126: Chapter 126 Chen Fu did not get on the bus

After Chen Fu was trapped, no one outside the warehouse door dared to speak loudly again.

The yellow line wrapped the forklift and the deepest shelves into a whitish outline.

One could not see inside from the outside, only hear the reversing alarm still sounding intermittently.

Each time it sounded, the station broadcast on the floor of the Safe House lowered by a notch.

When Zhao Ye rushed back to Qinghe, the Spark Post Road had just extinguished.

The moment he landed outside the Safe House, the old wound behind his shoulder was torn open again by the chill of the Spark Post Road.

He didn't bother to look and charged straight toward the warehouse.

Lin Zhao stopped him, almost colliding with him.

"The yellow line inside has closed."

"I can see that."

"If you go in, there will be one more substitute ticket."

Zhao Ye's footsteps halted.

He stood outside the door and watched that section of the yellow line slowly close like the edge of a car door, his expression terrifyingly grim.

"Where is Shen Qinghe?"

"On the way," Tang Zhiwei said.

"Can she break it when she arrives?"

Tang Zhiwei did not answer.

Zhao Ye turned his head to look at her.

Tang Zhiwei's hand pressed on the walkie-talkie, her knuckles turning white.

"The result heard by the Fate-Illuminating bronze bell is that the substitute ticket rule has already been pressed onto him," she said.

"Once Chen Fu leaves the forklift, the shelves will collapse, and the yellow line will rush into the hallway.

Everyone who didn't evacuate just now will be written into the list."

This was not a multiple-choice question.

It was the only way to die left after an anomaly cornered someone.

Zhao Ye gritted his teeth and shouted toward the warehouse door: "Chen Fu!"

It took two seconds for a sound to come from inside.

"I'm here."

Chen Fu's voice was muffled by the metal and the broadcast.

"Don't move," Zhao Ye said.

"I can't move either."

This sentence would normally be a bit funny, but no one laughed.

After Shen Qinghe arrived, she first placed the bronze bell outside the warehouse door.

As soon as the bell wall touched the ground, her expression changed.

The bell sound did not ring out completely; only a very short burst of static came from within the bell, like someone had punched a ticket from a great distance away.

"There is no other entrance," she said.

Zhao Ye stared at her: "Are you sure?"

"Sure."

"Is there any other way?"

Shen Qinghe was silent for a long time.

Inside the warehouse, Chen Fu heard the silence outside and already knew the answer.

He didn't curse, nor did he say anything like "Don't worry about me."

He just touched the key ring at his waist, which had tags for the warehouse, storage cabinet, back door, and cold storage.

He touched them one by one, as if confirming whether each door was still there.

"Sister Tang."

"I'm here."

"The storage box in the third row on the left, don't burn it as a ticket."

Tang Zhiwei closed her eyes.

"I know."

"There are photos inside."

"I know."

"The blue box on the very top, the key is at my waist."

Tang Zhiwei opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

Chen Fu waited for a while and then laughed to himself.

"Never mind, you have a spare key."

The forklift suddenly jolted.

The yellow line cut a thin slit into the front baffle, and cold wind poured in through the crack.

Chen Fu's hand paused on the steering wheel.

It wasn't that he wasn't afraid.

He thought of the message his wife had sent him, asking when he would be home, as the child wanted to eat fried chicken.

He hadn't replied yet.

He wanted to take out his phone but found that the screen had long been illuminated into a sheet of white by the yellow line.

"Chen Fu," Lin Zhao shouted from outside, "I'll go in and switch with you."

Chen Fu hurriedly said: "Don't."

"You are not alone."

"I know," Chen Fu's voice was very low, "which is why you shouldn't come in."

The reversing alarm suddenly stopped.

Then, the sound of steel frames breaking came from the top of the warehouse.

Chen Fu pressed his body against the steering wheel, his foot firmly pressing the brake.

He knew that once the shelves collapsed, the vehicle would be buried.

But as long as the forklift was still propping it up, the yellow line couldn't get through.

Outside, Shen Qinghe raised her hand to press the bronze bell, and Zhao Ye stood in front of the door without moving.

They were both waiting for one last possibility.

But that possibility did not come.

When the shelves crashed down, the warehouse door was jolted and bulged outward.

Lin Zhao and Zheng Xiang pulled Tang Zhiwei back.

Dust filled the hallway.

The yellow line flashed brightly, then, as if stuck by something, stopped half an inch from the threshold.

All station broadcasts in the Safe House cut off simultaneously.

When the dust settled, only silence remained behind the warehouse door.

It took the fire and engineering support personnel two hours to dismantle the collapsed steel frames.

When Chen Fu's body was found, he was still sitting in the forklift's driver's seat.

The seatbelt was fastened.

His hands were still on the steering wheel.

He did not get on the vehicle.

He died outside the station.

After the warehouse collapsed, the first sound heard was the dripping of water.

It was not rain.

It was the fire sprinklers being shaken open, with water dripping down from the broken pipes and hitting the steel frames.

Everyone stood outside the yellow line, and no one dared to be the first to say "Go in and search."

Because the yellow line was still there, a thin layer, as if biting tightly onto the threshold.

Zhao Ye pressed his hand against the wall, the spark in his palm flashing and then extinguishing.

It wasn't that he couldn't smash it open by force, but once the door was smashed open, the shelves holding the yellow line would also scatter.

"I'll do it," he said.

Shen Qinghe looked at the bronze bell and shook her head.

"You cannot break the rule by force."

"Then smash the vehicle."

"There is no vehicle left inside."

Zhao Ye turned his head, his eyes red.

Shen Qinghe lowered her voice: "I know."

She also knew this sentence was cruel.

But the rules wouldn't change for the better just because they didn't want to hear it.

Chen Fu had jammed the yellow line outside the station using the real-world forklift, the shelves, and his own weight left behind in the driver's seat.

Anyone who went in again would complete that line again.

After the engineering support personnel arrived, Tang Zhiwei personally monitored the dismantling sequence.

She didn't let anyone push from the front door, nor did she let anyone use large machinery to vibrate it; it could only be dismantled one piece at a time.

Every time a section of the steel frame was dismantled, the Grey Net would register a yellow line reaction.

Time was stretched very long.

So long that Zheng Xiang persuaded everyone to go drink water, and then replaced the water that had gone cold.

So long that Luo Ping sat by the wall, staring at the cut on his hand from a cardboard box, not daring to close his eyes.

Chen Jue stood outside the door without speaking.

He thought of Han Yue, and how every time someone would say, "Wait a little longer, maybe there's still a way."

This time, he didn't ask.

Until the engineering lights shone into the deepest part, everyone finally saw that forklift.

The front of the vehicle was flattened, and the area around the driver's seat was full of fallen steel frames.

Chen Fu was still in the seat, the seatbelt fastened, his arm pinned by the steering wheel.

That key ring hung at his waist, the smallest key already broken.

Tang Zhiwei stood a few meters away and did not walk over.

She was afraid that if she approached, she would see if Chen Fu had left behind any unfinished words.

But no.

He left nothing behind.

Only that vehicle remained across from the yellow line, proving that he hadn't released the brake until the very end.

When Chen Fu's body was carried out, no one gathered around outside the Safe House.

Zheng Xiang had led the ordinary people and the wounded to the other side in advance, and Luo Ping stood at the end of the hallway, his back to the warehouse door, still clutching that invalid black ticket in his hand.

He wanted to cry, but couldn't; he only felt a painful tightness in his chest.

Lin Zhao walked over and took the ticket from his hand.

"You didn't hide it this time," Lin Zhao said.

Luo Ping nodded.

"And you didn't run."

Luo Ping nodded again.

Lin Zhao didn't say anything else, just put the ticket into a storage bag.

Some things cannot be moved past with just a "You did the right thing."

But at least Luo Ping did not let the same fear take him away again.

Tang Zhiwei stood outside the warehouse door until the last engineering light went out.

She saw Chen Fu's key ring being put into an evidence bag, the smallest broken key lightly clinking inside.

The sound was very small.

Yet it was like the last reversing alarm in the warehouse.