156: Chapter 156, Case 1

Black door frames appeared in Qinghe overnight in twenty-seven locations.

Hospital corridors, residential building stairwells, bus dispatch stations, the back alleys of second-hand markets, and even beside the freezer of a 24-hour convenience store—identical doors had been erected in all these places.

There was no one inside the doors.

But outside every door, there was always a subpoena.

After some people picked up the subpoena, they began to dream of sitting inside a windowless courtroom.

The courtroom was filled with people who hadn't been saved; they didn't speak, they just stared at you.

Those who broke down first were often not the ones who had seen strange things.

It was those who had spent a long time chewing over the phrase, "If only I had…"

In Xu Minglan's makeshift medical station, a mother sat by the bedside clutching her knees, having not spoken for two hours.

Her child had been pulled back in the Jiangbei Return Ticket incident, but later suffered from recurring memory gaps due to subsequent contamination.

The woman kept feeling that it was because she hadn't stopped her child from taking the ticket at the time that the whole family had been dragged into that disaster.

Now, she was even starting to forget her child's name.

Xu Minglan sat down opposite her, not saying, "It's not your fault."

Those words were useless.

She flipped over her medical chart, wrote down the child's name, and then noted the milk the woman had heated for the child that morning, the socks the child had kicked off during their nap, and the pair of unwashed sneakers by the door.

"Look here," Xu Minglan said. "It's not just that one time you didn't stop him."

The woman looked up.

"You also bought him breakfast, brought him to the hospital in the middle of the night, and just now, when he was crying, you were the first to call his name."

Xu Minglan's fingertips pressed against the medical chart, and her medical Fire Seal slowly lit up.

The woman's eyes gradually focused.

She finally called out her child's name and, clutching the medical chart, burst into tears.

The woman was still crying.

But she was finally able to say her child's name in its entirety.

At another relocation point, Lin Zhao was guarding a makeshift Lamp-Keeping Zone.

Black verdict text was drilling inside along the door cracks like thin threads.

When the threads touched the lamplight, they turned into strings of blurred words: Not saved, Too late, Should be responsible.

The youngest collaborator was forced to retreat and asked Lin Zhao, "It's not wrong. We really didn't save everyone."

Lin Zhao didn't turn around.

He arranged three standard Guardian Lamps in an arc and pressed his palm onto the middle one.

The flame was pressed very low by him, then gradually expanded.

There was no flashy light.

Just a thin curtain of fire appeared before the lamp, blocking those black words outside.

Sweat quickly appeared on Lin Zhao's forehead.

"Not saving them doesn't mean we should let it drag the rest of them away too."

The Lamp-Keeping Zone fell silent.

Lin Zhao's palm was scorched red by the lamp flame. He used to complain that he was always on the perimeter, but now he knew that if no one was guarding behind, it was useless to charge hard in the front.

Things were more direct on Zhao Ye's side.

In the old city district, a black verdict text crawled over from the ground; wherever it passed, the place names on road signs turned into "Pending Trial," and the names on shop signs fell off in pieces.

Zhao Ye stood at the street corner, the Evil Suppressor fire patterns under his feet expanding in circles.

He didn't use brute force to smash it.

He just pressed his hand onto the ground.

"Stop."

For the first time, the Evil Suppressor's power was no longer just suppressing contamination.

Within a radius of over ten meters, the black text was like being hit by a heavy stone, all pausing at once.

Two seconds.

Blood immediately spilled from the corner of Zhao Ye's mouth.

But two seconds was enough.

Bai Ya's Grey Net mark crawled back along the stopped verdict text, grabbing a dossier flow line; Gu Xingzhou's people took the opportunity to pull away the residents at the street corner who hadn't been affected yet; Tyrannosaurus King drove a tow truck to push aside the wrecked car blocking the middle of the road, clearing a path for the evacuation convoy.

Tyrannosaurus King poked his head out of the car window: "What's this move called?"

Zhao Ye wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth: "Suppression."

"How long can you hold it?"

"Two seconds. Any extra second is a bonus."

Tyrannosaurus King was silent for a moment: "That's pretty costly."

Zhao Ye was almost amused to the point of laughter.

Bai Ya's voice sounded in the channel: "Don't chat. The dossier flow lines are all returning to the Archives."

On Shen Qinghe's side, she was nailing down the second black line on the outer wall of the Archives.

Her face was very pale, and there was still a continuous buzzing in her ears.

The second toll of the fate-illuminating bronze bell allowed her to temporarily pin down a verdict text that had already fallen, but for every extra place she nailed, the real sounds she could hear diminished.

Zhao Ye asked her how much longer she could hold on.

Shen Qinghe didn't hear clearly.

Bai Ya answered for her: "She can probably only hear you swearing right now."

Zhao Ye shut his mouth.

Chen Jue was no longer arranged to stand far away.

At Zheng Xiang's relocation point, a black door opened in the canteen kitchen, and the cold air from the door frame made two elderly people unable to stand steadily.

Chen Jue only had a basic standard fire rope and a portable lamp in his hand; he didn't even count as an official member.

In the past, when he encountered such things, his first reaction was to rush in.

This time, he first tied the fire rope around his waist and handed the other end to Zheng Xiang.

"I'll go over and pull the people by the door out."

Zheng Xiang looked at him: "What if you get dragged in too?"

"Then you pull."

"What if I can't pull you out?"

Chen Jue paused: "Then you call for help."

Zheng Xiang cursed: "No kidding."

But his hand didn't loosen.

Chen Jue walked forward against the black lines of the verdict text; every step felt like stepping into water.

He didn't look at the voices inside the door calling his name, only staring at the direction of the fire rope on the ground.

When he dragged the first elderly person out, he was almost entangled by the black lines at his ankles.

Zheng Xiang and two collaborators pulled backward together.

No one said any flowery words; their faces were all flushed red, and they forcefully dragged him and the second elderly person back to the Lamp-Keeping Zone.

Chen Jue fell to the ground, panting and unable to speak.

Zheng Xiang sat down beside him and patted his shoulder.

"You didn't run off blindly this time."

Chen Jue wiped the sweat off his face and replied after a long while: "I've learned."

When these words were transmitted back to the Safe House, Lin Zhao looked up.

He didn't praise him, only handed the outermost lamp in the Lamp-Keeping Zone to Chen Jue.

"Watch it."

Chen Jue took the lamp and nodded.

Not far away, a black door frame lit up again.

But this time, no one in the Lamp-Keeping Zone walked forward again.

The Qinghe fire department also sent people.

They didn't enter the black doors, only being responsible for recording the stairwells, door frames, and the flow of personnel.

A young firefighter stood at the door for a long time and suddenly said to Gu Xingzhou: "These doors seem to be deliberately opened in the places where people regret the most."

Hospital entrances, old residential areas, accident scenes, school side gates.

Gu Xingzhou did not deny it.

"That's why someone has to stand guard outside."

The firefighter nodded and turned to tighten the warning tape again.

The warning tape snapped in the wind.

A man rushed to the line and was held down by Zheng Xiang.

The man kept shouting that he hadn't caused anyone's death.

Zheng Xiang stood in front of him, not saying he was guilty or that he wasn't, only repeating one sentence: "Sit down first. Sit down and then we'll talk."

In the end, the man really sat down.

Near midnight, all the black door frames lit up simultaneously.

Above the old Qinghe Archives, the outline of a black courtroom that had never existed floated into view.

The sound of the gavel echoed throughout the entire city.

[Case One, Xinhuo Council.]

The names on the subpoenas lit up one after another.

No one was forcibly dragged away.

But everyone holding a subpoena knew what was waiting behind the door.

Waiting for them to admit: I am alive, others are dead, therefore I am guilty.