The relay station lay deep underground—thick concrete walls, damp and crawling with moss, as if time itself had tried to erase what once happened here.
Lâm Khả Vũ stepped in first.
Every step echoed like a memory surfacing.
An Thư followed quietly.
Since the explosion, neither had spoken of the gun.
"This used to be a training facility," Khả Vũ said.
"The place where we first learned to kill.
Where Tống Dực disappeared for the first time."
A narrow hallway.
An old bloodstain cracked into the tile floor—right where he had once shielded her from a blade.
He stopped.
So did she.
"You remember?"
"Never forgot."
They reached the old surveillance room.
Amidst dust and broken wires, one hard drive still blinked with life.
Khả Vũ connected a decryption module.
The screen lit up, playing old footage—of him, An Thư, and… Tống Dực.
The three of them once stood side by side.
Laughing.
Surviving.
An audio log played:
"The Blue Rose Project will collapse if any of the three betrays."
"Blue is the color of hope," Tống Dực's voice said,
"but also the easiest to fade."
Then—
Khả Vũ froze.
One video showed him alone, speaking to himself.
But the angle—
It came from a hidden camera in his private quarters.
"Tống Dực had surveillance on me from the beginning," he whispered.
"He never trusted anyone."
An Thư stepped forward.
Her eyes reflected something—anger, maybe guilt.
"Vũ," she said.
"What if… I knew about this all along?"
He turned to face her.
"Then I'll never forgive you," he said calmly.
"But I won't shoot."
The door slammed shut behind them.
Locks snapped into place.
A voice echoed from the speakers:
"Welcome back… to where all your dreams fell apart."
Tống Dực.
His voice warped—cold, fragmented, as if it had been reconstructed from broken memories.
Khả Vũ drew his gun.
An Thư stood by his side, not stepping back this time.
The traitor had revealed himself.
But the loyal one… had yet to show.