Omid Islands

Chapter Ten · Under Lies, Blood Is Thicker Than Water

Suyan trained with Lord Jiang for another seven days.

Her progress exceeded her own expectations. By the end of the seventh day, she could cause a fist-sized object to move visibly within five paces — not the barely perceptible tremor from before, but actual, observable displacement.

Jiang watched her complete an exercise — sliding a bronze cup from one end of a table to the other — and nodded.

“You’re faster than my mother’s records suggested.” She said. “Your bloodline is purer than I expected.”

Suyan didn’t answer. She simply stood there, feeling that strange power inside her body — simultaneously familiar and terrifying.

She had always known there was something different about her, but she had never understood what it was. Her grandmother had never explained in detail. Only in certain moments, with a complex expression, she would say: “Your blood will one day become your weapon. It may also become your curse.”

Now she finally understood.

This was a double-edged blade.

Used well, it could help her avenge. Used poorly, it might destroy her.

The day after her training ended, Suyan began preparing to move against Zheng An.

Her plan was simple: find him, find his most vulnerable moment, and use her new ability to make him die “accidentally.” No blade, no poison — just cause his heart to stop at a critical instant.

It was a clean method. No traces, no evidence. To any observer, it would look like an ordinary sudden death.

But she needed time to learn how to apply this ability in combat. Jiang had taught her the basics of control, but actually using this power on a living body — a body with its own will and vitality — was something else entirely.

She decided to observe Zheng An for a while first, learn his patterns, find his weakest moments.

But before she could begin, an unexpected message arrived.

It came through a stranger — a young man she’d never seen, dressed in servant’s clothes. As he passed her in a corridor, he slipped a folded note into her sleeve without breaking stride.

Suyan returned to her room and unfolded it.

One line:

“Zheng An’s mother’s surname was Su.”

Suyan stared at those words for a long time.

Zheng An’s mother, surname Su.

The same surname as her grandmother.

Her mind began racing —

If Zheng An’s mother was named Su, and her grandmother was named Su, and Su was the surname of the Thirteenth Island’s core bloodline —

Then Zheng An was related to her?

Her hands began to tremble.

She needed to confirm this.

Suyan spent two full days searching through every record she could find about Zheng An’s family.

Most of the documents were routine — birth dates, parents’ names, household background. But in a very old household registration file, she found the crucial information.

Mother: Su, nee of Thirteenth Island, married into First Island’s Zheng family three years prior to the destruction.

Suyan’s pulse quickened.

Su. Thirteenth Island. Married into First Island.

She continued reading and found more detail —

Su, daughter of Su Nian, younger sister of the Thirteenth Island clan chief.

Su Nian.

That name — Jiang had mentioned it. The clan chief’s younger sister, who had married elsewhere before the destruction.

Su Nian had a daughter. That daughter had married into First Island three years before the destruction, to a soldier named Zheng.

That daughter later died in a border incident — the one officially labeled “Thirteenth Island vessel illegally entering First Island waters.”

And her son was Zheng An.

Suyan set the file down and sat in the corner of the archive room for a long time without moving.

She had found it.

She had found the connection between Zheng An and herself.

Zheng An’s grandmother, Su Nian, was her own grandmother’s younger sister.

Which meant — Zheng An and Suyan were cousins.

Suyan didn’t know how long she sat there.

Her thoughts were in chaos, as if something had been completely overturned.

Zheng An — the man who wanted to kill her, the man she was preparing to kill in return — was her family.

His grandmother and her grandmother were sisters.

His mother and her mother were cousins.

He and she — shared the same blood.

The Thirteenth Island bloodline.

Suyan closed her eyes and felt a strange sensation, like being torn in two.

She was supposed to hate Zheng An. He had tried to kill her. He controlled a significant portion of First Island’s military power. He represented everything she hated.

But he was also her family.

His mother had been killed by First Island’s own warships — by the very people he now served.

He hated the Thirteenth Island because he believed the Thirteenth Island had killed his mother.

But the truth was — the people who killed his mother were the ones he now served.

Suyan made a decision.

She would go see Zheng An.

Not to kill him.

To tell him the truth.

She didn’t know what the consequences would be. Maybe he wouldn’t believe her. Maybe he would continue to hate her. Maybe he would completely collapse when he learned the truth.

But she felt she had to do this.

Because —

If she didn’t say anything, she would be letting him continue to live in a lie.

If she didn’t say anything, she would be no different from the people who had fabricated those lies.

Suyan found Zheng An in the military camp, handling official business.

She didn’t use the main entrance. Instead, she circled to a narrow lane behind the camp, climbed a low wall, passed through several storage buildings, and appeared outside the window of Zheng An’s study.

She knocked.

Zheng An looked up. When he saw her, his expression became instantly complicated — surprise, wariness, anger, and several things she couldn’t identify.

“Why are you here?” His voice was low, as if suppressing something.

“I have something to tell you.”

“I don’t want to hear it.”

“You have to.”

Zheng An looked at her for a long time.

Then he rose, walked to the window, and cracked it open.

“Speak.”

Suyan took a breath.

“Your mother’s surname was Su.”

Zheng An’s expression changed.

It was a subtle shift — something cracking open on his face, revealing what lay underneath, something no one had ever seen.

“How do you know that?”

“Because my grandmother’s surname was also Su.” Suyan said. “Your grandmother, Su Nian, and my grandmother were sisters.”

Zheng An didn’t speak.

His hand gripped the window frame, knuckles whitening.

“You’re lying.” His voice shook.

“I’m not lying.” Suyan said. “You can investigate — most records have been destroyed, but if you search carefully, you can still find traces. Your mother came from the Thirteenth Island. Her mother was the clan chief’s younger sister. The surname Su belongs to the Thirteenth Island’s core bloodline.”

“And we —” she looked into Zheng An’s eyes, “are cousins.”

Zheng An’s breathing quickened.

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because you hate the Thirteenth Island.” Suyan said. "You hate me. You think your mother was killed by the Thirteenth Island. But that’s no

…(truncated)…