Tidal Engagement - Chapter 6

I went to the third floor.

Trust was still out of the question.

I just couldn’t hand my life over to someone ready to sacrifice themselves.

There were two bodyguards at the archive room door.

I didn’t force my way in.

I triggered the hotel’s fire suppression system and turned on all the sprinklers in the east wing of the third floor.

When the alarm went off, the bodyguards were indeed momentarily distracted.

I circled in through the staff passage and used the chip Pei Tinglan gave me to swipe open the archive room door.

The moment the door opened, I caught a faint, salty scent of the sea.

Rows of filing cabinets stood in order, and the electronic screen at the very back was still glowing.

It read:

Seventh Anchor Compatibility: 100%.

Current Status: Unlocked.

Recommended Action: Proceed to Binding immediately.

I quickly took photos of all the files.

The dossiers of the previous six mistresses were also there.

They hadn’t gone missing.

Each of them had suffered memory loss and organ failure after a Full Tide Night, and then had been sent to a sanatorium under the Pei Family name.

I flipped to the last file, and my fingers stopped.

Sixth Anchor, Wen Ruotang.

She was not Pei Tinglan’s mother.

She was the Old Steward’s daughter.

The file’s note contained only one line.

Experiment failed. Anchor broken. Young Master lost control and injured someone.

I suddenly understood the look in the Old Steward’s eyes.

He wasn’t afraid of me.

He hated me.

Because Pei Tinglan was the only person who had survived the Old Code, while his daughter had died under it.

Footsteps sounded outside.

I pulled out the chip and was about to leave when the screen suddenly auto-played a video.

In the video, my sixteen-year-old self lay on an emergency bed, face deathly pale.

A young man sat outside the glass, his back covered in blood.

A doctor asked him: “Young Master, why did you save her?”

The teenage Pei Tinglan looked up, his eyes still human black.

“She said in the sea that she didn’t want to die.”

The doctor said: “Every drowning person says that.”

Pei Tinglan was silent for a long time.

“She also said, whoever saves her, she’ll repay them someday.”

The video cut off there.

The door was pushed open from outside.

The Old Steward stood in the doorway, holding a Silver Ring in his hand.

“Miss Lin,” the Old Steward said. “The Young Master is too soft-hearted.”

I slipped my phone into my pocket, my finger resting on the send button.

The files had already been backed up to the cloud.

“I saw what happened to your daughter.”

The Old Steward’s face twitched.

“Then you should know that no one can survive being an Anchor.”

“So you want me dead?”

“If you don’t die, the Young Master will destroy the Pei Family for your sake.”

He said this very calmly.

Calmly, as if he had already killed me countless times in his mind.

I looked at the Silver Ring in his hand.

“You’re hating the wrong person.”

“I know.”

He took a step forward.

“But I have no other choice.”

These words were very soft.

So soft that I almost felt sorry for him.

But the next second, he swung the Silver Ring toward my wrist.

I retreated a step and slammed the backup fire extinguisher from the archive room into his hand.

The Silver Ring fell to the floor and rolled into the water.

The Old Steward cried out in pain.

I turned and ran.

At the end of the corridor, the window suddenly burst.

Seawater rushed in, carrying shards of broken glass.

Pei Tinglan rose from the water.

He no longer looked human.

Silver scales covered half his face, translucent fins grew behind his ears, his suit torn apart by the water, revealing an old wound cracking down his shoulder blade.

When he saw me, his pupils sharply constricted.

Then he spotted the Silver Ring in the Old Steward’s hand.

In that instant, I truly understood for the first time what predatory instinct meant.

Pei Tinglan didn’t speak.

He just took a step forward.

All the water in the entire corridor receded against his direction.