At ten in the morning, Feng Na wanted to visit Qu Xiqian at the White Night Bookstore.
But when she arrived at White Night Bookstore on Jinling Middle Road, she found it, for the first time ever, tightly shut. The bookstore wasn’t open.
“I knew it. She’s not here.”
Though she felt a pang of regret at not seeing Qu Xiqian, Feng Na’s expression showed she had more or less expected this.
Luckily, she had planned ahead. She had placed a GPS marker on Qu Xiqian earlier, so now Feng Na only needed to open her phone to confirm Qu Xiqian’s location.
“This is…”
About two hours later, Feng Na’s car arrived at a desolate, uninhabited wilderness on the outskirts of Magic City. There was nothing here but a long-abandoned ancient temple.
Even though it was still daytime, the place already felt rather eerie. If it were night, a location like this could easily be used to film some horror movies. It wouldn’t be surprising at all if the place was haunted.
The driver, a warm-hearted middle-aged man, asked Feng Na why she had come to such a place alone. He even insisted that a young girl should never lose hope, that life is precious, and that she shouldn’t let some scumbag deceive her feelings, and so on.
Feng Na smiled, explaining that she was an archaeology student here to conduct research. She used these seemingly reasonable excuses to brush off the Driver Uncle.
After she got out of the car, the vehicle that had brought her to this desolate mountain ridge drove away. Feng Na then began a leisurely walk, alone, toward the ancient temple at the hilltop.
According to the GPS marker she had placed, Qu Xiqian’s position was near the ancient temple, and the distance was closing fast.
“Qu Xiqian, come on out.”
As she walked toward the hilltop temple, Feng Na called out the name of the maid from the White Night Bookstore.
Her boots trod on the muddy path. A place like this felt like an absolutely perfect spot to dump a body after a murder.
She was about to merge with the red dot on her phone screen, yet Qu Xiqian still hadn’t answered.
“Qu Xiqian, come on out. A person like you—who loves paper books, who’s skilled at cleaning with your own two hands, and who prefers to brew coffee yourself—you don’t belong to this era.”
——Bang!
A sudden gunshot shattered the silence.
A bullet punched a hole in the ground five meters in front of Feng Na.
On the roof of the ancient temple, the British-style maid holding a sniper rifle removed her round glasses.
Her pupils looked somewhat strange. The last time she removed her round glasses, her pupils had been a pure, jet-black color. But now, they had transformed into heterochromatic eyes—one yellow, one green.
“I figured it was something like this.”
Feng Na smiled.
Qu Xiqian murmured to herself. On her green pupil, the visual data showed the number 120, representing the distance between them: a full 120 meters.
On the yellow pupil, other auxiliary data was displayed.
Temperature: 3. Wind speed: 3.2. Distance: 120. Angle of deviation: 30.
Those eyes were terrifyingly sharp, like a falcon searching for prey on the ground.
“I mean no harm.”
“You’re an agent of the Time Management Bureau. That’s hard for me to believe.” Qu Xiqian chambered another round, speaking to the approaching Feng Na. “If there’s nothing else, please leave. I intend to stay in this era. This is my job.”
Feng Na raised her hands high, signaling that she did not wish to be Qu Xiqian’s enemy.
In fact, from her last visit to White Night Bookstore, Feng Na had already sensed something abnormal about Qu Xiqian. At that time, there had been a jet-black pistol on her counter. Others might not have recognized that seemingly ordinary pistol, but Feng Na knew its origins very well.
That pistol was manufactured in 2054 by the China North Industries Military Factory. The bullets it fired could automatically track enemies via infrared, just like a Sidewinder missile.
Qu Xiqian had also carried a sense of dissonance at the time. Feng Na felt her movements were too perfect, not quite human, but more like machinery.
In the year 2036, World War III erupted.
Four years into the war, the first Bio-enhanced Soldiers were deployed onto the battlefield.
Those soldiers had undergone biological enhancements including neural interfaces, mechanical arms, mechanical eyes, internal weaponry, exoskeletons, and bizarre mimicry of outer forms.
Once deployed, they rapidly became a crack force that struck fear into the hearts of their enemies. They could adapt to any harsh environment, require no food, drink, or sleep. Their only drawback was the occasional, on-and-off phantom limb pain, but that was entirely a minor issue.
The very first moment she saw Qu Xiqian in that maid dress, Feng Na had immediately made a connection to the remnants of World War III.
“I’m not here to force you back to your own era.”
Within Qu Xiqian’s field of vision, a full-body scan of Feng Na began immediately. The prosthetic eye could discern in this way whether an opponent truly held hostile intent.
In that chaotic era, the price of trusting others too easily was often death.
After confirming everything was clear, Qu Xiqian’s heterochromatic eyes reverted to black. She put her round glasses back on.
Calm again, she looked no different from an ordinary literary girl in a Japanese anime series.
Carrying her suitcase, she leapt down from the three-story roof. From the jump to the landing on both feet, it took only a few seconds. Her movements were elegant and poised. Beneath the maid’s skirt, which fluttered up gently, part of a mechanical prosthetic leg was visible.
“What exactly are you here for, Feng Na? Why did you come looking for me?”
“I have only one goal: to rescue Gao Sijin, who was taken. I believe our objectives align. If we join forces, there should be a way to save Gao Sijin.” Feng Na approached Qu Xiqian with her hands still raised. “What do you think?”
Qu Xiqian nodded and spoke slowly:
“The era I come from isn’t actually the period of World War III. As one of the first generation of Bio-enhanced Soldiers, my lifespan was extended long enough to witness the day the Earth was destroyed.”
“What caused the Earth’s destruction? World War V?”
“No. It was an invasion by an alien civilization.”
“Like The Three-Body Problem?”
“Not that kind of invasion. The invasion I speak of was more of a cultural one. My Master’s works once had a chance to save all of humanity, but they failed. Under the culture of a higher civilization, humans forgot the very thing they should have been most proud of—words, shaped by their own power of imagination.” Qu Xiqian said, “As long as books still exist, humanity holds the hope to face the apocalypse.”
“Books will become humanity’s final trump card?”
“Yes. So, I plan to head to Tokyo soon and rescue my Master from those people. That is my duty as a maid.”
Qu Xiqian gestured for Feng Na to follow her.
They stepped behind a dilapidated Buddha statue within the ancient temple and opened a hidden door. Inside, a vast collection of arms was stored. Many of the weapons were even from the future world. While there were no weapons of mass destruction, the arsenal was more than sufficient to equip an elite strike team.
For a maid, possessing an entire armory wasn’t anything to be particularly surprised about.
