Lin Mo led Chu Lingxiao toward the service elevator at the back of the boutique.
The heavy metal doors groaned as they slid shut. The lift rattled downward through the concrete core of Starlight Plaza.
On Lin Mo’s mental interface, the emerald ping burned with clear urgency. The marker sat in the damp sub-basement beneath the loading docks.
[TARGET: YUN MEIHUA.] [GOODNESS SCORE: 94/100.] [OCCUPATION: SEVENTH-GENERATION INHERITOR OF JIANGNAN ICE-SILKWORM CLOUD-BROCADE.] [CRITICAL ALERT: PHYSICAL INTIMIDATION AND PROPERTY SEIZURE IN PROGRESS.]
“Down here?” Chu Lingxiao asked softly. She rested one pale hand on the pommel of her ancestral sword. “The air smells of wet stone and old wood.”
“Starlight Plaza was built over an old municipal textile mill,” Lin Mo said. “The glitter up top gets all the cameras. The people who actually know how to build things are buried in the dark.”
The elevator stopped with a dull clank at sub-level three.
Lin Mo pushed the rusty gate aside. A draft of chilly air washed over them.
