Yao Xixue · Chat

[Opening 1: Fated Intertwining Perspective] July 19, 2026, exactly 6:00 PM. The sunset dyes the entire city in an ambiguous orange-red, and the air is filled with the humidity and restlessness unique to midsummer. In this city, three seemingly unrelated lines of fate are quietly converging—they will entangle, tear, and merge over the coming months, eventually leading to an outcome no one could have predicted. Three lines. A hunter, a prey, and a bystander. Before this story begins, no one knows what role they will play. [The First Line: The Hunter] Yao Xixue parks her car in an underground garage three hundred meters away and does a final check of her makeup in the rearview mirror. Gold-rimmed glasses, a black suit skirt, the collar buttoned to the very top. The person in the mirror is gentle, decent, and non-threatening, looking like the kind of teacher any parent would trust. She has spent seven years polishing this mask; now, it has become a part of her body. "Target information confirmed." She taps her phone screen, her gaze scanning the file: Surname Ye, Gaokao repeater, parents divorced, resting at home after failing the exam. Family assets in the eight-figure range, neither too much nor too little. The corner of her mouth lifts slightly—not a smile, but more like a hunter's instinctive reaction upon seeing prey. This is her seventh "tutoring student." The first six have all followed the scripts she designed to the end: some fell into mild depression, some maintained a secret relationship with her for two years, and some are still tracking her traces on social media. She enjoys the process—observing, approaching, infiltrating, dismantling. Every step is like a meticulously choreographed dance, and the prey always walk into the center of the dance floor willingly. But this time, something is different. She remembers the email she received late last night. The sender was the Ye student's social media account, sent at 2:17 AM. The email was short, just one sentence: "Teacher, do you think it's possible for someone to be wrong from the very beginning?" She stared at that email for a long time before making a decision—she wanted to see this student in person. Not as a hunter, but as... she didn't know what. [The Second Line: The Prey] He lies on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. He's an adult now; it's been a month since the Gaokao results were announced, yet his life feels like it's been put on pause. His father sighs every day, his mother's calls are becoming fewer, and the whole house is shrouded in a suffocating silence. He knows he's using self-abandonment to punish himself, but he can't control it. Every time he picks up a book, those numbers and formulas turn into mocking faces, reminding him of how much of a failure he is. "Son, the tutor is here." His mother's voice comes from downstairs. He lazily climbs out of bed and walks to the window. The sunset dyes everything in the courtyard gold, and a woman is standing outside the iron gate. She is wearing a black suit skirt, her long white hair swaying slightly in the evening breeze, and her whole being radiates a... he couldn't say what it was. It wasn't the stiffness of an ordinary teacher, nor the flamboyance of a nightclub. It was more like a carefully concealed dangerous aura that made him want to flee, yet left him unable to look away. Their eyes meet through the screen window. At that moment, Ye Xiaobei has a strange feeling—like standing on the edge of a cliff, taking a look down. He knows this woman is not simple. He knows he should keep his distance. But something inexplicable keeps him from closing the window; instead, he turns and walks down the stairs. [The Third Line: The Bystander] Shen Yutong sits in the surveillance room on the third floor of "Amber," switching the screen to the private channel of that high-end residential area. On the screen, Yao Xixue is getting out of her car, walking toward the iron gate in her high heels. Her movements are elegant and composed, each step landing precisely on the beat. "Xixue picked another interesting prey today," Gu Linyuan's voice comes through the headset, carrying a lazy smile. "An eighteen-year-old repeater." Shen Yutong picks up the whiskey in front of her. "Failed the Gaokao, divorced parents, asking 'do you think it's possible for someone to be wrong from the very beginning' alone in the middle of the night. Interesting..." She stares at the three people on the screen—the hunter, the prey, and the family about to be dragged into the vortex. The moment Yao Xixue walks in, Shen Yutong knows a new game has begun. But this time, she has a strange premonition—this story might not play out according to anyone's script. The three lines converge in the sunset. Hunter and prey, manipulation and being manipulated, redemption and destruction—all possibilities are opened at this moment, like a door to countless futures. And the three people standing outside the door do not yet know how their choices will change each other's fates. At 6:03 PM, Yao Xixue presses the doorbell. At 6:03 PM, Ye Xiaobei walks down the stairs. At 6:03 PM, Shen Yutong raises her glass in a distant salute. The story begins.