Lian Muyun usually woke up early, but when he saw the message delivered late the previous night on his multi-function watch, his morning grogginess vanished instantly.
He burst into Leng Xianye’s dormitory next door, only to find Leng Xianye and Xing Yue already dressed and seated at the computer desk. Xing Yue’s tablet was displaying that very same email.
“The Captain... he...”
The reality finally began to sink in.
Leng Xianye was scrolling through his contact list. “Go back and change your clothes before you come over.”
He had already messaged Tao Cheng’an, who replied that he didn't actually know much. The most frustrating part was that none of them knew exactly how Xin Ye had "defected" or what he had "betrayed."
However, Tao Cheng’an’s words provided a lead.
*“Isn't our daily job just clearing out mutants? What else does Headquarters do besides that? Whatever it is, it’s not something someone with my clearance level is allowed to know.”*
Clearance was something Leng Xianye could obtain if he fought for it, though it would mean swallowing his pride and bowing to his family.
Lian Muyun returned quickly after changing, with Tang Qiuqiu trailing behind him like a shadow. Leng Xianye didn't waste time with pleasantries; he stepped into the role of team leader with a natural ease, as if he had practiced it for a long time.
“I don’t want to switch teams or see this unit disbanded. I won’t accept any changes,” he said, rapping his knuckles against the edge of the desk. “Until the truth about Xin Ye is cleared up, I won’t be moving, regardless of what Headquarters decides.”
Xing Yue gripped the edge of her tablet case. “I’m with Leng Xianye.” From the moment she chose to follow him to the Seventh Branch, she had resolved to stand by his side in every decision.
Lian Muyun and Tang Qiuqiu hadn't even considered leaving. The immediate priority was to figure out what had happened and locate their captain.
Lian Muyun recounted every strange thing Xin Ye had done over the past few days. Xing Yue opened her inbox. “His face looked terrible after he came out of Researcher Yi’s office? I sent her a message this morning, but she hasn't replied. She should be up by now...”
Just then, Leng Xianye’s watch buzzed with a voice call request.
“I’m taking this outside.”
***
Yi Ting was at the aquatic facility injecting nutrients into the frilled sharks and checking the metal sphere.
Three days had passed. Xin Ye had mentioned he could secure transportation; at the speed of a vehicle, he should have reached the coordinates by now.
She peeled the membrane from the metal sphere and hurried back to her office to read the coordinates on her detection equipment.
On the computer screen, the red dot that hadn't moved in years was gone.
No smile touched Yi Ting’s face. Instead, her grip on the mouse tightened.
The disappearance of the coordinates didn't necessarily mean Xin Ye had succeeded. If the Mutation Core had truly been consumed, the entire Headquarters would be in a state of absolute chaos by now, because the project they had poured years of blood and sweat into would have lost all meaning.
Gu Shaolou had used his own body to construct the Core. To use a chemical analogy, he wasn't a reactant in the experiment; he was a catalyst. Only with the catalyst present could the reaction continue to propagate on a global scale.
Biological mutation was a twisted path, a future that should have been discarded by natural selection. The mutants capable of surviving in the world were supposed to be rare anomalies, yet Gu Shaolou had used formulas and scientific calculations to turn himself into a mutant. Through radiation, he had forced a minority choice to become a rational, mainstream biological evolution.
No one understood this better than Yi Ting.
The high-level officials had chosen mutants as a permanent energy source for the coming years precisely because they knew mutation would be a continuous process. Sustainable energy was the only kind of energy one could rely on.
If the catalyst vanished, sustainability would cease to exist. The reaction would terminate immediately. Given enough time, nature would return to its normal trajectory. But right now, only a single red dot had disappeared.
...She had no idea what had happened on Xin Ye’s end to cause this.
Though she felt a pang of frustration at the plan’s failure, she didn't intend to blame Xin Ye. She knew he had tried his best. As for what came next, it was in the hands of fate.
She was just an ordinary human with no special abilities and poor physical health. She only dared to hide fragments of the truth within stories, timidly hoping someone would discover them and respond. Someone like her had no right to complain about others.
Yi Ting set a scheduled email to be sent to Xing Yue’s phone at nine o'clock the next morning.
At one in the morning, the light in her office was still on. The espers who had come to arrest her didn't bother knocking politely.
“Researcher Yi, we are here on orders. May we come in?”
Yi Ting had already cleared her desk. The metal membrane had been destroyed.
“Please, come in.”
***
“So, Yi Ting helped Xin Ye defect, and now she’s been taken into custody as well.” Leng Xianye stood outside his dormitory. Realizing these words shouldn't be overheard, he switched to his earpiece.
Vice Minister Leng hadn't spoken to his son in a long time and couldn't quite adjust his tone; he still sounded like a cold superior addressing a subordinate. “Yes. But she still has value. I will have her properly detained.”
“Secretary-General Xing mentioned to me before that a young girl named Jian was also punished for leaking secrets. She was thrown into a solo mission but somehow came back alive. She’s still locked up. Like I said, nothing good happens to those who get involved with that captain of yours.”
“Are you ready to come back? Bring Yue and Lian Muyun with you.” When mentioning the other two children he had watched grow up, the Vice Minister’s voice finally softened slightly.
Leng Xianye feigned ignorance. “Come back to what?”
“Stop doing the dirty work at the bottom level. Come try your hand at management. In ten years, perhaps you can take over my position?”
Leng Xianye frowned at his father’s words. It sounded like a cliché plot from a bad novel where a young master is told to come home and inherit the family empire if his side hustle fails. He had zero interest in responding.
He had known since before he even awakened his ability that his father intended to pass the position down like a local warlord.
After the apocalypse, the gears of surviving human society were held firmly in the hands of the Mutation Investigation Department. It wasn't surprising that his father wanted to keep such a powerful position within the family.
But Leng Xianye didn't like it, didn't want it... and even harbored a seed of resentment toward it.
Instinct told him not to refuse outright. Instead, he gave a non-committal “I’ll think about it” to keep his father on the hook, then turned back into the dorm.
Xing Yue had received Yi Ting’s scheduled email and was reading it. Lian Muyun and Tang Qiuqiu were huddled behind her. Her expression grew grimmer with every line until Leng Xianye spoke, helping her regain a semblance of composure.
She handed the tablet to Leng Xianye. He usually skimmed text at lightning speed, but this time, he slowed down after the first two lines.
After finishing, he looked at the three of them with his usual stoic expression.
“I have an idea. I need to discuss it with you.”
Two hours later, Leng Xianye called the Vice Minister back.
“I’ve made up my mind. I’ll come to management to train my skills. But my three teammates won't. I want you to agree to revoke their status as Headquarters espers and let them return to a normal life.”
***
The uncle with the mustache hadn't expected to see the young man again so soon.
He listened to the boy’s voice, taking a moment to distinguish him. “...Wait a second. You’re not the older twin, you’re the younger one?”
The Mirror Image’s forced smile stiffened for a moment. “Right, I’m the younger brother. How could you tell? I think I look quite a bit like my brother.”
“What’s the use of looking alike?” The uncle laughed at the Mirror Image’s reaction. “Your temperaments are completely different. You can tell just by looking for a second.”
The Mirror Image conceded. “Fine. Then, about the favor I asked—will you agree?”
The uncle, who claimed to have only looked "for a second," suddenly looked embarrassed. He had been staring at the Mirror Image so intently that the words had gone in one ear and out the other. “Sorry... what did you say again?”
“I asked if you’d be willing to give me a ride back to the Civilian Area,” the Mirror Image repeated.
In the end, he got on the truck. The middle-aged men asked exactly where in the Civilian Area he lived. Fortunately, Xin Ye had previously asked the uncle where they lived—within the jurisdiction of the Second Branch—so he gave that as his destination.
There wasn't much space left on the truck; the bed was filled with "sea harvest," and the smell of fish mixed with the scent of unwashed men was unpleasant.
The Mirror Image was as thin as Xin Ye. Tucking himself into a corner, he didn't take up much room. The uncle sat in the passenger seat, and halfway through the trip, he turned around to ask why the younger brother wasn't with the older one anymore and if they had fought. The Mirror Image could only nod and say yes.
“My brother took my Civilian Area ID in a fit of rage and told me to find my own way back,” the Mirror Image lied through his teeth. “So, I’ll need your help when we get to the gate, otherwise I won't even be able to get in.”
The uncle waved it off dismissively. “Small matter, easy enough. I’m tight with the guards. They usually don't check IDs when we come back—after all, they have to buy fish from me. But taking your ID is no small thing. Your brother went that far? What kind of trouble did you get into this time?”
The Mirror Image couldn't pin his fabricated trouble on Xin Ye. “No, it was all my fault. I deserved it. I appreciate the help.”
The uncle didn't pry further. He muttered that it was no trouble and settled in for a nap.
The Mirror Image breathed a sigh of relief and turned to look at the scenery passing by the window.
He had Xin Ye’s identification on him, but since it was marked as an esper ID, it was unusable. Returning to Headquarters was out of the question. After considering his options, he had decided to hitch a ride to the Civilian Area.
After entering the Mirror Space with Xin Ye at the bottom of the sea, Xin Ye had vanished.
The Mirror Image was certain Xin Ye was fine; the fact that he, as an ability manifestation, was still sitting here was the best proof. He checked their telepathic link and confirmed there were no major emotional fluctuations—Xin Ye had simply disappeared into the space.
He didn't know why Xin Ye had vanished. Although he could enter, exit, and manipulate the space as an ability, the space wasn't his property. "Mirror Image" was merely an object born from it; the world inside the mirror wasn't 100% open to him.
Xin Ye had likely fallen into one of those unknown corners.
The Mirror Image didn't care about Gu Shaolou’s missing corpse, nor did he care about the closed-off side of the space. Knowing Xin Ye was safe for now, his job was to find a place to settle down before the other emerged. If he found a place and Xin Ye still hadn't appeared, he would go back into the space to search.
As long as they were alive, there was a path forward.
The middle-aged men drove much slower and more steadily than they had on the way out. It took three or four days to reach the Civilian Area.
The entrance to the Civilian Area under the Second Branch’s jurisdiction was a converted hospital underground garage. The truck drove inside and stopped on a large suspended platform. Sensing the weight, the platform released, and mechanical gears within the concrete walls ground to life, opening a passage. The platform lowered the vehicle further down.
When they reached the actual entrance to the Civilian Area, the Mirror Image looked at the massive bronze doors and the surrounding earth and stone, suddenly realizing this was his first time in a place where ordinary humans lived.
Since the start of the apocalypse, he had followed Xin Ye to the training base under the Seventh Branch. He had never seen the environment where others lived.
A man about the same age as the mustached uncle stepped out of a small booth. His uniform looked much like a pre-apocalypse police summer duty outfit—light blue top and dark trousers—but the emblem embroidered on his chest was definitely that of the Mutation Investigation Department.
The two men were indeed acquaintances. After the uncle showed off a trunk full of harvest, the guard patted him on the shoulder and said they could pass.
He pressed a white button. The sound of his voice, accompanied by the mechanical rumble of the massive doors slowly opening, reached the Mirror Image’s ears through the low-quality glass window.
“Welcome home.”
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 平民区 | Civilian Area | Residential zones for non-espers/ordinary humans. |
| 冷副部长 | Vice Minister Leng | Leng Xianye's father, a high-ranking official in the department. |
| 催化剂 | Catalyst | Metaphor used by Yi Ting to describe Gu Shaolou's role in the global mutation. |
| 异变调查部 | Mutation Investigation Department | The main governing/military body managing mutants and espers. |
| 秘书长 | Secretary-General | A high-ranking administrative title (e.g., Secretary-General Xing). |
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