The Cost of Protection

The first thing Lin Yue lost was her signal. The second was the lights.

The executive corridor outside the bridal annex went dim with a surgical click, as if the building had decided to close its eyes. Her phone flashed once in her palm, then died. The white orchids—too many, too perfect, paid for by a family that liked its violence wrapped in satin—turned a bruised green under the emergency strips that snapped on a second later.

Fifteen minutes before the ceremony, Gu Group locked itself down.

Lin Yue stood still, listening to the building change shape. Elevators halted. Somewhere down the hall, a door slammed. The bridal suite behind her was no longer a sanctuary; staff had vanished with the speed of people who knew which side of the door they could survive on.

Across the

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