Chapter 22

The port groaned under the strain of the abnormal gravity, the shriek of twisted metal like the wail of a dying beast, piercing everyone's eardrums. From above came the muffled thud of collapsing structures, dust falling from the cabin ceiling like snowflakes. Lights flickered wildly, shattering the shadows of despair on the faces of the people.

"There's no time!" Susie stared at the rapidly deteriorating structural stress data on the screen, her voice tinged with tears. "The anchor overload has exceeded the critical point. In at most twenty minutes, the entire port will collapse from the inside!"

Everyone's eyes were focused on Miao Weizhen and Wen Ling. Han Zhong clenched his fists, the old general's face filled with a helpless sorrow. In the face of such absolute destruction, personal bravery seemed so insignificant.

Miao Weizhen's eyes met Wen Ling's mid-air. That glance, piercing the flickering lights and the pervasive despair, contained too much unspeakable complexity. The next second, Miao Weizhen turned abruptly, his voice as cold as iron, yet carrying unquestionable power:

"Walk!"

Without hesitation, he rushed to the emergency passage leading to the underground core. Wen Ling took a deep breath, suppressed all the emotions surging in his chest, and followed closely behind.

The two figures quickly disappeared at the entrance of the dark and steep passage, like two sparks finally thrown into the abyss.

The passage leading underground was dead silent and oppressive. Wen Ling, following behind Miao Weizhen, finally asked the question that had been lingering on his mind for a long time. His voice was unusually clear in the narrow space:

"That incident at the airport was planned by you, right?"

Miao Weizhen's steps didn't pause for a moment, and even his breathing didn't change. He simply responded calmly, as if discussing a trivial matter that had nothing to do with him: "Since Your Highness has already guessed it, why ask again?"

His frankness, on the contrary, was like an ice-cold file, grinding against Wen Ling's heart.

"Why did you save me in the end?" Wen Ling pressed, a suppressed wave in her voice. "Is it because the plan went awry? Because that metal plate could have hit you too? Or is it because... I'm more useful to you alive than dead?"

This time, Miao Weizhen stopped. He turned around and stared at Wen Ling in the dim light, his phoenix eyes filled with a bottomless pool.

"Both," he replied, his tone cruelly calm. "But most of all, I found myself unable to tolerate the feeling of 'uselessness'."

He took a step forward and approached Wen Ling. They were so close that they could feel each other's breath.

"It's such a waste to watch you shatter like that." His voice was low, with an almost blasphemous scrutiny. "Wen Ling, your ideals, your stubbornness, even your... too pure eyes. To have them destroyed by such crude calculations is a defilement."

His words mingled like ice and fire, acknowledging a cold calculation while also revealing a twisted possessiveness that even he himself wasn't entirely clear on. He didn't save him out of love, but out of a paranoid collector's mentality—this "collection" could only be destroyed by him, or... treasured, and must never be shattered in that way by anyone else.

Wen Ling was shocked by the madness and contradiction hidden in his words and was speechless for a moment.

At this moment, the entire passage shook violently, and dust fell from above.

The port's structure is collapsing at an accelerated rate due to gravitational anomalies!

The two men's expressions changed at the same time. They no longer cared about the conversation and rushed towards the control core at the end of the passage.

The massive, dual-authority door appeared before him, and the groaning of the structure outside resembled the wail of a dying beast.

There is no time to hesitate.

They both pressed their palms against the grooves simultaneously. The door opened, and a violent stream of energy flowed out from the crack.

However, just as Wen Ling was about to step in, Miao Weizhen suddenly turned sideways, and his arm stretched across him like an iron clamp, blocking him.

"Leave the inside to me." Miao Weizhen's voice was firm and unquestionable. "You stay outside and support Susie's energy guidance. Only you can stabilize the hearts of those people outside and ensure the successful activation of the buffer field."

This reason was impeccable. Wen Ling's reputation among the port residents and soldiers was the only guarantee for maintaining order and ensuring the execution of the plan. Miao Weizhen would go in to handle technical difficulties while Wen Ling remained outside to stabilize the situation. This was the most "efficient" division of labor.

Wen Ling was stunned. He looked at Miao Weizhen, trying to find a flaw in his eyes, but he only saw a deep, unquestionable determination.

"Trust me this time, Wen Ling." Miao Weizhen looked at him and said one last sentence, his tone more complicated than ever before, "This time, our goals are the same."

After saying that, he turned around without hesitation and stepped into the door filled with the breath of death alone.

The heavy metal door slammed shut in front of Wen Ling, isolating him from the outside.

Wen Ling froze in place, his hand still in mid-air.

Miao Weizhen's final words echoed in his ears. He knew it was still calculated, the most "correct" choice after weighing the pros and cons. But why did his heart feel so heavy? Why did the sight of that man walking alone into despair make him feel suffocated and unable to breathe?

Wen Ling's fist slammed against the cold metal door, sending a sharp pain through his joints, but it was nothing compared to the pain he felt in his heart. Miao Weizhen's last words, "Trust me this once," lingered in his mind like a mantra.

"Your Highness!" Susie cried out through the communicator. "The energy flow is extremely unstable! The buffer field needs precise guidance. We...we are almost out of control!"

Wen Ling snapped back to his senses. He wasn't alone; the lives of thousands of people across the port now depended on him. Miao Weizhen had placed the responsibility and hope of life on his shoulders; he couldn't afford to fall.

He suppressed all his turbulent emotions and forced himself to calm down. His voice was unprecedentedly calm and decisive as he spoke into the communicator: "Susie, report the energy flow deviation parameters! General Han, maintain the outer structure of the buffer field. No evacuation is allowed until I give the order!"

His voice echoed through the public channel to every corner of the port. The calmness in his voice was like a stabilizing force, instantly steadying hearts on the verge of collapse. As they watched the blond figure standing at the core gates on the screen, his back straight, a faint glimmer of hope rekindled in their despair.

In the energy control center, Han Zhong, his beard and hair standing on end, roared as he commanded his soldiers to use their bodies to hold the buckling doorframe in place, securing the last bit of space for the buffer field generator. The veteran general seemed to have returned to the battlefields of his youth. Susie, completely absorbed in the data stream, her fingers moving so fast they left afterimages, and she was oblivious to the blood dripping from her nose onto the control console. She employed all her life's knowledge in a silent battle against the violent energy within the door.

Inside the door, the core control room.

Miao Weizhen found himself at the center of a raging energy vortex, the blinding light illuminating his overly pale face. The overloaded gravitational anchor beat like a heart on the verge of exploding. He ignored the burning pain radiating from his skin, his hands rapidly manipulating the console covered in ancient runes, precisely inputting commands one after another, forcibly redirecting the energy bursts and directing them toward the buffer zone Susie had constructed outside the door.

The immense mental burden and energy backlash caused his head to split, his vision to blacken, and blood oozed from the corners of his tightly pursed lips. But his eyes remained cold and focused, as if he felt no pain. This was the path he had chosen, the only way to survive, for himself and Wen Ling.

"The energy flow stability has increased to 65%!" Susie shouted hoarsely, her voice cracking with joy.

"Continue!" Wen Ling stared at the gradually tamed energy light that overflowed from the crack in the door, her heart tightening.

He knew what kind of battle Miao Weizhen was fighting inside.

Time passes by minute by minute, and each second seems as long as a century.

Suddenly, a dull sound, as if something had completely shattered, came from the core room. Then, all the overflowing energy light suddenly converged.

"Success! The anchor overload has stopped! The buffer field is stable! The stress of the port structure is decreasing!" Susie almost screamed and then collapsed in the chair as if exhausted.

Inside and outside the port, after a brief moment of dead silence, a deafening cheer of survivors erupted! Han Zhong slowly slid down to the ground, leaning against the wall. His calloused hands trembled slightly. Looking at the soldiers around him hugging and crying, he let out a long breath of foul air that had been held for a long time.

However, Wen Ling's heart sank, because the tightly closed core door remained motionless.

"Miao Weizhen!" He rushed to the door again, slamming hard on the cold metal. "Answer me!"

It was dead silent inside.

Just when despair was about to swallow Wen Ling—

“Click.”

A soft unlocking sound, almost drowned out by the cheers, was heard. The heavy metal door slowly slid open a crack.

Wen Ling pushed the door open suddenly.

The core room was a mess, the smell of burning permeated the air. Miao Weizhen sat slumped against the control console, his head drooping limply. His black uniform was stained with dark blood, and he seemed to have lost all vitality. Hearing the noise, he slowly raised his head with great difficulty.

Their eyes met.

Miao Weizhen's face was expressionless, only blank and exhausted after exhaustion. But in the depths of those bottomless phoenix eyes, Wen Ling caught a faint, fleeting spark of relief...

Wen Ling quickly stepped forward, squatting before him, wanting to reach out for him, but her fingertips trembled slightly just before touching him, stopping mid-air. A thousand words stuck in her throat—rage at the previous murder, confusion at the current sacrifice, relief at having survived, and a turbulent and complex feeling that even she couldn't define. Ultimately, all these emotions dissolved into a low, raspy cry of disbelief:

"…Miao Weizhen?"

Miao Weizhen looked at his hand suspended in mid-air, then slowly raised his eyelids to meet Wen Ling's emerald eyes, which were filled with shock, confusion, and a certain tenderness. He twitched the corners of his mouth ever so slightly, a seemingly unformed, self-deprecating arc.

He didn't have the strength to speak, couldn't even give an explanation with his eyes.

He simply closed his eyes again and leaned his head back, completely giving up all support.

Wen Ling looked at his pale, fragile yet straight neck, and his bloodstained collar. The ice wall in her heart, built of suspicion, anger, and confusion, was at this moment struck by a more powerful reality called "survival" and "accomplice," creating countless cracks.

He no longer hesitated, stretched out his hand, carefully avoiding the obvious injuries, put Miao Weizhen's arm on his shoulder, and helped him up.

"Let's go back."

His voice was soft, but it was filled with undeniable determination.

Miao Weizhen didn't refuse, or rather, he no longer had the strength to do so. He transferred some of his weight to the young man beside him. Amidst thunderous cheers, the two of them supported each other and, step by step, slowly but firmly, walked out of the hell that had nearly buried them both.

Behind them, Su Si came over with the support of Han Zhong. She looked at their backs, wiped the blood and tears from her face, and showed a tired but bright smile.

The crisis at Yellow Springs Rust Harbor finally came to an end with the cessation of the gravity anchor. Sunlight pierced through the rust-colored clouds, truly and unhindered for the first time, streaming down this traumatized land.

But Wen Ling and Miao Weizhen both knew that the war in Rust Port was over, and the war between the two of them, as well as the larger political cloud hanging over Sailiang Star, had just begun.

And the unsettled account between them, the bond formed by conspiracy, life-saving grace and complex emotions, has tied them together tightly and can no longer be separated.

Volume 1: "Yellow Spring Rusty Harbor", finished.