Yu Shen

The password​‍⁠⁠⁠‍​‍‌⁠⁠⁠‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍​‌⁠‌ lock on the archive door had long since malfunctioned. Qin Zhilu dismantled the entire lock mechanism and pushed the door open.

The dust inside hit them like a choking wave. An Yu waved away the swirling particles and surveyed the room.

It was just as he remembered: a lonely desk with a computer near the entrance, and rows upon rows of filing cabinets behind it. All records were stored both digitally and in hard copy.

Every orphan came to this room twice: once during admission and once before leaving or being disposed off. An Yu was picked up as an abandoned baby, so the only memory he had of this room was the time when he was discharged from the orphanage.

On the day he left, a new arrival had coincidentally come in. On that day, he had stood by the computer and watched the entire registration process, even memorizing the system access password.

Qin Zhilu watched him clumsily turn on the computer, input the password without hesitation, and commented, “Your memory is unnervingly good.”

“Lin Qiu said the same thing,” An Yu replied, pausing briefly before continuing. “But he also said, ‘A pretty face is no match for lowly genes, and a clever mind can’t save the bad nature of being lazy.’”

“He had a very clear view of life,” Qin Zhilu said with a faint smile. Then he asked, “Does registering new information require an iris scan?”

“That step can be skipped,” An Yu explained. “Back then, the new kid had been attacked with his family in the wild. One of his eyes was injured, and the other had been gouged out. So the records teacher temporarily didn’t register his iris.”

Qin Zhilu nodded and walked to the back to browse through the files.

An Yu was not good at operating these electronic devices, so he could only try to recall the scenes he saw back then and figure it out step by step.

“Commander, when is your birthday?”

“September 30, 2122.”

“Alright…”
To avoid anyone pointing out that the orphanage had long stopped accepting new arrivals, An Yu simply used Qin Zhilu’s birth year as his admission year. After typing in the string of numbers, he said, “So this will be your ID: 21220930.”

“Hmm.”

“Your genetic entropy…” An Yu faltered, stuck.

The system only allowed input of numbers between 0 and 99,999. The designers probably hadn’t anticipated values beyond this range.

Qin Zhilu casually ordered, “Just set it to the maximum.”

“Ok.”

The system displayed a notification: Genetic entropy exceeds human parameters. You are registering an aberrant child. Please input the distortion genotype.

Qin Zhilu stood before the December 2130 admission records cabinet, his fingers brushing over the file numbers until he found “21301222.”

“Sir,” An Yu asked again, “The genotypes you’ve acquired and expressed—can you still express them at will?”

Qin Zhilu pulled out the file and answered casually, “Theoretically, yes. But I rarely do it.”

Read at Mizushi Novels

Visit Mizushi Novels

After some thought, he also registered Pat, who hadn’t displayed any abnormal behavior after learning An Yu was alone.

Support the original translation

Read on Mizushi Novels

Slade gritted his teeth. “Even if the keycap is gone, the switch can still be pressed. Try it.”

Don't scrape

Don't copy

“It doesn’t,” An Yu replied. “The orphanage’s equipment isn’t as advanced as the Main—”

Read at Mizushi Novels

Visit Mizushi Novels

Slade inhaled deeply, suppressing his frustration. “Must I use my real name?”

Support the original translation

Read on Mizushi Novels

An Yu ended the communication.

Don't scrape

Don't copy

“Come here,” Qin Zhilu interrupted.

Read at Mizushi Novels

• ID: 21301222
• Name: None
• Assigned Caregiver: #019
• Physical Characteristics: White hair, golden eyes, humanoid body
• Admission Date: December 22, 2130
• Discharge Date: December 22, 2138
• Admission Notes: During a routine patrol of high-abandonment zones (Zone A of the garbage incineration plant near the Main City), #019 discovered 21301222. Initial evaluation determined that the infant had not mutated, was not registered in the human genetic database, and had extremely low genetic entropy (0.2), indicating a high mutation risk. Thus, the child was admitted to the orphanage.

Visit Mizushi Novels

Under Admission Notes, there was a subsection labeled Care Plan. Originally, it stated: “If no abnormalities are observed, the child will be randomly assigned to a standard city orphanage for care after six months.”

But that line had been crossed out and replaced with: “The assigned caregiver exhibits abnormal behavior. Additionally, the child has displayed unusual sleep patterns since admission. Risk level deemed extremely high. Proposed indefinite containment for observation, or until sleep abnormalities cease.”

Support the original translation

An Yu stood dazed for a moment before walking to another cabinet and pulling out the staff files.

ID: 019
Name: Yu Shen
Role: Investigation and containment of high-risk orphans with high distortion risk
Start Date: October 5, 2122
End Date: December 22, 2130 (disposed of due to abnormality)

The written record didn’t specify the reason for being disposed of. Qin Zhilu searched the computer for more information. His fingers rested on the mouse as he scrolled down slowly, reading aloud:

“Yu Shen joined the orphanage on October 5, 2122. On December 22 of the same year, he vanished without a trace while inside the facility. He suddenly reappeared on December 22, 2130, and registered an abandoned infant for containment. When questioned about his whereabouts during the missing years, Yu Shen denied any abnormal disappearance, insisting that it was still December 22, 2122. He refused to accept that eight years had objectively passed in the world or that his body had aged accordingly.

“He was deemed mentally unstable. After multiple therapy sessions and attempts at communication, his condition worsened, leading to the decision to dispose of him.”

An Yu was stunned. “He disappeared for eight years and then… brought me back to the orphanage?”

Qin Zhilu stared at the screen in silence for a long time before saying, “I heard that every staff member in the orphanage kept a work log.”

An Yu recalled, “Yes, I think I heard the other children mention it. Supposedly, each caregiver wrote personal logs before officially filing cases, to help them recall details during inspections. They weren’t usually accessed.”

Qin Zhilu had already pulled up Yu Shen’s personal records from the system.

Based on the logs, Yu Shen had indeed disappeared for eight years. He had only five entries, all dated 2122. The last entry detailed the process of containing An Yu, describing the garbage incineration plant’s site information, An Yu’s physical characteristics at the time, and the genetic test results. This log should have been dated 2130, but because Yu Shen wrote it himself, he mistakenly recorded the containment date as 2122.

When Qin Zhilu opened the file’s edit history, something eerie occurred:

• Latest Edit: December 22, 2130
• Previous Edit: December 22, 2122

An Yu froze for a long time before a chill crept up his spine.

Suddenly, he remembered the prophetic poem:
“A man’s time is disordered. In silent panic,
his death quietly flows down the river.”

The computer screen turned off, and the black screen reflected a pair of hollow, bewildered golden eyes.

“It seems you’re eight years older now,” Qin Zhilu mused. “Let’s try to reconstruct what happened. In 2122, the year of the Great Calamity, Yu Shen found you near the garbage incineration plant outside the Main City. After confirming your genetic profile, he brought you back to the orphanage. He began registering you in this very room. Before filing the official record, he followed protocol and started his personal log. But halfway through—”

Qin Zhilu paused, his dark eyes locking onto An Yu. He said softly, “Some force rewound time for both you and him by eight years.”

“In the objective world, the two of you disappeared for eight years.
“Eight years later, you were still a sleeping infant, while he—unable to explain the temporal anomaly—was quietly disposed of.”

Author’s Note:

Yu Shen (遇神 – “To Meet a god”)