Chapter 2: The Troublemaker’s Upgrade

Location: Northern District Military Command, Private Recovery Wing

Time: 08:30 AM

Externally, Zai looked like a stone-cold, calculating enigma. She was sitting straight up in a sterile hospital bed, her face a rigid mask of absolute focus, intense curiosity, and deep confusion. Her sharp eyes were narrowed, tracking the flashing imagery on the wall-mounted television screen across the room. Her brow was furrowed so deeply it looked like she was decoding state secrets.

Internally, she was having a massive existential crisis with a side of utter denial.

Okay. Let’s review the data, her inner voice said, desperately tapping a metaphorical clipboard.

Fact number one: I died. I specifically remember an eighteen-wheeler giving my sports car a high-speed metal hug, crushing my lungs, and turning off my lights.

Fact number two: I am currently breathing.

Fact number three: These are not my hands. Why are these hands so small? Where are my calluses? Why do my wrists look like fragile little twigs? Did the truck driver impact me so hard I shrank into a middle schooler?!

She reached up with a stiff, uncoordinated hand, gingerly touching the thick white bandages wrapping around her skull.

Ow. Okay, yep. The original owner of this body definitely cracked the porcelain. But whose body is this? I was a twenty-six-year-old top-tier assassin, and now I feel like I weigh ninety pounds soaking wet. Did I get reincarnated? Is this a cosmic glitch? If I don't get some answers—and some spicy seafood noodles—in the next ten minutes, I am going to file a formal complaint with the universe.

What completely locked her attention, though, was the morning news broadcast currently blaring from the small television speaker. A frantic reporter was standing in front of a smoking pile of highway wreckage.

"Breaking news this morning," the reporter announced. "A catastrophic collision occurred late last night on Central Highway 4. Police state that the driver of the black sports car, an unidentified female suspect believed to be a high-ranking operative of the Obsidian Syndicate, was pronounced dead at the scene due to fatal impact trauma."

Zai stared at the screen, her serious, intense expression hardening even more.

Dead at the scene. Yep, that's me. RIP to a legend, her mind shouted, utterly offended. But if I'm dead over there, who the heck am I over here?

As if answering her question, her scrambled new brain cells suddenly sparked, flooding her mind with a wave of the original body owner's memories.

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NEW PROFILE DOWNLOAD: SUCCESSFUL

NAME: LI QIAO (AGE: 15)

STATUS: HIGH SCHOOL TROUBLEMAKER / FAMILY DISGRACE CURRENT LOCATION: FORMER GENERAL LI'S MILITARY OUTPOST

REASON FOR PLACEMENT: MANDATORY CHARACTER REFORM & BOOTCAMP

CURRENT INJURY: CRANIAL IMPACT (CONCUSSION FROM ILLEGAL ESCAPE STUNT)

```

Oh, great. Fantastic. I’m a fifteen-year-old brat named Li Qiao, Zai thought, her internal monologue rolling its eyes so hard it hurt her concussed brain. And from the look of these memories, the original girl was an absolute menace. Her wealthy family got so sick of her swearing, fighting, and causing trouble that they shipped her off to her terrifying grandfather—a retired, hardline Military General—to force her to change her behavior through brutal training. And what does the brat do? She tries to sneak out of a high-security military base in the middle of the night to escape back home, trips over a tactical obstacle course in the dark, and face-plants into a concrete barrier. Brilliant. Truly a criminal mastermind.

She was so completely absorbed in her intense, silent mental rant—staring at the television screen with a deadly, piercing gaze while processing her new identity as a teenage military delinquent—that her legendary assassin senses completely failed her.

She didn't hear the heavy electronic lock click open. She didn't hear the quiet, polished leather boots stepping across the linoleum floor. She didn't notice the tall, stern-faced man in a crisp Chinese military officer's uniform and quietly stepped up to her bedside.

Still staring at the TV, her face a mask of cold, lethal focus, Zai slowly decided to stretch her neck.

She turned her head to the right.

Standing right beside her bed, his arms crossed over his chest, was Commander Lin. He was her new grandfather's top adjutant—a no-nonsense, strictly disciplined officer whose sole job was to supervise Li Qiao's miserable reform training. He was staring directly at her with a terrifyingly stiff, unreadable military gaze.

"What the f— holy shit!" Zai blurted out, the original Li Qiao's foul-mouthed reflexes instantly taking over before her inner assassin could stop them.

She violently flinched backward, her body reacting so fast her leg kicked straight out, tangling itself hopelessly in the scratchy green military blanket. She scrambled against the pillows like a startled cat, her heart hammering against her ribs as she clutched the front of her hospital gown.

Oh my god! A jump scare! her brain screamed in absolute terror. An actual, physical jump scare! Where did this Chinese officer come from?! I didn't hear a single footstep! My assassin license is officially revoked, this is an absolute tragedy!

Despite her inner panic, she forced her new, youthful facial muscles back into a sharp, narrow-eyed scowl, trying to look dangerous while currently trapped under a duvet.

Commander Lin didn't move an inch. He slowly lowered his gaze, looking down at her tangled legs, then up at her bandage-wrapped head.

"Your vocabulary is just as atrocious as it was before you cracked your skull, Miss Li," Commander Lin said, his voice dropping into a deep, strict, disapproving rumble. "You are inside a restricted military facility, under the direct orders of your grandfather, General Li. Sneaking out of the barracks at midnight just because you couldn't endure the morning physical drills... you have brought great shame to your family's name."

Zai narrowed her eyes, keeping her face serious and defiant, but internally, she was smirking.

Oh, Commander, you have no idea, she thought. The old Li Qiao might have run away from a little morning jog. But the person sitting in this bed now? I eat military training for breakfast. Just wait until I get out of these bandages.

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