Chapter 169: Shuang Baotai's Life Wave

Zhao Jianguo just climbed over the Enclosure Wall, the Withered Leaf under his foot cracking with a light sound. He stopped immediately, turned back and saw the Shuang Baotai already standing at the Wall Base, their little faces flushed, their breath condensing into white mist in the night.

He lowered his voice: "Who told you to follow? Go back!"

The child on the left stayed silent, while the one on the right tightened the Cloth Bundle against his chest: "You forgot the Oil Lamp Bottle."

Zhao Jianguo felt his pocket and indeed had forgotten. He was about to say a few more words, but the System Prompt vibrated again.

【Detection: abnormal life wave fluctuation】

【Source: nearby carrier】

He froze, lowered his head toward the two children. The moonlight fell just on their exposed wrists, a faint golden line flashing by like a flame snuffed by the wind.

He crouched, reached out and gently lifted the left child's sleeve. A ring of tiny golden threads lay on the skin, irregular in shape, but exactly matching what Chen Jianguo had drawn on the back of the note he had slipped to him.

"Be careful… golden trace appears, destiny changes."

That night, before Chen Jianguo left, he only said that sentence, then slipped the note into Zhao Jianguo's inner garment pocket. At the time, he thought it was a warning for some hidden figure, never imagining it would appear on his own child's body.

He sprang to his feet, pulling the two children behind him, his ears perked to listen for any surrounding sounds.

The wind brushed the Withered Vine, producing a rustling sound. He stared at the big tree on the other side of the Enclosure Wall; its shadow flickered. Something was off—the leaf didn't move, but a spot in its center reflected light.

Camera.

Someone is filming.

He ripped off his Coat, wrapped the Shuang Baotai, and whispered, "Close your eyes, cover your ears."

The two children obeyed. He scooped a handful of sand from the ground and flung it toward the reflective spot. The figure behind the tree wavered, stepped back, and snapped a branch underfoot.

Click.

The sound was faint, yet unusually clear in the night.

Zhao Jianguo stayed still, waited a few seconds, confirmed nothing approached further, then bent again, leading each child back.

After a few steps, the child on the right coughed twice, the sound very soft, yet Zhao Jianguo still stopped.

"Cold?" he asked.

The child shook his head: "I dreamed of a man in uniform; he said, 'The time has come.'"

Zhao Jianguo felt a tightening in his chest. As the words left his mouth, the system on his wrist vibrated again.

【Detection: second-generation transmigrator life wave】

【Genetic match: 87.3%】

【Recommendation: activate primary protection protocol】

He didn't hesitate and pressed confirm.

An invisible layer enveloped the three, as if the air suddenly thickened. The wind at the Alley entrance seemed blocked, unable to blow in.

At that moment, high up on a distant tree branch, Xu Da Mao folded away his camera, his face turning pale. What had he just captured? The children's wrists glowing? He didn't even believe it himself, but the film wouldn't lie.

He quickly pulled half a slip of paper from his pocket, printed with several unreadable Symbols. It was given to him by a stranger a few days earlier, who said that capturing a "child with golden thread" would earn fifty dollars and a ticket to the South.

He folded the note, slipped it into his shoe sole, turned and slipped down the tree, hurrying along the Wall Base.

Zhao Jianguo knew nothing of that. He only felt the surrounding silence was too artificial, each step like walking on a taut rope.

He hoisted the child on the right, his left hand pulling the other, quickening his pace toward the Siheyuan. The Alley was short, but tonight it was especially dark; two street lamps were out, leaving the rest in a dim yellow haze.

At the third fork, the child on the left suddenly looked up: "Dad, is that person following us again?"

Zhao Jianguo gave no answer, merely slipped his hand into his inner clothing pocket and felt the Storage Ring. The real test booklet was still there, safe.

But he dared not relax. He knew that the barrier he had just felt could only block ordinary spying; if the other side had equipment or some know‑how, they would have already logged the location.

He turned into the final narrow passage, flanked by old brick walls whose plaster peeled away, exposing the earthen bricks inside. There was no light here, only daylight.

The Shuang Baotai walked slower beside him. The one on the right's head drooped bit by bit, nearly asleep. Zhao Jianguo gave him a gentle lift and saw the child's wrist flash again.

The golden thread was clearer than before, as if it seeped out of the skin.

He immediately tore a piece of inner lining cloth, gently wrapped it around. The fabric touching the skin caused the golden light to dim.

"It's fine," he whispered, "We're almost home."

The words barely left his mouth when the system vibrated again.

【Life frequency fluctuation intensifying】

【Recommendation: enter a sealed space immediately】

He gritted his teeth and kept moving. Only fifty meters remained to the Siheyuan gate; he could not stop.

Then, at that moment, the child on the right's mouth twitched slightly, his voice very low: "Dad… am I not me?"

Zhao Jianguo snapped to a halt.

The child kept his eyes closed, as if speaking in a dream.

He kept moving forward, his heartbeat growing heavier. At last he saw the swaying lamp at the Courtyard Gate; San Daye's cat crouched on the steps, turned its head at the sound of footsteps, and leapt away.

He was about to step into the gate when a rustling of fabric came from the Alley behind him.

It wasn't footsteps, just clothing scraping the wall.

He turned slowly, one hand shielding the two children, the other pressing against the Storage Ring.

In the depth of the Alley stood a silhouette, face indistinct, seemingly holding something in his hand.

Zhao Jianguo stayed still. The figure made no move forward, just remained there.

After a few seconds, the silhouette slowly retreated, vanishing into the darkness.

Zhao Jianguo stared at that direction for a while, then turned and walked into the courtyard. He didn't close the gate, but placed the Shuang Baotai on the long bench by the door, letting them lean against him as he sat.

He retrieved a small notebook and a pencil from the Storage Ring, quickly sketched the silhouette he had just seen, and wrote the words "camera" and "shoe‑sole hidden note."

Then he tore out that page, crumpled it into a ball, stuffed it into his mouth, chewed it up and swallowed.

Such a thing cannot leave evidence.

He lifted the already‑asleep child, about to enter the house, when he suddenly felt his wrist burn.

The system popped up a new message.

【Detected external signal access】

【Frequency: shortwave encryption】

【Last transmission content: Coordinates locked】