Xinyuan couldn’t believe what he had just heard.

His eyes remained wide. His lips parted slightly.

For a moment, he could only stare.

His grip on Jingxin’s shirt remained tight while his brother stood there with blood smeared across his face, breathing hard through a broken nose.

Jingxin grabbed his wrist. "Now you know why."

His voice was rough. "So why don’t you let me go?"

Xinyuan didn’t move. His thoughts felt tangled, heavy and loud.

But slowly, he forced his expression back under control. "I was fifteen."

His voice came out quieter than expected. "I didn’t do any of that intentionally. I didn’t ask to become a disaster-class Esper."

Jingxin immediately burst into laughter.

The sound echoed through the room.

"Look at you." He grinned through the blood. "You look completely broken."

Xinyuan’s jaw tightened.

"If you regret it so much, you can always come with me." Jingxin’s smile widened. "They want to fix everything."

He leaned forward. "If you can open rifts, then maybe you can close them too."

Xinyuan stared at him, unblinking. "I don’t believe you."

The answer came immediately.

"I don’t fix things." His fingers tightened. "I destroy them."

Dark mist drifted around his body slowly.

"So this whole story about me saving the world?" He laughed coldly. "Sounds like a lie."

"A lie?" Jingxin scoffed. "Then come find out for yourself."

His eyes sharpened. "Come with me."

Xinyuan shook his head. "You think you can emotionally manipulate me?"

"You’ve always been sensitive, brother." Jingxin didn’t even bother denying it. Then his grin returned. "Maybe you can tell me more about Lin Wenzhi."

Xinyuan’s expression darkened instantly.

"Why are you so attached to him? We can catch up as—"

The doors slammed open.

Both Espers turned.

Wenzhi stood in the doorway with his gun still in hand. His freckled face twisted into a deep frown.

"Okay." His voice cut through the room. "That’s enough."

Xinyuan looked at him and slowly released Jingxin.

The moment Jingxin shifted, Bang.

The gunshot echoed through the room.

The bullet tore straight through Jingxin’s leg.

Jingxin barely had time to react before Xinyuan grabbed his head and slammed it into the floor. Hard.

The impact knocked him unconscious instantly.

Silence followed.

Blood spread beneath Jingxin’s face.

His nose was broken. His leg was bleeding.

Xinyuan stared down at him. Both fists clenched tightly at his sides.

Wenzhi walked over. His eyes briefly moved over Jingxin’s injuries. Then up toward Xinyuan.

Only now did he notice it.

The red eye. The uneven breathing.

The way Xinyuan looked like he was holding himself together through sheer force of will.

"What happened?"

Xinyuan looked at him. For a moment, he looked like he wanted to say nothing.

Then, "I found out why they sold me to the CEA."

Wenzhi’s eyebrows rose. "And?"

Xinyuan laughed. A small painful, hollow sound.

"My awakening opened the rifts." The words felt strange even coming out of his mouth. "The ones that became the Red Zones."

The room suddenly felt very quiet.

"They think if I opened them..." He swallowed. "...then I can close them."

Wenzhi stared. "What?"

Xinyuan’s lips curved. Not into a smile. But... Something sadder. "I don’t believe them."

"Good." The answer came without hesitation.

Wenzhi raised the gun, pointing it directly at Jingxin’s unconscious head. "Now he has to go."

"No." Zhaohe’s voice interrupted as the door opened again.

Jiang Zhaohe stepped inside.

Wang Chenxi and Gu Luhan following behind her.

"We need him."

Wenzhi let out a slow breath and turned to Zhaohe. "We don’t need him. If any one of us had been in his position, he wouldn’t have hesitated to kill us. We shouldn’t make stupid decisions."

"Stupid decisions?" Zhaohe frowned. "We need him, Wenzhi."

She stepped forward. "Shao Jingxin is valuable to Old Blood. We can use him as a shield."

"We don’t need a shield." Wenzhi’s finger settled against the trigger.

He wasn’t even looking at Jingxin anymore but the gun remained aimed directly at his forehead.

"Wenzhi." Zhaohe’s voice sharpened. "You need to trust me."

"And you need to trust me." Wenzhi countered. "I thought you made me faction leader for situations like this."

The room fell quiet.

Neither of them backed down.

Wenzhi could pull the trigger right now. He could end it. Simple and easy. But this faction wasn’t going to survive if every disagreement became a power struggle.

Trust had to exist somewhere. Especially between the three people standing at its center.

His gaze remained fixed on Zhaohe asking a silent question.

Explain.

Zhaohe understood immediately. "If anything goes wrong because of this decision..."

She straightened. "I’ll take responsibility."

A long silence followed.

Then Wenzhi sighed and lowered the gun. He shoved it back into his waistband.

"Fine." His eyes moved across the room.

Wang Chenxi still looked exhausted and half-dead inside. But there was amusement in his expression now.

Meanwhile Gu Luhan wasn’t looking at Zhaohe or Jingxin. He was staring directly at Xinyuan.

Xinyuan hadn’t spoken or moved. He looked lost somewhere inside his own head.

Gu Luhan took a step forward as if he wanted to approach him.

Before he could, Wenzhi grabbed Xinyuan’s hand.

The movement immediately drew everyone’s attention.

"Look at me." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Xinyuan’s eyes lifted, meeting those grey eyes.

For a moment, the room disappeared.

The unconscious Jingxin. The arguments. The faction.

None of it seemed important.

Wenzhi exhaled. "Take us out of here."

Xinyuan nodded and a dark mist burst from his body. Shadows spiraling around them.

The air distorted and both of them vanished.

Silence settled over the room.

Gu Luhan’s jaw tightened. His hand slowly clenched at his side.

"Faction leader, huh." Wang Chenxi broke the silence first.

Zhaohe glanced at him. "If you’re not interested, you can leave."

Chenxi snorted. "Oh, I’m in."

His eyes drifted toward the place where Xinyuan and Wenzhi had disappeared.

"Lin Wenzhi is a good choice. But did you hear what Xinyuan said?"

The atmosphere immediately shifted.

"The Red Zones."

"You don’t trust Xinyuan?" Zhaohe asked.

Chenxi shrugged.

Before he could speak, Gu Luhan answered instead.

"It’s not about trust." His voice was quiet. "Shao Xinyuan is different."

Everyone looked at him.

"Even with the monsters and rifts, he is the closest thing to a living catastrophe I’ve ever seen."

No one interrupted.

"If it’s true that his awakening created the Red Zones..." Gu Luhan’s expression tightened. "Then I don’t trust a B-rank guide to handle that."

Zhaohe looked at him for a long moment and smiled. A small confident and certain smile. "I’m sure he’s doing just fine."

Gu Luhan frowned. "Shao Xinyuan needs a higher-ranking guide regardless of compatibility. Otherwise, he’ll destroy himself because of compatibility."

"Maybe." Zhaohe shrugged. "But Lin Wenzhi hasn’t failed him yet."

That answer clearly didn’t satisfy him. Not even a little.

"Can you help me move Jingxin?" Zhaohe asked Chenxi.

"Sure."

The two of them walked toward the unconscious Esper.

Gu Luhan remained where he was watching, thinking and worrying. Then without another word, he turned and left the room.