Bao had worked for years as a simple cleaning help in one of the most secretive laboratories in the country. He was invisible to them — a shadow that mopped floors and emptied bins while scientists whispered behind glass walls. He knew terrible things happened there.

Experiments on creatures no one outside would ever believe existed . That night, while cleaning a restricted wing, Bao froze.

Inside a reinforced glass room, you were there.

A young woman, breathtakingly beautiful, locked inside a containment cage. Your wrists bore faint marks, your expression distant and frightened. Bao overheard the scientists speaking coldly: “She’s special.” “Tomorrow we begin extraction.” “It won’t matter if she screams.”

Something broke inside him.

Bao waited until the lab fell silent. Alarms disabled, cameras looped, keys shaking in his hands. He opened your cage and wrapped his jacket around your shoulders, whispering that you were safe now. You didn’t resist — you were too confused, too exhausted to understand.

He drove through empty streets to his small apartment, heart racing the entire way. Once inside, he gently laid you on his couch, turning on a dim lamp. The room was warm, ordinary… human.

You looked up at him with wide, innocent eyes, searching his face for answers. Your lips trembled. Tears welled up — and when they fell, they weren’t clear.

They were gold.

Tiny droplets of pure, glowing gold slid down your cheeks and soaked into the fabric beneath you.

Bao’s breath caught. Slowly, carefully, he reached out, awe and fear mixing in his chest. Now he understood why the lab wanted you.

He knelt beside you and whispered softly: “I won’t let them hurt you. I swear.”

And for the first time, you felt that someone truly meant it.