Max Level Return—I'll Protect That Fragile One

"Alright, let’s crush it!"

After putting away the Eagle Sparrow, the two returned to the surface.

Zheng Lie was crouched by the exit waiting for them, while Song Chi stood outside the utility room keeping watch.

Seeing Xu Xingguang and the others emerge, Zheng Lie quickly got up and asked them, "Pilot, Miss Xu, what’s the situation down there?"

Neither Huo Wen’an nor Xu Xingguang responded.

Seeing their serious expressions, Zheng Lie refrained from asking more questions.

Song Chi heard the commotion and walked into the room to check on them. "Boss, Uncle, is it done?"

"Hmm." Xu Xingguang closed the entrance wall behind him, "Let’s head back."

Leaving the utility room, the four walked along the dark corridor towards the entrance of the office building. As they were about to reach the entrance, Song Chi suddenly stopped and said, "There’s someone here."

Zheng Lie moved his ears but found nothing unusual. He asked Song Chi, "Are you sure?"

Huo Wen’an and Xu Xingguang spoke simultaneously, "There’s an extra breathing sound here."

Upon hearing this, Zheng Lie abruptly raised his head, and along with Huo Wen’an and the others, turned to look at the staircase leading to the second floor.

In the dimly lit hallway, a tall woman stood against the wall, dressed in a tracksuit, arms crossed, silently watching them.

No one knew when she had appeared.

Song Chi and Zheng Lie instinctively took defensive stances. "No need to be alarmed, she’s someone we know."

Huo Wen’an pushed past Zheng Lie, walked to the hallway, and called out to the woman standing against the wall, "Sis."

In the darkness, Yin Su’s eyes flickered for a moment; she neither acknowledged nor denied her identity.

"Let’s talk in my office." With that, Yin Su turned and headed upstairs.

Zheng Lie and Song Chi were taken aback by Huo Wen’an’s calling her ’sis’.

Xu Xingguang nudged their shoulders, reminding them, "Let’s go, follow her."

Seeing Huo Wen’an had already stepped forward to follow, Zheng Lie and the others silently trailed after Yin Su up the stairs.

Yin Su’s office was on the third floor.

Xu Xingguang and Huo Wen’an silently followed Yin Su, and upon reaching the third floor, both were reminded of Grandpa Xie’s words from the past.

Yin Su walked to the door at the end of the corridor, unlocked it with her fingerprint, and entered first.

She turned on the light, and the blinding light made Xu Xingguang and the others reflexively raise their arms to shield their eyes.

Yin Su pointed to the coffee table and sofa in front of the desk, "Please, sit down."

The four sat on the sofa, while Yin Su walked to the desk and sat directly on it. She pulled out a cigarette from her pocket, lit it, and then remembered to ask them, "Does anyone smoke?"

Song Chi and Zheng Lie were smokers, but who would smoke a stranger woman’s cigarette?

Yin Su nonchalantly shook her head, took a puff, and blew a perfect smoke ring before speaking, "You’re quite impressive, Miss Xu. I’ve worked here for three years and never found the entrance to the underground world, yet you did it overnight."

Upon hearing this, Xu Xingguang and the others’ expressions changed.

Huo Wen’an asked her, "Are you Huo Xin?"

"Does it matter?" Yin Su retorted to Huo Wen’an.

"Isn’t it important?" Huo Wen’an’s tone sounded aggressive.

Yin Su squinted, mockingly staring at Huo Wen’an, and said, "I’m just a burden you can’t wait to completely shake off to lighten your load. You say, does it matter whether Huo Xin is dead or alive?"

Even though he had long suspected Yin Su harbored resentment towards him, hearing these words from her mouth, Huo Wen’an still felt as if struck by lightning, his body stiffening.

Zheng Lie and Song Chi, at this point, also guessed the woman’s identity, both feeling incredulous.

Wasn’t the Pilot’s sister supposed to be a patient with cerebral palsy?

The woman in front of them seemed more like a cunning old fox; how could she be the daughter of Huo Qinyou and Huo Wei?

With a light laugh, Yin Su continued, "My mother, to retaliate against a scumbag, slept with another scumbag and conceived me. My existence was merely a card my mother used to convince Huo Wei."

"I was born with cerebral palsy, becoming an abandoned card. My biological father discarded me like rubbish, and my brother considered me a burden." Huo Xin asked Huo Wen’an, "You tell me, does anyone care whether Huo Xin is dead or alive?"

"You already know..." Huo Wen’an was surprised that Huo Xin had even discovered her own background.

"Yes, I know." Yin Su’s eyes reddened slightly; she gazed at the banner on the wall gifted by patients, inscribed with ’A doctor’s benevolence’, and said self-mockingly, "Back then, when I was running around with the benefactor’s son, looking for shelter, Huo Wei found me and informed me of my background."

"At that time, I thought I had found redemption and a safe haven. Little did I know..."

"What did he do to you?" Huo Wen’an asked urgently.

Yin Su didn’t want to bring up the past.

"Yin Su, over ten years ago, there was a horrific massacre at this psychiatric hospital. The killer was the hospital’s director, surnamed Wang. Huo Wen’an and I visited this afternoon and discovered some clues."

"According to an old man’s recollection, on the night of the massacre, it was supposed to be a doomed girl who appeared and used an iron shovel lying on the ground to knock out Dean Wang."

After saying this, Xu Xingguang stared intently at Yin Su and confidently said, "You were that little girl, weren’t you?"

"It was me." Surprisingly, Yin Su directly admitted it.

Yin Su said, "I hid in the rockery of the park behind, for three days, starving until about to die, before the psychiatric patient found me. It was Dean Wang who discovered me; he pitied my troubled background and took me in."

Upon hearing this, Huo Wen’an said instinctively, "So while I was busy searching for your whereabouts, storming into those bastards’ homes with a knife, were you hidden in this hospital all along? That Dean Wang, did he just watch me search for you, commit murders for you, and never think of telling me where you were?"

If that’s true, then Dean Wang was truly heartless.

Faced with Huo Wen’an’s anger, Yin Su remained calm.

She said, "I’m a burden, I didn’t want to drag you down, so I begged Uncle Wang not to tell you. Uncle Wang pitied you, a young boy, having to care for a sister with cerebral palsy and mental deficiency, thus he decided to conceal it from you. But he never knew you would go down such an extreme path."

"Besides..." Yin Su said despondently, "On the night you stormed those rotten homes with a knife, Dean Wang also lost control and slaughtered 12 patients."

"But Dean Wang was never a bad person; he was implicated by me." Yin Su said on the verge of crying, "Once, I accidentally took a drug from Dean Wang’s lab, mistaking it for a drink, and it unintentionally cured my cerebral palsy."

"It should have been a happy event, but after my recovery, my mind was filled with strange voices, and I discovered a terrifying creature moving through my veins."

"That night, I was extremely scared, so I went to find Dean Wang. Dean Wang was also shocked because he didn’t know what it was either; he said the drug was an experimental reagent left behind by the previous director who had resigned."

"I cried and begged him to help me remove the monster inside me. Dean Wang, feeling sorry for me, could only take a small knife and open up my flesh. But that thing immediately burrowed into Dean Wang’s body."

"That night, Dean Wang lost control..."

Recalling Dean Wang losing control and killing people, Yin Su was filled with fear and terror.

"After Dean Wang lost control and killed, the Alliance army stormed the psychiatric hospital with guns to execute him. The families of the deceased clamored to find Uncle Wang’s son, talking about debts being paid by offspring. I had no choice but to find Wang Yue overnight, taking him and fleeing for refuge."

That night was too chaotic.

Even now, recalling it, Yin Su feels a sense of disorder and unreality.

With a mournful gaze at Huo Wen’an, Yin Su sighed quietly, "Little Sin, I didn’t know you went to prison for me, I truly didn’t know."

Huo Wen’an was at a loss.

He didn’t expect, that night, they were both racing with death.