Chapter 3: Robbery

Bai Yanci seemed pinned by something invisible—feet wouldn’t move.
Only when Yi Ke smiled and stepped closer did she snap back, retreating several steps until her back hit the wall with nowhere left to go.
At last a restrained, polite distance opened between them—close enough to see each other’s lashes tremble… and the faint light in their eyes.
Fluttering—like stars.
Bai Yanci lowered her gaze, finally conceding. Deep breath, bracing herself, she said the name softly: “…Yi Ke.”
Lord Jade Rabbit had opened the door; Yi Ke wasn’t letting her off easy.
“Not enough. Too distant.” She tilted her head, playing troubled. “That distant means we’re strangers. Strangers don’t qualify to live in my house.”
Seeing her lean in again, Bai Yanci breathed deep and squeezed two words through her teeth: “Ke… Ke-ke…”
So soft, unfamiliar at the tail end—yet like a white feather circling her heart, leaving a shadow that made her itch inside for no reason.
“That’s more like it.” Satisfied, she flopped onto the sofa, happy as a child with candy. “What should I call you then? Pick one for me.”
Bai Yanci didn’t even lift her lids, treating Yi Ke like a kid, airy: “In the Moon Palace everyone calls me Lord Bai.”
A trace of pride in the tone.
“My place isn’t the moon. No lords here.” She thought a moment, had an idea. “You’re older than me—how about sister?”
Bai Yanci rolled her eyes as if she’d heard a joke. Silence.
No refusal—she took it as yes.
A question struck her.
She called her Jade Rabbit sister—but if Bai Yanci was the moon’s jade rabbit, hadn’t she lived millions of years?
Not just older—ancestor territory.
Jade Rabbit sister wasn’t chatty. If she didn’t speak, the apartment went silent.
After a few days’ observation, Bai Yanci seemed to have no hobbies.
Closing eyes to rest counted as one. Sometimes she went to the study and picked the most obscure books—read them with relish.
Yi Ke hadn’t read most of those books herself. Bought them for literary atmosphere.
The flowers by the door were the same—tone, not taste.
She sacrificed herself and tapped Bai Yanci lightly.
“Heart follows life and death with ease; body rests idle on green boughs.” She said slowly, “That’s where my name comes from. Cultured, right?”
Bai Yanci had been eyes closed. At the words her fluffy ears twitched—reaction still half a beat late, as if still stuck in the name standoff.
A long while before she heard the question. She nodded blankly in agreement.
“Sister, I made it up.” Yi Ke spread her hands and laughed triumphant, eyes curving soft like a crescent moon.
Bai Yanci was helpless, couldn’t do anything, lifted her lids and glared once.
Human form cost a lot of immortal power. White light flashed—Bai Yanci was a rabbit again, nestled beside Yi Ke.
Yi Ke was famously handsy. She poked the drooping ear again, curious: “Sister, if you’re low on power, why keep turning human?”
Rabbit-form Lord Jade Rabbit’s attack power rose. She turned her head and sniffed cold: “Because someone’s too stupid to open her own door.”
…
Fine. That had happened.
But Bai Yanci hadn’t rejected the new nickname.
Her heart swelled. She coughed twice and changed topic: “You’re an immortal from heaven—why come to the mortal realm? Why lose your powers?”
Bai Yanci bluntly dodged: “You mentioned Special Investigations yesterday. Your work? What does SI do?”
“So that’s what you’re curious about?” She teased. “Won’t tell you. Guess. Get it right and I’ll tell you.”
Bai Yanci shifted in her hands in protest.
“Protest denied.”
She rubbed the rabbit’s head and went to her room, leaving Bai Yanci in the living room.
Because Bai Yanci refused to sleep in her room.
Bai Yanci clearly didn’t want to talk about the immortal realm.
More precisely—anything about herself, she didn’t want to discuss.
As an excellent youth of the new era, she had eyes.
---
If the other party wouldn’t share private things, she wouldn’t pry.
That night, as expected, she couldn’t sleep.
The two figures in the suburban warehouse kept replaying in her head.
The light in the blue-clad woman’s eyes when she looked at her lover. The resolve to trade her life.
And the lip shape at the end—when the spiritual flame went out.
“I’ll join you.”
She’d been very close. No sound—but deafening in the dark, churning her thoughts.
She couldn’t tell if the woman in blue had been foolish… or brave.
Did emotion that sincere really exist in the world?
She turned on the bedside lamp. In the dim light her mind surged—and pulled up an old memory.
Her abilities had awakened in middle school.
One day she started seeing what others couldn’t.
At first shapeless light. Then outlines.
Later she learned that light was spiritual flame—linked to the deepest part of a person, tied to what people called the heart.
As time passed her power grew strong enough to interfere with others’ flames directly.
The Ability Bureau found her and assigned her to SI at the police station—a parachuted team leader.
But since full awakening she’d always felt her memory was incomplete—as if an important piece were missing.
Years of searching. No clue.
Thoughts tangled. She drifted into uneasy sleep.
When she woke, a thin blanket lay over her—faintly gleaming with immortal art.
She touched it. Rabbit fur.
She turned—Bai Yanci had come in at some point, still rabbit form, sleeping beside her under only a light coat.
She rose as quietly as she could and stood at the headboard a long time.
Gaze from closed eyes to the slight rise and fall of her chest—finally those ears that trembled even in sleep.
Lord Jade Rabbit was an excellent lop breed. That quality on the market would fetch a good price.
Yet her expression dimmed bit by bit.
Too many questions about Bai Yanci. How could she have no guard?
As an ability user she’d seen too much danger dressed in beauty. She wouldn’t be blinded by momentary joy.
But she was only human—couldn’t fly to the moon to investigate, couldn’t knock on heaven’s door to verify Bai Yanci’s identity.
She looked away, sighed softly, folded the rabbit-fur blanket carefully and set it aside.
“You’re going out?” As she pulled the door, Bai Yanci’s cool voice came from behind.
She turned. Bai Yanci was human again, leaning on the bedroom frame: “By mortal reckoning, today is Saturday.”
“You know your stuff.” She couldn’t help smiling. “Then sister—by mortal rules, a fairy who drops from the sky is undocumented. The police will invite you for tea.”
She dragged the words out. Bai Yanci played deaf again.
“Saturday so what?” She straightened her cuffs, jacket on her shoulder. “SI doesn’t have weekends. No work, no money. If I don’t earn, how do I keep you?”
Bai Yanci’s eyes filled with faint smile—for an instant—gone so fast it might have been illusion.
She went to SI full of questions.
In the bureau building SI was mysterious, status high, a whole floor to themselves.
Jiang Ran handed her a stack of files. “Leader, our stakeout in the suburbs reports confirmed—organized ability-user gang.”
She opened the first page—the blue-clad woman’s photo from yesterday.
“Found their goal yet?”
“That’s what’s strange.” Jiang Ran frowned. “Actions scattered, no fixed targets, yet organization tight. The only suspect we had…”
Taken by ability users. Died before her eyes.
The thread cut clean.
“No matter. Keep watching. Grab more if you get the chance.” She closed the file. “I’m going to the Spiritual Flame Chamber.”
The chamber sealed spiritual flames—a forbidden vault, layered ability encryption. Only each generation’s SI leader had access.
At the door, a wave of sound hit her ears.
Resonance from dying flames. Ordinary people couldn’t hear it.
She’d read the suspect’s flame before—could forcibly strip a thread. She focused her ability, tried to catch memory fragments from what remained. Nothing.
Only the truly desperate had empty flames.
When she finished at the bureau and reached the apartment, the door was ajar. Strange ability traces on the lock.
Her heart sank. Inside was ransacked—anything worth taking gone. Bai Yanci missing.
Damn thieves—robbing a cop’s house?
She’d install a better lock and get someone to reinforce it with abilities.
She focused, followed the residual traces outside, ability-tracking to a remote alley.
“Bad luck. Hit a bunch of places, nothing decent. Wasted the ability-tool money—can’t even break even!”
Scarface kicked a sack—clink inside, tonight’s loot.
Beard man grabbed rabbit ears: “Boss, fine breed. Sell on the black market for good money!”
Sell for good money? Yi Ke’s eyes went ice cold. If anyone sold that rabbit, it was her—not them.
Both reeked of ability aura—but they weren’t ability users.
Scarface had mentioned ability tools. New thing. Jiang Ran would need to dig into that.
She’d heard enough. Stepped out: “This is a society of law. Theft gets you jail.”
“Which bitch is looking to die!” Beard spat.
Scarface raised a hand, wary at Yi Ke: “How’d you find us? Who are you?”
Beard reacted—hair on end. They’d used ability tools to hide. Normal people shouldn’t find them!
Yi Ke didn’t spare courtesy: “I’m your ancestral grandmother!”
Beard had a temper—no patience: “Boss, who cares who she is—grab her too!”
“Fine. You asked for it.” She moved fast—behind them in steps, one hand on each nape, cold: “Put my rabbit down. She’s mine.”
They never saw her move—necks tight, eyes rolled back, scared straight to fainting.
She set the rabbit in her palm. It stirred lightly. Soft: “Thank you.”
“Oh, learned thank you?” She looked down—warmth in her eyes at last. “Cheer up as a rabbit. I love hearing that.”
Bai Yanci: “……”
She tucked Bai Yanci carefully in her coat pocket, took her own things from the sack, called the station with the alley address, turned to leave.
Bai Yanci puzzled: “Aren’t you police? You’re not taking them in yourself?”
“Catching robbers isn’t my job.” She didn’t look back, walking fastest of all. “My mission is taking you home.”