My younger sister, Shen Nian, died in an abandoned factory, wearing a wedding dress and clutching the same sandalwood beads my father held when he was murdered. Every clue pointed to one man: Lu Zheng, head of the Crowfeather Hall.
I gave up my identity as a detective and went undercover at his side under the codename “Lone Blade.” Lu Zheng was suspicious and ruthless, yet he kept me close. He taught me to handle a gun, tended to my scars, and looked at me as if I were a work of art nearing completion.
“You remind me of her,” he said. “But I want you to become more like yourself.”
I played the desperate fugitive, but day after day in disguise, I began to lose sight of where the act ended. He gave me his trust, and I answered with “loyalty.” He let his guard down, and I found myself hesitating. With every moment we drew closer, the line between us and the hatred I carried grew blurrier.
Then he placed all the evidence of his crimes in my hands. Behind him, a fire raged, ready to consume everything. In his eyes was the calm of someone who understood it all.
He spoke the ending that had been written from the very beginning:
“Come closer.”
“Then kill me.”
The flames swallowed everything. In the end, the gun never went off.
But I survived. Had I avenged my family, or become his most perfect accomplice?
A deadly hunt, as intimate as it is ruthless, led by the very man who should have been my enemy.
