Jiang Chen didn't bother looking back at the alley.
He wasn't the same man — or boy — they'd left to rot there.
He tightened his grip on the wall beside him until his legs stopped shaking. Then he walked. Slowly. One step at a time.
Ashveil Town wasn't much to look at.
The streets were narrow, packed with muddy wagons and merchants barking at anyone who got too close. People pushed past him without a second glance.
To them, he was a sickly noble son crawling home after another beating.
He liked it that way.
The Jiang estate sat on a small rise north of the market square. A decent house for a family that once mattered. He wasn't in a rush to get there.
But halfway through the square, he felt it.
Pressure.
Not the kind from a hostile aura.
Just… attention.
He stopped.
The street stretched out ahead — mostly empty. Only a few passersby minding their own business.
Except for her.
She walked straight toward him.
Seventeen, maybe. Slender but with a sharpness to her steps, like she didn't care whose road she walked on. Her black hair fell in a loose tail, streaked with faint crimson. A travel-worn cloak covered most of her clothes, but she carried herself like someone who knew how to handle herself in a fight.
But it was her eyes that caught him.
Dark. Focused. A little too focused for a random stranger.
She stopped a few paces in front of him.
"You," she said.
Jiang Chen met her gaze. "Me."
Her eyes narrowed slightly. "Jiang Chen."
His mouth twitched. "You've heard of me."
She didn't blink. "I thought you were dead."
"Almost," he said. "Turns out, I'm hard to kill."
She studied him. Not the way curious people stared. More like someone checking for a threat.
"You're the third son of the Jiang family," she said flatly. "The useless one."
He smiled, faint but sharp. "That's the story."
"You don't look like much," she said.
"Good." He met her eyes without backing down. "People like surprises."
Her gaze held his a little longer than it needed to.
Then her expression shifted — just a little. The tension dropped half a notch.
"You smell… strange," she said.
He fought the urge to smirk.
"So I've been told."
She took a slow step forward.
"You don't belong here."
"Neither do you," Jiang Chen replied.
Her lips pressed into a thin line.
The heat in the air wasn't his imagination. It wasn't hostile — not yet — but it wrapped around her like a second skin.
He raised a brow. "Planning to tell me your name, or is this going to be a staring contest?"
She didn't answer right away.
Finally, she said, "I'm not here for you."
"Sure."
"And you should be careful." Her eyes sharpened. "This town isn't kind to people who don't know their place."
Jiang Chen shrugged. "Neither am I."
For a moment, they just stared at each other.
Not as enemies. Not exactly.
But not as strangers, either.
She turned first.
With a flick of her cloak, she walked past him, boots soft on the cobblestones.
He watched her until she disappeared around the next bend.
Only then did he let out a slow breath.
He didn't know her name.
Didn't know why she'd stopped.
But one thing was certain — the flower's curse was already working.
And this was only the beginning