The plane touched down at Imperial Capital City's private airstrip at exactly 3:47 PM.
Yun Jiao knew this because Hawk had been counting down the minutes with the enthusiasm of a child on the way to an amusement park.
"Fourteen minutes to landing, Master!"
"Eight minutes, Master!"
"MASTER, MASTER, THREE MINUTES—"
"Hawk."
"Yes?!"
"If you don't lower your volume, I will use you as a paperweight.
"Silence. Then, very quietly:"...Four minutes."
Yun Jiao sighed through her nose.
She pressed her face lightly against the small oval window and gazed down at the city spreading out beneath her like a jewelled map.
Imperial Capital.
Even from the sky, it breathed differently from everywhere else.
Towers of glass and steel caught the afternoon sun and threw it back in blinding flashes.
Highways carved through the landscape like silver veins.
Green parks dotted the grey cityscape like punctuation marks — decorative, deliberate, expensive.
The kind of city that smiled at you from a distance. And ate you alive up close.
Yun Jiao smiled back at it.She had missed this place, she realized.
The same way a wolf misses the forest it was driven out of. Not with longing. With intent.
"Hawk," she said softly. "
Yes, Master?"
The AI's voice was still slightly sulky from the paperweight threat.
"Pull up everything you have on the current Yun household staff."
She paused.
"Quietly." "Understood."
A tiny pause.
"...Master, for the record, I was only excited because I haven't been outside in five years—
"Hawk."
"Pulling it up! Pulling it up right now!"
She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling.
Terrible little machine.
She loved it dearly.
—The car that picked them up from the tarmac was even sleeker than the first one.Longer. Blacker.
With windows so tinted you could commit several felonies inside and the outside world would be none the wiser.
Yun Jiao slid into the backseat, crossed her ankles neatly, placed her bag on her lap, and spent exactly three seconds appreciating the buttery leather interior before switching back into full tactical mode.
From the front passenger seat, Butler Ye recited the schedule for her arrival in the same tone one might read a grocery list.
"We will arrive at the estate in approximately thirty minutes. The Madam has prepared a welcome tea. The young miss of the household — Miss Yunjinna — will also be present. The Master himself is in a business meeting and will join the family for dinner at seven."
"How lovely," Yun Jiao said. She was watching the city roll past the windows.
Her eyes were soft. Her expression was dreamy. Her fingers were loosely laced together in her lap.
She looked like a girl on the way to a birthday party.
She was mentally reviewing her dossier on Ruan Suyin — the stepmother.
Forty-one years old. Former socialite. Married Yunting twelve years ago after his first wife died in the delivery room.
Excellent at crying on cue.
Excellent at playing the devoted wife in public.
Privately: ruthless, strategic, and possessive of her daughter to the point of obsession.
Currently smiling and preparing a welcome tea.
Yun Jiao resisted the urge to snort.A welcome tea.
For the girl she had personally arranged to be handed over to a violent old man as a human business transaction.
How thoughtful.
How warm.
How completely, spectacularly fake.
She tilted her head against the window and watched a pair of pigeons fight over a bread crust on a ledge outside a convenience store.
Even the pigeons in this city were ruthless.
She felt right at home.