CHAPTER 93 — A Mother Who Burns the World
The emergency operations room inside the Mu estate was a storm of flashing screens, urgent voices, and frantic footsteps. Police officers moved in and out, detectives barked orders, and Mu family security formed a wall of controlled chaos. But at the center of the whirlwind stood one woman — motionless.
Shi Yunxi.
No — Xiolan.
The side of her the world never saw.
The side she had buried for years to protect her children.
The side that only returned when death sat too close.
Her fingers were cold. Numb.
Her mind sharp — too sharp.
Her heart a battlefield.
Rui.
Her baby.
Her firstborn.
Gone.
Taken.
Dragged into the dark by the one person she should have feared most.
Roulan.
Mu Lingchen stood beside her, jaw clenched so hard a vein pulsed in his temple. His fists were bloodless, fingers trembling with the strain of holding himself together.
"We'll get him back," he said—a promise wrapped in steel.
But Yunxi didn't answer.
She couldn't.
Her world had narrowed to Rui's laughter echoing in her memory, his morning kisses, the way he stood in front of his siblings like a tiny knight.
Her protector.
Her brave little boy.
And now he was alone.
A detective rushed in. "We found the vehicle on highway surveillance, but—"
"I already accessed that feed," Yunxi cut in, voice calm in a way that chilled everyone around her. "Two minutes ago."
Silence fell.
Lingchen's eyes flicked toward her—startled, then understanding, then worried.
Xiolan had returned.
The Yunxi who could break into secure networks.
The Yunxi who cracked government firewalls out of boredom.
The Yunxi who once wrote code so dangerous a private intelligence group tried to recruit her at fifteen.
She stepped toward the nearest laptop, her posture rigid, eyes dark and unblinking.
"Move," she said quietly.
The officer sitting there scrambled out of the chair without hesitation.
Yunxi sat, cracked her knuckles once, and began typing.
Fast.
Inhumanly fast.
Lines of code flooded the screen, windows opened and closed in rapid bursts of color, firewalls shattered with soft beeps.
Everyone froze.
Even Lingchen.
He had seen her sew clothes, cook meals, braid the children's hair—but he had never seen this.
This was the woman the Shi family had feared.
This was the mind they had tried to control.
This was why they wanted to own her.
A demon wearing the face of an angel.
She connected to the highway surveillance server, eyes scanning every feed across four highways.
"She switched cars," Yunxi muttered. "Of course she did."
Her fingers danced.
"Matching color frequency… matching make… running probability filter… there."
A white SUV flickered onto the screen.
Same stripe pattern.
Same wheel spacing.
Same tinted windows.
The officer beside her gasped. "How did you—"
"Shh," Yunxi hissed. "I'm thinking."
Lingchen stepped closer. "Yunxi—"
"Not now." Her tone cracked like a whip.
He said nothing more.
Not because he was offended.
But because he'd never felt more terrified of losing her.
After a few seconds, Yunxi zoomed in on the license plate.
Fake.
She expected that.
But the dirt on the tires—
The wet mud—
Different from the highway.
"She turned into a side road," Yunxi whispered. "Somewhere unpaved."
Lingchen's voice was low. "There are dozens of rural paths off that exit."
"Yes," she said. "But only three have mud consistent with that soil sample."
Everyone stared.
"How do you even know that?" the detective blurted.
Yunxi didn't answer. She pressed another key—analyzing geological markers Roulan's tire treads accidentally collected.
Finally—
She slammed her finger against the screen.
"There. She's heading toward the abandoned east quarry."
Lingchen inhaled sharply. "Roulan wouldn't take him somewhere populated."
"She wouldn't," Yunxi agreed. Her voice shook for the first time. "Because she doesn't want witnesses. She wants leverage."
Lingchen cursed under his breath.
"Mobilize every unit we have!" the police chief shouted.
Officers ran.
Security scattered.
The Mu family guards prepared armored cars.
But Yunxi remained seated… staring at the screen as if she could will Rui back home.
Lingchen knelt in front of her.
"Yunxi," he whispered.
No response.
"Yunxi." He cupped her cheek gently. "Look at me."
Slowly, she did.
Cold eyes.
Eyes carved from anguish and rage.
Eyes that belonged to a mother pushed past her limit.
"He's my baby," she whispered.
Lingchen's throat tightened.
"I know."
"I promised him I wouldn't leave. I promised him he was safe. I promised—"
"You didn't break those promises," Lingchen said firmly.
Tears trembled in her eyes but didn't fall. "I failed him."
"You didn't."
"He's three, Lingchen. He's a baby. He must be scared. What if he calls for me? What if he's crying? What if—"
"Yunxi."
She finally broke.
A sound escaped her—not a sob, not a cry.
A shattered exhale.
Lingchen pulled her into his arms. She didn't resist.
"You didn't fail him," he said again. "Roulan took him. Roulan. Not you."
Slowly, her trembling stopped.
She straightened, wiped her tears, and her voice turned sharp again.
"I'm going too."
Lingchen's eyes hardened. "Absolutely not."
She glared. "Try to stop me."
He inhaled, finally seeing it—
Xiolan wasn't someone you protected.
She was someone you unleashed.
"Fine," he said. "But you're with me. I'm not letting you out of my sight."
She nodded once.
Then she turned to the large digital map and pointed.
"We'll take the south entrance. Police will block the east to flush her out. And Lingchen—"
He met her gaze.
"She'll use Rui as a shield. She's desperate. Cornered animals attack."
His jaw clenched. "I know."
"No," Yunxi said, voice trembling with deadly clarity. "You don't."
She took a shaky breath.
"I know exactly how Roulan thinks.
I know what fear does to her.
I know the kind of cruelty she's capable of."
A beat of silence.
"I lived with her."
Lingchen froze.
"And I won't let Rui suffer what I did."
Lingchen stepped closer, placing his hands on her shoulders.
"We will get him back," he vowed. "Alive. Safe. And Roulan will never touch him again."
Yunxi lifted her chin, eyes blazing with something dark and dangerous.
"If she harms even a single hair on my son…"
Her voice dropped to a whisper that made even the detectives shiver.
"I will destroy her."
Lingchen believed her.
Everyone did.
"Let's move," he ordered.
The room exploded into motion.
Yunxi grabbed a headset, tied her hair back with a quick twist, and followed Lingchen out.
The mother had been frightened.
But Xiolan—
Xiolan was ready for war.
And if Roulan thought kidnapping Rui would break Shi Yunxi…
She had just awakened the one woman capable of burning the entire world to get her child back.