Qian Wei remained seated after Shen Luo suggested that she might have brought the apocalypse into this timeline.
The accusation should have angered her. Instead, she understood why Project Dawn had to consider it.
She had been bitten by a zombie, died and awakened three hundred years later with a mutation developing inside her body. Even she could not guarantee that her presence was harmless.
"If I had come here to cause the apocalypse, approaching the government voluntarily would be a strange way to begin," she said. "However, I understand your concern because I cannot fully explain what happened to my body either."
Shen Luo studied her. "Are you willing to undergo a medical examination conducted by Project Dawn?"
"I will agree to non-destructive testing after we establish clear conditions. I will not consent to procedures that could kill me, damage my consciousness or remove the system from my body."
Several expressions changed around the table.
"You mentioned a system," Professor Song Rui said. The scientist appeared to be in her late fifties, with short dark hair and silver-framed glasses. "Could you explain what you mean before we discuss examining you?"
"I will explain everything, but first, I need to understand how Project Dawn obtained information about Apartment 3-17. If you have been waiting almost three centuries for my arrival, then someone knew more about the future than I did."
Shen Luo accepted the condition.
The holographic screen changed, replacing the image of the apartment interior with an old photograph.
Qian Wei recognized Peace Street immediately.
The photograph showed the same residential building as she remembered, although barriers surrounded it and part of the road had been closed. Workers wearing protective clothing stood near heavy machinery.
"This photograph was taken two hundred and ninety-eight years ago during the demolition of the Peace Street residential district," Shen Luo explained. "Apartment 3-17 remained sealed for two years after the incident you remember."
"Why would it remain sealed for that long?"
"The public record described the scene as a homicide involving an unidentified attacker. The apartment was placed under investigation, and the surrounding residents were gradually relocated."
Qian Wei frowned. "Even a newly graduated officer could tell that the scene was not an ordinary homicide. The blood patterns, condition of the body and behavior of the attacker should have triggered a larger investigation."
"That was the official explanation, not the conclusion reached by the people who entered the apartment."
Relief passed through her. At least the police of her era had not completely ignored what they found.
Professor Song touched the table, and another image appeared.
A transparent preservation chamber contained a small piece of grey tissue.
Qian Wei’s stomach tightened.
"We recovered this biological sample from the apartment," Professor Song said. "My name is Song Rui, and I direct Project Dawn’s biological research. The scientists who first examined the sample found severe necrosis but no normal metabolism. By every medical standard available at the time, the tissue should have been dead."
"But it wasn’t," Qian Wei said.
Professor Song’s gaze sharpened. "The cells remained active. They repaired certain forms of damage, reacted aggressively to living tissue and consumed biological energy through a process we still do not fully understand."
"You have preserved a zombie sample for almost three hundred years."
Several people reacted to the word.
Professor Song leaned forward. "You used the same term found in one of our earliest records. Why do you call it a zombie?"
"Because the creature inside Apartment 3-17 was dead, but it continued moving and attacking people. Its body was cold, its skin had begun decaying and it tried to eat me. I don’t know what else you would call it."
Shen Luo looked at her arm. "You said the creature attacked you. How close did it get?"
Qian Wei held his gaze. "It knocked me to the floor before I could retrieve my weapon. I tried to fight it, but its strength was beyond anything a normal person should possess."
Professor Song’s attention moved toward the same arm. "Did its blood or saliva touch an open wound?"
Qian Wei could delay the truth, but doing so would destroy the trust she had come to establish.
"It bit me."
The atmosphere changed instantly.
Lin Mei’s hand moved toward her concealed weapon. Two military officers rose, while another person pushed his chair backward.
Professor Song became completely still.
Only Shen Luo remained seated.
"Everyone should sit down," he said. "Officer Qian entered this facility voluntarily, passed through several biological scans and has shown no intention of attacking anyone. Drawing weapons will not improve the situation."
The officers obeyed, but their attention remained fixed on Qian Wei.
She gave a humorless laugh. "Project Dawn prepared for my arrival for almost three centuries, but no one considered that I might arrive after being bitten?"
"We considered the possibility," Shen Luo replied. "That is why the checkpoint performed several scans."
"The system concealed my mutation from your equipment."
The admission created another wave of tension.
Professor Song’s eyes brightened with scientific interest rather than fear. "Then the low temperature was connected to the mutation."
"Yes. My heartbeat is also slower than normal, my senses have become unusually strong and I experience hunger that ordinary food cannot satisfy."
One of the military officers asked, "Are you saying that you crave human flesh?"
"Blood," Qian Wei corrected. "The hunger reacts to living blood. I have not attacked anyone, and the system helped me develop enough control to resist it."
"How close have you come to losing control?"
Qian Wei thought of Zhang Ren in the stairwell. "Close enough to know that I need help before it becomes worse. That is one reason I approached the country."
Professor Song studied her with open fascination. "You were bitten three hundred years ago, yet the infection has not erased your consciousness. Your cells may be maintaining a balance between living and necrotic states."
"I would prefer an explanation that does not make me sound like a walking corpse."
"I cannot offer a more comforting scientific description before examining you."
"That is fair, but you will explain every procedure before touching me."
Professor Song nodded without hesitation. "I can agree to that."
Shen Luo looked around the table. "Officer Qian’s condition will remain confidential. No biological sample will be collected or examined without her informed consent and my direct authorization."
Qian Wei had not expected him to establish the restriction so quickly.
"Thank you."
"We need your cooperation, not your resentment."
She turned back to the old photograph. "You knew approximately when I would arrive, yet I woke in a life where everyone believed I had been working at the police station for a year. How is that possible?"
"Our information predicted an activation window rather than an exact date," Shen Luo explained. "We knew the temporal anomaly would become active within this decade and inside a specific geographical area. When your identity appeared in police records a year ago, our monitoring system flagged your name."
"Did Project Dawn create the records or place me inside that life?"
"No. Your birth, education and police-academy history exist throughout government databases. We found no evidence that anyone manufactured them."
Qian Wei frowned. "Then another version of me genuinely lived here before my consciousness arrived."
"That is one possibility. Another is that the timeline reconstructed your history before the temporal transfer completed."
Neither explanation comforted her.
"What happened to the Qian Wei who worked with Zhang Ren for a year? Did my consciousness replace hers?"
"We do not know."
The uncertainty left a weight in her chest. She had assumed she inherited an empty life, but another Qian Wei might have existed until the moment she collapsed.
If so, where had that woman gone?
Qian Wei set the question aside because no one in the room could answer it yet.
"Your information about the future is incomplete," she said. "You expected my arrival, but you did not know whether I would remain human or what would happen in three months."
"We are aware of those limitations," Shen Luo replied.
The holographic screen displayed the silver rising sun within a broken circle.
"Project Dawn was established two hundred and ninety-eight years ago. The biological sample confirmed that something unnatural had occurred inside Apartment 3-17, but it was not the true reason our founders created an organization designed to survive for centuries."
The symbol shifted aside, and the image of a damaged black object appeared.
It resembled a heavy cube with partially melted edges. Faint blue light remained visible inside several cracks.
Qian Wei leaned forward.
"What is that?"
"The people who entered Apartment 3-17 called it the Black Box," Shen Luo explained. "It was discovered beneath the floor two years after your death, although no record shows how it reached the apartment."
"Why would an object remain hidden there for two years without anyone finding it?"
"It did not appear during the original investigation. The workers found it only after the building began responding to an unknown signal during demolition."
Professor Song changed the display.
Lines of unreadable information appeared beside photographs of destroyed cities, unnatural weather and masses of grey-skinned creatures.
"The Black Box contained records from a future approximately five hundred years after your original temporal point," Shen Luo continued. "Most of the data remains damaged, but the fragments were enough to establish Project Dawn and prepare for a disaster no one could fully identify."
Qian Wei stared at the images.
The system had told her its core database originated five hundred years after 2026.
The Black Box came from the same period.
"Did the records mention me?"
Shen Luo enlarged a damaged section of text.
Most of the words remained unreadable, but one designation appeared clearly.
[VARIABLE ONE: QIAN WEI.]
The system panel opened without her command.
[Level One temporal object detected.]
[Warning: Unauthorized System fragment is active inside Project Dawn.]
Qian Wei’s expression changed.
The Black Box did not merely contain information from the future.
Something inside it was still alive.