“They mean that Qiu Xinxue was targeted this time, and I’ll be next… right?” Xia Qingtian turned to look at mobius.
“Qingtian…” mobius wanted to say something comforting, but he didn't know where to start.
“I’m fine.” Xia Qingtian’s body was still trembling uncontrollably. She forced a rather strained smile at mobius.
She hadn't not anticipated that she might face such a situation.
However, what she imagined and what she witnessed were still different.
Xia Qingtian even wondered if Qiu Xinxue wouldn't have been killed if she hadn't driven Qiu Xinxue away, wanting to ensure Qiu Xinxue could never be a threat again.
“Qingtian.” mobius reached out and pulled Xia Qingtian into his arms. “Any emotions you are experiencing right now are normal. You don’t need to blame yourself or shy away; this is all perfectly normal.”
Everything Xia Qingtian was going through now was something he had experienced countless times before.
Now he could handle everything with composure and calmness, but it was also built upon countless layers of trembling and fear.
Back then, he had only himself.
Now, Xia Qingtian had him.
To watch someone in front of you lose their life in immense pain, turn into a corpse, and to be someone you knew.
They had spoken, chatted.
Human life was so fragile, so vulnerable.
Xia Qingtian herself had died once. She was prepared to face death without fear for the sake of revenge, yet she still couldn’t accept a life vanishing before her eyes like that.
The hands manipulating everything from behind the scenes seemed to be controlling it all with countless threads.
A puppet wearing a mask lurked by her side, seemingly ready to draw a knife at any moment, to plunge it into her heart, or to brutally dismember one person after another she knew before her eyes.
Nestling in mobius’s embrace, Xia Qingtian slowly tilted her head up, looking at mobius’s face.
In Xia Qingtian’s eyes, mobius always seemed to be a composed and calm person.
However, no one was born that way.
Raising her hand, Xia Qingtian cupped mobius’s face, her trembling lips murmuring, “Did… did you ever run away?”
“I did,” mobius replied softly.
“Was it useful?” Xia Qingtian asked.
“It was not useful.” mobius managed a strained, faint smile. He had run away, pretending to be an unremarkable ordinary person, thinking that if he avoided it all, everything would become different.
In the end, he lost everything.
So, he no longer ran.
Especially this time, he had someone who could stand by his side.
In the grand scheme of things, mobius seemed to know that perhaps this was his last, or possibly his only, chance.
This time, he absolutely could not lose, they absolutely could not lose.
“Is that so?” Xia Qingtian curled her lips into a faint smile. “Then I won’t run either.”
Since running was useless, she would face it head-on!
Even if there were countless monsters and ghosts hidden around her, she would find these pieces of trash one by one, grab those manipulating threads, drag the person behind the scenes before her, disembowel them, and see what kind of creature that person truly was!
With this thought, Xia Qingtian’s gaze grew even more resolute.
Seeing Xia Qingtian like this, mobius breathed a sigh of relief.
“Alright, let’s analyze this,” Xia Qingtian said, taking a deep breath. “Why did those people warn me?”
“If they just wanted me to shut up, the other party could have used many methods,” Xia Qingtian analyzed with her arms crossed. “Even if they knew about my connection with mobius, there would be no need to alert me like this.”
Moreover, according to the hints previously given by the system, if she hadn't intervened in Li Xiaoxiao’s kidnapping, she would have received an olive branch from a mysterious organization.
Then they should have had no reason to act like this.
“Unless, they wanted me to not interfere with what comes next…”
Xia Qingtian murmured, feeling as if some important point had been missed.
Damn it…
Although Xia Qingtian tried her best to remain calm and rational, and to avoid recalling the sight of Qiu Xinxue’s death, she still couldn’t help but be distracted, unable to concentrate.
Seeing that Xia Qingtian had started to analyze, mobius showed a hint of admiration and comfort in his smile.
In a way, Xia Qingtian was much stronger than he had been.
Withdrawing his gaze, mobius thought back and calculated the future timeline, arriving at a conclusion: “Li Xiaoxiao.”
“What?” Xia Qingtian blinked, turning to look at mobius. “Li Xiaoxiao?”
A “ding” sounded in her mind, and those scattered thoughts and the points she had forgotten finally connected.
It was then that Xia Qingtian remembered that when she participated in the recording of “Top Intern,” she should have received a reward from the system.
The condition at that time was a reward of a secret about mobius, and the reason for Li Xiaoxiao’s impending kidnapping.
She already knew mobius’s secret, but she hadn't checked the reason for Li Xiaoxiao’s impending kidnapping in a timely manner due to her contemplation of future directions and the troubles caused by being deceived by mobius.
Furthermore, because Li Xiaoxiao had always been safe on the show, she had become careless.
After a moment of self-recrimination, Xia Qingtian immediately opened the system interface in her mind, and indeed found a small envelope icon.
As Xia Qingtian opened the envelope, mobius also began to tell her that Li Xiaoxiao was the daughter of Dr. Li and his wife.
“Dr. Li is the main scientist researching new energy. They were expelled from the research team early on due to being framed. Later, the couple changed their names and brought their children to City Z. They taught while continuing their research, finally achieving their current results and clearing their names.”
“However, those people should not give up, they… might be resorting to their old tricks,” mobius looked at Xia Qingtian.
“Old tricks?” Xia Qingtian closed the system interface in her mind at this moment.
What was recorded in the small envelope within the system was similar to what mobius had said, also concerning Dr. Li and his wife and the new energy.
“Li Xiaoxiao is the second daughter of Dr. Li and his wife. They originally had three children, one son and two daughters. Their eldest daughter was kidnapped back then, and the other party wanted the institute’s energy data. Dr. Li and his wife were threatened but refused to comply, resulting in their eldest daughter being killed. The then young Li Xiaoxiao was also injured in the head, and after three months in a coma, she lost all her memories, and her intelligence was also slightly affected. The genius girl woke up to become an ordinary person.”