Miami

After a while.

Charles's pain finally began to ease.

"Raven, help me up..."

Raven was worried about his condition. "You'd better rest for a while, Charles, I..."

"But all I want right now is to stand up! I want to see whether my spine is really broken!"

Hearing this, Raven was completely baffled. She had no idea why Charles was saying his spine was broken.

But Gu Qing's heart lurched!

"Whoa... this is bad..."

At Charles's insistence, Raven carefully helped him to his feet.

At first, it really seemed as though he had lost all feeling in his lower body.

With Raven's help, he gradually began to recover.

In the end, he no longer needed Raven to support him and could move freely on his own.

"?!"

Charles let out a sigh of relief.

Then he looked at Gu Qing with a complicated expression.

"Who... who exactly are you? What was that just now?"

Gu Qing shrugged. "Before that, I'd like to know what you saw."

Charles said, "I saw most of it—the Hellfire Club, Sebastian Shaw, X-Department, the Cuban Missile Crisis... and you! It was just... just that the you there seemed somewhat different from you... No! Very different! Why was that? What exactly were the things I saw?"

As Gu Qing had instructed, Charles had used his psychic power as a driving force to help Gu Qing pry open the mysteries of the soul.

Originally, once he had served as the driving force and expended his power, his task should have been complete, and he should have withdrawn immediately.

But curiosity got the better of him, and he did not leave at once.

Instead, he lingered for a moment.

That single moment allowed him to see things he should not have seen.

His willpower and psychic ability were not yet strong enough. When he saw the memories belonging to X-Men: First Class...

He fell into a certain degree of confusion.

Sometimes he watched as an observer from a third-person perspective, while at other times he experienced things in the first person—such as when his spine was shot at the end.

There were also some scenes he had failed to see amid the chaos.

That was why he said he had seen most of it, rather than all of it.

Gu Qing had not expected such a chain reaction.

Faced with Charles's questioning, he shrugged. "You know, time is like a ceaselessly rushing river.

Every seemingly accidental incident can give rise to a tributary.

That tributary is called a timeline.

What you saw was one possible version of our future, and what one particular timeline might develop into.

But you needn't worry about your spine. Things will never unfold the way you saw them."

Charles shook his head. "No, I'm not worried about my spine.

That Black King—we have to stop him. World War II has only just ended, and the world has only just regained peace.

We can't let the Cuban Missile Crisis become reality!"

Raven stood to the side, utterly bewildered.

"What on earth are you two talking about?"

Gu Qing smiled helplessly. "As expected of you, Charles. Don't worry. Since I already know where he is, there won't be any Cuban Missile Crisis.

Because he—Sebastian Shaw, or rather, Klaus Schmidt—is about to die by my hand!"

But Charles continued, "I'm going with you!"

Raven said irritably, "Charles, get a grip! What is going on with your spine? And what is this Cuban Missile Crisis? Could you stop speaking in riddles already?"

Charles placed both hands on Raven's shoulders and looked at her seriously. "Listen, Raven. I'm perfectly clear-headed. I know what I'm doing."

But Gu Qing said, "No, you don't. Do you think you're the Charles from my memories? Professor X? You're not. Right now, you're just a child.

So stay here and be your young master. You can't help."

With that, he turned to leave.

But Charles stopped him. "Erik! If I'm a child, then what are you?

You may look strong and mature, but I know you're about the same age as I am."

And I know where that place is too—Argentina. If I want to go, you can't stop me."

Gu Qing turned to look at him and met Charles's resolute gaze.

"Fine. You can come along and take a look. Consider it broadening your horizons."

"I've already seen quite a few 'horizons' in your memories, Erik."

United States.

Miami, Florida.

A Limo Lincoln pulled up in front of a Five-Star Hotel.

The doorman opened the door. Charles and Raven stepped out first, followed by Gu Qing.

Worried about Charles, Raven had ultimately come along as well.

As far as Gu Qing was concerned, there was already one extra person; one more made no difference.

Raven first looked around curiously, then turned and asked, "Didn't you say we were going to Argentina? Why are we in Miami?"

Gu Qing said nothing and walked straight into the hotel.

Charles looked at him, then at Raven.

He merely smiled and said, "Because the timing is wrong."

Before this, Gu Qing had already sent members of the family to investigate Argentina.

They had found Giselle Villa, but the people they were looking for were nowhere inside.

After a simple investigation, Gu Qing discovered that at this point in time, those two soldiers had not yet gone to settle in Argentina.

They were most likely still following Schmidt.

And after every memory related to the movie "First Class" had been unearthed, some easily overlooked details became especially clear.

He remembered a photograph hanging on the wall in Giselle Villa, showing the two soldiers with Schmidt.

The background of that photograph was a yacht called the Gaspardina, and the location was Miami!

So the chances of them being in Miami right now were the highest!

Click! Click! Click!

The sound of high heels striking the floor approached.

A tall Blonde Woman with an extraordinary presence walked over.

She immediately drew Charles and Raven's attention.

Most surprising of all was the iron prosthetic attached to her left arm.

Like a statue of Venus, it gave off an incomplete yet refined kind of beauty.

"Master, everything has been arranged."

Vanessa came before Gu Qing and spoke respectfully.

Gu Qing gave a slight nod. "The targets are no ordinary people. Remember, only elites are to be chosen for this operation. Be careful. If anyone's carelessness causes the mission to fail, they should know the consequences."

Vanessa's heart trembled, and she hurriedly replied, "Master, we have made every possible preparation. I guarantee there will not be a single mistake!"

She knew how much Gu Qing valued the person they were searching for.

It could be said that Gu Qing had appeared in Sicily precisely because of this, and that the Lehnsherr Family existed as it did today because of it.

Even though the Lehnsherr Family had now expanded many times over, possessing immense influence and wealth, it still could not draw so much as a second glance from Gu Qing.

Vanessa understood that, to Gu Qing, the Lehnsherr Family had only one purpose: to find Schmidt!

Now that they had reached this critical juncture, she naturally had to come personally to oversee things and ensure there was not the slightest flaw.

Otherwise, calming Gu Qing's wrath would require more than just one hand.