Lin Ye stood rooted to the spot.
The medical chart in his hand felt far too heavy to be made of paper.
It felt more like a past sealed away for ten years.
The last page.
There were only two short lines.
> **Patient ID: A-017**
> **Date of Initial Admission: Ten Years Ago.**
He read them over and over.
Something seemed to be blocking his chest.
Ten years ago.
He had been eight.
That year...
What exactly had happened?
"Lin Ye."
Xia Wei's voice pulled him back to reality.
The entire Seventh Ward was rapidly collapsing.
The hospital beds turned into points of white light.
The ceiling began to peel away.
Even the walls around them gradually became transparent.
"This place is about to disappear."
"We need to leave first."
Lin Ye didn't move.
His eyes remained fixed on the medical chart.
He couldn't shake the feeling that if he left now, he'd never find some of the answers again.
Just then, the medical chart suddenly began turning its own pages.
Rustle.
Rustle.
Rustle.
One page.
Two pages.
Three pages...
It finally stopped at the very front.
The first page.
New words slowly emerged on the paper that had originally been blank.
> **Patient Name: Lin Ye**
Beneath it.
There was another line in smaller letters.
> **Guardian: Lin Xue.**
Lin Ye's pupils suddenly contracted.
Lin Xue.
That was his mother's name.
But...
Hadn't this medical chart already existed ten years ago?
Why did it contain his information?
Before he could think it through, more words began appearing on the page.
> **Symptoms: Continued retention of memories from before revision.**
> **Assessment: Unable to synchronize.**
> **Recommendation: Immediate Zeroing.**
Lin Ye's entire body trembled.
The final four words stabbed into his heart like a knife.
**Immediate Zeroing.**
Ten years ago.
Had he already been judged worthy of Zeroing?
"Impossible..."
He murmured under his breath.
If he had been meant to undergo Zeroing ten years ago, then why...
Why was he still alive?
At the very bottom of the medical chart, a new passage of handwritten text suddenly appeared.
The handwriting was completely different from what came before.
Sloppy.
Hasty.
There were even traces of dried blood on it.
> **If you're reading this.**
> **It means I succeeded.**
Lin Ye froze.
"I did?"
The handwriting continued to emerge.
> **Xiao Ye.**
> **Don't trust anyone.**
> **Including Archive.**
> **Including...**
The text suddenly stopped.
A large swath of black ink covered everything that came after it.
It was as if someone had forcibly erased the rest of the message.
Lin Ye reached out to wipe away the ink.
But the white mark on his chest suddenly grew hot.
A blinding white light surged from his palm into the medical chart.
Bzzzz—
The black ink slowly receded.
New words reappeared, one character at a time.
> **Mom.**
Lin Ye froze completely.
"Mom...?"
Before he could even process it, the scenery around them suddenly twisted violently.
The hospital room before his eyes.
It vanished in an instant.
When he opened his eyes again, Lin Ye found himself standing in an unfamiliar hospital.
The hallway was brightly lit.
Medical staff rushed back and forth.
The hurried pounding of footsteps filled his ears.
"Hurry!"
"Prepare Operating Room Three!"
"The patient's blood pressure is dropping!"
"Notify the director!"
Everyone acted as if they couldn't see Lin Ye.
They ran straight past him.
He lowered his head and looked at his hands.
They were somehow half-transparent.
"What is this...?"
A familiar voice sounded beside him.
"This isn't the present."
"It's the past."
Lin Ye whipped around.
Xia Wei was standing behind him too.
Only...
She was transparent as well.
"You came in too?"
Xia Wei looked around, her eyes filled with shock.
"This isn't an illusion."
"It's the original record preserved by Archive."
Lin Ye frowned.
"The original record?"
"The true past, before the world was ever altered."
The two of them exchanged a look.
They realized at the same time.
They...
were witnessing what had happened ten years ago.
A child's crying suddenly came from the end of the hallway.
Lin Ye's heart jolted.
That voice...
It was familiar.
He immediately ran over.
The hospital room door was half open.
Through the glass, he saw an eight-year-old boy sitting on the hospital bed.
The boy had his head lowered.
He was clutching a picture book to his chest.
A faint white light was glowing from his chest.
It was exactly the same as the mark he had now.
Lin Ye stopped in his tracks.
His breathing gradually quickened.
Because...
that boy.
was him.
Himself at eight years old.
Lin Ye stared blankly at the boy inside the room.
His eight-year-old self.
He was smaller and thinner than Lin Ye remembered.
His face was pale.
Both hands clutched a well-worn picture book, yet his expression was unusually calm.
The white mark on his chest flickered on and off.
It was no different from the one on Lin Ye now.
"It really is... me."
Lin Ye murmured.
Xia Wei stood beside him without saying a word.
This was her first time seeing an original record preserved by Archive too.
That meant everything that happened next was real history.
No one had altered it.
The hospital room door suddenly opened.
A young woman hurried inside.
She wore a light-colored sweater, her long hair tied casually into a ponytail, and exhaustion filled her eyes.
But the moment she saw the boy on the hospital bed, a gentle smile immediately appeared on her face.
"Xiao Ye."
She crouched down and gently stroked the boy's head.
"Have you been a good boy and taken your medicine today?"
The boy nodded.
"I have."
"Really?"
"Really."
The woman smiled.
She took a carton of strawberry milk drink from her bag.
"A reward for you."
Eight-year-old Lin Ye's eyes lit up.
He accepted the milk drink and said softly:
"Thanks, Mom."
Lin Ye, standing outside the room, trembled violently.
Mom.
That was his mother.
Lin Xue.
But...
Why did she look so young?
And...
Lin Ye suddenly noticed.
A white card hung on his mother's chest too.
Only its ID didn't begin with A.
It was...
C-001.
"Xia Wei."
Lin Ye asked in a low voice,
"Do you see that card?"
Xia Wei nodded.
Her expression was even more solemn than before.
"I see it."
"But in Archive..."
"There has never been a C series."
Just then, hurried footsteps sounded outside the room.
Three people in black uniforms stopped at the door.
They weren't wearing masks, but they wore long trench coats extremely similar to those of the correction agents.
The leader was a middle-aged man.
A black card hung from his chest as well.
There were only two words on it.
RESET.
The man knocked on the hospital room door.
"Ms. Lin."
His mother slowly stood up.
The smile disappeared from her face.
"Is something wrong?"
The man took out a document.
"Confirmed."
"Patient A-017 continues to display synchronization abnormalities."
"Under the World Correction Act."
"Zeroing will be carried out today."
Lin Ye's whole body trembled.
So...
Ten years ago.
Someone really had come to take him away.
Inside the room, young Lin Ye raised his head.
There was no fear in his eyes.
He simply gazed quietly at those people.
But his mother stepped in front of the hospital bed.
"I refuse."
The man's tone remained calm.
"Ms. Lin."
"You know the consequences."
"I do."
"If you refuse."
"You will lose Archive's protection."
"I know."
"You will also be placed on the correction list."
His mother fell silent for a second.
Then she nodded gently.
"I know."
"But..."
She turned to look at the boy on the hospital bed.
Her gaze was so gentle that Lin Ye's nose stung.
"He's my son."
"Not a file."
The entire hospital room fell silent.
The man slowly closed the document.
"I'm sorry."
"Initiate the correction procedure."
The next second.
Countless lines of white text began appearing around the hospital room.
The walls.
The windows.
The ceiling.
They all transformed into countless streams of data.
Lin Ye immediately understood.
This was exactly like the correction zone.
Only...
The scale was much larger.
His mother suddenly crouched down.
She hugged young Lin Ye.
Then she whispered something in his ear.
Her voice was too soft.
Lin Ye, standing outside the room, couldn't hear it at all.
But he saw it.
His younger self.
His eyes slowly reddened.
Then.
He nodded hard.
His mother smiled.
It was the gentlest smile Lin Ye remembered.
She reached up and removed the C-001 card from her chest.
Then she gently placed it in the boy's hand.
The next second.
She turned around.
And walked alone toward the Reset agents.
Lin Ye desperately tried to rush into the room.
"Mom!"
"Don't!"
But his body passed straight through the hospital room door.
He couldn't touch anyone.
All he could do was watch helplessly.
His mother turned back.
She took one last look at the boy.
Her lips moved slightly.
Lin Ye finally understood.
She was saying—
"Don't forget Mom."
Boom—!
Blinding white light swallowed the entire hospital room.
Lin Ye squeezed his eyes shut.
All that remained in his ears was the woman's final voice.
And a child's heart-wrenching sobs.
No one knew how much time had passed.
The white light slowly faded.
Lin Ye opened his eyes again.
He and Xia Wei were still standing where they had been.
But inside the room.
Only his eight-year-old self remained.
He sat quietly on the bed.
Clutching the C-001 card to his chest.
And outside the hospital room door.
There was no longer any sign of his mother.
Lin Ye stared blankly at the empty doorway.
Tears slid down his face uncontrollably.
Only at this moment.
Did he truly realize it.
What he had forgotten...
wasn't a memory.
It was the fact that his mother had once walked into that Zeroing operation herself.
To protect him.
Just then, Xia Wei suddenly grabbed Lin Ye's arm, her voice more urgent than ever.
"Lin Ye!"
"Look!"
Lin Ye raised his head.
In the reflection of the hospital room's glass.
Besides his eight-year-old self.
There was another figure standing there.
It was a man wearing a black mask.
He stood silently behind the hospital bed.
Like an onlooker, watching everything that had happened ten years ago.
And that black mask.
Was none other than...
Zero.