Against the Algorithm

Chapter 54: Given, Not Owed

—Yao

Neither spoke for a long time.

Kazemi closed the envelope, gaze fixed on the shadowed lines of the Boat Tail's frame. "She remembered and we only mentioned them once." he murmured.

Kaya looked over at him, eyes still wide with softening in a way she had only over done with her husband. "She saw us."

Kazemi nodded, voice low. "She saw everything."

There was no press. No audience. Just two cars, the sun catching the edges of a quiet girl's gratitude, and the stunned realization that Yao had not just honored them—she had chosen perfectly.

Yao was sitting on the floor of her apartment that evening, cross-legged in front of her low coffee table, sorting through digital files and marking sections of her dissertation prep with color-coded tabs. The room was dim except for the warm light of the lamp beside her and the soft rhythmic hum of Xiao Cong grooming himself near her ankle. Da Bing lay sprawled behind her like a long, protective shadow, occasionally flicking his tail in contentment.

Her phone buzzed once, lighting up with a single name:

Kazemi-ge

She hesitated for a moment, thumb hovering over the screen before she slid to answer, quietly putting it on speaker as she rested her arms on the edge of the table. "Ge?" she said softly, voice uncertain.

There was a pause on the other end. Then his voice came—smooth, deep, steady in the way Kazemi always was, but gentled now.

"You remembered."

Her breath caught for a second, then released slowly. "I didn't forget." she whispered. Another pause, then the faint sound of him shifting, she could imagine him standing in their front courtyard even without seeing it, one hand in his pocket, the other resting lightly against the roof of a car that wasn't just a car anymore.

"You gave us parts of your family," he said, not as an accusation. Not even as awe. Just the truth. "Not pieces from a vault. Not leftovers. Things that mattered to you. Things that held meaning."

She looked down, pressing her finger lightly to a soft crease in her paper. "I thought... you would understand," she said. "You always did."

"You didn't need to do this." he said gently.

"I know."

"But you did anyway."

She didn't speak for a moment before she then, finally, she asked, voice even smaller, "Did I overstep?"

"No," he said without hesitation. "You did exactly what your grandfather would have done."

Yao swallowed hard, the weight of those words heavier than anything else that had been said all week.

Kazemi continued, his voice dropping lower, more personal. "You don't owe anyone an explanation, Yao. But I want you to know... the Boat Tail will never see a showroom. It will be driven. It will be seen. And it will never be anyone else's. Not truly."

Her throat tightened.

"Kaya already threatened to start a club and has already threatened one of the groundskeepers that she will put a bullet in his head if there was one speck of dirt or even a small scratch on hers." he added dryly, a faint wry note in his tone.

That pulled a quiet laugh from her. "Of course she did..."

There was a beat of silence between them.

And then—

"I'm proud of you, little one" Kazemi said softly. "Not just for what you've done. But for how you did it."

Yao's hand curled around the edge of the table. She blinked, trying not to let her voice shake. "I didn't want to forget them."

"You didn't," he said. "You honored them."

She closed her eyes. "Thank you, ge."

"No need," he replied, his tone fond now. "Just don't let Jinyang try to register you as her wife and second spouse. I think she's genuinely drafting a contract with how she was gushing when she called me earlier about her present from her beloved Yao-er."

Yao flushed instantly. "She already tackled me once."

Kazemi chuckled. "You should've ducked, sweetgirl."

The call ended a few moments later, quiet and easy. No ceremony. No pressure. Just family. And the knowledge that, for the first time in a long while, she hadn't just given something away. She'd given something back.

Author's Note: The Muse would like to say that all comments, even small ones, are very much welcomed and they very much enjoy reading them!