Frozen air bit into Lin Aoxue's face like knives, stinging her cheeks raw. She hunched her shoulders, the snow on her cotton coat turning into thick, icy chunks. Still smarting from the mission failure—the cold indifference of her parents, especially that bitter word, "worthless"—she clenched her jaw, swallowing hard against the lump forming in her throat.

"Just 'Hmm'?" A feral wave of anger washed over her. "That one word stuck like a thorn. They threw me out like trash, and now they have the nerve to point fingers?" Aoxue's knuckles turned white as she gripped the ground, trying to ground herself. The weight of rejection pressed down on her chest like a mountain.

She stumbled on, numb hands brushing against her icy coat, the звуки of her footsteps swallowed by the endless snow. The path ahead stretched on, grey under the bruised sky. Crying wouldn't change anything. Not now. Not after everything.

Suddenly, a tremor, barely perceptible at first. A scent, sharp and unfamiliar, cut through the biting wind. A fox? No, smaller. More… domesticated. A cat, perhaps?