Chapter 324

"Sir is truly righteous." The manager nodded and didn't insist further. "In that case, I won't disturb you. I'll leave the invitation and this small token here, and we will wait for a convenient time for you."

He took a step back, signaled his subordinates to place the tray on the ground at the door, and cupped his hands: "Farewell."

The Liu family people turned and left, their footsteps light but uniform; it was clear they had been trained.

Xu Xiaochuan still didn't dare to be careless, waiting until the footsteps completely disappeared into the depths of the alley before slowly closing the door and bolting it.

Outside the door, the hair-raising silence returned.

But Xu Xiaochuan knew that beneath the surface of the water, a vortex had already formed.

The Liu family had also gotten involved; this matter was becoming more and more troublesome.

He turned around and looked at Lin Yu.

Lin Yu was bending over, looking at Xuanyuan Qing, who was still unconscious on the bed, the expression on his face hidden in the shadows, making it hard to see clearly.

In the air, the medicinal smell was still as thick as ever, only now, it seemed to have an extra, unsettling scent.

A night of torment.

The medicinal smell in the room, thick enough to be cut, mixed with the rust-like bloodiness and the musty, damp air rising from the corners, nearly solidified into a viscous gel, sticking to people's noses and mouths, making it impossible to breathe. The struggling lightbulb overhead flickered a few times, let out a "pop," and completely plunged into the embrace of darkness.

Deathly silence descended. The only light source came from the eerie green waveform jumping on the old monitor screen in the corner, bleakly illuminating three faces filled with exhaustion and vigilance.

On the wooden board, Xuanyuan Qing's face, originally a lifeless, paper-like pallor, was now quietly shedding its deathly gray hue at a slow but undeniable speed. A faint, extremely weak trace of pale pink, belonging to a living person, like tender grass struggling beneath a thawing stream in early spring, was laboriously showing through her cold skin. The rise and fall of her chest was no longer the flickering, candle-in-the-wind instability that could stop at any moment, but had become a steady, clear rhythm, though still light and slow. On the monitor, the ECG curve, which had been stretched into a desperate straight line, was now stubbornly climbing upward, one beat after another, outlining a peak that, while low, was full of resilience.

Lin Yu twisted his fingertips and slowly withdrew the last silver needle from the major acupoint on Xuanyuan Qing's heart pulse. The blood bead on the needle tip appeared a dark, nearly black red under the eerie green reflection of the monitor. The moment he withdrew the needle, his body swayed violently, as if the last ounce of strength in his bones had been instantly drained; his vision went black, his knees couldn't help but go weak, and he was about to collapse straight down.

"Uncle Lin!" Xu Xiaochuan's nerves, which had been taut as a bowstring, jumped violently. Almost as a reflex, he lunged forward, his arms firmly supporting Lin Yu's teetering body. Upon contact, Lin Yu's arm felt cold as ice; through the tattered, corroded combat suit, he could clearly feel the irrepressible, fine tremors of Lin Yu's arm muscles. Overdraft—this was an overdraft far beyond his limits.

Just at this moment, a glimmer of early morning light, carrying the damp, cold moisture peculiar to the dawn, pierced through the gaps in the dirty newspaper pasted on the window and squeezed in with difficulty. This ray of light landed squarely on Xuanyuan Qing's closed eyelids.

Her long, dense eyelashes, like butterfly wings that had slept too long and couldn't bear the disturbance of the light, fluttered ever so slightly.

Then, amidst the bated breath of Lin Yu and Xu Xiaochuan, she slowly opened her eyes.

Those eyes were initially chaotic and blank, as if covered by a layer of impenetrable thick fog, staring emptily at the peeling, mold-spotted ceiling overhead. After a few seconds, perhaps a dozen, the fog began to dissipate slowly, the luster in the depths of her pupils condensed bit by bit, and her focus moved laboriously, finally settling on the faces of Lin Yu and Xu Xiaochuan, which were filled with concern and tension, just inches away.

Almost at the same instant her gaze focused!

Xu Xiaochuan gasped sharply, and the mark on his back, branded by a hot iron, suddenly became scorching hot without warning! But this time, unlike the previous sharp, burning pain, it was a gentle yet exceptionally intense heat flow, as if a warm spring had been injected, instantly surging and spreading along his spine, permeating his limbs and bones, bringing a strange, tingling sensation. At the same time, the microchip he had tucked into the inner pocket of his combat suit, which he had swiped from Zhao Kang and which had been deathly silent, also emitted a low, barely audible hum, and the surface of the chip, through several layers of cloth, actually radiated a soft, moon-like white light, emitting a distinct, impossible-to-ignore heat!

Something even more bizarre happened.

Xuanyuan Qing on the wooden board seemed to clearly sense this sudden energy fluctuation. Her brows furrowed imperceptibly, and her body, originally extremely weak and nearly unable to move, actually tensed slightly. A complex expression appeared on her face, mixed with the blankness of just waking up, sudden surprise, incomprehensible confusion, and a near-instinctive resistance hidden deep in her eyes.

Her cracked, peeling lips moved a few times, as if wanting to say something, but her throat was extremely dry, and she could only emit a faint, blurred breath, like the whimpering of a dying kitten.

"Tha... thank... you..." Her voice was thin as a thread, intermittent, as if every syllable were exhausting her last ounce of strength. "They... they... are still... in... my... body... that... YA..."

Before she could finish.

A cell phone ringtone, so urgent it could stop a heart, like a sharp knife suddenly cutting through the night, violently tore through the brief, fragile peace in the room!

It was the disposable encrypted phone the fat man had left behind!

Xu Xiaochuan was so startled by the abrupt ringing that his whole body jolted; he fumbled to take the still-hot phone from his pocket and pressed the answer button with trembling fingers.

"Mr. Lin! Run! Damn it, run!" On the other end of the phone, the fat man's voice was distorted and deformed, his speech as fast as a machine gun, filled with unprecedented panic and fear. "I don't know where these mad dogs popped out from! Their equipment is terrifyingly good! Black combat suits, weapons that don't look like anything from around here! They're sneaking toward your area! My people just saw at least seven or eight of them! Their movements are fast as ghosts! They... they seem to know exactly where you are!"

The fat man's roar still echoed in his ears.

Tap.

Tap, tap.

An extremely light, yet incredibly clear knocking sound suddenly came from the wooden door outside, which was as thin as cardboard. The sound was light, rhythmic, not like a probe, but more like a cold, emotionless signal being transmitted.

Following that was an even finer, yet more dense friction sound. It was like some kind of metal probe moving slowly across the rough wall, searching for structural weaknesses.

And... the "swish" sound of shoe soles stepping on the gravel and trash piled in the alley, a sound deliberately suppressed to the lowest level, yet still impossible to eliminate completely.