He smiled faintly. “Why not? You’ve done a lot for me. Can’t I do at least this much in return?”

Her lips curved into a genuine smile this time. “Good. Then it’s settled.”

She stood up smoothly, straightening her suit. “I’ll go back to work. There’s still a pile of reports waiting to be abused.”

Lin Fang nodded. “Go.”

As the door closed behind her, the smile on his face lingered for exactly one second.

Then it vanished.

“F*ck,” he muttered, dragging a hand down his face. “Dammit… I forgot about the New Year….”

He leaned back into the couch, staring at the ceiling.

“Less than twelve days until New Year,” he whispered. “And the city hall attack happens on the thirty-first.”

His chest tightened.

If he warned someone, they’d ask for his source. What was he supposed to say? That he remembered it from a future that hadn’t happened yet? That he had lived through it once already?

Bullshit. Absolute bullshit.

And if he warned them and they didn’t take it seriously… when it happened, the investigation would be ruthless. They might interrogate him.

“Fu—”

He stopped himself, closed his eyes, and inhaled slowly.

“Calm down,” he told himself. “One step at a time. Think.”

*

By late afternoon, Lin Fang buried himself in work.

Orders. Inventory logs. Coordination messages with Shang Wei. Approvals for limited Troodon sales. Familiar routines steadied his breathing, even if they couldn’t quiet his thoughts entirely.

Then his communicator rang.

He frowned when he saw the caller ID. Hunter Association Reception.

After a moment of hesitation, he answered. “This is Lin Fang.”

“Owner Lin,” a polite voice said, “Vice President Feng wishes to speak with you. Are you available?”

Lin Fang glanced at the clock. “I am. Put him through.”

The call shifted.

“Lin Fang,” Feng Xiu’s voice came through, calm and warm. “How are you?”

“I’m doing well,” Lin Fang replied. “Busy, but well.”

Feng Xiu laughed softly. “That much is obvious. Your Troodon monsters have become quite popular even here. I’ve heard people mentioning them in meetings.”

“Thank you,” Lin Fang said. “So… what’s the matter?”

Feng Xiu didn’t waste time. “A high-rank Stellar Rift will open in three days. Are you interested?”

Lin Fang straightened unconsciously.

“A Stellar Rift?” he repeated.

It had been months since he last stepped into one. The thought alone stirred memories he hadn’t touched in a long while. Nebula. The first true brush with death. The awakening of Rise of the Undead.

Stellar Rifts were unpredictable, brutal, and dangerous beyond ordinary dungeons. But they were also… transformative.

Feng Xiu continued, “This one isn’t public yet. Information will be released soon, but I wanted to ask you first.”

Lin Fang was silent for a few seconds.

“What rank?” he finally asked.

“High,” Feng Xiu replied simply. “High enough that only A-rank hunters are given the pass. You might even find S-class Hunters this time… And it will be open for a week, three days from now…”

Lin Fang exhaled slowly. “S-class hunters?”

Lin Fang was quiet for a long moment after Feng Xiu’s words settled in. The hum of the store’s ventilation system suddenly felt too loud, too real, as if the world was deliberately reminding him that this was not a dream he could wake up from.

“One week…” he murmured again, more to himself than to the man on the other end of the call.

“Yes,” Feng Xiu replied calmly. “Same as standard Stellar Rifts. Just that it’s difficulty is high, that’s all. So, are you in?”

Lin Fang didn’t answer the question and instead leaned back in his chair, eyes drifting toward the ceiling again. “That means I’ll miss Christmas.”

There was no bitterness in his voice, just a quiet statement of fact. He could already imagine Zhi Yan’s raised eyebrow, Li Liu’s disappointed smile she’d try to hide, the warm house he’d been invited into slipping just out of reach.

For the past 8 years, he never had a proper New Year or a Christmas, because he didn’t have family or had money to think about celebrations at all… But now that he had people to celebrate with and also money to splurge on the party, this came…

“I can’t give you an answer right now,” Lin Fang said after a pause. “I’ll need to discuss it with… my friends.”

On the other side of the line, Feng Xiu chuckled softly, as if he had been expecting exactly that response.

“I know,” he said. “And I also know what you’re really worried about.”

Lin Fang’s brows knit together. “Oh?”

“How about this,” Feng Xiu continued, his tone shifting into something more deliberate. “I’ll give you an additional entry pass. You won’t have to go alone. You can bring your girlfriend with you into the rift.”

Lin Fang straightened at once. “That’s—”

“Not a problem,” Feng Xiu cut in smoothly. “Given your contributions, it’s well within what I can authorize.”

Lin Fang exhaled, fingers tapping lightly against the armrest. Bringing Li Liu meant she wouldn’t be left behind. But at the same time, there is an issue with bringing her. She is not a fighter, meaning she will be in constant danger…

Before he could respond, Feng Xiu spoke again.

“And there’s something else.”

Lin Fang fell silent.

“Three months ago,” Feng Xiu said, slower now, “we never really finished our conversation about your family. You didn’t follow up afterward, so I assumed you didn’t believe me.”

Lin Fang’s jaw tightened slightly.

“That’s natural,” Feng Xiu went on. “To you, I’m practically a stranger. Trust isn’t something people hand out just because of a title.”

“Please get to the point, Vice President Feng,” Lin Fang said quietly.

Feng Xiu didn’t sound offended. If anything, his voice carried a faint trace of satisfaction.

“If you come to this rift,” he said, “your questions won’t be answered by me. They’ll be answered by someone you might actually trust.””

Lin Fang’s heart skipped. “Who is it?” He asked.

There was a pause on the other side.

Feng Xiu then said, “Your so-called elder sister, Lin Xi Gua. Although now, she calls herself Lin Mei.”

For a split second, Lin Fang thought he’d misheard.

“Jiejie?” he blurted out before he could stop himself.

Feng Xiu let out a soft laugh. “Yes. Her.”

Lin Fang stood up without realizing it, the chair scraping faintly against the floor. His thoughts scattered, colliding with each other in a mess of disbelief and buried memories. Elder sister. Someone he had been told existed, then erased from conversations, from records, from explanations.

“She’ll be there?” Lin Fang asked, his voice lower now.

“She will,” Feng Xiu confirmed. “She’s an active participant.”

Silence stretched between them.

“Well,” Feng Xiu added lightly, as if he hadn’t just overturned Lin Fang’s emotional balance, “consider it a Christmas present from me.”

Lin Fang let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.

“I’m sending the plane ticket,” Feng Xiu continued. “Whether you come or not… that’s up to you.”

The line went dead.

Lin Fang remained standing in the middle of his office, communicator still pressed to his ear long after the call ended. Outside the glass walls, the store bustled on, customers laughing, staff moving with practiced ease, life flowing forward without pause.

Inside him, something long-buried stirred awake.

“A Stellar Rift,” he murmured. “Lin Xi Gua…”

He closed his eyes.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep