The revelation from Xiaoya struck like a boulder plunging into still waters, sending violent ripples through Lin Xiaoxia's heart. That a silver ring tied to an ancient family studying temporal power had surfaced among Xu Yuan's belongings—this was no coincidence.
Lin Xiaoxia began revisiting every detail of their relationship. Xu Yuan's tenderness, his occasional reticence, those fleeting moments of melancholy that made him seem almost... out of place in this world—now they all seemed veiled in mist.
She probed gently for more about his past, but Xu Yuan's memories of childhood and family remained frustratingly vague, brushed aside with quiet deflection.
Determined for answers, Lin Xiaoxia followed Xiaoya's leads into the shadowed history of the "Silver Family." Dusty archives and encrypted records yielded fragments:
This was no ordinary lineage. For generations, they had operated from history's blind spots, convinced time was a force to be harnessed. Their experiments threaded through centuries.
Then, the chilling revelation:
Each member received a silver ring at birth.
The rings were both insignia and conduit, their inner runes encoding ancient incantations to manipulate shards of time.
Which meant—
If Xu Yuan possessed one...
The thought paralyzed her. Her Xu Yuan—the gentle programmer who brought her coffee during late nights, who laughed helplessly at his own terrible jokes—could he truly be part of this?
Unless...
A terrible hypothesis took shape:
What if he didn't know?
What if his memories had been altered, sealed away? And Li Mingzhe's appearance—had it been meant to awaken something in him?
The realization slithered down her spine:
She'd believed herself his protector. But the truth might invert their roles entirely.
The ring gleamed coldly in its box, whispering secrets in a language just beyond reach.
Lin Xiaoxia closed her fingers around it.
To end this, she would have to walk into the storm—
And unravel the boy she loved.
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