The game ended with my unexpected triumph. A flicker of surprise crossed Liu Rufeng's eyes before vanishing beneath his usual composure. His lips curled into a knowing smile, as if this outcome had been inevitable all along.
"You've won." His voice was light, yet heavy with implication. "But this was never just about wealth or wit. This game has granted you entry into Moonfall's beating heart."
I nodded silently. The weight of this moment settled upon me—there would be no turning back now. With this foothold of power came responsibility and peril in equal measure. True dominion was never claimed without bloodshed.
"No more masks," Liu Rufeng murmured, his gaze turning glacial. "Now you'll learn how power truly moves in Moonfall. And how to wield it."
A frown touched my lips but I held my tongue. I'd anticipated this. Yet with each revelation, some dormant part of me awakened—understanding that these "games" were but pretty lies draped over endless, vicious war.
Days later, Liu Rufeng summoned me to a council. No mere trade negotiation, this was a trial by fire: proof that I could navigate Moonfall's labyrinth of commerce and politics.
The chamber brimmed with the city's elite—merchants with poison-dagger smiles, nobles whose silken gloves hid iron fists, and shadowed figures who pulled strings from the darkness. Their gazes assessed me, already calculating how to dismantle this upstart.
One mistake here would be fatal.
Liu Rufeng presided while I sat at his right hand. Each question hurled my way was a blade to parry, each challenge a test of will and wit.
"What future do you envision for Moonfall?" A young merchant sneered, dismissal dripping from every word.
I set down my teacup with deliberate calm. "A future built on equilibrium. Commerce is our lifeblood, power our skeleton. We must find balance where all interests coexist."
A ripple passed through the assembly. My bluntness had caught them off guard. Some looks turned speculative; others, wary.
Liu Rufeng's expression remained unreadable as forged steel. Yet I knew—he'd foreseen this moment, and was already measuring what advantage to reap from the unrest.
But this was only the beginning. In this city of knives, no amount of cleverness could armor me against one brutal truth: every choice carried the potential for irrevocable ruin.
Afterward, as we walked the manor's shadowed corridors, the very air seemed thick with unseen threats lurking behind every door.
"You performed adequately." Liu Rufeng's praise was sparse, but genuine. Then he stopped abruptly, fixing me with that piercing gaze. "Power's price is never paid in coin. It demands you surrender desires... principles... until you no longer recognize yourself."
A warning, plainly spoken. The road ahead would be treacherous. Yet turning back was impossible now—Moonfall's dark allure had its claws in me, and my fate was bound to its tides.
How would I weather the storms to come? That remained the greatest gamble of all.
and then Add to home screen.