I transformed into a cute girl and lived a carefree life in the apocalypse.

Ye Qianxue patted Yuanyuan's head, which was somewhat out of character for her. Just as Xiaoqi was about to point this out, there was another knock on the door.

"Who is it this time? Could it be Wen Xintong?"

They don't usually have many visitors. The only people who come to drop by are Mo Sheng or Xiao Qi. Now that Mo Sheng has been transferred and Xiao Qi is here, the only other people who might come are Tian Tian or the new neighbor Wen Xintong.

Puzzled, Ye Qianxue looked through the peephole in front of the gate and found that it was not what she had imagined. Standing outside the gate were two soldiers in military uniforms.

"Huh? Who is this person?!"

Ye Qianxue quickly opened the door, and when she saw the person standing in front of her, her eyes widened in surprise: "Li Haoyi, what brings you here? Is this the address Sister Mo Sheng gave you?"

"If I told you that we only realized this was your house after we opened the door ourselves, would you believe me?" Li Hao said with a wry smile.

He had only seen the target enter the building based on the surveillance footage and was preparing to check each room one by one, but he never expected to find Yan Ziming's home.

Li Hao looked around and, finding the living room empty, asked, "Where's your sister?"

"She's not here. Is there something you need from her?"

"Oh no no no, I came here for something else. A girl named... Chen Xiaoqi. The surveillance footage shows that she entered this building, and the elevator footage shows that she pressed the button for your floor, so we came here."

Ye Qianxue tilted her head: "Chen Xiaoqi...?"

A name I've never heard of.

--------

#PS: I almost forgot this name myself.#

Chapter Sixty-Three: Suspicion Remains

"Chen Xiaoqi...? I've never heard of that name before."

Ye Qianxue shook her head; she had absolutely no memory of that name.

Maybe it was just a mistake.

Li Hao was in a dilemma.

Having found clues about the target and confirmed that the person had entered the building, he immediately deployed hundreds of troops to surround the area to ensure absolute safety.

Yan Ziming's family is the last resident in this apartment building.

They had all gone inside to check and found nothing, so there was a very high chance that the target was with Yan Ziming.

But if they were to search their homes... they couldn't force them to comply if the other party insisted on their own way, since it involved a lot of serious issues.

Just then, Yuanyuan opened the door and poked her little head out. "Sister Qianxue, what are you doing outside? Come in quickly!"

"Yuanyuan, you and Xiaoqi wait a little longer. I'll go in after I've finished dealing with things here."

Ye Qianxue turned around and found Li Haoyi whispering to Lieutenant Zhang next to him again, pointing at a device, seemingly doing something.

After a while, Li Haoyi said with a serious face, "We were negligent just now and missed a few points. The girl named Chen Xiaoqi was about twelve or thirteen years old. She got on the elevator with another girl of about the same age about ten minutes ago."

She looked to be around twelve or thirteen years old, and there was another little girl of about the same age with her. This happened about ten minutes ago...

The clues are pointing directly to a certain point.

A sudden realization dawned on Ye Qianxue's mind, "Oh! You mean Xiao Qi!"

[So, Qianxue never knew her full name... Oh, I see, Chen Xiaoqi... Xiaoqi... Hmm.]

Li Haoyi glanced at Lieutenant Zhang and his face lit up with joy: "Could you let us meet this person named Xiao Qi?"

"wait."

Ye Qianxue entered the room and brought Xiao Qi out. The moment Lieutenant Zhang saw Xiao Qi, he pointed at her and shouted, "That's right, it's her! That's the one I saw back then!"

The sudden loud voice startled both Ye Qianxue and Xiao Qi. Xiao Qi, in particular, was so frightened that she hid behind Ye Qianxue and dared not come out.

"You scared her!" Ye Qianxue looked at him with some displeasure.

What's this guy trying to do?! He's yelling at little girls like that, is he a lolicon?

Ye Qianxue looked at him with a hint of wariness.

With my older sister away, Qianxue will have to shoulder everything here. I must not let my older sister down!

Wow! Sister Qianxue is actually quite reliable!

It's just that the upper part of my butt feels uncomfortable... but it's also a bit soft, what is that?

Touch~~

"What exactly do you want with Xiao Qi... ah!"

Ye Qianxue suddenly screamed, which startled Li Haoyi.

She looked back with a blush on her pretty face and saw Xiao Qi playing with the base of her tail with great curiosity. She quickly reached out to stop him.

"Xiaoqi, what are you doing! You can't touch there!"

"I'm just curious... what exactly is this?"

"This...this...is a secret~~" Ye Qianxue stammered for a long time before finally giving this answer.

After reading it, Xiaoqi, with her exceptionally high emotional intelligence, knew that Ye Qianxue must have some unspeakable secret, so she remained silent.

"Um, are you all... alright...?" Li Hao asked at the opportune moment.

Lieutenant Zhang apologized to Ye Qianxue and Xiao Qi with a look of remorse: "Ah, I'm sorry! I got too excited. Little sister, do you still recognize me?"

He waved to Xiao Qi, who poked her head out from behind Ye Qianxue. After seeing the man's face clearly, she looked thoughtful.

Seeing that Xiao Qi didn't seem to remember him, Lieutenant Zhang quickly reminded her, "Didn't I personally send you away a few days ago?"

"......"

Ye Qianxue and Xiao Qi both looked at him speechlessly.

Even Li Haoyi couldn't stand it anymore. He slapped Lieutenant Zhang on the head and scolded, "Is your mouth blessed or something? You're not speaking human language!"

"Ahem, sorry, that's not what I meant..."

Lieutenant Zhang was a little embarrassed as he belatedly realized what was happening. Li Hao stepped forward, his tall figure towering over Ye Qianxue by a head. Combined with his ninth-rank status, an oppressive aura filled the room.

However, his next move greatly alleviated the situation.

He slowly squatted down, looking at the figure hiding behind Ye Qianxue and refusing to come out, and said softly, "I'll take you there."

These four simple words made Xiao Qi peek out, her gaze focusing on Li Haoyi's face for the first time.

Xiao Qi pointed at Li Haoyi in surprise, "Ah! You are—!!! Who is that?"

"Li Haoyi".

Li Hao stood up and stared intently at Xiao Qi. The blurry figure in his memory gradually overlapped with the little girl in front of him, but he was still somewhat uncertain.

"You were the one who saved me that time, weren't you?"

"Eh?"

Li Haoyi's words were astonishing. Ye Qianxue and Lieutenant Zhang looked at Li Haoyi, then at Xiao Qi, completely bewildered.

Saving someone... who was saved by whom? You've got it backwards!

Ye Qianxue immediately couldn't help but say, "Are you mistaken? Xiao Qi is just an ordinary person, while you are a ninth-rank!"

Xiao Qi, who was behind her, also shook her head blankly, "It wasn't me."

"See! Xiao Qi said the same thing!" Ye Qianxue looked at him with reason and evidence, clearly telling him that she had admitted her mistake.

However, Li Haoyi seemed to have anticipated this situation and continued, "The surveillance footage shows that at the alleyway where I was, you were the only one who went in and the only one who came out."

That statement is completely misleading. If there were really surveillance cameras there, they wouldn't have had to search so hard.

Xiao Qi simply shook her head slightly. "I did go in. After seeing you, I immediately went out to call an ambulance. After that, the area was surrounded by the army..."

Li Hao frowned. He hadn't expected Xiao Qi to admit it so readily and to shut down all the questions he wanted to ask.

This little girl clearly possesses a level of intelligence beyond her years.

In fact, they only learned that Xiao Qi was at the scene of the incident based on Lieutenant Zhang's testimony.

As for the whole affair, it's uncertain whether Xiao Qi played the role they predicted. Even Li Hao himself wasn't sure if his miraculous recovery was related to Xiao Qi.

Don't you usually see this kind of plot in TV dramas or novels—the male/female lead is critically ill, and the female/male lead arrives just in time, saying only a few words to bring him/her back to life...?

Although it's a melodramatic story, there are actually similar cases in real life. Maybe this is what happened between him and Xiaoqi?

If it weren't for the unusual case that occurred at the shelter at the time, Li Hao would have mostly ignored it. The real factor that prompted them to search for Zao Xiaoqi so urgently was this.

Li Hao sighed and said, "In that case, could you please come with us?"

Chapter Sixty-Four: Through Many Changes

Left with no other option, Li Haoyi said, "Could you please come with us?"

"......"

Even if you say you don't want to, will you agree?

""