Chapter 18 · Survival Menu - Chapter 18: What the Ice Cellar Kept

The ice cellar smelled like iron and old blood. Jin pressed her back against the frozen meat hooks, watching the third prince lock the door behind them.

"You followed me here," Yan Xiao said. Not a question.

She didn't move. The jade button in her sleeve felt like it was burning through the fabric.

He stepped closer. The cold turned his breath into white clouds between them. "You've been asking questions. About a cook who died five years ago."

Jin kept her face blank. Mute girls didn't answer.

"Stop." His hand came up, not touching her, just close enough that she felt the warmth. "I know you can hear me. I know you understand every word."

She met his eyes. Held them.

Yan Xiao pulled something from inside his coat. A book. Thin, leather-bound, pages yellow at the edges. "This was hers. The cook they executed. The one whose recipes kept my mother alive for three extra months before someone decided she'd lived long enough."

Jin's pulse kicked hard against her throat. She knew that book.