The next day started with a message.
Not to Mu Chen.
To Lin Lan.
Lin Lan walked into the ready room with her tablet held too tight. She didn't sit. She went straight to Colonel Luo Wei.
"New order," Lin Lan said.
Luo Wei took the tablet and read.
Ye Fan stood nearby, arms crossed, face blank.
Zhou Xiao watched, tense.
Mu Chen stood at the edge and waited.
Luo Wei's eyes moved as she read. Her face didn't change, but the air in the room did. Like something heavy had been placed on the table.
Luo Wei handed the tablet back to Lin Lan. "Read it."
Lin Lan swallowed once. Then she spoke, clear.
"Effective immediately, all guide-sentinel support in Unit Seven is subject to additional observation. Lieutenant Mu Chen will attend an institute evaluation within forty-eight hours. Major Ye Fan will attend a stability review within seventy-two hours."
Zhou Xiao swore softly. "Evaluation for what?"
Lin Lan read the next line. "'Routine classification confirmation.'"
Mu Chen felt cold spread through his stomach.
Classification confirmation meant one thing.
They wanted to check if his C-class rating was true.
Or to prove it wasn't.
Ye Fan's voice was calm and sharp. "Who signed it?"
Lin Lan hesitated, then said, "Dr. Qiu."
Ye Fan's jaw flexed.
Luo Wei spoke. "We will comply."
Ye Fan turned his head toward her. "Colonel."
Luo Wei held his gaze. "We don't have a choice in writing. We only have choices in timing."
Ye Fan's eyes stayed hard. "They'll take him into a room and turn him inside out."
Mu Chen kept his face calm. He didn't look at Ye Fan. He didn't want Ye Fan to see anything in him.
Luo Wei's voice stayed even. "Mu Chen will not go alone. Lin Lan will escort him."
Lin Lan nodded. "Yes, ma'am."
Ye Fan spoke again, colder. "I escort."
Luo Wei didn't flinch. "No."
The room tightened.
Zhou Xiao looked like he wanted to disappear.
Mu Chen's fingers curled once, then relaxed.
Luo Wei continued. "Major Ye Fan, you are too visible. If you step into their wing with him, you make him a bigger target. You also risk losing control in front of them."
Ye Fan's eyes flashed. "I can control myself."
Luo Wei's stare didn't move. "Can you?"
Silence.
Mu Chen felt the truth in the quiet.
Ye Fan could control himself in a gate.
Ye Fan could control himself in combat.
But in the institute wing, with their smiles and their words and their hands on files, Ye Fan's control slipped.
Because he had grown up in the military.
He had been shaped by the system.
The institute was the system's brain.
Luo Wei ended it. "This is the plan. Lin Lan escorts. Mu Chen answers only what is asked. Nothing extra. Understood?"
Lin Lan said, "Understood."
Zhou Xiao said, "Yes, ma'am."
Mu Chen said, "Yes, ma'am."
Ye Fan didn't answer right away.
Then, through clenched teeth, he said, "Understood."
After the meeting, the team dispersed into their day.
Mu Chen stayed near Lin Lan like a shadow, as ordered. He did not go anywhere alone, even to get water.
Lin Lan didn't complain. Lin Lan didn't speak much either.
At noon, Lin Lan paused at the corridor junction and checked behind them.
Mu Chen noticed. "What?"
Lin Lan lowered her voice. "Someone is following us sometimes."
Mu Chen's stomach turned. "Who?"
Lin Lan's eyes stayed sharp. "I don't know. Not uniformed. Institute staff maybe. They walk like they own the hall."
Mu Chen felt cold in his fingers.
The orphanage had staff like that too. People who walked like you were furniture.
Lin Lan's voice stayed calm. "Don't look back. Let them see nothing."
Mu Chen nodded.
They kept walking.
At dinner, Ye Fan didn't eat.
Mu Chen saw him standing near the wall screen, reading mission notices like he wanted to tear them down with his eyes.
Zhou Xiao sat beside Mu Chen again, voice low. "He's going to do something."
Mu Chen didn't answer. He kept eating.
Zhou Xiao leaned closer. "If they take you—"
Mu Chen cut him off softly. "They won't."
Zhou Xiao looked like he didn't believe it.
Mu Chen didn't either.
That night, Mu Chen lay in bed and stared at the ceiling.
The camera above his divider didn't move.
But Mu Chen could feel its attention anyway.
He thought of the evaluation in forty-eight hours.
He thought of Dr. Qiu's smile.
He thought of Ye Fan's harsh warning: stay small.
Mu Chen whispered to himself, barely a sound, "I am small."
But the base didn't care what he whispered.
It cared what his data said.
And in two days, the institute would come to check if his life fit his label.