# Chapter 1480: The Absurd Engagement
The woman giggled foolishly, her perfectly flushed face tilting slightly upward. "What man wouldn't be tempted by a beauty like me? Are you too cowardly to make a move, or are you just incapable?"
Xu Huo remained unmoved. "If you don't want to leave on your own, I can have the Enforcement Team escort you out."
The woman's expression froze for a moment. Still maintaining her kneeling posture, she fiddled with the bracelet on her wrist and said with a smile, "You really don't know how to be gentle with a lady. My legs are too weak to stand—at least help me up!"
Xu Huo took the formal wear he had just changed out of and walked straight out, casually handing it to a staff member. "I'll take this one."
The supposedly "delicate" woman suddenly had no more dizziness or weakness in her legs. She followed him out and pretended to be familiar, lunging toward Xu Huo's back. "You heartless man, wait for me..."
With eyes in the back of his head, Xu Huo sidestepped at a subtle distance just before she could touch him, letting the woman fall to the ground once again.
This scene drew quite a bit of attention, especially with the woman's eyes brimming with tears, her expression one of someone with much to say but holding back.
Several people had already been silently watching them, but just as the woman was about to speak, Xu Huo spoke first: "You have a piece of vegetable leaf stuck between your teeth."
The atmosphere ripe for wild imagination instantly evaporated under this devastatingly lethal remark. Instinctively, the surrounding onlookers looked at the woman's mouth. Her expression shifted instantly from sorrow to murderous intent, then switched to shock and grief mixed with disbelief. She even forced a bitter smile, revealing a row of white teeth. "How could you say that about me..."
But before her performance could continue, Xu Huo aimed his communicator at her. "Not bad. Keep going."
The woman completely broke character. She couldn't stay any longer, as the Enforcement Team had already arrived. She nimbly scrambled to her feet, intending to cover her face and flee, but she hadn't taken two steps before she was trapped inside a huge transparent glass bottle.
Looking at the furious woman trapped inside the "Cannot Be Broken From Within" barrier, Xu Huo said to the Enforcement Team players who had entered, "This person is probably working with the ones who attacked me yesterday."
The Enforcement Team members' expressions shifted. All three simultaneously drew their waist pistols and fired at the woman—these silver pistols looked no different from ordinary firearms, but they were actually consumable props, extremely expensive. Sure enough, the first bullet penetrated the "Cannot Be Broken From Within" barrier and disappeared, but the collision effect between props caused the barrier to briefly fail, and then the second and third bullets sped straight toward the woman!
This was the Enforcement Team's standard capture method. If the woman was hit, she would lose consciousness instantly. The fact that the bullets penetrated the barrier also proved they had the effect of temporarily disabling spatial defense props. Outnumbered, the woman had no other choice and instinctively fled.
Watching the woman disappear from the glass bottle, the Enforcement Team didn't relax. They dispersed to check the clothing store while notifying other team members to blockade the shopping mall.
By this time, the clothing store and several neighboring shops had already cooperated with the Enforcement robots' questioning.
Xu Huo, meanwhile, was escorted away by designated personnel.
"Isn't this a bit of an overreaction?" Xu Huo asked the person protecting him along the way.
Sitting next to him was a cold-faced tough guy who glanced at Xu Huo and said, "This is no longer a simple protection mission. Someone has been constantly provoking the Enforcement Team."
Xu Huo wisely asked no more questions. Before they could return to the hotel, the Enforcement Team had already issued a wanted notice for the woman, along with information about the already deceased Zeng Lou, calling for tips from across the city.
This was actually just a supplementary measure, because the ubiquitous surveillance was enough to monitor the entire city. If the Enforcement Team couldn't find a match in the surveillance records, it likely meant the two had flawless methods of changing identities, making it very unlikely for anyone to encounter them—unless someone familiar deliberately leaked information.
Xu Huo didn't know the specifics of the Enforcement Team's operations. Time quickly passed to evening, and Bai Kou's dedicated vehicle had already arrived outside the hotel, along with Bai Kou herself.
"Miss Kou Kou personally coming to pick me up—I'm truly flattered."
Bai Kou, who seemed to be in a bad mood, glanced at him. "Then you can talk less."
"I have a gift for you. More precisely, for your little sister." Xu Huo took out a doll gift box that a female player had purchased for him. "The Enforcement Team members helped me pick it out. They have good taste."
"You've wasted all the team rules you memorized," Bai Kou said flatly. "Actually leaking information to outsiders."
"This isn't exactly a secret." Xu Huo paused, then said, "Are you dragging me into this to sabotage this engagement?"
The fact that Bai Kou had a connection with him didn't need to be made so obvious. Allowing him into the Mechanical Castle, taking him to her private laboratory for activation experiments, and deliberately agreeing to have dinner with him in front of others—any normal person could see there was something fishy going on.
"The residents of Platinum Eye seem to be quite optimistic about this engagement," he continued. "Preparations for the celebration started several months early."
"That's because most of them don't know that the person getting engaged this time is only an eight-year-old child." Bai Kou looked at the city and people outside the car window. "An eight-year-old child, engaged to a twenty-two-year-old young man. Only the Mayor's wife could come up with something so absurd."
"I've looked into some gossip about old-school game families. Engagements with large age gaps aren't uncommon." Xu Huo studied her. After evolution, people's lifespans had greatly extended. Arranging relationships ten or twenty years in advance wasn't really that rare.
Bai Kou turned back, expressionless, and looked at him. "People shouldn't be too clever."
"Then that proves I guessed right." Xu Huo smiled. This engagement was essentially a cooperation between two forces, using the engagement as a form to sign an alliance. Bai Kou not only wanted to sabotage the engagement but also wanted to sabotage the relationship between both parties. There had to be deeper intentions involved.
"Still the same words," he said. "If you need help, just say the word."
Bai Kou's expression relaxed slightly. She leaned back in her seat, letting her body loosen a bit. "You're already helping me now."
It wasn't a polite refusal. It was just that Xu Huo alone couldn't influence the situation.
Similarly, this wasn't some petty jealousy trick, especially since Bai Kou and Lang Zongjing weren't the ones engaged.
"The Lang family has special tracking methods. Don't let them follow you." Before getting out of the car, Bai Kou reminded him.
The two arrived at Platinum Eye's most famous restaurant. The entire top floor had been reserved for them. The lights concentrated in the central area only illuminated the square dining table and chairs, while everywhere else was decorated with gold-edged roses. Gold powder that could glow in the dark outlined the shape of every rose, exuding a unique romantic atmosphere.
Casually pulling out a rose from the side and taking a deep sniff, Xu Huo said with amusement, "Was all this spectacle really necessary?"
"The person who made the reservation misunderstood my intentions." Bai Kou shrugged. "Let's just go with it."
(Chapter End)