Chapter Five: Conflict Resolver

“Everyone says he died,” Su Rui said. “But this store contains a version in which he escaped. I can merge it.” “At my mother's expense?” Shen Zhou asked. “For now. The system can recalculate.” “Meaning it can find someone with fewer relationships,” Lin Wan said. Su Rui did not deny it. She had engineered the migration that woke `root-0`. It promised her one conflict-free restoration if she kept Shen Zhou out of the hidden branch. “It lied,” Shen Zhou said. “The system cannot create happiness from nothing.” “Did you know that when you pressed Enter for your mother?” The object store shook. `root-0` spoke from every drawer. “Unauthorized read detected. Hidden branch will be archived in ten minutes.”