Mei, I Absolutely Won't Let Go (Continued)

Who knew? Xu Qi himself was not entirely sure.

Perhaps only Xin An knew how violently shaken she had been that day on Train 914, when she saw that white Exoskeleton Armor charge onto the tracks.

Born in a country like this, Xin An had never believed that anyone would truly be willing to gamble everything they had for someone else's life!

But a living example stood right before her. She had no choice but to believe it.

He was her savior, so helping him was only natural.

Besides, he did not care that she had turned around and thrown herself at Li Fucong. Why should she be coy? In this man's eyes, there probably was not room for any woman at all...

That bastard who lived only for work.

"You're all missing the point... You're analyzing why emergency braking and service braking failed, but it seems you've all overlooked something rather important."

"What?" Xin An asked casually.

Actually, although she had been a victim of the 914 incident, she did not care about it at all—she had survived, after all. What was there to brood over?

It was nothing more than a frightening, painful memory.

"I remember telling you all at the time to try using the EB Valve inside the carriage to stop manually."

Xin An frowned—indeed...

"There's another problem. All these reports focus on the aging of the bus cable in section (10238) as the key issue in this incident.

"But the emergency-braking circuitry isn't that simple. Has no one thought about why the brakes only failed when the train was conducting the 60-speed test?"

"Perhaps 60 was too fast, which caused..."

"Isn't that just nonsense?" Xu Qi interrupted Xin An without the slightest courtesy and casually explained.

"The train completed the TC1-head test before moving on to the TC2-head test.

"In other words, all the cables on the train had already been subjected to the impact of braking at speed 80. If the aging cable wasn't secured and snapped because of the excessive speed, then the problem should have appeared much earlier. The TC2 head should have discovered that braking could not be applied during the speed-20 test."

Everything Xu Qi said was correct, but Xin An still could not help frowning—This guy... How dare he interrupt me! He really is someone with nothing in his eyes but work.

"Besides, I was responsible for the entire rectification process. I inspected every cable related to the braking system, and the static-test results were normal. How could this happen..."

"It's exactly like what happened ten years ago."

"Huh?"

Xu Qi frowned. "What did you say?"

Xin An took a drink of water nonchalantly and said in a matter-of-fact tone, "You didn't know? Ten years ago, a similar accident occurred.

"And that one was even worse. The train's brakes failed while it was running on the main line."

"On the main line... The brakes... failed?"

Xu Qi suddenly felt uncomfortable in his chest. It was as if something had jolted his mind, and a familiar sense of despair seemed ready to engulf him!

His breathing gradually grew heavier. Just as he seemed about to remember something—

Before his eyes, as if in a hallucination, golden butterflies circled above his head. Specks of starlight drifted down, and that painful illusion faded once more... then disappeared...

"Hey!"

Xu Qi shuddered as if waking from a dream. His vision returned to normal. Xin An was sitting opposite him, her brows tightly knitted with concern.

"What just happened to you?"

She pointed at Xu Qi's forehead.

"You're breaking out in a cold sweat."

Xu Qi wiped his forehead—indeed he was...

He shook his head, took a deep breath, and said casually, "It's nothing. Maybe I haven't fully recovered yet... What were you saying just now? Ten years ago? The same kind of accident?"

"Yeah. You didn't know? You used to be so close to Supervisor Xia, I thought you knew. Even a newcomer like me, who's only been working here for three or four years, knows about it."

"What does Xia Ya have to do with it?"

Xin An raised an eyebrow. The corner of her mouth curved into an indescribably mocking smile.

"Looks like you really didn't know... Come to think of it, don't you find it strange at all? Why is Supervisor Xia so capable, yet still only a technical supervisor in his forties?"

Xu Qi's brows drew tightly together. At that moment, many ominous possibilities suddenly came to him.

Once again, he recalled his conversation with Xia Ya in the hospital ward. At the time, Xia Ya had seemed to have already made up his mind to accomplish something.

Xia Ya...

"Ten years ago, Train 956 suffered a brake failure on the main line. At the time, Xia Ya was the manager of Maintenance Department Six. Something seems to have happened during that incident—something Supervisor Xia still can't let go of to this day."

······

He returned to the Golden Courtyard in a daze.

Even when Elysia greeted him as he opened the door, he seemed not to hear her. He walked straight to the sofa and then collapsed onto it.

Aponia was right beside him. Ever gentle and compassionate, she moved closer and placed a hand against Xu Qi's forehead, asking softly, "Did something happen, Xu Qi?"

Everyone in the Golden Courtyard came over when they saw this.

At first, they thought something was wrong with his body. After all, he had only just been discharged from the hospital.

But judging from Xu Qi's current mental state, it did not seem that way.

"I can't... stand by and do nothing..."

"Hmm?"

"I have to find out what happened—I have to!"

Xu Qi suddenly seemed to come back to himself! His gaze became firm again, and he abruptly reached out and grabbed Pardofelis, who had approached out of curiosity.

"Huh? B-Boss?"

"Neko—this time, I'll have to rely on you!"

Mode Capital Metro, outside Jiuting Base.

Inside a van, Vil-V was adjusting her wide assortment of strange communications equipment. In the back seat, Pardofelis had already changed into her nightwear.

The black, close-fitting outfit made Xu Qi glance at her several times. After all, he had never noticed before—Neko's figure was actually this good?

Her curving figure fit the golden ratio perfectly.

Of course, her chest was not as... magnificent as Elysia and the others'. But that petite, handful-sized fullness was arguably even more tempting to toy with...

"Hmm? Boss, could you check whether the zipper on my back is closed?"

"Oh, sure."

Suppressing the urge to sneak up from behind and startle the girl, Xu Qi pulled up Pardofelis's zipper.

Vil-V naturally saw the entire scene from beside them.

After Xu Qi returned to his seat, she could not help leaning over and whispering, "Well? Little Pardofelis has a great figure, doesn't she... At least she looks very strong, right? Like a gymnast."

"Ahem! Cough, cough!" Xu Qi pondered for a moment, then gave Vil-V a thumbs-up.

"Indeed. Very impressive."

"Hmm? What are you two talking about?" Pardofelis turned around suspiciously.

"Nothing!" Xu Qi and Vil-V spoke so perfectly in unison that Pardofelis became even more suspicious.

"Honestly, could you two at least show a little tension..."

Mei, sitting in the passenger seat, let out a long sigh. So why am I even here?

Xu Qi scratched his head awkwardly, feeling somewhat guilty. After all, his official—well... not yet his girlfriend, but practically soon-to-be girlfriend—Mei was sitting up front.

And he was admiring Little Pardofelis's figure back here!

Hmm...

It doesn't seem like such a bad thing.

"Mei, if anything happens later, call me directly."

"Don't worry... By the way, if I hadn't come tonight, were you planning to go in yourself? Fortunately, Elysia told me. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known you were going to do something so dangerous!"

"Uh... Sorry... I made you worry."

Seeing Xu Qi looking as if he were awaiting punishment, Vil-V could not help laughing. Xu Qi rarely looked like this. It seemed he really did like Mei.

Seeing that everyone was almost ready, Sister Yae, who was driving, said, "All right, I'll go over the operation plan one more time.

"Pardofelis, you're responsible for infiltrating the archive room and finding all the records related to Train 956's brake failure ten years ago. Mei, you're responsible for watching her back. If you're discovered, just say you're fetching documents for Xu Qi. Understood?"

Mei and Pardofelis nodded solemnly.

"Understood!"

"Don't worry. Xu Qi and I will handle the extraction. After you infiltrate, Vil-V will take control of all the surveillance at Jiuting Base and guide you."

"Leave it to me." Vil-V patted the equipment beside her. "It's only a metro base. It won't give me any trouble."

Xu Qi took a deep breath. Looking at everyone who was ready to go, he felt a warm current rise in his heart and could not help saying sincerely,

"Everyone... I made such a selfish request, and now I've troubled all of you..."

"All right, Sister Yae. I'm heading out."

"Huh? Wait for me, Mei!"

"Good luck! With my communications equipment backing you up, nothing will go wrong."

"Be careful. If anything goes wrong, I'll charge in and forcefully bring you out."

Soon, everyone in the van settled into their respective tasks. Xu Qi... Xu Qi let out a long sigh.

"All right. I guess I was being melodramatic."

Through the communications equipment, whether it was Yae and Vil-V in the van or Mei and Pardofelis preparing to act, everyone could not help smiling.

"Xu Qi."

In the end, Mei was the one who felt sorry for him. She pressed her communications earpiece and said,

"Everyone is helping you unconditionally because they acknowledge you, just as you would help us unconditionally... Isn't that right?"

Yae turned her head toward Xu Qi.

"See? Even your girlfriend understands you better."

"Sister Yae!"

"Heh, all right. I won't tease you two anymore."

Indeed...

Xu Qi put on his earpiece and began working with Vil-V to break through the metro base's surveillance firewall. Some things... only needed to remain in his heart.

Thanks, everyone in the Golden Courtyard.

······

Meanwhile, elsewhere, there was another van. However, the people inside were far more professional than Xu Qi's group.

After all, the information they needed to obtain was at the headquarters of the Mode Capital Metro Group.

Kevin's fingers flew across the computer keyboard. Clearly, he was doing his utmost to break through the other side's security firewall.

Fu Hua and Kalpas were responsible for the infiltration.

That lineup made it clear that if things became impossible, they intended to use force to carve out a path.

"This time, our entire Golden Courtyard really is coming out in force." Su sat in the driver's seat and could not help laughing. "Aren't we spoiling Xu Qi a little too much?"

"It's not the entire Golden Courtyard. Elysia, Aponia, Griseo, and Kosma have to stay behind and guard the place." Mobius was adjusting the various communications devices she had gotten from Vil-V.