When Zhang Ying saw Chu Ming appear, she exclaimed in surprise, "Chu Ming, you're not dead?"

Su Wan was no less surprised than Zhang Ying, looking Chu Ming up and down, who was completely unharmed, and said, "You weren't burned to death? Are you a clone?"

Chu Ming said, "I woke up inside a metal cabinet. To be honest, I don't know what happened. It was this general who found me and brought me out."

The officer said, "This gentleman was hidden in an empty weapons cabinet. We found him while searching inside the mech."

Zhang Ying had thought Chu Ming was dead. Seeing him alive, she was overwhelmed with mixed feelings of sorrow and joy, and burst into tears on the spot: "Chu Ming, I thought you were dead."

Su Wan was overjoyed to see that Chu Ming was still alive.

Bai Zhiyi didn't kill Chu Ming. While Zhang Ying was out, she smuggled the sleeping Chu Ming out of the control center and hid him in an empty weapons cabinet, while she herself hid in a hibernation pod. The clone army soldiers would never open an empty weapons cabinet, and Chu Ming slept until he naturally woke up. He was discovered by the military court and taken out.

This means that the life force she received from Bai Zhiyi wasn't truly dark. It's also the reason she was able to control her inner self and not kill Zhang Ying.

The officer said to Zhang Ying, "Zhang Ying, you have five minutes to say goodbye to this Mr. Chu. Then we need to take you back for court-martial."

Chu Ming walked up to Zhang Ying, who was crying, and spoke to her in a low voice, while several soldiers stood guard around with guns.

While Su Wan was talking to the officer, she still had some questions.

Su Wan asked, "Zhang Ying clearly replaced all the life factors, so how did you find this place?"

“Indeed, she replaced all her life factors, which is equivalent to changing her identity. She almost succeeded,” the officer smiled. “We were able to find this place thanks to you.”

Seeing Su Wan's puzzled expression, the officer explained, "We couldn't find her exact location for a while. One day, the mecha manufacturer suddenly contacted us, saying they had received a customer complaint. We determined her location in time and space and came here immediately."

Su Wan then realized why the mechanical female voice had said to wait for further processing from the legal department when she filed the complaint; it turned out that the complaint information had been sent to the mecha manufacturer in the 24th century.

It was truly an unexpected stroke of luck; she was only thinking about stopping the clone army, but by sheer accident, the future world discovered Zhang Ying's hiding place.

She asked, "What sentence will Zhang Ying be given?"

"She committed more than one serious crime. There's desertion, illegal cloning..." Looking at the smoke billowing from the Southern Chu capital in the distance, the officer added, "She has clearly caused a large number of civilian casualties, and the court will deliver a fair verdict."

Su Wan asked, "Why did she desert?"

The officer smiled and pulled a small object, about the size of a fingernail, from his pocket, handing it to Su Wan: "I might not be able to explain it clearly right now, so I'll give this to you. It contains a video of her before she escaped. Your old tablet computer could play it. You'll understand after watching it."

Su Wan took it and saw that it was a memory card that could be inserted into a tablet for playback.

The officer said, "Our engineers are working hard to repair the mechs. After that, we will leave this world, including all the clone soldiers, trying to leave no trace of technology. You helped us capture the deserter, so this is your reward."

He took out a resurrection pendant and a book-sized device from his pocket, inserted the resurrection pendant into the groove of the device, aimed it at Su Wan, and pressed the switch.

A thin blue light swept over Su Wan from head to toe.

He turned off the device, took out the resurrection pendant, and handed it to Su Wan: "With this, you can still maintain contact with your timeline."

Su Wan was well aware that her ability to maintain contact with the apartment pharmacy in the modern world was thanks to Zhang Ying's Resurrection Pendant. Now that she had her own Resurrection Pendant, she could re-establish contact with the apartment pharmacy.

She took the jade pendant and asked, "What exactly is this jade pendant?"

The officer said, "These are actually our identification tags, similar to the nameplates soldiers wore in your time. They contain a backup of our life force. If we accidentally die, this backup can revive us."

Upon hearing the officer mention death, Su Wan asked, somewhat puzzled, "With cloning technology in the 24th century, aren't humans already immortal?"

In her imagination, the 24th century would be the happiest time of humankind, with cloning technology granting them eternal youth and immortality. Why would Zhang Ying specifically flee to ancient times?

The officer said, "The memory card I gave you can answer this question. You'll understand everything after you've looked at it."

After a pause, the officer continued, "If your life factors were still intact, I could have taken you back to your original timeline. Unfortunately, only a small portion of your current life factors belong to that era, and the life factor device has been completely destroyed..."

Without even the slightest hesitation, Su Wan immediately said, "No need, I'm not going back."

She turned to look at Wei Jingzhuo, Chu Yi, and Meng Ruliu, who had just woken up and was touching her lower abdomen in a daze, seemingly not understanding how her injuries had suddenly healed.

It's better that she can't go back; she was meant to stay in this world anyway. This world holds the people she loves most, and the people who love her most.

She loves this world deeply; how could she possibly want to leave?

The officer said, "Alright, then we won't say any more. We can't stay here for too long. Please make sure everyone is at least 500 meters away from the mechs. We will initiate a time jump to leave once the repairs are complete. There will be strong air currents at that time."

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!