As he locked eyes with those deep, green pupils, the boss’s remaining eyeball shifted slightly.

He could no longer remember his wife’s face.

But he still remembered how she used to smile beside him—soft and understanding. As if she could forgive anything he did.

He had once loved that smile the most.

That was why he married her, despite his family’s objections.

With his camera, he captured all their happiest moments—the warmth of her smile and his youthful confidence and ambition.

After they married, they had a lovely daughter named Guai Guai. She loved calling out “Daddy” from behind him, stumbling at first and then running and jumping as she grew.

He continued to capture everything with his camera.

His daughter’s soft, innocent smiles seemed to heal every frustration that came from his family’s rejection.

Over time, his wife’s features became increasingly blurry in his memory.

But he still had an impression of her. She was no longer young and beautiful, and her body was no longer slim and graceful. She had turned into an ordinary housewife.

She started complaining when he came home from work, cried when they were exiled from the inner city, and sat in silence on countless sleepless nights.

The person he loved the most became Guai Guai.

He often took Guai Guai to the cinema. It was his only remaining asset. It was enough to ensure they lived comfortably in the Quarantine Zone.

But his wife… she was never satisfied.

Guai Guai once asked, “Daddy, why don’t we watch movies with Mommy?”

How did he answer?

“Your mom would embarrass us outside. Isn’t it better to just go with Daddy?”

He smiled as he held up his camera.

Then, he found a woman who looked just like his wife when she was young. She wore a white floral dress, stood in the sunlight, and showed that familiar, tolerant smile.

At that moment, he suddenly remembered what his wife looked like.

It was exactly like the way this woman smiled.

“Guai Guai, do you like that pretty big sister?”

The little girl nodded.

She still didn’t understand what this meant.

But his wife did.

She became hysterical, turned violent, and her already weathered face became even more frightening.

The boss grew sick of her. She was just a woman from a small, unremarkable family in the outer city. Marrying into the inner city was already more than enough—why did she still demand more? Even though their current life wasn’t as good as before, they were still among the top in the outer city.

Might as well get a divorce!

His wife went mad. She started smashing everything in the house and made a scene.

The boss’s patience reached its limit.

If she refuses to behave… then she might as well die.

As he watched the vibrant life slowly drain from her, he actually felt a long-lost thrill.

That withered, aged face seemed to shift—turning into the young, lively girl he had seen in the cinema.

He wasn’t even sure who he was drawn to anymore. But it no longer mattered.

He raised his camera as he drowned in a rush of dopamine.

.

A long time later, his daughter’s voice woke him up.

“Daddy, why did you eat Mommy?” The little girl in a red dress tilted her head.

He patted Guai Guai’s head, blood still on the corner of his lips. “Because Daddy loves Mommy the most.”

—

The boss’s body was first to disappear—suddenly erased as if rubbed away by an eraser.

Then, his subordinates followed.

Finally, the entire scene around them began to collapse—like a sandcastle losing its foundation, crumbling into dry, yellow grains that trickled away.

Beyond the window, thick black fog surged in, laced with razor-sharp winds.

[Run! The pollution zone is collapsing!]

Fa Gui flapped its wings urgently.

Ruan Xing bent down to pick up the shattered camera, then rushed out of the office.

He barely made it out before the black fog swallowed the room behind him.

Yet the fog stopped at the doorway, never spilling into the corridor.

The door became a boundary.

Beyond it lay endless darkness.

Inside, the same inescapable hallway remained.

"What’s going on?" Ruan Xing frowned. “Wasn’t destroying the pollution source supposed to let us leave?”

The crow’s beady eyes widened. “No way! It should’ve worked! What the hell is going on?”

Ruan Xing stared at the collapsing boundary. Razor-sharp winds howled through the swirling darkness.

Then, he slowly spoke, “Could it be… that wasn’t the pollution source? Or what if this zone has more than one?"

Fu Gui screeched. “That’s not how it’s supposed to work!”

“Or maybe,” Ruan Xing mused, "it just hasn’t been discovered yet."

Fu Gui fell into stunned silence, questioning everything he thought he knew.

Meanwhile, Ruan Xing lowered his gaze to the camera in his hands, his expression relaxed.

The camera was already broken, and the magic inside it had become even more apparent.

The silver ornament bell he obtained before barely contained any magic—not enough for him to absorb and was only enough to use for a weak master-servant contract.

But now, the camera contained plenty of magic, which was enough for him to absorb.

Ruan Xing’s lips moved slightly. As he chanted, the camera in his hands began to heat up.

The magic that had been sluggishly circulating within the camera suddenly found an outlet. From the shattered cracks, it poured out like a flood, rushing into his skin at the point of contact.

In this world’s physics, there was a natural phenomenon: molecules always move from areas of high concentration to low concentration.

Although Ruan Xing's original world did not follow the same rules of physics, some principles were simply universal.

His body instinctively activated its broken magical circuits, drawing in the magic that had practically delivered itself to him.

However, he failed to notice that the detection device on his wrist had already begun blaring alarms.

68%... 73%... 81%... 89%...

The numbers surged until they finally stopped at 91%.

Fu Gui, still lost in his own confusion, hadn’t noticed it.

“It shouldn’t be like this… Destroying the pollution source should let us leave! Could there really be more than one?”

When Fu Gui finally snapped out of his thoughts and looked up, he only saw Ruan Xing holding that broken camera. “Why are you still carrying that thing?! Do you want to die?!!!”

When a pollution source is destroyed, the radiation it emits could push pollution levels past 90%. Even elite investigators wouldn’t last long under such conditions.

Therefore, every time a pollution source is cleaned up, its value must drop to a safe level before the mission is considered a complete success.

Fu Gui instinctively glanced at Ruan Xing's wristwatch, only to see that the value displayed was 59%.

For a moment, he was stunned.

Ruan Xing felt the magic circulating in his body and was in a great mood. "What?"

Fu Gui: [You're carrying the pollution source, yet your pollution level is still that low?]

Ruan Xing replied matter-of-factly: [My value has always been low.]

Fugui rubbed his eyes, thinking he had seen it wrong.

Then, he watched as the number on the wristwatch changed from 59% to 58%.

Fu Gui: …

Is this guy a freaking vacuum cleaner?!

Now that he had magic, Ruan Xing attempted to cast a spell.

The most crucial matter at the moment was his physical condition.

Fortunately, although most of his body's magic circuits were broken, he could still use the simplest healing spells.

Ruan Xing placed his hand on his abdomen, and a faint glow flickered at the area he touched.

Just as he felt some of his internal injuries improve, he stopped.

Although he still had some magic left, he hadn't forgotten that he was still in the middle of an exam.

A rookie walking out of a pollution zone unscathed?

That would bring a lot of trouble.

Therefore, Ruan Xing only stopped his internal bleeding and didn't bother with the wound on his neck.

Fu Gui: [Why did I just see pollution gathering inside you?]

Ruan Xing blinked. [Why can you see pollution?]

Fugui coughed twice. [It's my ability, duh.]

Ruan Xing let out a soft "Oh." [So, not only are you familiar with the human world, but you can also see pollution.]

Fu Gui couldn’t stand the sarcasm. He flapped his wings aggressively and squawked: "Yeah, yeah! I'm just that amazing! Not only can I see pollution sources, but I can also write articles and solve math problems! Impressive, right?!"

Suddenly, music started playing from Theater 4.

Fu Gui’s feathers puffed up in alarm. [Who?!]

Ruan Xing patted the dust off himself. "Let's go take a look."

—

Inside Theater 4.

On the screen, the romantic comedy was playing again.

The female lead’s radiant smile appeared on the big screen, with sunlight sprinkling over her shoulders like golden dust. It was a stark contrast to the photo in the office.

Ruan Xing picked up a discarded ticket stub from the floor.

The movie title was The Wedding.

A story about a couple overcoming hardships, finding love, and finally getting married.

Fu Gui: [Just an ordinary movie.]

Maybe that’s why it only had a small poster, with no major promotions at the cinema.

Because it was just too ordinary.

On screen, the bride wore a pure white wedding dress. Her slender fingers, adorned with a wedding ring, lifted the hem of her gown as she walked down a red carpet sprinkled with flowers. She turned back and smiled.

She didn’t have an overwhelmingly striking beauty, but when she smiled, she was dazzling and full of charm. Her expression was so full of hope that you could almost see her dreams of a happy future.

If none of this had happened, perhaps she would have married the one she loved, put on a white wedding dress, and stepped into a life of happiness.

Ruan Xing narrowed his eyes at the ring on the girl’s hand. [I've seen that ring before.]

Fu Gui: [Where?!]

Ruan Xing: [In Wang Lian's pocket. Back at his workstation, when something fell out of his coat pocket—it was this ring.]

Fugui: [Holy shit?! Are you saying this woman is connected to that black mango?]

Ruan Xing crossed his arms and rested his chin on his hand.

The velvet jewelry box in the break room, the elegant handwriting at the workstation, the payment receipts, the disinfection records, and that casually noted journal...

It wasn’t hard to guess. Wang Lian must have known this girl—perhaps even very closely.

The girl was hospitalized after she was tormented. While she was there, Wang Lian visited her.

She couldn’t speak, so she wrote her words in that notebook, and because Wang Lian rarely went home, he left the notebook at his workstation.

When he learned what his boss had done, Wang Lian, likely out of rage, set fire to Theater 4—killing both the boss and himself inside the room.

That was why Wang Lian and the boss were never seen together.

Ruan Xing speculated that if those two monsters had ever met, the situation could have spiraled out of control, and the pollution zone itself might have ceased to exist.

"She's beautiful, isn't she?"

At some point, Wang Lian had appeared in the back row.

Fu Gui’s feathers stood on end.

When did he get here?!

Wang Lian leaned against the seat, one leg crossed over the other, gazing longingly at the screen.

The heroine’s smile was frozen in that backward glance.

"She really is beautiful. Otherwise, so many people wouldn’t have fallen for her."

Ruan Xing subtly increased the distance between them. "You like her too?"

Wang Lian’s eyes lit up. "Of course!"

At this moment, he was no longer wearing that black attendant’s uniform. His hair was neatly combed, and his expression was natural—like an actual, completely normal human.

He seemed to have endless things to say when talking about the girl he loved.

"She was my girlfriend. I already proposed to her, and she agreed to marry me!"

Wang Lian noticed the camera in Ruan Xing’s hand and smiled. "I couldn’t find that thing, but you did. Xiao Lian should be at ease now."

"Xiao Lian—was that her name?" Ruan Xing took another step back.

Wang Lian chuckled. "Yeah. What a coincidence, right? We even have the same name."

"Well, congratulations. Wishing you happiness." Ruan Xing had already inched toward the door.

But the moment Wang Lian heard those words, his smile vanished. He spoke softly: "Wishing us happiness?"

"Xiao Lian ended up like that—how could we possibly be happy?"

"Even though I appreciate you finding the camera, you really think you can just say that and act like you mean it?"

"You have no idea what we've been through. You’re just spouting empty words, pretending to care! You're not sincere at all! Are you jealous of me? Do you like her too?!"

The screen on Ruan Xing's wrist turned red.

Fu Gui: [You motherf— You’re completely unreasonable!!!]