CHAPTER 299: CHAPTER 300 - TELL NO ONE

Yunfeng didn’t speak. He stood a step away from Yuki, his expression unreadable—but his eyes, those sharp blue-green eyes, burned with restrained fury. A thin tendril of flame danced along his fingers, casting flickering light over the hallway walls. It was ghostly, cold at its edges, and unnaturally steady despite his rage.

Yuki backed away instinctively, her small form trembling as she clutched the monkey to her chest. Her lips wobbled, but she forced herself to stand her ground.

"I’m not scared of you..." she said, voice shaky. "You... you won’t do anything to me."

Yunfeng’s gaze didn’t soften. The flame in his palm coiled upward, growing just slightly before he flicked it—fast and precise—right beside her head. It whizzed past her cheek, barely missing, and struck the wall with a hiss. The plaster blackened instantly.

Yuki squealed, her breath catching as she flinched and stumbled, eyes wide with shock. She dropped to the floor, arms curled tightly around the monkey as she crouched in on herself. Her voice cracked.

"I’ll tell you... I’ll tell you... just don’t... don’t burn me..."

Yunfeng crouched slowly, bringing himself down to her eye level. The fire in his hand dimmed, but his glare didn’t waver.

"I need names."

Yuki clutched the monkey tighter, her small hands trembling so hard that the little toy seemed to shake with her. Her knees were drawn up against her chest now, her voice low and cracking as she stared down at the floor.

"I don’t know anyone..." she whispered. "They never showed faces... never gave names. I just—just get all the orders through the keychain. I don’t even know if it’s the same person each time..."

Yunfeng’s brows furrowed deeper. He stared at the device on the floor like it might come to life at any moment. "What happens if you don’t respond?"

"They said... if I go silent for too long," Yuki mumbled, voice barely audible, "they’d activate something called a ’destruction code’... to erase all traces. Said the keychain would melt down and burn... and maybe... maybe even explode."

At that, Yunfeng stiffened, his body suddenly more alert. His eyes flicked over to Kailun.

The old man exhaled sharply, then reached out and picked up the small, worn keychain carefully between two fingers. His ghost-white hair was slightly tousled, and his expression was cold and calculating now.

His sharp eyes turned back to the girl. "What about the drug? What is it?"

Yuki shook her head furiously, lips quivering. "I don’t know!" she cried. "I don’t know anything about it! They just gave me a capsule... and instructions..."

She hiccuped, face flushed and tear-streaked. "They said it activates with heat. That I should put it in the dishwasher... or in hot meals. That’s why I rubbed it into the inside of the serving bowls. Or... sometimes I’d smear it around the water boiler lid. I didn’t know what it did! I didn’t want to—!"

Her words caught in her throat as she hiccuped again, her shoulders trembling violently now. "I didn’t want to hurt anyone... but they said if I didn’t do it, they’d kill me. I didn’t want to die..."

Yunfeng stared at her, mouth tight, a thousand conflicting thoughts behind his unreadable expression. For a second, the air around him felt hotter—thicker—but then he closed his eyes and let out a breath.

Yuki’s small shoulders began to shake again, and this time it wasn’t out of fear—it was grief, so raw and deep it seemed to echo through the room. Her voice cracked as she buried her face into the monkey clutched to her chest, muffling her cries.

Muchen’s chest tightened. She was still just a child. A child caught in something none of them should have been part of. His hand reached out unconsciously and gripped Yunfeng’s tightly, grounding himself as he watched the little girl break down.

"Yuki..." he said gently, kneeling in front of her. "Tell us why. Why you joined them. How you got your powers..."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Yuki’s head jerked up. Her eyes widened in pure, instinctive panic—like a wounded animal that had just been cornered. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out for a moment, just the soft gasping of someone trying to breathe through a panic attack.

"I didn’t choose..." she whispered finally, her voice strangled.

Yunfeng crouched slightly behind Muchen now, watching her closely. His flames were long extinguished, but his aura still lingered—solid, alert, wary.

"I didn’t choose to join them..." Yuki repeated, curling in on herself. "I—I was born there. Inside the facility. My mother... she was one of their experiments. They called her ’Subject 3.’ That’s all I ever heard. Subject 3 died... giving birth to me."

She wiped her eyes roughly on her sleeve, her nose red from crying. Her lips quivered but she forced herself to keep speaking.

"Ever since I could remember, I was inside white walls and metal floors. That was my whole world. I used to hear them talking... the scientists. The guards. They’d say if I behaved, if I followed orders, they’d let me go one day. That they’d ’make me human.’"

A sob tore from her throat as she hugged the monkey tighter than ever.

"I just wanted to be free. I just wanted to live. That’s all I ever wanted. I thought if I did what they said, it would stop. I could finally go outside. See trees... the sky... maybe find someone who would hug me and mean it."

Her cries grew louder now—raw, unrestrained grief that came from years of silence, obedience, and lonely desperation.

Muchen closed his eyes and let out a long breath, reaching out to gently rub her back. He looked up at Yunfeng, his eyes tight. "She’s not our enemy," he murmured. "She’s just a kid who never got a chance."

Yunfeng didn’t answer right away. His gaze lingered on the girl—on the trembling hands, on the crumpled monkey she refused to let go of, on the raw sorrow written across her too-small face.

Finally, his voice came low. Measured. "Then we’re going to give her that chance. But we need to be smart. We can’t let the people behind her keep using her like this."

Yuki sniffled, nodding wordlessly into her sleeves.

"You still have that keychain, right?" Yunfeng asked gently.

She nodded again.

Yunfeng’s expression shifted instantly—his jaw clenched, the warmth in his voice vanishing. He straightened his back, the weight of her words settling over his shoulders like cold iron.

"What exactly did they ask you to do?" he asked quietly, yet there was a razor-edge to his tone.

Yuki hesitated, eyes downcast, fingers tightening around the monkey. She could feel the tension in the air, like a thunderstorm about to break.

"They told me..." she began, her voice barely a whisper, "they told me I had to kill everyone in this house... except four people."

Muchen’s body tensed beside Yunfeng. He didn’t speak, but his hand curled into a fist against his leg.

"Who?" Yunfeng asked sharply. "Who were you told not to kill?"

Yuki flinched at the force behind the words, but still answered with a stammer, "Y-You... Muchen... Jai... and Shao..."

Yunfeng narrowed his eyes, unreadable for a moment. "The rest," he said, voice low, "were supposed to die?"

She nodded slowly, lip trembling again. "They said... if I wanted to go free, I had to do it. All of it. As soon as the signal came."

Yunfeng crouched down again, his eyes level with hers now—cold and unreadable. "And how were you supposed to kill us?"

"I don’t know!" Yuki cried, the words bursting out of her. "They said... when it was time, they’d send something through the keychain. A poison. Or something that only I could activate. They said they’d make it painless, that I wouldn’t even need to touch anyone. I don’t know how it works—I swear I don’t know!"

Her face crumpled, and she wiped at her cheeks frantically. "I didn’t even want to be the one to do it. I didn’t even think they’d actually make me! I thought... maybe they’d forget. Or someone else would handle it."

Yunfeng’s face remained grim, unmoved. "How would they give you the poison?"

"I... I don’t know," she whispered again, shaking her head hard. "They said I would know when the time came."

Behind them, Kailun stepped forward, his presence as commanding as ever, even without saying a word at first. He let out a tired breath before speaking. "For now, we’ll use her," he said, voice flat. "We have no choice."

He turned his gaze on Yuki, and for a moment, the old man’s eyes lost all their warmth.

"You. Kid. You listen carefully. You will continue to speak to them. You will act like nothing has changed. You will obey us. If you tell them even a single word about what happened here..." His tone dropped, ice and steel combining as his expression darkened, "I’ll know. And I promise you, whatever you think they’ll do to you, it’ll be nothing compared to what I’ll do."

Yuki let out a soft squeak, her knuckles white where she clung to her monkey. "Y-Yes! I’ll do whatever you say! I won’t tell! I promise! Please—don’t hurt me!"

Her voice cracked with desperation, and for a moment, even Yunfeng’s rigid form seemed to ease. Slightly.

"It’s settled then," Kailun muttered, turning toward the hallway. "We’ll monitor her movements. She’ll be our ear into their side."

Yuki’s breathing began to slow, but her head stayed bowed—until she hesitated, her fingers clutching the monkey tighter.

"...Can..." she started softly, her voice so faint that it almost disappeared. She looked up at Yunfeng, then Muchen, then finally to Kailun.

"Can you... not tell Hana, please?" Her eyes shimmered with real fear now, not of punishment, but of loss. "I know what I did is horrible... but she’s the only one who’s ever been nice to me. I don’t want her to hate me."

Silence stretched in the room. Muchen looked at Yunfeng with a conflicted sigh, his hand gently squeezing his partner’s.

Yunfeng exhaled through his nose, some of the steel in his face softening—not much, but enough.

"...Fine," he muttered, glancing away. "We won’t tell her."

Yuki’s shoulders sagged in relief, and tears welled up again.