157: Chapter 157 Witness Stand

There were no windows in the courtroom.

When Zhao Ye sat down, the chair was as cold as if it had just been fished out of water.

The seats around him were empty, yet people were vaguely sitting in them. Some had their heads lowered, some were holding things, and some kept looking at him.

The tilted food delivery box in the front row was very conspicuous.

Liang Cheng sat beside the box, wearing the same clothes he had on while making deliveries. He didn't speak.

Yet Zhao Ye felt as if his chest was being crushed by someone.

Zhao Ye knew that wasn't Liang Cheng.

But as that food delivery box tilted, he still remembered the headlights from that day. He remembered how he had almost chased after it, and almost sent even more people into the car door.

The Scroll Keeper stood on high, a black file spread out on the table.

"Zhao Ye."

It read out the name.

"You failed to save Liang Cheng."

Zhao Ye did not refute it.

"Yes."

"You failed to save Lu Chengzhi."

"Yes."

"You failed to stop Han Yue from entering Liuxia."

Zhao Ye's hands clenched.

"Yes."

The Scroll Keeper's pen tip fell onto the paper, the black characters hammering down like nails.

[Failure of Duty.]

The darkness around the chair contracted inward.

Zhao Ye looked at the two characters for "Failure of Duty," his Adam's apple bobbing: "The people were not saved."

The Scroll Keeper stopped writing.

"But do not touch what they have done."

Liang Cheng's phantom looked up.

Zhao Ye continued: "Liang Cheng was an ordinary person. He was originally just making deliveries. Lu Chengzhi bypassed the polluted navigation and sent four people into the Safe House. Han Yue left behind the entrance coordinates."

"I was slow."

"That is true."

"The things they did are also true."

The black characters trembled, but did not completely disappear.

On another witness stand, Tang Zhiwei sat very straight.

The Scroll Keeper asked her: "Did Lu Chengzhi die because of your dispatch?"

Tang Zhiwei was silent for a long time.

She remembered the sound of that man's voice when he answered the phone. It wasn't very heroic, and there wasn't a single superfluous word. She reported the route, and he only said, "Understood." Later, the car arrived, but the people didn't get out.

"The route was dispatched by me," Tang Zhiwei said.

The Scroll Keeper's pen tip slid across the paper.

"So you admit it."

"I admit that I handled the dispatch," Tang Zhiwei looked up. "I also admit that I still wonder, if I had discovered the navigation was polluted ten seconds earlier, would he not have had to take that road?"

Her voice did not tremble.

"But do not write him as someone pushed by me."

In the darkness, a recording suddenly played.

The static was heavy, but the phrase could be heard clearly: "Understood, I will go around."

Tang Zhiwei stared at The Scroll Keeper.

"He saw for himself that there were people on that road."

"He delivered the four people safely."

"If you want to write about responsibility, you can write that I didn't do better."

"But you have no right to write that he abandoned his post."

The recording played over and over in the courtroom.

The verdict on the black file was scorched by firelight, creating a hole.

It was not large.

But a glimmer of real light shone through.

Xu Minglan's witness stand was even quieter.

In front of her sat a mother holding a child; the mother's face was blurred, and she only asked repeatedly: "Why didn't you watch over him?"

Xu Minglan did not defend herself.

"I have asked that too," she said.

"Later I discovered, asking a hundred times is useless."

She placed the medical chart on the table; it was filled with the names of those who had been pulled back.

"Next time someone forgets themselves, I will call them back."

The Scroll Keeper said coldly: "So you admit you cannot save everyone."

"I admit it."

"Then by what right do you remain here?"

Xu Minglan looked at that file.

"Because there are still people outside waiting to be called back."

On the other side, a row of ordinary people sat in Lin Zhao's courtroom.

They did not accuse him, only asked: "When the lamp went out, why didn't you rush in?"

Lin Zhao remembered his past hesitation, remembered Chen Jue, Han Yue, and remembered the unwillingness he felt every time he was assigned to the perimeter.

His Adam's apple bobbed.

"I was afraid."

That group of figures went quiet.

"If I go in, what happens to the people behind me?"

"So I guarded this place."

He reached out, and the light of the Guardian Lamp ignited bit by bit in his palm.

"But I did not leave."

The voices on all the witness stands stopped simultaneously.

Chen Jue's witness stand was the smallest, and the chair was the lowest, as if to deliberately remind him that he was not yet qualified to sit in a real trial.

Han Yue sat in front of him.

Not the quiet Han Yue from the phantom images, but the one from the day he first entered the Safe House, with impatience on his face, asking why he had to listen to so many rules.

The Scroll Keeper asked: "Do you believe Han Yue died because of you?"

Chen Jue's throat felt blocked.

He wanted to say no.

But Han Yue's final words, "Tell Chen Jue, don't learn from me," kept ringing in his ears.

"A little," Chen Jue said.

The darkness immediately pressed down.

"I used to think that being defiant could prove myself," he lowered his head. "When he took that road, I actually understood why he took it."

"I didn't stop him."

The Scroll Keeper's pen tip slid across the paper.

[Shared Responsibility.]

Chen Jue looked up sharply.

"But now I know, not everyone who wants to save people should rush in alone."

"He left the coordinates."

"I later guarded the people."

"Both of these things are true."

Han Yue's phantom did not speak, but only pushed the notebook forward.

On the other side, The Arbiter was also pulled into the witness stand. Sitting opposite him were those whom he had once audited, but who had not lived to see a complete conclusion.

The Scroll Keeper asked: "Do you believe in the procedure?"

The Arbiter was silent.

"I believed in it before," he said. "Now, I must believe in it even more."

"Because some people will use the procedure to kill."

"Then take it back."

As these words fell, cracks appeared for the first time in the black lines around his seat.

In the deepest part of the courtroom, there was an empty seat.

Gu Xingzhou had not received a subpoena, but he was dragged by the darkness to the side of that seat. He saw many names that had once been marked "Pending Verification" by the official System, like stacks of files that hadn't been opened in time.

The Scroll Keeper asked him: "Is hesitation a sin?"

Gu Xingzhou did not answer immediately.

He remembered when he first learned about Torch, he had indeed hesitated; he remembered some data being stuck in the process, some blockades not being established fast enough, and some people never receiving an accurate reply until the very end.

"Hesitation harms people," he said.

"Therefore, it cannot be used as an excuse."

"But you also cannot write that everyone deserves to die just because someone hesitated."

The files around the empty seat flipped without wind.

On several of the pages, the originally blurred characters for "Pending Verification" were illuminated by the firelight, revealing a clear outline.

The Scroll Keeper turned to the last page.

A new name appeared on the paper.

[Lu Chen.]

The darkness in the courtroom suddenly intensified.

It was not in a hurry to write the verdict.

It only asked:

"Can you save everyone?"

On the other side of the Fire Map, Lu Chen stood in Xinhuo Hall, not responding immediately.

He looked at the names that had lit up again under the stone tablet.

Liang Cheng.

Lu Chengzhi.

Han Yue.

Chen Fu.

Each one reminded him: I cannot save them.

But he did not dodge the question.

"I cannot save them."

The black file opened.

The Scroll Keeper's pen tip finally fell.

[Admitted.]

The sound of a gavel striking echoed throughout the entire Court of No Return.