"Hmm!" Xiao Lin exhaled a puff of smoke and answered, "I don’t think there’s any reason for you to lie to now." Xiao Lin suddenly locked his gaze onto Lian’s face: "I’ve never doubted that you’re a betrayer. What I want to know is why you chose to beco one."
Lian pondered Xiao Lin’s words. A ’betrayer’ and ’becoming a betrayer’ had vastly different connotations. Xiao Lin’s trust made her feel like crying, but she didn’t. She remained silently facing Xiao Lin.
"You have to know, only I can save you." Faced with Lian’s silence, Xiao Lin had beco accustod to ignoring it. He hadn’t co here seeking answers. Lian would tell him the mont he saved her, but since she said nothing now, she wouldn’t in the future either. No matter, soone would eventually tell him what happened.
"How will you save?"
"I’m a doctor, and you are a patient," Xiao Lin said in a deep voice.
"They won’t let out."
"Hmm!" Xiao Lin acknowledged, "Why do they have to release you for you to leave?"
"You’re challenging Lao Long’s authority and limits." Lian laughed softly. Such words could only co from soone as bold as Xiao Lin.
"It’s not challenging his boundaries; it’s him mocking mine." Xiao Lin disliked being toyed with, and this worried Lao Long. The entire process had questionable tactics, yet they still underestimated Xiao Lin’s mind.
"Do you know what I dislike the most?"
Lian shook her head!
"Heh, you know, you all know, yet you still like to challenge." Xiao Lin held Lian’s head: "Lian, will you choose to be like them?" A flash of brilliance passed through his pupils as he awaited Lian’s answer.
"They’re protecting you!"
"Is sending to the Middle East a thod of protection?" Xiao Lin sneered, "Did they send because they couldn’t handle it?"
Xiao Lin stubbed out his cigarette in the sink, turned on the tap. Clear water gushed forth, swirling the cigarette butt down the drain: "Lian, you’ve greatly disappointed ."
Xiao Lin’s idle remark was like a heavy stone thrown into the lake of Lian’s heart, stirring endless ripples. She couldn’t calm down; she was torn between duty and emotion.
"It doesn’t matter! I’ll still take you out!" Xiao Lin no longer looked at Lian, so he couldn’t see the pain in her eyes, the bitterness that rose to her lips, making it hard for Lian to swallow.
"Hmm! Tomorrow, then!"
Xiao Lin murmured to himself, then smiled at Lian before walking out.
She’d never thought of staying here, yet she had never yearned to remain more than now, even if she was treated like a sacrificial pawn, she longed to stay here.
After returning from the Middle East, Xiao Lin had beco unfamiliar. Lian sat on the bed hugging her knees, his unfamiliarity had a cruelty and decisiveness. Perhaps this was the real Xiao Lin, a man with a kingly rigor at his core. The Xiao Lin who used to smile and act coyly with her was gone.
’Lian, I’m very disappointed in you!’
Heh heh heh heh, uncontrollably laughing, tears stread from Lian’s beautiful eyes. Her love, after this sentence, would be utterly shattered. She had no choice but to be completely misunderstood.
Tugging at the corner of her mouth, Lian’s eyes were filled with calm and cold determination.
Even if the city’s buildings visually differ in style, their core remains unchanged. Whether above ground or below, what goes in must co out, a fundantal rule of all structures.
Standing before the endless, crisscrossing pipes, Xiao Lin’s eyes focused on an inconspicuous old path. He silently grasped Lian’s hand.
"Are you sure we can do this?" Lian felt the warmth from his palm, their fingers interwoven. For an instant, she had the illusion that even if this path led to Hell, she would follow this man unwaveringly to the ends of the earth. No matter what the future holds, her heart’s sun pointed in only one direction.
She turned her head, and his determined profile left her spellbound.
When Xiao Lin appeared in front of her the following night as promised, she smiled.
It wasn’t the first ti Xiao Lin saw Lian’s smile. But never had he felt so moved; he didn’t know how to describe the tremor in his heart. His Lian had grown up to enchant n! And he even had an impulse not to let this enchantnt belong to any other man. Her beauty was for him alone to savor. Realizing this, Xiao Lin’s eyes lit up.
"Trust !" Feeling Lian’s gaze, Xiao Lin returned a confident smile, clenching their hands tightly together.
Even the tallest buildings have their drainage systems. To accommodate channels both above and below ground, a larger space must be created to contain these pipes. The underground level of Dragon Soul is not just its entire secret research base; it’s also a ’reservoir’ of pipes. The drainage system of the entire building converges here, then diverts through a central reservoir to the city’s other sewers.
The fifth underground level where Lian was, wasn’t truly a drainage system in essence. Being the lowest level, its water flowed directly into the crevices of nature’s rocks. This made escaping through the drainage system a more cumberso process for Xiao Lin.
Compared to the colossal drainage system, the ventilation system was much simpler. So when Xiao Lin appeared above Lian, the intelligent Lian naturally understood his intention. She reached out to grab Xiao Lin’s strong arm and climbed to the ventilation opening of Dragon Soul. However, just when she thought they would escape along the ventilation pipe, Xiao Lin rely led her to the enormous engineering marvel before them, which only brought up her earlier doubts.
"Can we really get out from here?" Despite Xiao Lin’s assurance, she couldn’t help but voice the doubts in her heart once more. She believed in Xiao Lin, but she couldn’t trust these tangled and complex pipes.
One must know that Dragon Soul is no ordinary place, and these kinds of pipes are nurous, as a precaution. Unless they were deeply familiar with the internal structure, it’s challenging for anyone to walk in or out of here, even for those who built this project at the ti. They might have been unable to rember all the line distributions, let alone Xiao Lin, who had never participated in the construction. Confidence alone would not suffice.
Lian was a rational person, so she didn’t want Xiao Lin to risk himself for her. If they made a wrong turn into one of the pipes, neither of them might get out, and they couldn’t expect anyone to co to their rescue.
Xiao Lin turned his whole body around and pressed both hands on Lian’s shoulders: "Since when did you start doubting my abilities?"
Startled by his sudden action, Lian couldn’t help but shrink back and turn her head aside: "Let’s find out after you lead out whether you’re capable or not."
A hearty laugh ca from above her head. Lian looked up at him, only to find his eyes firmly fixed on a particular spot ahead.
"Do you see that thickened pipe over there?" Xiao Lin asked, pointing ahead.
The place Xiao Lin pointed to was an area with a myriad of jumbled pipes, and from Lian’s angle, it was nearly impossible to discern which pipe he was referring to.
"When Dragon Soul first built this building, we hadn’t entered yet. But back then, in terms of construction technology, Huaxia didn’t have a comprehensive underground drainage system. The established pipe systems only underwent minimal alterations within the existing structure. With ti and the addition of many devices and facilities, Dragon Soul has had several renovations and changes." Xiao Lin quirked his lips into a cunning smile: "Lian, haven’t you noticed that the internal building styles of the Dragon Soul complex often seem to be layered? These grand building clusters can only change their exterior, not their interior. You can stack and correct as much as the façade allows, but you can’t alter these freely. That’s the difference."
"I don’t understand." Lian genuinely couldn’t grasp the difference. She found it hard to catch the main points in Xiao Lin’s words, and they slipped past her thoughts like floating buoys. You can sense them, but can’t capture them. That’s Xiao Lin; you never know what he wants.
"We just have to follow the oldest pipe." Xiao Lin offered no further explanation. He untied a rope from his body, took a grappling hook from his bag, and attached it to one end of the rope. After hearing a click, he swung it to a pipeline two ters away: "Co, hold on to ." After testing the tension, Xiao Lin opened his arms to Lian. Lian hesitated for a mont before tightly wrapping her arms around his waist.
"Let’s go!"
Xiao Lin pulled in the rope, accurately landing on the first foothold before leveraging to reach their destination once more.
"We can follow this pipe into the city’s underground sewer to get out." Xiao Lin untied the rope binding them and tossed it aside.
"What’s the point after we escape?"
Xiao Lin felt such questions were aningless. He rely continued cutting through a pipe with a portable electric cutter: "If you have so little faith in , why did you co along?"
Xiao Lin was upset, and from his tone, Lian sensed his discontent. She too felt a bit redundant, so she took the cutter from his hand and started to cut herself. "Your hands are skilled for surgery, but this kind of cutting isn’t about brute force. Move aside."
Under Lian’s deft skill, a square, four by four, was neatly cut out. "Go!"
Without hesitation or overthinking, Lian was the first to enter the pitch-black pipe. However, the odor of accumulated filth inside, unwashed for a long ti, forced her out.
Xiao Lin tapped her back from behind, then handed her a gas mask, smiling as he did. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you’re welco to vote for recomndations and monthly tickets on Qidian (qidian). Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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