97: Chapter 97 Chen Jue Crosses the Line

When Chen Jue ran out of the Safe House, he didn't feel like he was making a mistake.

He even felt quite clear-headed.

The text message came from Chen Shi's number.

"I am at the Terminal Station, don't tell Torch."

There was another sentence after it.

"Remember the day Dad got lost? You didn't tell me then either."

This sentence was like a needle, piercing the place Chen Jue was least willing to have touched.

Before their father passed away, he had a brief episode where he went missing.

That day, Chen Jue thought the old man had just gone out in a fit of pique and didn't tell his brother right away; he was later found by the river.

Chen Shi had never blamed him, but Chen Jue had remembered it for many years.

An anomaly doesn't need to know the whole truth.

It only needs to know where it hurts the most.

Chen Jue gripped his phone tightly, and while Lin Zhao went to the entrance to deal with a patient, he opened the side door and slipped out.

Ten minutes later, Lin Zhao discovered he was missing.

He first checked the entrance surveillance, then looked at the missing temporary protective talisman on the table, and his expression instantly darkened.

"Chen Jue has run off."

Zhao Ye was on the perimeter checking the remnants of the bus stop sign; upon hearing this, his first reaction was to curse.

"This kid really knows how to cause trouble."

Lin Zhao didn't refute him, because he wanted to curse too.

Shen Qinghe quickly connected to the channel.

"Don't rush to chase. Send me the text message content."

Lin Zhao pulled up the backup record of Chen Jue's phone and sent it to the Grey Net.

Bai Ya only took one look before saying: "It's a lure. It contains remnants of familial memory; it's not a normal disguise."

Zhao Ye had already turned around: "I'll go drag him back."

"It's not as simple as dragging someone back." Shen Qinghe's voice was cold. "This is an intentional attempt to lure you out of the core point."

"Then we don't save him?" Zhao Ye couldn't suppress his anger.

Inside the Safe House, Chen Shi stood up, his face even paler than before.

"I'll go."

Lin Zhao pressed him down.

"You are not going anywhere."

"He is my brother!"

"That is exactly why you cannot go." Lin Zhao's voice wasn't loud, but it was firm. "It wants the two of you to stand under the bus stop sign together."

Chen Shi's eyes reddened, but he couldn't speak.

In the end, it was Lin Zhao who took the initiative: "I'll go to the perimeter with Zhao Ye."

Zhao Ye frowned: "You don't have an Ability Seed."

"I know."

"And you're still going?"

Lin Zhao looked at the night outside the Safe House, his voice low: "I know why he ran."

Zhao Ye stared at him for two seconds, then finally cursed: "Follow me. If you cross the line, I'll kick you back."

Lin Zhao nodded.

Chen Jue followed the text message's location all the way to beneath an abandoned overpass.

There used to be a temporary bus stop sign here, but later the road route was changed, and the sign was half-dismantled, leaving only a rusty iron pole and an old sign hanging at an angle.

Rainwater dripped down the face of the sign, hitting the ground like someone knocking on a door slowly.

The phone's location stopped here.

Chen Jue stopped, finally realizing that the surroundings were too quiet.

No cars.

No people.

Even the sound of the wind seemed to have been swallowed up.

He wanted to turn back, but Chen Shi's voice came from behind him.

"You're here."

Chen Jue turned around abruptly.

Chen Shi stood by the old bus stop sign, his clothes soaked, his face pale, but with a strange smile on his lips.

"Brother?"

That person nodded.

"Come here."

Chen Jue took a step forward, then stopped.

He suddenly noticed that there was no shadow at the feet of the person under the bus stop sign.

The real Chen Shi couldn't possibly have no shadow.

But that face, that tone, even the pause when he called his name, were all exactly like Chen Shi.

"You are not him." Chen Jue's voice trembled.

The fake Chen Shi tilted his head.

"Haven't you always wanted to save me?"

"Don't you always think that not telling me that day was your fault?"

Chen Jue's face turned pale instantly.

Just as he was about to respond, a spark fell from the other side of the overpass.

Zhao Ye rushed out, grabbed Chen Jue by the back of his collar, and dragged him backward.

"Shut up!"

Chen Jue was dragged, stumbling, his anger and fear exploding at the same time: "Let me go! He knows about that! He knows!"

Zhao Ye didn't explain, simply pressing him against the wall.

Lin Zhao followed closely, the temporary protective talisman in his hand already hot.

When he saw the fake Chen Shi, his face also went pale for a moment, but he immediately lowered his head, refusing to look at the other's face.

"He has no shadow at his feet." Lin Zhao said.

"No kidding." Zhao Ye gritted his teeth, "You only see that now?"

The fake Chen Shi stood in the rain, his smile cracking bit by bit.

The words on the bus stop sign began to change.

[Terminal Station.]

[Passenger: Chen Jue.]

[Accompanied by: Chen Shi.]

Shen Qinghe's voice came through the channel.

"Don't let him accept the terms."

Zhao Ye pressed down on Chen Jue's shoulders, yelling almost right into his ear: "Did you hear me? You didn't board the bus, you haven't arrived at the station, and no one is accompanying you."

Chen Jue's tears mixed with the rain, his lips trembling violently.

Finally, he squeezed out a sentence through gritted teeth.

"I didn't accept the terms."

The bus stop sign suddenly went dark.

The smile on the fake Chen Shi's face disappeared.

The night wind outside the Safe House was very cold.

When Chen Jue ran out, a flash of regret actually crossed his mind for a moment.

But the location on his phone was like a line, pulling him forward.

Every time he stopped, the screen would light up; every time he hesitated, that "don't tell Torch" sounded just like Chen Shi saying it in his ear.

He knew he shouldn't believe it.

But he was even more afraid that it might be true.

This is the most poisonous part of an anomaly.

It doesn't need you to believe it completely; it only needs to make you afraid to bet that it's fake.

Passing by a convenience store, the clerk saw his terrible expression and asked: "Young man, are you okay?"

Chen Jue almost turned back to say he was fine.

But he suddenly remembered what Shen Qinghe had said: don't respond when the rules are unclear.

He didn't know if this was an anomaly, so he could only quicken his pace and run away.

After running two streets, he felt it was absurd himself.

Since when did he not even dare to casually accept a word of concern from an ordinary person?

But this absurdity didn't make him stop; instead, it made him more anxious.

He wanted to find Chen Shi, wanted to prove that he wasn't just someone who could only hide in the Safe House handing out water, and wanted to prove that he could do something too.

On the other side, when Lin Zhao chased out the door, he first looked at the water marks on the ground.

They weren't footprints.

They were a faint grey line, like the traces left by bus tires after driving over wet ground.

It led to the abandoned overpass.

Lin Zhao sent the coordinates to Zhao Ye, only to realize that his own fingers were shaking.

When Zhao Ye arrived, he looked at him: "Scared?"

Lin Zhao nodded.

Instead, Zhao Ye didn't say anything harsh.

"It's good to be scared. If you're scared, you can still think; those who aren't scared are prone to dying."

Lin Zhao was stunned for a moment.

Zhao Ye had already passed him and rushed towards the overpass.

Lin Zhao followed, his heart suddenly settling a bit.

He realized that although Zhao Ye had a foul mouth, he didn't look down on him.

The other party just understood too clearly that every person who acted recklessly on the front line would become a pit that others would have to fill with their lives.

After hearing that his brother had gone missing, Chen Shi in the Safe House almost rushed out too.

Xu Minglan blocked him, saying only one sentence: "If you go out now, his running will have been for nothing."

Chen Shi looked like he had been struck, his whole body freezing.

A few seconds later, he slowly sat back in the chair, his fingers gripping the water bottle tightly, the bottle making creaking sounds as it was squeezed.

And the real Chen Shi, in the Safe House, received a new text message.

[Your brother has missed the return trip.]