Monday came draped in mist, thick enough to obscure the skyline and cast the school grounds in a half-lit hush. Gu Ning stepped out of the sleek black car that had become her usual ride—rented under a dummy corporation with ties she'd arranged quietly last week—and adjusted the navy coat draped over her uniform. The students turned as she passed, whispering, not quite able to look away.
Some had begun to call her the "Ice Phoenix." Others simply avoided her, unsettled by the way her presence seemed to distort normalcy. What they didn't understand was that Gu Ning no longer played by the rules they knew.
By the time she reached her classroom, Su Ya was already there, nervously flicking through a textbook. She brightened immediately at the sight of her.
"You really pulled it off, Ning-jie! That broadcast was everywhere—everyone's scared of crossing you now. Even the headmaster's been quiet."
Gu Ning sat, setting down a slim tablet. "Fear is only useful if you follow through. What's the report on Yang Qi?"
Su Ya handed her a thin envelope. "He's been silenced. Expelled quietly and moved cities. No one knows why—but we do."
Gu Ning read the file. She nodded once. "A lesson. Not vengeance. Make sure people understand that."
Before Su Ya could respond, a quiet buzz from her watch alerted Gu Ning. The screen lit up with a familiar signature—Observer.0.
[Observer.0]: Pattern recognition spike detected. You've changed too much, too quickly.
Gu Ning tapped a reply into the encrypted channel.
[Gu Ning]: Speak clearly.
[Observer.0]: Your moves echo someone else's—someone long gone. Dead. But the ashes are walking.
Her fingers froze for a split second.
[Gu Ning]: Mistaken identity.
[Observer.0]: Then you wouldn't be using tactical protocols from pre-collapse NGC Group playbooks. Unless you wrote them.
There it was. Not confirmation, not confrontation. Just... possibility. A challenge.
Gu Ning exited the chat, face calm. But her mind raced. Observer.0—whoever they were—was inching closer to the truth.
---
The rest of the school day passed without incident, but Gu Ning felt the tension in the air. Small things—a teacher glancing too long, students who used to mock her now giving silent nods of acknowledgment, security patrolling with tighter formation. Word was spreading: Gu Ning wasn't to be trifled with.
At lunch, she met with Zhao Min, the investor she'd quietly helped last week.
"You were right," Zhao said, her voice tight with excitement. "That stock moved exactly as you predicted. I sold right before the drop. I made triple."
Gu Ning stirred her tea. "Next time, reinvest thirty percent into the pharmaceutical sectors. Long-term vision is essential."
Zhao stared. "You speak like an analyst with twenty years behind her."
Gu Ning only smiled faintly. "I read a lot."
---
After school, she didn't go home. Instead, she slipped into the alley behind a dry cleaner's where a hidden staircase led to a rented co-working loft. Inside were rows of screens, a basic server rack, and a wall covered in red string and notes—her growing intelligence map.
She plugged in her personal drive. Files loaded instantly—financial logs, blackmail folders, competitor profiles, and Observer.0's message.
Gu Ning leaned back in the chair. "So they're watching," she murmured. "Good."
She opened a new file: Operation Revenant.
At the top, she typed:
> Phase 1: Establish public presence Phase 2: Silence opposition Phase 3: Prototype company soft launch Phase 4: Manipulate investment pipeline
And below it:
> Key Threats: Observer.0 (unknown). Liu Wen Corporation. Internal sabotage (Su Ya's cousin?).
Gu Ning stared at the list, then drew a single line underneath:
> Contingency: Activate VESTIGE protocol.
She closed the file.
---
Later that evening, at a small networking event disguised as a high school charity gala, Gu Ning wore a simple white dress and a pearl hairpin. She looked every bit the poised student—but her eyes scanned every guest.
Liu Wen himself showed up. The man was a known player in the venture circuit, flashy and loud. He raised his glass when he saw her.
"To the rising phoenix!" he toasted publicly.
Gu Ning raised hers back. "And to the dying embers."
He blinked, confused. She smiled, stepping away before he could question the meaning.
Su Ya leaned in from her right. "Why poke him like that?"
"Because he doesn't understand that the game's already started," Gu Ning said. "He thinks it's still charity."
And with that, she left a single card on the buffet table—white, with a golden phoenix etched onto it.
Tomorrow, a new business entity would launch in the downtown registry.
PHOENIX RISE TECH HOLDINGS.
And the city would never be the same.
---