07:00, Administration Underground Level 3, Isolation Ward.
I sat in a fully transparent observation room, clutching that cracked HB Pencil. Across from me was the Medical Department's chief physician, a woman in her forties surnamed Chen. She wore three rings on her left hand, each embedded with a microscopic rule stabilizer. Her pupils were normal brown, but she looked at me like I was a piece of rotting meat.
"Lin Jin, sync rate 49.8%?" She stared at the report, eyebrows furrowed tight enough to crush a fly. "Do you know what the Administration's record is?"
"No."
"47%, held by the Original Sect's founder, the first-generation Narrative Authority holder." She adjusted her glasses. "You're 2.8% higher than him. Do you know what that means?"
"Means I'm about to go insane?"
"Means you're about to stop being you." She slapped the report on the table. "War Authority and Narrative Authority are fighting inside your consciousness. For now, it's barely balanced. But in 22 hours, the balance will break. Either Scarlet devours you, or you devour her. There is no third path."
"There is." I said. "The third path is Shen Xingyao deleting us both."
"Impossible." She shook her head. "Captain Shen is currently in a 'nonexistent' state. Her Spatial sovereignty cannot affect things on the 'existence' level. Unless she makes herself 'exist' first—but then, Scarlet will immediately detect it and detonate the War Authority in your brain."
"What happens if it detonates?"
"You'll become a human bomb." She made an exploding gesture with her hands. "Three-kilometer radius. Everything on the conceptual level—erased. Including the Administration's archives, B-07 Squad's designation, including... the possibility of Shen Xingyao returning."
I fell silent, spinning the pencil between my fingers. Silver-white light flowed from the cracks.
"So, your suggestion?"
"Simple." She said. "Within 22 hours, write a story that satisfies Scarlet. Make her voluntarily dissolve the sharing."
"She won't be satisfied."
"Then make her unsatisfied to the extreme." She leaned in close, lowering her voice. "When dissatisfaction peaks, she'll kill you herself. When she attacks, that's the opening."
"What opening?"
"She'll expose her main body's coordinates." She said. "When a War Authority holder kills personally, they must mobilize their core Authority. When mobilizing, she'll be right beside the core."
"How do I survive?"
"You don't need to survive." She stood up. "Your life is the bait."
---
08:00, B-07 Squad Briefing Room.
Captain Shen was absent, but her seat wasn't empty. Gu Yan placed a life-sized cardboard cutout in her chair—Q-version Shen Xingyao, holding a folder, eyes filled with disdain.
"Captain Shen said." Gu Yan adjusted his glasses, "Even when she's not here, her spirit is always with us."
"Where is she physically?"
"Inside the Seventeenth Mark fragment." Tang Lan said. "The fragment is under her dorm pillow. She folded herself into it."
"What about her body..."
"Occupied by Scarlet." Zhou Fang pulled up surveillance footage. On screen, "Shen Xingyao" was in the Chief's office, drinking tea with the Chief, smiling gently and appropriately, "Look, Scarlet's gotten quite convincing—even learned Captain Shen's habit of only drinking tea at exactly three-tenths hot."
"The Chief can't tell?"
"He can't." Gu Yan said. "Scarlet now possesses 100% of Captain Shen's body permissions and 37% of her memory permissions. Unless a sync rate test is performed, it's impossible to distinguish."
"What's Scarlet trying to do with Captain Shen's body?"
"She wants to use Captain Shen's identity to sign a document." Gu Yan pulled up an official document, "Special Approval for Original Sect Chief Apostle Scarlet to Enter Administration Strategic Academy for Advanced Studies."
"She's insane?"
"Not insane." He said, "Once she signs it, she'll be whitewashed—from terrorist to advanced student. Then she can legitimately approach Captain Shen—the real Captain Shen."
"Where is the real Captain Shen?"
"In the mark fragment." Tang Lan said. "Scarlet can't enter because the mark recognizes its master—it only recognizes Captain Shen. So she wants to use Administration documents to forcibly crack the mark's recognition protocol."
"Can it be cracked?"
"It can." White Gloves walked in, "Once the Chief signs it, the mark will treat it as a supreme command and open permissions."
"The Chief won't sign."
"He will." White Gloves said, "Because Scarlet is currently using Captain Shen's body. When Captain Shen speaks, the Chief won't refuse."
"Then what do we do?"
"Beat Scarlet out of Captain Shen's body before the signature." He said, "Use Narrative Authority to write 'expulsion,' use War Authority to strike 'expulsion,' attack from both sides."
"Who strikes?"
"You." He looked at me. "You're the only one who possesses both Authorities."
---
09:00, Chief's Office.
I pushed the door open. "Shen Xingyao" was holding a teacup, discussing document details with the Chief.
"Lin Jin?" She turned. Her pupils were silver, but gold flowed beneath them, "What are you doing here?"
"Here to sign." I took out that golden pen, "Chief, let me sign this document for you."
"Nonsense!" The Chief slammed the table, "This is a special approval order. It requires highest-level clearance..."
"I have clearance." I wrote with the golden pen on the document: [Approved]
The characters were golden—Scarlet's handwriting.
But in the next second, I wrote beside them with my HB Pencil: [But Scarlet shall not enter]
The characters were silver-white, overwriting the golden text.
The document spontaneously combusted, turning to ash.
"Lin Jin!" "Shen Xingyao" screamed—Scarlet's voice, "You're courting death!"
"Right." I said, "I'm courting death, and looking for you."
I pulled out the mark fragment and wrote in the void:
[Scarlet, get out of Shen Xingyao's body]
Silver-white light swallowed the office.
---
10:00, Medical Observation Ward.
When I woke up, I held the mark fragment in my hand. Captain Shen's voice came from within:
"Good work."
"Is she out?"
"Out." She said, "But she also took my body with her."
"Took it?"
"Yes." She gave a bitter laugh, "Now, I exist in the fragment, she exists in the air. Neither of us has a body to use."
"Then what do we do?"
"Wait." She said, "Wait 22 hours. War Authority will need to return to its main body. She must come back then."
"When she returns, we kill her."
"Can't kill." Captain Shen said, "She's now pure concept. Killing a concept requires a concept."
"Use what concept?"
"Use 'love.'" I said, "She loves you, and loves me. Love is a concept, and a weapon."
"How to use it?"
"Make her love unattainable." I said, "Make her obtain and lose, obtain and lose, cycling endlessly until her Authority tears itself apart from her own love."
"That's torturing her."
"Correct." I said, "Torture her until she loses."
---
11:00, Old campus rooftop.
Scarlet sat there, in her sixteen-year-old form, red cloak, golden pupils—but her gaze was soft, like melted sugar.
"Lin Jin." She said, "I received your stories."
"Then what?"
"Then, I want to change the ending." She handed me a new golden pen, "Change it to: Shen Xingyao, loves, Scarlet."
"She doesn't love you."
"She will." She said, "Given enough time, enough duration, enough despair."
"How much time?"
"A lifetime." She said, "Or, your lifetime."
She extended a finger, touching it to my forehead.
"22 hours from now, you die, she lives; or you live, she dies; or you both die together."
"No option for both living?"
"No." She said, "Love cannot tolerate a third person."
She vanished like the wind.
I gripped the golden pen. Engraved on the barrel:
[23 hours until Gaokao]
[23 hours until War]
[23 hours until Shen Xingyao—]
[One Story]
I looked up and spoke to the air:
"Scarlet, I've finished writing your story."
"Now, it's time for me to write your ending."
"The ending is:"
[Scarlet, never existed]
The characters were silver-white, like knives, carved into the air.
The void trembled. Scarlet's scream pierced through:
"You're courting death!"
"Right." I said, "I'm courting death, and looking for you."
"Looking for the fourteen-year-old girl inside you."
"The one who still cries, still smiles, still protected Chen Lan—that Scarlet."
"She never existed."
"What existed was only the illusion of War Authority."
The golden void began to shatter.
Like a mirror.
Like a dream.
Like a love story that never happened.