Chapter 158: You Don’t Get To Leave
Zeyu waited until the shelter became quiet.
Not like Xiling was ever really quiet. There was always some type of noise going on in the background.
The ventilation system continued moving air through the walls, cooling units maintained the temperature, and machinery hummed beneath floors designed to hide how hard they were working to keep six people alive.
But tonight, five of those people had somewhere important to be.
Zeyu packed his stuff while Hanchuan remained beside Zhiyi, Qinghe monitored her condition, Jingwei protected the medical room and Shichen examined the damage.
No one would notice an empty bedroom until morning.
Probably even later.
He placed one change of clothing into a small bag, then added water, several ration bars and the most basic emergency supplies he could get his hands on.
He even removed half of them after considering what he was doing.
Taking too much would make leaving pointless.
Looking over, he saw that the puzzle box remained in the center of his desk.
Zeyu had positioned it where someone would find it quickly after entering the room, although he hadn’t attached Zhiyi’s name.
He didn’t need to.
Of the six of them, she was the only person who would look at a metal box deliberately designed to resist being opened and consider it a gift instead of an irritation. Hanchuan would know who it belonged to.
Except Hanchuan wouldn’t know about the second compass.
Zeyu touched the pocket near his heart and felt its weight beneath the fabric.
He should have left it with the box. Zhiyi might eventually discover that there were two and wonder who had carried the other.
But He couldn’t make himself take it out.
That small selfishness would have to be the last one.
Zeyu looked around the room before turning off the light.
He had expected leaving to feel dramatic. His life had always had an audience for every bad decision he had made, even if the audience existed only in his imagination.
No music followed him into the corridor. Nobody rushed forward to demand an explanation.
The end of the world had finally provided the quiet departure he had spent years pretending he wanted.
Getting closer to the main room, he avoided the medical room.
Seeing Zhiyi would weaken his resolve, and he didn’t deserve the comfort of looking at her one final time.
She had already given him more trust than he knew how to carry. Asking her unconscious body for another gift would be greedy.
Besides, he knew what he would see.
Bruises darkening against her skin. Her chest rising carefully beneath the blanket. Hanchuan watching every breath as though he could keep it inside her through force of will.
Zeyu had put all of that there.
Five people would consume fewer supplies than six. They would use less water and place less strain on the cooling systems. The vehicle could carry them more easily during the Flood relocation, and each shelter’s reserves would last longer.
Most importantly, Zhiyi would never again follow one of Zeyu’s decisions into danger.
The reasoning was almost convincing by the time he reached the final corridor.
He was passing the medical-room door when it suddenly opened.
Hanchuan stepped into the hallway and stopped.
His attention moved from Zeyu’s face to the bag hanging from his shoulder. He didn’t ask what it contained. He didn’t need to.
For one absurd moment, Zeyu considered claiming he was taking laundry somewhere.
But the bag was too small, the timing was terrible and Hanchuan had never possessed enough patience to appreciate creative dishonesty.
Zeyu offered him the closest thing to his usual smile that he could manage. "I was hoping to avoid the farewell speech. You know how emotional Jingwei gets."
Hanchuan crossed the distance between them, and without warning, punched him in the face.
Pain exploded through Zeyu’s cheek. His shoulder struck the wall, and the bag slipped down his arm before landing on the floor.
The hit shouldn’t have surprised him.
Hanchuan had looked prepared to do worse since the ceiling collapsed.
Zeyu straightened slowly and touched his mouth. His fingers came away clean, which felt like a lie. There was enough pain that there should be blood pouring down his face.
"I suppose that saves time," he murmured to himself, poking at the spot again.
Hanchuan seized the front of his shirt and forced him back against the wall. "Where are you going?"
The answer should have been obvious, but Zeyu understood that Hanchuan wasn’t asking for a destination.
"Away," he replied with a shrug.
"Try again," snarled Hanchuan. He looked even more pissed, which was something that Zeyu wasn’t expecting.
His smile disappeared. There was no point performing for someone who had seen every version of the act.
"The supplies were calculated for six people," he explained. "They’ll last longer with five."
Hanchuan’s grip tightened. "That wasn’t your calculation to change."
"It doesn’t need to be complicated," Zeyu replied as he nodded toward the medical room.
He couldn’t see Zhiyi from where he stood, but knowing she was nearby made every word harder. "I nearly got her killed. You don’t trust me with her. Jingwei doesn’t trust me near her, and Qinghe wouldn’t let me watch someone with a scraped knee. I thought I’d leave before I managed an encore."
It sounded good, but it tasted like a lie.
Hanchuan released Zeyu’s shirt, but only so he could drive his forearm against Zeyu’s chest and pin him more firmly to the wall.
"Zhiyi put you in the core," he hissed at the other man.
The words struck Zeyu even harder than the punch, but he refused to let Hanchuan see it. "She made that decision before I dropped a building on her."
"She made it knowing exactly who you are." Hanchuan’s expression hardened when Zeyu tried to look away. "You don’t get to remove yourself from her core unit because you’ve decided you don’t deserve to be there."
A laugh escaped Zeyu, empty of its usual warmth. "Then maybe she finally got something wrong."
Hanchuan hit him again.
The second punch caught the other side of his face and sent him into the wall with enough force to make his vision blur. Zeyu remained upright mostly because falling would have required more effort than to fall.
Hanchuan stood over him with both hands clenched.
"You don’t get to decide she was wrong because you’re feeling sorry for yourself," he continued, his eyes blazing.
"I’m trying to keep her alive," countered Zeyu with a shake of his head.