Mu Chen showered fast.
The water was hot, but the room was cold. The base always kept everything just a little uncomfortable, like comfort was something you had to earn.
He washed his hair, rinsed his face, and stood under the stream for one extra minute. Not because he enjoyed it. Because the noise helped him think.
Ye Fan had felt it.
Mu Chen's small help in the warehouse had been tiny. Clean. Hidden.
And Ye Fan still felt it like a hand brushing the edge of his mind.
That meant Ye Fan's senses were sharp enough to notice what most sentinels would miss.
Or it meant Ye Fan was already tuned to him.
Mu Chen shut off the water.
He dressed in fresh uniform, checked his badge, and went back to the ready room for food.
The meal area was on the same floor. It looked like a normal base cafeteria, but smaller. The team had their own section, away from other units. Less noise, less eyes.
Still, there were cameras.
Mu Chen took a tray and picked simple food: rice, vegetables, and a piece of meat he didn't recognize. He sat at the end of the table, where he could leave fast if needed.
Zhou Xiao sat down across from him.
"You okay?" Zhou Xiao asked again, like he couldn't help it.
Mu Chen nodded. "Yes."
Zhou Xiao lowered his voice. "Ye Fan came to talk to you."
Mu Chen didn't answer right away. "Yes."
Zhou Xiao watched his face. "What did he say?"
Mu Chen kept his words careful. "Unit rules."
Zhou Xiao let out a breath, half relief. "Good. He only does that when he thinks you matter."
Mu Chen's hand paused over his chopsticks.
Zhou Xiao frowned. "Not in a good way. In a… Ye Fan way."
Mu Chen gave a small nod and started eating again.
Lin Lan sat two seats away. Lin Lan ate quickly, eyes on the tablet even while chewing. Work never stopped here. If you stopped working, someone else wrote your story.
Mu Chen tried to eat like a normal person.
But his stomach turned.
Not pregnancy. Not yet. Just stress.
The orphanage had taught him how to swallow hunger. This base taught him how to swallow fear.
Across the room, Ye Fan sat alone.
He did not sit with the team. He never did.
He ate without looking up, fast and quiet. Like food was fuel, not comfort.
Mu Chen watched him once, then looked away.
Ye Fan's posture was controlled, but Mu Chen could see the cost in the small details. The tight shoulder. The hard grip on the spoon. The way he paused mid-bite as if listening to a sound nobody else could hear.
Too open, Mu Chen thought.
That was the curse of a sentinel. Your senses kept working even when you begged them to stop.
A chair scraped.
Colonel Luo Wei entered.
The room tightened the way it always did around authority.
She didn't sit. She didn't eat. She only scanned faces, then spoke.
"Debrief in ten," she said.
People stood. Trays went away. Tablets came out.
Mu Chen returned to the ready room and took his place at the edge of the table again.
The map of the warehouse lit up on the screen.
Luo Wei's tone was calm. "This anomaly was placed there. That scanner door was installed recently. Someone is running tests."
Zhou Xiao spoke. "On us?"
"On sentinels," Luo Wei corrected. "On responses. On control."
Her gaze moved to Ye Fan briefly. Ye Fan's face didn't change.
Mu Chen felt the air shift. Everyone knew Ye Fan was the strongest sensor in the room. If someone wanted data, Ye Fan was a prize.
Lin Lan pulled up images of the scanner pad. "This model is military grade. Not public."
Luo Wei's eyes sharpened. "So it's internal."
Silence followed.
Internal meant one thing: the institute.
Not just the institute as a building, but the institute as a hand inside the base. A hand that wrote orders and called it research.
Mu Chen watched Luo Wei.
She was a military commander, but she wasn't free either. Even she had to share the leash.
Luo Wei continued. "We will not speak about this outside the unit. Reports go through Lin Lan. Minimal detail."
Lin Lan nodded once. "Yes, ma'am."
Mu Chen's mind tightened.
Minimal detail was good.
Minimal detail meant fewer eyes on him.
Luo Wei's gaze moved to Mu Chen. "Lieutenant Mu."
"Yes, ma'am."
"You said it tried to read you. Explain."
Mu Chen chose simple words. "It felt like pressure. Like something reaching for thoughts."
Luo Wei held his gaze. "And you didn't panic."
Mu Chen kept his face calm. "I've trained."
Luo Wei's eyes stayed on him a second too long.
Then she nodded, like putting him in a file in her mind.
"Alright," she said. "Dismissed."
People began to move again.
Ye Fan stood, turned, and walked toward the door.
For a second, Mu Chen thought Ye Fan was leaving without another word.
Then Ye Fan stopped at the doorway, without turning around.
"Mu Chen," Ye Fan said.
Mu Chen's spine went tight. "Yes, Major?"
Ye Fan's voice was flat. "Tomorrow you train with us."
Zhou Xiao glanced up fast. Lin Lan paused mid-step.
Mu Chen blinked. "I thought I was observing."
Ye Fan finally turned his head a little. His eyes were sharp. "Observing is useless if you can't move."
Mu Chen held his expression steady. "Yes, Major."
Ye Fan stared at him one more second, then left.
Zhou Xiao exhaled. "He's not letting you stay on the edge."
Lin Lan spoke without looking up. "Because he doesn't trust what he can't measure."
Mu Chen didn't answer.
He understood both.
Ye Fan didn't want a weak guide behind him.
And Ye Fan didn't want an unknown guide near him.
Mu Chen returned to his divider space and sat on the bed again.
He opened his notebook for the first time since arriving.
He wrote one line.
Ye Fan is watching.
Then he wrote another.
I must stay small.
He stared at the words.
Outside his divider, boots passed by. Voices spoke in low tones. A base lived around him like a machine.
Mu Chen closed the notebook.
Tomorrow was training.
Training meant eyes.
Eyes meant risk.
Mu Chen lay down on the bed, staring up at the cold light.
In the orphanage, he had learned to sleep with noise and crying and footsteps in the hall.
Here, he learned to sleep with silence.
The kind that listened.