Chapter 644

The Goddess of the New World…

Fang Qi stared blankly at the woman across from him, who had just finished speaking and had already gone back to shoveling rice into her mouth.

As expected of Officer Sister, a police officer through and through—even the way she ate was brisk and efficient.

…Eat, eat, eat. That was all she ever did!

Fang Qi raised a hand and rubbed his temples.

…A goddess?

Whatever goddess or no goddess, he had no desire to worry about that right now!

At this moment, only one thought kept turning over and over in his mind…

Liguang’s memories!

Everything else—the goddess, the New World, and all the rest—could wait!

And so…

He stared at Gu Xi, his eyes widening more and more as his breathing quickened slightly.

Because what Gu Xi had just said had been like a sudden electric shock to his brain!

In an instant, he understood!

That was it! It had to be!

The authority that had once belonged to Liguang really was now inside him!

Although, to this day, he still couldn’t say what that so-called “authority” actually was.

He couldn’t see it or touch it, and he had no idea how to use it.

But there was one thing he remembered with absolute clarity—

Inside that “little world,” that authority had genuinely been transferred from Liguang to him!

At the time…

His body had carried three different authorities in total!

The first…

Was his own—the authority related to “rollback.” The “rollback” ability he had been born with!

The second…

Was the authority Liguang had forcibly taken from the Chenxi backend AI!

That was the authority that had later brought an “intruder” with it—the mysterious voice!

It had caused Liguang to become an intangible, invisible entity during that period, leaving her able to communicate only by carving words…

And that had ultimately led to the tragedy that followed!

And the third was Liguang’s own authority!

He still remembered that, at the time, Liguang had even needed to trick him into “granting authorization” before she could use that authority!

…Why had Liguang’s authority ended up inside him again?

He remembered that there had been a rollback. He had woken up on the raft, and then…

The authority had somehow ended up in his body?

…He couldn’t remember.

He didn’t recall the details, but the outcome was clear!

From then on, Liguang no longer had her authority!

So now…

Fang Qi stared at Gu Xi, who was still rapidly shoveling rice into her mouth.

Beside him, the silver-haired girl remained bewildered, her scarlet eyes continuing to flicker red again and again.

But he couldn’t spare any attention for that!

His hand tightened around Liguang’s small hand on instinct. He leaned forward and stared intently at Gu Xi.

“Gu Xi, are you saying…”

His Adam’s apple bobbed, and even his voice sounded unsteady.

“If I return Liguang’s authority to her… she’ll be able to recover her memories?!”

That was it. It had to be!

Liguang had lost her authority, so of course she couldn’t retain her memories!

Fang Qi’s gaze gradually went unfocused, and the corners of his mouth began to rise with excitement.

Could it really be this simple? All he had to do was return Liguang’s authority…!

“Um… no.”

Gu Xi pressed her lips together, set down her chopsticks, and shook her head helplessly.

…Huh?

Fang Qi froze.

No?

Gu Xi pulled out a tissue and wiped her mouth. Then she sat up straight and looked at Fang Qi, her tone becoming gentler.

“Fang Qi, there’s something you need to understand first… Authority is authority, and memories are memories.”

“If you return the authority to Liguang, at most, it can restore her… ‘former abilities.’”

“That is… the ability to retain the memories of a ‘dream’ when you end that ‘dream’ through ‘special means.’”

Fang Qi’s eyes trembled.

Abilities. Memories…

“But…”

Gu Xi turned to look at the silver-haired girl beside her again. There seemed to be a hint of… sympathy in her eyes.

“But memories that have already been forgotten can’t be recovered through this.”

Fang Qi opened his mouth.

…It could only restore her ability, but not recover her memories. Was that it…?

That did make sense.

Once data had been “deleted,” even an administrator with the highest level of authority couldn’t retrieve it…

The tiny spark of hope that had just ignited in him was immediately doused with a bucket of cold water.

Gu Xi glanced toward Liguang once more and pursed her lips lightly.

“Because… those memories aren’t stored in her core.”

She spoke slowly.

“They’re stored by her… in her ‘soul.’”

“Her ‘soul’…?”

Fang Qi repeated the word blankly.

He knew about that. Liguang’s “soul”—her underlying code. She had hidden the things most precious to her in the deepest part of herself.

“Mm.”

Gu Xi nodded lightly and continued in a soft voice.

“Everyone’s ‘soul’ is born from the deepest foundation of this world.”

“And Liguang…”

She looked back at Fang Qi, her expression growing somewhat complicated.

“Liguang is actually a lot like us. In a way… she’s also a ‘virus’ you created.”

Fang Qi stared at her blankly, his mouth slightly open.

…A “virus” again.

It seemed like no one around him was normal.

Gu Xi lowered her brows and continued.

“Because, subconsciously, she embedded the most precious part of her memories like a virus…”

“Into the most hidden corner of this world—somewhere even a reset or rollback couldn’t erase.”

The interrogation room fell silent once again. The air conditioner overhead hummed steadily.

The silver-haired girl beside him said nothing.

She didn’t react very strongly. She simply turned her hand around and gripped Fang Qi’s hand even tighter.

Then she remained perfectly still, her silver hair continuing to veil half of her lovely face.

And Fang Qi, after staring blankly for a moment…

“Wait!”

His eyes widened, and he abruptly straightened in his seat!

He stared at Gu Xi, his eyes lighting up instantly.

“You mean that although those memories aren’t in Liguang anymore…”

He struggled to work out what Gu Xi meant.

“They’re still somewhere in the… ‘foundation’ of this world?!”

Was “foundation” the right word?

Whatever. That wasn’t important. The important thing was—

“In other words, those memories are still there, right?! As long as we can find them, we can help Liguang get her memories back!”

The more he spoke, the more excited he became. He nearly slammed his hand down on the table.

Yes, yes, yes!

That had to be it!

The memories weren’t gone. They’d only been lost!

Those memories were still hidden somewhere in the world, waiting for them…

To fish them out!

The more Fang Qi thought about it, the more he felt that this might actually work!

Finding things was what he was best at!

Liguang had disappeared before, and hadn’t he found her after searching for months?

Gu Xi nodded at him.

Exactly!

Fang Qi’s heart leaped with joy, and he was just about to speak…

But then she shook her head and said softly:

“Yes, but also no.”

…?

The smile on Fang Qi’s face froze.

…What was that supposed to mean?

Gu Xi sighed softly and gazed deeply at the two of them.

“Originally, that should have been the case.”

“I once… used this method to help Liguang preserve some of her memories.”

“For example…”

Her gaze slowly moved between Fang Qi and Liguang.

“For example, that…”

“The eighty-two years of life you once spent together.”

Fang Qi’s gaze trembled slightly.

“It was me who helped her preserve them.”

Gu Xi looked at her calmly.

Her grip on Fang Qi’s little hand suddenly tightened.

“...Eighty-two years...?”

The silver-haired girl beside him suddenly murmured in a low voice.

Liguang slowly turned to look at him.

Her small face was blank and bewildered, a layer of mist veiling the amber iris of her left eye.

The little star on her earlobe had gone still.

“Eighty-two years...?”

She murmured.

“Liguang and Master... spent eighty-two years of our lives together...?”

Her voice grew softer and began to tremble.

“Huh?”

“M-Master... what exactly did Liguang forget?”

She clutched his hand tightly...

Then her other hand suddenly flew up and covered her head!

Her silver hair was disheveled by the motion, spilling messily over her shoulders!

Fang Qi was just as shocked by Gu Xi’s words.

Even so, he instinctively reached out and pulled the murmuring silver-haired girl into his arms.

One hand pressed against the back of her head while the other wrapped around her back, gently patting her again and again.

Wife, it’s all right. I’ll help you get your memories back.

But his own eyes remained fixed on Gu Xi...

He was utterly dumbfounded!

It really was you!

Although he had vaguely suspected something like this before, he had never expected...

It was actually true?!

Those eighty-two years—from childhood sweethearts who knew each other without a hint of romance, to becoming husband and wife, having children...

She had accompanied Liguang from black hair to white, and finally watched her die of illness in his arms...

That profound memory the two of them had shared had really been preserved by Gu Xi?!

Good heavens...

He stared at Gu Xi in disbelief.

Miss Police Beauty, you really are my Matchmaker Sister!

Liguang and I truly couldn’t have come this far without you!

But...

A growing unease suddenly welled up inside him.

“Then...”

Holding the still-trembling Liguang in his arms, he lowered his voice.

“You said it was supposed to happen that way? Then what about this time...?”

he asked quietly.

Gu Xi’s eyes darkened slightly.

“Alas.”

She sighed and gently shook her head.

“This time is different.”

Fang Qi stared straight at her.

Gu Xi poked at the rice in her boxed meal with her chopsticks.

“Because when Liguang used your ‘authority’ to ‘rewind the world’ this time...”

She sighed again, then looked up at Fang Qi with a helpless expression.

“...she wasn’t in this world. She was... inside that ‘small world’ of yours.”

Fang Qi’s lips moved, but no words came out. He merely clenched his fists slowly.

...That was true.

At the time, they had been staying inside that small world Liguang had created herself.

A wooden house at sea, surrounded by an endless ocean.

A tiny realm cut off from the rest of the world, belonging only to him and Liguang.

He lowered his head and glanced at her.

The silver-haired girl was still looking down, her hair hiding most of her face. Fang Qi couldn’t see her expression, much less guess what she was thinking.

“So, the situation is complicated.”

Gu Xi’s somewhat melancholy voice came from across the table.

“To put it simply, the ‘small world’ Liguang created... was ‘isolated from the outside world’ at the time.”

“The authority of the greater world couldn’t penetrate it at all.”

“So even though I wanted to help Liguang preserve her memories the way I did last time, there was nothing I could do.”

After saying this, she poked at a piece of meat in her boxed meal with her chopsticks.

Fang Qi looked up at her in a daze.

Oh, this...

He had heard about it before, hadn’t he?

Lin Xiaoyou seemed to have mentioned it to him?

That was right. It had happened inside that small world.

At the time, Lin Xiaoyou had even imitated Gu Xi’s tone when explaining it to him. That was how he had come to suspect that Gu Xi had once preserved Liguang’s memories...

Gu Xi raised an eyebrow and shot him a glance with her light-brown eyes.

“So... the passage through the ‘dream’ was forcibly severed by the two different worlds.”

She continued explaining:

“When the world was ‘rewound,’ the memories Liguang had hidden deep within her ‘soul’...”

“Actually, they hadn’t been written into her ‘soul’ at all. They hadn’t been stored in the underlying layer of the greater world. Instead, they had been written into that...”

At this point, she pressed her lips together.

“The ‘encrypted’ small world she had created.”

Fang Qi tightened his grip on Liguang’s hand once more, firmly holding the warmth in his palm.

“So...”

Following Gu Xi’s words, he murmured:

“When the world was rewound, that small world disappeared. And Liguang’s memories...”

“They disappeared with it, ‘deleted by the rewind,’ is that it...?”

He forced out the last few words through clenched teeth.

...Damn it!

So that was what had happened?!

His Liguang had treasured those memories so deeply that she had hidden them in the innermost depths of her soul, in that “corner of the world”!

But who could have imagined that the thing that would end up causing trouble...

would be the “world” itself?

Then...!

“Oh, no, that’s not it.”

Gu Xi blinked and casually rejected his conclusion.

Fang Qi: “?”

Huh?

He froze on the spot, staring blankly at Gu Xi.

No?

Gu Xi looked at him with an exasperated expression, as if asking what on earth he had been thinking.

Then she shoveled another bite of rice into her mouth. Her cheeks puffed out as she spoke indistinctly:

“Didn’t I already say? Hmm... I can help her recover her memories.”

“If they’d really disappeared, how could I help her recover them?”

Fang Qi stared at her blankly.

Ah...

Right. She had said she would help Liguang recover her memories...

So she could solve the problem?!

Mm...

Oh...

Oh!

Matchmaker Sister! Could it be that you...!

He instantly straightened up and abruptly reached one hand across the table...

He grabbed Gu Xi’s chopstick-holding hand and lunged forward in excitement.

“Gu Xi! You, you, you...!”

“Did you preserve Liguang’s memories a long time ago?!”

Good heavens! Matchmaker Sister, you’re practically my own mother!

When Liguang and I get married, you absolutely have to attend the wedding as one of our elders...!

“Crack!”

“Ow!!”

A crisp sound rang out!

It came unmistakably from the wrist of the hand Liguang was still holding on his left side!

Fang Qi let out a howl of pain on the spot!

Hiss—!!!

“Liguang, you...!”

“Crack!”

“Ow—!!”

He cried out again. The pain made him release Gu Xi’s hand instantly.

No! No, honey!

I was just excited!

I don’t have any thoughts like that!

I only see her as my mother!