The city had already quieted into its late-night lull, where traffic lights blinked lazily and the hum of engines thinned into silence. Jiang Yue sat by the window of her study, the moonlight spilling across her desk like silver ink. The contract from the publishing house lay untouched beside her laptop, its neat stack of pages almost mocking her. She should have been excited, this was everything she had once dreamed of. Yet her hands trembled faintly as she pressed them against the cool surface of the desk.
The incident earlier in the day hadn't left her mind.
The stalker had finally crossed a line.
It wasn't just anonymous messages or unsettling gifts anymore. A shadow had followed her after her quick trip to the corner bookstore. She had sensed it first,the faint crunch of footsteps always a beat after hers. Then the system had chimed in, its usual playful tone uncharacteristically sharp.
> System Alert: [Danger Proximity 70%]. Recommend immediate relocation.
Her heart had nearly leapt out of her chest. She hadn't seen his face, but she caught a reflection in the glass door of a café, someone trailing her, close enough to reach her if she stumbled. Only Zhenkai's swift arrival had scared the stalker off. He'd appeared with his car door open, his expression a storm as he practically shoved her inside before she could even process it.
Now, hours later, the fear lingered like a ghost pressing on her shoulders.
"Why me?" she whispered, her voice shaking.
The system, unusually quiet, finally spoke.
> System: Because your fate attracts extremes. You write hope, but darkness wants to claim it. That's the curse… and the gift.
Jiang Yue closed her eyes. The curse of bad luck again. But she wasn't going to let it silence her. Not when her words had reached people who needed them. She thought back to the fan comments she had read, the strangers who had said her poems saved them, who had told her they finally felt seen. If she let fear cage her now, what would that mean for them?
So, she opened her notebook.
The pen hovered over the page, and then the words poured out, raw and unpolished, like her heart was bleeding ink. She wrote about the fear that chased her steps, but also about the calm anchor she'd found in him. About a man who was storm and shield all at once, who watched her quietly but fiercely, who didn't ask for thanks but whose presence gave her strength.
When she finished, the moonlight caught on her tears. She hadn't even noticed when they had fallen. Her handwriting wavered, but the meaning was clear. The poem was for him.
Zhenkai had returned hours ago after giving stern orders to his men to trace the stalker's movements. He didn't tell her the details, he never did, likely to keep her from worrying but she could tell from the tightness in his jaw that it hadn't been easy.
He leaned against the doorframe now, watching her. She hadn't heard him enter. His gaze drifted from her trembling hands to the poem she had left open on the desk. His usual cold mask softened as he read the words, though he said nothing.
"Zhenkai…" she began, startled.
He shook his head, stepping closer but not commenting on the poem. Instead, he placed his hand lightly on her shoulder, his touch grounding her. "Don't stay up too late."
Then, as if the poem hadn't cut straight into his soul, he turned and left.
The next morning, Jiang Yue blinked awake to find something unusual waiting on her desk.
A single flower rested there. Rare, delicate, its pale petals tinged with violet at the edges. It wasn't one she had ever seen before in local markets. She reached for it gently, her breath catching.
The system beeped softly.
> System Note: Flower identified: Moon's Tear. Rare. Meaning: silent devotion, unsaid love.
Her lips parted, her heart stumbling into a faster rhythm. Silent devotion. He hadn't spoken last night after reading her poem. But this flower… this was his reply.
Her eyes burned as she pressed the bloom against her chest. He didn't need to say it out loud. She understood.
Later that day, she sat with Zhenkai in his office. Papers were spread across his desk, but his attention wasn't on them. Instead, he watched her as she absentmindedly twirled the flower in her hands.
"You're reckless," he muttered suddenly, breaking the silence.
She blinked, startled. "What?"
"That stalker…" His jaw tightened, his voice low and dangerous. "If I hadn't shown up yesterday. "
She cut him off with a shake of her head. "But you did. And I'm still here."
His eyes burned into hers, and for a long moment, neither spoke. The silence was heavy, charged with words unsaid. Then, unexpectedly, the system chimed in, its tone teasing again as if trying to break the tension.
> System: Oho, atmosphere detected: [Romantic Tension Level 90%]. Shall I dim the lights? Play background music?
Jiang Yue's face turned crimson. She smacked the table lightly. "Can you not?"
For the first time that day, Zhenkai's lips twitched in the faintest smile. "Your system is irritating."
"You're telling me," she muttered, covering her face " wait, how did you know I had a system "
" I heard you talking to him several times thinking you were there alone and you called it system so I poeced everything together from there"
" You really are the male lead so smart "
The system giggled at least, that's what it sounded like.
> System: Fine, fine. I'll be quiet. But… admit it, Host, you liked the flower.
Jiang Yue's fingers curled tighter around the bloom. She glanced up at Zhenkai, whose expression had already returned to composed indifference. Still, her heart whispered the truth: she liked it more than she could say.
That night, the moonlight returned to her window, and Jiang Yue sat once again with her notebook. But this time, she didn't write out of fear. She wrote out of hope, out of the fragile, beautiful connection growing between them, silent but steady,like the flower resting beside her lamp.
And though the stalker's shadow still lingered in the corners of her life, Jiang Yue felt for the first time that she wasn't alone in facing it and wasn't too weak to face it alone..