I'm caught in the cycle of endless competition, you're waiting for me in the apocalypse.

The gentle male voice slowly expressed his inner thoughts, and then urged Zheng and himself to be brave and take that step.

"Wow~"

"awesome!"

As the music faded, cheers and applause continued from the private room.

An Xin clapped her hands gently as she looked at Qi Mingxuan, a strange sense of familiarity rising in her heart, as if she could see him through time and space, the one beyond her. No matter where An Xin was, he was like a guardian angel, always behind her, behind everyone else, supporting, protecting, and embracing her.

An Xin just stared at him, fixed on the spot...

Qi Mingxuan approached, picked up his wine glass and clinked it with her drink, but she didn't respond, lost in her own memories.

"What are you thinking about? You're so engrossed in it. Come here, dinner's here, or it'll be gone." Fang Yinuo patted An Xin's back, which brought her back to her senses.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I suddenly remembered something else and didn't notice! I'm coming right now!" An Xin immediately got up and followed Fang Yinuo to the long table laden with various dishes.

It was like a small buffet; you could serve yourself whatever you wanted, which was quite convenient. An Xin picked out a few side dishes and put them on her plate. She found a small round table in the corner and sat down, looking quite like she was enjoying herself by herself.

She cherishes the opportunity to sit properly at the dinner table and enjoy a meal when she has the chance. Perhaps it's because in her world, whether before or after the apocalypse, meals were always rushed. She thinks this is what happens when you don't have something, you cherish it all the more.

As An Xin was enjoying her meal alone, a figure sat down opposite her with a plate. They began eating silently and elegantly.

When An Xin finished chewing her food and looked up at the person, that person was also looking at her.

"Dr. Qi, are you coming over for lunch?"

"Ok!"

"You...want to see me?"

"Ok!"

"Wait for me to finish eating, it will be ready soon."

"Ok!"

An Xin lowered her head and continued eating, inwardly grumbling: What's wrong with this man? He's acting strange today. Is he upset because he took some kind of drug during the race? He was perfectly fine when we were singing, so what's going on now? Why is he staring at me while I'm eating... This is so awkward...

......................................................

"Have you told everyone else? Do they all know you came out with me?"

Only Qi Mingxuan and An Xin were in the small private room.

"Yes, I've taken care of everything. The bodyguards are outside this private room now," An Xin replied to Qi Mingxuan like a well-behaved child.

"Has everything been settled at the racetrack?"

"Yes, I had my bodyguard, Ah Da, contact the club manager and tell the car owner where the car was parked, and also told him not to make a fuss about it. As for the ghost that drugged you, Xiao Jiu and I looked for it again before we left, and it's definitely not there."

"Hmm, quite clever!"

"That's~"

"Thank you for today..." Qi Mingxuan sat on the sofa opposite An Xin, leaning over to quietly close the distance between them.

"No...it's alright. You're the person I trust most here besides my parents. Knowing you were in danger, I would definitely go to save you." An Xin felt the man's presence approaching and leaned back slightly, continuing, "It wasn't just me who did it today. If Xiao Jiu hadn't overheard Anna and that ghost's conspiracy, I wouldn't have gone to save you. And it was Xiao Jiu who brought you the antidote!"

"Xiao Jiu... is that the dog?"

"Who's the dog? You're the dog! Your whole family are dogs!" Di Ting floated out from An Xin's body and darted in front of Qi Mingxuan, almost touching his face. Then, the two of them stared at each other.

A moment of silence fell over the room...

"Um, sorry! Xiao Jiu got a little excited..." An Xin smiled guiltily at Qi Mingxuan and reached out to pull Xiao Jiu over.

"I am a divine beast, the divine beast Di Ting!" Di Ting cursed at him.

Qi Mingxuan raised an eyebrow: "Are you the Di Ting from hell? The guardian beast that understands Buddhism, comprehends human nature, wards off evil, and brings good fortune? Is this your white dog in disguise?"

"Yes, that's me. You human are at least somewhat cultured!" Di Ting nodded, while An Xin kept winking at Qi Mingxuan from behind.

"This junior greets the divine beast Di Ting." Qi Mingxuan received her reminder and bowed to Di Ting.

"This child is teachable!" Di Ting finally felt better.

"Um, Dr. Qi, Lord Diting is now my partner. He had some problems saving me before, so now he can only hear basic information about ordinary people, and his ability to gather information is also limited." An Xin rubbed the dog's head and introduced it to Qi Mingxuan.

"Is there any way to restore His power?"

“Gathering spiritual energy is our main purpose in coming to this world.” An Xin no longer hid anything from him. After all, Anna and the ghosts wanted to kill him, and only by telling him the truth could he avoid danger in time. Thinking of this, An Xin continued, “Dr. Qi, the awakening of spiritual energy in your world has caused changes in its operation. Decades ago, another ghost world operated in conjunction with your world. In recent years, the fusion of the two worlds has intensified, the world barrier has thinned, and because ghosts love spiritual energy, their greed has grown stronger, constantly corroding the boundary barrier. More and more ghosts are able to come to this world, or newly formed ghosts linger there. Once the two worlds are completely merged, the ghosts will absorb spiritual energy without restraint. Once the conservation of energy is broken, the world will completely collapse, leading to an apocalypse and widespread destruction…”

"..." After a moment of silence, An Xin waited quietly for Qi Mingxuan to absorb and digest what she had said.

"Actually, the Xuanmen (Taoist sect) has revealed similar information in recent years, but it's not as sensational as you describe. I can indeed see more ghosts wandering around..."

"This isn't sensationalism, it's the truth!" Di Ting corrected him from the side.

An Xin also said, "Dr. Qi, all of this is true, and there may be an even greater crisis. By the way, I saw Anna conspiring with the ghost today, but they were in the storeroom at the time, and there were no cameras or recorders or anything, so there was really no evidence. Therefore, I dare not alert them. The best way now is to keep Anna under our watchful eyes and see if she will contact the mastermind behind the scenes."

"Why would Anna want to kill me? I don't know her well. I've only met her a few times at your house, and we haven't even exchanged more than a few words." Qi Mingxuan was very puzzled. Ever since he knew someone wanted to harm him, he had been analyzing the situation in his mind, but he never expected that Anna was conspiring with ghosts to do it.

"It seems that because you were investigating at the hospital and got involved with some people, and because you and I were getting closer, they wanted to drug you during the race to make it look like an accident."

“I have indeed been investigating the hospital’s problems recently, and I also exchanged information with Uncle An and Uncle Wei this morning. There is a group of people in the hospital who have been too close to a live streaming platform. They are very cautious and have done many things very carefully. I asked someone to check the account records of the hospital staff and found that several people had financial transactions with this live streaming platform.”

"Isn't it normal to have transactions? It's like doing live streaming, giving tips, or doing part-time work, right?"

“It is abnormal for multiple accounts to conduct the same amount of money transactions at the same time, especially large sums of money.”

"To have large sums of money in dealings with hospital staff... does that mean they've falsified medical records or fabricated deaths?"

"Yes, I followed this line and investigated the cases of those who had contact with these staff and medical personnel over the past few years. I found that recently, many streamers and staff members from that live streaming platform went to the hospital for treatment, and there were also several deaths."

"Have you arrested a few people to question them?"

"Well, there were two main doctors, and I questioned them under the pretext of medical malpractice. They readily admitted to tampering with medical records and falsifying test reports, and they did indeed take money. But regarding some patients and their subsequent treatments, and even deaths, they said they couldn't remember clearly, and were vague. One of the doctors said that he sometimes does things involuntarily, and then he becomes extremely sleepy. Sometimes he forgets things when he wakes up, and even feels like he's dreaming."

"This is possession... but possession is a forbidden technique, and the price for ghosts is extremely high. At best, they will be extremely weak, and at worst, they will be reduced to ashes. Even if they are lucky enough to survive, if they are discovered by the ghost messenger and brought back for punishment, they will suffer all kinds of torture before being reduced to ashes with no chance of reincarnation." After carefully listening to Qi Mingxuan's narration, Di Ting quickly found the crux of the matter and explained the doubts to the two of them.

"This is too insidious! There must be an organization behind this, and maybe this live streaming platform is involved in a bigger conspiracy?" An Xin looked at Qi Mingxuan, then at the indignant Di Ting in her arms.

“According to Lord Diting, the organization behind this must be investigated and eliminated as soon as possible. To be able to use such a vicious forbidden technique without any scruples, this power is unfathomable.” Qi Mingxuan frowned. “It seems I need to contact Master Hong of the Xuanmen sect again and arrange a meeting.”

"Ah, speaking of the Xuanmen, Xiao Jiu heard Anna and the ghost mention the Xuanmen, but she doesn't know what it is."

"Yes, I will investigate." He nodded, then seemed to remember something and said, "Regarding your paternity test, the hospital's equipment was damaged and couldn't be used. Uncle An said it will be retested elsewhere later."

"Speaking of this, I'm really puzzled as to why Dad wanted to retest our parentage. Why is someone trying to interfere again? I initially thought it might be Anna's doing, but Dad's decision at the hospital that time seemed to be made on a whim, and I don't even know when he did it. Besides, Anna wasn't even at the hospital that day."

“Xinxin, have you ever considered that it was because An Zongping acted on a whim, and because the entire hospital was under surveillance at the time, that they had to temporarily allocate manpower to sabotage the testing, which is why you were only thrown into the morgue? Their plan was probably to take you out of the hospital, otherwise there would have been no need to change the parking lot surveillance.” Diting suddenly found the loophole and key point from before.

"Then why did you release ghosts in the morgue to harm me?"

“These two ghosts might not necessarily be here to harm you. Maybe they were created as puppet ghosts to control those doctors. Look, both of them died in the morning, and your decision to go to the hospital that afternoon was made on the spur of the morning. If someone had orchestrated it, it wouldn't be such a coincidence. Besides, those two were new ghosts, so they were weak to begin with. The resentful aura was just used to control them; their own resentful aura wasn't strong enough to kill anyone.” Di Ting patiently explained to An Xin.

"Alright then, it seems someone doesn't want me to know the truth about my relationship with my parents. The more they do this, the more suspicious it is. If there's doubt about my parent-child relationship with my parents, then Anna's isn't necessarily clean either." An Xin said angrily, "Xiao Jiu, look what Anna is doing! Is she trying to seduce Wei Ran?!"

"Xinxin, Anna is probably up to her old tricks again. I heard her talking to a ghost..."