The next morning arrived with a biting wind that swept dust across the bureau courtyard. Workers huddled in coats and scarves, heads bowed against the cold. But beneath the winter chill, something darker crackled in the air—a tension everyone felt but no one dared voice.
Lin Wei and Liu Fang walked through the gates side by side. Their partnership was now official, stamped and filed, but the attention it drew was anything but routine.
Eyes followed them.Whispers trailed behind them.Even the senior staff took notice.
But Liu Fang walked steadily, chin lifted, as if daring anyone to comment.
Lin Wei envied that calm—not that he realized she was trembling inside.
The Sabotage Investigation Begins
Director Li summoned them immediately.
The conference room was sparse but tense. The broken bolt from the sabotaged test rig lay at the center of the table like an accusation.
Master Yu stood with arms crossed.Senior Engineer Zhao studied the damaged threading.Liu Yan lingered at the back with a notebook, expression neutral, too neutral.
The political officer was conspicuously absent.
Director Li gestured for Lin Wei to stand beside the table.
"We need your full analysis," he said. "And any detail you might have overlooked."
Lin Wei inhaled slowly.
"The damage was deliberate," he began. "Filed down with a precision tool. Likely at night. By someone who understood mechanical stress."
Engineer Zhao nodded reluctantly.
"So this wasn't the work of a common saboteur."
"No," Lin Wei said. "Whoever did this wanted the collapse to resemble the trench failure."
Master Yu frowned deeply.
"That suggests two possibilities:Someone is framing you—or someone is testing you."
Liu Fang stiffened beside him.
Lin Wei remained silent.
He couldn't say what he truly feared:
Someone was testing the system through him.
"Also," Lin Wei continued carefully, "I found a symbol carved under the beam."
He slid the sketch onto the table.
○╳
The circle crossed by two lines.
Liu Yan leaned closer, brows furrowing—only slightly.A reaction… but one she quickly hid.
Director Li tapped the drawing.
"Does anyone recognize this mark?"
No one answered.
Until—Liu Fang stepped forward.
"I think I've seen it before."
All eyes turned to her.
"Where?" Director Li asked.
She swallowed.
"In the archives. On old, sealed project documents. Ones restricted to senior staff."
Lin Wei's breath hitched.
Master Yu narrowed his eyes."Explain."
Liu Fang clasped her hands tightly.
"I… wasn't supposed to open them. But last year, a mislabeled box came through for cataloging. It contained reports from the early reconstruction period. Dangerous structural failures. Strange accidents."She hesitated."And some pages carried that symbol."
Silence fell like a dropped hammer.
Director Li slowly sat down.
"That means—" he began.
Master Yu finished it.
"—the saboteur isn't new. This symbol has a history."
Lin Wei's pulse quickened.
A history tied to past disasters.A symbol left at multiple collapse sites.
A pattern.
Liu Yan's fingers tightened almost imperceptibly around her notebook.
But no one noticed.
Assigning the Task
Director Li straightened.
"Liu Fang. Lin Wei. Your first assignment as partners is to investigate the old archive references to this symbol. You will work in the auxiliary records room."
Liu Fang bowed.
"Yes, Director."
Lin Wei nodded.
"Understood."
Master Yu added:
"And keep your findings quiet. If this saboteur has worked from the shadows for years, they may still have eyes inside the bureau."
Liu Fang stole a quick glance in Liu Yan's direction.
Another reaction—a momentary flicker, quickly masked.
Lin Wei filed it away.
On the Way to the Records Room
The auxiliary archives were in one of the older buildings—musty, dim, and quiet. The perfect place to hide forgotten secrets.
As they walked, Liu Fang whispered:
"I shouldn't have said so much. But… I couldn't let them accuse you blindly."
"You didn't do anything wrong," Lin Wei said softly.
She frowned at him.
"I know when someone is trying to frame you. Or push you into danger."
He gave a quiet, wry smile.
"Or test me."
Liu Fang stopped walking.
"…Testing you."
He turned.
She looked scared—not of the saboteur, but of the possibility that he was right.
"What if," she whispered, "they don't want to ruin you? What if they want to recruit you? Or measure you?"
"I don't know," he admitted.
But the system pulsed inside him.
[Risk Level Rising][Unknown Party Interest: Not Hostile… yet][Trajectory: Observation → Test → Evaluation]
Evaluation.
Just like the committee.Just like the saboteur wanted.
Liu Fang reached for his sleeve—unconsciously.
"Promise me," she said quietly, "you won't handle this alone anymore."
"I won't," he answered.He meant it.
Inside the Archives
Rows upon rows of old files stretched like dusty ribs across the room.The smell of paper and age wrapped around them.
Liu Fang searched the far shelves.Lin Wei searched the structural reports.
Together, but in the quiet of separate aisles.
Until—
"Lin Wei," Liu Fang called softly."I found something."
He walked over.
She held a folder—faded, cracked, marked with a red seal:
CONFIDENTIAL: INTERNAL USE ONLYAnd faintly, in the corner—
○╳
Lin Wei's throat tightened.
They opened it together.
Inside were sketches of collapsed buildings.Internal memos.Investigations marked unresolved.
And a single page stamped with a chilling title:
"Unknown Technician: Field Performance Observations"
The report listed:
Sites of unusual collapses
Patterns in the sabotage
Witness accounts of a man in a long coat
Speculation that a "lone operative with advanced structural knowledge" was behind each incident
And then—at the bottom—
A final note:
"If the individual identifies another promising candidate, they may seek to test them."
Liu Fang whispered, voice trembling:
"Lin Wei… they're not sabotaging the bureau."
He swallowed hard.
"They're… looking for someone."
Her eyes widened.
"And they think that someone is you."
Lin Wei stared at the page.At the symbol.At the long coat sketched by an old investigator.
The same coat he'd seen recently.
He exhaled shakily.
Not in fear—but in understanding.
"It wasn't sabotage," he murmured.
"It was a recruitment test."
A shadow crossed the doorway.
Both of them turned—
But the corridor was empty.
Only a faint echo of footsteps remained.
The man in the long coat had been there.
Watching.
Waiting.
Evaluating.
And the test was far from over.