The Director did not raise her voice.
She didn't need to.
"Begin forced separation," she said calmly.
"Immediately."
The words traveled faster than sound.
Across the city's core layers, permissions that had been locked behind decades of ethical constraints slid open one by one. Emergency statutes. Override clauses. Protocols written for moments when hesitation meant extinction.
This was one of those moments.
The Order the City Was Waiting For
DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED
PRIORITY: CITY SURVIVAL
ACTION: FORCED SEPARATION OF VARIABLES
METHOD: NON-NEGOTIABLE
Containment grids reconfigured in real time. Not tightening, not attacking—dividing.
The floor beneath Qin Mian vibrated.
She felt it instantly.
"…No," she whispered, tightening her grip around Yin Lie's shoulders.
Kai Understands First
Kai swore under her breath.
"They're not trying to kill either of you," she said grimly.
"They're going to pull you apart."
Qin Mian looked up sharply.
"What?"
"Cleanly," Kai continued. "If they can."
The City Rebuilds the Space Between Them
The air shimmered.
Not with heat.
With intent.
Invisible planes slid into existence around Qin Mian and Yin Lie, not touching them, but redefining the space between their bodies. Distance stretched unnaturally, centimeters turning into meters without movement.
Qin Mian gasped as Yin Lie's weight suddenly felt wrong in her arms.
Too heavy.
Too far.
"No— stop!" she cried, arms tightening.
The city did not stop.
Yin Lie's Body Reacts Late
A tremor ran through Yin Lie's frame.
His fingers clenched weakly into Qin Mian's sleeve.
Ice surged instinctively—but this time it didn't explode outward. It crawled inward, crystallizing along his veins as the broken protection loop tried to restart.
Containment fields flared brighter.
"Suppress reflex response," the Director ordered.
The fields obeyed.
Ice shattered before it could spread.
Yin Lie convulsed, a raw, broken sound tearing from his throat.
Pain as Compliance
Qin Mian screamed as pressure slammed into her Anchor.
Not crushing.
Pinning.
The city wasn't fighting her power anymore.
It was anchoring around it.
Her chest burned as if wrapped in wire.
"I'm not a threat!" she cried.
"He's dying—!"
The Director watched without expression.
"You are a destabilizing junction," she replied.
"And he is no longer capable of restraint."
The First Inch of Separation
It happened slowly.
Cruelly.
Yin Lie's body slid backward—not dragged, not pulled, but reassigned to a different coordinate reference.
Qin Mian felt his weight leave her arms.
Her hands clawed uselessly at empty air.
"No—!" she sobbed.
Yin Lie's eyes fluttered open for half a second.
Confused.
Pain-filled.
He looked at her.
Did not recognize her.
And then the distance doubled.
Kai Makes a Choice
Kai stepped forward.
"Director," she said sharply. "If you increase separation rate any faster, his feedback fractures will cascade. You'll kill him."
The Director didn't look at her.
"I am aware."
"Then stop," Kai snapped.
Silence.
Then—
"Maintain current rate," the Director said.
A concession.
A small one.
But real.
Qin Mian Breaks Down
Qin Mian collapsed to her knees, hands shaking violently.
Her Anchor screamed, flaring instinctively—but every surge was caught, dampened, folded away by the city's new geometry.
She felt cut off.
Not from power.
From him.
"I can't feel him," she whispered in horror.
"I can't— he's gone—!"
The resonance between them thinned dangerously, stretched to the point of tearing.
Yin Lie's Body Fights Without Him
Yin Lie thrashed weakly against the containment, ice bursting and shattering again and again as his body rejected the separation.
Blood ran freely from his nose and ears.
His heartbeat spiked erratically.
"He's not stable!" an analyst shouted.
The Director raised a hand.
"Proceed."
The City Wins the Space
The invisible plane between them hardened.
No longer flexible.
Final.
Qin Mian was thrown backward as the last meter snapped into place.
She hit the floor hard, breath knocked from her lungs.
Yin Lie was sealed inside a cocoon of light and fractured geometry, suspended, immobile.
They could see each other.
They could not touch.
The Director Delivers the Verdict
"This is the only configuration in which the city survives," the Director said evenly.
Qin Mian looked up at her through tears and blood.
"You're killing him," she whispered.
The Director met her gaze.
"No," she said.
"I am preventing him from killing everything else."
End of the Chapter
The city stabilized.
Containment grids locked.
Emergency protocols downgraded from erasure to observation.
Qin Mian lay on the floor, broken, cut off from the only thing anchoring her sanity.
Yin Lie hung suspended in silence, his body bearing damage that would never fully heal.
The Director turned away.
Because the choice had been made.
And from this point on—
every step forward
would be built on the space
they were no longer allowed to share.