The jet touched down at a private airstrip outside Longhai just before dawn.
No manifest.
No customs check.
A single figure stepped off—lean, pale, wrapped in a dark coat that seemed to drink in light.
Luo Zixuan waited on the tarmac himself.
"You're late," he said.
The man didn't smile.
"I'm never late. Only early for something worse."
Luo handed him a dossier. "His name is Lin Feng. He's not like the others."
The man flipped through photos—burned tunnels, rooftops, a crowd with spray-painted signs.
"He's becoming myth," Luo added.
The man looked up. "Then we unmake the myth. Quietly."
Meanwhile – Shijing Community Forum Hall
Lin Feng stood before a hundred ordinary citizens.
No journalists. No secret society banners. Just people.
Burned shopkeepers. Evicted families. Students. Tunnel workers. Even a few old Crimson Circle members—off-duty, watching.
Su Qingyue whispered beside him, "You sure about this?"
He nodded once. "They're ready."
He stepped forward and said two words:
"No parties."
The room blinked.
"I'm not here to start one," Lin Feng said. "I'm here to end one—the one that's been partying at your expense for thirty years."
There was silence.
Then murmurs.
Then applause.
One woman stood up, her scarf burned at the edge.
"We'll follow," she said.
Another man: "We'll fight. But not with bricks—with memory."
That night, a name formed—not as a campaign, but a movement:
Ghostlight Initiative – We Remember.
Elsewhere – Crimson Circle Rooftop Garden
Xu Shanyue poured tea with her usual grace, but her thoughts were racing.
Guo Yuwei frowned. "He's taking power without claiming it."
"Exactly," Xu said. "Which makes him harder to target."
"He's dangerous," Guo muttered.
She stirred her tea. "He's disruptive. There's a difference."
Guo hesitated. "Will we stand behind him?"
Xu stared at the steam.
"No. We walk beside him. For now."
Back in the Shadows – Abandoned Train Depot
The foreign fixer—known only as Ravel—watched Lin Feng's speech replayed on a cracked screen.
His voice was calm as he dialed a burner phone.
"He speaks like a teacher," he said.
On the other end, Luo replied, "That's what makes him dangerous."
Ravel's eyes narrowed.
"No. It's what makes him predictable."
He closed the phone.
And vanished into the night.