[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-solflare-the-painter-s-secret":3,"chapter-solflare-the-painter-s-secret-solflare-the-painter-s-secret-chapter-72":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Solflare: The Painter's Secret",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1322900,1757,"Chapter 72: The Pink Diary","solflare-the-painter-s-secret-chapter-72",72,"\u003Cp>Leon walked swiftly to the front of the seventh door, his very own. He halted, turned his head toward the elevator’s direction, and sighed softly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The memory of the frozen car and the echoing command remained like a cold stone in his gut. He tilted his head back, pushed the door open, and stepped inside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Darkness welcomed him, but he wasn’t bothered. He went straight to the bed, unwrapped the black shirt from himself, and threw it aside without caring where it would land.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He collapsed onto the mattress and closed his eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Outside his window, darkness loomed while the bright stars glittered. Dry leaves scraped across the glass like brittle claws.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cool air flowed into the room through the slightly open window beside the wardrobe, carrying a distant, sweet-rotten scent from the fruitful trees.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leon’s door remained unlocked, but no one entered, despite the faint sounds of footsteps that passed in the hallway.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mr. Lee’s words and the phantom command from the elevator hummed in a discordant loop in his mind as sleep pulled him under.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a while, Leon bolted upright, gasping, as he felt something wet touch his face. His heart remained in a frantic drum in his ribs as he scanned the room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His gaze landed on the bed beside him and widened. Zoe’s side was empty, the sheets undisturbed like his own were.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But on her pillow, where her head should have been, was the pink diary.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’Where is she? I didn’t see her last night, and she’s not here now.’ A spike of cold alarm echoed in Leon’s mind as he thought of possible places she would be.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He brushed his right palm across his cheek where he’d felt the damp touch. When he moved his hand down, he saw it was clean.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He narrowed his gaze sharply on the diary and caught sight of a corner of a photograph that had peeked from between its pages.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What or whose picture is that?\" He stretched his right arm for it instinctively, but paused a few inches away from it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zoe’s terrified reaction from the other night flashed in his mind. Stay back!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He pulled his hand back as if burned and swung his legs out of the bed. He stood and stretched, crackling sounds echoing from his body with every turn.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What a strange feeling.\" A weary smile touched his lips as he closed his eyes and yawned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ding.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A notification sound came from under the edge of the bed, where he’d slept.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Did I sleep on it?\" he muttered, keeping his voice low. He knelt and retrieved the scuffed datapad, turned it over in his hands, and gave it a clinical scan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I’d be in even deeper trouble if this got destroyed too.\" He placed it carefully on the black cloth he used as a sheet and turned toward the bathroom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Final match, huh,\" he said, and pushed the bathroom door open, paused with one foot inside, and glanced at the analog clock above the frame.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"06:00.\" He entered fully and shut the door behind him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After five minutes, he exited, his blue towel wrapped around his waist, water dripping from his jet-black hair.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He walked to the wardrobe and crouched to open the lower drawer where his clothes were kept.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His face turned pale when his eyes flickered past one of Zoe’s drawers. ’Empty?’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"HOW?\" He swallowed hard, blinked three times, and stared at the vacant space as if his eyes had played tricks on him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Has she left?\" A hollow sadness opened up in his chest. He yanked open all her other drawers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After five futile minutes, Leon moved back to the bed, the towel still clinging to his hips.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"If she’s gone, why did she leave this here?\" He ran a hand through his damp hair, his gaze locked on the diary with a clinical intensity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Nah, she hadn’t,\" he said, and shook his head, denying the truth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He turned back to the wardrobe, pulled out a fresh, stretchy black shirt and a pair of dark trousers, and put them on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Did she leave the diary by mistake? Or for some reason I can’t figure out?\" He stared at the small pink book while balancing on one leg to pull his trousers on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No. I have to check what’s inside that.\" A stupid, desperate courage overrode his earlier hesitation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He moved to the bed and picked up the diary. His thumb slid to the edge of the warm leather, ready to flip it open.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bzzt-bzzt-bzzt!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The datapad on the bed vibrated aggressively, its screen flashing. Leon flinched; the diary almost slipped from his grasp.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He snatched the device and stared at the priority notification dominating the screen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>GROUP TRIAL – FIRST WAVE\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>REPORT TIME: 06:50\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>PARTICIPANTS INCLUDED: STORM, L.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"06:50?\" His eyes widened with shock. He jerked his head toward the clock above the bathroom door, then back to the datapad.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He inhaled deeply and dropped the diary onto the rumpled sheets as if it were suddenly toxic and dashed for the door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The door slammed shut behind him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Boom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the silent room, on the bed, the impact of the slamming door stirred the air. The pink diary trembled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, as if guided by an unseen finger, its front cover flipped open. On the first pristine page, only two words were written in elegant, looping script: Leon Storm\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beneath the sentence, three bold dots pointed toward the next page.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Outside the room, Leon moved like the wind, bypassing the elevator with only a glance. He took the stairs two at a time, his boots echoing in the concrete stairwell.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All eyes in the lobby tracked him as he burst through the main door and out into the cool morning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In a blink, he halted at the entrance of the trial hall, panting, sweat already beading on his brow and soaking through the back of his new shirt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He shoved the heavy door open and hurried to the changing room, expecting a crowd.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But it was empty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He sat heavily on a metal bench, letting the silence press on him like a hand. \"No one is even here. Why did I run so fast?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He lowered his head into his hand and closed his eyes, trying to slow his frantic breath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After ten minutes, the datapad in his pocket vibrated again. He pulled it out. The screen displayed a new, brief update:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>LOCATION UPDATE: GROUP TRIAL WILL COMMENCE AT PRIMARY TRAINING FIELD. PROCEED IMMEDIATELY.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Change of location?\" The words came out in a frustrated sigh. Leon stood, his limbs feeling heavy with wasted strength, and walked back out of the trial hall, frowning.\u003C\u002Fp>",1113,"2026-06-05T19:15:29.583Z",1,"novelbin.me","6e39e8b666f4fc62c1cc10aafe5748758bc02b60c8a3dc153736107daa65a49f","solflare-the-painter-s-secret-chapter-73","solflare-the-painter-s-secret-chapter-71",272,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fsolflare-the-painter-s-secret-cover.jpg"]