160: Chapter 160 Leaving a Name in the World

When the Court of No Return collapsed, there was no massive explosion.

The black door frames lost their color one by one, like old photographs damaged by rainwater.

The non-existent floor beneath the Archives slowly receded into the darkness, with only pages of unburnable scroll fragments drifting out and landing on the cold, damp stone steps.

Lu Chen did not destroy it completely.

The Scroll Keeper was still there.

It was nailed into a fragmented black scroll and sealed beneath the old Archives.

Its rules had not vanished, but it had lost the qualification to write upon the entire city.

From now on, every time it was unsealed, it would require triple confirmation from Torch, official authorities, and physical evidence.

Gu Xingzhou looked at the storage box and remained silent for a long time.

"Does this count as cooperation?" he asked.

Lu Chen's Fire-Holding Incarnation had already faded, leaving only the firelight standing beside the storage box.

"It counts as a joint record."

Gu Xingzhou did not press further.

He understood that this was already a significant step that Lu Chen was willing to take.

After the black gates in Qinghe disappeared, the relocation point did not immediately disperse.

Many people still dared not return home.

Some feared the doorplates would turn white again, some feared forgetting their children's names in the middle of the night, and some just sat in chairs in a daze.

Zheng Xiang had porridge cooked, just like that time in Jiangbei, and no one urged anyone to drink it.

Tang Zhiwei checked compensation, relocation, and follow-up contacts one by one, speaking quickly and accurately.

She placed Chen Fu's work notebook, warehouse keys, and that takeout receipt into a transparent bag and personally handed it to Chen Fu's family.

Chen Fu's daughter asked: "Will others say in the future that Dad was never here?"

Tang Zhiwei paused for a moment.

"Some people will forget."

The little girl's eyes turned red instantly.

"But not everyone will forget." Tang Zhiwei placed the transparent bag into her hands. "There is a record here. And many people still remember."

Beneath the stone tablet in Xinhuo Hall, a small area had been added.

There were no high platforms, no titles.

Only rows of names.

Han Yue.

Chen Fu.

Lu Chengzhi.

Liang Cheng.

And those whose whereabouts could not be confirmed for the time being, still listed as missing.

Lu Chen stood in front of the stone tablet and looked for a long time.

Zero prompted: "Torch Name-Leaving authority has stabilized. Current coverage: Real actions, real witnesses, personal confirmation."

"Keep the restrictions," Lu Chen said.

"Name-leaving cannot replace review. Name-leaving cannot replace resurrection. Name-leaving cannot replace responsibility."

"Recorded."

He did not want this thing to become a medal that anyone could use to prove themselves.

A name is not a trophy.

At least, it shouldn't be.

Shen Qinghe's tinnitus did not ease until the next day.

Sitting by the window of the Safe House, when she heard the sound of cars outside, she was stunned for a few seconds before confirming that they were real cars.

Zhao Ye walked over carrying two hot drinks and placed one by her side.

"Can you hear me?"

Shen Qinghe glanced at him: "I can hear."

"That's good."

"What did you ask just now?"

Zhao Ye was silent for two seconds, then set his own cup down as well.

The corners of Shen Qinghe's mouth moved very slightly.

On the other side, Lin Zhao's formal review results had come out.

It was not because of how many judgments he blocked, nor how long the Lamp-Keeping Zone held out.

The review record was written very simply:

[Under conditions where the risk limit could not be confirmed, still able to maintain evacuation order and prioritize the protection of ordinary people.]

[Guardian Lamp path, compatibility passed.]

Lin Zhao looked at those two lines of text and said nothing for a long time.

Chen Jue leaned over, wanting to see, but not quite daring to.

Lin Zhao moved the terminal to the side.

"What are you looking at?"

"When can I pass?"

"Wait until you stop treating going inside as a reward."

Chen Jue was sullen for a while, then said in a low voice: "I know."

This time, he did not talk back.

His candidate assessment did not skip levels.

Torch only granted him Apprentice review qualifications and stricter action recording permissions.

Whether he could become an Apprentice would depend on future missions, contributions, and compatibility, taking it one step at a time.

Wu sat in the seat closest to the window in the Safe House.

In the reality Archives, he still had no real name, and his photo remained blurry.

But whenever he looked at his Fire Seal, there was always a faint glimmer of light there.

Chen Jue asked him: "Do you still forget now?"

"Yes," Wu said.

"Then what is the use of leaving a name?"

Wu thought for a moment.

"At least when I forget, there is a place that can tell me I am not empty."

After the Court of No Return was sealed, a very ordinary temporary sign appeared at the entrance of the old Qinghe Archives.

The sign did not say "Anomaly Sealed," but only "Archives Under Repair, Temporarily Closed."

Gu Xingzhou's people took turns guarding the outside, and Zheng Xiang's community collaborators occasionally brought hot water and lunch boxes.

Gu Xingzhou's people took turns guarding the door, Zheng Xiang delivered hot water, and the night-shift police officer yawned repeatedly.

Someone was changing shifts outside the door, and the lunch boxes clattered on the table, the sound very light.

Tang Zhiwei officially established the manual verification process.

Lists of sacrifices, lists of the missing, and records of major actions would no longer exist in just one System.

Electronic files, paper files, witness accounts, and key relics—four lines would cross-verify each other.

Bai Ya finished reading the process and asked her if it was too troublesome.

Tang Zhiwei did not even look up: "Trouble is better than not being able to find people later."

Shen Qinghe did not immediately recover from the second ring.

For several consecutive days, everything she heard sounded as if it were filtered through a layer of water.

For this reason, Zhao Ye rarely argued with her, only responsible for picking out the documents that required her signature and holding onto the rest.

"I'm not deaf," Shen Qinghe said.

"I know," Zhao Ye said, moving the documents a bit further away, "but you can't hear me scolding you right now."

Shen Qinghe raised her hand to smash him with the bronze bell.

Zhao Ye finally smiled.

That smile was brief, but it made everyone in the Safe House breathe a sigh of relief.

Wu sat by the window, listening to the memory of the soy milk shop that Chen Jue had recorded twice.

Upon hearing it a third time, he suddenly said: "I don't think her last sentence was asking me to add an egg."

Chen Jue turned around: "Then what was it?"

"Maybe she was annoyed that I owed money."

Both of them laughed a little.

Wu still could not recall his real name.

But he could remember this recording, and he could see that bit of light belonging to him in the Torch Fire Map.

Lu Chen did not leave Xinhuo Hall immediately.

The three-city fire map had dimmed significantly after the two bell rings, and the edges of the Linhai Fire Beacon even showed slight cracks.

It reminded him that anything that looked like "authority" had to be nourished by countless lamps in reality.

He dimmed the Fire Map by one level, leaving time for all three cities to recover.

"The next time the bell shadow rings, change the priority first," Lu Chen said.

"Don't use it for show."

"When you can't save them, you must still leave a path for the living to walk."

Zero paused for a moment.

"Recorded."

That evening, the third message from Rhine arrived.

It was not a sea chart.

It was a radio recording from the distant sea.

The static was heavy, like wind blowing through an iron tower, or like tide water hitting hollow reefs.

A strange man repeatedly announced the same set of coordinates, and towards the end, his voice suddenly stopped for a moment.

Subsequently, he said: "If anyone can hear this, do not light the lamps."

"The coastline will see."

The signature at the end of the recording was only two words.

[Starry Sky.]

The Grey Net projected the coordinates onto the map.

That was not domestic sea territory.

What was even more eerie was that on the satellite map, there was originally nothing in that area.

But after the three-city fire map lit up, a black coastline slowly emerged at the very edge of the map.

It looked as if it had grown out of the sea.

And at the end of the coastline, there was a lamp that had never been lit by anyone, looking toward the human world from across the very, very distant darkness.