An anxious voice came through the small earpiece in Si Yu’s ear: "Boss, we couldn’t hold Shan Xun back. He’s gotten past us."

He glanced at the man before him. He already knew. ’Useless fools. They let him charge right up to me this quickly.’ It seemed Shan Xun had arrived with incredible speed.

Si Yu kept backing away, still holding Jiang Zheyu.

"Drop the gun." Si Yu’s dark green eyes were fixed on Shan Xun.

As he spoke, he lightly pressed the gun in his hand against Jiang Zheyu’s head.

Feeling the cold metal of the gun against her head, Jiang Zheyu’s scalp prickled. ’Don’t tell me his love has turned to hate?’

She didn’t dare make a move.

’Should I bet that he loves me and can’t bring himself to hurt me? Or should I bet his gun isn’t loaded?’

Jiang Zheyu didn’t dare to bet. There was no way she would gamble her life on whether Si Yu truly liked her, on whether he could bring himself to kill her.

After all, the man was extremely vengeful. What if, in a last-ditch, mutually destructive act, he decided to drag her down with him?

Si Yu casually told Shan Xun to drop his gun, but for a moment, Shan Xun didn’t move.

He repeated the command, his voice soft, laced with a cold contempt. "Drop the gun." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

This time, Shan Xun finally complied, casually tossing his gun aside.

His deep purple eyes, filled with a vicious, predatory glint, remained locked on Si Yu.

Si Yu’s eyes narrowed dangerously. "Stay back. Don’t come any closer!"

Shan Xun retreated slowly, but in the very next second, he whipped out another gun and fired. A shot cracked through the air, severing the mechanical wires in the Biorobot’s arm that held the gun. The weapon immediately dropped from Si Yu’s grasp.

Before Jiang Zheyu could react, a swift shadow blurred past. She was violently thrown aside, slamming hard onto the floor amidst a chaotic burst of gunfire and the sound of a brutal impact.

It all happened too fast to process.

Sprawled on the ground, Jiang Zheyu looked back, her heart leaping into her throat. She saw that one of Shan Xun’s fists had already punched through Si Yu’s chest. The tangled mess of mechanical wiring inside the Biorobot body sizzled, spitting out sparks that arced onto Shan Xun’s arm and filled the air with the smell of burning.

Before its body was completely destroyed, the Si Yu Biorobot glared viciously at Shan Xun. "Good. Just great."

Then, in a morbidly sullen voice, it added, "I’ll be back. You’d better guard the female well. Next time, I will absolutely come back to take her."

Shan Xun ripped his arm free and flung the Biorobot’s body away.

And so, amidst a scramble of short-circuiting wires, the Si Yu Biorobot’s eyes closed, its systems finally extinguished. The connection was severed.

In that same instant, all the Starships that had been attacking the base rapidly departed.

They had come quickly and left just as quickly, appearing and vanishing without a trace, as if it had all been a very brief probing attack.

Only after seeing Si Yu’s Biorobot body close its eyes did Jiang Zheyu finally let out a small sigh of relief.

She was actually a little surprised. She hadn’t expected to avoid being captured by the Star Thief. Shan Xun had really saved her.

Shan Xun’s tall, powerful figure slowly approached. He crouched down in front of her, his prominent brow furrowing slightly. "Are you hurt?"

Jiang Zheyu caught the faint scent of blood. She paused for a second, then shook her head. "I’m not hurt. But you... are you injured?"

Shan Xun was dressed in a black combat suit, so Jiang Zheyu couldn’t actually see clearly whether or not he was injured and bleeding.

"It’s nothing. I’ll just go to the base hospital to get it patched up," Shan Xun said, his expression calm. It was only a few bullets, after all.

Jiang Zheyu really wanted to ask him a question. ’Weren’t you afraid Si Yu would have blown my head off when you charged in like that?’

’Even I wasn’t confident Si Yu wouldn’t pull that trigger.’

’If your move had been even a split second slower than Si Yu’s, the bullet wouldn’t have hit him—it would’ve hit my head!’

But seeing that Shan Xun had also been shot, she felt it wasn’t right to say anything more.

’I can’t exactly chew him out for gambling with my life, can I?’

"Is there something you want to say?" Shan Xun asked bluntly.

Jiang Zheyu hadn’t expected him to see right through her.

"It’s nothing, nothing. Let’s go to the base hospital first," Jiang Zheyu said, getting to her feet. She grabbed Shan Xun’s arm to help him up. "Where were you shot?"

"My arm," Shan Xun said simply.

Jiang Zheyu quickly let go of his arm. "Ah? This one?"

"No, the other one." Shan Xun got to his feet as well.

Jiang Zheyu’s gaze finally fell to his other arm. The black material of his combat suit had been stained an even deeper shade. The blood wasn’t obvious on the suit itself, but where it trickled from the narrow cuff, spreading across his palm and down his fingers to finally drip onto the pristine white floor, it became impossible to miss.

The two of them walked side by side toward the base hospital.

"So, what was it you wanted to say?" Shan Xun asked again, unable to let the matter go without an answer.

Jiang Zheyu hesitated. She’d been rescued, so there was no need to bring it up anymore. But she hadn’t expected Shan Xun to keep pressing the issue.

Finally, she spoke up slowly. "It’s nothing. I just... I thought you would let Si Yu take me away, seeing as he was using me as a hostage."

"I told you I would die before I let a Star Thief take you," Shan Xun said coldly. "That is my mission."

"Then why did you just open fire? You provoked Si Yu. What if he had flown into a rage and really put a bullet through my head?" Jiang Zheyu didn’t even know what she was so angry about. "Do you care at all whether I live or die?"

"You don’t trust me?" Shan Xun’s brows knitted together sharply. "Or do you think I would let you get hurt? I never act without complete confidence. I knew I could save you, so I did."

Jiang Zheyu felt another surge of anger. "It’s not that I don’t trust you! I just feel like you don’t care whether I live or die! Did you ever stop to think that if you’d been a fraction of a second slower than Si Yu, his gun would have fired right into my forehead?"

"I do care about you!" Shan Xun grabbed Jiang Zheyu’s wrist, his deep purple gaze fixed on her eyes. "That’s why my first shot hit the main joint of his mechanical arm, forcing him to drop the gun. Aren’t you just questioning my ability to make that shot?"

’This man was going to be the death of her!’

"I’m done talking about this!" Jiang Zheyu snapped. "Just hurry up and get to the hospital to have that arm of yours bandaged!"