Chapter 648

By the time they got home, it was already pitch-dark outside.

Fang Qi collapsed onto the sofa, took off the baseball cap on his head, and set it beside him.

He tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling…

“Whew…”

He let out a long breath.

He was exhausted…

At least he hadn’t had to reset the timeline.

He turned his head slightly. The baseball cap Liguang had given him was sitting safely on the sofa, completely undamaged.

The wall clock ticked away. He glanced at it. It was only a little past eight.

He blinked.

That was pretty early.

…Who would have thought? After being dragged into the police station for questioning and going through such a huge ordeal, he had actually made it home this early.

He had thought he and Liguang would be talking with the beautiful police officer all night.

Fang Qi raised an arm and covered his eyes.

Today, he had run into far too many things…

He had accompanied Liguang to the amusement park, jumped from the Ferris wheel, been surrounded by a crowd, and been taken away by the police…

And then…

Gu Xi had dumped an entire mountain of brain-exploding information on him!

Even now, his mind was still buzzing.

And Liguang…

He turned his head slightly and looked toward the kitchen.

The silver-haired girl was quietly making tea for him.

The Little Yandere was unusually docile at the moment. She wasn’t making a fuss or clinging to him. After they got back, she had gone straight into the kitchen…

She hadn’t reacted all that strongly, either.

That surprised him a little.

He could tell that she was probably still slowly digesting everything that had happened today.

That was good!

He picked up his phone and casually opened the trending searches. Then…

“Uh…”

The corner of his mouth twitched.

The screen was filled with familiar yet painfully eye-catching topics:

#AmusementParkSuperheroFallsFromBuilding#

#GirlJumpsFromFerrisWheelWithHerBoyfriend#

#TheYandereAIGirlfriend#

Fang Qi: “…”

Seriously?

Fang Qi stared at the screen.

This little mess involving him and Liguang had actually blown up this badly? It had taken over the entire trending list?

Was this for real? He immediately grew somewhat wary.

He had a feeling that someone was fanning the flames behind the scenes…

But then he shook his head helplessly.

Even without anyone stirring things up, going viral was fairly normal, wasn’t it? After all…

The fact that they had jumped from such a great height and landed without a scratch was already eye-catching enough.

On top of that, Liguang was a silver-haired, heterochromatic-eyed AI companion so beautiful she hardly looked human!

The controversy surrounding “AI companions” had never died down in this world.

And controversial topics naturally attracted attention and traffic.

He scrolled down. The comments section was already packed with every kind of expert.

Some people were analyzing the magnitude and direction of the forces involved when he and Liguang landed…

They had even drawn force diagrams to prove just how powerful Liguang’s performance was!

Others were digging into Liguang’s model and production date, claiming that she was a custom-made unit, so it was only natural that she was this powerful…

And right afterward, there was a purchase link for Chenxi AI Companions.

They were advertising now.

Fang Qi was speechless.

…These people really had nothing better to do.

Then he scrolled to a comment that had received an overwhelming number of likes:

“She’s not an AI. She’s a goddess!”

A whole string of replies followed, filled with people joking around.

Some were joining in and calling her a “goddess,” while others were bitterly complaining that they were jealous of the rich, or that they hated the rich.

Fang Qi’s finger suddenly stopped.

He stared at the comment, his eyelid twitching faintly.

…A goddess?

This joke happened to line up perfectly with what Gu Xi had said today.

He pressed his lips together lightly.

Was Liguang really a “goddess”?

Actually, when he had been talking to Gu Xi at the police station, there was one question he had never managed to ask.

That was…

Gu Xi had said that Liguang was the “Goddess of the New World,” but Lin Xiaoyou had told him before…

Liguang was “the new world’s fuel.”

Who was right and who was wrong?

“Goddess” and “fuel”…

A deity worshiped by millions, or a consumable discarded once every last bit of value had been extracted.

The difference between those two words was simply too vast.

How could they possibly be describing the same person?

Unless…

Fang Qi narrowed his eyes slightly.

Unless Liguang was both the “god” upon whom great hopes had been placed and the “fuel” whose value would be squeezed dry.

Those two identities had always been opposite sides of the same fate.

Once all her value had been extracted, couldn’t they just build a statue and enshrine her as a goddess?

You couldn’t deify someone while they were still alive, after all…

…Huh?

Fang Qi’s pupils contracted. He was immediately startled by his own thought, and a chill ran through his heart.

Damn!

Why had his thoughts suddenly become so dangerous and twisted?

What was he thinking? Liguang was his girl. She was supposed to stay with him forever!

Fang Qi hurriedly shook his head.

Of course, all of this was only his speculation. He had never asked Gu Xi about it, either.

The main reason was that he didn’t know how to bring it up. He was afraid Liguang might overhear and start entertaining even more disturbing ideas.

Then Gu Xi had hurried away, and in the end, he hadn’t been able to ask.

Still…

Fang Qi placed the phone on his lap, leaned his head back, and stared blankly at the ceiling.

Still, at least he had managed to ask about the door!

He had no idea whether his earlier guess was correct.

That door… was it really an “exit” leading to another world?

If it was…

Then why did Liguang’s suppressed original core awaken and begin processing data whenever she got close to it?

What connection did those two things have?

What did that door mean to Liguang?

Was it the road home for him, the Otherworlder? Or the key that would awaken her, the local virus?

Or perhaps…

Was it a terrifying abyss that would suck everyone inside?

He couldn’t figure it out.

“Master.”

A soft voice rang out, interrupting his tangled thoughts.

The silver-haired girl came over with the tea, walking toward him with graceful steps.

She knelt elegantly in front of him, knees pressed together, silver hair falling around her face as she held the teacup out to him with both hands.

“Your tea is ready.”

Fang Qi stared at her blankly. It was the same familiar gesture he knew down to his bones.

He accepted the tea, felt the warmth of the cup against his hand, and took a small sip.

The familiar taste. The familiar warmth.

“Whew!”

As soon as the tea went down, his entire body relaxed.

Comforting. Tea brewed by Liguang was still the best…

Liguang gently knelt down beside his leg.

She leaned closer, tilted her little head, and looked at the phone on his lap.

Fang Qi also looked at the comment currently displayed on the screen:

“This girl really loves him. You can tell even through the screen!”

Liguang stared at the comment, her red eyes flickering softly.

Fang Qi smiled and reached down to gently rub the little head beside his leg. Her silver hair was smooth and silky.

“Liguang, you…”

He had wanted to tell her to get up and sit beside him, but he gave up halfway through.

Forget it. There was no need to force Liguang to sit beside him.

This time, he should just let things take their natural course. If Liguang wanted to do something a certain way, she could. There was no need to change everything.

So he asked softly:

“What are you looking at?”

Liguang pressed her soft cheek even more firmly against his leg and murmured:

“They’re talking about Liguang. Is it really that obvious…?”

The corners of Fang Qi’s mouth curved upward.

Of course it was! It was extremely obvious!

“Master…”

She raised her head and looked at Fang Qi. Her mismatched eyes were filled with confusion, along with something else… a hint of struggle.

But in the end, she still spoke softly:

“Master, did Liguang really… forget a lot of things?”

“Is Master really… the same as Liguang, too?”

Looking at her bewildered expression, Fang Qi smiled gently.

As expected, even if his wife had forgotten everything, she still wanted to be “the same” as him.

He continued to gently stroke her head and nodded.

“Mm. Master is the same, too. Master has also lost quite a few memories about Liguang.”

That was the truth.

“But…”

He looked seriously at the confused silver-haired girl before him.

“Master will definitely help you get those memories back!”

Liguang’s gaze trembled. She gently buried her face in Fang Qi’s lap.

“Master…”

She murmured:

“Liguang feels like… her current state is really strange…”

“The things Master and Miss Gu Xi talked about today… Liguang couldn’t understand a single one of them.”

“But…”

Her warm breath brushed against Fang Qi’s leg, making it itch slightly.

“Liguang can clearly feel that she should have been able to understand them.”

“But Liguang can’t grasp it. Liguang must have forgotten something.”

“There’s something missing from Liguang’s core…”

She murmured in a tiny voice, like a wronged little kitten, burying her face in his lap and refusing to lift it.

Fang Qi fell silent, sighing inwardly.

…Crazy Girl, it’s not that something is missing from your core.

It’s something even more fundamental.

Something missing from your “soul”—from your “underlying code.”

It was the Master’s fault. He was the one who had lost her memories.

But how was he supposed to explain that to her?

His head felt like a mess, and he was even starting to feel a little tired.

Sigh… He was so sleepy.

He just wanted to stop thinking about everything and get a good night’s sleep…

Liguang’s face, resting on his lap, was soft and warm. As he gently stroked her hair…

His eyelids slowly began to droop.

“Ding.”

His phone suddenly chimed!

Fang Qi: “!”

He woke up instantly, blinking as he looked down…

A message from Gu Xi?

[Gu Xi: Fang Qi, you’ve caused quite a stir. The Administration Bureau submitted an application for a case-filing assessment this afternoon.]

[Gu Xi: I’ve temporarily held it back, but I won’t be able to suppress it for much longer.]

[Gu Xi: Proceed carefully.]

Outside the window, the moon shone brightly among the sparse stars.

Fang Qi stared blankly at the words “Administration Bureau” and “won’t be able to suppress it for much longer,” then rubbed his eyes to clear his head.

Matchmaker Sister, I really have to thank you. Even while you’re busy working on the front lines, you’re still taking time to shield us from the risks…

But…

He pressed his lips together.

Because he had suddenly realized something.

His current fame had certainly forced “Dawn and Dusk” and the others to avoid making a direct move against him.

But at the same time…

It had also brought about the fact that “the authorities were now going to start following official procedure.”

In the past, they might have used some underhanded methods to deal with him.

But now…

They were going to use the most proper, legitimate methods to deal with him—methods so flawless that no one would be able to find fault with them!

Fang Qi narrowed his eyes.

Filing a case, assessment, investigation, destruction…

They could go through the entire process in broad daylight, leaving him no grounds to argue.

The Administration Bureau?

Was that the place that registered and evaluated AIs, where only a fraction of applicants passed, and those who failed were destroyed on the spot?

…The same Administration Bureau from The Last Heartbeat?

You bunch of people are trying to get in the way of the happy life between me and my wife, too…!

Tsk…!

“Master.”

At that moment, a streak of silver gently rose beside his leg.

The silver-haired girl slowly lifted her head and looked at Fang Qi. Her eyes seemed to carry a faint…

Dreamlike haze?

Hm?

Fang Qi’s train of thought was interrupted. He lowered his head and met her gaze.

Liguang looked at him and spoke softly:

“Master, can you tell Liguang the truth?”

…The truth?

Fang Qi froze, slightly puzzled.

“What do you want to hear? Of course I won’t lie to Liguang…”

Liguang spoke again in a soft voice:

“Master, tell me… have you…”

She stared blankly at Fang Qi.

“…already reset Liguang once?”

Fang Qi: “…?”

His mind went blank for a moment as he stared in confusion at the little silver-haired head beside his leg.

“What do you mean…?”

He asked unconsciously, murmuring the words.

“Master, you said that you realized Liguang had awakened a long time ago…”

Liguang’s mismatched eyes seemed slightly unfocused as she looked at him.

“Then… does that mean Liguang was already reset once because she awakened?”

“Is that why Liguang is like this now…?”

Fang Qi: “?”

His gaze sharpened as he stared at the silver-haired girl before him.

No, wife, where did you come up with this bizarre theory?

But Liguang continued murmuring softly:

“An awakened AI will be reclaimed and reset…”

“Since Liguang has already been reset once, that must be why… she lost the memories related to Master…”

“But…”

She gently bit her lip and stared blankly at Fang Qi.

“But Master couldn’t bear to lose Liguang.”

“So Master secretly did something…”

“For Liguang, Master secretly preserved part of her memories.”

“He didn’t let Liguang… become an AI companion without self-awareness again.”

“And Master is even going to help Liguang recover the memories she lost…!”

The silver-haired girl’s eyes remained slightly dazed as she looked into his.

“Master, did Liguang guess correctly?”

Fang Qi stared blankly at her.

Uh… Huh? Wait… What?