1

“Zhi Xia, can you please shut up for one minute?”

Fu Ran’s voice was like a cold slap in a snowstorm.

Xia Zhi blinked innocently from behind her desk, holding her coffee cup with both hands like a squirrel clutching a nut. “Oh! Of course, of course, Senior Fu. One minute of silence, coming right up. Shutting up. Muting. Total verbal lockdown—”

Fu Ran looked up from her computer with a single arched brow. Deadly. Silent.

“…starting now!” Xia Zhi whispered, then sealed her lips dramatically and made a zipping motion. Her face scrunched in mock pain at the effort.

One beat passed. Two.

Then—

“Actually, I just wanted to say that the way you glared at the CEO this morning? Iconic. Cold. Powerful. Slightly terrifying. I aspire—”

Fu Ran threw her pen.

Xia Zhi ducked. “Eep! Reflexes of a reporter in training!”

This was her life. At twenty-one, Xia Zhi was interning at Headline Today, one of the nation’s top media companies. She’d dreamed of becoming a gold-medalist reporter ever since she was seven and her article on her neighbor’s missing cat got printed in the school newsletter (she also accused the principal’s dog).

And now, she was working under Fu Ran — legendary reporter, national idol, and well-known shrew.

“I’m not scary,” Fu Ran had once said during an office meeting, voice like ice-water over knives. “People are just sensitive.”

Xia Zhi had nodded furiously. “Yes, yes, very sensitive. Like tissue paper. So fragile. Unlike you. Like a bullet in lipstick.”

Her coworkers had looked at her like she had a death wish.

Honestly, maybe she did. But she also had ambition! Passion! And—

Oh no.

Headache.

Dizziness.

Heartburn?

No.

Memories.

Images flooded her mind like someone flipped a light switch. White rooms. A soft voice. A psychiatrist’s office.

Her psychiatrist’s office.

Wait.

She was the psychiatrist.

This was a novel.

A novel she’d read in her past life—

HALFWAY.

“GASP!” she actually gasped out loud.

Fu Ran looked up again. “Did you swallow your tongue?”

“N-no. Sorry. Just remembered I… uh… left my rice cooker on.”

(What rice cooker? She lived in a dorm.)

And the worst part?

Fu Ran… her devil-boss Fu Ran…was the female lead?!

And that impossibly cold, rich, unreadable CEO was her secret boyfriend?!

Then, then—right now…they were in the “silent dating but secretly in love” phase!!

SHE KNEW TOO MUCH.

Fu Ran will kill me if she knows I know. I must protect my gossip-loving soul.

Now every time she looked at Fu Ran or the CEO, she saw danger and juicy plotlines. Her eyes sparkled with gossip she would never be allowed to speak.

“You’re more attentive today,” Fu Ran said, eyes narrowing.

Xia Zhi straightened. “I’m just… really passionate about my job!”

“…Good. You’ll need that passion.”

Fu Ran handed her a folder.

“Your first big task. You’re coming with me to do a special report on Blackstone, the world’s most dangerous prison.”

“Pfft—” Xia Zhi spat her tea. “The one in the middle of the ocean?! With murderers and war criminals and and and—ghosts probably?!”

“Unconfirmed. But yes.”

Fu Ran stood, perfectly calm. “We leave in three days. Undercover.”

“But—but—Mr. CEO! Your girlfriend is going to die!”

Oops. Said too much. Panic.

Fu Ran’s stare sharpened like a knife.

“I-I mean, your reporter reputation! It’s going to die if you take a rookie like me, hahaha!”

She laughed nervously.

She didn’t know who she was in the novel.

She didn’t know what was waiting in Blackstone.

But she did know one thing—

it might not be a Good thing

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