Chapter Four: Grandma Died Twice on Sublevel Seven

Sublevel Seven did not exist on Central Hospital's blueprints. Lin Yan saw the route anyway. Every elevator trailed possible futures through Probability Sight. Only the medical-waste elevator had a path that sank below Sublevel Six and vanished. At 8:17, Lin pushed a cart of discarded sheets inside. Silent Camouflage spread around him. Nurses saw him. The access system read him. Both treated him as a detail unworthy of action. [COGNITIVE DEBT: 23%.] Su Mi and Zhou Qiming hid under the sheets. At Sublevel Six, Lin held the doors and inserted Grandma's brass key into an unmarked slot. The floor indicator changed from -6 to 0. Beyond was a white corridor furred with frost. Cold-storage locker 009 bore Shen Zhiwei's death label.