Perhaps None of Us Exist

Under everyone's stares, Yang Ming grew embarrassed and angry. "How is this my fault? If that bastard Bai hadn't... Ah, forget it. He's dead. No point bringing it up."

He suddenly sighed again, his expression turning forlorn once more.

"All right, that secret will do," Fang Xiu suddenly said. "By the way, you don't have a habit of turning your phone off, do you?"

Yang Ming nodded. "If you really can go back to the past and call me, I'll definitely get it. I have no sense of direction. When something happened to Bai, I was driving in the mountains near Qingbei Town. My phone was connected to Bluetooth with navigation running, so I definitely would have received the call."

Fang Xiu nodded. "Wait for my call."

Then he fell silent.

As he quieted down, so did the room.

Everyone watched him silently as time ticked by.

One second, two seconds, three seconds...

Suddenly, Fang Xiu spoke. "Why are you all staring at me? Carry on with the meeting."

Everyone froze in astonishment.

Yang Ming couldn't hold back any longer. "Aren't you going back to the past? We're all waiting for you to do it."

Fang Xiu looked at him as though he were an idiot. "When did I say I was going back right now? Besides, don't tell me you thought I'd suddenly vanish on the spot like in the movies?"

Everyone: "..."

Honestly, that was exactly what they had thought.

"Then when will you start?"

"There's no rush. After the lottery draw at eight tonight."

Yang Ming was taken aback. "A draw? What draw?"

"Enough. Stop asking questions. Yang Ming, take this babbling lunatic to the Holding Cell immediately. I'll be there shortly. He's no longer thinking clearly. His Spirituality is probably about to go out of control," Wang Dehai suddenly said.

Yang Ming didn't want to comply, but then he saw Wang Dehai give him a meaningful look.

He could only turn to Fang Xiu and say, "Come with me."

Fang Xiu nodded and followed Yang Ming straight to the Holding Cell without doing anything else.

After all, with his current strength, causing trouble at the Investigation Bureau would be little different from courting death.

Besides, he understood Wang Dehai's thinking perfectly. Whether his claims were true or false, this matter shouldn't be exposed to the public.

If they were true, the ability to return to the past and alter the future was far too shocking. Once word got out, there was no telling what kind of upheaval it would cause.

If they were false, this would be the biggest laughingstock the Investigation Bureau had seen all year, and it still wouldn't do for too many people to know.

That was precisely why Wang Dehai had asked Yang Ming to take him away.

Once they reached the Holding Cell, Fang Xiu asked Yang Ming plenty more questions about the Head Ghost, the Shadow Ghost, and Bai Qi.

It turned out that Bai Qi's ability was Super Speed. His speed was unimaginable, far surpassing others of the same tier with Super Speed and giving him an absolute advantage whether he was attacking or fleeing.

He had once killed a Second-Tier Spirit Tamer in an instant.

He had also successfully escaped pursuit by a powerful Ghost.

That was why he and Yang Ming had been allowed to operate on their own. If Bai Qi couldn't win, he could run.

As for Yang Ming, with his luck ability, it was difficult for him to meet an unlucky death.

Unfortunately, this time Bai Qi had been limited by the available intelligence. He hadn't noticed the Shadow Ghost's presence and had fallen victim to its ambush.

Ordinary Ghosts would have struggled to ambush Bai Qi successfully, because both his movement and reactions were fast. But the Shadow Ghost was different. It hid in Bai Qi's shadow, and no matter how fast he was, he couldn't shake off his own shadow.

During Bai Qi's high-speed battle with the Head Ghost, the shadow behind him followed his every move, then delivered a fatal blow at the critical moment.

The two chatted for a long time, but Fang Xiu didn't manage to extract much useful information.

Although Yang Ming looked rough and easygoing, his words left no openings. He wouldn't reveal a single word he shouldn't. After all, he still couldn't be sure whether Fang Xiu could alter the future.

About an hour later, Wang Dehai arrived at the Holding Cell with Shen Lingxue.

"Fang Xiu, what exactly are you after? What do you intend to use Yang Ming for?" Wang Dehai demanded as soon as he arrived.

"Three more hours. Once the draw is over, everything will become clear," Fang Xiu said calmly.

"The draw? Didn't you say your ability was Future Prediction? Why has it now become altering the future?"

"Is there a difference? If I predict the future and then make the appropriate changes, doesn't that amount to changing the future in a sense? For example, if I predict that I'll be hit by a car and killed when I go out today, then as long as I don't go out, I won't die in the future."

Seeing how certain Fang Xiu sounded, Shen Lingxue couldn't help interjecting. "But Deputy Captain Bai is already dead. That has become an unchangeable part of the past. You're in the present. How could you change the past?"

"Oh?" Fang Xiu glanced at her indifferently and asked, "What makes you so sure this is the present? Is it possible that you, Yang Ming, everyone else, and even I don't actually exist, and everything happening now is merely the future that my past self is seeing?"

At those words, Shen Lingxue and the others froze, an overwhelming sense of absurdity rising within them.

"None of us... exist?"

Yang Ming looked even more bewildered. "Do you even hear what you're saying?"

Fang Xiu closed his eyes to rest and said nothing more.

A strange atmosphere settled over the three of them.

Fang Xiu's words seemed utterly absurd, yet for some reason, the more they considered them, the more they felt a faint, creeping chill.

Do we... really not exist?

After staying in the Holding Cell for a while, they all left, leaving Fang Xiu alone.

After all, they were all Investigation Bureau personnel with important duties. They couldn't sit here waiting for three hours.

Time flowed like water, and three hours soon passed in a flash.

Bang!

The door to the Holding Cell was shoved open.

Wang Dehai, Shen Lingxue, and Yang Ming walked in with grim expressions, their piercing gazes fixed on Fang Xiu as he rested with his eyes closed.

Suddenly, Fang Xiu opened his eyes and looked calmly at the three of them.

Slap!

Shen Lingxue slapped the slip of paper on which Fang Xiu had written the winning numbers onto the table. "Fang Xiu, the winning numbers you wrote didn't win anything. Not only that, not a single number matched! Look. I've written the actual numbers from this draw on it!" she said icily.

"Fang Xiu, now you can explain who you really are and who sent you," Wang Dehai said gravely.

Yang Ming said nothing, but there was a trace of murderous intent in his gaze as he looked at Fang Xiu.

Yet Fang Xiu merely smiled. "My predictions are never wrong. You think you can fool me by bringing over some random string of incorrect numbers?"

Shen Lingxue was so angry that her breath caught, her chest heaving.

She took out her phone, opened the lottery results, and placed it in front of Fang Xiu.

"See for yourself! Let's see how long you can keep up this act!"

Fang Xiu casually glanced at it, the smile on his lips growing more mocking. "You sent someone to rig the draw, and now you're turning around and questioning me?"

At those words, all three of their expressions turned cold.