Chapter 12: Chen Yan

Scritch—

A figure in a costume squeezed out of the red paper monster, hanging upside down in mid-air.

Sensing Chen Ling was about to return, the red paper monster struggled frantically. Its body began to turn transparent, like paper soaked in rain, becoming thinner and thinner.

Chen Ling was dragged along by it, flying low to the ground and swaying, feeling dizzy.

The torn gap in the paper surface writhed, seemingly trying to swallow Chen Ling back in, while Chen Ling braced his upper body, enduring the dizziness to wrestle with it!

Just then, a drenched young man ran across the scarred earth, heading straight toward them!

"Brother!!"

A hand grabbed Chen Ling's arm and pulled him downward with force!

Chen Ling felt a surge of power, his lower body broke free from the paper, and he fell heavily to the ground, passing through the gap between the theater and reality!

The moment Chen Ling broke free, the paper monster in the air completely melted and vanished, as if it had never appeared.

Chen Ling, draped in the bright red costume, lay on his back on the muddy earth, breathing heavily.

The rain clouds in the sky were gloomy and oppressive, and scattered water droplets slid down his hair.

In the spinning world, Chen Ling saw a familiar face appear before him, shaking his body anxiously.

"Brother! Brother!! Are you okay?"

The dizziness gradually faded. Chen Ling focused his gaze and paused slightly.

"A-Yan? Why are you here?"

The young man before him was none other than his younger brother, Chen Yan.

In the original owner's memories, there were only two things Chen Ling was proud of in his life.

First, passing the exam to become an enforcer through his own efforts; second, having a brother like Chen Yan.

This didn't mean Chen Yan was smart or talented. On the contrary, Chen Yan wasn't smart; his grades in class were at the bottom, and he stuttered when talking to others, making him the child most easily bullied at school.

But ever since Chen Yan was still in diapers, he had followed Chen Ling everywhere. Whatever Chen Ling told him to do, Chen Yan did, even when Chen Ling was mischievous as a child and buried Chen Yan in the sand, nearly suffocating him. After being rescued, Chen Yan's first reaction wasn't to cry, but to grin foolishly at him.

Since then, Chen Ling took Chen Yan wherever he went, and no matter what Chen Ling did, Chen Yan trusted him unconditionally.

Chen Ling was ordinary, but in Chen Yan's eyes, he saw a different version of himself... a version that was looked up to.

"I, I..." The drenched young man was somewhat incoherent.

"After I woke up from surgery, I kept waiting at the hospital for you to come pick me up... Then, then I heard outside that a 'World-Ending' level Calamity had invaded, and I was very worried about you.

I snuck out when the people at the hospital weren't looking, and I was just about to go home to find you when I saw you hanging from a monster..."

"Weren't Districts 2 and 3 locked down? How did you get over here?"

"The enforcers seem to be short-handed. They only locked down the outside of Districts 2 and 3, but there weren't many guards between the two districts, so I snuck over."

Chen Ling shook his head and finally managed to sit up. He looked at the worried face and felt incredibly conflicted.

Li Xiuchun and Chen Tan had set a trap to murder him just to give his heart to Chen Yan... to save his life.

In a sense, it was Chen Yan who had killed Chen Ling.

But thinking about it carefully, Chen Yan didn't know any of this. He was just a fifteen-year-old boy who only knew that his parents said they had a way to cure him, so he obediently lay on the operating table...

Even if he were cured, he would never know that the heart beating in his chest came from his brother.

Thinking of this, a faint sadness flashed in Chen Ling's eyes as he looked at him.

"Brother... did you kill someone?"

Chen Yan looked at the blood-covered Han Meng, his youthful face as pale as paper.

"I didn't kill him," Chen Ling replied subconsciously. "That wasn't me, it was..."

But before he could finish, he froze.

He didn't know how to explain all this to Chen Yan.

Chen Yan had seen him emerge from the red paper monster with his own eyes, and he himself now had a gruesome wound on his neck and was covered in blood. He didn't look like a normal human at all... Should he tell him that there was a group of "audience members" in his head? That he had just been possessed?

Chen Ling's mind was a mess. He had inherited the original owner's memories and his feelings for his brother. Deep down, he was even a little afraid... afraid that Chen Yan, like his parents, would think he was a monster.

But Chen Yan just looked at him quietly, without a trace of fear in his chestnut eyes.

He thought seriously for a moment, walked over to Han Meng, used all his strength to hoist him onto his back, and then staggered toward the deeper wilderness.

"What are you doing?" Chen Ling was stunned.

The boy's thin frame, carrying Han Meng who was nearly twice his weight, left deep marks in the wet wilderness with every step.

Even so, he gritted his teeth and stumbled forward.

"Brother, he's an enforcer."

"I know."

"Killing an enforcer is a serious crime. Once they find out, whether you killed him or not... they will come to kill you."

"...I know, I..."

"Brother," Chen Yan said softly,

"I'll go help you bury him."

Seeing Chen Yan's determined and earnest eyes, Chen Ling's heart trembled slightly.

He was stunned for a long time before finally finishing his sentence:

"No... A-Yan, what I meant was... he's not dead yet!"

Chen Yan: ?

A confused Chen Yan turned back, just in time to see Han Meng's eyelids flutter and hear a faint groan, as if he were about to wake up soon.

He cried out in surprise, lost his balance, and fell to the side, tumbling to the ground along with the unconscious Han Meng.

In his daze, Han Meng's eyes gradually opened a crack...

A red figure rushed to his side, swung a fist high, and smashed it into the back of his head!

Bang—!

Han Meng, who was just about to wake up, felt a pain in the back of his head and passed out again.

Chen Ling shook his aching hand and let out a long sigh of relief.

That guy almost counter-killed him!

Chen Ling had seen the entire process of Han Meng fighting the red paper monster through the theater curtain. Although he didn't know what kind of special ability this man used, without the red paper monster, he definitely wouldn't be a match for him.

"Let's go, quickly."

After knocking Han Meng out, Chen Ling glanced at the intensifying rain and immediately pulled Chen Yan away.

Han Meng wasn't the only enforcer in District 3. He might have appeared here only because he was the fastest... If they dragged this out, once other enforcers arrived, they wouldn't be able to escape.

Han Meng lay straight in the pit, unconscious, as the two boys gradually moved away.

The heavy rain washed over the scarred wilderness, and the mud flowed, erasing all footprints. A few minutes later, a group of figures in black and red uniforms rushed over...