Chapter 132
Yu Zhi was woken up by Fu Suxi’s voice.
At first it sounded muffled, as if separated by a wall. After a moment, it suddenly became clear and loud—so loud it even carried an echo.
Yu Zhi groggily opened his eyes and followed the sound.
The bedroom door stood wide open. Fu Suxi was leaning against the doorway, casually playing with a lighter in his hand.
“There are no survivors in the temporary resettlement zone.”
“Who told you the safe zone is absolutely safe?”
This time, Yu Zhi heard it clearly—the voice was coming from outside the door.
More precisely, from the broadcast outside.
Yu Zhi froze for two seconds. His hazy mind snapped fully awake.
Those were the exact words Fu Suxi had said on the roadside last night.
Meteorite had made its move.
Yu Zhi abruptly sat up in bed, listening carefully.
The broadcast outside continued:
“If you want to leave the safe zone, stand on the right. If you want to stay, stand on the left.”
“If you want to die, come find me.”
After the final three words fell, the broadcast paused for a few seconds—then began repeating from the first line:
“There are no survivors in the temporary resettlement zone…”
Yu Zhi threw off the covers and got out of bed. For some reason, his right hand felt numb and stiff, as if something heavy had pressed on it for a long time.
Bad sleeping posture?
He flexed his fingers to loosen them and strode toward the bathroom.
He didn’t even close the door, afraid of missing anything from the broadcast. He splashed cold water on his face, squeezed toothpaste onto his brush, and walked out while brushing his teeth.
The corridor broadcast continued looping those same lines. Faint commotion and noise could be heard from outside.
Yu Zhi glanced at Fu Suxi.
Fu Suxi was leaning lazily against the doorframe, watching him.
Without sunglasses on, Yu Zhi could clearly see the change in his pupils. They were no longer yesterday’s blood-red, but a deep, bottomless black. If one looked carefully, faint hints of red shimmered within the darkness.
Yu Zhi didn’t know the exact pattern behind Fu Suxi’s eye color changes. He only knew that being close to him restored a bit of sanity. He didn’t think much of it.
Compared to Fu Suxi’s darkened eyes, what Yu Zhi cared about more was his gaze.
Appraising. Probing. Unconcealed.
As if, compared to the broadcast outside, Yu Zhi’s reaction mattered more.
Yu Zhi paused mid-brush and looked at him in confusion.
They had been together since last night. He shouldn’t suspect Yu Zhi of orchestrating the broadcast.
Besides, hadn’t Fu Suxi been deliberately escalating tensions among ordinary citizens lately? Wasn’t this exactly the kind of situation he wanted?
Wasn’t it to make it easier for Meteorite to strike at him and the Operations Bureau?
“You…”
He had barely uttered a word when hurried footsteps suddenly echoed down the corridor.
In the blink of an eye, someone rushed to the doorway.
“Minister Yu!”
It was Shang Yu. Her hair was disheveled, clothes loose and wrinkled, eyes slightly red—clearly dragged out of sleep midway.
Seeing both Fu Suxi and Yu Zhi awake, she took a deep breath and stepped inside.
“All citywide broadcasts are playing that audio. The main control center is operating normally. Preliminary assessment suggests someone invaded the broadcast stations in District Six. Those stations operate independently from the bureau’s core station, so we can’t block the signal.”
“Zuo Feiyang has already gone with a communications ability user. He contacted me immediately.”
After finishing in one breath, she cautiously looked at Fu Suxi.
He didn’t look at her. His gaze went past her, toward the bathroom.
Shang Yu turned and saw Yu Zhi rinsing his mouth at the sink.
Yu Zhi wiped his face casually with a towel and asked without looking up, “So everyone in the safe zone heard it?”
“Unless something unexpected happened… yes,” Shang Yu replied slowly.
Knowing Yu Zhi wasn’t fully familiar with the safe zone’s setup, she added, “After the main storyline mission appeared, the bureau reset all broadcasting equipment in the safe zone. It was mainly meant to announce how to complete the main mission as quickly as possible…”
She hadn’t expected the missions to become so simple that the broadcast system was barely used—only for it to cause such a massive problem now.
Suddenly, a phone rang.
Shang Yu quickly answered and turned on speaker. Zuo Feiyang’s voice came through clearly:
“No abnormalities at the branch stations. We can’t control or block the audio signal.”
Her expression darkened. “If it’s not the broadcast station, then it must be a system item.”
—An item capable of broadcasting across the entire safe zone.
Just then, the broadcast abruptly stopped.
Before Shang Yu could relax, a woman’s voice came through.
Her voice was hoarse and exhausted, mixed with faint wind noise.
“Everyone can turn on your televisions now. There’s a video. I hope all of you see it.”
Shang Yu felt her vision darken.
The item didn’t just control radio broadcasts?
It could control television screens too?!
Yu Zhi raised an eyebrow, picked up the remote from the coffee table, and turned on the TV.
The screen flickered briefly before revealing a familiar scene.
Fu Suxi stood by the roadside, gun in his right hand, aiming at a buzz-cut man in the distance. He fired several shots, scaring the man into collapsing onto the ground.
It was what had happened last night when they left the temporary resettlement zone.
Yu Zhi studied the footage carefully.
It wasn’t filmed from an aerial surveillance angle but from eye level—likely a roadside shop’s security camera.
The image was crystal clear. Fu Suxi’s indifferent expression was unmistakable—he looked like he didn’t regard ordinary people as human at all.
“How did they die?” a hoarse, furious female voice sounded in the video.
“Were they killed by monsters?”
“Or like my husband—because you thought they were contaminated, so you just executed them on the spot?!”
Yu Zhi instantly recognized the voice as the woman from the broadcast.
He glanced at Fu Suxi.
Sensing his gaze, Fu Suxi raised a hand. Two packs of compressed biscuits and a carton of milk appeared in his palm, which he tossed into Yu Zhi’s arms.
“Come with me to the relocation district.”
Yu Zhi gave a simple “oh,” stuffed the biscuits into his pocket, and opened the milk first.
The carton was palm-sized. He finished it before even leaving the room and tossed it into the trash.
When he turned around, another bottle of milk appeared in front of him.
He took it, narrowing his eyes.
Since last night’s meeting, this mad dog had been inexplicably feeding him.
In the cafeteria, it could be called acting.
But now he hadn’t even said he was hungry. Why was Fu Suxi proactively giving him food and drinks?
If he hadn’t personally watched Fu Suxi twist open the cap, he would’ve suspected he was being drugged.
As if reading his thoughts, Fu Suxi glanced at him. “You think I poisoned you?”
Yu Zhi bit down on the straw as they walked out. “Otherwise?”
Fu Suxi headed toward the elevator. “Why didn’t you suspect it before?”
Yu Zhi remained expressionless. “Before was before. I didn’t know you were this deranged.”
Fu Suxi: “……”
Behind them, Shang Yu’s lips twitched upward instinctively before reason forced them back down.
Such a huge incident had just happened—why were these two still talking about poison and aphrodisiacs…?
Wait. Were they distracting each other?
“Ding—”
The elevator reached the first floor.
Snapping out of it, Shang Yu hurried after them. “Minister Yu, should I look for any useful items—”
“No need,” Fu Suxi cut her off.
Outside the research building, several armored vehicles were already parked.
Shang Yu sprinted to the nearest one, jumped into the driver’s seat, and started the engine.
Once Yu Zhi and Fu Suxi got in, she floored the accelerator. The vehicle shot forward with a whoosh.
…………
5:00 a.m.
A faint pale glow tinged the horizon. The streets were empty. Only LED screens mounted on building exteriors flickered, replaying the footage of Fu Suxi firing his gun, breaking the silence before dawn.
The temporary relocation district in District Six wasn’t far from the bureau—just a few minutes by car.
By the time Yu Zhi finished two packs of compressed biscuits and three bottles of milk—while the video replayed for the fourth time—the armored vehicle arrived.
Before the car fully stopped, Lin Xiangyuan rushed over.
“Old Shang, what’s going on—”
His voice abruptly stopped when he saw Fu Suxi in the back seat.
“Minister Yu?!”
His eyes widened. Then realization struck, and his face changed drastically.
“The woman playing the video—is she here?!”
His shout drew nearby soldiers’ attention.
Shang Yu snapped back, “I was about to ask you that!”
Yu Zhi opened the door. Before he could step out, the advertisement screen across the street flickered.
The video of Fu Suxi disappeared.
A woman appeared on the screen.
She looked in her thirties, curly hair disheveled, eyes swollen and red as she stared into the camera.
“Hello. My name is Qu Xiaonan. Three days ago, my husband fled to S City Safe Zone.”
“At the wall entrance, we encountered the man in the video. He’s the newly appointed minister of the Special Operations Bureau.”
“Before we even underwent the so-called parasite inspection, he shot my husband dead without hesitation. Not just my husband—many others too.”
“And then they burned the bodies.”
Qu Xiaonan choked for a moment, then took a deep breath.
“Even if they were truly contaminated, shouldn’t there have been evidence?”
“The bureau hasn’t provided any proof. Nor any explanation to me or the other victims.”
“After entering the safe zone, we waited three days in the temporary relocation zone—only to wait for a pollution source.”
She let out a mocking laugh.
“Many of you might not know. Yesterday evening, a pollution source suddenly appeared in the relocation zone, killing hundreds.”
The camera angle shifted slightly, now showing an aerial view of the complex. From above, it was clear the entire district was surrounded tightly by armed soldiers.
“The safe zone is so large—why did something happen specifically in the relocation zone?”
Her emotions grew more agitated. Her face flushed red, nearly hysterical.
“After the incident, why were we confined? Not allowed to leave? Not allowed to contact the outside world?!”
Lin Xiangyuan quickly checked the complex map against the screen’s perspective.
“Building Five rooftop!” he shouted.
Three shadows instantly shot forward.
So fast…
Yu Zhi blinked. He was debating whether to use ordinary means when one of the figures that had dashed out suddenly doubled back.
Fu Suxi’s presence rushed toward him.
Before Yu Zhi could see his face clearly, an arm wrapped around his waist. The world spun.
He was hoisted onto Fu Suxi’s shoulder and carried toward Building Five.
Wind roared in his ears, making it hard to keep his eyes open.
He could feel Fu Suxi running up the exterior wall. The hard shoulder pressed against his abdomen, jolting with each leap upward—an indescribably strange sensation.
Soon, the wind stopped.
Yu Zhi opened his eyes.
Qu Xiaonan stood at the rooftop’s edge, clutching a laptop. She stared at Fu Suxi with such intense hatred it seemed ready to spill from her eyes.
Before Fu Suxi set him down, Yu Zhi jumped off.
Through the laptop camera, Qu Xiaonan gritted her teeth. “They’re here.”
“As long as I’m alive, this video will continue playing throughout the safe zone.”
“When it stops, that means the bureau has killed me.”
The laptop in her arms suddenly began to distort—melting like ice cream, dripping black metallic liquid.
Startled, she let go and stepped back.
In seconds, it dissolved completely into a puddle of black liquid.
Yu Zhi immediately looked toward the street screens.
As expected, the video of Fu Suxi restarted from the beginning.
He turned back—
And suddenly met Qu Xiaonan’s eyes.
Her gaze toward him was complicated: pity, mockery, anger—until they twisted together into pure hatred.
She closed her eyes briefly, then stared straight at Fu Suxi.
Her voice trembled with vindictive pleasure.
“You probably never imagined—the item that exposed your true face…”
“…was given to me by the person sleeping beside you.”
Yu Zhi: “???”
Forget Fu Suxi—he hadn’t expected that either.
Shang Yu and Lin Xiangyuan, who had just arrived on the rooftop: “???”
