Chapter Three: The Deleted Thirteen Minutes

His sister's name nearly stopped Chenzhou's breath. Shen lifted a hand, forming bright characters in the air. If they fell, Qiao Mi and every resident upstairs would forget again. Chenzhou did not attack him. He seized the stored objects and threw them onto the backup conveyor, which led to the public sanitation bay upstairs. Each bore an asset tag configured for automatic upload. At the same time, he triggered an offline program prepared before entry: if Qiao Mi's collector disconnected for three minutes, all captured evidence would broadcast through the fire-control network to every terminal in the building. Alarms filled the basement. Seventeen matching templates, the trust contracts, and Tao's confession appeared on lobby displays.