The mountain air was thin, but the silence after the explosion was thinner.
Liang Ruoxi stood on the edge of the cliff overlooking the smoldering ruin of the underground facility. Her hair was wild in the wind, and her heart still raced—not from the sprint to escape, but from something deeper. Inside her chest, something old and buried was stirring.
Zeyan's jacket was draped around her shoulders. Lin Qian sat on a rock nearby, legs pulled to her chest, shivering though the fire behind them still blazed in the night.
No one spoke for a long time.
Finally, Lin Qian whispered, "That woman... Prototype 2. She looked like me. But her eyes… they were like yours, Ruoxi."
Ruoxi didn't answer immediately. She had seen it too.
The woman in white hadn't just looked familiar—she had moved like Ruoxi. Tilted her head the same way. Even the cadence of her voice had been almost identical.
And yet, she was completely alien.
"Do you think she was the final version?" Zeyan asked, crouching beside Ruoxi. "The one they wanted to replace you with?"
Ruoxi didn't answer right away. Instead, she reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the shattered flash drive they had recovered from the lab before it collapsed. Somehow, the casing had melted, but the core chip was intact.
She held it out. "We need to know what's on this."
Zeyan took it. "I'll decode it back at the villa."
Later that night, as Lin Qian slept under heavy sedation, Ruoxi wandered to the far side of the villa.
The hallway mirror reflected her pale face in the moonlight.
But as she stared at herself, she froze.
For just a moment—just a breath—the face in the mirror wasn't hers.
It was the Prototype 2's.
Eyes colder. Expression void of softness. A different woman, cloaked in her image.
Ruoxi gasped and stumbled back.
She closed her eyes, willing the image to vanish.
But then—
Memory flash.
A white room. She's lying down. Voices above her.
"Erase the piano lessons. Replace them with ballet.""Too emotional—adjust the parental loss memory by 20%."
Ruoxi staggered, gripping the wall.
That wasn't my memory…
Zeyan found her on the villa's veranda, arms wrapped tightly around herself.
"I saw her," she whispered as he approached. "Not her body. Her memories. I felt them."
Zeyan didn't question it. "You're connected to her. Not just by DNA… but by memory architecture."
She turned toward him. "What if everything I remember… isn't mine?"
"You mean the music lessons? Your mother's scent? Linyue's laugh?" He stepped closer. "Even if they were planted, the feelings are yours. That's real."
Ruoxi looked away, tears catching the moonlight. "I don't know what's real anymore."
Zeyan gently took her hand. "I do."
Their eyes locked. For a breath, the world disappeared.
And then the flash drive beeped from his pocket.
They returned inside.
The data extracted was fragmented, but what remained was enough to make Ruoxi's breath catch.
A confidential file titled:
"Project Ouroboros – Phase Omega"
Inside, there were blueprints not of subjects—but of emotional maps. Personalities, layered like code. Dozens of them.
Each labeled: Prototype 1, Prototype 2, Phase II A, Phase II B, Phase III—Ruoxi (Beta Stable).
"What does this mean?" she asked, her voice low.
Zeyan scrolled through lines of data. "They weren't just cloning. They were experimenting with consciousness imprinting."
Ruoxi frowned. "What?"
"They used real personalities—fragments from multiple people—to create synthetic identities. Yours was built from pieces of Linyue, Prototype 1, even the original donor…"
He stopped.
Ruoxi leaned closer. "What is it?"
Zeyan turned the screen.
There it was. A donor profile. DNA strand base line for Ruoxi's "template."
Name: Mo Qinghua.
Ruoxi's blood ran cold.
"That's… your mother."
Zeyan didn't respond. His silence confirmed it.
They sat frozen for a long time.
"So I was made from her?" Ruoxi asked quietly. "Not Linyue?"
"Partially. You share some DNA with my sister—but emotionally, cognitively… you may be more like my mother."
A soft laugh escaped her lips. "Well, that explains your obsession with me."
Zeyan blinked, startled. Then he smiled. "If I were obsessed with you, it's not because of my mother."
He stepped forward, cupping her face. "It's because you're you. The way you challenge me. How you throw pillows when you're frustrated. How you stand taller when you're scared."
Ruoxi's eyes brimmed. "You still think I'm human?"
"I think you're more human than most people I know."
She lowered her gaze. "Even if the memories aren't mine?"
He lifted her chin gently. "Maybe not. But this moment is. And so is every second you choose to live it."
And for the first time since the fire, since the lab, since her world cracked open—Ruoxi felt like someone real.
Lin Qian awoke in the early hours of the morning.
She walked to the open window, pale and slow, then turned toward the hallway where Ruoxi and Zeyan had fallen asleep together on the couch—exhausted from decoding the files.
She whispered, "Ruoxi…"
A new memory had surfaced.
Not one from the lab. One from long ago.
From before the fire.
She was seven. And a girl named Ruoxi had stood beside her under a tree, pinkie promising, "No matter what they do, I'll find you."
That hadn't been a dream. That hadn't been implanted.
That had been real.
Lin Qian's eyes filled with tears.
They were never strangers. Never just subjects.
They had known each other before the world tried to split them.
And someone had tried very hard to make them forget.
Back inside, Zeyan stirred beside Ruoxi as the villa's network pinged again.
An email.
No sender.
No subject.
Only an image attachment.
Zeyan opened it.
His jaw tightened.
The image was of Ruoxi—standing on a street corner the night before the lab exploded. Only, she hadn't been there.
And behind her… someone with the exact same face.
Wearing white.
Caption:"One of you is not meant to live."
Ruoxi's voice was a whisper behind him. "She's not dead."
Zeyan turned slowly. "No. She's watching."
Ruoxi touched her temple. "And she's leaking memories into me."
Zeyan reached for her hand. "Then we follow the trail backward. Whoever gave her your face and your memories… still has plans for you."
Ruoxi looked out at the sunrise.
"For the first time… I want to remember everything."
Even if it breaks her.
Even if it wasn't hers.