translator: loop
proofreader: roki
Although this kind of situation seemed very absurd, the people in front of them did not seem to be lying, and, most importantly— those footsteps had indeed disappeared.
Once the trail was broken, catching up again would be difficult.
Chu Si furrowed his brows, scanning around uneasily, but he didn’t see even the shadow of the little boy.
There was a total of over thirty men, women, and children in this group. About seven or eight people were lying against the corner of a wall, bundled up in several layers of clothing, even two police uniforms. Their exposed faces were completely lifeless, two eyes tightly closed and lips dry and cracked. If they weren’t sick, then they were injured.
Chu Si swept a glance over those two police uniforms and then at the armed men and women. The models of their guns seemed to be for civilian use. However, on the right, two people were chatting and leaning against the wall, wearing black police vests. Their pants were tucked neatly into their police boots.
They straightened up when they saw Chu Si and Sa’e Yang and walked over to them.
“What’s going on?” Chu Si asked the two police officers, lifting his chin toward the people in the corner.
Although the police were under the Ministry of the Interior of the General Government, they had many official interactions with the Security Building. When performing particular official duties, they would occasionally even fall under the command of the Security Building.
Perhaps it was an occupational habit, but Chu Si unconsciously adopted the tone of official matters during his questioning. Listening to him, one of the police officers, a curly-haired man, was stunned. He nearly sprung his heels together and straightened up out of reflex.
He coughed once to hide his embarrassment, and explained, “We were originally gathered above ground, after all, trying to survive on your own isn’t too feasible in this situation. But just a while ago, a group of wanderers arrived. To avoid conflict, we temporarily moved to the shelter and encountered some… trouble, those people were all injured.”
“What trouble?” Chu Si’s gaze fell on the two passageway openings, alert. “Are there other people hiding here?”
The curly-haired police officer furrowed his brow and said, “No, it’s a stranger kind of trouble… near the middle of the underground passage, there’s clearly nothing in front of you. Yet you just can’t get through. I don’t know what the people in front of me bumped into, but they were all injured to varying degrees. Their wounds were all very strange, as if their skin had cracked open on its own.”
Chu Si waved his finger in front of him. The blood had already been wiped clean, and a wound was clearly exposed, cut finely into his fingertip like a crack in the flesh. “Like this?”
Curly Hair was stunned: “That’s right, that’s right, it was like that! Did you also…”
He frowned in doubt and said, “But, hasn’t the passage entrance already returned to normal? We waited for a while, and when we tried again we could come in smoothly.”
“Not from here, from somewhere else.” Chu Si concisely replied.
The invisible barrier mentioned by this curly-haired police officer should’ve been the same as the one by the apartment complex, which was due to an energy field disorder caused by the abnormal space-time distortion.
If that was the case… was it possible the sudden disappearance of the child also resulted from the space-time distortion?
Different space-time continuums ground and squeezed each other, eventually forming a state of peaceful coexistence. As a result, the chaotic energy field at the rift stabilized, allowing people to pass through freely. Perhaps, under some circumstances, they could even encounter people from the past or future.
If that was the case, it could explain the little boy’s sudden disappearance.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“There’s no telling which era that little brat of yours will burst into.” Sa’e Yang bluntly angled his shoulder and leaned against the wall. Obviously, he had thought of the same possibility as Chu Si.
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Sa’e Yang had a dismissive expression on his face.
Chu Si thought for a moment and suddenly realized that this kind of thing was probably quite normal in the eyes of Mr. Yang, who had been dedicated to revolting against society throughout his entire life.
“Executive, the look you’re giving me makes me feel quite… incorrigible,” Sa’e Yang said, with a smile in his eyes.
Chu Si serenely said, “I’ve been looking at you this way for decades, aren’t you a little too slow to react?”
Sa’e Yang looked at him playfully for a moment. “Honestly, it doesn’t seem like I’m the one who’s slow to react. After all, even now you haven’t reacted to the fact that you and I are actually very similar.”
Chu Si snorted and didn’t reply again.
However, in his heart, he subconsciously pondered that if he were himself before the age of eight, he would probably find it quite normal to encounter a bomb-touching brat.
“…” Executive Chu’s expression suddenly became complex.
He tsked, turned his head, and resumed his solemn demeanor. To the curly-haired police officer, he asked, “How long have you all been here? Have these people’s wounds been treated?”
“Originally, we wanted to open the shelter entrance, but a malfunction occurred. We two police officers didn’t have the authority to activate the entrance, but it shouldn’t be like this…”
Curly Hair’s face was filled with worry. “The wounded had been given emergency treatment, and we were going to get them to a nearby hospital. However, a few days ago, there were always unidentified beams of light sweeping outside. We were worried it was trouble, so we stayed here temporarily.”
“Unidentified beams?” Chu Si furrowed his brow.
“Looks like there’s someone trying to compete with you, Executive.” Sa’e Yang spoke.
Indeed, if the other party didn’t come with good intentions, the one thing on the fragment shard that would pique their interest would most likely be the apartment complex, the one where he used to reside.
Or rather, the apartment complex where Jiang Qi used to reside.
An earnest exploration suddenly turned into an intense battle between two sides.
Perhaps the reason the other side had not yet landed was that the chaotic energy field hadn’t stabilized, and they couldn’t get too close.
But once the two sides met, conflict would be unavoidable.
Chu Si walked through the crowd to stand before the entrance of the shelter. After a brief glance, he connected to the communication channel on Tang’s side.
“Executive, is something wrong?” Tang asked.
“Can you locate me and Sa’e Yang on the monitor?” Chu Si opened his mouth.
“I can.”
“Le Pen and Liu, come here, bring all the tools you can conveniently carry. The city’s underground shelter malfunctioned and the entrance can’t be opened. Some part of the system was probably damaged,” Chu Si said.
Le Pen quickly understood Chu Si’s meaning: “We’re coming!”
Liu: “Okay.”
“Tang, check for flying objects near this fragment and feed the results back to me in real-time,” Chu Si said.
“No problem!” Tang replied.
“Everyone else keep an eye on the wanderers, but don’t start a fight.”
“Understood.”
Although he had issued instructions, Chu Si felt the situation was not very optimistic. If the other party had really come prepared, the manpower they had at present was far too weak.
About twenty minutes later, Le Pen and Liu blasted to the ground in two aircraft, each carrying a large black bag and entering the passage.
“Executive! We’re here!” Le Pen and Liu faced Chu Si, saluting.
“There’s actually so many people awake here!” Le Pen scanned around, shaking the black bag off her shoulder into her hand. “Liu, go check that controller over there. I’ll check this one.”
The girl worked furiously. Nodding at everyone as a greeting, she turned and walked toward a passageway by the entrance, tapping her hand along the way, then stopped at a certain spot. She neatly removed an entire steel plate and buried her head in inspection.
Liu walked in the opposite direction and removed another plate.
A tearing electrical current flashed several times. After a brief moment, Le Pen said, “Alright. Every shelter has pretty much the same structure, so I roughly know what’s wrong.”
Liu also walked over, and the two of them whispered together before clapping their hands at the crowd. “Come on, come on, all those who can help go directly to the central control area in a moment. After the malfunction is resolved, the controllers on both sides will light up at the same time. Executive and, uh, Mr. Yang will force the current on both sides when the time comes, and everyone else will push the door of the entrance hard. Use as much force as possible.”
After speaking, the two of them left the passage and headed straight for the central control area.
Ten minutes later, the indicator lights of the controllers on both sides suddenly flickered. Chu Si and Sa’e Yang each fiddled with the wires inside them.
The electrical current instantly crackled twice, startling everyone.
“Quick! Quick! Push the door!” The curly-haired officer waved his hand.
The crowd pushed against the door like suckling piglets, each one of their faces suffocated into the pig’s waist: “Ha—”
Suddenly, a buzzing sound echoed throughout the entire underground, followed by three whistles, one long and two short.
Small white lights suddenly lit up in the passageway in stretches of two or three meters at a time, like countless long dragons, extending out instantly from the shelter’s main entrance.
The dim space instantly brightened up, like seeing hope again in the middle of a desperate situation.
The heavy doors of the shelter let out a metallic clang before they slowly opened to receive those who had been waiting for too long.
The crowd let out a cheer! The curly-haired police officer repeated himself over and over again, organizing the excited crowd to transfer those with injuries into the shelter.
The short police officer following Curly Hair hadn’t spoken from beginning to end, but now he turned and asked Chu Si probingly, “Executive, I’d thought you were a bit familiar. With all due respect, are you… are you the Executive of Office No. 5 of the Security Building?”
Chu Si: “You’ve met me before?”
“It’s really you?! That’s great! With a high-ranking Executive, the situation is much more hopeful.” The short police officer snapped a salute at him and turned to Sa’e Yang to do the same. “Let’s go inside the shelter first, Executives. I’ll give them a hand over there.”
“I’ll leave two friends here to help you all settle down. We have to deal with another matter.” Chu Si lifted his chin at the open shelter entrance, signaling that he should also hurry in.
He explained a few words to Le Pen and Liu through the communicator, then glanced at Sa’e Yang. “It’s about time. Shall we go to the apartment complex?”
Sa’e Yang raised his eyebrows with a hint of a smile, then walked out.
There was some silence in the passage, and after walking behind him for a while, Chu Si suddenly spoke up: “I’m very surprised.”
“What?” Sa’e didn’t turn back.
His tone was no different than usual, lazy and casual, but in this long, quiet passage, it inexplicably gave the illusion of—
Of just chatting, making small talk with someone close to him unguardedly and without any probing or mockery.
Chatting about such things was rare for Chu Si, and probably unprecedented for Sa’e Yang.
Perhaps the atmosphere of this moment was too good. Chu Si said, “I never thought there would be such a day.”
“En?” Sa’e Yang didn’t stop walking, his voice deep with a slight echo. He gave a low laugh. “What exactly are you trying to say?”
loop: some irl things have come up, so I’m changing updates to x2 a week, Wednesdays and Saturdays. 
On the other hand, some lovely Musuli novel art on LOFTER (you’ve got to zoom in a little to see it). From top to bottom: Global University Entrance Examination, Black Sky, First-Class Lawyer, Mou Mou, Copper Coins.
I really am deprived of dog food, even them making small talk will get me squealing! 😭😭
Has he guessed the identity of that kid?
The art is so scrumptious ☺️ Thank you for the chapter!