Shen Xingyao spent sixteen hours in the medical pod. Her sync rate climbed back from 17% to 19%, but the 0.3% War Authority contamination wouldn't clear—like a wood splinter under a fingernail, impossible to pull out, only waiting for it to fester out on its own.
Her first words upon waking: "Water."
Her second: "Story."
Her third: "Lin Jin, the story you wrote is shit."
I was using my HB Pencil to sketch a backup draft of specialized training set seventeen by her bedside. Hearing this, my hand trembled, leaving a glaring crack across the paper.
"Captain Shen, I wrote three thousand words—from Scarlet crying at fourteen to killing at sixteen—and you're saying it's shit?"
"Not the plot. The structure." She propped herself up. The medical pod's blue light made her face even paler. "You wrote her crying for emotional manipulation, not to crack her Authority."
"Emotional manipulation is what makes readers resonate..."
"Scarlet doesn't need resonance." She interrupted. "She needs 'negation.' What you need to write isn't why she cried, but why no one handed her a tissue while she cried."
"No one handed her a tissue?"
"Correct." She said. "Authority holders of War can bleed, but cannot be treated with gentleness. A drop of water, a sheet of paper, a 'don't cry'—any of it can create a 'flaw' in her Authority."
"Then back then, Chen Lan..."
"Chen Lan handed it to her." She said. "So Scarlet didn't kill her, made her an 'exception.'"
"Exception?"
"An exception is a weakness." She said. "Scarlet's weakness isn't loneliness—it's that she allowed one person to become her exception."
"Then this person..."
"Is now you." She looked back at me. The golden light points in her pupils had grown brighter. "You wrote 'wanting to be Shen Xingyao' on the exam, shattering her defenses. She wanted to be Chen Lan at sixteen, failed. Now you want to be me—she shattered completely."
"What happens when she shatters?"
"She'll go mad." She said. "Mad enough to come personally."
The moment she said it, the medical pod door was kicked open. Zhou Fang rushed in, holding two cups of milk tea.
"Captain Shen's awake? Perfect timing—have some milk tea, full sugar, to calm your nerves."
"Calm what nerves?"
"Calm Scarlet's nerves." He grinned. "That chick writing you love letters—the whole Administration knows now."
"Love letters?" I froze.
"Exactly." He handed me one cup, placed the other by Shen Xingyao's bed. "Golden text written on the Chief's office door: 'Shen Xingyao, your space is beautiful, I want to hang it in my war museum.' What is this if not a love letter?"
"That's a declaration of war." Shen Xingyao said coldly.
"Since when are declarations of war this mushy?" Zhou Fang imitated Scarlet's synthesized voice coyly. "'Would you be willing to be my collection?' My god, I'm covered in goosebumps."
"Shut up."
"I won't." He pulled up a chair. "Captain Shen, be honest—do you have some... appreciation for Scarlet?"
"Appreciation for what?"
"She's crazy, but capable, strong-willed, and looks... cough, I mean, if she weren't your opponent, you'd definitely want to recruit her."
Shen Xingyao said nothing, only stabbed the milk tea with a straw and took a sip. Full sugar, sickeningly sweet.
"Too sweet." She said.
"Scarlet said you take full sugar in milk tea." Zhou Fang said. "I followed her recipe."
"She even told you this?"
"Not told me." He shrugged. "She wrote it on the Administration cafeteria menu. I saw it."
Shen Xingyao threw the milk tea in the trash: "Next time you see her writing, burn it directly."
"Can't burn it." Zhou Fang said. "She writes on rules. Burning rules means burning yourself."
He turned to me: "Homework bro, isn't that right?"
I was drawing circles on the milk tea cup with my HB Pencil, circling the words "full sugar," then crossing them out and writing: [Half Sugar]
The characters glowed silver-white, flashed, and the milk tea's sweetness halved.
"See." Zhou Fang slapped his thigh. "Rule rewriting—so convenient. Captain Shen, why not have Lin Jin rewrite Scarlet's text? Turn that love letter into a breakup letter?"
"Can't do it." I said. "She writes on space, not paper."
"Then have Captain Shen tear her space apart?"
"Can't tear it." Shen Xingyao said. "Her space is bound to War Authority. Tear it, and you tear apart half the city."
"So we can only let her keep writing?"
"Only let her write." Shen Xingyao walked to the window. "The more she writes, the more she exposes."
"Exposes what?"
"How badly she wants to win." She looked back, the golden light in her pupils now brighter than before. "And how terrified she is of losing."
---
03:00, Conference Room.
The Chief, White Gloves, Gu Yan, Tang Lan, Zhou Fang, and I sat around the oval table for a meeting titled: "Response Plan for Comrade Shen Xingyao's Harassment on the Authority Level by Scarlet."
The Chief's face turned green reading the title.
"Who came up with this title?" He asked.
"I did." Gu Yan said. "Accurate, concise, conforms to official document standards."
"Standard my ass!" The Chief slammed the table. "If this leaks, where will the Administration's face go?"
"Face isn't important." White Gloves said. "Lives are. If Scarlet really captures Captain Shen, B-07 is finished, and the Administration loses its strongest combatant."
"Can she capture her?"
"She can." Gu Yan said. "She's not after Captain Shen's abilities, but her 'definition.'"
"Definition?"
"Yes." Shen Xingyao pushed the door open, already changed back into black tactical gear, hair still wet from a shower. "Within Scarlet's War Authority, the concept 'Shen Xingyao' has already been written as 'hers.' Just as Lin Jin wrote 'Teacher Zhang exists' with his HB Pencil and Teacher Zhang existed, Scarlet wrote 'Shen Xingyao is mine' with War Authority, and I slowly become hers."
"Any way to stop it?"
"Yes." She said. "Rewrite her definition."
"How?"
"Use Narrative Authority." She looked at me. "Lin Jin, write a story. Write that Scarlet is not a War Authority holder, but a 'crazy girl who wants to beat Shen Xingyao.'"
"Will that work?"
"It will." She said. "So long as your story spreads widely enough, believed by enough people, Scarlet's War Authority will waver."
"Spread?"
"Yes." She pulled up a roster. "All Administration active personnel: three thousand seven hundred twenty-eight. Send your story to them. Make them believe."
"Send an official document?"
"No." She smiled. "Send gossip."
"Gossip?"
"Spread the word that Scarlet is madly infatuated with Shen Xingyao, love turned to hate, hate turned to murder." She enunciated each word. "The more melodramatic, the more absurd, the faster it spreads."
"This isn't destroying her reputation?"
"She doesn't care about reputation." White Gloves said. "She cares about 'definition.' When enough people believe she's a 'lovesick crazy woman,' her War Authority gets overwritten by the 'crazy woman' definition, drastically weakened."
"So this is... a public opinion war?"
"A conceptual war." Shen Xingyao said. "Using mortal mouths to rewrite divine definitions."
"Will Scarlet retaliate?"
"She will." She said. "She'll come kill you, kill everyone spreading the story."
"Then aren't we getting them killed?"
"Yes." She said. "So you must add a 'protection mechanism' to the story."
"What mechanism?"
"Write: 'All who believe this story are protected by B-07 Squad's Spatial sovereignty.'"
"But you can't protect three thousand people."
"I can't." She said. "But Scarlet doesn't know."
She smiled like a fox:
"She'll be intimidated, hesitate, won't dare act."
"And that 0.1 second of hesitation is enough for me to tear her apart."
---
04:30, Network Department.
Zhou Fang held a laptop, fingers dancing across the keyboard.
"Done." He turned the screen. "Post sent. Title: Shocking! What Original Sect Chief Apostle Did to Administration Female Captain. Nine images included—all fan art of Captain Shen and Scarlet, photoshopped by me."
"You photoshopped them?"
"Yeah." He grinned. "One with Captain Shen in a wedding dress, one with Scarlet in a suit, one with them gazing at each other, eyes locked."
"Are you crazy?"
"No." He said. "Communication theory: combining text and images increases rumor spread by 300%."
He hit publish. The post instantly went viral on the Administration intranet.
Within three minutes, shares exceeded one thousand.
Within five, comments surpassed ten thousand.
Ten minutes later, the Chief himself commented: [Do not create or spread rumors]
But no one listened. They only cared about: [I heard Scarlet renamed her War Authority 'Spatial Conqueror' for Captain Shen]
[Is that true?]
[True. My cousin works logistics. Says Scarlet wrote love letters to Captain Shen in blood mixed with War Authority fragments]
[Holy shit, divine romance!]
[Not romance—divine battle!]
Shen Xingyao stared at her phone, face dark as the bottom of a pot.
"Don't be angry, Captain Shen." Zhou Fang said. "Look how effective the spread is."
"Delete it." She gritted her teeth.
"Can't." Gu Yan adjusted his glasses. "Scarlet pinned the post. She used her Authority privileges to nail it to the Administration network's homepage."
"She pinned it?"
"Yes." Gu Yan said. "She's not angry—she added a comment: [Well written, but the details are wrong. Shen Xingyao doesn't like full sugar, only half sugar]"
"She can keep her damn details to herself!"
"But she added them." White Gloves said. "She's redefining herself proactively, from 'war maniac' to 'lovesick fool.' This way, Lin Jin's story becomes ineffective."
"Ineffective?"
"Yes." He said. "When an Authority holder willingly accepts a new definition, the old definition cannot overwrite them."
"So our plan..."
"Failed." Shen Xingyao smashed her phone. "She understands conceptual warfare better than us."
After smashing the phone, she looked up. The golden light points in her pupils were brighter than before.
"But she also exposed herself." She said. "The more she cares, the more it proves—my weakness, she also has."
"What weakness?"
"The desire to be loved." She said each word deliberately. "Whether god, human, or madwoman."
---
05:00, my dorm.
Three knocks—three short, one long.
But this time, it wasn't Chen Lan outside. It was Scarlet.
She wasn't wearing the red cloak—she wore Captain Shen's同款 black tactical gear, a B-07 badge on her chest.
"Lin Jin." Her voice wasn't synthesized, but a girl's natural voice, soft, like a whine. "I received your story."
"Then what?"
"Then, I want to make a deal with you." She handed me a pen—the golden Parker. "Help me write a story. Write Shen Xingyao accepting my love."
"She won't accept."
"She will." She said. "So long as it's written real enough, beautiful enough, despairing enough."
"Despairing?"
"Yes." She smiled. "Only love in despair can crack an Authority."
She leaned close. Her breath was sweet, like full-sugar milk tea.
"Write it well, I'll spare B-07. Write it poorly..."
She didn't finish, but her finger lightly traced my neck.
A bloody welt appeared, golden.
"I'll kill you first, then her."
She left like the wind.
I clutched that golden pen. A line of small text was engraved on the barrel:
[24 hours until Gaokao]
[If she doesn't accept me in 24 hours, you die]