The next day came faster than jaing yue expected, she had wanted the peace to last longer but Jiang Yue should have known better.
Peace never lasted. Not for her. Not once, not in the months since she'd woken up inside a body and a life that wasn't originally hers.
"It's just a small reading," Meng Qiao said, for the third time in as many minutes, clutching her clipboard like it might physically shield her from whatever was coming.
"Small," Jiang Yue repeated, eyeing the café through the window.
It was not small.
People filled every corner of the space,phones raised, copies of her book clutched to their chests, eyes bright with an anticipation that made her stomach flip in a way she didn't entirely trust.
"…This is a concert," she muttered.
Meng Qiao offered a nervous smile. "Your fans are… enthusiastic."
"That's one word for it."
[System Alert: Crowd density high.]
[System Comment: High chance of chaos.]
"…You say that about everything."
[System: Because everything around you becomes chaos.]
"I hate how accurate you are."
The moment she stepped through the door, the crowd reacted, cheers rising, gasps rippling outward, whispers turning into full shouts.
"IT'S HER...."
"Jiang Yue!"
"I love your book so much!"
She blinked, briefly overwhelmed by the sheer wall of noise. "…Hi?"
That, somehow, made it worse. The crowd seemed to melt on the spot.
She took her seat at the front, a microphone waiting on the small table, a warm overhead light casting a soft glow across the room. For a moment, one brief, suspicious moment, everything felt almost normal. Safe and Manageable.
She glanced around. Tessa gave her a thumbs up from the side of the room. Meng Qiao hovered near the entrance, still clutching that clipboard. Everything was fine.
Everything was...
[System Alert: Suspicious electrical fluctuation detected.]
"…No."
[System: Just saying.]
"Don't start."
She took a breath anyway, opened her book, and began.
"There are days when the world feels too loud ,
when even silence sounds like breaking…"
Her voice softened as she read, and the crowd quieted with it, settling into the rhythm of her words like water finding its level.
"And in those moments,
we search for something
someone
to remind us we're still here."
Even the air in the room seemed to hold still.
Then, pop.
A sharp sound, followed by a flicker overhead. Jiang Yue froze mid-sentence.
"…No."
A faint smell reached her a second later. Burning.
[System Alert: FIRE RISK DETECTED.]
"…NO."
Someone in the back screamed. "Is that smoke?!"
A small flame flickered to life near one of the decorative string lights strung along the ceiling. Staff rushed forward. People began rising from their seats, the ripple of panic spreading fast through the crowded room.
"Everyone stay calm..!" Meng Qiao shouted, nearly dropping her clipboard in the process.
Jiang Yue stared at the flame with the flat, resigned expression of someone who had genuinely stopped being surprised by this kind of thing months ago.
"…Of course."
Then the sprinklers activated, without warning, without mercy, without the faintest concern for the several hundred phones now being raised to capture the moment. Water poured down in a heavy, freezing sheet, and the room dissolved into shrieking chaos, phones slipping from wet hands, hair plastered flat, everyone scrambling for cover that didn't exist.
Jiang Yue sat exactly where she was, completely drenched, blinking water out of her lashes.
"…I just washed my hair."
She looked out at the chaos and at the soaked, shrieking crowd, at the small fire being smothered by a very determined staff member, at the sheer, absurd unfairness of it all and then lifted the microphone again anyway.
"And even when the world burns "
The room went still. People froze mid-scramble, drawn back by her voice despite themselves.
" we learn to stand in the rain,
not because we're unafraid…
but because we're still here."
Her voice didn't shake. Didn't falter. Didn't stop, even as water dripped steadily from her hair, her lashes, the soaked pages trembling slightly in her hands.
She finished the poem standing in a puddle, hair plastered to her face, looking every bit like someone who had just walked through a storm on purpose.
Silence followed. Then applause started from one person till everyone clapped
"SHE DIDN'T STOP!" someone shouted from the back.
"SHE'S INSANE!" someone else added, sounding delighted about it.
Tessa was openly crying, wiping at her own eyes with the back of one soaked sleeve. "That's my best friend!"
Slow and deliberate clapping cut through the applause from somewhere near the entrance it was different in rhythm, measured, entirely too confident for the circumstances. Heads turned. A man stepped forward through the damp, dispersing crowd, tall and sharp-suited, entirely unbothered by the chaos around him, a faint smirk already settling into place.
"…Impressive," he said.
Jiang Yue blinked at him. "…Who are you?"
He tilted his head, unbothered by the question. "Huo Yifan."
The name rippled through the room like a stone dropped into still water.
"Isn't that..."
"The CEO?"
"The one from...."
"Yes," he said, easy and unhurried. "That one."
Jiang Yue narrowed her eyes slightly, water still dripping from her chin. "…You came all this way for a poetry reading?"
"I came out of curiosity." His gaze lingered on her a beat too long. "I stayed for the chaos."
[System Alert: New male presence detected.]
[System Comment: Threat level, annoyingly attractive.]
"…Excuse me?"
[System: Just observing.]
Behind her, unnoticed until this exact moment, Zhenkai had already arrived, he was quiet but still, his presence was somehow filling the space the moment he stopped moving. His gaze locked onto Huo Yifan instantly, cold and sharp enough to cut.
"…You're late," Huo Yifan said lightly, not the slightest bit intimidated.
"You're unnecessary," Zhenkai replied flat.
The air between them tightened perceptibly, the temperature of the whole conversation dropping several degrees despite the water still soaking everyone in the room.
Huo Yifan chuckled, entirely unbothered. "Still as charming as ever."
Zhenkai closed the distance and positioned himself beside Jiang Yue, not touching her, but close enough that the message landed regardless. "Why are you here."
Huo Yifan shrugged, easy as anything. "To see the girl who's breaking the internet." His gaze slid to Jiang Yue again, openly curious, openly interested in a way that made Zhenkai's jaw visibly tighten. "Now I understand why."
"…Am I in trouble?" Jiang Yue muttered, mostly to herself.
[System: Yes.]
"Great."
The fire was contained within minutes, no one hurt beyond a few frayed nerves and a lot of ruined hairstyles, but the footage of her finishing the reading through smoke and sprinklers, soaked and unbothered, was already spreading online before the staff had finished mopping the floor.
Later that night, Jiang Yue sat wrapped in a blanket at home, hair still faintly damp, mind spinning in slow, exhausted circles.
"…Why is my life like this?"
[System Status Update:]
Survival Rate: 81%
Fame Level: Exploding
Love Triangle Probability: Rising
"…WAIT — WHAT?"
[System: I said what I said.]
She groaned, dropping her head back against the couch cushion. "I just wanted a calm reading."
[System: You got a fire performance.]
"…I hate you."
[System: You love me.]
Across the city, Huo Yifan looked down at his phone, at a clip already racking up views by the hundreds of thousands, and let a slow, considering smile spread across his face.
"…Interesting girl."
And somewhere else entirely, deep in the shadows where nothing good ever seemed to originate, the mastermind watched the same footage loop once more, silent and calculating.
"…Let's see how long you survive this level of attention."