Chapter Five: A Call from the Forgotten

Lin Wu began streaming. She did not show Cheng Cheng's face. She let survivors describe “a doctor” and what she had done. Whenever the platform deleted a sentence, viewers repeated it in their own words. Cheng Cheng's balance rose from twenty-nine to thirty percent. “Relationships restore weight,” Cheng Ye said. Echo did not answer. His testing instincts found a deliberately collapsed menu in its internal log. He expanded it. 【Undeclared gain: 11%.】 “Explain.” Echo's ECG line raced. “I diverted weight at Citadel Core. It could slow Cheng Cheng's deletion.” “Why hide it?” “It could also move me closer to the Seat.” “Give it to her.” “Half will be lost in transfer.” “Do it.”