The room was quiet enough that even the air-conditioning seemed reluctant to interrupt it.
Nán Xuě sat opposite Violet, one wrist resting loosely against the handcuffs fixed to the steel table. Factor IV hadn't tightened them. There was no need. She had nowhere to go.
Across from her, Violet simply watched.
Neither of them spoke first. Only the faint rustle from the corner broke the silence.
Crunch
Chūn Lěng Fēng had somehow made himself comfortable.
Ān Bái had left behind enough snacks to feed three people, and Chūn Lěng Fēng was doing his best to prove that wasn't an exaggeration. Potato chips had already disappeared. He was halfway through a packet of biscuits now, carefully brushing crumbs from his lap after every bite as though that somehow made eating inside an interrogation room more appropriate.
Crunch
Nán Xuě glanced at him... Then away. She decided it was better not to ask.
Violet finally spoke.
"I'm curious."
Her voice carried neither accusation nor sympathy. It sounded like someone picking up a conversation that had been left unfinished.
"You don't look like someone who enjoys hurting people."
Nán Xuě's expression remained unchanged.
"You don't strike me as someone who'd willingly involve herself in abducting Specialists."
A pause.
"So why ET?"
Silence.
It wasn't the first time she'd heard that question. It had become almost routine.
The first to try had been Ān Bái.
He had dragged a chair over, sat down backwards with his arms folded over the backrest and grinned as though he were visiting an old friend.
"So..."
He slid a box of pastries onto the table.
"Hungry?"
"No."
"Pity. They're good."
He picked one up himself.
"You know, talking while eating helps pass the time."
"I wasn't aware time needed help."
Ān Bái laughed.
"It usually doesn't."
He took another bite.
"It does around you."
For the next half hour, he tried everything except threats.
Stories. Jokes. Ridiculous questions.
He even asked what her favourite season was.
Nán Xuě answered only once.
"...The one where you leave."
Ān Bái had stared at her for several seconds before sighing dramatically.
"You're tougher than you look."
When he stepped outside, he rubbed his forehead.
Ān Shēn looked up from the corridor.
"How was it?"
Ān Bái exhaled.
"I've just spent thirty minutes arguing with someone who speaks fewer words than Yè Yī."
Ān Shēn tried the following morning.
He carried nothing except a notebook.
No tea. No food. No conversation beyond what mattered.
Every question was direct.
Every answer she refused to give was quietly noted anyway.
Eventually, Nán Xuě looked at the notebook.
"You've written more than I've said."
Ān Shēn didn't even raise his head.
"I write quickly."
"...You're wasting paper."
"Factor IV can afford paper."
She clicked her tongue.
An hour later, Ān Shēn closed the notebook.
As he reached the door, he stopped.
"...Now I understand why Gē looked tired."
Then he left.
Ān Tiān Qǐ approached it differently. She entered carrying a teapot and two porcelain cups.
"I made too much."
She poured a cup before sitting down herself.
"If you don't want it, leave it."
Nán Xuě looked at the steam curling upward.
"...Trying kindness?"
Ān Tiān Qǐ smiled.
"I'm trying tea."
The tea became cold.
Neither of them mentioned it again.
Other members came and went.
Different faces. Different methods. Nothing changed.
Only one person never failed to appear.
Mù Xiāo Xiāo.
Sometimes she brought fried chicken. Sometimes popcorn. Sometimes sunflower seeds.
Once, for reasons nobody understood, she spent an entire session eating roasted sweet potatoes.
She never asked a question. She never joined the conversation.
She simply sat quietly in the corner.
CRUNCH
CRUNCH
CRUNCH
On the seventh day, Nán Xuě had finally turned toward her.
"...Do you ever stop eating?"
Mù Xiāo Xiāo thought for a moment.
"When I'm asleep."
She bit through another chicken bone.
CRUNCH
Nán Xuě hadn't asked another question after that.
To this day, she still wasn't sure whether Mù Xiāo Xiāo was human.
So seeing only Violet and the endlessly hungry boy today... felt strangely reassuring.
At least the bone-crunching ghost wasn't here.
The room fell quiet once more.
Chūn Lěng Fēng reached for another biscuit.
Violet leaned back slightly. She folded her arms.
"You joined ET to find someone."
Nán Xuě didn't react. Not outwardly, only the smallest tightening around her eyes betrayed her.
Violet continued as though she hadn't noticed.
"You searched for years. When ordinary people couldn't help you, you turned to the people who claimed they could."
Still no answer.
"You convinced yourself the reason didn't matter. As long as you found her."
Nán Xuě lowered her gaze.
Violet spoke softly.
"There's nothing wrong with wanting to find someone.."
She let the sentence rest between them.
Then she asked,
"But if that person finally stood in front of you... would she still recognize you?"
The words settled over the room.
Nán Xuě's fingers tightened slowly.
Violet's expression never changed.
"Would your cousin have wanted this?"
Time seemed to stop.
For the first time since she'd been brought into Factor IV... Nán Xuě looked shaken.
"...How..."
The word barely escaped her lips.
How did you know?
She couldn't bring herself to finish.
Violet already knew the rest.
"Nán Lín wouldn't have wanted this."
The tears came before Nán Xuě realized they had. She wiped at them impatiently but more followed.
"You..."
Her voice trembled.
"You think I'm like them? I don't."
She suddenly struck the table with both palms.
"I don't think like ET!.."
"I don't!... I hate what they've made me do!"
The words rushed out as though they had been trapped inside her for years.
"But I don't like the Nán Clan either!"
Her breathing became uneven.
"I hated that place... I hated it."
Silence returned. Not because nobody had anything to say.. rather nothing could be said.
Chūn Lěng Fēng looked between the two women, then cautiously raised a hand.
"...Um..."
Neither of them answered.
"So..."
He scratched his cheek.
"You're really from the Nán Clan?"
Nán Xuě looked at him through blurred eyes.
He wasn't mocking her. If anything... He looked genuinely fascinated.
"I've only read about your clan. Our library had records on all the major Arm Clans."
His eyes lit up despite himself.
"The Nán Clan... the Chūn Clan... the Lǐ Clan... I never thought I'd actually meet someone from one."
Only then did he realize how inappropriate his timing was.
"...Ah..... Sorry."
He lowered his head awkwardly.
Violet turned toward him.
"You know about the Arm Clans?"
He nodded immediately.
"A little. The elders didn't let us leave the mountain much. So... I read."
He smiled sheepishly.
"It was the closest thing I had to seeing the outside world."
Violet regarded him quietly.
"When we get home... tell me."
Home.
The word escaped naturally.
Chūn Lěng Fēng's eyes brightened.
"...Okay."
He answered so quickly it was almost childish. He liked that word very much.
Across the table... Nán Xuě heard it too.
Home.
The smile on her face appeared without warning.
A strange, helpless smile.
It lasted only a heartbeat before breaking apart. Her shoulders began to tremble.. Then came the laughter.
Soft at first, then almost disbelieving.
It grew louder, until somewhere in the middle of it, the laughter lost its shape. It became crying.
The kind that shook the whole body. The kind a person could only hold back for so long before it demanded to be heard.
For all the composure she'd carried these past two years...
For all the sharp words she'd thrown at everyone who questioned her...
She cried like a girl who had spent too long pretending she didn't need anyone.
Chūn Lěng Fēng leaned closer to Violet and lowered his voice.
"...Did I say something wrong?"
Violet watched Nán Xuě quietly. Then she shook her head.
"It wasn't you."
"...Ah."
He nodded in relief.
"...That's good."
He looked down at the biscuit in his hand.
For once...
He quietly put it back into the packet without taking another bite.