154: Chapter 154 The Door in the Files

The old Archives in Qinghe originally only had four floors.

After midnight, an extra floor appeared on the fire safety blueprints. The second basement level.

Space Venerable zoomed in on the electronic map several times, confirming it wasn't a System error. He stared at the screen in silence for a long time before finally looking up and saying, "This building does not have a second basement level."

Zhao Ye glanced at the pitch-black stairwell entrance. "It does now."

"I know." Space Venerable adjusted his glasses. "What I mean is, there's no load-bearing structure, piping, drainage, or escape routes. It shouldn't exist."

"An anomaly doesn't understand building codes," Zhao Ye said.

"I wasn't expecting it to," Space Venerable swallowed hard. "I just want to know where we're supposed to run if the walls collapse later."

Someone in the channel couldn't help but let out a laugh, only to immediately cough it back in.

The perimeter of the Archives had already been sealed off by Gu Xingzhou's people. The official explanation was that the old building had electrical faults and was undergoing maintenance. Zheng Xiang and the community coordinators were at the street corner, settling the residents affected by the black door frame, registering each person as they arrived and not allowing anyone to leave alone.

Lin Zhao stood guard at the edge of the assembly point, holding three of the most standard-issue Guardian Lamps.

The lamps were small, but their flames were steady.

When someone was drawn to the door frame, muttering, "I'll just go in and take a look," Lin Zhao would block their path with the lamp.

"Sit down first."

"I'm fine."

"Everyone who isn't fine says that."

His tone wasn't stern, but he didn't loosen his grip.

On the other side, Xu Minglan was performing a simple check on a middle-aged woman. The woman kept asking what her child's name was, then shook her head, saying she remembered—how could she forget?

Xu Minglan didn't answer her, instead writing the child's name on the medical clipboard, reading it aloud, and having the woman repeat it.

By the fifth time, the woman suddenly burst into tears.

"I'm afraid I'll forget him."

"Then don't remember him alone," Xu Minglan said. "We'll remember him together."

Inside the Archives main entrance, Shen Qinghe stood at the very front.

Her Fate-Illuminating Bronze Bell fragment pressed against her palm, as cold as iron just pulled from the bottom of a well.

There were no lights in the building.

Yet between every row of file shelves, a small black lamp glowed. Beneath the lamps sat blurry figures—there were elderly people, children, rescue workers in uniform, and young people carrying delivery boxes.

Those figures didn't move or blink, as if waiting for someone to read their names aloud for them.

Zhao Ye's footsteps faltered.

The person closest to the door looked like Liang Cheng.

He didn't look at the face first.

It was the delivery box tilted beside his feet. Two pairs of undelivered chopsticks were still tucked into the side pocket.

Zhao Ye clenched his fists.

"Don't look for too long," Shen Qinghe said.

"I know."

He said it, but his voice was a bit hoarse.

Bai Ya's Fire Seal lit up with thin lines, probing deep along the file shelves. He didn't look at the figures, only calling out coordinates: "There's a duplicate dossier on the seventh shelf to the left. There are traces of an exit beneath the two lamps on the right. Don't step on that black line in the middle."

The black line on the floor looked like ink seeping out, leading straight to the stairs.

Before Shen Qinghe lifted her foot, the bronze bell fragment suddenly vibrated.

She heard the faint sound of a gavel striking.

Immediately after, the entire floor of file shelves shook in unison.

Countless pages flipped open automatically, the sound of the wind like hundreds or thousands of people whispering as they read.

From the very depths, a voice slowly resonated.

"Unfulfilled duties may all become cases."

When they went down the stairs, everyone's footsteps sounded wrong.

There were only four of them, but the echoes sounded like a dozen people following behind. Zhao Ye looked back once; there was nothing behind them, only rows of file shelves and pages illuminated by black lamps.

Bai Ya immediately warned, "Don't look back a second time."

"Why?"

"If you look back a second time, it will add another person for you."

Zhao Ye didn't ask again.

Halfway down the stairs, Shen Qinghe suddenly stopped. She heard a faint crying sound, like a child hiding behind a file shelf, asking where their mother was. Chen Jue, hearing the synchronized audio over the comms, saw his expression change immediately.

Shen Qinghe didn't go over.

She simply tilted the bronze bell fragment in her hand slightly toward the direction of the sound.

The crying immediately turned into the sound of rustling paper.

"Ignore it," Shen Qinghe said. "It wants to separate us."

Space Venerable followed behind, clutching the floor plan in his hand. Originally, there was no second basement level on the diagram, but with every step down, a new fire escape route appeared on the paper, all leading to the same label: Witness Stand.

Space Venerable stared at the diagram, his palms drenched in sweat. "It's altering my map."

Bai Ya replied, "Then don't let it draw our escape route."

Space Venerable's face turned even paler, but he still folded the map and shoved it into his pocket.

"Don't worry. I don't trust it."

When they reached the deepest part, a black door opened silently.

Behind the door was not a room.

It was rows of seats and an exaggeratedly high judge's bench.

A pen lay on the table, its nib still dripping with black ink.

Beneath one of the lamps closest to the black door sat an open dossier.

Bai Ya gently pried it open with his Fire Seal. Inside were not names, but page after page of blank forms. At the top of each form was written "Testimony Confirmation," and at the bottom of every page was a space for a signature.

Zhao Ye glanced at it. "What happens if you sign it?"

"You'll be tacitly agreeing to let it finish the rest of the story for you," Bai Ya said.

Space Venerable felt a chill down his spine and immediately pressed down on the floor plan in his hand.

A line of text had appeared on the edge of his diagram, he didn't know when:

[ I confirm that this building has a second basement level. ]

His face went pale, and he tore the map in half.

As the paper tore, the black lamps suddenly flickered violently.

Space Venerable's breathing was rapid, but he still said, "I do not confirm."

"Whether or not this building has a second basement level is something for me to measure after I get out."

Zhao Ye glanced at him but said nothing.

Bai Ya, however, gave a soft "tsk." "That's true."

Zhao Ye took a step forward, and the power of the Evil Suppressor seed spread from beneath his feet. The black line that had been crawling along the ground seemed to be pressed down by an invisible weight, pausing for a beat.

Just a beat.

Veins were already bulging on the back of his hand.

"It's writing us," Zhao Ye said.

Shen Qinghe looked up.

Above the stairwell, a massive black dossier floated in the air. No one was turning the pages, yet they flipped on their own. With every page turned, a name on one of the file shelves would fade slightly.

She saw Han Yue's name.

She saw Chen Fu's name.

She also saw her own name appearing on the very last page.

The tip of the pen hovered over the paper.

[ Shen Qinghe. ]

[ Failed to prevent... ]

The words that followed hadn't been written yet.

Shen Qinghe closed her eyes, and the bronze bell fragment in her palm finally emitted a second vibration.

This time, it wasn't hearing it.

It was pinning it down.

She pressed the fragment against the black line on the floor.

"This place is not for you to write."

The shadow of the bell glowed slightly.

The black line seemed to be nailed to the ground; it twitched violently and then stopped.

Instantly, only a ringing sound remained in Shen Qinghe's ears, and she could barely hear what Zhao Ye was saying.

But she could see.

On the last page of the black dossier, the pen tip slowly descended.

But what it wrote was not her name.

It was a new verdict.

[ Xinhuo Council, Case One. ]