Chapter 569

Fang Qi was holding the unconscious silver-haired girl in his arms, staring at the sea of gun barrels pointed at him. His mind went completely blank.

…What was going on?

Hadn’t he just returned from that bottomless sea?

He’d only been back for a few minutes, and already a gun was practically pressed against his face?!

The sight of all those dark muzzles made him instinctively pull Liguang even tighter against his chest.

The silver-haired girl in his arms remained completely motionless.

Fang Qi raised his eyes and quickly swept his gaze around the room.

Officer Sister was leading the charge.

Gu Xi’s graceful figure was wrapped in a dark police uniform. She stared intently at him, the gun in her hand aimed steadily in his direction!

Behind her, the dozen or so officers looked as though they were facing a powerful enemy. Their hands gripping their guns trembled faintly.

Several of the younger officers were breathing raggedly, staring fixedly at Fang Qi with sweat covering their foreheads.

But…

Fang Qi narrowed his eyes slightly.

They were all still frozen in place. They simply aimed their guns at him without making a move.

Looking farther back, at the doorway, a familiar flash of pink caught his eye.

It was Lin Xiaoyou.

She clung to the doorframe, poking half of her round little face into the room. Her almond-shaped eyes darted around curiously.

When she noticed Fang Qi looking at her, she even blinked.

Fang Qi: “…”

Why was she here?

The police had all drawn their guns, so why were they letting her stand around and watch the show…?

Since when had you all become allies?

He swallowed.

Had these people been blocking the door outside the whole time?

Suddenly, he realized something.

This didn’t count as “coming back” at all!

He had never left the apartment in the first place!

He held his breath and remained silent, locked in a standoff with the police before him, but his mind had already started putting the pieces together.

Liguang had told him before that the place out at sea wasn’t some kind of mental-link game at all.

The so-called “global ocean survival world”…

It had been an alteration of reality around the apartment, carried out through her authority!

The living room, bedroom, ceiling, floor… Everything had been transformed.

Put simply, his wife had opened a “private server” right there on her own turf.

Now that private server was gone! Liguang had shut it down!

So…

The police could break into the apartment again!

Fang Qi’s mind raced through all of this in an instant, but…

It was still a complete mess!

The muzzles pointed at him trembled faintly.

The police hadn’t made a move. The standoff continued, and they all seemed extremely tense. Their eyes…

Fang Qi slowly lowered his head and looked at the silver-haired girl in his arms.

They were looking at Liguang.

Was Liguang what had them so nervous?

Why?

And why had Liguang suddenly lost consciousness, going completely limp in his arms?

At that moment, Liguang’s eyes were still open, but all light had vanished from them.

The sight made Fang Qi tremble slightly.

A trace of anxiety gradually rose in his heart. For a moment, he even forgot about the guns surrounding him.

He stared into those vacant, heterochromatic eyes and gently shook her.

“Hey, Liguang… honey?”

“What’s wrong with you…?”

“She’s… she’s just out of power, right…?”

“She has to be…!”

“Drop your weapon and surrender immediately!”

A sudden shout jolted his shoulders.

It was Gu Xi!

“Do not resist! Come with us immediately!”

Her tone was as cold as ice.

…?

Police beauty, you…?

Fang Qi slowly raised his head to look at her.

…Huh?

He blinked.

Because he saw that the expression on that heroic, striking face… didn’t match her tone at all!

Her light-brown eyes were fixed anxiously on him. She gritted her teeth, looking as though…

She was about to panic herself to death!

Fang Qi: “?”

Gu Xi quickly gave him a meaningful look!

She was standing at the very front of the group, and the officers behind her couldn’t see her face. That made the signal painfully obvious!

She glanced slightly at the officers behind her, then looked back at him anxiously…

“Find. A. Way. To. Run.”

Her lips silently formed the four words.

Fang Qi: “…”

Huh?

He was stunned for another moment, staring blankly at Gu Xi.

No, Police beauty, what was this supposed to mean…?

You’d led a team here to arrest me, and now you wanted me to find a way to escape?

What exactly was going on?

Perhaps because of his dumbfounded expression, the corner of Gu Xi’s mouth twitched faintly!

She jerked the gun in her hand toward him, then glared at him fiercely.

That look practically carved him up from head to toe!

If her eyes could speak, Fang Qi was certain they would be saying—

You. Are. An. Idiot!

He shuddered and finally came fully back to his senses.

Then he understood everything in an instant!

Gu Xi didn’t want to arrest him!

She had never wanted to point a gun at him from the beginning!

…Oh!

Fang Qi’s eyelid twitched. He remembered now!

Right before Liguang had dragged him into that ocean world, Gu Xi…

She had bombarded him with messages!

“Leave your house immediately!!!”

“The authorities are about to move against you!!!”

She had even sent a long string of repetitions, scaring him half to death!

But at the time, Liguang had insisted on dragging him off to eat, making him feel that the situation probably wasn’t as serious as it seemed…

And then he had been taken into the sea.

Liguang had also told him that Gu Xi had deliberately tried to trick him into leaving and that he shouldn’t believe her.

But now, looking at the police beauty’s face, Fang Qi understood…

Gu Xi hadn’t been trying to trick him at all!

She had genuinely been frantic!

She really had been warning him in advance! She didn’t want him to fall into the authorities’ hands!

But now she had been forced to lead a team inside because…

She was part of the “authorities” too?

And this standoff was her way of buying him time?

But…!

Fang Qi looked at the dark gun barrels in front of him.

There were more than a dozen of them, all aimed at him and Liguang.

He blinked.

It was rather strange. With his current eyes, he could actually see every tiny movement the officers made with perfect clarity.

He could even see exactly how each finger resting on a trigger was trembling.

His perception seemed to have grown stronger again?

But…

His expression gradually went blank.

Being able to see everything clearly was one thing. Being able to escape from here was another!

No, Matchmaker Sister, did you even hear yourself?

Did you think he was Superman?

I…!

“Captain Gu, stop wasting time with him!”

A low growl interrupted Fang Qi’s internal complaint.

One of the young officers behind Gu Xi raised his gun and glared at Fang Qi as though flames were about to shoot from his eyes!

“A murderer like him deserves to be hacked into a thousand pieces!”

Fang Qi: “?”

At those words, the other officers tightened their grips on their weapons. Their faces were filled with tension and wariness.

And there was something else too…

A deep, unmistakable hatred suppressed beneath the surface!

The corner of Fang Qi’s eye twitched.

What…?

The young officer’s gun remained aimed directly at Fang Qi’s head, his bloodshot eyes fixed on him.

He growled:

“Right now, we’ll just—”

“Shut up!!”

Gu Xi’s expression turned extremely grim as she cut him off.

“Can’t you see what he’s holding?!”

She lowered her voice and shouted:

“Do you want most of our people to die here?!”

Fang Qi blinked.

Police beauty, I know you’re trying to buy me time, but…

My Liguang is not a thing.

Er…

There was no time for sarcasm right now.

Looking at Gu Xi’s flustered yet anxious expression, Fang Qi felt the string in his heart tighten slightly as well.

Although he had just come out of the deep sea, although he was still somewhat out of the loop, and although his sense of danger remained woefully lacking...

He understood that this was no time for fooling around!

These people’s hostility toward Liguang—and toward him—was far greater than he had imagined!

Especially the look in the young officer’s eyes... Fang Qi felt as though he were the man’s mortal enemy!

“But that thing...!”

The young officer spoke again, glaring at the silver-haired girl in Fang Qi’s arms through clenched teeth. The hatred on his face was almost spilling over.

“That thing looks like it’s out of power already...!”

Fang Qi: “!!”

Hey!

He abruptly tightened his arms, pressing Liguang firmly against his chest. His gaze sharpened as he stared at the young officer.

What the hell are you planning?

Who said you could glare at my wife?!

He gritted his teeth slightly.

Damn it. These people were plotting against Liguang!

Now he finally felt the danger! It was even more alarming than having a dozen guns pointed at him!

He glared at the tense-looking officers.

...I can’t let them touch her! Absolutely not!

Let’s see who dares lay a finger on her! I may not be Superman, but I’ll become Superman if I have to!

I...!

His gaze met Gu Xi’s.

Huh?

The police beauty’s expression had grown increasingly frantic, and she kept signaling to him with her eyes!

It seemed she wouldn’t be able to buy him much more time.

Fang Qi pressed his lips together.

But, my Matchmaker Sister, how exactly do you expect me to run?

His peripheral vision swept across the room.

The situation was...

Suddenly, behind the group of police officers in dark uniforms, a flash of pink moved.

He blinked.

It was Lin Xiaoyou.

Her small, round face peeked through the gap between two officers as she waved a pink sleeve at him!

When she saw Fang Qi looking over, she immediately blinked rapidly at him. Then...

She raised a hand, pressed her fingers together, placed them against her throat, and viciously slashed across it from left to right through the air!

Fang Qi: “?”

Miss Genius blinked rapidly at him twice more, then repeated the throat-slitting gesture!

She raised her little hand again, lightly pointed at Fang Qi, and arched her brows at him.

Fang Qi stared at her for about a second. Then...

Oh.

He instantly understood what she meant!

She was telling him to kill himself!

Kill himself, huh... He blinked.

It made perfect sense. It was exactly the right move! Because...

He could rewind time!

Fang Qi blinked, then exchanged another brief look with Lin Xiaoyou.

A faint sense of absurdity rose within him.

Well, would you look at that... He had actually forgotten about this!

Mainly because it really had been a long time since he’d used it.

In the Sea World, Liguang had “stripped” him of his ability to rewind time. His memories had been churned into a complete mess, repeatedly washed and rewritten by the world’s alterations to his worldview...

And so many days had passed since then! At least half a year, right?

What a mess...

But...

He narrowed his eyes slightly.

The reason he had subconsciously ignored the rewind was also because... he had probably just rewound time, hadn’t he?

He and Liguang had only just returned here, and his save point was mere minutes ago!

If he rewound time now, the amount of time he could gain would be extremely limited. He might... immediately end up surrounded in exactly the same situation again.

Fang Qi’s gaze returned to Gu Xi’s face.

Gu Xi was staring at him intently. Anxiety and unease grew more and more intense in her light-brown eyes.

Her lips parted slightly, but no sound came out. She couldn’t say anything.

Fang Qi looked at her and pursed his lips faintly.

He more or less understood now.

Gu Xi, the police beauty, was probably... the “mole” planted within the authorities, wasn’t she?

Fang Qi slowly closed his eyes.

This “Matchmaker Sister” knew about his ability to rewind time, so he didn’t need to explain anything.

Rewinding time might only buy him a few minutes, but...

That was still better than his current situation!

He lowered his head and looked at the silver-haired girl in his arms.

Both her amber and crimson eyes were dulled and dry, making his heart ache again.

He gently pinched her soft cheek, then carefully placed her on the sofa.

Right.

He couldn’t let his wife get caught in the crossfire.

“Don’t move!”

“What are you trying to do?!”

His actions instantly stirred up the entire room!

The officers’ cries of alarm rose one after another!

The muzzles of their guns lifted several inches in unison!

Click!

Several of the younger officers already had their fingers on the triggers!

Fang Qi paid them no attention.

He raised a hand and gently brushed it over Liguang’s vacant eyes, closing them.

His heart was pounding, yet he smiled faintly at the girl before him.

Liguang, your master’s power is back.

So just wait a little longer...

Your master will wake up with you from this nightmare.

Then he slowly rose to his feet.

That movement instantly drew the atmosphere in the entire living room taut.

“Don’t move!”

“Stay where you are!”

“Stand right there! Move again and we’ll fire!”

Fang Qi looked up, rolled his stiff neck, and swept his gaze over...

The entire field of black gun barrels.

He shrugged slightly.

To be honest, he was still somewhat out of the loop and couldn’t truly feel much of a threat.

After all...

He was a man who had just returned from the deep sea!

The deep sea—especially the deep sea without that crazy woman—was far more terrifying than a few gun barrels.

Looking at all those guns, the corners of his mouth even curled upward slightly.

One, two, three...

Fifteen, sixteen.

Mm. Sixteen ready-made tools for rewinding time.

But then...

His gaze shifted, meeting Gu Xi’s.

Gu Xi was staring at him in a daze.

Something was churning violently in her eyes. Her expression changed several times, and she opened her mouth as though she wanted to say something...

But then she subconsciously glanced at the officer beside her and bit down on her words.

Oh? Officer Gu doesn’t want to kill me?

In that case, I’ll do it myself.

Fang Qi gave Gu Xi a faint grin.

Officer Sister, you’re a great teammate. Work with me, okay?

Gu Xi’s pupils contracted sharply. At last, she couldn’t hold back any longer.

“Wait—!”

Fang Qi didn’t wait.

His legs suddenly exploded with power!

His entire body shot toward Gu Xi like an arrow released from its bow!

“Don’t move!”

“Fire! Fire!”

The officers throughout the room erupted into chaos!

“Don’t shoot!!!”

At that exact moment, Gu Xi’s shrill voice tore through the turmoil!