Tonight's dinner lasted a full three hours. Betty drank a whole bottle of red wine, starting with small sips and gradually raising her glass. Her cheeks went from porcelain white to flushed, and she went from saying "I can't drink anymore" to "One more glass." While she was slumped over the table talking nonsense, she was still cursing her father for being a control freak. When Lin Xiao helped her out of the restaurant, she leaned on his shoulder and mumbled, "Don't think I don't know what you're up to," before burying her face in his chest and snoring softly.
She's right. Lin Xiao did have his eye on it, but not today. At one in the morning, Lin Xiao carried Betty into the hotel where he was staying. As he carried her in, the young white man at the front desk looked on with envy as Lin Xiao carried Betty upstairs. After they disappeared down the stairs, he picked up a mirror and looked at his freckled face, complaining that God was unfair and that a good cabbage had been eaten by a pig.
After arriving at the room, Lin Xiao locked the door with three locks, blocked the doorway with the sofa, turned around, gently placed Betty on the bed, took off his shoes, opened the window, and flew out.
While flying in mid-air, Lin Xiao went through the entire plan again from beginning to end.
It all started when Fury shoved him into this mission. The Black Baldy wanted him to be a bodyguard at Culver University, ostensibly a sinecure, but actually a way to get closer to the military. Lin Xiao saw through it, of course, but he didn't expose him; he even played along. On his first day, he wore a flamingo shirt, attracting attention at the school gate, and deliberately acted nonchalant and unreliable when meeting with Mendes. These things probably already reached Fury's ears; that one-eyed guy probably thinks this bastard's been lazy again, sending him on vacation is a way to save himself trouble.
But Lin Xiao knew in his heart that he had to come. He was the one who had thrown away that needle, which General Ross had taken to study. He had to clean up this mess himself.
He located the research lab where the needle was in the shortest time. The first time he took Betty to the military area, he deliberately sat in the passenger seat and had Doupao scan the entire building, memorizing the location of every corridor, every corner, and every surveillance camera. Doupao even thoughtfully compiled the security shift schedule for him, accurate to the millisecond.
But having coordinates alone isn't enough. He needs a perfect alibi.
He had long realized that General Ross would not trust someone of unknown origin like him to get close to his daughter, so he began to let loose, flirting with women and hiring people to put on an act, making those monitoring him believe one thing: this guy was just a muscle-bound pretty boy who could do nothing but pick up girls.
General Ross took the bait.
During dinner today, Betty suddenly went outside to answer a phone call. Lin Xiao, who was hiding in the distance, listened to the father and daughter arguing fiercely. The general's roar came from the phone, "Stay away from that S.H.I.E.L.D. bastard from S. H. I. E. L. D.!" Betty's retort was even fiercer, her voice filled with years of pent-up resentment. "If it weren't for you, Banner wouldn't have broken up with me! Now you even want to control who I invite to dinner?"
The argument lasted three minutes before Betty hung up the phone.
Lin Xiao listened to the entire phone call without missing a single word, and the corners of his mouth slowly curled up into a smile.
He was betting on the general's love, on a father with an insatiable desire for control. The more he yelled at his daughter to stay away from someone, the more she would rebel and gravitate towards that person. Betty was never the kind of obedient daughter; her entire adolescence was spent fighting against her father. The major she chose, the laboratory she chose, every boyfriend she had—all were opposed by her father. General Ross was a master strategist on the battlefield, but he never learned how to speak a proper word to his daughter.
Lin Xiao bets that the general will definitely stop Betty from having dinner with him tonight. And Betty will definitely resist. In the end, the general will ignore her out of guilt. Judging from the result, his victory is a foregone conclusion.
At this stage of the plan, most of it was already completed. Only the final and most crucial step remained. Lin Xiao took Betty back to the hotel, placed her on the large bed, and put a note under her pillow, writing down what he was going to do. Although it was a bit foolish and involved a gamble, Lin Xiao still felt he had to do it; he owed this woman too much.
After an unknown amount of time, a figure clad in a black bodysuit and wearing a strange mask descended from the sky onto a hillside a few hundred meters from the military area. He pulled a dagger from his pocket, a flash of blue light disappearing in the darkness. When he reappeared, Lin Xiao was already standing in the bushes on the outskirts of the military area. Two hundred meters ahead was the gray building. The holographic map scanned by Doupao unfolded before him, every patrol route and every blind spot of the surveillance cameras clearly marked with lines of different colors. He crouched in the bushes and counted: two sentry posts at the main gate, one at the side gate, four cameras on the outer wall, and two more on the roof. The shift change was at 2 a. m., less than half an hour to go. He was early.
Lin Xiao didn't waste any time. Using the bushes as cover, he walked around the entire building, verifying each of the blind spots the Doupao had pointed out. A row of abandoned experimental equipment was piled up in the corner of the east wall, blocking part of the view of the camera on the wall; the iron lock on the emergency exit on the north side was rusted, with a very thin crack on the lock cylinder, probably damaged during equipment transport and never replaced; the ventilation duct access port on the roof was large enough, but its location was too high and difficult to climb.
He went through all this information in his mind and made one last minor adjustment to the route. Reaching the research lab floor, passing through two corridors, the third room on the left was the target. Doupao had already hacked into the surveillance system along the way; all the footage was looping through empty corridors. When he actually began his operation, he needed to ensure that all the building's electronic surveillance was blind.
Soon it was time for the shift change.
Lin Xiao stood up from behind the bushes and put the Candy Clown Mask back on. His exaggerated smile shimmered with iridescent colors in the darkness, his mouth stretched to his ears, his eyes empty yet gleaming with pleasure. He climbed over the east corner of the wall, landing in the shadow of the equipment pile, and followed the wall to the north emergency exit. The rusty lock made a very slight cracking sound in his hand, then was ripped off along with the latch.
The hallway was quiet. Lin Xiao walked up the wall, his steps as light as if he were walking on cotton, making no obstruction. The several laboratories he passed were empty, researchers' white lab coats draped over the backs of their chairs, and computer screens still lit up with their screensavers. He didn't see many people working overtime in the entire building, which was undoubtedly the best opportunity for him; the fewer people there were, the lower the risk of exposure.
About ten minutes later, Lin Xiao reached the door of the research lab. The red light on the access control panel was flashing, and a dynamic icon for facial recognition was displayed in the center of the screen.
Lin Xiao took a deep breath, gripped the edge of the door frame with his fingers, and tensed his arm muscles. The metal door frame creaked horribly, screws popping out of the wall one after another, bouncing and rolling away on the ground. He yanked it outwards, tearing the entire security door and frame off together. The alarm didn't sound. Just now, Lin Xiao had Doupao increase the signal jamming, but this wasn't a long-term solution. If the soldiers noticed, they would definitely rush here. He had to get into the research lab and retrieve the needle immediately.
The laboratory was pitch black. Lin Xiao turned on his miniature flashlight, the beam sweeping across rows of lab benches before finally stopping in front of a glass cabinet in the corner. Inside the cabinet was a metal tray, where a needle lay quietly.
He opened the cabinet door, his hands trembling, and held the needle between his fingertips, examining it carefully in the light. Doupao's voice suddenly became urgent—"Ding, host, this needle contains something sealed inside. Analyzing... The analysis result is active phagocytic factor, which can engulf living cells, converting them into protein substances and losing their activity."
Lin Xiao's fingers stiffened for a moment. He carefully put the needle into his System Space, a thin layer of coolness spreading across his back.
When he threw away that needle, he just tossed it aside casually, thinking what was the big deal about an empty syringe? The military found it, extracted a key component from the residue, and gave it to Dr. Connors for research. General Ross, however, used the needle itself as a terrifying weapon capable of harming living beings. If he hadn't gotten his hands on the needle today, months later, after the Hulk's birth, if General Ross had stuck it into Banner's neck—the consequences would have been unimaginable.
After putting the needle away, he took out the homemade flag from the System Space and stuck it in the center of the experimental table. Then he took out a black marker from his pocket and wrote five big characters on the wall next to him: Respectfully presented by Phantom Thief L.
Finished, done. Lin Xiao climbed out of the corridor window. Just as his feet touched the ground and he was about to return via the emergency exit on the north side, he noticed that many beams of flashlight beams had suddenly appeared around him.
They really came! They moved even faster than we expected!
Beams of flashlight shone from all directions, illuminating the open space around him as bright as day. The sound of military boots pounding on the concrete was dense and rhythmic, indicating that at least a platoon of soldiers was rapidly closing in. Someone was shouting "Halt!", someone was reporting coordinates, and someone had already cocked their rifle.
Lin Xiao slowly floated up, hovering in mid-air, looking down at the densely packed soldiers and gun barrels below.
It looks like we'll need an encore performance for tonight's closing act.
Lin Xiao raised his right hand, his fingertips drawing a gesture in the night sky that no one could understand. Then, a purple arc of electricity descended from the sky, striking the nearest sentry post, the exploding sparks illuminating half the training ground as if it were daytime. Several soldiers instinctively crouched down, their guns nearly firing. Immediately afterward, a second arc of electricity struck the parking lot, hitting the hood of a Hummer squarely, shattering its headlights and igniting its siren.
Lin Xiao was gathering his strength, using all his mental power to weave a giant net of lightning, preparing to completely cut off the power to the base.
In the chaos, someone shouted, "He's flying in the sky! What is that?!" Another yelled even louder, "Fire at the lightning! He's right in the middle of the lightning!" Bullets whizzed past his feet, occasionally striking him. He descended from the sky, lightning exploding in the crowd, each strike landing with precision as if measured with a ruler. The barracks' backup power supply, the communications vehicle, the power distribution boxes for the monitoring terminals—he was like a lightning bolt with eyes, causing the most meticulous destruction in the most violent way.
"Damn, did you see that?!"
"He's discharging electricity—his entire body is discharging electricity!"
"... What is that thing? A hedgehog?"
"Lightning! It's Lightning Hedgehog!"
Then the nickname spread like wildfire across the communication channels: Lightning Hedgehog, grab him, don't let him get away. The soldiers discovered that their guns couldn't penetrate the bastard's defenses at all; this guy was constantly exploding electricity.
Two whole hours.
When the last backup power distribution box exploded into fireworks at his fingertips, the entire research building was plunged into complete darkness. The soldiers, panting heavily, looked up at the sky, waiting for the next lightning bolt to rip through the night. But this time, nothing happened.
Lin Xiao was already standing on the hillside two kilometers away, having managed to escape thanks to the cooling effect of his Blink Dagger. He removed his mask, the sweat on his face chilled by the night wind. He looked down at his hands, his fingertips still tingling with the slight numbness from the electric arcs.
An hour later, the hotel room window was gently pushed open from the outside. Lin Xiao climbed in so lightly that it was as if a leaf had landed, and his feet made no sound on the carpet.
Lin Xiao looked up and saw Betty Lai. The woman had woken up and was staring intently at Lin Xiao with her sharp eyes.
"Tell me, what was your purpose in getting me drunk?"
Her voice was calm, but Lin Xiao noticed that her fingers, which were gripping the note, were trembling slightly.
Lin Xiao stood there, looking at her profile. The orange bedside lamp cast long shadows of her eyelashes on her cheekbones. His expression slowly shifted from the relaxation he had shown when he entered to something more somber.
"The needle is mine."
He reached into the System Space, took out the needle, and placed it on the bedside table. The silver needle tip reflected a cold light under the lamp.
"I used this syringe in Brooklyn a few months ago. After use, I threw the empty tube in the trash, and the needle is now in your military lab. Everything I did was to recycle it."
By the time he got to this point, Betty's eyes were already red.
"The military found this thing, studied it, modified it, and planned to use it as a killing machine. This goes against my principles. If I don't get it back today, the harm this thing could cause is immeasurable. I'm not explaining, Betty —I'm telling you, I'll deal with my own problems. I'm sorry, I know it was wrong to use you like this, and I don't expect you to forgive me."
Lin Xiao squatted down beside the bed, looking directly into Betty's eyes, watching the tears glistening in those brown eyes.
"I didn't lie to you. I wanted to tell you from the beginning. You saw this note too. Getting you drunk was a pretext for an operation, an operation to reclaim what belongs to me, and incidentally, to prevent a murder that hasn't even happened yet. I put this note on your bedside table to lay all my cards on the table—the mission objective, the operation time, whether I'll be back or not, everything is clearly written down. When you wake up and see this note, it's like you've got my cards. You can call the police, you can call your dad, or you can just wait here quietly for me to come back and explain everything to you."
Lin Xiao's lips curled into a smile, " Betty, anyway, thank you."
Betty bit her lip, refusing to look at Lin Xiao again, and quietly gazed into the distance. On the horizon, a ray of sunlight pierced the darkness, signaling the start of a new day.