Chapter 24: The Playing Card

Wait, why did I use the word "also"?

Chen Yan was Chen Yan, not some other creature wearing his skin. Chen Ling was certain of that.

Since it was the same Gray Realm descent, and since the "audience" could merge with him… why couldn’t the other Calamity that descended also merge with a human?

But all of this was just Chen Ling’s speculation… The truth of the matter might only be revealed if he asked Chen Yan directly.

Just as Chen Ling hesitated over whether to knock, the door opened from the inside.

"Brother." Chen Yan rubbed his eyes. "What are you doing?"

"…I have something to ask you."

Chen Yan was about to say something but glanced at Chu Muyun’s room across the hall. He pulled Chen Ling inside and closed the door.

"A-Yan, I’ll get straight to the point." Chen Ling looked into his eyes seriously. "Was it you… who massacred Ice Spring Street?"

"…Yes."

Chen Ling was taken aback by how readily Chen Yan admitted it. He had been prepared to persuade him further.

"It was really you?" Chen Ling pressed. "So, you’ve also merged with a Calamity?"

"…I don’t know. When I woke up, I was already there."

"You also lost a chunk of your memory?"

"Yeah."

Chen Ling’s brow furrowed slightly.

He believed Chen Yan wouldn’t lie to him, and even he himself had experienced something similar… A sudden transmigration, the inexplicable appearance of the "audience" in his mind, and waking up back at home.

"But the Gray Realm convergence happened at the back mountain, right? You were supposed to be in surgery at the time… Why were you affected too?"

"I don’t know." Chen Yan shook his head again. "I just remember the doctor giving me anesthesia, and when I woke up, I was in Ice Spring Street… I was so scared, so I hid in the back mountain. When I came out, I saw you crawling out of that monster…"

Hearing this, Chen Ling finally pieced together the sequence of events.

However, the question of why Chen Yan was affected by the Gray Realm convergence remained… Could it be that the Calamity had broken into District Two and happened to encounter Chen Yan on the operating table? And then they merged?

Chen Ling didn’t fully understand the "merging" process, and no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t come up with an answer.

"I see."

Chen Ling nodded. "Stay at home these next few days, and don’t go anywhere, okay? I’ll handle the rest."

Chen Yan hesitated.

"What’s wrong?"

"I… I wanted to go see Mom and Dad…"

Chen Ling was momentarily stunned. After a long silence, he spoke softly, "Wait until I clear your name and things calm down. Then I’ll take you to see them, okay?"

"Okay." Chen Yan nodded obediently.

"Stay away from that Chu Muyun these next few days. Don’t let him touch you, and don’t talk to him too much."

"Okay."

"If Han Meng comes looking for you again and asks you questions, answer like this…"

"Okay."

After giving his instructions, Chen Ling turned and left.

Chen Yan gently locked the door and lay back down on the hard wooden bed…

He turned his head to look out the window, his chestnut eyes reflecting the vast blue auroras in the sky.

Suddenly, at the edge of the aurora-filled sky, a faint red light glimmered, like a cinnabar-colored star.

"It’s here again." Chen Yan murmured to himself.

As the cinnabar star grew brighter, a dreamlike path extended from the void, connecting all the way to Chen Yan’s bedside… The path floated and swayed between the star and him, like a soft ribbon.

Chen Yan lay on the bed, calmly watching this divine path—a divine path that a god had extended to him as an olive branch.

After a moment, he slowly raised his hand and grasped the elusive ribbon…

Then,

He crushed it!

Snap—

A faint, almost imperceptible sound echoed in Chen Yan’s ears.

The divine path was shattered by his hand, turning into a cloud of dust that dissipated into the void. At the same time, the cinnabar star in the sky quickly dimmed.

He had rejected divine favor.

Chen Yan opened his palm, where a fragment of the divine path, no larger than a thumbnail, lay quietly, like a piece of cinnabar glass.

He casually opened the drawer by his bed, tossed the cinnabar glass inside, and then closed and locked it.

In the dark drawer, over thirty identical cinnabar glass fragments shimmered faintly.

---

Morning.

Chen Ling woke up early and washed up.

Today, there was no "kind soul" to cover his transportation costs, so he had to walk to Ice Spring Street. The round trip would take over four hours, forcing him to rise earlier and return later than the other reserve law enforcement officers.

To his surprise, Chu Muyun seemed to have risen even earlier.

As soon as Chen Ling entered the living room, he saw Chu Muyun sitting casually at the table, dressed in a relaxed shirt and a knitted vest, holding an ancient medical book as if deeply engrossed in study. He occasionally adjusted his glasses.

It was as if he wasn’t sitting in a drafty, broken-down living room but in some elegant café in Aurora City.

Seeing Chen Ling awake, he smiled and put down the book.

"Good morning."

"Morning."

Chen Ling responded casually and hurried out the door to have breakfast at the Zhao family’s breakfast shop across the street.

Ever since he had "tipped off" Uncle Zhao last time, Chen Ling had felt a bit guilty, so he made a point of patronizing their shop every morning to give them more business… As for Zhao Yi, he had been grounded by his father for a week and hadn’t been out since.

After Chen Ling left, Chu Muyun slowly put down the book.

He stood up and walked straight to Chen Ling’s room, his footsteps silent on the old wooden floor… like a ghost.

Chu Muyun reached Chen Ling’s bedside, his eyes narrowing behind his glasses.

He put on white gloves, took out a pair of tweezers from his pocket, and carefully collected a few strands of hair and tiny skin flakes scattered on the pillow, placing them into a small brown vial.

After finishing, he quietly left the room, waving his hand to summon a gentle breeze that erased all traces of his footsteps.

Instead of returning to his room, he walked straight out of the house, passing through several streets until he reached the entrance of a shabby little convenience store.

Ding-ling—

The bell chimed as he pushed open the door.

"What do you want to buy?" A woman sitting at the counter lazily yawned and asked.

"I’d like to buy a thread of hope."

Hearing this answer, the woman’s gaze instantly sharpened.

All traces of laziness vanished, replaced by cold, piercing eyes. She stared at Chu Muyun and slowly said,

"Show me your identity."

Chu Muyun flicked his fingers, and a white playing card appeared in his hand as if by magic. He placed it face down on the table.

The woman flipped it over—

[7 of Spades]

"Passphrase." She spoke again.

Chu Muyun said calmly,

"Human civilization…"

"Will never be extinguished."