Chapter 071

Chapter 71: Learn More

Yu Sheng did not know why the woman who called herself the Director of the Special Affairs Bureau had gone still for a moment. Curious, he studied her. When she did not speak, he opened his mouth first and said: “Your Bureau sure has a fancy way to ‘make contact.’ I thought Li Lin would come meet me. I didn’t expect to meet the Director. Is it always like this?”

Bai Li Qing quickly returned to her usual calm: “No. Only when the situation is special.”

He asked: “When it is special?”

She looked him in the eyes and said: “For example, a ‘weirdo’ who has lived in the Otherworld for a long time, yet has lived in Borderland for more than twenty years as an ‘ordinary person.’ I am sorry. I hope you do not mind me calling you that.”

Yu Sheng said, a little embarrassed: “I don’t mind. But am I really that strange to you? Li Lin and Xu Jiali looked surprised before too, which I can understand, I guess.”

She sighed and said: “You may not feel it. Many people in the Special Affairs Bureau have been watching what you do. In just the last few days, many agents have been busy because of it.”

Yu Sheng opened his mouth and said: “Ah?”

She asked: “You can open The Door, right?”

He nodded and reached out to the air. A Door formed beside him as he said: “Yeah. I used this with Li Lin to get back…”

She lifted her hand fast and said: “No need to demonstrate!”

The cool, steady Director almost never sounded that urgent.

Yu Sheng let go of the handle in the air and, seeing her reaction, guessed what it meant. He said: “So when I open The Door, it causes trouble for you?”

She said plainly: “When you open a Door, the whole Borderland detects a spacetime tremor with no known source. The monitoring staff have been very unhappy about it lately. You really did not feel anything?”

Yu Sheng went blank for a second. Then his look turned a little odd. After a pause he shook his head and said: “I didn’t feel it. So opening a Door from me can affect the entire Borderland? Are you saying I should stop using it?”

He did not sound happy. The Door was very useful. He had only recently gotten used to it and had seen how convenient it was. Now the Bureau showed up and said it was a nuisance. It felt awkward.

Sensing his mood, Bai Li Qing thought a moment and shook her head: “I am only suggesting you try to control how often you open The Door. At the very least, do not open hundreds of Rifts in a single night like before, or at least give advance notice. This is your ability, and it has not caused real damage to Borderland. In principle, we cannot directly forbid it. If you register under your legal identity and are willing to cooperate with us, we will also adjust our monitoring methods to fit your ability.”

Yu Sheng was a bit surprised.

This woman looked cool and strict, like someone hard to deal with. Yet she was actually quite reasonable.

He knew at once what “opening hundreds of Rifts in one night” was about. He had not felt anything at the time, but even just picturing it now told him how big a stir he must have caused. Even so, Director Bai Li Qing still wanted to talk it through and came herself to do it.

Yu Sheng was not a hotheaded teenager. He understood very well how big a sign of goodwill that was from the official side. He had been ready to spar with the Special Affairs Bureau. Instead, his punch hit cotton.

Feeling a little embarrassed, he said: “That’s fine. I can register. But I have some questions. Could you answer a few first?”

Bai Li Qing nodded and said: “Of course. What do you want to ask?”

Yu Sheng sat up straighter and said: “First, what exactly is the ‘Special Affairs Bureau’? What kind of organization is it? How far does it reach?”

She looked a bit surprised by what he cared about, but answered at once: “The Special Affairs Bureau, full name the Special Security and Service Bureau, is a department managed directly by the Council, the highest decision body in Borderland. It is the top official department that handles the Otherworld, Entities, anomalies, and all kinds of ‘supernatural events.’ If you divide Borderland into a ‘natural’ side and a ‘non natural’ side, you can think of us as the top unit responsible for the ‘non natural’ side. But our area of action, or jurisdiction, is not limited to Borderland. I do not know how much of Borderland’s special nature you have already learned.”

She paused and watched his eyes.

Yu Sheng frowned and thought of what he had heard from Irene and what he had felt when he opened Doors to faraway places. This world had more than one Borderland. Outside this strange “city,” there were countless “far places.”

He said while thinking: “I know a bit. From the name, it feels connected to many places. I heard all kinds of odd things are here, just hidden under a normal surface.”

Bai Li Qing nodded and said: “Hiding things that go past common sense, past Borderland’s ‘baseline,’ and keeping this city running on ‘standard parameters’ is one of our jobs. As you understand, this place is connected to many other places, and the number and breadth go past anyone’s imagination. You can picture the whole world as a big ‘web’ woven from countless traffic lines. These ‘traffic lines’ do not exist in the physical world, and ordinary people cannot sense them. But on the ‘non natural’ side, they twist together and affect each other, and there is one place where all the lines meet.”

She said: “That place is Borderland.”

She waited to make sure he followed, then went on: “Our work is, first, to keep the line between ‘natural’ and ‘non natural’ inside Borderland and to keep order on the ‘non natural’ side. Second, we deal with threats that spread in from the Transit Web and point at this hub, whether they come from right next door or from 36 billion light years away in Deep Space.”

Yu Sheng’s eyes went wide. After a few seconds, he said: “Isn’t that gap in distance a little too big?”

Bai Li Qing answered calmly and pointed at him: “For Borderland’s special traits, those distances are the same. For you too, are they not?”

Yu Sheng blinked, then caught her meaning at once.

She said lightly: “Among those hundreds of Rifts, more than ten led toward places tens of billions of light years away.”

Yu Sheng kept quiet.

His face stayed calm, but his thoughts surged. He was not shocked by that part. He had guessed it when those Doors opened. Back then, while excitedly talking with Irene, he had felt that some of those distant views were beyond the limits of his imagination. The number he heard now was like a footnote to that moment.

What truly stunned him was the Bureau’s reach. He had met Li Lin, the guy who stocked instant noodles with him at the supermarket and posed as a dude on the curb scrolling short videos during a stakeout. That vibe, at best, felt like a neighborhood cop. It was hard to match that with a background of stars and seas.

He hesitated but did not say this thought out loud. [Better not. It might hurt Li Lin’s career.]

Neither of them spoke for a short while.

After about half a minute, Bai Li Qing broke the silence and asked: “What else do you want to ask?”

Yu Sheng cleared away the clutter in his head and said: “Yes. Next question, Boundary City… is there only one?”