Li Hua was still blinking, confused. The neon lights of the city street outside the car window seemed unusually bright, almost dazzling. Her brains were foggy, like waking up after a long, dreamless sleep. Where... where was she?

That morning, she'd been packing her belongings into her suitcase, the scent of new textbooks and old life clinging to the fabric. She was finally leaving the squat where she'd lived with her grandmother, moving into the small, rented apartment she'd managed to scrounge up with her meager savings and part-time job. A fresh start, she'd told herself. Swore it was.

But now, it felt like a cruel joke.

The car pulled up in front of a building Li Hua recognized, sleek and impossibly modern, its glass facade mirroring the chaotic energy of the street below. It was a high-end residential complex, the kind she could only afford to gaze upon from a distance. The driver opened the door, his expression polite, almost apologetic. "Miss Li, I'm sorry for the delay. Mr. Chen wanted the paperwork to be prepared in advance."