"Location."
The moment Lin Wu said it, the woman on the other end of the channel sounded like she had finally caught hold of a rope. She gave the address in one breath, barely daring to stop.
"North District. Kangning Apartments. Building Six, Unit Two, twelfth floor."
"My daughter is eight. She slipped on the stairs and put her hand right onto that black line on the wall… and now, now there's really something coming out on the back of her hand."
The faster she spoke, the more her voice shook.
"It's not a cut, not dirt, it looks like writing, but it hasn't fully formed… She says it's cold. She keeps saying her hand hurts."
As she listened, Lin Wu was already writing in the ledger.
Kangning Apartments 6-2-12Female child. Wall contact. Mark emerging.
The system prompt was still hanging in front of her.
[First real-world marked subject has appeared.][Recommended priority: Admit for treatment.][Note: First marked subject carries high observation value.]
High observation value.
Good.
Not ordinary trouble.
Billable trouble.
"Stop crying first," Lin Wu said. Her voice wasn't loud, but it was steady. "Does your daughter have a fever yet?"
There was a pause. The woman was clearly checking.
"A little… her forehead feels warm, but not burning."
"Is she saying anything strange?"
"No, not yet. She just keeps asking if there are bugs crawling under her skin."
Lin Wu's eyes sharpened slightly.
That was important.
Not delirious yet. Still able to describe the sensation. That meant it was still early.
"Listen carefully," Lin Wu said, her tone turning sharper. "First—don't let her touch any wall, door, glass, or mirror. Nothing reflective. Nothing that shows an image."
"Second—don't wash the hand. Don't wipe it. Don't run hot water over it."
"Third—find a clean cloth and wrap that hand loosely. Only the back of the hand. Don't tie it tight."
The woman hurried to agree, breathing in a ragged mess.
"Okay, okay, I got it…"
"Fourth," Lin Wu continued, "do you have an ice pack at home, or a bottle of water frozen in the freezer?"
"Yes. Yes, there's a frozen bottle."
"Wrap it in a towel and hold it against her wrist. Not directly on the back of the hand," Lin Wu said. "Cool it a little, or the writing will grow faster."
The line went quiet for two seconds.
The woman clearly had not expected Lin Wu to know that much.
Then she finally asked the real question:
"Can… can you save her?"
The moment that left her mouth, everyone in the store looked at Lin Wu.
Su Yu tightened her lips with Sui Sui in her arms.
Zhou Qiming's expression darkened; he was clearly waiting to hear the choice.
Qin Zheng and Pei Wan were more direct.
They were waiting to see whether Lin Wu would choose admit for treatment… or registration only.
Lin Wu didn't answer immediately.
She lowered her eyes to the system first.
[Current options: Admit / Observe / Register][Notice: If admitted, "First Marked Subject Record" will be opened.]
First subject record.
That didn't sound cheap.
She thought for two seconds, then asked the woman on the channel:
"What's your name?"
"…Xu Tang."
"Who's in the apartment with you?"
"Just me and my daughter." Xu Tang's voice shook badly. "My husband is out of town. I can't reach him anymore."
Lin Wu nodded once.
Then asked the most important question:
"What are you offering for registration?"
The line went silent.
Not because Xu Tang didn't want to answer.
Because the question hit her like a wall.
At a moment like this, a mother on the edge of panic wasn't thinking first about what she had to trade.
Two seconds later, she answered in a hoarse voice:
"I… I have some cash at home, a little jewelry, and my husband left a DSLR camera here…"
"I'll give you all of it. Just save my daughter first."
Lin Wu didn't answer.
She ran the numbers internally instead.
Cash—mostly dead weight now.
Jewelry—useful, but ordinary.
The camera—not worthless, but medium-tier goods at best.
Not enough for a first recorded marked-subject admission.
But she didn't reject it right away either.
Because a deal like this wasn't only about what Xu Tang physically owned.
It was also about how much value the first real-world marked case could feed back into the store's growing rule system.
Zhou Qiming suddenly spoke in a low voice.
"If she really is the first real-world marked subject, don't let her stay in that apartment too long."
"If the writing fully forms, nearby surfaces of the same kind may start pulling toward her."
Xu Tang had obviously heard that. Her voice instantly turned more fragile.
"What happens if it fully forms?"
Zhou didn't answer directly. He looked toward Lin Wu instead.
Lin Wu answered for him.
"Your whole floor won't stay quiet tonight."
A low, sharp inhale came through the channel.
Xu Tang was truly panicking now.
"Then I'll bring her there! I'll bring her right now!"
"You won't make it if you run on your own," Lin Wu said evenly. "Don't move yet."
Then she lifted her eyes toward Qin Zheng.
"Second Team. Send a vehicle."
Qin Zheng frowned. "Are you giving me orders?"
"Not an order." Lin Wu looked at him calmly. "Didn't the first registration ticket just sell?"
"The first real-world route, the first active marked-subject transfer—that counts as an attached service."
Qin Zheng: "…"
For a moment he honestly couldn't tell whether this counted as coercion or not.
The worst part was that it actually made sense.
The first stable route and first real-world registration ticket had bought precisely this: how to approach her store safely from the real-world side.
So now that the first marked case had appeared, this really was the first live order attached to that route.
"You want me to send a pickup team?" Qin Zheng asked.
"Yes." Lin Wu nodded. "You provide the vehicle. I provide the route logic. I handle the treatment."
This time Zhou Xubai responded faster than Qin Zheng did.
The communicator crackled, then his cold voice came through—not soft, but no longer only issuing commands either.
"Send me the address."
"We process this under first-ticket protocol."
Good.
He was learning how to do business.
Lin Wu repeated the address she had written down, then added:
"Tell your people not to let either of them touch walls. Don't use the elevator. Take the stairs. The pickup team wears double gloves. And no ceiling light inside the vehicle."
"Why no interior light?" Pei Wan asked.
"Because a marked subject at this stage is basically a half-written surface," Lin Wu answered at once. "If a strong light falls across it, the writing may continue growing."
Zhou Qiming's eyes shifted immediately.
That judgment was no longer just instinct.
She was already beginning to infer rules by herself from the invisible logic connecting black snow, breaches, doors, and writing.
"That works," Zhou added quietly. "And cover the mirrors in the vehicle. The rearview mirror too."
Lin Wu nodded once and relayed it directly to Zhou Xubai.
No argument came back.
Just one clean reply.
"Ten minutes."
Good.
Efficient.
Lin Wu switched back to Xu Tang's channel.
"You heard that?"
"I heard…" Xu Tang's voice now carried an edge of tears. "They're really coming to get us?"
"They are," Lin Wu said. "But you follow rules too."
Xu Tang answered instantly. "Tell me. I'll do all of it."
"First, don't wash the hand."
"Second, prepare your payment before my vehicle arrives. Don't make me wait while you search drawers."
"Third, when you reach my door—no crying, no screaming. Registration first. Treatment second."
There was a short pause.
Clearly, the phrase registration first, treatment second had hit some raw human place in her.
But in the end, Xu Tang still forced herself to agree.
"…Okay."
Only then did Lin Wu end the connection and add another line to the ledger:
Xu Tang — first marked subject case — pending arrival
When she finished, she tapped the page three times as usual.
Tok.Tok.Tok.
This time, no one in the room thought she was being cruel.
Even Su Yu only watched her in silence, her expression complicated but no longer resistant.
Because by now, everyone in the store understood more and more clearly—
Lin Wu's rules were not there to make things harder.
They were there to make collapsing situations take shape before they became chaos.
Without a frame, the next step wasn't rescue.
It was collapse.
"The first marked subject…" Zhou Qiming looked at the line in the ledger and let out a low breath. "From now on, I don't think only buyers are going to come here."
"Of course not," Lin Wu said, closing the ledger. "People buying goods, buying routes, buying information, buying survival, lining up for treatment—sooner or later they'll all come."
She said it so casually.
Casually enough that it no longer sounded like she was talking about a disaster spilling into the real world.
It sounded like she was talking about adding service lines to a growing business.
Qi Ye leaned against the shelf and looked at her.
"How are you planning to treat her?"
"Depends how far the writing has progressed," Lin Wu answered.
"If it's still only at the first strokes, we suppress it, record it, and put her under observation pricing."
"And if it's already starting to form…"
She paused and glanced at the black snow-mark in her own palm.
"Then we try to rewrite it."
That line changed several expressions at once.
"Rewrite it?" Pei Wan frowned. "You only just learned to write three strokes of your own."
"That's why it's called trying," Lin Wu said evenly. "If the first case isn't worth testing on, then how am I supposed to build the rules for the ones after?"
That quieted the whole room again.
That was how she always moved.
Other people saw danger and stepped backward.
She saw danger and asked first whether it was valuable enough to turn into skill.
At that moment, the black registration board that had only risen not long ago on the right side of the counter flickered once.
Where it had previously read:
Today's registration: 1/1
the text faded.
Then slowly changed into something new:
Temporary treatment: 1 slot
Everyone saw it.
A small light flashed in Lin Wu's eyes.
Good.
The store itself was learning how to expand the business while the heat was still in it.
The system prompt followed.
[First real-world marked subject approaching store.][Temporary treatment function activated.][Notice: Please prepare treatment pricing.]
Excellent.
Even the fee module had grown in on its own.
She almost had the numbers immediately.
The first treatment case couldn't be overpriced too aggressively.
But it absolutely couldn't be run like charity.
The first number mattered.
It would decide whether future marked subjects approached the door expecting emergency registration—
or expecting free mercy.
That price had to land exactly right.
"Professor," Lin Wu said, lifting her eyes, "for the first marked-subject treatment case, what's actually most valuable?"
Zhou Qiming paused at the question.
He thought for two seconds, then answered honestly.
"First: full-record progression of the writing."
"Second: the fully formed character shape on the hand."
"Third: if you can suppress it, the residual 'stroke-intent' left after the suppression."
Good.
All three were things the store wanted.
"Then I know how I'm charging," Lin Wu said.
Qin Zheng looked at her. "You haven't even seen the patient yet, and you've already finished pricing the case?"
"Obviously," Lin Wu answered, perfectly matter-of-fact. "What am I supposed to do? Wait until she arrives, cry with her, and then improvise?"
This time Pei Wan actually laughed.
Very softly.
But genuinely.
The air outside had gone colder.
The northern rupture was still active. Three bright "Stop" characters remained fixed there, and black snow wasn't going away anytime soon.
But inside the store, the lights stayed on, and the shelves looked less and less like those of a normal convenience shop.
Doorside goods.
Front-side routes.
Real-world registration.
Temporary treatment.
All of it had started growing in.
And Lin Wu stood behind the counter, flipped the ledger to a fresh page, and slowly wrote four words:
First marked consultation
She had just capped the pen—
when the sound of a vehicle came from far outside.
Not fast.
But steady.
As if someone had really followed the first route she gave and driven all the way here.
Lin Wu looked up toward the door.
"They're here."
This time, her tone didn't rise or fall at all.
But everyone in the store knew—
from this moment on, this place was no longer just somewhere that sold goods.