Today marked the fifteenth day since Alisa Lee inherited all the debt.
Because of a single will from her parents, she now had a million-dollar debt hanging over her head right after her graduation ceremony. Alisa was no longer the top veterinary student from the top university in Melbourne. It felt like just last week she had been giving that wonderful, thoughtful speech in front of her peers — yet now she had fallen into a deep, black hole with no one to save her.
Her parents' business had gone bankrupt. In their desperation, they both committed suicide, leaving behind nothing but mountains of debt and a will.
According to the will, all the cash and luxury family property went to their younger son, Caspian Lee, while all the debt and unsold products were left to their daughter, Alisa.
When Alisa's grandparents learned the contents of the will, they quickly transferred all the cash back to China and sent Caspian on the first flight back to their hometown, leaving Alisa alone to face the debt collectors and unpaid employees.
"Ms. Lee, seriously, your parents have been dead for many days now. We all attended their funerals to show our respect, but you have to at least give us a deadline, right? A lot of us don't even have money for fuel anymore! We had to carpool just to drive here this morning!"
"Yeah! Your family owns a luxury mansion in the city! How can we believe you don't have any money to pay our salaries?"
"Ms. Lee, even your grandfather said he gave you a whole box of gold nuggets they dug up from the back of your old farmland. He was sure they were worth at least several million dollars! Why don't you want to pay us? Do you really want us to report you to Fair Work?"
Alisa tried to calm everyone down, looking haggard and exhausted."Guys, please, I'll find buyers for those gold nuggets as soon as possible and pay your salaries. So could you please go back to work for now?"
"Work my ass! What work? The order's already been canceled! And the purchaser isn't paying shit! What f**king order was that anyway? Making winter coats in the middle of forty-degree summer days? For what? Sell them to the bloody penguins?"
"..."
Alisa had nothing more to say.
The employees continued complaining loudly, but their real goal was to get their money back. In the end, they had no choice but to trust Alisa one more time and wait.
Alisa closed the office door, threw herself onto the couch, buried her face into a cushion, and screamed into it."Ahhh!!! Why the f**k! What the f**k! I knew you guys never loved me, but how could you be so f**king shameless! You wanted to guarantee your son's bright future, so you dragged me down with you? Why?! I hope both of you rot in hell!"
Her phone pinged suddenly. She swiped the screen and saw a text from Caspian:
[Hey sis, you've gotten everything now, right? See? How generous I am. I only took a few hundred thousand dollars, but left all the valuable factories and gold nuggets for you. Hopefully, you can rise from the ashes soon. Don't forget your beloved younger brother by then!]
F**king hell.
Alisa stormed toward the box of so-called gold nuggets her grandfather had given her and kicked it with all her strength. The box flipped over and its contents spilled out. Crack! A few of the nuggets broke apart from the impact, revealing just how fake they were.
Alisa picked one up and easily crushed a corner of it into powder. She hurled it to the ground, and it shattered like a biscuit."They didn't even bother using fake metal! These are just clay!"
But now, everyone believed that her grandparents had given her real gold nuggets to pay the employees.
What would they think if she couldn't pay them now? Would they still stay calm enough to talk like they did today?
She had always been aware that her family didn't like her since she was a little girl.
Back then, she couldn't understand why other girls from school were cherished by their parents, while she never was.
She understood better the time her parents sent her back to their hometown in China. She later realized they had been trying to abandon her back then.
In that small Chinese town, she met many girls living miserable lives just like hers. One of her cousins, twelve years old at the time, was told by her father that she had to stop going to school and take care of her younger brother. And she really did drop out, even though she had better grades than her brother and loved school so much.
One night, she cried to Alisa and said,"Why did you come back to this hellhole? At least in Australia, you'd have more chances than here. My life is already over — but not yours. Just grab any chance you can to go back there. Boys in our families are treated like kings. We girls don't have a chance to fight back here."
It was then that Alisa realized how little girls were valued in her family's culture. But she had never imagined that her parents would go so far as to force her toward suicide as well.
She stared at the fake gold nuggets on the floor in silence.
Then a ray of sunshine fell on one of them, making it gleam.
She picked it up and looked at it more closely.
This one was shaped like a wolf. Strangely, it was much heavier than the other fake nuggets.
She quickly grabbed another piece about the same size and weighed them in her hands.
No — definitely not the same. The wolf piece was much heavier.
This one had to be real metal.
She carefully wiped the dirt off the little wolf and discovered how unique and exquisitely carved it was.
The little wolf looked almost alive, and instead of paws, its front legs ended in human hands and its hind legs in human feet.
Yet somehow, it felt completely natural for the wolf to have human hands and feet.
She peeked outside the office glass door. Of course, the financial manager and HR manager were still waiting outside, just in case she tried to run.
She shook her head, grabbed the little golden wolf, and climbed out the window as quietly as possible.
She walked all the way to their storage shed.
When she switched on the light, she sighed deeply.
Four thousand boxes of winter coats were stacked inside.
She walked between the boxes, running her hands over them, desperately trying to think of a way to sell them.
She was so lost in thought that she missed the faint glimmer of light that flashed across the little wolf piece when she passed the west corner of the shed.
After leaving the shed, Alisa snuck to the back of the yard.
She wanted to see if she had any chance of getting out and finding help outside the factory.
But a dark-skinned young man in thick, bloodstained clothes blocked her path.
She was startled at first, then noticed that in addition to the blood, there was unmelted snow on his shoulders.
She looked up at the sky. The blinding Australian summer sun was still blazing overhead, and it was so hot even the bugs were looking for shade.
"How the hell does he have snow?" Alisa muttered in confusion.
Before she could find an answer, the young man's painful groan snapped her back to reality.
She looked around. The employees were still in the office building.
Not wanting to attract attention, Alisa crouched down, pulled one of his arms over her shoulder, and struggled to lift him.
"Thank goodness I'm a vet. Dealing with heavy animals has always been part of my job," Alisa murmured.
She half-dragged, half-supported the young man back to the storage shed.
There was a small display room at the front, with a couch inside.
Alisa laid the young man on the couch.
Then she walked to the fridge to grab herself a cold drink.
Luther Moonveil, lying on the couch, slowly opened his eyes.
He sat up, looking shocked, and murmured,"Where… where am I?"
Alisa heard the movement, turned, and said,"Oh, you're awake already. Good. No need for me to send you to the hospital then."
"Hos…tal? What's that?" Luther asked, clearly confused.
"Hospital. Where the doctors are," Alisa replied, also puzzled.
"What is a doctor? And… what are all these?"
Luther suddenly noticed the winter coats displayed on the other wall.
He jumped off the couch and strode toward them.
He touched the fabric of one coat and was surprised by its strength.
The coat looked simple in design, yet strong and warm enough to withstand the wind.
He didn't know what fabric it was, but the quality was excellent.
Luther looked around, even more shocked.
The entire frontier town had been buried under inches of snow.
All the stores in town were empty, even their doors torn down for firewood.
And still, more and more Imperial subjects were dying every single day from the cold.
He had found a shimmering gate at the end of the street — the only gate still standing.
But before he could step through, a spy from the Tigris Empire ambushed him.
He managed to kill the spy but tripped over the shimmering gate frame and fell.
When he woke up, he was here — in this unbearably warm place, inside this strange store.
Seeing him lost in thought, Alisa suddenly realized — damn, he might be one of the debt collectors!
No wonder his clothes looked so filthy, as if he had just come out of a fight.
She cautiously studied his expression and said,"Sir, do you have any loan agreement or promissory note with you? I don't have money yet, but my grandfather just gave me some gold nuggets. Once I sell them, I'll definitely pay you back — at least partly. There's no need for you to come to our workshop now. All the equipment has already been taken away. There's nothing left but a batch of clothes…"
Luther Moonveil heard the word "clothes," and though he tried to remain calm, his knuckles turned white from how tightly he gripped the fabric.
"Are you selling all these clothes?"
Alisa: "..."
What else would she be doing here? The whole town knew her father, Vincent Lee's, biggest client had backed out, and the company had run out of funds.
After a moment of silence, she said,"Yes. Of course."
"I don't have any agreement or note with me. But this gold ornament should be enough to buy your whole store."
Luther didn't know what an agreement or note was, but he knew that money made the world go round.
He removed the ornament from around his neck, set it on the table, and pointed at the display wall.
"Here. I want to buy all these coats."
Alisa stared at him, still trying to process what was happening.
Then she realized — he wasn't a debt collector. He actually wanted to buy all the coats.
She looked down at the gold ornament on the table, mesmerised by its exquisite beauty.
She couldn't help but reach out to touch it.
But Luther didn't let go.
He stared at her coldly and asked,"If you have so many clothes, why don't you wear any?"
Alisa looked far too fair and delicate to be one of the Imperial subjects he had seen on his way here — people who looked like they were being tortured by extreme cold and hunger.
Alisa couldn't possibly be one of them.
She might be a spy from the Tigris Empire.
Alisa couldn't grab the ornament, so she tilted her head and said in disbelief,"Dude, it's forty degrees outside. Do I have to wear them just to display them for you?"
Luther had no idea what she was talking about.
Was she saying it was actually very hot here?
Didn't she realize there was no one alive on this street anymore?
Everyone had either frozen to death or fled — alive or not, no one knew.
While Luther was lost in thought, Alisa suddenly snatched the ornament from his hand.
It was a round medallion, about half the size of a palm.
Its edge was carved with a ring of intricate patterns, depicting a flower unlike any known to humankind. The blossoms and vines twined gracefully around the entire medallion.
At the center was a small hollow figure of a wolf pup, so vividly crafted it looked as if it might leap out of the gold and come to life at any moment.
Even though Alisa knew nothing about jewelry, just by touching the medallion, she could tell how valuable it was — easily worth over a hundred thousand dollars.
Her eyes lit up, and she quickly said,"And Mr., there's no problem! I'll put these clothes on and display them for you! Please wait a minute!"