When Su Qing woke up and found himself leaning against a plague god named Hu Bugui, he had the following reaction. He expended a great deal of effort to get up off the ground. In the process, his right foot tripped up his left foot, and he nearly once again made intimate contact with the ground. He knocked aside Hu Bugui’s hand attempting to support him. Then, overestimating his own capacity, he grabbed Hu Bugui’s collar, trying to drag him to his feet—unsuccessfully, because his arm was too weak—then gathered all his strength and, swaying, delivered a punch to the side of Hu Bugui’s face. 

Then, because this person’s exterior was steel-plated, under the influence of the reacting force, he took two steps back and yet again plopped down to the ground. 

Hu Bugui touched his face where it had been punched. It didn’t hurt, but he was a little bewildered. 

Over the comms came the sound of clapping. The quack Lu Qingbai and the tech nerd Xu Ruchong cheered in unison: “Left hook! Nice hit!” 

Hu Bugui decisively cut the connection. 

Su Qing propped himself up with one arm, shaking like a twig in the wind. He pointed to Hu Bugui. His lips moved, but his throat wouldn’t work. After an age, he still couldn’t force out a single word. 

Hu Bugui hurried to the car, turned up half a bottle of water and offered it to him, but he was again pushed away by Su Qing. This time Hu Bugui clearly heard what he was saying. Su Qing said, “I, I fucking met you once, and I got, got eight lifetimes of bad luck. Each, each place you’ve been, even the air you breathe, it’s all unlucky, you stay…stay the fuck away…” 

Hu Bugui didn’t know what to say and only sat by in silence, machine gun planted beside him, back leaning against the very mini car. His back was slightly stooped, contracting his sturdy form, and he was carefully twisting the half-bottle of water in his hands. Seeing Su Qing wobbling as though drugged, he very much wanted to step up to support him, but each time he showed a hint of approaching, Su Qing looked scornful, so Captain Hu could only once again retreat in vexation. 

Su Qing felt as though everything hurt. He grumbled and cursed for a long time, struggling where he sat, before finally managing to produce some coherent words. But his throat still hurt. A bit of air passing through it could make him cough for ages. 

There were two full meters between the two of them. They sat there facing each other, each staring back at the other. 

After a long time, Su Qing cleared his throat and asked in a thin voice: “What…what the hell are you?” 

Hu Bugui answered seriously: “I’m with the RZ Unit. I’m very sorry about last time. I got you dragged into this.” 

“Your apology is late in coming,” said Su Qing. 

Hu Bugui bent his head and didn’t speak, looking like he was observing a silent tribute. 

Su Qing inhaled. He seemed to want to issue a rather lengthy statement, but when he took this breath, the air immediately choked his fragile throat, and he began to cough violently. 

Hu Bugui cautiously approached him and reached out with extreme reserve to pat him on the back. He placed the half-bottle of water in front of Su Qing. He hadn’t spoken until now. Afraid that Su Qing wouldn’t drink, he dully said, “Drink some. It’s all right, it’s my teammate’s water, I haven’t touched it. It won’t…” 

He wanted to say, It won’t give you bad luck to drink it, but he felt awkward and falteringly shut his mouth. 

Su Qing wiped the bloody saliva around his mouth, glanced at Hu Bugui, and reached out to take the bottle he had squeezed dents into. Hu Bugui lay a hand on his back. A faint smell of cigarettes came from him. His body temperature was unusually high, as though you could feel it even through his clothes. 

But for some reason, Su Qing felt his nose suddenly itch. He abruptly turned his head aside and sneezed. 

The first time he had met Hu Bugui, he had had some symptoms of coming down with a cold. Later he had arrived at the grey house and the symptoms had improved on their own. This time, he had met him again, and once again his nose started to itch and he started to sneeze. Su Qing turned his head and was about to speak. “You…” 

Before he had said one word, he turned his head away again and sneezed, producing snot and tears, feeling that he had sneezed himself dizzy. 

Probably because the look on his face was so indignant, Hu Bugui self-consciously stepped back a little, maintaining a certain distance from him. Su Qing at last determined that he wasn’t coming down with a cold. This was an allergy—an allergy to an individual surnamed Hu! 

After some mouthfuls of water, the taste of blood in his mouth had become much fainter. Hu Bugui stood by the car door and dully said, “There’s an unusual energy reaction in this area. I couldn’t take my car in, so I had to break it up. You aren’t safe here…” 

Su Qing looked at the minicar, then gave Hu Bugui a very annoyed glance. But, bowing to the circumstances, he didn’t voice an objection. He silently got into the car. There wasn’t even a place to sit. He could only curl up his legs and squeeze to one side…or rather, he was wedged to one side. When Hu Bugui also got in, it was a little hard to close the door. The two of them were practically stuck together. 

Hu Bugui said, “If…if you’re uncomfortable, you can lean on my shoulder.” 

“…Thank you for the service,” said Su Qing. 

“You won’t get infected from it,” said Hu Bugui. 

Su Qing: “…” 

Then he sneezed yet again. Miraculously, a line he had memorized in high school appeared in his mind: “When fate is unfavorable, you will meet with many difficulties.” 

Finding joy amidst sorrow, he covered the slightly reddened tip of his nose with his hand. When Hu Bugui attempted to start the car, he tilted his head back and examined all the complicated instruments inside the narrow car and feelingly thought that this car was truly “worthless on the outside, golden on the inside.” 

Just then, a female voice came from the comms. It was the field agent Qin Luo: “Captain Hu, there’s something wrong.” 

Hu Bugui quietly responded: “Talk.” 

Qin Luo said, “Last time, we seized an energy shielding net being used by the blue seals. This time we seem to have run into a bit of a problem. They’re using something. There are large-scale short-circuits in the shielding net.” 

Hu Bugui responded: “Have Xu Ruchong write up an inspection when we get back—is there a possibility of rescuing the victims?” 

Qin Luo paused. After a while, she said, “The ‘feast’ was already halfway through when we arrived…” 

Fang Xiu cut in: “Captain Hu, the victims’ mental responses are too weak, almost impossible to catch.” 

Hu Bugui asked, “What about the grey seals?” 

“One of the grey seals had a mental collapse on the spot. They shot him dead.” 

Su Qing’s heart tightened. He thought, That better not be Tian Feng.  

Hu Bugui briefly said, “Abandon the shielding net. Liao Chenyuan, provide long-range support. Be careful of the grey seals who are still alive. The mission has changed to taking down the blue seals on the scene. There’s no need to consider apprehending them.” 

Just as he finished speaking, a rustling came from the comms. Hu Bugui stared, because Xu Ruchong, who had been calm and diffident for a long time, suddenly cried out, “Withdraw! Hurry and withdraw from there!” 

Fang Xiu froze. “What?” 

“Look at the monitor projection, you bunch of gorillas, don’t just shoot!” 

Only then did Su Qing notice a palm-sized screen over his head. The control rod was broken, so Hu Bugui flipped it down manually. The image on the screen showed an abandoned warehouse. Su Qing was sharp-eyed. He saw Jiang Lan’s figure flicker past. He knew this was a legendary high tech article. 

He wanted to know whether the rabbit-hearted Tian Feng was still breathing, so he narrowed his eyes and looked carefully. Just then, he saw that a part of the image seemed to be twisted—about three-quarters of the way down, there was an indistinct line. Looking closely, the images on either side of the line didn’t link up. 

“Is this…” He wanted to ask whether there was a crack in the screen. 

Then he heard Xu Ruchong’s rapid-fire shouting: “Fang Xiu, Qin Luo, withdraw—they have a space disrupter, hurry! The crack can turn even diamond into putty if it touches it, run!” 

Hu Bugui grabbed the communicator. “Listen to him, withdraw!” 

Su Qing stared at the indistinct line of the screen, not even daring to breathe loudly—it was as if it was alive, spreading in all directions. Having experienced the blue seals, grey seals, and the grey house, he felt himself very worldly. Even if an ET popped up right now, called him dad, and asked to be acknowledged, Su Qing thought he would faint away very calmly. 

But the RZ Unit’s high tech goods still made him feel like he had transmigrated somewhere. He couldn’t resist asking, “A space disrupter…what does that mean?” 

Xu Ruchong liked to play up a little. He was quite willing to speak to him. Hearing the question, he immediately responded: “That space disrupter of theirs actually isn’t all that high grade. They must have borrowed some equipment. To draw a comparison, suppose we lived in a cake. You can use a knife to cut a cake, and this is the same principle. You can also make ‘partial incisions’ in the matter around us using enormous energy. If a person is located at the crack, what will happen?” 

“They’ll…” 

Su Qing was a little interested, but before he could give his amateur view, Xu Ruchong impatiently went on, showing off to his own content: “Simply put, in this world of ours, at a fixed point in time, a person lives at certain spatial coordinates. Now, if those coordinates are suddenly torn apart, the person located at the crack will naturally also be ‘torn.’ I am still unable to calculate the precise degree of distortion.” 

Then, explaining or otherwise, Xu Ruchong muttered, “Actually, the shielding net short-circuiting may very well have to do with this, too, it wouldn’t have done that out of nowhere…” 

When he was certain the three field agents had withdrawn, Hu Bugui immediately interrupted Xu Ruchong: “A few blue seals can’t have this much power. Technician Xu, analyze the cause at once.”  

Xu Ruchong gave an affirmative and didn’t dare to keep chattering.

Hu Bugui paused, then said to Su Qing, “I’m afraid they’re going to get away this time. You… Why don’t you come back with me first and have Dr. Lu examine your physical and mental state, then…” 

But Su Qing frowned. As though he had thought of something, he asked, “Do you guys know that the blue seals actually have a base with a grey house in it?” 

Hu Bugui nodded. “We have some understanding. Our mission is to protect the people and do all we can to rescue the grey seals…but because most grey seals are unable to bear the operation of the energy crystal, when we rescue them, their minds aren’t very clear…” 

“So what you mean is, you don’t actually know where the blue seals’ headquarters is?” 

Hu Bugui nodded frankly. “We’ve been remiss in our work.” 

Su Qing pointed at the scattered instruments above his head. “And all that…no good?” 

Hu Bugui frowned. “Our guess is that they also have the support of a scientific research institution. Their shielding is very thorough.” 

Su Qing’s heart sank. He suddenly thought, What about Teacher Cheng? His turn hadn’t come this time, but what if it came next time? Cheng Weizhi was so elderly. If others’ limit was three uses of the energy crystal, then wouldn’t he be in even more danger? He had an idiot son on the outside, too. Who was going to look after him?

He couldn’t help beginning to chew his nails. In the small, narrow space, he lowered his head and bent his legs slightly, beginning to wage a colossal battle in his heart. 

He thought that the things he had experienced were simply like dying and coming back to life—but if he just went with Hu Bugui and his people now… Su Qing couldn’t help asking, “If I go with you guys, after I’m examined, what are you going to do with me?” 

Hu Bugui said, “I’ll assign someone the job of protecting you until we’re certain of your personal safety.” 

“Will I…be all right?” 

Hu Bugui hesitated. “We’ll do our best to guarantee it.” 

Su Qing got a mouthful of dirt biting his nails and spat it out. He put down his fingers and tightly gripped Hu Bugui’s shoulder. He took a deep breath. “You should let me out.” 

Hu Bugui doubted his own hearing for the first time. “What did you say?” 

“Stop the car and let me out. Shit, don’t make me keep repeating myself. Are you testing my willpower or what?” 

Hu Bugui stopped the car, faintly understanding what he wanted to do. He looked at him, frowning. 

Su Qing pushed the door open and jumped out of the car. He walked two steps and looked down gloomily at his toes. As if to himself, he said, “I have to go back. I have…an old friend, an old uncle inside. I have to get him out.”