Chapter 64: Fugitives (1)

Once the cargo ship had finally finished loading, Wenzhi guided Xinyuan toward the farthest corner of the lower cargo hold. Large crates and stacked supply boxes surrounded them on nearly every side, shielding them from the view of the other passengers being smuggled aboard. The entire place smelled faintly of metal, rusted wood, fruit, and heavy engine smoke.

Wenzhi sat quietly against one of the crates, watching the crowded hold thoughtfully.

"What do you think Yuzhen and Zhiyao are doing in Sector One?" he asked at last. Something about the coincidence still sat wrong with him.

"I don’t know." Xinyuan tilted his head, leaning back beside him. "Maybe we should ask them?"

Wenzhi gave him a flat look. "I couldn’t care less, honestly."

Xinyuan’s lips twitched faintly in amusement before he shrugged off his jacket. The movement tugged his shirt down slightly, exposing the line of his shoulder and arm.

Wenzhi’s eyes immediately caught the chain tattoo stretching across his skin.

"We’re ignoring your tattoo," he said bluntly, breaking the silence. "It’s spreading. Have you noticed?"

Xinyuan glanced down briefly. "It’s normal." A pause. "Sort of."

Wenzhi narrowed his eyes.

That definitely had not happened in the original novel.

The chain markings weren’t truly tattoos. They had first appeared on Xinyuan’s back after prolonged exposure inside a Red Zone during one of his earliest large-scale missions as a newly awakened Disaster-class Esper. The corruption inside the zone had mutated his energy somehow. At least, that was the explanation given in the novel.

But the strangest part was the lingering side effect. His eyesight had gradually started worsening in unpredictable waves afterward. Frankly, Wenzhi had assumed the author simply wanted Xinyuan to look attractive wearing glasses.

Now, looking at the dark ink creeping past his shoulder, he wasn’t so sure anymore.

"It’s been two days," Wenzhi said, plowing a hand through his hair as his shoulders dropped. "Shouldn’t it have gone back to normal by now?"

Xinyuan’s lips curved into a soft, dimpled smile. It was a beautiful, devastatingly casual gesture, clearly meant to brush the gravity of the moment aside.

Wenzhi merely stared at him, blank and unimpressed.

Xinyuan’s smile weakened almost instantly under that deadpan look. His teeth dug into his lower lip, holding back the words until he finally let them slip.

"I don’t know either." The usual playful edge to his voice was entirely gone. "I don’t know why it’s spreading."

His gaze dropped to his hands as he pulled the zipper of his bag shut, sealing the topic away. "But it doesn’t hurt. I can’t even feel it."

Wenzhi rolled his eyes and looked away. "I didn’t ask whether you were hurt or not," he muttered flatly. "I don’t care."

He pushed himself to his feet at the exact moment the cargo ship finally lifted from the ground. The sudden, violent lurch threw him backward, his spine slamming against the metal wall.

Wenzhi’s eyes widened briefly in surprise. Meanwhile, Xinyuan simply looked up at him from the floor, smiling effortlessly.

Wenzhi stared back, his expression radiating pure annoyance.

"Hello?" Shu Yuzhen appeared from between the rows of cargo, with Zhiyao walking a pace behind him.

Yuzhen practically radiated his usual bright, mischievous energy, while Zhiyao appeared calmer and more imposing beside him, his arms crossed loosely over his chest as he leaned against a stacked crate.

Zhiyao’s eyes landed on Wenzhi.

"What are you guys doing hiding all the way back here?" Yuzhen asked casually, dropping down to sit right beside Xinyuan.

"I thought you were well aware of our status as fugitives," Wenzhi deadpanned.

"You aren’t fugitives," Zhiyao scoffed, his voice cutting through the space. "You’re both just the prize in a faction war. If you weren’t guiding Shao Xinyuan, Lin Wenzhi, the factions wouldn’t even know your name."

The atmosphere changed instantly. The temperature in the hold seemed to drop.

Zhiyao was looking directly at Xinyuan now. And slowly, Xinyuan turned his head to meet his gaze.

"Are you saying I’m a danger to Wenzhi?" he asked.

Everyone felt the oppressive, suffocating spike of pressure that made the air feel heavy.

Wenzhi couldn’t properly see Xinyuan’s expression from where he stood, but Xinyuan’s left eye had already bled into a stark, dangerous red.

Zhiyao’s frown disappeared. His posture stiffened, his muscles locking up under the sheer weight of the Disaster-class aura. He clearly understood, a second too late, that he needed to choose his next words very carefully.

"I didn’t say that." He said defensively.

"Xinyuan." Wenzhi’s voice cut through the thick tension.

Xinyuan snapped his head back toward him. The lethal aura vanished instantly, replaced by warm brown eyes. An almost innocent, compliant expression returned to his face so quickly it was genuinely unsettling.

"Ignore him," Wenzhi said dismissively, his voice laced with visible irritation.

Zhiyao frowned, his chest heaving as he recovered from the pressure. "Ignore me? Are you two not aware of what’s happening inside the CEA right now?" His eyes hardened. "Someone blew up the headquarters. People died. Innocent people are dying because of you two."

"Keep your blame to yourself." Wenzhi’s gray eyes narrowed, freezing over completely. "You don’t have the right to come here and spew that kind of bullshit to us."

Zhiyao scoffed in disbelief before looking toward Yuzhen, who blinked back at him with those ember-colored eyes. "We should tell them."

That drew both Xinyuan’s and Wenzhi’s attention.

"Tell us what?" Wenzhi asked.

Yuzhen glanced between the two of them, his playful energy dipping as he spoke carefully. "We know you were the ones who blew up the CEA headquarters. At least, that’s the official story inside."

Silence. Heavy, suffocating silence.

"It’s already spread throughout the CEA internally," Yuzhen continued. "They’re just keeping it from the public. Right now, everyone’s attention is focused on the new project."

Xinyuan’s eyes narrowed. "The new project?"

Yuzhen nodded slowly. "It has something to do with creating new Disaster-Class Espers."

The words made both Wenzhi and Xinyuan go completely still.

"So far," Yuzhen added, his voice dropping, "there are already over a dozen successful subjects."

"But there’s still a problem with that," Zhiyao cut in, meeting Xinyuan’s gaze. "They still need Shao Xinyuan."

Xinyuan frowned. "Why?"

Yuzhen shrugged, entirely too casual for the weight of his words. "Because you’re basically their genetic father."

Xinyuan visibly cringed, disgust twisting his features.

Wenzhi pressed a palm against his forehead, letting out a long, exhausted sigh. "That’s disgusting." He lifted his head, his gray eyes fixing on Zhiyao. "And me?"

This time, Zhiyao didn’t hesitate. "You’re on the highest-level wanted list now. Any CEA member who spots you has explicit orders: report your location, or kill you on sight."

For a second, there was nothing. Then, Wenzhi burst into a sharp, hysterical laugh.

The atmosphere in the lower cargo hold shifted instantly, the temperature plummeting as a suffocating weight locked down the space.

"And what about the two of you?" Xinyuan’s voice had gone dangerously calm as he rose to his feet. "What are you going to do?"