Chapter 385 |
"Master."
"She's stalling for time."
Riguang's voice sounded in his ear.
Fang Qi's eyelids twitched at the words.
…Stalling for time.
Beside him, a faint blue light flickered gently in the amber left eye of Riguang.
He naturally chose to trust his wife!
So he narrowed his eyes and looked at Gu Xi in front of him.
This police flower sister was still lowering her head, her loose black hair covering most of her face.
Her breathing was very light, the rise and fall of her chest faint, as if she was really trying hard to control something.
Noticing Fang Qi’s gaze, Gu Xi’s lips moved faintly…
But in the end, she only pressed them tighter.
Her light brown eyes looked at him through the gaps in her scattered hair…
Then she looked away again.
…There! Was! Definitely! Something! Fishy!
Could it be that she was waiting for reinforcements?
In the last timeline, the "eyes and ears" were endless. In this timeline…
it definitely wouldn’t be just a few of them!
Had they surrounded the place again…?
But Gu Xi suddenly lifted her head.
Her eyes were still red, with traces of unfallen mist hanging from her lashes, but her expression…
had suddenly become very calm.
Gone was the stubbornness or pleading from before.
"It’s… enough now."
She murmured softly.
"Everything is ready."
…?!
Fang Qi’s pupils contracted.
Could it be that…!
"Riguang!"
He stared intently at Gu Xi’s movements while questioning Riguang:
"Right now, at the entrance of the research institute…!"
"No one is coming, Master."
Riguang’s tone was gentle and obedient, her heterochromatic eyes fixed on Gu Xi before them.
"Riguang has been paying attention all along."
Fang Qi’s gaze froze, then he pressed his lips together.
…That was right.
Riguang was now comparable to a supercomputer and could scan the surroundings. If there were any real danger, she would have warned him long ago!
There was no need for him to be on guard…
But Gu Xi, she…
Fang Qi looked down at the police flower sister still tied to the chair, his voice heavy:
"Officer Gu, Senior Gu… are you just bluffing?!"
But Gu Xi did not answer him.
She looked at him quietly, her gaze slightly unfocused.
She then turned her head slightly to glance at the silver-haired girl standing beside Fang Qi.
Her gaze fell on Riguang’s left eye, on that eye…
where an amber iris flowed with a faint blue light.
And then…
"Heh…"
She let out a soft laugh, one of relief and release.
Then she blinked at Fang Qi.
The next second, deep within those light brown eyes…
…?
Fang Qi frowned slightly.
He blinked.
Wait…
…Huh?
What did he see…?
This police flower sister, tied to the chair, deep in her eyes…
why had they suddenly begun to shine?!
And…
it was a faint blue light?!
"Wait—?!"
He shot up from his seat!
Staring intently at Gu Xi’s eyes!
Huh?!
That was…!
The same faint blue light that flowed so vividly in Riguang’s amber eye!!
Fang Qi stared at those eyes…
those light brown irises now being dyed with a faint blue glow!
In those eyes…
countless streams of data were flowing slowly out from the depths of those light brown pupils!
At the same time…
beside him, the faint blue light flashed brightly!
In the silver-haired girl’s amber eye, the faint blue light—once beating steadily—suddenly accelerated!
Countless streams of data code surged wildly through the depths of her pupils!
Line after line, densely packed!
So fast they became a blurry, icy-blue curtain of light!
She stepped forward instantly!
With a sharp “tap” of her leather shoes, she placed herself in front of Fang Qi!
Her slender arm blocked him!
Her heterochromatic eyes locked onto Gu Xi’s gaze!
Like this—
Two women, two almost identical shades of icy blue, stood staring at each other across a few steps in that cramped metal room.
Gu Xi said nothing.
She just sat quietly on that metal chair, still tied up with ropes.
The icy-blue data streams rolled slowly in her pupils.
Her expression was calm.
So calm…
It was unnerving!
In those eyes, the vivid emotions from before—stubbornness, anger, pleading, sneering—
Were now being covered, bit by bit, by that icy blue glow!
And Fang Qi…
His mind was buzzing!
No…!?
“You…!”
He stared at the icy blue in Gu Xi’s eyes!
“You’re an AI too?!”
“You… you’re not human?!”
His voice twisted in shock!
“What are you?!”
Her eyes… icy blue?!
The same icy blue as Riguang’s?!
The same as Riguang…?
He remembered that his parents in this world had apparently built nine units of the same model as Riguang…?!
But Riguang spoke first.
“Master.”
Her tone was calm.
“Miss Gu is human.”
But the calm was forced!
“On this point…”
Her amber pupils were still flashing with furious icy-blue data!
“Riguang can still tell.”
“Besides, Master, don’t forget… in that ‘dream’ before…”
She didn’t finish.
Her crimson pupils flickered faintly with scarlet light.
Fang Qi’s eyelids twitched violently.
Ah…!
His chaotic, fevered brain felt as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over it!
It snapped him awake!
Right…!
In the last cycle, in that little wooden cabin… Riguang had given Gu Xi a thorough search from head to toe!
Her leather jacket had been stripped off, her belt removed… even her internal organs had been completely scanned by Riguang!
There were no traces of mechanical modification!
She was a completely natural human!
And those “ghosts” drawn by her death—Riguang had cut them open too. Inside their bodies were hearts, livers, lungs—organs exactly like a human’s!
That was a fact he and Riguang had confirmed with their own hands!
They were all fully human!
But…
Fang Qi stared hard at Gu Xi’s eyes, at the icy-blue data streams still seeping outward!
…What was going on now?!
A ghost in plain sight?!
A real ghost!!
He gripped Riguang’s small hand tightly!
In his palm, that slightly cool little hand gripped him back just as firmly.
Riguang’s fingertips were tensing slightly—she was nervous too!
The situation had suddenly spiraled out of control!
But Gu Xi still said nothing.
She just sat quietly on that metal chair, hands tied behind her back, her eyes now fully stained with icy-blue data streams, silently watching Fang Qi.
Her expression and gaze were utterly calm.
So calm it sent chills down Fang Qi’s spine!
He couldn’t help but speak:
“You…!”
“Fang Qi.”
Gu Xi suddenly spoke, cutting him off.
The policewoman strapped to the chair lifted her chin slightly, her voice equally calm.
"Don't open that door."
Fang Qi's train of thought came to a sudden halt.
...Door? She was talking about...
"Don't open that door. The genetic door."
"Don't look at what's behind it."
She was still staring at Fang Qi.
In her calm eyes, a faint stream of deep-blue data slowly rolled.
Paired with her disheveled black hair and reddened eyes...
There was an indescribable eeriness to it!
Fang Qi's eyelids twitched.
Ah, she meant that door...
"Right now, that door is not hope for you."
Gu Xi's voice suddenly sounded strange.
"It is despair."
"True despair."
"You absolutely must not open it."
"Absolutely not."
"So..."
Her eyelashes gently drooped.
"Please, together with her—"
She paused, shifting her gaze slightly to glance at the silver-haired girl standing in front of Fang Qi.
"—go back."
Fang Qi stared hard at her.
So her reason for coming this time...
Was to stop him from opening that door?
But why?!
"At least give me a reason!"
He couldn't hold back anymore, gritting his teeth and glaring at her:
"Can you stop being so cryptic?!"
He really couldn't take it anymore!
And on top of that, he felt her voice was so weird!
He couldn't quite put his finger on what was wrong with it, but it felt bizarre!
I'm talking to you, ghost lady...
Don't scare me like this!
Without thinking, he tightened his grip on Liguang's hand!
As for the silver-haired girl standing in front of him...
Her amber eyes were filled with a frantic stream of deep-blue data!
"Master, Miss Gu, she..."
She stared straight at Gu Xi, her tone sounding... hesitant?
"Her emotions... seem to be fading."
...?
Emotions fading?!
Fang Qi's gritted-teeth expression froze.
Did that mean she was becoming like the other ghosts...?
Before he could think any deeper...
"...Huh?"
He blinked, looking at Gu Xi's eyes.
Did he just see... that deep-blue glow leap out of her eyes?
He raised his hand and rubbed his eyes hard...
Then he looked again!
Squinting, he fixed his gaze on Gu Xi's eyes!
And then he saw it, clear as day...
The deep-blue data stream in Gu Xi's eyes—that light rolling deep within her pupils—was actually...
Leaking out?!
"...?!"
Those countless ribbons of deep-blue code were peeling off layer by layer from the surface of her light-brown pupils...
...And drifting into the air around her!
The code flowed in the air, dancing!
Like fireflies!
One strand after another, one patch after another!
They surged out from Gu Xi's eyes, slowly swirling around her!
That deep-blue data stream was actually visibly seeping out of Gu Xi's eyes!
Plain to see with the naked eye!
Fang Qi: "????"
In his left hand, Liguang's little hand tightened sharply!
"Liguang..."
Fang Qi murmured, his voice trembling slightly.
"Is this... some kind of high-tech?"
...A holographic projection? Or AR?
...Was she bluffing again?
As he stared, dumbfounded...
Those deep-blue codes gathered around Gu Xi in greater and greater numbers!
They flowed, spun, and flickered in the air!
It looked...
Really beautiful.
For some reason, Fang Qi felt a little dazed as he watched.
Without thinking, he reached out his hand, wanting to touch those floating codes, to confirm whether they were real, whether they had warmth...
"Master, watch out—!!!"
A shrill scream pierced his eardrums!
He only felt a powerful tug on his wrist...
In an instant, his feet were yanked off the ground, and his entire body fell backward!
"—!!!"
Within a split second, he was thrown back several meters, his back crashing heavily into a soft embrace!
The back of his head landed against that sweet strawberry-scented softness, and only then did his legs touch the ground again!
But he had no time for tenderness.
He stared blankly at the spot where he had been standing just moments ago.
The floating, sapphire-hued code in the air had begun to develop something around it...
Something like...
Snowflakes?
Like the black-and-white static of an old TV with no signal...
They appeared and flickered out of nowhere around those dancing specks of electric blue!
It seemed as if the air itself was shimmering, flickering!
No!
Not the air!
It was space!
Space itself was twisting!
Rippling under the force of some invisible power!
Fang Qi’s pupils shrank to pinpricks!
"What... is this?"
Then, under his watch...
A drift of sapphire code brushed against a nearby metal table.
And the corner of the table...
Dissolved without a sound!
In an instant, it turned into a swirling mass of data streams!
Mingling with the sapphire code, it flickered once... twice...
Before vanishing completely into the air!
Where the corner had been, only a smooth cut remained.
The cut was a patch of pitch-black.
A black so profound that no light could pierce it.
A black like a piece of reality had been gouged out.
Like...
That pitch-black darkness his consciousness had fallen into before he reloaded time.
