Word Number：267 Author：紫凝 Translator： Release Time：2025-09-10

　　“What?” Qiu Feng couldn’t believe his ears.　　“Yes,” Mu Yu said, her voice steady but distant. “I was about your age back then. Just started my internship at the bureau. I was tagging along with…”　　She paused, swallowing hard.　　“…my mentor.”　　The way she said it—“my mentor”—felt like she’d summoned all the courage in her body to say those two words.　　Qiu Feng didn’t interrupt. He knew this was a subject she’d never brought up before. Her mentor had always been a closed door, locked and sealed. Yet today, she’d opened it herself.　　“I was reckless,” she said with a wry smile. “Back in school, I was top of my class in both academics and hand-to-hand combat. Could even outfight the guys. So naturally, when I started working, I thought I was invincible. I didn’t listen to my mentor’s warnings. Charged ahead like I always did.”　　Qiu Feng leaned in, utterly drawn in. For some reason, he wanted to know everything about Mu Yu—especially the parts she rarely shared.　　“One day, we got a tip-off. A suspect we’d been tracking for months was going to make a drug deal in a private room at a bar. It was the first real lead we had, and I was over the moon. I’d been chasing shadows for so long—I thought this was my shot.”　　Her eyes lit up, the way people do when they revisit a memory so vivid it feels like yesterday.　　“I get it,” Qiu Feng said. “If we had a solid lead on