The man introduced himself as Shen Moxian, a lawyer specializing in "cases others dare not touch." With a sharp tongue and sharper eyes, he confronted the collectors. Within minutes, they backed off, leaving the strange contract behind.
Qinglan, still shaken, demanded answers. Shen didn't explain fully, only warning her: "That contract is no ordinary debt paper. It binds more than finances—it binds lives."
She should have walked away then. But later that night, curiosity and despair brought her back to the abandoned paper. The moonlight fell across it again, illuminating the words she could not entirely read yet somehow understood.
Shen appeared once more, as if he had expected her hesitation. "If you want to escape your father's shadow, there's a way," he said. "But you'll need me—and you'll need to sign under the moon."
Qinglan's instincts told her not to trust him. Yet her heart whispered differently. He had saved her once. Maybe, just maybe, he could save her again.
When she finally pressed her name into the glowing paper, the world shifted. A sharp pain cut through her head, visions flashing before her eyes—snippets of conversations, a shattered glass, the sound of a gunshot. She stumbled, clutching her chest. Shen caught her before she collapsed.
"Welcome," he murmured. "You've entered the Moonlight Pact."