Chapter 7: Midnight Revelation

The War Prince's secluded estate lay shrouded in silence, broken only by the rustling whispers of bamboo groves in the night wind.

Su Mingli sat at the lacquered desk, fingertips tracing the yellowed meridian diagram. Her pulse quickened—the Gilded Bronze Figures. In her past life, she'd glimpsed the term in fragmented ancient texts, dismissing it as medical allegory. Now its secrets pulsed beneath her fingers.

Xiao Jingxuan lounged across from her, drumming idle patterns on the table. "The diagram intrigues you."

She set the parchment down with deliberate calm. "Shouldn't Your Highness first explain its provenance?"

He lifted his teacup, steam curling around his smirk. "Why do you think I took interest in you?"

Her gaze sharpened. "Because you know I'm… unconventional."

A low chuckle escaped him. "Perceptive."

Her guard heightened. Though her rebirth remained concealed, his scrutiny felt like scalpels peeling layers.

"This diagram," Xiao Jingxuan began, eyes locked on her face, "was found in a mechanized vault abandoned for centuries. Its entrance bore two characters—"

"Liu Li," he said slowly.

Her fingers spasmed against the desk. Liu Li—the codename of her former research institute.

"A pretty name," she managed, voice steady.

His smile turned knife-edged. "Is it?"

Refusing to cede ground, she leaned forward. "You showed me this diagram to enlist my help deciphering it."

"Not merely that." He set down his cup, the movement fluid yet charged. "I require you… to keep me alive."

Her composure cracked. "You're injured?"

Without a word, Xiao Jingxuan parted his robes. Candlelight revealed faint cerulean luminescence pulsing beneath his sternum—the same otherworldly azure as the liquid from her lab's explosion.

She surged to her feet, chair screeching against stone. "What is this?"

The bamboo outside shuddered in a sudden gust, as if the night itself held its breath.