86: Chapter 86 A Feast Under the Greenhouse

The air inside the elevator went still for a beat.

Ye Nanxing's gaze was icy, and a tiny bloodshot thread appeared at the corner of her eye—a reaction to her pupils contracting too quickly as she controlled her emotions.

Her fingertips tapped lightly against her thigh—once, very softly, as if holding down a button about to trigger an explosion.

This was her "emotional detachment" mechanism.

She forced the impulse in her brain to overturn everything down into the deepest recesses.

Chu Yunting, standing half a step to her left, remained silent. His hands hung naturally at his sides, appearing relaxed, but his eyes were fixed intently on the cabin door that had just closed.

—He, too, had seen the shoelace of that Child in the final moment it was exposed.

That scrap of white fabric was like a final shred of "humanity" struggling before being swallowed into hell.

His expression didn't change, but his heart clenched violently.

Not because of shock, but because of familiarity.

This was not his first time seeing this method of disposal.

The last time it happened, when he was still an "outer liaison for the White Core Project," he had witnessed similar liquidation methods with his own eyes, only the targets were "abnormal program testers," not an eight-year-old Child.

He thought he had long since become numb to these things.

But today—it was different.

He glanced at Ye Nanxing.

She said nothing, only uttering a single sentence with feigned indifference:

"...This counts as a fortress?"

Chu Yunting's gaze flickered.

He could tell that Ye Nanxing was very calm, terrifyingly calm.

She was also very restrained, restrained as if she could blow this entire place up the next second.

Chu Yunting suddenly realized—he didn't know Ye Nanxing at all.

He had never asked about her past, didn't know how she had survived that windy, snowy night alone, how she had built a Shelter capable of withstanding extreme cold, nor did he know... just how far she intended to go.

He only thought she was not simple and was worth cooperating with.

But at this moment, he suddenly had an unsettling illusion.

She hadn't come to cooperate.

She had come to—settle accounts.

"The extreme cold is, after all, not a fairy tale."

Lin Muran's voice arrived right on cue.

He leaned against the elevator wall, his fingers toying with the button on his cuff, a smile still on his face.

"We can only support a portion of the people."

Ye Nanxing glanced at him, her expression indifferent.

"And the others?"

"It depends on fate."

Lin Muran smiled and spread his hands.

The words were spoken too lightly, too steadily, as if he were discussing a fluctuation in temperature rather than the process of a living person just having been disposed of.

The elevator doors slowly closed, swallowing that low-temperature purgatory back into the underground.

Chu Yunting closed his eyes, his eyelashes casting a very short shadow beneath them.

At this moment, Ye Nanxing suddenly turned her head, her gaze meeting his exactly.

Chu Yunting turned his head away almost imperceptibly, hiding his emotions back in his eyes.

The elevator continued upward, leading to that "Greenhouse Paradise" beneath layers of gorgeous packaging.

No one spoke.

Ye Nanxing and Chu Yunting were finally led into a reception room with excellent soundproofing.

The floor was made of constant-temperature stone, giving the illusion of warmth underfoot.

Several paintings with a unified style hung on the walls—wastelands, wind and snow, frozen lakes... all were themes of extreme cold, yet they were rendered in a highly "artistic" way.

On the tea table, red wine, hot coffee, and a platter of desserts on a silver tray had already been prepared.

Everything was gentle, quiet, and full of the exquisite feeling of the "afterglow of civilization."

Lin Muran had not yet arrived.

But Ye Nanxing knew that all of this had already begun.

She scanned the room, her eyes lingering for a second on the internal structure of the crystal chandelier in the upper right corner—

A miniature rotating surveillance camera, its red light extremely faint, almost imperceptible to the naked eye.

She sat down slowly with a calm expression, took off her coat and hung it on the back of the chair, her movements crisp and efficient, as if she hadn't noticed any of these anomalies at all.

Chu Yunting sat silently opposite her, his expression even heavier than before.

Ye Nanxing might not be clear on it, but he understood very well that they had been brought to a "negotiation room."

No, to be precise, it was an "affiliation screening room."

From the scent, the decor, and the temperature of the drinks, he could feel it—this underground city had decided to start "collecting people."

But the question was: whom to keep, whom to release? Who was an asset, and who was a threat?

If it were just him, they wouldn't need to go to such great lengths.

If it were Ye Nanxing... Chu Yunting thought of Ye Nanxing's terrifyingly accurate intuition.

He had always known Ye Nanxing had secrets, but he hadn't expected that this place had already set its sights on her.

He looked at Ye Nanxing, only to find she had no trace of abnormality.

That kind of calmness didn't even seem like someone who had just seen a "Child being thrown into a recycling cabin by a machine."

She was thinking.

Not feeling.

He suddenly realized something terrifying—

Throughout this journey, he had been trying to understand Ye Nanxing, trying to travel and cooperate with her, but from beginning to end, she had never truly regarded him as someone she could "rely on."

This woman, from start to finish, only trusted herself.

Lin Muran finally walked in, still wearing that well-tailored military green trench coat, with that "moderately gentle" smile on his face.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

He sat down and tapped his teacup rhythmically with his fingers.

"I have been confirming... resource matching issues on my end."

"Some interesting data was scanned just now." He said, his gaze falling on Ye Nanxing, his smile unchanged, "Your internal energy index is on the high side, and the way it flows is extremely peculiar. Very rare."

"But the system's identification clearance is insufficient, so the type cannot be determined for the time being."

"But that doesn't matter—we will conduct further tests."

After finishing his sentence, he took a sip of coffee, his tone suddenly shifting:

"Of course, before that, I must confirm one thing—"

"Ye Nanxing."

He called out her name, his tone slow.

"Are you staying voluntarily, or... shall we 'coordinate the arrangements'?"

The air suddenly grew half a degree colder.

Ye Nanxing's eyes didn't flicker for an instant: "What do you mean?"

Lin Muran chuckled: "It means exactly what it sounds like."

"You are not an ordinary person, and Zero Point is very interested in you."

"We are willing to provide you with full security residency clearance, high-level supplies, an experimental protection plan, and even in the future... we can give you research clearance."

"The premise is—you stay."

"Join Zero Point and become an official 'internal member'."

"Otherwise."

He raised his hand as he said this.

Inside the four walls, slight mechanical devices sounded simultaneously. After a few "click-clack" sounds, the door locks closed completely, and even the electronic door panel became embedded into the wall.

"You cannot leave."

Chu Yunting stood up abruptly, the legs of his chair scraping a dull sound against the floor.

"Lin Muran, have you lost your mind?"

His eyes were sharp, and for the first time, his tone lost its composure.

"She is not someone you can touch."

Lin Muran heard this, slowly raised his eyes, and looked at him with a smile on his lips.

"She is not someone I can touch?"

"Then tell me—who is she?"

Lin Muran walked slowly closer, his voice soft, each word like a nail:

"Where did she come from?"

"Why did she appear in your team?"

"Do you know what kind of energy is inside her? Or perhaps—do you know what she is capable of?"

Chu Yunting's Adam's apple bobbed, and the anger on his face suddenly froze.

For a moment, he couldn't speak.