Against the Algorithm

Chapter 40: The Quiet Before the Reckoning

And somehow, in that moment, with the daughter of the Chens on one side, and the matriarch of the Lus on the other, neither woman said it aloud—but both understood: The girl in that bed? She wasn't alone. Not anymore. She belonged to all of them now.

Jinyang's hand rested lightly near Yao's arm, her fingers trembling just slightly before she pulled them back. Her jaw worked once, like she was trying to swallow something that didn't want to go down, her breath shallow. Then, without turning, she looked up—locking eyes with Lu Sicheng with a gaze far more dangerous than it was emotional. "I'm going to ask this once," she said, her voice flat, quiet, and shaking not with fear but with restrained fury. "What the hell is going on with Yao's aunt, uncle, and that cousin of hers?"

Sicheng didn't speak.

Didn't blink.

Didn't flinch.

"I know something's going on," Jinyang continued, stepping fully between him and the door, her posture firm, eyes sharp with knowledge that had been building for days. "I've known her too long, too closely, to miss the signs. She's been avoiding certain topics, deflecting questions, and she only ever said one thing about the break-in." She took a step closer to the bed. "That someone protected her." Her voice cracked there, but she swallowed hard and pushed through it, lifting her gaze back to him. "That's all she said. Not what happened. Not how close it got. Just that she was safe."

Sicheng's jaw tightened, the muscle ticking once.

"And then," Jinyang said, voice going lower now, colder, more precise, "her cousin messaged me. Out of nowhere. Asking if Yao was okay after 'the attack.'" She paused, her tone hard. "Attack. That's the word she used."

That got a flicker from Sicheng.

"She hinted at something worse," Jinyang snapped. "Said she hoped Yao was 'emotionally recovering.' Said she'd heard rumors. Rumors that she might've been... violated." She spat the word like poison.

Sicheng exhaled through his nose slowly, his grip unconsciously tightening around Yao's smaller hand.

"I told her I didn't know anything," Jinyang said, her voice cracking now beneath the force she was trying to hold. "Said I'd been abroad. That I hadn't been in China. I didn't give anything away. But now you are going to tell me—right now—what the hell actually happened. And why her cousin is fishing for a reaction."

Sicheng said nothing for a beat. Then his voice came low. Sharp. Controlled. "You were right not to respond to her."

"So I am right," Jinyang said, eyes narrowing. "Something did happen."

"No," Sicheng said, his voice firm now, the full weight of it grounding the moment. "Something almost happened. But it didn't. Because my guy was already watching the building."

She blinked.

He continued, his voice quiet and deadly even. "He stopped the man before he ever touched her. Took care of it. Then called me."

Jinyang took a step back, hand over her mouth. "She never knew?" she whispered.

"She still doesn't," he said. "She only knew someone was there. That she was protected. She never saw him. Never saw the threat."

Lan's voice, smooth and composed, entered the silence like a scalpel. "And she won't. Not from anyone else at least for now, Chen Jinyang."

Jinyang turned sharply to face her.

"I told my mother what happened," Sicheng said, glancing once toward Lan. "After I confirmed the details."

"And the cousin?"