Chapter 474: Decision

When Su Ming arrived at the Investigation Bureau headquarters, it was already three a. m.

The elevator doors opened, and the emergency lights along the Corridor cast a dim yellow glow. His shoe soles pressed on the floor tiles, each step carrying the lingering scent of blood that hadn't been washed off after rushing from the hospital.

The Director's Office door was ajar.

He pushed the door open and entered; the warm yellow desk lamp illuminated half the room. The air‑conditioning was off, and the heating pipes emitted a faint water‑flow sound. Wei Gong stood with his back to the doorway, in front of a long desk covered with rice paper.

His right hand hovered, and the brush moved across the paper.

Su Ming stood at the doorway, unmoving.

He recognized the script as Yan style. Wei Gong wrote a calligraphy piece before every major decision, a habit said to have remained unchanged for thirty years. The brushstroke was steady, the ink tones balanced, and two of the three characters of "Ding Feng Bo" had already been written.

"Come in,"

Wei Gong did not turn around. His voice was low, blending with the hum of the Corridor light tube.

Su Ming closed the door. He neither sat nor fetched water. He took off his coat and draped it over the back of the chair, revealing the shirt underneath that had been soaked in blood and air‑dried.

"Lu Yu's matter must be reported face‑to‑face. No electronic terminals allowed,"

Wei Gong's brush paused briefly, then continued.

"Speak,"

Su Ming fished a crushed pack of cigarettes from his pocket, pulled out the second‑to‑last one and held it in his mouth, still unlit.

"He is a reborn one. He returned from twelve years ahead,"

The brush did not stop.

"On that timeline, Weird Domains expanded worldwide until humanity retained less than one‑third of its territory. Eleven S-Class Anomaly Domains co‑existed. The defenses collapsed,"

The brushstroke reached the final hook of the character "Bo."

"The cause of the collapse was a single person, calling himself 'the God.' Zhang Yuanqing's power was granted by this 'God.' Zhang Yuanqing was a bait from start to finish, meant to draw our attention and conceal the true source,"

Wei Gong's hand stopped.

It wasn't that he finished writing; the final hook of "Bo" was only two‑thirds of the way, suspended in mid‑air, the tip holding a drop of thick ink.

The office was quiet for about five seconds.

The ink drop finally gave way to gravity and fell.

The black spread on the rice paper, soaking through to the back, leaving a small wet blot on the desk.

Wei Gong placed the brush on the ink slab and turned around.

The desk lamp shone from the side onto his face; his graying temples reflected a cold light. Those veteran eyes that had witnessed three decades of upheaval in the Federation's political arena were now slightly narrowed, the sharpness in them heavier than Su Ming had ever seen.

"Intelligence credibility?"

"Chen Shao's Demon Eye cannot read him. Yet he disclosed the top‑secret details of Containment Object C-044, word for word matching the original file. He also accurately described the Symbiosis cost of Chen Shao's Demon Eye, a secret Chen Shao himself never told the second living person,"

Wei Gong remained silent. He walked behind the desk, opened the second drawer, and took out an old‑style Thermal Cup. He unscrewed the lid and took a sip.

A faded red star was printed on the cup's wall.

"Continue,"

"Lu Yu harbors a Weird called 'Taotie' inside him. Its core rule is devouring. Any Weird power, rule, or concept is food to it. On the courtroom battlefield I witnessed, two hundred and thirteen resentful souls were consumed within seconds, and the S‑Class courtroom's rule framework was gnawed apart from within,"

Su Ming removed the unlit cigarette from his mouth and clenched it in his palm.

"In the North America Defense Line Core Area, there is a rule‑type Containment Object called 'Eye of Truth.' It can anchor spatial coordinates and retrieve authentic images from the past ten years. It operates without data links, directly reading spatial memory, ignoring any shielding or information erasure,"

Wei Gong's eyelid twitched.

"Use it to anchor the location where Zhang Yuanqing was granted power; the 'God's' face will appear in the image,"

"Where is it?"

"North America Defense Line Core Area. Deep within the S-Class Anomaly Domain. In a previous life, three S‑Class Anomaly Masters took thirty‑seven people in; only one emerged alive,"

The Thermal Cup was placed back on the table. Its lid remained unscrewed, and tea vapor rose from the rim, dissipating quickly.

"Lu Yu says that when his Taotie reaches full strength, it can ignore the conceptual contamination of the core area and enter alone,"

Su Ming finished the last sentence.

The office fell quiet again for a while. The water flow in the heating pipes sounded especially clear.

Wei Gong leaned against the chair back, and his right index finger tapped the tabletop three times, neither hurried nor slow.

"What are you worried about?"

Su Ming lifted his gaze.

"Director, he's too good at calculating,"

When he said that, Su Ming's speech pace was half a beat slower than before.

"From confessing his identity to delivering intelligence, then setting conditions, every step stepped on the psychological thresholds of me and Chen Shao. It was so precise that we had no room to bargain. Once a person obtains enough power, who can guarantee he won't become the next 'God'?"

Wei Gong did not answer immediately.

He reached out and adjusted the desk lamp's angle, moving the light off the rice paper onto his own back of the hand. The joints were thick, veins bulging, a hand that had wielded authority for decades.

"You're right,"

Wei Gong's voice was soft.

"He might,"

Su Ming's molar clicked.

"But Su Ming, calculate a ledger for me,"

The old man lifted the Thermal Cup and took another sip, his voice neither hurried nor slow.

"Twelve years later, humanity perished. That's a certainty. The options before me now aren't 'whether to raise a wolf,' but 'use the wolf to bite the tiger dead, or simply lie down and wait to be eaten by the tiger,'"

Su Ming remained silent.

Wei Gong set the cup down and pulled a blank document stamped with the Federation's national emblem watermark from the bottom of the drawer.

It was the special paper reserved for S‑Class Red‑Headed Special Orders.

The Federation cannot issue even two Files in a year.

The rustle of a fountain pen on paper echoed in the quiet office for over ten seconds. Su Ming watched Lord Wei finish the last line and pressed his fingerprint at the signature.

"S Ji Special Order, code name 'Feeding Dragon'."

Lord Wei pushed the File onto Su Ming's desk.

"Treasury-level strategic material allocation authority, A Ji and above Containment Object training grounds open all day, global Intelligence network shared in sync. Execution target: Lu Yu. Person in charge: you."

Su Ming lowered his head and scanned it.

Those few lines were plain and unremarkable, using only standard official wording. Yet the amount of resources behind each line was enough to equip three fully staffed Special Forces units.

"Drive the tiger, devour the wolf."

Lord Wei leaned back in his chair, a cold flash flickering in his cloudy old eyes.

"This is a price that must be borne."

Su Ming folded the File twice and kept it close.

As he turned toward the door, Lord Wei's voice came from behind.

"Su Ming."

"Here."

"Watch him. Twenty‑four hours. Don't blink your eyes."

Su Ming's hand rested on the door handle.

"Understood."

He stepped out, reached the elevator, and only then realized the unlit cigarette in his palm had been crushed, the ash scattering across his hand.

At the same moment.

Chen Shao sat in the command room of Eden Garden's main base, turning off the holographic projection before him.

Only a floor lamp glowed in the room, orange light outlining the shape of his shaved head. Xu An stood two steps away, the black sutured line on his lips shining in the dimness.

"Open A Ji supply depot."

Chen Shao's tone was no different from when he normally issued orders.

Xu An's hollow pupils flickered. The A Ji supply depot is Eden Garden's Core reserve, every item inside bought with lives.

"Target is Lu Yu. Unlimited draw. Whatever he wants, we give."

Xu An made no sound, but tilted his head—a way he expressed doubt.

Chen Shao rubbed his right eye. The Demon Eye, after overuse, always became sore and swollen, as if a red‑hot marble were jammed in his socket.

"I know better than anyone what it means to raise a tiger as a menace."

He released his grip, a scarlet light flickering between his fingers.

"But Yao Yao is still in this world. As long as the world exists, she can live."

Xu An lowered his eyes.

No more reasons are needed.

He turned and walked toward the passage leading to the underground vault, his footsteps echoing hollowly on the iron stairs.

Chen Shao sat alone in the command room.

Though the projection was off, a paper File lay on the desk, a hand‑copied Intelligence summary about Qiu Ce Yuan and the Federation's recent movements.

His gaze lingered on the last line.

"The Federation Investigation Bureau has listed Lu Yu as a Highest Priority Order protection target."

His finger tapped that line twice, then withdrew.

Who could have thought?

The director of the Federal Weird Investigation Bureau and the leader of Eden Garden—two people who outwardly seemed eager to strangle each other—each signed orders whose contents were almost identical.

The axis was a single one—a fourteen‑year‑old boy feigning pity in a hospital.

Chen Shao stored the File in the safe, then rose to the window.

The city's lights flickered weakly in the night fog.

Three hundred kilometers away, the Qiu Ce Yuan girls' dormitory.

Chen Yao curled up in the blankets, the phone screen's light reflecting on her face.

The screen displayed an encrypted message from her brother. She read it word by word, then read it again from the start.

The message was brief.

"Lu Yu has been listed as a joint protection target of the Federation and the Ark. S Ji priority asset. No faction may threaten him."

There was an additional line of supplement.

"Yao Yao, keep a distance from him at school."

Chen Yao stared at that final line for a long time.

Keep a distance from him.

She turned off the phone and buried her face in the pillow.

In the darkness, the corner of her mouth curved.

It was neither shyness nor happiness.

That curve was like something hidden beneath water—its shape visible, its bottom unseen.

She recalled the B-09 Weird Domain, Lu Yu's silhouette standing before her. She remembered how, after being grievously wounded by the Rules, he still hadn't let go of the hand that gripped her wrist.

The whole school, the entire Federation, even Eden Garden—everyone was protecting him.

And her?

Isn't she also within the protected scope?

Brother protects her because of blood ties.

The Federation monitors her because it is afraid.

But Lu Yu, when he seized her in the Weird Domain, said nothing.

Nothing needs to be said.

Chen Yao wrapped the blanket tightly.

The phone lit up again; she opened the encrypted message and typed two characters in the reply field.

"Got it."

Send.

Then she switched the page back to the previous chat log, scrolled to Lu Yu's name, and clicked it.

The chat box was empty. There had never been any conversation.

She stared at that blank for thirty seconds, tucked the phone under her pillow, and closed her eyes.

Her breathing was steady.

But the fingers resting on the blanket corner unintentionally clenched.

Five days later.

Lu Yu stood in the military hospital's Outpatient Department Hall, still wearing the spare school uniform he had put on when he was admitted. A bandage was wrapped around his left wrist, his complexion bore the pallor unique to post‑illness, looking no different from an ordinary high‑school student.

Three vehicles were parked outside the hall.

The foremost was a matte‑black large off‑road vehicle, its windows covered with the darkest bullet‑proof film, the chassis reinforced with blast‑proof steel plates. It bore the highest protection level specially approved by the Federation Armed Forces.

In the driver's seat sat a short‑haired woman wearing sunglasses, her jawline sharp, both hands on the steering wheel, the calluses on her knuckles thicker than most men's.

The two vehicles behind were dark‑gray vans, their license plates ordinary civilian series, the bodies bearing no markings. Yet Su Ming recognized the side profile of the slick‑back hair on the co‑driver seat of the second vehicle—a person from Eden Garden.

The three vehicles were parked in a triangular formation, the front‑to‑back spacing precise to the meter.

Su Ming emerged from behind a column in the hall, holding a cup of instant coffee from a vending machine, its taste almost like rinsed‑out pot water.

"Let's go."

Lu Yu scanned the convoy, and his right eyelid twitched.

"Is this display a bit over the top?"

"Standard configuration stipulated by the S Ji Special Order. You are now humanity's Highest Priority Order asset," Su Ming said, taking a sip of coffee, his expression indistinguishable from someone drinking herbal medicine, "Just get used to it."

"Asset."

Lu Yu clicked his tongue at the word.

He strode toward the black off‑road vehicle, and his steps paused for a beat as he passed Su Ming.

"Captain Su."

"Hmm."

"The term 'asset' doesn't sound pleasant."

"Do you have a better name?"

Lu Yu pulled open the car door.

"How about 'canary'?"

Su Ming almost splashed coffee onto his own shirt.

Lu Yu had already slipped into the back seat. The instant the door closed, Su Ming saw through the partially closed window that he was leaning against the seat with his eyes shut.

That clean face showed no expression at all.

But beneath those closed eyelids, Su Ming felt something hidden that made the back of his neck grow cold.

The convoy set off.

The three vehicles merged onto the main road, traveling at a steady sixty km/h. Traffic from all directions had been temporarily rerouted by the traffic control system, and any vehicles that could pose a collision risk were held back by traffic lights two hundred meters away.

The entire road yielded to a fourteen‑year‑old boy.

Su Ming sat in the co‑driver seat, placing the coffee that was so bad it made him nauseous into the cup holder.

The angle of the rearview mirror happened to show the back seat.

Lu Yu, eyes closed, breathed evenly, as if he were truly asleep.

Su Ming stared at the face reflected in the mirror, recalling Wei Gong's final words.

"Watch him. Twenty‑four hours. Don't blink your eyes."

The off‑road vehicle's tire rolled over a speed‑bump, causing the body to jolt slightly. The boy in the back seat didn't even furrow his brows.

Thirty‑five minutes later, the gate of Qiu Ce Yuan appeared in front of the windshield.