Facing the hand Zhang Beixing extended, Makely didn't take it.

This highly educated woman who cares most about etiquette and manners actually froze at this moment.

Zhang Beixing…!

She'd heard this name!

No matter how little she followed the news, no matter how little she cared about politics.

Her ears had practically grown calluses from hearing this name!

For more than half a year, almost everyone around her had been talking about this name.

Relatives or friends, colleagues or students, they were all talking about it around her, more or less explicitly.

No matter what occasion, no matter where.

Even when she sometimes couldn't drive to work because of traffic restrictions and didn't have to listen to the radio, she could still hear this name from strangers chatting on the bus.

And right now.

This man was standing right in front of her.

Less than five centimeters away!

If she just leaned forward a little, she could literally kiss this man!

Insane.

"Was it you who destroyed our Ancient Rome Branch and Lanbo Branch?"

Zhang Beixing really hadn't expected this woman to be this bold, asking him that straight to his face.

Zhang Beixing admitted it openly and straightforwardly.

"Yeah, that was me, but let me make this clear, I never took the initiative to kill any innocent researchers."

"Those ones who accidentally got taken out by stray bullets or grenades or whatever, that wasn't my doing. That was just their bad luck, killed by their own people. You can't pin that on me."

Zhang Beixing was proving his innocence.

But he was also telling the truth.

Like back in the Capital of Lanbo, he hadn't laid a finger on those researchers. Only two unlucky ones were killed by stray bullets.

Everyone else had been arranged by Zhang Beixing to be sent into Great Xia.

Returning them to the local government was obviously impossible. These were all talents in scientific research. Sending them back with good food and good treatment, then squeezing them hard for useful knowledge—what's not to like.

As long as they weren't doing human experiments, they were good researchers, right.

And even human experiments weren't totally off the table—if it was for medical purposes, Zhang Beixing was very supportive.

When Zhang Beixing finished his last sentence, the room fell into silence. Neither of them spoke again, just staring at each other, each lost in their own thoughts.

The alarm sound at this moment seemed to become the BGM for their staring contest.

Solemn, and grave.

In the end it was Zhang Beixing who broke first.

He'd already wasted almost three minutes on this woman. He couldn't keep wasting time like this.

Listening to the sounds outside, there was already a big crowd gathered.

Just by listening, he could easily tell that the group blocking the door on high alert were all Martial Artists, and all armed to the teeth.

Guns were probably already braced and ready, just waiting for Zhang Beixing to show himself. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Zhang Beixing tilted his head slightly. "Let me politely ask one more time: are you willing to be my hostage?"

"What if I'm not?"

Faced with this stiff reply, Zhang Beixing's answer was just as short.

Makely suddenly felt weightless.

She couldn't control her center of gravity at all.

She actually—she actually…

Got lifted up by the scruff of her collar by Zhang Beixing.

Ah???

She wasn't short either—one-seventy tall, less than twenty centimeters shorter than Zhang Beixing.

He picked her up without even using any noticeable effort.

Held up like that on his right side, she struggled hard, but realized that her arms and legs couldn't fully move. She could only move within a small range. Clearly nothing was tying her up, yet she just couldn't move, as if bound by some invisible restraint.

"If you won't cooperate, then I can only use force, yeah."

"Stop struggling. I've wrapped you up in my externalized qi. Unless you're a Grandmaster like those test subjects you made, don't even think about breaking free."

Zhang Beixing let out a cold laugh.

People who don't cooperate don't deserve a nice attitude.

Zhang Beixing walked to the door.

This time he didn't bother opening it gently.

He suddenly kicked out, sending the iron door flying.

Bang!

A violent crash.

The door flew out and smashed into the team members who were braced at the doorway.

Faced with the sudden massive iron door, three people were directly knocked flying and plastered against the wall along with it.

They looked as good as dead, blood leaking from all seven orifices.

The other team members were so shocked they reacted on instinct, fingers tightening on their triggers, but Jack forcibly stopped them.

"No shooting!"

"No one fires! Stand down!! Stand down!!!"

Watching his teammates, comrades who had lived and died with him, get slapped to death like that in an instant, anger flared hot in his chest.

He wanted nothing more than to immediately gun down the bastard who started all this.

But he was the leader of the security team.

And he saw that Zhang Beixing was holding a hostage!

Zhang Beixing was even using this hostage as a human shield in front of him!!

Rationality instantly wrestled his rage back under control.

If it were just an ordinary researcher as a hostage, that would be one thing.

But this person was Makely!

She was the core figure, the soul of Martial Artist research experiments in the entire Lanxi Branch!

Xirui had told him before just how important she was to the organization. Even if all the higher-ups in this branch were killed by Zhang Beixing, Makely could not be allowed to have anything happen to her!