Chapter 433: You

When Lu Yu woke up, the first thing that pierced his nasal cavity was the smell of disinfectant.

Very clean.

Clean to an excessive degree.

No blood rain, no rotting flesh, no moldy earth smell from an Air‑raid Shelter, and no oppressive feeling from the blood‑and‑flesh totem grinding the ground.

Above his head was a white ceiling.

A row of life monitors was embedded in the right wall, with green data streams ticking quietly.

A retention needle was inserted into the back of his left hand, three electrodes were stuck to his chest, a harness pressed his waist and abdomen, and his back sent a burning pulling sensation; every half‑inch of movement made his muscles protest.

Lu Yu's eyelashes twitched.

The ward was small, yet so luxurious it hardly resembled a ward.

One‑way glass, isolation doors, a negative‑pressure circulation system, and two seemingly expensive weird suppressors in the corner, hidden behind white panels, disguised rather politely.

Polite enough to almost make one forget.

This place isn't a convalescent room.

It's a cage.

"Awake?"

A voice came from the bedside.

Lu Yu turned his head.

Su Ming sat on a chair, wearing a black tactical suit, his coat draped casually over the backrest, and a fruit tray rested on his knees.

He held an apple in his left hand and a fruit knife in his right.

The blade was thin; the peeled apple skin curled around his fingers, a red strip hanging in midair, unbroken.

The scene was rather absurd.

A Investigation Bureau Core Captain who could hard‑push Chen Shao outside the Weird Domain sat at the bedside slicing an apple.

If the corner suppressor weren't still active, Lu Yu would have almost thought he'd stepped into some family drama.

"Teacher Su?"

Lu Yu's throat was dry, and the moment he spoke it hurt, making him frown.

Su Ming picked up the straw cup beside him and handed it over.

"Don't move around, the wound on your back was just treated; the Medical Team stitched it to the point of questioning existence."

Lu Yu sucked two sips through the straw.

It was warm.

His throat felt a bit more comfortable.

"Is this... the Investigation Bureau?"

"High‑risk isolation ward."

Su Ming turned the apple half a circle, the knife tip sliding along the flesh, "The treatment's good; an ordinary agent can't even get on the list. You're basically given a mansion at the start, with surveillance and 24‑hour private accompaniment."

Lu Yu looked down at the harness.

"Private accompaniment means this?"

"That's to prevent you from sleepwalking."

Su Ming said casually, "When you were carried out of the Weird Domain, your vital signs dropped below the alert line, yet after half an hour you self‑repaired by thirty‑seven percent. The Medical Team almost all converted to the Gospel Church, muttering that medicine no longer existed."

Lu Yu was silent for two seconds.

A perfectly timed bewilderment appeared on his face.

"I… don't really remember what happened afterward."

"Which part?"

Su Ming didn't look up.

"The Square."

Lu Yu pressed his lips together, "That monster came crashing down, I pinned Chen Yao beneath me, and then it fragmented. I woke up here."

"Fragmented."

Su Ming repeated it, the apple skin still unbroken, "A quite handy term."

Lu Yu looked at the ceiling, his breathing staggered for a beat.

"Teacher Su, what about the other classmates?"

"Aside from Chen Yao, no other classmates survived. Chen Yao was taken away by Chen Shao, unharmed."

Hearing that Chen Yao was fine, Lu Yu's tense shoulders relaxed a bit.

Su Ming noted the detail in his eyes.

"You're very concerned about her?"

"She's my classmate."

"Just a classmate?"

Lu Yu tugged at his lips, showing the discomfort of a teen after interrogation, "Teacher Su, I saved her. Do I still have to write a self‑critique for just caring?"

Su Ming's knife halted in his hand.

The apple skin hung down.

The next second.

Snap.

The whole apple skin snapped, falling onto the white porcelain plate.

The ward fell silent.

Su Ming lowered his head to look at the broken apple peel, waited two seconds, then placed the apple back on the tray.

The fruit knife spun half a circle between his fingers.

Thud.

The knife tip sank into the nightstand.

He controlled the force skillfully, and the knife handle still trembled lightly.

Su Ming leaned back against the chair, and the hint of gentleness on his face vanished completely.

"Fine, I'll get straight to the point; step‑by‑step really isn't for me. From today onward, all your actions will be taken over by the Federal Weird Investigation Bureau."

"Eating, sleeping, attending class, treatment, communications, who you meet, what you say, what examinations you undergo—all must be reported."

Lu Yu was stunned.

The next moment, the boy's pale face flushed red.

"On what grounds?"

Su Ming said nothing.

Lu Yu propped himself on the bed, trying to sit up; the wound on his back tugged, and the pain made sweat bead on his forehead.

"I was desperately rescuing people in the Weird Domain, saved Chen Yao, and led those classmates to run for so long. Teacher Fang died, the Instructor died, the classmates died, and I was almost cut in two."

"Now that I'm awake, your first words aren't asking whether I'm scared, nor telling me how the school will handle it, but announcing that you'll monitor me?"

"Su Teacher, is this the Investigation Bureau's Regulation?"

The boy suppressed the fire, his throat hoarse.

"Or are you saying that rescuing people is also a crime?"

That line was quite striking.

In another setting, it could trend on the hot search.

Su Ming had already come up with the headline for him.

Shocked: Qiu Ce Yuan student sacrificed his life to save a classmate, only to be brutally detained by the authorities after waking.

The comment section will surely be a torrent of broken defenses.

"Well performed."

Su Ming spoke.

Lu Yu's anger was stuck on his face.

"What?"

"I said, you performed well."

Su Ming took a kraft paper bag from beside the chair and untied its seal.

Inside was a stack of printed documents.

The paper was fresh, and the edges bore encrypted watermarks.

Su Ming slapped the first page onto the edge of the bed.

"Lu Yu, male, sixteen years old, from Ling Chang City."

"Parents missing; the file lists a normal family, no criminal record, no extraordinary registration, no Weird contact history."

"Half a year ago, entered the Qiu Ce Yuan preparatory list as a Special enrollment student."

"The résumé is so clean it could be used as a promotional poster."

Su Ming pulled out the second page.

"But the problem lies here."

The paper showed an on‑site photograph.

An old residential complex.

The stairwell wall's plaster was flaking.

The floor was covered with dark‑brown stains, the doorframe warped from internal pressure, and large humanoid drag marks scarred the wall.

The corner of the photo bore a number.

Ling Chang City, Qinghuai Residential Complex, A-level Strange Tale incident.

Lu Yu saw the photo, his fingers tightening beneath the blanket.

The movement was minimal.

Su Ming captured it.

"Half a year ago, a A-level Strange Tale massacre occurred at Qinghuai Residential Complex."

"Seven buildings, 219 households, 643 people."

"Officially the incident was recorded as a series of gas‑pipeline explosions; the true file shows that every resident of the complex was cleared out within forty minutes."

Su Ming pushed the third photograph over.

In the photo, a security door was open.

The room still had dishes set out, the TV was on, and a few garments lay on the sofa.

The people were gone.

"No one survived the scene."

"Except you."

The color in Lu Yu's face drained away.

"I…"

"Don't rush."

Su Ming turned to the next page, "Your statement to the police at the time was that you went to a classmate's house at night to deliver documents, got lost after entering the complex, and woke up outside the greenbelt. You said you saw nothing."

That explanation is enough to fool ordinary criminal investigators.

Unfortunately, the Investigation Bureau later added the Weird residue.

Su Ming tapped the paper with his fingertip.

The core strange tale of Qinghuai Residential Complex, code‑named "the resident in the crack", is A Ji.

That thing had already killed three local squads at the time, and containment failed twice.

Lu Yu's Adam's apple moved.

The instruments in the ward ticked.

Su Ming stared at the monitoring screen.

Heart rate rose.

Cortisol levels spiked.

Pupil response delayed.

Fear was present.

But beneath the fear lay something else.

Defense.

And then?

Su Ming leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees.

After the Qinghuai Residential Complex incident ended, "the resident in the crack" vanished.

It wasn't relocation.

It wasn't hibernation.

Nor was it officially contained.

It disappeared from all monitoring lineages.

Clean to an absurd degree.

Lu Yu whispered, "A-level Strange Tales disappearing on their own aren't without precedent."

"There are."

Su Ming nodded, "But when a strange tale departs, it leaves rule residue. Qinghuai Residential Complex has none."

That area is as clean as if someone had erased it with a rubber.

More interestingly, on the third day after the incident, your wound's healing speed was recorded by the community hospital as abnormal.

Lu Yu closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, only pallor remained on his face.

So? Based on this expired medical record, you condemn me? Where's the logic?

No conviction yet.

Su Ming stood up.

The chair legs scraped the floor, producing a harsh sound.

Lu Yu instinctively leaned back, but the restraints held him.

Su Ming walked to the bedside, lowered his head, and looked at the youth.

The two were only a half‑arm's length apart.

B09 Weird Domain was originally just a C‑level safe ruin.

Before the training, the Federation conducted three rounds of testing; rule inertia was stable, activity below four percent, qualifying as a controllable scenario.

After you entered, the activity curve multiplied twenty‑seven times within seventeen minutes.

Su Ming gave a brief, cold smile.

Fang Ming mutated, the Weird Domain devoured the residual rules, a Weird Domain core was born, and its core strength surged to the A Ji limit.

Su Ming raised his hand and, from a distance, tapped Lu Yu's chest.

"Lu Yu, this isn't an accident; it's inevitability."

The youth's breathing quickened.

"I haven't harmed anyone."

"I also hope you haven't."

Su Ming whispered, "But hope is useless. The Investigation Bureau has suffered too many losses from hope."

"There's something inside you."

Lu Yu's pupils contracted.

Su Ming moved half a step closer.

"It's not ordinary Weird."

The A-level Strange Tale of Qinghuai Residential Complex vanished, the B09 core was erased, and the two incidents were six months apart, with different locations, different rules, and different victims.

The only recurring variable is you.

Sweat beads rolled down Lu Yu's temple.

"Teacher Su, when you talk logic, just talk logic; don't bring in mysticism and stage‑craft."

"Stage‑craft?"

Su Ming flung the last page of data onto the blanket.

It was an energy spectrum comparison chart.

Qinghuai Residential Complex residual data.

B09 scorched‑earth sample data.

The two curves coincide on a certain special frequency band.

They are not exactly identical.

But the peak positions, the devouring traces, the edge of the Rules void, match each other to a frightening degree.

Lu Yu stared at the diagram, his lips pressed into a thin line.

"Got it?"

Su Ming bent over, his palm braced on the bedside rail.

"Qinghuai Residential Complex didn't vanish naturally as a legend."

"It was killed."

"The B09 Weird Domain Core wasn't simply cleared away by an unknown high‑level Weird passing by."

"It was also killed."

"And you, Lu Yu."

"You are the one who killed them."

The ward's temperature was kept at twenty‑three degrees by the circulation system.

But a dense layer of sweat broke out on the back of Lu Yu's neck.

Su Ming's tone pressed even lower.

"Preliminary estimate: the thing residing in your body is conservatively rated Zhun S Ji."

"Do you understand what that means?"

Lu Yu gave no answer.

Su Ming said it for him.

"It means wherever you go, the Weird there will be provoked."

"The weak will be devoured by it; the strong will awaken, strike back, and drag all nearby living people into it."

"B09's revival is not due to a new Weird Domain overlay."

"It is that thing inside you that has awakened the lingering Rules."

Lu Yu jerked his head up.

"It's not me!"

"Then who?"

Su Ming paused at each word.

"Fang Ming?"

"Those students?"

"Or the unlucky Instructor who was selected for the field class?"

Lu Yu's chest rose and fell, his harness tightened.

"I saved Chen Yao!"

"Right, you saved her."

Su Ming lowered his head, looking at Lu Yu.

"That's also why I'm still talking to you now instead of containing you."

A brief silence.

Su Ming reached out and pulled a kitchen knife from the nightstand.

The blade slipped out of the wood board, raising fine wood shavings.

Lu Yu stared at the knife.

Su Ming tossed the knife back into the fruit tray; metal clanged against white porcelain, a crisp sound that pricked the ears.

"Lu Yu, don't package yourself as a simple victim."

"You saved someone; the Investigation Bureau has that on record."

"But you also brought disaster."

Lu Yu's throat churned; he wanted to say something but couldn't get it out.

Su Ming leaned in, the darkness in his eyes deepening.

"Those students and teachers."

"All of them died because of you."