"The data is for sale."
The moment Lin Wu said it, the store fell so quiet that even the rain striking the glass sounded sharper.
Qin Zheng stood beneath the light, staring at the black monitoring terminal in her hand. Whatever emotion was in his eyes, he kept it pressed down deep.
The device was his.
The target was his.
And yet now, the readout sat in Lin Wu's palm—
a product she could split, package, and sell whenever she wanted.
It felt terrible.
But he didn't explode.
Because he knew it would do nothing.
"How are you selling it?" he asked.
Lin Wu lowered her eyes to the terminal screen.
Xie Lin's baseline data still pulsed there.
Heart Rate: 101Temperature: 37.4Status: Mildly Elevated Fluctuation
She tapped one finger lightly against the edge of the device.
"One question at a time. Sold separately."
Then she added, almost lazily:
"Or overnight package."
One of the second team operatives outside couldn't stop himself.
"You do overnight rates too?!"
This time Qi Ye really did lower his head and laugh once.
Even Pei Wan's eyes flickered with the faintest trace of amusement.
Lin Wu didn't change expression at all.
"Of course."
"If you buy once, you get one answer about his current condition."
"If you buy overnight, the moment I detect an anomaly, you get notified first."
Then she looked up at Qin Zheng.
"You choose."
Qin Zheng stared at her for several seconds before speaking.
"What's the price for single-query? What's the overnight rate?"
"Single query: one box of broad-spectrum anti-infection injectors." Lin Wu's tone stayed level. "Overnight package: three boxes of medicine, plus the Second Team's temporary operational boundary for tonight."
Qin Zheng frowned.
"What does that mean?"
"It means which streets your team is sweeping tonight, and which streets you won't touch for now." Lin Wu's answer was blunt. "I need to know whether I can go out tomorrow morning and pick up stock."
The moment she said that, Pei Wan's eyes moved sharply.
She suddenly realized something.
Every time Lin Wu named a price, it was never just about the next breath.
She was laying track for tomorrow. The day after. And the days after that.
On the surface, she looked like she was squeezing margins out of a live negotiation.
In reality, she was building future supply routes in her head.
Qin Zheng was silent for two seconds.
"Single query is fine."
"Overnight is too expensive."
"Then start with single query." Lin Wu replied instantly, without the slightest drag. "Ask."
Qin Zheng looked at her, and when he spoke again, his voice had lowered another degree.
"Is he showing any signs of abnormal stability?"
That question made Pei Wan lift her gaze too.
Clearly, she wanted the answer as well.
Lin Wu didn't respond immediately.
She lowered her eyes to the terminal first.
The baseline figures remained steady. At the bottom, a new pale line had appeared:
[Sample Contact Subject: Stable][No obvious destabilization signs detected][No aggression escalation detected]
Good.
Qin Zheng's monitoring chip had real value.
"No," Lin Wu said, looking back up. "At least not right now."
"He's steadier than you expected."
Qin Zheng's eyes darkened.
"Steadier than I expected doesn't mean actually stable."
"Correct." Lin Wu nodded. "Which is why you can buy a second query."
Qin Zheng: "…"
Several members of the second team outside now had extremely complicated expressions.
It was the first time in their lives they had seen someone force a man like Qin Zheng—someone used to speaking once and being obeyed—into becoming a pay-per-question buyer.
And the worst part was, there was nothing he could do about it.
Qin Zheng stared at Lin Wu, then finally raised a hand.
Someone outside passed him a silver medication case.
He placed it on the counter, his voice colder now.
"Second query."
Lin Wu was pleased.
She dragged the case toward herself and casually made a note in the ledger.
Second Team — bought one data query.
When she finished writing, she tapped the page three times, as always.
Tok.Tok.Tok.
Then she lifted her eyes.
"Ask."
"Who is the second target?"
The moment the question landed, the air in the store tightened just slightly.
Qi Ye's brows drew together.
Pei Wan went completely still.
Even inside the pod, Xie Lin instinctively looked toward Lin Wu.
Because this was no longer about Xie Lin.
This was about who else—besides him—had touched the box and might also have become a living key.
Lin Wu did not answer at once.
She lowered her eyes to the system line from moments earlier:
[A second target remains to be confirmed within the store.]
Remains to be confirmed.
Meaning the system knew there was one—
but had not fully locked the identity yet.
That meant she could not sell it blindly.
In business, one of the worst mistakes possible was selling unverified goods as if they were confirmed stock.
"That answer is not for sale yet," Lin Wu said, looking up at last.
Qin Zheng's eyes went cold.
"Why?"
"Because the goods haven't been fully verified." Lin Wu answered as naturally as if she were explaining inventory policy. "I don't sell false information."
That sentence actually bought her two seconds of silence from Qin Zheng.
Because he knew it was true.
Lin Wu was ruthless.
But she did not sell fake goods.
"How do you verify it?" he asked.
Lin Wu lifted the terminal slightly.
"Keep watching. Keep waiting."
Then she paused.
"Or…"
She let the word hang for a moment.
"…run checks on everyone in the store who touched the case."
The moment she said it, Su Yu's face turned white.
"I-I didn't touch it…" she blurted out, her voice tight with fear. "I wasn't even that close."
He Qing shook her head almost immediately.
"Neither did I."
Qi Ye stood to one side, voice flat.
"I didn't touch it."
Pei Wan said nothing.
She only looked at Lin Wu.
Because the people who had actually touched the case were obvious enough.
Xie Lin.
Lin Wu.
And herself—when she had injected the suppressor.
The thought made Pei Wan's eyes pause slightly.
Then she understood something dangerous:
The "second target" Qin Zheng was asking about might not be some overlooked bystander at all.
It might be the woman still standing behind the counter, calm as if nothing had happened.
Lin Wu had clearly reached the same conclusion.
But not a trace of it reached her face.
She simply set the terminal on the counter.
"Then I'm adding a new service."
"Starting tonight: dynamic observation for high-risk customers inside the store."
Qin Zheng stared at her.
"Who are you planning to tag?"
"Whoever pays." Lin Wu answered as if the logic were perfectly obvious.
This time even Pei Wan had to look at her.
That was the truly terrifying part of Lin Wu—
the moment everyone else finally recognized danger, she had already figured out how to invoice it.
"I can sell you three more chips," Qin Zheng said suddenly.
Lin Wu's eyes lit slightly.
"Price?"
"I get priority access to the first raw data from the second target."
Lin Wu had just started to answer when the system prompt flashed ahead of her.
[Warning: Store owner's own status remains unclear.][Direct exposure not recommended.]
Good.
For once, the system had said something useful.
If she slapped a chip onto herself right now, that wouldn't be business.
That would be wrapping herself in ribbon and handing herself over.
"That condition doesn't work." Lin Wu looked up. "The data can be sold. But who gets tagged first, and how, stays my decision."
Qin Zheng's eyes darkened slightly.
"You're guarding against me."
"Obviously." Lin Wu looked at him, voice level. "You're the one who said the living are worth more than the box."
"So why wouldn't I guard against you?"
That landed very solidly.
Because the logic had come straight from information he himself had just sold.
After a short silence, Pei Wan spoke.
"I'll wear one."
Every eye in the store turned toward her.
She stood beneath the lights, expression steady.
"I administered the suppressor. I was closest to the case. I may count as part of the contact chain."
"If you're sorting targets—start with me."
She wasn't only saying it for Lin Wu.
She was saying it for Qin Zheng too.
The message was obvious:
You want your second target? Fine. Start here.
Qin Zheng looked at her, his gaze colder now.
But he didn't argue.
Because procedurally, she was right.
Pei Wan did belong in the contact chain.
Lin Wu, however, did not accept immediately.
She looked at Pei Wan for two full seconds.
Then she asked, quietly:
"Are you trying to clear yourself?"
"Or are you trying to stand in front of someone else?"
Pei Wan's eyes shifted.
The question was too precise.
Too clean.
Like a knife sliding straight under the layer she had left unspoken.
When she finally answered, her voice remained calm.
"Both."
Honest.
Lin Wu liked honest customers.
"Fine."
She held out a hand.
"I'll take the deal."
Qin Zheng immediately pushed the black case forward.
There really were three spare chips inside.
The system evaluated them at once.
[Type-II Physiological Monitoring Chips ×3][Value: Medium-High]
Lin Wu removed one and stepped in front of Pei Wan.
"Behind the ear," she said.
Pei Wan brushed her damp hair aside, exposing a pale patch of skin beneath her ear. Lin Wu lifted a hand and placed the chip there lightly.
The instant the cold surface bonded to the skin, a faint blue line lit along its edge.
A few seconds later, a second data stream appeared on the terminal:
[Heart Rate: 86][Temperature: 36.9][Status: Normal][Abnormal sample feedback: None detected]
Pei Wan glanced at it, and almost imperceptibly let out half a breath.
Qin Zheng saw it too.
"Continue," he said.
"No rush." Lin Wu pulled the terminal back into her own hand. "That data is valuable now too."
Qin Zheng: "…"
The second team outside was nearly numb by now.
They had never in their lives seen someone disassemble a transaction this aggressively into paid fragments.
And the worst part was, the more they watched, the more precise every step felt.
The chips were theirs.
The terminal was theirs.
The rules were hers.
And the initiative was still hers too.
Then, at that exact moment, the system interface flickered.
[Notice: Confirmation probability for second target increasing.][Current suspicion ranking updated: 1. Store Owner Lin Wu; 2. Xie Lin; 3. Pei Wan.]
Lin Wu's gaze paused by a fraction.
Good.
That almost locked it in.
The "second target" was probably her.
She understood that completely.
But not a trace of it touched her expression.
She simply set the terminal down beside the ledger and spoke in that same calm tone, as if nothing at all were wrong.
"That's enough observation for now."
"Next—"
She looked up at Qin Zheng, a faint smile at the corner of her mouth.
"Let's discuss the overnight rate."
For the first time, Qin Zheng didn't respond immediately.
Because he had finally understood something.
This woman was worse than he had thought.
She didn't simply want money.
She was using money to strip initiative away from everyone else, one layer at a time, and move it steadily into her own hands.
And now—
she had probably already realized she herself stood in the position of the second target.
Yet she was still smiling.
Still writing in the ledger.
Still naming prices.
That was not a normal survivor.
Not even a normal shop owner.
Outside, the rain went on and on.
Inside, the store remained bright.
Behind the Special Goods Cabinet, the gray mist drifted softly, as if something deeper inside it were waiting in silence for the next transaction to land.