow slightly. Not in suspicion, but in calculation.

"If it works..." she murmurs.

"It will work."

My answer comes out firm enough to cut off any doubt before it’s born, and then I lean my body forward a little.

"But there’s one important detail."

Everyone looks at me.

"If the Silver Fangs refuse my proposal..." I let each word fall slowly across the table. "I go to Silver Flow."

The silence comes instantly. Because everyone in that room understands the exact weight of that sentence. Zhang Xi most of all.

"And you know as well as I do... that they wouldn’t refuse," I finish, holding her gaze.