Quick time travel: The system wants me to save the sick girl

There were only Zhou Muchi and Lu Yan in the car. The others went to investigate the place where Lu Yan had been kidnapped to see if there were any clues.

"The surveillance cameras along the way were intermittent, which did take some time," Zhou Muchi said while focusing on driving, his eyes always on the road ahead.

Lu Yan, sitting in the passenger seat, nodded slightly in agreement: "Yes, when I woke up there was no one around. It took a lot of effort for me to break free of the ropes, and then I jumped out of the window."

"I walked on the street for almost an hour before I saw you," Lu Yan continued.

However, at that moment, a voice suddenly rang in Lu Yan's mind: 'Host, didn't you only leave half an hour ago?'

Lu Yan's eyes darted away, and he replied somewhat awkwardly, "It's none of your business. Nobody knows anyway."

"How's your investigation going?" Lu Yan changed the subject. "They couldn't have kidnapped me just to implant a chip in me."

"They implanted a chip in you?" Zhou Muchi almost slammed on the brakes. "Let's go to the hospital for a checkup."

Lu Yan stopped him, saying, "It's alright, it's already been taken out."

"I'm just wondering if all that trouble they went through to kidnap me just to implant a chip in me?"

Lu Yan turned to look out the window. The city was brightly lit, and the vehicles were gradually returning to the city.

"Besides implanting the chip, what else?" Lu Yan felt like he was missing something. Looking through the rearview mirror at the car following behind, he suddenly remembered something. "Zhou Muchi, you said you didn't find anything when you went there, right?"

"Yes, what's wrong?"

“No, logically speaking, even if you didn’t find anything, you would have investigated carefully, but because I was suddenly kidnapped, it attracted your attention.” Lu Yan looked at him. “Quick, let’s go back.”

A silence fell over the car, broken only by the steady hum of the engine and the whistling wind outside the window. Zhou Muchi's knuckles were slightly white from gripping the steering wheel tightly. Hearing the chip being removed, his tense jawline relaxed slightly, but his brows remained deeply furrowed.

"You took it out yourself?" Zhou Muchi's voice carried a hint of barely perceptible lingering fear. "Lu Yan, you were too reckless."

Lu Yan subconsciously touched a hidden spot on the back of his neck, where a faint, lingering sensation of something foreign remained, along with the sharp pain he felt when he removed it himself. He mumbled a reply, "Um... the situation was urgent. I just felt something was wrong. They tied me up, but their guard was surprisingly lax, giving me a chance to escape. The whole process went so smoothly... it was like they deliberately let me go."

He turned his gaze out the window again. The city's dazzling lights, like a scattered galaxy, drew closer, yet failed to dispel the gloom in his heart. "Besides implanting a chip in me, what else is there?" he seemed to be asking Zhou Muchi, or perhaps talking to himself. "They went to all this trouble just to be a free 'deliveryman' and forcibly give me a chip? That's far too costly."

"What is the reason for doing this at the risk of being exposed?"

Zhou Muchi calmly replied, "My colleagues who conducted the on-site investigation said that the place was cleaned up very thoroughly, and there were almost no valuable clues, not even fingerprints. Now it seems that this 'cleanliness' itself is abnormal."

Just then, Lu Yan glanced unconsciously at the rearview mirror and saw a black sedan appearing and disappearing in the traffic, maintaining a distance that was neither too close nor too far.

This ordinary scene, however, was like a lightning bolt that suddenly cleaved through the fog of his memory—when he was imprisoned in that abandoned room, he had seen a similar car briefly stop nearby through the cracks in the dirty window!

A previously overlooked detail suddenly popped into my mind.

“Zhou Muchi,” Lu Yan’s voice suddenly became urgent. He turned around sharply, his eyes sharp, “You just said that you went there and didn’t find anything, right?”

“Yes, we searched inside and out. Apart from the ropes you broke free from, there was almost nothing there,” Zhou Muchi affirmed, while keenly noticing the change in Lu Yan’s tone.

"No! This isn't right!" Lu Yan's speech quickened. "Logically speaking, even if the scene had been cleaned up, given your level of professionalism, you would have conducted a thorough search, which would have taken a lot of time. But because I suddenly escaped and contacted you, everyone's attention, including the subsequent support, was quickly drawn to 'finding me' and 'ensuring my safety'!"

He took a deep breath and uttered the chilling deduction: "Could that place... the place where I was tied up, not be the primary crime scene at all, or perhaps its most important purpose wasn't to imprison me? Could it be... bait? Using my escape to guide you, or rather, to guide 'us' away from there quickly?"

Zhou Muchi instantly understood Lu Yan's meaning. His face darkened and his eyes became extremely serious.

If Lu Yan's guess is true, then their rapid withdrawal has fallen right into the enemy's trap.

The other party may want to use Lu Yan as a "living clue" to distract them, so that after the police complete the initial investigation and divert their attention, they will have the opportunity to go back and deal with some deeper secrets that they did not have time to take away or could not deal with immediately!

"Hold on tight!" Zhou Muchi no longer hesitated, and suddenly turned the steering wheel. The high-performance car made a screeching sound of tires screeching at the intersection, drawing a sharp arc and turning the car around abruptly.

At the same time, he grabbed the car communicator and quickly connected: "Old Zhao, it's me! Immediately send men secretly back to the location where Xiao Yan was kidnapped, seal off all surrounding passages, and prevent anyone from entering or leaving! We suspect there's a trap there, and the other side might launch a surprise attack!"

"Also, have all personnel on standby, and seal off the scene even if there are no clues."

There was a brief moment of surprise on the other end of the communicator, followed by a decisive reply: "Understood!"

Like an arrow released from a bow, the car rejoined the traffic, but this time, it headed away from the warm lights and rushed back towards the unknown and dangerous place hidden in the darkness on the edge of the city, which it had just escaped.

Lu Yan gripped the handrail above the car door tightly, feeling the centrifugal force from the car's sharp turn, his heart pounding in his chest. He looked at Zhou Muchi's resolute and cold profile, the light and shadows outside the window flashing by, casting a shadowy image of worry and determination in his eyes.

Hopefully, it's not too late.