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She had thought she could blend in with the other guests or sneak in through an employee entrance. But because of the heavy rain, hardly anyone was coming or going. After circling the hotel twice, she noticed a few stationary cars at every entrance.

Without lingering too long, she saw people sitting inside some of the cars, holding what looked like radios.

Even if she tried walking into the hotel casually, a young woman matching the profile of a fugitive would raise suspicion. The plainclothes officers would only need to alert the hotel staff to check her ID—or worse, take a closer look—and she would be done for.

She hoped she was being paranoid, but she knew better than to rely on luck.

What made things worse was how conspicuous she looked—a soaking-wet woman lingering outside with an umbrella in a downpour, looking like a ghost come back for revenge. Where could she even go? She couldn’t even enter a convenience store to buy a mask. The next person she encountered might not be as kind as the previous shop owner.

How was she going to get inside without arousing suspicion?

The hotel’s back door was rarely used, opening into a quiet alley. Xie Feng slipped under a tree, finally s.h.i.+elding herself from the relentless rain that had left her s.h.i.+vering.

Several cars were parked along the alley’s edge. One at the front caught her attention—it was obviously a surveillance vehicle. The driver sat inside alone, staring absently at the road ahead. But when Xie Feng approached, he perked up, scanning her with wary eyes.

Her heart pounded, so hard it felt like it might burst.

She could barely hold her umbrella, her hands trembling from a mix of cold and fear. Clenching her fists didn’t stop the shaking. When she stepped up to the car without a word and reached for the pa.s.senger door handle, a thought struck her—what on earth was she doing? How could she be this reckless?

As expected, the door was locked. She tugged once, but it wouldn’t open.

The plainclothes officer stared at her, clearly stunned. He hadn’t expected some random woman to show up and try to get into his car. Before he could react, Xie Feng knocked on the window with her knuckles. “Open the door!”

It took several seconds before the window rolled down just a crack, as if even the car shared its owner’s hesitation.

“What do you want?” the officer asked, his voice guarded. “Who are you?”

Xie Feng stood firmly in the rain, her umbrella concealing part of her face. Positioned by the pa.s.senger-side door, she didn’t bend down far enough for him to get a proper look. With her half-obscured features, the officer failed to realize she was the fugitive they were hunting.

“You’re the driver I called, aren’t you?” she said, rattling off her words in rapid succession. “What’s going on? Why are you so late? Do you know how long I’ve been standing out here in the rain? You’re already over ten minutes late! I’ve been waiting out here getting soaked. Open the door! Do you even have tissues in there?”

Her nerves lent speed to her words, making her frustration sound genuine.

“No, no, I’m not—” the officer stammered, waving his hands as if to protest that he wasn’t her ride. But Xie Feng had a mission, and she wasn’t done yet.

“Do you have any idea how much I’ve been rained on? I walked around the entire hotel trying to find you, and your directions were useless! Just look at me—I’m drenched! I look like I fell in a river!” She ignored his protests and kept going until she had said everything she needed to.

“I already told you, I’m not your driver,” the officer said, irritation creeping into his voice. “Go find someone else!”

With that, he rolled the window back up.

Listening to the relentless rain pounding the ground, Xie Feng paused before finally turning away from the car.

Only now did she allow herself to exhale a shaky breath, still unable to believe she had actually pa.s.sed the first hurdle.

She walked away from the vehicle, keeping her back to it, glancing around as if she really were waiting for someone.

When the moment felt right, she steeled herself and made her move, striding toward the hotel’s back entrance under the officer’s watchful gaze.

As she rounded the corner, she stole a quick glance back—he hadn’t moved.

Well, it made sense. A frustrated guest waiting too long for a ride, deciding to go back inside—it wasn’t suspicious, right?

Her nerves had been stretched so thin that her mind started to feel oddly detached, as if everything happening was just a dream.

She couldn’t explain why, but as she crossed the threshold, her eyes instinctively caught the security camera mounted in the corner of the ceiling.

In a split-second decision, just as she was about to close her umbrella, Xie Feng tilted it sideways, tucking it between her neck and shoulder. The umbrella slid down until her head stopped it, hiding her face entirely from the camera’s line of sight.

At the same moment, she dropped into a crouch, pretending to tie her shoelaces.

While retying her laces, she peeked from under the umbrella—and her heart sank.

On the other side of the lobby, near the entrance to the main hall, stood a bellboy in a hotel uniform next to a burly man in plain clothes, his expression br.i.m.m.i.n.g with hostility.

And that wasn’t all. A quick scan revealed two or three more plainclothes men stationed by the front entrance and near the elevators, likely security officers. Even by the reception desk, one lingered like a leashed dog pacing back and forth.

This was bad.

She hadn’t accounted for this. She’d expected the hotel staff to be cooperative, but she hadn’t imagined they would allow so many security personnel inside the lobby itself—a miscalculation born of thinking like a Tear City native.

Hotels were private property, and normally, government agents would need a court order to operate inside. But she had forgotten that Tear City was no longer the same Tear City.

This level of security wasn’t just to catch a fugitive who, by all logic, shouldn’t have returned.

Every hair on Xie Feng’s body stood on end. Even under the umbrella, she could feel the weight of the plainclothes officers’ eyes on her.

“Are you a hotel guest?” the bellboy called out from across the room. “Please show your room card and let me know your room number.”

As soon as she raised her umbrella slightly, the large, broad-faced man beside the bellboy turned toward her. His heavy gaze settled on her, waiting for her to lower the umbrella and approach.

There was no turning back now.

A chill ran through Xie Feng, as if the rain had drained every last bit of warmth from her body, leaving behind only a lump of cold regret, heavy in her gut.

She hadn’t been caught, but she had walked straight into their hands.

So, this was it. There was no escape now—whatever happened next, she would have to face it.

She knew that the rain had left her skin pale, making her look even more like she did in the year-old photo they were using to track her down.

She should never have thrown hot coffee at that man back then.

Acid would’ve been better.

Just a few dozen meters above her, separated only by an elevator ride, was Dong Luorong.

In another world, on a different timeline, they might have casually taken that elevator whenever they wanted, met whenever they liked—perhaps strolling arm-in-arm through a shopping street, sharing a box of takoyaki, chatting while looking out at the endless blue sea.

If she was destined to be caught, Xie Feng thought, the best outcome would be to get caught this close to Dong Luorong. At least Dong would know she had come back.

Though her heart was sinking into despair, her body clung to any remaining sliver of hope, buying time like her muscles carried a stubborn will of their own. Half-turned, she slowly closed her umbrella and shook off the water—just then, a voice called from across the lobby.

“Hey! Put a cover on that umbrella, will you? You’ll get water everywhere.”

Xie Feng froze, startled by the sudden command. When she looked over, she saw a cleaning lady in the corner, visibly frustrated by the rainwater making a mess on the tiles. Next to her was a roll of plastic umbrella covers.

“Oh, sure, sorry,” Xie Feng said, heading toward her while calling back over her shoulder to the bellboy, “Just a sec!”

She kept her head low, her wet hair falling over her cheeks. She wasn’t sure if it concealed her face enough, but the cleaning lady didn’t care what she looked like—only that she didn’t drip water onto the freshly cleaned floor.

This gave Xie Feng an excuse to stall a little longer as she carefully pulled a cover over her umbrella. She was already soaked through, so the umbrella hardly mattered. The cleaning lady glanced disapprovingly at her waterlogged shoes, and that was when an idea struck Xie Feng.

Once the umbrella was covered, she tucked it under her arm and headed toward the bellboy and the security officer. As she walked, she lowered her head slightly, pretending to search her pocket for her wallet and room key.

The most important thing was to act natural.

“Room 1702,” she said before reaching them, throwing out a random room number. “Will this take long? I’m soaked, and I really just want to get changed.”

“Not long at all,” the bellboy replied cheerfully.

Just as Xie Feng was about to hand over the room key, she deliberately stumbled and fell to the floor with a thud. Both the bellboy and the security officer flinched—while the bellboy rushed forward to help, the officer stayed put.

The bellboy reached out, grabbing her arm to help her up, and in doing so, he unintentionally blocked part of the officer’s view. Seizing the moment, Xie Feng pressed a hand over her face and winced, handing the key over with her other hand.

“Ow, I hit my chin. It really hurts… Can I just go now?” she muttered, her voice m.u.f.fled with pain.

It wasn’t exactly the most sophisticated plan. If they recognized her, she was certain she’d be the laughingstock of the entire security department for months.

The officer scrutinized her, his gaze roaming over her partially obscured, grimacing face.

A year had pa.s.sed, and Xie Feng knew she looked different. She was thinner, darker, and her hair had changed. After being beaten by security forces, even her nose had slightly s.h.i.+fted, and the photo they were using wasn’t the clearest.

“Got ID?” the officer asked.

“I didn’t bring it. I can grab it later if you want.” Xie Feng’s tears welled up on command—something she had mastered in the past two years. In seconds, she was sniffling and sobbing, her face flushed red and contorted with exaggerated misery. “It really hurts… Can I please go?”

The officer frowned deeply.

Men often recoil when women cry, especially when they cry messily or hysterically.

As Xie Feng’s heart pounded, the officer gave an irritated shrug, nodding toward the elevators.

“Fine. Go.”