Chapter 22: Every step of the desperate escape seemed to be a test of time...

"Based on which regulation?" Gu Yifeng's eyes turned cold instantly.

Ni Qianfan whispered, "Article 17 of the Regulations on the Supervision of Persons with Special Abilities."

Gu Yifeng sneered: "I want to see the order signed by the deputy director himself."

"The deputy director is on his way." Gao Yiyuan pushed the door open and came in. "He's expected to arrive in about thirty minutes."

Wen Yi gently broke free from Gu Yifeng's hand: "I'll go with them."

"No!" Gu Yifeng grabbed her wrist with such force that she frowned slightly. He turned over and got out of bed, but Wen Yi gently pushed him back.

Wen Yi suddenly leaned over, her hair falling on the side of his neck, and her lips brushed his earlobe:

"I promise," she tapped her fingertips soothingly against his palm, "I'll be back soon... okay?"

When the warm breath brushed past his ear, Gu Yifeng's whole body tensed up and he froze in place.

His voice was hoarse: "Listen to me, you shouldn't go."

"You know I have to go on this trip."

Ni Qianfan coughed heavily at the door: "The car has arrived."

Wen Yi stood up and left the ward without looking back.

The Bureau of Investigation's black armored vehicle was parked in front of the hospital like a mobile cage.

On both sides of the car door, fully armed agents were on standby. Wen Yi followed Ni Qianfan forward.

A breeze blew by, and a small red-feathered bird quietly landed on her shoulder. She tilted her head and whispered for a moment, and the red bird flapped its wings and flew away.

"Please cooperate, Miss Wen." An agent stepped forward, holding up black metal handcuffs. "This is just a routine procedure."

With a click, the agent pressed the shackle switch: "This is a quantum confinement lock. As long as you don't abuse your ability, it won't cause any harm."

"Heh." She glanced at him, a sneer on her lips.

*

In the ward, Gu Yifeng ripped out the needle, and blood splattered on the white bed sheet. He rolled over and pulled the wound, unable to help but let out a soft hiss.

Ye Min rushed in with hurried footsteps and reached out to support him: "Teacher Gu, lie down quickly! Your injury..."

"No need. I'm going home first." He pushed Ye Min's hand away, not with much force but with a sense of distance. "Inform Xiao Gao and Brother Fan to gather at my house at 8 o'clock tonight."

Ye Min was stunned for a moment, then her throat tightened: "What about me?"

"I'll inform you when there's an arrangement." Gu Yifeng didn't even look at her from beginning to end.

Ye Min suddenly stopped him and asked, "You don't want me anymore? Just because I said something about Wen Yi?!"

The ward became quiet.

Gu Yifeng finally turned his head, his eyes cold: "Can I ask you a question?"

"What?"

"Why was Wen Yi taken away by the investigation team?"

A simple question was sharper than a knife, and Ye Min couldn't help but take a step back.

"During my time in the hospital, the investigation team interviewed each of you individually."

This is an affirmative sentence.

Ye Min was speechless and his face turned pale.

"Gao Yiyuan took 18 minutes, Brother Fan took 23 minutes." He stared at Ye Min with sharp eyes, "and you took 47 minutes."

What else could she say? He had already found out everything in just a dozen minutes.

"I won't ask you what you told them. This is your freedom." Gu Yifeng took a step closer to interrupt her, "But being with her is my freedom. If you challenge my bottom line again, I will let you know what the price is."

Ye Min looked at the man she had admired for years, and for the first time, she felt so distant from him. She gritted her teeth, maintaining her last bit of pride: "I'll apply for the transfer myself."

"Do I agree that you should leave?"

Ye Min looked up in surprise, but only saw a cold smile on Gu Yifeng's lips. In those eyes she had loved, there was no disappointment, no anger, only the cruelty of a hunter watching his prey fall into a trap, the assurance of victory.

*

As night fell, the armored vehicle sped along the highway, then rolled through suburban roads. The scenery outside the window changed from high-rise buildings to barren fields, and finally entered an area disguised as an abandoned chemical plant.

Wen Yi glanced at the experimental base hidden in the darkness and said to the agent beside her, "Do you want to put a mask on my head? Aren't you afraid of exposing the location of your base?"

The black-clad agent's eyes twitched. "No need. We're just questioning, not kidnapping."

Wen Yi nodded obediently with a harmless smile.

When the armored vehicle passed a certain place, the ground suddenly sank, revealing a hidden underground passage.

Wen Yi's eyes lit up. Wow! It's a secret underground base! The villain vibe is overwhelming!

Wen Yi and the agents were full of anticipation as they slowly entered the dark underground passage.

A moment later, a car with a special license plate arrived in front of the base gate.

"Second Bureau Inspection Team!" A young man wearing black-framed glasses rolled down his car window, an electronic code between his fingers. He said to the armed guard at the door, "I've received a notice from my superiors assigning me to carry out this mission."

The other party frowned: "We haven't received any notice-"

"Notification?" the young man sneered, slapping the tablet against the man's chest. The encrypted files on the screen were automatically refreshing, and all permission icons instantly turned green.

"Now I have it."

"Yes! Let the sir pass!"

*

The heavy electric door closed behind him with a muffled sound.

Wen Yi's footsteps suddenly stopped - under the incandescent light, researchers in uniforms were moving between the test benches, holding tablets and various reagents in their hands, chatting and laughing from time to time.

The familiar ceiling, test bench, alloy straps, her head began to ache again.

The Secret Service took her into a conference room where a middle-aged man in a dark gray suit sat at the end of a long conference table.

After Wen Yi sat down, the man took the initiative to speak: "Miss Wen, nice to meet you."

She sneered and said nothing.

The man's expression changed slightly, but his tone remained gentle: "Ms. Wen, I know you may have some misunderstandings. We only recently learned that you were with Gu Yifeng, and we didn't know you had such special abilities."

This sentence made Wen Yi a little surprised. They didn't even know about the agreement between her and Gu Yifeng?

"Actually, we didn't invite you here this time to do anything bad to you," the man continued, "We just hope you can cooperate with us."

Wen Yi crossed her legs and looked at him coldly: "How can we cooperate?"

The man pushed up his glasses. "We need you to cooperate with us. Go back to a specific point in time and make a... historical correction."

The air seemed to freeze for a moment.

She raised her eyebrows and sneered, "Are you crazy? The past cannot be changed. Stop dreaming."

"Miss Wen is right, but only half right. Just because something was impossible in the past doesn't mean it's impossible now." He said in a steady voice, "If someone could master the ability to break the time loop... then everything would be possible again."

The man took out a tablet from his briefcase and gently slid the screen, showing an image in front of her.

The picture shows a cabin with a complex and intertwined metal structure, surrounded by energy pipes. The overall shape looks like some kind of deep-sea submersible.

"This is the key tool that enables us to realize our plan - the 'Anchor of Time'."

Wen Yi stared at the screen, her brows furrowed slightly. Could this thing really break the time loop? She wasn't sure if what the man said was true, but they did come prepared.

"We need your cooperation," the man continued, "to establish a stable time channel."

"How?" she asked.

"What we need is actually your energy fluctuation pattern." The man's tone was full of excitement. "As long as we can capture your state when using your ability, we can fully collect the key data of the 'time anchor point'."

He stared at her with burning eyes: "In other words, you are the key. And we have finally found the door."

Wen Yi slowly leaned back in her chair, but her eyes grew colder.

"So, you 'invited' me here," she said slowly, "to force me to open a door for you that you have no control over?"

The man's expression froze for a moment, then he smiled again: "We hope to cooperate."

She paused for a moment: "What if I don't agree?"

The man's smile completely faded.

The lights in the entire laboratory flickered violently.

Immediately afterwards, a sharp alarm pierced the air.

"What's going on?!" The man turned around suddenly.

The technician outside the door exclaimed: "Someone has hacked into the system!"

The next second, the metal doors of the entire experimental area were automatically locked, and the alarm lights painted the laboratory corridor scarlet.

The man's face darkened, but he immediately regained his composure and commanded, "Is it a long-range attack or is it coming from within?"

"It's not remote. It's an insider!!"

The man gritted his teeth and said, "Retrieve all the records of entry and exit, and immediately apprehend the person! And that woman—"

But when he suddenly turned around, Wen Yi, who was originally sitting there, was gone.

Wen Yi crouched down and tiptoed forward in the dark corridor. Several emergency lights in the corner were dimly lit.

She could hear footsteps in the distance and the muffled sound of metal doors opening and closing. The entire underground base was on alert, and everyone was searching for her.

She held her breath, leaned against the wall and listened for a while. After determining that the direction was correct, she was about to move forward.

At this moment, a familiar voice came from behind, with the usual teasing tone:

"Your escape skills are not good."

She looked up and saw Guo Qingyu standing behind her, looking down at her.

Wen Yi:!

She almost screamed, quickly covered her mouth, and asked in a low voice, "Why are you here? Were you caught by the Bureau of Investigation?"

"Are you kidding?" He rolled his eyes. "I'm looking for something and saving you at the same time."

As he spoke, he suddenly reached out and took the electronic handcuffs on her wrist and clicked them lightly.

With a click, the lock popped open.

"How did you do it?" Wen Yi was a little surprised.

"Do you think I only know how to hack the system?" He raised the corner of his mouth, turned around quickly and disappeared into the shadows.

They say the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Wen Yi thought it made sense! She quickly followed Guo Qingyu and took advantage of the chaos to sneak into the control center with him.

The alarm was still echoing, and the entire laboratory was in a semi-paralyzed state.

Guo Qingyu rushed to the main console, his fingertips moving back and forth on the keyboard, a series of data reflected in his pupils.

Insert the special USB drive into the interface, and the screen pops up [File Transferring...]

"What are you torturing?" Wen Yi lowered her voice.

"The truth you've always wanted to know." He answered without looking up.

The next second, the alarm suddenly escalated!

"Illegal data access detected!" a mechanical voice rang out, "Activate the second-level blockade procedure!"

"Oh no!" The sound of footsteps approached from afar, and Wen Yi turned around suddenly, "Someone is coming!"

"Don't panic." Guo Qingyu pulled out the USB drive and stuffed it into his pocket, his expression still calm. "I've got the stuff."

He stood up and was about to turn around and leave, but was stopped by a cold voice:

"You're not going anywhere."

The two men turned around at the same time and saw several fully armed agents standing at the door, with guns pointed at them.

The leader was the middle-aged man in the dark gray suit.

He raised his hand, signaling the people behind him to surround him: "Put down the USB drive and surrender."

Guo Qingyu grinned and tapped the main console behind him. The next moment, sparks flew and the entire control room fell into a brief darkness.

Immediately afterwards, gunshots rang out!

The bullet whizzed past Wen Yi, and she instinctively covered her ears and squatted down.

In the chaos, a hand suddenly grabbed her waist and pulled her in front of him.

Wen Yi:?

This scene looks familiar.

She stumbled into his arms and looked up to see the oncoming bullet.

Wen Yi:!!!

You're so good, Guo Qingyu! Why am I always the one who gets screwed?

Time seemed to be stretched at that moment.

Wen Yi's heart was beating violently, and death was rapidly magnified before her eyes, but she didn't want to die! !

Suddenly, a strange fluctuation appeared in the air, and a familiar energy awakened in her body.

Just like that time in the ice cream truck, my consciousness was suddenly pulled into that huge cube of light.

Countless cones of light fell into her eyes, like the intertwining of star tracks, like the interweaving of fate. She reached out her hand toward the cones of light.

At this moment, the control room began to shake violently.

boom!

There was a loud noise not far away - like the sound of a load-bearing structure breaking.

The ceiling began to shake, dust fell, the walls tilted, and cracks in the ground continued to extend.

"No way..." Guo Qingyu looked at her in shock, "Silly bastard, are you going to bury us all here?"

He grabbed her wrist and said in a hurried voice, "I told you to go big, but I didn't tell you to kill yourself! Take it back now!"

But she could not hear anything, a bone-chilling chill ran through her body, her consciousness became blurred, and she was swaying in the storm.

There were hurried footsteps outside. Guo Qingyu didn't have time to say anything. He grabbed her and rushed out the door in the chaos: "Run!"

The two men stumbled out of the control room, leaving a mess behind them.

They ran all the way, the corridor behind them collapsed, and every step seemed to be a race against time.

"Ahhh! You're such a pig teammate! You've screwed me over!" He shouted while running in front.

At the last moment before the underground laboratory collapsed, he finally jumped out of the exit with her.

The secret behind it sank into darkness with a loud bang, and the echo of the collapse echoed in the air for a long time.

Guo Qingyu gasped and turned to look at her: "Are you still alive?"

Wen Yi wanted to stand up, but her eyes went dark and she fell forward.

He reacted very quickly and stepped forward to grab her wrist, his fingers quietly touching her pulse.

The next second, Guo Qingyu bent down and lifted her up, still sternly saying, "I didn't realize you were so heavy." He muttered as he walked, "Remember to tell Gu Yifeng to take me off the wanted list."

The author has something to say:

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Gu Yifeng: I don’t talk much, but that doesn’t mean I’m a good person

Ye Min: Where is the promised male lead Gao Weizheng?

Guo Qingyu: Quietly joining the Shura Field?