Heart (Second Update)

Chi Li looked puzzled and immediately got up. Outside the window, two stories above the ground, he saw a familiar face he had not seen in a long time—

Bai Qi's guard.

The guard held his index finger to his lips, then mouthed for Chi Li to open the window from the inside.

Chi Li hesitated for a moment before doing as told. Yet the window, which had previously been completely sealed under an electronic lockdown, opened now. His confusion deepened, and he became even more certain that something had happened. "What's going on?"

The guard still gestured for him to stay quiet, guiding Chi Li to climb out through the window. In a low voice, he said, "It's complicated. I can't explain it clearly right now. The emperor has sent people to arrest you. Si Jinyan can't get here in time, but Mr. Bai anticipated this and sent me to help you."

Chi Li frowned. Instinctively, he felt that something was wrong, and he asked the part that troubled him most. "How did Mr. Bai know?"

The guard ran ahead, ducking into the bushes in the back garden. He turned and waved at Chi Li. "Keep up. They're about to come in. If the emperor's people catch you, you're really done for!"

The guard was so anxious that his whole face had scrunched up. He looked barely over twenty, yet he spoke clearly and moved with agility.

Chi Li's expression darkened. He abruptly stopped where he was, gripping an angular shard of stone he had picked up along the way. In a cold voice, he demanded, "Then why should I trust you?"

Chi Li had long expected that his identity would sooner or later be exposed before more people. But even if what the guard said was true, he and Bai Qi were not close enough for this.

The guard grew anxious. "Just trust me. The emperor's personal guards are in the front courtyard right now. Your butler is holding them off. And Mr. Bai isn't an ordinary person. He can predict..."

Before the guard could finish, he clamped his mouth shut. "I can't tell you that."

Chi Li remembered the window that had suddenly become openable despite previously being under lockdown, as well as the fantastical sensing ability Bai Qi had mentioned during their earlier conversation.

At that moment, a piercing alarm suddenly rang throughout the entire estate.

The guard froze, then abruptly grabbed Chi Li and pulled him forward. "Run!"

Chi Li frowned. The relentless alarm blared in his ears, keeping his nerves taut, but he still decided to follow the guard for now.

"Keep heading southeast. Don't stop," the guard said. "It's a bit far, but whatever you do, don't stop. Once you reach the foot of a small hill with two dead trees growing on it, you'll naturally know where to go."

Chi Li still felt as though he had missed something. "I'll know where to go?"

The guard wiped the sweat from his forehead. "...Yes. Once you get there, someone will come meet you and send you back."

"Send me back?" Chi Li narrowed his eyes. "Send me where?"

The guard honestly shook his head. "I don't know. Mr. Bai only told me this much and told me to say it to you."

Full of confusion, Chi Li ran for nearly half an hour. The alarm was almost inaudible now. During that brief quiet, a burst of gunfire suddenly rang out behind him. Someone had caught up!

Chi Li's heart lurched. The guard said, "They caught up! How did they get here so fast..."

"You go first." The guard shoved Chi Li, slowing down to shield him from behind.

"What about you?" Chi Li asked.

The guard showed no panic at all. He calmly said, "I only need to complete the task Mr. Bai gave me."

Chi Li frowned.

Too many mysteries lay before him, but as Chi Li looked at the forest stretching away from the estate, the corner of his mouth suddenly lifted in a faint curve. Whatever those mysteries were, he had escaped in the end.

As long as he was out, where he went and what he did would be his choice.

The guard told him to hurry, and Chi Li no longer hesitated. He ran southeast.

Yet just as his figure disappeared into the hazy woods of early morning, the guard who had remained behind to cover him suddenly removed a compact scoped gun from his waist. It was palm-sized, yet it could track marked targets within a hundred miles. Its bullets, made with Mermaid scales, possessed tremendous penetrating power.

The guard looked through the scope. Its beam could penetrate solid objects and track targets that had been marked in advance. Only once the mark was erased or hit could it no longer fire.

The nerve that had long been sharpened by lingering at the edge of life and death suddenly tightened. Chi Li sensed the danger in advance and twisted aside, but the bullet still struck him.

The bullet entered Chi Li's chest directly through the left side of his back. His eyes trembled, and he dropped to his knees.

It was where his heart was.

·

Before the incident, Si Jinyan received a call from Qiu Rui. He said Lu Jiu's side had developed a drug capable of replicating the effects of Chi Li's pheromones and asked Si Jinyan to come to the research institute for testing.

Before taking the call, Si Jinyan had attacked Chi Li after losing control. Hearing this, he glanced once more at Chi Li, who lay on the bed with his back to him, then got up and left.

Si Jinyan entered the research institute and was taken to a laboratory.

When an extremely potent anesthetic mist began to fill the laboratory, Si Jinyan realized something was wrong, but it was already too late.

When he woke again, Si Jinyan had been completely forced into his Mermaid form by the drugs. He was strapped to an iron frame, his several-meter-long tail hanging limply. Near its tip, a fist-thick iron chain had been driven through it. The chain connected to equipment that continuously injected anesthetics formulated specifically for Si Jinyan.

His wrists were also bound by iron chains that extended to the corners of the room. A syringe made from special metal had been inserted into each wrist, making it easier to extract Si Jinyan's blood.

The room was extremely dry. Moisture had been deliberately removed. Si Jinyan had already been forced fully into Mermaid form. His silver-black hair, upon closer inspection, resembled countless tentacles writhing in the air, and they were clearly deeply dissatisfied with the overly dry environment.

Si Jinyan swept his gaze over all the researchers outside the experimental chamber, but he did not see Lu Jiu.

Si Jinyan then recalled that he had not seen Lu Jiu at all since entering.

He had fallen into a trap.

Si Jinyan stared dangerously at the busy people beyond the glass chamber, whose eyes held fear whenever they looked at him.

Thinking of something, Si Jinyan's tail flicked uneasily.

The person on duty outside the glass chamber had been watching Si Jinyan's movements at all times. It was his first time seeing such a terrifying yet beautiful monster with his own eyes. When he saw Si Jinyan awaken, his heart leaped into his throat.

When he saw that Si Jinyan's tail could still move despite such a powerful dose of anesthetic—one that could anesthetize at least five giant elephants even after dilution—he hurriedly sounded the alarm and shouted in panic, "Quick! Increase the anesthetic dosage! He's awake!! He can still move!!"

Si Jinyan had no strength to play this sort of little game with them.

However, a moment later, a violent pain tore through his heart!

The pain continued, growing stronger and stronger. Si Jinyan had experienced it once before...

An empty place within his atrium suddenly began to beat violently. There should have been nothing there, yet now it drove every organ and nerve in his body through a pulse that began in his heart chamber—fullness, tension, pain—like the sustained, desperate beating of someone on the brink of death.

Si Jinyan muttered two words.

The researchers only saw Si Jinyan, who had been hanging his head a moment ago, suddenly raise it. Golden vertical pupils spread through his eyes, eventually replacing the original black pupils and transforming them into complete golden irises.

The iron chains shook with him. His enormous tail slammed against them with brute force in an attempt to break free. The pierced scales regenerated with astonishing speed, and the edges of the chains even showed faint signs of being worn through and cut apart by the silver-black scales.