My daughter has been possessed.

Chapter 177 A Superior Move

Chapter 177 A Move More Skillful Than Others

After listening to Tong Cheng's advice, Li Jiuhe planned to hand over the black box to a nearby shelter for safekeeping later.

So for now, it has only been temporarily put back.

Ma Li didn't answer Li Yi's question. Instead, she quickened her pace, pulling the black box out of her bag and holding it in her hand.

At the same time, Li Jiuhe and the others also heard Li Yi's words and immediately turned to look.

Then I saw Ma Li gripping the edge of the black box with both hands, her lips moving as if she were muttering something, her movements suggesting that she was about to open it at any moment.

Everyone was taken aback.

Although they were not far apart, Li Jiuhe instinctively felt an unprecedented crisis descending upon him, and no matter how fast he acted, he could not stop Ma Li's next move.

Instead, acting on instinct, he quickly initiated the mission reset.

The scene changes rapidly, and the time jumps back to an hour ago. The previous "survive" task time loop has just ended, and a new task line is about to begin.

Li Jiuhe's heart began to race at this moment.

Everything was proceeding as smoothly as before.

He first breathed a sigh of relief, and then began to ponder why Ma Li had tried to open the black box.

Did she know that this black box would put her in danger, so she did it on purpose?

Even though she already knew that there was a spacetime rift inside the black box, she couldn't just open it rashly!

So there's something wrong with Mali, and that problem might have occurred during the time she was missing.

I wonder what she went through during that time.

Everything that happened before is still continuing. Before Tong Cheng questioned Ma Li, Li Jiuhe set a time reset anchor point.

He then handed Ma Li's hair clip to Luo Shuo.

He didn't speak, but Luo Shuo understood and immediately began to follow.

A moment later, she whispered to Li Jiuhe, "She's actually on this street, not far from the hospital."

Li Jiuhe immediately said, "I'll go take a look. You and Li Yi stay here."

He took the quinoa-patterned knife, leaving the satchel and the black box inside in the ward for Li Yi to watch over.

After leaving the ward, Li Jiuhe quickened his pace and soon passed through the outpatient building, arriving at the hospital entrance. Just then, he saw Ma Li climbing the few steps leading to the entrance, almost reaching the gate.

Li Jiuhe did not go out to greet them, but instead retreated inside the gate and stood behind a standing air purifier.

Ma Li quickly arrived at the door, still looking carefree, scanning the room with her own eyes, probably intending to ask at the information desk.

Nothing unusual happened during this time. The medical staff at the triage desk quickly told Ma Li the location of the inpatient department, and Ma Li walked in that direction, but she did not find Li Jiuhe.

Li Jiuhe was puzzled.

When Luo Shuo brought Ma Li back to the ward earlier, he mentioned that Ma Li couldn't find the ward, so she was squatting by the door in a daze.

But what she saw now was that Ma Li directly asked the information desk and went to the inpatient building.

"No, it's different from Luo Shuo's description just now."

As Ma Li's figure disappeared, Li Jiuhe looked around but found nothing unusual.

He followed Ma Li back to Tong Cheng's ward. Ma Li was already explaining to Tong Cheng, her tone timid and hesitant, clearly worried that Tong Cheng would punish her.

Her tone of voice was also noticeably different from that of Ma Li before the mission reset.

Although Ma Li was also afraid of Tong Cheng before the reset, she spoke at a normal pace, unlike her current hesitant and stammering manner.

After Tong Cheng finished questioning him, Li Jiuhe began to talk to him, but in reality, he was keeping a part of his attention on Ma Li's actions.

Last time, Ma Li secretly stole the black box from her bag while he was talking to Tong Cheng, and Li Yi happened to see it.

But this time, after sitting down, Ma Li hugged Li Yi tightly, talking to her nonstop with joy, clearly showing that she really liked Li Yi.

Throughout this process, she didn't even glance at the handbag, let alone touch it.

"Everything is normal!?" Li Jiuhe concluded in his mind.

I had only been at the hospital entrance for a short while when the situation changed dramatically, so the key point must be there.

The last time Luo Shuo saw Ma Li squatting at the door, this time Ma Li went straight into the hospital.

If there's any difference between the two incidents, it's that Li Jiuhe was in the ward last time, while this time he arrived at the hospital entrance ahead of time.

He didn't believe that any outsider had discovered his ability to define tasks, since only a few sequencers like You Hong were aware of it.

Even a powerful Sequencer like Guo Fan didn't realize he was trapped in a mission loop.

He felt he had to find out the reason, since Ma Li's goal was to open the black box in front of him.

This might be related to the person behind it all, or it might not.

The task has been reset again.

This time, after asking about Ma Li in Tongcheng, Li Jiuhe didn't hand the hair clip over to Luo Shuo for tracking, but just waited.

About ten minutes later, Li Jiuhe came to the corridor outside the ward and saw Ma Li had just arrived on this floor and was asking for directions to the ward at the nurses' station not far away.

"Ma Li." Li Jiuhe waved to her.

Ma Li immediately waved and then quickly walked over. After entering the ward, the scene that unfolded was almost exactly the same as when the first mission had not yet started resetting.

Standing to the side, Li Jiuhe noticed that Ma Li wasn't speaking very fast, and there was no sense that she was in a hurry to clarify. Instead, she explained in a seemingly hurried but actually orderly manner.

Li Jiuhe then naturally took over the conversation with Tong Cheng, and the two began to talk.

While they were talking, he secretly observed Ma Li's every move. He noticed that when she approached Li Yi, she didn't hug her directly like last time, but instead sat down to the side. Soon after, she reached her right hand into her handbag.

Task reset.

Li Jiuhe sat in the chair in the ward and began to ponder.

It seemed that Ma Li was still the same Ma Li, but he didn't know why she would have two completely different actions. The difference was whether he had been to the hospital gate.

Thinking of this, Li Jiuhe activated "Scene Replay".

The scene before him instantly became an overhead view, and he immediately ordered a replay of the previous mission, moving the scene to the hospital entrance.

This scene was overwritten after the first mission reset.

Generally speaking, apart from the scenarios he has personally experienced, not all other scenarios can be covered by the mission, unless he has been to that area in a previous mission.

Otherwise, if Li Jiuhe wanted to replay the scenes in this area, he would need to have been there during a certain mission.

Soon the scene shifted to an overhead view of the hospital entrance, where he was now witnessing the time when Ma Li's behavior became abnormal.

Because the time can be adjusted in the replay, the scene directly jumps to when Ma Li just appeared at the gate.

As Ma Li was about to approach the reception desk, she suddenly stopped and turned to look at a middle-aged man squatting under a flower bed next to the gate.

At the man's feet was an earthen bowl filled with water, and a few copper coins were placed on a tattered cloth. He seemed to be a fortune teller.

The man called out to Ma Li, and his words immediately caught her attention.

Something is chasing you—

"Are you good at fortune telling, or—"

After a brief conversation, Ma Li was surprised.

The middle-aged man said, "I can help people avert calamities. Now you have three dark lines between your brows—"

He extended his right index finger, dipped it in the water in the bowl, and quickly drew three horizontal lines on the ground. "You now have the appearance of a crow carrying a lock. As the saying goes, one line means financial loss, two lines mean loss of soul, and the third line...

The man's lips moved slightly, but no sound came out.

Li Jiuhe didn't hear it, and neither did Ma Li.

Ma Li leaned closer: "What did you just say? I didn't hear you clearly."

The middle-aged man's lips moved again, but even Li Jiuhe, who was in the midst of the scene replay, couldn't hear it at all.

As soon as Ma Li got close enough to the other man, he whispered something in her ear, then gathered up the things on the ground, poured out the water from the bowl, put the earthenware bowl upside down in his lap, and then stood up and left.

Ma Li remained squatting in the same spot, motionless, seemingly still savoring what the man had just said.

But Li Jiuhe soon noticed that she wasn't thinking; instead, she had become dazed, her thoughts had stopped, and she was just squatting there blankly.

About three minutes later, Ma Li stood up, her expression now calm, no longer showing the surprise she had just displayed.

She then entered the hospital, inquired at the information desk, and headed to the inpatient building.

"Who is that person?" Li Jiuhe murmured to himself.

Rewinding the timeline again, it was right when Ma Li arrived at the hospital entrance that he found the guy already squatting by the flower bed.

It seems he had been waiting for Ma Li for a long time.

"This person not only knew we knew each other, but also used a secret method to control Mali, making her pretend to enter the ward normally, and then take the opportunity to steal or even open the black box."

Li Jiuhe was thinking quickly.

"Not only that, but he immediately abandons his plans when he knows I'm getting close, making himself undetectable. Could he be the mastermind behind it all this time?! Otherwise, how could he know me so well? Hmm, something's not right—"

He exited the replay and checked the time; at this moment, Ma Li had not yet approached the hospital.

After greeting Tong Cheng and Luo Shuo, Li Jiuhe quickly went downstairs and carefully approached the hospital gate from the entrance on the flower bed side.

By this time, he could already see Ma Li rushing over from the opposite street.

He immediately looked towards the flower bed near the gate and saw people passing by one after another, but the man who had appeared in the replay of the scene was not there.

"Still no one?" Li Jiuhe was extremely surprised.

You should know that unless the other person has eyes in the back of their head, they will never notice that he is spying on you from this position.

Moreover, even if the middle-aged man had the ability to find him, he should be here, but there was no sign of him nearby.

Not long after, Ma Li walked directly into the hospital gate. The person did not appear during that time, and this encounter was different from the last one.

"This is... a ghost!"

Li Jiuhe quickly scanned his surroundings and indeed did not see the middle-aged man.

"Could it be that as long as I appear here, that person can automatically sense it even if they don't see me, so they choose not to show up? But even if they hide, they would at least approach this place first, right?"

The situation was too bizarre for him to comprehend.

He stopped hiding and entered the hall through the entrance on the other side of the flower bed. Ma Li quickly saw him.

"Brother Li, Brother Li, I was just asking the nurse which ward you're in—"

Ma Li ran over excitedly, then grabbed Li Jiuhe's arm and whispered, "I ran into Guo Fan activating that Queen card! She killed so many ants, and I barely managed to escape. She's a very evil and powerful woman. Be careful, she'll definitely come after you!"

Li Jiuhe was taken aback and asked, "Is this why you came back?"

Ma Li nodded.

"Has the mask that Tong Cheng stuck to your face fallen off yet?"

Ma Li nodded again, then looked around: "Boss Tong is still asleep, right? I'll go hide for a bit and won't go up."

Li Jiuhe grabbed her arm: "Tong Cheng won't make things difficult for you. Luo Shuo and I are both pleading on your behalf. And even if he wanted to make things difficult for you, I wouldn't agree."

Ma Li was startled, staring wide-eyed at Li Jiuhe. After a long while, her eyes became glistening, as if tears were about to fall: "Brother Li, I—"

"Stop, stop, don't get me sentimental." Li Jiuhe immediately stopped him. "You're not afraid of being caught by Tong Cheng, so you rushed back to tell me. Of course I'll help you. Don't worry, if he wants to take you to the detention center, he'll have to take me there first."

"Okay, I'll listen to you." With those words, Ma Li felt relieved.

As the two returned to the ward together, Li Jiuhe was still pondering what had just happened.

After talking with her, he was able to confirm that Ma Li was still the same Ma Li as before, and that she was not being secretly controlled.

So, the middle-aged man at the hospital entrance couldn't reach her because of her arrival, but how did he notice her presence? And why did he choose not to show himself after noticing her?

The mechanism by which this person hides after each mission reset feels even more sophisticated than when I first encountered You Hong.

Moreover, there is another problem: You Hong may sense something is wrong, but he will still appear. If I make arrangements in advance, I can still intercept You Hong.

But the middle-aged man simply vanished, as if he had never existed.

In other words, he was more capable than You Hong.

"No."

Li Jiuhe quickly dismissed the idea and formed a guess.

"This person might be the one Luo Shuo was tracking down near Yuanmeng City, one of the masterminds. He still managed to find me! He was able to evade me because he probably knew about my mission definition ability!"

Having made this guess, and after carefully reasoning it out, he felt that this guess was very likely correct.

However, Li Jiuhe became even more wary at this moment, because the person not only knew about his mission reset, but was also hiding in the shadows.

Even if this operation fails, they could strike again at any time, making it impossible to guard against.

Therefore, I cannot remain passive. Now that I have deduced the other party's identity and purpose, I must find a way to turn the tables and seize the opportunity to strike.

Back in the ward, Ma Li was already standing timidly beside the bed explaining to Tong Cheng, while Luo Shuo was also speaking up for her.

Li Jiuhe was still pondering the question from earlier.

His eyes soon lit up slightly, feeling that taking the initiative should be successful, because at this moment it seemed that his side was at a disadvantage, and in fact the person behind the scenes did not fully understand him.

That guy only knew that he had mastered the ability to define tasks not long ago and had the ability to reset tasks, but it was impossible for him to know everything, such as that he was already a "junior task designer" and had mastered the ability to "replay scenarios".

If Li Jiuhe hadn't had the "scene replay" today, he wouldn't have known what Ma Li had gone through, nor would he have known about the middle-aged man's existence.

Therefore, the middle-aged man had already considered this step at the beginning of the operation, so even if Li Jiuhe activated the mission reset, he would not be able to find him.

But this guy was completely unaware that his strength had improved so rapidly and that he had gained "scene replay," so he still sensed his presence.

This might be the key to winning over this behind-the-scenes figure.

In fact, this person is no longer in the shadows, no longer a completely "invisible" person.

However, Li Jiuhe is not going to reset the mission this time, because even if he can lure the other party out, he is not confident that he can kill the guy.

Because Tong Cheng was unable to move, Mu Nian was still on her way, Luo Shuo had almost no offensive power, and she also had to protect her daughter.

Perhaps we can wait until Mu Nian arrives, or even until Tong Cheng's injuries have improved.

With this in mind, Li Jiuhe defined the second mission line as "find and eliminate the mastermind" and set it running continuously from now on.

There's still one thing that hasn't been figured out: why didn't the middle-aged man just storm into the ward, since they were at their weakest point right now?

Could it be that this guy doesn't know Tong Cheng is seriously injured and is still wary of him?

"Brother Li————"

Just then, Luo Shuo's voice woke Li Jiuhe from his thoughts.

Li Jiuhe looked up blankly at the people in the room, while Li Yi quickly whispered in his ear, "Dad, Uncle Tong is asking for your opinion on whether or not to lock Aunt Ma Li in that — detention — detention place."

Finally, the little girl added her own opinion: "Don't close Aunt Ma Li, she's a good person. No, she's a good worm."

Li Jiuhe immediately spoke up: "I don't agree with taking in Ma Li, Brother Tong. During your absence, Ma Li has cooperated very well with us and has been a great help. Without her, I might not have been able to overcome some difficulties. Besides, the people she ate were all deserving of death, and their deaths are not a pity."

At this point, he looked at Ma Li and continued, "Ma Li was very afraid that you would wake up, so she hid before then."

But because she wanted to warn me about the Black and White Poker gang's pursuit, she chose to come to the hospital to inform me. She even said that as long as it saved my and Li Yi's lives, she would accept being punished by you—”

Ma Li looked bewildered and muttered softly, "Did I say that?"

After hearing Li Jiuhe's words, Tong Cheng's expression gradually softened, and he shifted his gaze to Ma Li: "Okay, I'll observe for a while longer before making a decision."

"Haha." Ma Li immediately reverted to her innocent and naive self, cheerfully pointing outside: "Are you guys hungry? I'll go to the night market stalls and buy some food. Xiao Yi, what do you want to eat?"

"Don't go out alone." Li Jiuhe shook his head. "There's a phone number for ordering food here. You can call if you get hungry."

Ma Li held out her hand to Luo Shuo: "Lend me your phone for a moment."

"I want fried rice noodles," Li Yi said, raising her hand.

"Okay!"

While they were on the phone ordering food, Li Jiuhe walked to Tong Cheng's bedside, bent down, and whispered, "Brother Tong, is there something you're hiding from me?"

Tong Cheng looked surprised: "Are you hiding something from me?"

Li Jiuhe nodded, his gaze sweeping over the man lying on the bed, his body wrapped up tightly: "For example—your injuries."

Tong Cheng's surprised expression gradually disappeared, replaced by a smile. He lowered his voice and said, "You saw through me."

"Yes, when the teacher transferred his sequence energy to me, I stored a wisp of his 'Nuo Mask' aura within my chest, which was very powerful. This power was originally intended for the final blow against that black hand, but you appeared and rescued me, so this aura was preserved. Even though I can't move now, activating this 'Nuo Mask' aura to attack an enemy is no problem."

He paused, then added, "I'm actually quite conflicted right now. Should I save this aura to kill the enemy at a crucial moment, or use it to speed up my recovery? After all, even if I recover at the fastest speed, it will still take half a day."

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