Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Stellar Time 1:59.

Tangde City Police Station received a report from a passerby: a residential area nearby had suddenly erupted in fire. The flames had spread extensively, engulfing the entire area and even affecting adjacent districts.

Song Chenglei took the call. The moment he learned the news, he immediately notified the fire department. He and Wang Xiao rushed to the scene without delay, and en route, they didn’t forget to inform Si Muyun.

At that time, Si Muyun had just arrived at 9635 Hospital to meet with Jiang Yu. His expression, already heavy, darkened further upon hearing the news. He looked at Jiang Yu, about to say something, but the other spoke first: "Captain Si, if you have urgent matters, go attend to them. I’ll look for my brother myself."

Si Muyun said nothing. The idea of a youngster searching for an adult sounded absurd no matter how he thought about it.

Hearing no response from Si Muyun, Jiang Yu added, "Besides, Migu is with me. You can rest assured, Captain Si."

At this, Si Muyun glanced at Migu. From the moment he had seen Migu, the robot hadn’t uttered a word. The broken glass in the hospital room had been cleaned up thoroughly, leaving no trace that a cup had ever shattered.

Si Muyun nodded. He still trusted Migu’s capabilities.

Leaving the hospital, he boarded an aircraft and headed towards the fire. Even from a distance, he could see the raging flames lighting up half the sky.

Squinting ahead, he suddenly felt a sense of familiarity.

Pressing a button on the control panel, he called Song Chenglei’s comm line and asked, "Did the person who reported the fire mention the specific location?"

Song Chenglei paused, suddenly realizing he hadn’t told Si Muyun the exact address. "Yes, it’s Anyang Street that’s on fire."

"Anyang Street?"

"I heard one hundred and fifty houses caught fire. The wind is strong tonight, so the flames spread extremely fast." Song Chenglei seemed to remember something and hesitated briefly. "Captain, the witness said he saw two people in the fire when it started."

Si Muyun’s heart leaped. "What kind of people?"

"He said he was watching from upstairs and couldn’t see clearly, but he could vaguely make out one person wearing a patient gown. At first, he wasn’t sure, but his elderly family member had been hospitalized due to an accident last week, so he recognized it—the person was wearing a patient uniform from 9635 Hospital."

Hearing the number 9635, Si Muyun’s blood ran cold. His hand trembled slightly on the control lever as he doubted Lin Youhan for the first time.

The fire on Anyang Street was unexpected to everyone, yet Lin Youhan had known about it before them and had even arrived at the scene.

And there was what Liu Wenwen had said earlier—Huang Yuehong had come to the police station looking for someone surnamed Lin. No matter how he thought about it, it shouldn’t be Lin Youhan. But what if it was?

And the missing note—if Lin Youhan had discovered it, why would he hide it? Alternatively, if Lin Youhan had found the note and knew exactly what it said, what if it was related to him?

Piecing everything together, Si Muyun’s heart sank. He now wondered whether they had found Lin Youhan or Lin Youhan had found them. He even suspected that Lin Youhan might not have lost his memory at all. But if he hadn’t, why would he expose flaws in his identity?

His thoughts seemed stuck in a dead end. The clues appeared unrelated to Lin Youhan at first glance, but upon closer inspection, they all pointed back to him.

His memories rewound rapidly, and suddenly, he recalled the day Zhang Yuanhang had the incident at the hospital.

Chen Wen had been looking behind him, but there was nothing there. However, he had forgotten that the walls were embedded with information screens. Perhaps what they saw wasn’t just an ordinary wall but a screen hidden within it.

Someone had been watching them!

That day, Chen Wen’s tone had been full of shock before he lost consciousness—"You’re still alive?" Si Muyun should have realized then that the case might be connected to Lin Youhan. And later, Lin Youhan’s act of knocking Chen Wen out was puzzling, to say the least.

He should have realized it sooner.

Lin Youhan was clever. What he wanted you to know, you would know. What he didn’t want you to know, he had a hundred ways to keep you in the dark. Even if you racked your brains, you wouldn’t realize it was just one of his methods of concealment.

Si Muyun sighed. Lin Youhan, oh Lin Youhan, when will you realize you’re not alone?

-

When they arrived at Anyang Street, there was no sign of Lin Youhan. The towering flames burned fiercely. The old locust tree nearby was reduced to its trunk, and they saw no one in the fire. Soon, fire trucks arrived. Remote high-pressure water jets sprayed droplets onto the blazing houses, and it took a long time before the charred roofs became faintly visible.

Firefighters rushed in to rescue people. Before long, one carried out a charred body, gently laying it on the ground and shaking his head at Si Muyun.

Si Muyun’s gaze froze. He said softly, "I remember every residential area in the city has a disaster detection device with an automatic emergency response mode. Why wasn’t it triggered after all this time?"

Zhao Mingchuan, who had arrived late, paused mid-step, his expression equally grim. "I just checked and found the device has been malfunctioning for at least two days. No one came to repair it."

At this, Song Chenglei chimed in, "How could the device malfunction? These detection devices are uniformly distributed by the Technology Bureau. In theory, they shouldn’t have issues for three to five years."

"Besides, this one was replaced just six months ago."

Wang Xiao whispered, "Could someone have deliberately damaged it?"

With a recent death on Anyang Street and the disaster detection device mysteriously malfunctioning without repairs, everything seemed logical yet riddled with contradictions—as if this fire was meant to happen.

Si Muyun rubbed his throbbing temples and looked at the still-burning flames. Only one thought remained in his mind: Where is Lin Youhan?

-

At the quiet entrance of the police station, a slender figure had been standing for a while. Most of the police force had followed Song Chenglei to Anyang Street. Aside from the officer on duty, the station was extremely quiet, with only faint light visible through the glass.

The officer on duty saw him and called out, "Dr. Lin."

Lin Youhan nodded and walked into the station.

He hadn’t thought much when he ran out. The thin patient gown fluttered desolately in the night wind, his figure cold and frail, looking as if a slight breeze could knock him over.

The officer was about to call out to Lin Youhan, but when he looked up, the figure had already vanished.

Scratching his head in confusion, he wondered why Dr. Lin, who was supposed to be hospitalized, had come to the station, especially so late at night.

Since Si Muyun left, Liu Wenwen had felt uneasy, drifting in and out of sleep, frequently glancing at the closed door. She rarely felt fear—the first time was when Huang Yuehong died on the way to the police station, and the second time was tonight.

Anxiety gnawed at her, a sense that something was quietly unfolding. Peering through the glass, she saw the lights outside had been turned off, leaving everything in darkness.

She lowered her eyes and stared boredly at the handcuffs. She had lost count of how many times she had woken up.

Suddenly, a tile not far away lit up.

Liu Wenwen looked up, sensing danger—the lights outside had turned on. Unhurried footsteps echoed in the hallway, each step seeming to tread on her heart. A tingling sensation spread across her scalp, and she shivered involuntarily.

The next moment, she heard the door open. Looking up, she saw a dark figure standing at the doorway. He was still wearing a patient gown, the knees of his pants stained with dirt, clutching something tightly in his hand.

Before Liu Wenwen could react to who it was, the person spoke calmly: "Where is the person who gave you the thing?"

"What thing? I don’t know." Realizing his intent, Liu Wenwen insisted she knew nothing.

Lin Youhan pushed the door fully open, revealing his pale face. The cold light fell on him, his eyes carrying a detached ruthlessness. He lifted his gaze to Liu Wenwen, as if looking at a dead person. "I’ll give you one more chance. Will you talk or not?"

"Who are you?" Liu Wenwen stared wide-eyed, terrified.

Lin Youhan slowly curved his lips into a harmless smile. "Haven’t you already figured out—"

"Who I am?"

-

The surface of the river at Yuehu Jiangxinzhou was unusually calm. A young man stood alone on the shore, gazing distantly at the ripples stirred by the wind. Before long, footsteps sounded behind him, crunching heavily on the sand.

The young man didn’t turn around, his tone flippant. "You came after all."

The person behind him said, "You knew all along that I would come."

"Expected, but I didn't think you'd come this quickly." The youth turned to look at him. "Lin Youhan, sometimes I can't figure it out—are you truly amnesiac or just pretending? You always know exactly what's happening."

As he spoke, the youth shook his head. "What a pity. You'll never be able to stop things from happening."

"Is that so?" Lin Youhan looked at him, his tone icy. "I don't believe in fate, and I've never bowed to it. Ten years ago, you tried every way to kill me, yet I survived unharmed. Even if it happens again ten years later, the result will be the same."

"You... can't kill me."

The youth sneered at his words. "You overestimate yourself. Killing you would be as easy as crushing an ant."

Lin Youhan let out a cold laugh. "Then give it your best shot."

With that, he turned and walked away, without looking back.

"Tell him, even if he thinks of a hundred ways to destroy me, I'll still have a hundred and one ways to survive. I don't mind making sure he goes first before I die."

Geniuses are born proud, equally brilliant and extraordinary.

The world can't break my will; rules cannot kill my soul.

On the smooth, broad path strewn with flowers, it is inevitably stained with blood.

The chill wind whistled, lifting the hem of his clothes and pressing it against his face. His upright posture carried the same unyielding pride as ten years ago, that would break before it bent.

The youth withdrew his gaze, his eyes icy.

Ten years had passed, yet they had failed to erase Lin Youhan's unbroken spirit.

He was still the same Lin Youhan from ten years ago.

-

Lin Youhan walked for a long time, the howling wind leaving his fingers and toes numb with cold, but his chest was warm, and the blood coursing through his body was hot. He stopped in front of a building and gently knocked on one of the doors.

After a moment, the door opened, and an elderly man with graying hair stepped out. Squinting for a better look, he took a closer look at Lin Youhan and said uncertainly, "Youhan?"

"Director, this is my resignation letter." Lin Youhan forwarded the resignation email he'd prepared.

The old man was puzzled by his actions—sending an email didn't require knocking on his door in the middle of the night.

But the next moment, Lin Youhan said, "I worried you might not approve it, so I came specifically to see you."

He added, "I hope you can give me a few more doses of the psychic enhancers before I leave."

The old man asked suspiciously, "What do you plan to do?"

"I'm going to craft a weapon," Lin Youhan said sincerely.

And then destroy the world's cycle of rebirth.

The old man studied him intently. This Lin Youhan was different from the one who had entered the hospital a year ago. Now, his eyes were filled with fervor. Though unsure what Lin Youhan intended to do, the old man couldn't help but say, "Go easy on the psychic enhancers."

"Alright."

The old man signed the form. "I don't know what you're going to do, but if you ever feel tired, come back. 9635 will always be your home."

Lin Youhan's eyes stung. "Thank you, Director."

-

It had been two hours since the fire on Anyang Street was completely extinguished. During that time, countless officers had carried out one body after another. Some faces were burned past recognition, while others lay peacefully as if asleep, and still others had eyes wide open, as if they had realized the fire too late to escape, their final struggles left in silent agony.

Si Muyun walked past each of these bodies. The young officer accompanying him covered them one by one with white cloth. When he encountered those with open eyes, he knelt down and closed them.

He stood up with a heavy heart. Song Chenglei, who had been searching for survivors with Wang Xiao, hurried over from a distance, his tone somber. "Muyun, all one hundred and fifty households on Anyang Street... no survivors."

Hearing those last four words, Si Muyun couldn't describe how he felt.

He looked up and saw a stretcher in the distance carrying the bodies of a mother and daughter. The mother held her daughter tightly in her arms, the girl curled up obediently against her, as if in a deep sleep. Perhaps they never imagined they would die in their dreams.

Song Chenglei and Wang Xiao followed his gaze, equally speechless.

Wang Xiao secretly wiped away his falling tears. "Captain, they... they..."

"They're all dead."

They died in their sleep, and they died in the fire.

Just then, a young officer called out to Captain Si from behind. Turning around, they heard him say, "Captain Si, it's bad. Someone from the station just called—Sister Wen has lost her mind."

"What?"

Si Muyun closed his eyes in despair. A classic diversion—drawing our attention away from their real move.

Everyone on Anyang Street was dead, Liu Wenwen had lost her mind, and even Lin Youhan, who had just come under suspicion, had disappeared.

Si Muyun let out a mirthless laugh.

All the sincerity he had offered Lin Youhan had been wasted on him.

"Captain, what should we do with these bodies?"

"Inter them at the memorial grounds."

-

In August of the 150th year of the New Era, Zhang Daguo of Anyang Street was killed under mysterious circumstances. Si Muyun, captain of the criminal investigation team at Tangde City Police Station, led the investigation to track down the culprit. After more than half a month, all one hundred and fifty households on Anyang Street died in a massive fire. With that, all leads in the case were cut off, and the investigation was left unresolved.

During this period, Captain Si Muyun was found negligent in his duties, resulting in heavy casualties. The Floating Star Command issued a special order to suspend him for two months. After the case concluded, Si Muyun went to 9635 Hospital to look for Lin Youhan, only to be informed by the director that Lin Youhan had already resigned from his hospital job, and no one knew where he had gone. Even Migu, who had been by Jiang Yu's side and whom Lin Youhan had left behind, had disappeared without a trace.

Shortly after the Anyang Street case concluded, a covert electromagnetic signal was detected from the mountains behind the Star Science and Technology Academy.

It was gone in an instant, silent and unnoticed.

On a night of pouring rain, a lone figure stepped onto this old homeland.

—End of Volume One—

# -Volume Two: The Technology Conference-