Chapter 89 Gentle Blade

"Luo Huayi, you now only have two paths in front of you."

Xin Que gripped his wrist tightly with one hand and pulled his waist with the other, stabilizing their position in mid-air. "Trust them, or trust me?"

Caught off guard by the sudden closeness between himself and the woman, Luo Huayi stared in surprise at the woman's face so close to his.

What's the meaning?

"What do you mean by believing them or believing you..." Luo Huayi was completely confused about the situation. His eyes were full of questions. "What are you talking about?"

Xin Que smiled, her eyes flashing with unfathomable calculation, and then spoke, obscuring most of the truth, "I am a mortal enemy to these two idols who are manipulating us... no, I should say the entire world's control system."

"As you can see now, the entire small world, including you, is under their control."

Luo Huayi's breath hitched. "So, the so-called angst plot is actually..."

"It's just a tactic they're using to punish me..." Xin Que's voice grew even gentler, but only she knew how much seduction was hidden within that gentleness.

"Drag the entire little world down with you, and turn you innocent people into machines of punishment..."

The woman's gentle voice was carried to the man's ears by the howling wind, and through her words, she connected all the things he had encountered after being drawn into the angst-filled novel.

All the bizarre situations are directed at the woman standing right in front of them.

The man was momentarily stunned, then laughed self-deprecatingly, "I thought... I was really the protagonist who awakens in a novel."

His voice grew softer and softer, it was unclear whether he was mocking his own past delusions of wanting to control his own life, or mocking the world's machinations against him.

"In the end, am I just a pawn in the hands of the laws of Heaven?"

Xin Que gripped his wrist even tighter. "Who said that?"

"They plotted to turn you into a machine of sanctions, but they never expected that you would develop your own will within a pre-set trajectory."

Luo Huayi's breath hitched.

The woman's usually guarded, sharp gaze softened considerably at this moment.

He saw his own reflection in Xin Que's eyes, and he also saw the myriad lights of homes in the night sky behind him.

“Luo Huayi, think about it carefully,” Xin Que’s eyes flickered slightly as she looked at him, “Before you met me, was your life a mechanical trajectory, or a path you truly walked step by step?”

The chaotic self-doubt in Luo Huayi's heart gradually calmed down.

Everything seemed to have returned to the time when he first learned that he was a character in a tragic novel.

Xin Que's question was like a piece of kindling thrown in, adding fuel to the fire of the will burning deep within the man's soul.

“Think about how you desperately tried to survive even after Ma Hong pushed you down the stairs,” Xin Que’s voice grew more resolute. “If you were just a punishment machine controlled by the plot, how could you have such a strong personal will?”

A look of bewilderment flashed across the man's phoenix eyes; complex, unresolved emotions almost filled his chest.

"Trust me," Xin Que threw out the bait, "Luo Huayi."

What propelled him into the plot space time and again was the Heavenly Dao;

It is also the will of Heaven that forces him to do things he doesn't want to do, following the path of the abusive novel.

Xin Que was the one who saved him from the story's spatial dimension on one or two occasions;

Xin Que was the one who could see what he was seeking.

There's nothing to hesitate about.

It's clear who the enemy and who the ally are.

“I know.” Luo Huayi gripped the woman’s taut forearm, his voice growing firmer. “I believe you.”

Xin Que suddenly smiled.

This was the first time Luo Huayi had seen Xin Que with such a relaxed smile, and she was taken aback.

In his few memories of Xin Que, the man rarely showed any emotion on his face.

Xin Que's seemingly sincere smile and earnest gaze gave the man the illusion that they were being treated as an ally with utmost sincerity.

“Luo Huayi,” Xin Que spoke softly, guiding Luo Huayi’s thoughts according to her prompts, “Can the two of us escape from this crisis successfully…”

"All hope is in your hands."

The woman suddenly pulled the man into her arms, whispering a few words into his ear.

Luo Huayi's eyes widened slightly, and after a moment, he closed them and raised his hand to wrap around her slender waist.

...

The order to repatriate repeat offenders has been issued.

[The humanoid restraint program 01 is receiving commands normally.]

[Criminal No. 13 has been returned to the AI ​​supervisor "King Qin Guang".]

"The monitoring program 01 reported an error before?" The engineer noticed the correction note in the system log. "Did it fix itself?"

My colleague turned around and glanced at me. "What's wrong? Isn't it normal for the restriction program to self-check and repair?"

“That’s true,” the engineer said, swiping over the data and refocusing his attention on the real-time monitoring of the criminal’s mental body. “It’s strange, how could the mental body of that criminal named Song Wenxian, who was assisting in the interrogation, be suddenly erased…”

"We've already checked three times, and the results all indicate that it was another female inmate who assisted in the interrogation who did it." The colleague's expression was grave. "Damn it, these two turned on each other..."

"Could it be related to Xin Que?" the engineer suddenly wondered. "After all, this interrogation has revolved around her from beginning to end..."

“That shouldn’t be the case,” the colleague said, staring intently at the scrolling monitoring data on the screen in front of him. “Xin Que’s mental state is already in a very fragile state; she’s having trouble even protecting herself right now.”

"Moreover... the system report that 01 just sent to the administrator AI shows that Xin Que's every move is still within its monitoring and controllability."

The green "Low Risk" warning is prominently displayed in the center of the screen.

"Administrator," the engineer activated the AI ​​with the highest authority in the monitoring system, "have 01 project the monitoring footage of Xin Que before and after he was taken back."

The instruction has been issued.

Soon, a shared view of the surveillance footage was projected onto the floating display screen.

The woman was trapped in the Rubik's Cube City by the AI ​​under her supervision, floating in mid-air, and had completely lost consciousness.

Two data-driven regulatory systems, one on the left and one on the right, look down upon and control the small city in the middle, which has been twisted into a square space.

"Fast forward." The engineer signaled to the administrator AI to fast forward the entire sequence of Xin Que's escape, his successful encirclement and annihilation by the multi-equation team, and his eventual capture and recovery.

The scene shows Xin Que being driven to depression by Xin Xin and Song Wenxian's combined attacks, and attempting to escape the city. At this moment, the role played by Program 01 appears and successfully retrieves Xin Que and delivers her to the AI ​​in charge.

"Damn..." The engineer frowned when he saw Song Wenxian and Xin Xin fighting over the spoils. "So Song Wenxian's death was due to infighting between these two?"

My colleague's lips twitched. "Old habits die hard. They're criminals anyway, their obedience is terribly low. Do you really expect them to be as obedient and useful as our AI?"

“Well, we still have to figure out how to get past the Upper City Prison,” the engineer sighed. “The rented prisoners have gotten into trouble… the boss will have to spend a lot of money to smooth things over with the prison’s investigation.”

The prison guard's communication screen lit up, and his voice, which had been weary from his efforts to recover from Song Wenxian's death, had returned to its usual cold and hard tone: "The Huo family will bear our losses this time. The matter of Song Wenxian is now over."

"Let the administrators continue to add Xin Que to the next interrogation plan until they find something useful."