Chapter 8
The airplane cut through the night sky until the city she had once called home became nothing more than a fading constellation of lights behind her. Shi Yunxi didn't look back. She couldn't. Every part of her heart was focused on the two tiny infants cradled in her arms.
Her daughter slept with her small face buried against Yunxi's chest, soft breaths warming her skin. Her remaining son curled beside her seat, wrapped tightly in a blanket Li Cheng had placed around him before she boarded.
When the plane landed hours later in a quiet, unfamiliar country, Yunxi stepped out holding both children, feeling the full weight of her new reality.
No home.
No family.
No identity.
But she had her children.
And she had her determination.
Dr. Meng had already arranged a temporary apartment for her. The first night abroad, she sat in the dimly lit room holding her babies as they slept side by side, finally safe from the hands that wished them gone.
"From now on," she whispered softly, voice trembling, "we start again."
The following months were exhausting—yet transformative.
With forged identification, she adopted a new name for daily use, blending into the quiet foreign streets. She worked part-time jobs at first—cleaning, delivering, even late-night cash work—anything to buy formula, clothes, and medicine.
But Yunxi had always been brilliant.
And she had always been determined.
Only now, desperation honed her into steel.
During their naps, she devoured medical textbooks she borrowed from a local library. Late at night, she watched online courses, learning anatomy, surgery techniques, emergency response—anything she could reach.
Soon, she found a mentor—an elderly emergency physician who recognized the raw talent in her eyes. Under him, she learned to treat injuries, perform first aid with precision, diagnose illnesses, and eventually assist in real medical cases under the table.
She then turned to martial arts.
The quiet country had a hidden martial arts community—fighters who trained away from the public eye. One of them, a man known simply as Master Qiu, discovered her practicing stolen videos behind a warehouse.
Instead of chasing her off, he made her stand.
And he trained her until her muscles burned and her bones learned to endure.
"Pain is temporary," he told her. "Strength is permanent."
By the end of the year, Yunxi's body moved differently—sharper, lighter, tougher.
But she didn't stop there.
To support her children, she turned to gaming—something she could do from home. Her intelligence and reflexes made her a natural. Soon she became known globally under a mysterious ID, "SilverLotus," sweeping tournaments with an icy calm that baffled her opponents.
And still she continued.
Programming.
Cryptography.
Cybersecurity.
She stumbled into the world of hacking almost by accident—and then mastered it with frightening speed. Within two years, the underground world whispered about a new ghostlike hacker known as Phantom Orchid—silent, untouchable, never traced.
By the time her children were nearly three, she had grown into someone unrecognizable:
A brilliant underground doctor.
A fierce martial artist.
A world-elite gamer.
A shadowed hacker feared globally.
And soon…
an actress worthy of the spotlight Shi Roulan believed she owned.
Yet despite everything she achieved, her heart still pierced whenever she thought of her missing child.
The baby boy she never held.
The baby Mu Linchen unknowingly raised.
Meanwhile, in a faraway penthouse of power, Mu Linchen stood in his office, holding that very child—a bright-eyed boy who was growing faster than anyone expected.
He looked nothing like Mu Linchen, yet he clung to his suit like they shared an invisible bond. Mu Linchen's subordinates whispered that their cold, fearsome CEO showed an unusual softness only when the child was present.
He didn't understand why.
He simply felt… connected.
And while Yunxi built herself into a storm ready to reclaim everything taken from her, Mu Linchen raised the missing piece of her heart without knowing the truth.
Their worlds were becoming sharper, stronger, closer…
And soon, fate would bring them back together.