Chapter Five: The Flood That Never Happened

“You bought the station to find those three hundred seventeen dead?” Gu's smile vanished. “To present-day Linlan, they were never born. If you force nonexistent people back into history, whom will reality charge for the debt?” That night, Chenzhou, Qiao Mi, and Han entered the abandoned station. A waterline climbed two meters up walls coated in dust. Han opened an old pressure gauge and removed a laminated register. The third anchor. Xingyao had written on its first page: Three hundred seventeen names. Omit no one. One extra name appeared on the last page. Lu Chenzhou. Its status was not deceased. REPLACEMENT COMPLETED TWO YEARS AGO.