IRCFCN 19

Chapter 19:

 The First Ripple of Change

The auction hall had returned to a restrained calm, but the silence felt different now—heavier, like something invisible had been disturbed beneath the surface.

People were still whispering.

Still stealing glances toward the back row.

And still trying to figure out one question:

Who exactly was that man?

Ye Feng, however, had already stopped caring about the attention.

He and Lin Wan’er walked out of the hall without haste, as if the forty-million-dollar bid had been nothing more than a passing inconvenience.

Outside, the evening air was cooler.

City lights flickered across the polished marble steps of the auction building, casting long reflections that stretched like broken glass.

Lin Wan’er finally couldn’t hold back anymore.

“Ye Feng,” she said softly, “you need to explain something to me.”

He didn’t look at her immediately.

Instead, he glanced toward the distant skyline, where the night sky hung like a dark curtain over Jianghai City.

“What do you want me to explain?” he asked.

“That thing you bought,” she said. “You said it’s dangerous. Then why did you still bid for it?”

Ye Feng paused for a moment.

A faint breeze passed between them.

Then he spoke.

“Because if I didn’t take it, someone else would.”

Lin Wan’er frowned. “And that’s bad?”

“Yes.”

His answer was short, but firm.

That alone made her uneasy.

She had known Ye Feng for a while now, but there were moments—like this one—when he felt like a completely different person. Calm, yes. Gentle, even. But underneath that calm was something deeper. Something she couldn’t quite understand.

Before she could ask anything else, a car stopped nearby.

A black sedan.

Smooth, quiet, and clearly expensive.

The door opened.

An elderly man stepped out.

It was Tang Yingying’s grandfather.

He looked at Ye Feng directly.

Not with hostility.

Not with curiosity alone either.

But with a kind of careful evaluation, like someone looking at a locked box that might contain either treasure… or disaster.

“Mr. Ye,” the old man said calmly.

Lin Wan’er stiffened slightly. “He knows you?”

Ye Feng didn’t seem surprised.

“I assumed you would come,” he replied.

The old man smiled faintly. “You were expecting me?”

“I was expecting someone,” Ye Feng corrected.

That answer made the old man’s eyes narrow slightly.

A brief silence followed.

Then the old man spoke again.

“That object you bought today… you know what it is, don’t you?”

Ye Feng’s gaze finally shifted toward him.

For the first time, there was a subtle seriousness in his expression.

“It’s a seal,” Ye Feng said.

The old man’s expression changed ever so slightly.

Lin Wan’er, standing beside them, felt completely lost.

“A seal?” she repeated.

Ye Feng nodded.

“A containment artifact. But not a good one.”

He paused.

“It doesn’t contain power. It contains something that should not be released.”

The old man exhaled slowly.

“So my judgment was correct.”

Ye Feng glanced at him. “You sensed it too.”

“Only faintly,” the old man admitted. “Enough to know it was unsettling. Not enough to see its full nature.”

A brief silence followed again.

Then Ye Feng added quietly:

“It’s weakening.”

The words made the air feel colder.

Lin Wan’er finally spoke, her voice uncertain.

“Can someone explain what’s actually going on?”

Neither of them answered immediately.

The old man studied Ye Feng for a moment longer, then spoke.

“If what you say is true… then you have taken something very dangerous into your possession.”

Ye Feng nodded.

“I know.”

“And what do you intend to do with it?” the old man asked.

For the first time, Ye Feng looked slightly distant.

“Fix it,” he said simply.

The old man raised an eyebrow. “Fix it?”

Ye Feng turned toward the direction of the city.

His eyes narrowed faintly.

“There’s a crack forming in it. Something inside is reacting to the outside world.”

He paused.

“And I don’t think it will stay sealed for long.”

A long silence followed.

Even Lin Wan’er didn’t speak this time.

Finally, the old man said slowly:

“If that is true… then Jianghai City may soon face something it is not prepared for.”

Ye Feng didn’t deny it.

Instead, he simply turned and began walking.

“Then we’ll deal with it when it happens.”

Lin Wan’er hurried after him, still confused but trusting him enough to follow.

The old man remained standing by the car, watching their figures disappear into the distance.

After a long moment, he took out an old communication device and made a call.

“Prepare the family,” he said quietly.

“The situation is no longer ordinary.”

Above the city, the night deepened.

And somewhere far away in a sealed storage box, the faint purple glow flickered once… as if responding to a heartbeat that was not its own.