Chapter 157: The Physically Impaired Yet Unyielding Third Senior Sister

It had long been said that the United States frequently suffered from shooting incidents, where gun control laws were non-existent, and carrying firearms openly on the streets was completely legal.

Gu Xiangnan chose to ignore him and hurried upstairs.

Room 1807.

He pressed the doorbell.

Soon, a faint sound came from behind the door, which slowly opened a crack.

Gu Xiangnan looked inside expectantly, assuming he would see Luo Xue's face.

"Xiaonan, you're finally here!"

The voice came from below.

Gu Xiangnan looked down and froze.

Luo Xue was actually sitting in a wheelchair!

Her constitution had been frail since childhood, but she was at least able-bodied. She had lost count of the times she climbed trees to pluck bird eggs!

Yet how many years had it been since she left the mountain?

His Third Senior Sister had ended up in a wheelchair!

A sharp ache gripped his nose.

"Third Senior Sister, how did you..."

Luo Xue offered a gentle smile and comforted him, "It's nothing, I'm doing fine. Come on in."

Gu Xiangnan followed Luo Xue into the apartment.

The interior decoration was indeed quite distinctive. It lacked the cozy little trinkets and elaborate ornaments commonly found in a young woman's home. Instead, it exuded a minimalist and deeply technological aesthetic.

The walls were a pale gray, the furniture featured sleek black lines, and the flooring was made of dark hardwood. One of the rooms was unmistakably a workshop. The various zones within the room were neatly and orderly partitioned.

Near the window stood a spacious desk topped with a computer, a keyboard, and an array of electronic equipment. Next to the desk was a tall bookshelf. Gu Xiangnan walked over and pulled out a few books at random; they were entirely volumes and magazines dedicated to computer science, networking, and hacking techniques.

On the other side of the room was a workbench cluttered with tools, including circuit boards and soldering irons.

Gu Xiangnan asked curiously, "Third Senior Sister, you even make things yourself?"

Luo Xue smiled from the doorway and said, "I just make little gadgets when I have free time."

There was one particularly strange item in the entire room—a deck of playing cards.

"Senior Sister, do you like playing cards?" Gu Xiangnan picked up the deck and began shuffling it in his hands.

"I don't know how to play cards."

"You don't? Then why..."

"Whenever I'm bored, I shuffle a deck of cards, look through it once, and then memorize the entire sequence," Luo Xue explained calmly.

Gu Xiangnan was dumbfounded. "Third Senior Sister, do top students like you play games on such an advanced level?"

He joked as he seated himself in the workshop chair. He couldn't bear to reopen Luo Xue's wounds, so he kept his mouth shut and refrained from asking what kind of hardships she had endured.

"Third Senior Sister, Fifth Senior Sister mentioned that she hadn't heard from you in a very long time. What have you been up to all these years?"

Although Luo Xue's physical health was poor, she possessed extraordinary intelligence. During her university years, thanks to her stellar grades, she completed all her undergraduate coursework in just two years. Afterward, she was accepted into a top-tier university in the United States to pursue her graduate studies.

During the entrance examination, the American institution had tested her IQ, and it turned out to be an astonishing 225!

One had to realize that an ordinary person's IQ falls between 80 and 120, and anyone scoring above 140 is considered a genius. Even Einstein scored only 160.

Naturally, the United States wanted to retain such a talent, so they made a special exception and waived all her tuition fees. Luo Xue lived up to expectations by simultaneously completing coursework across three different majors.

Hearing this, Gu Xiangnan clicked his tongue in wonder.

"Oh, right! Third Senior Sister, I saw you earlier."

This remark piqued Luo Xue's curiosity. "Saw me? Where did you see me?"

"I saw you inside the sunken spaceship at the bottom of the Death Triangle," Gu Xiangnan explained.

This made Luo Xue even more puzzled. "How did you know I was inside the underwater spaceship? That's classified! I've never told a soul."

Gu Xiangnan recounted everything that had happened beforehand from start to finish.

"So those were the people you sent! You're amazing, Xiaonan! You must know that even the government couldn't accomplish that mission, yet you pulled it off."

Gu Xiangnan smiled with a hint of embarrassment.

"Third Senior Sister, how did you end up working there?"

The United States had gone to such great lengths to guard that secret, which meant it was undoubtedly top-secret. As a foreigner, she should never have had the opportunity to touch such core secrets—unless... Third Senior Sister truly possessed technology that no one else had!

"I had no choice. They forced me to work there. Although they promised to grant me American citizenship upon success along with other financial rewards, I wasn't very interested in those things. What fascinated me were the secrets of this spaceship."

Gu Xiangnan asked, "Third Senior Sister, how long have you been working there?"

"Two years."

"Two years? You mean this underwater spaceship has existed for two years?"

"No!" Luo Xue shook her head in denial. "Actually, it has existed for half a century, but previous scientific research technology wasn't up to par. Things only started to progress after I joined."

Hearing her words, Gu Xiangnan couldn't help laughing. "I had no idea Third Senior Sister was so confident?"

Luo Xue grinned and said, "Not to brag, but they're all a bunch of trash!"

Gu Xiangnan gave a thumbs-up and praised, "Senior Sister is an absolute beast! You're truly bringing glory to us Chinese people!"

Perched on the bridge of her high nose was a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, their lenses reflecting the light. Lowering her gaze, she uttered a chilling statement:

"Xiaonan, I want to return to China!"

"These American scum forcibly detained me at the bottom of the sea for two years and deprived me of my freedom. How is this any different from being in prison? If you hadn't sent people to stir up trouble, I don't know if I'd ever have had the chance to get out in this lifetime."

"These damned bastards, I'll definitely make them pay! Once I return to China, I'm handing this technology over to the state!"

A surge of joy welled up in Gu Xiangnan's heart. "I'll contact Fifth Senior Sister right now and have her take us back home."

He placed a video call request to Yun Lengyue, which was answered almost immediately. It appeared that Yun Lengyue had been waiting for Gu Xiangnan's call as well.

"Xiaonan, what's wrong? How is the situation over there?" Yun Lengyue asked with concern.

Gu Xiangnan smiled happily. "Fifth Senior Sister, I've found Third Senior Sister!"

He turned the camera toward Luo Xue.

When Yun Lengyue clearly recognized the person on the screen, a flash of surprise crossed her eyes, which quickly turned into joy:

"Third Senior Sister, we've finally made contact with you! Are you doing well?"

Luo Xue took the phone from Gu Xiangnan's hand and nodded at Yun Lengyue on the screen. "Fifth Junior Sister, I'm doing quite well. I'm hoping to return to China soon—can you make arrangements?"

Yun Lengyue said with a serious expression, "Don't worry, Third Senior Sister. I'll arrange for a team to pick you up as soon as possible."

Luo Xue urged anxiously, "Fifth Junior Sister, can we make it as soon as possible? I want to leave immediately; I'm afraid they might drag me back down to the underwater spaceship."

Such a possibility was entirely real. Once the sunken spaceship underwent a thorough inspection and all potential hazards were eliminated, research would resume, and Luo Xue would inevitably be dragged back. Having learned America's deepest secrets, she might never make it out alive for the rest of her life.

Yun Lengyue nodded in agreement. "No problem, I'll go make the preparations right now. You can set off immediately and head straight to the East Coast pier. I'll arrange for people to meet and cover you there."

Luo Xue grabbed a few essentials, and Gu Xiangnan pushed her wheelchair downstairs.

Luo Xue jingled her car keys and said, "Let's drive."

Gu Xiangnan looked startled. "Are you sure you can drive like this?"

It wasn't until they got into the car that he realized—she truly could drive!

It was a modified Volvo equipped with hand-operated controls tailored for individuals with lower-limb disabilities.

As the car slowly pulled away, Gu Xiangnan cast a casual glance out the window and caught sight of a familiar figure.