"Yeah, for slaughter," retorted Jian Wei.
Jian Ci slurped the steam off his ramen and shrugged. "What? I used a lot of energy. I need to replenish it."
Jian Rui turned back to Yu Xi, but noticed the young man wasn't looking at him. Yu Xi's gaze was fixed past his shoulder, locked onto Jian Ci. Yu Xi watched the way Jian Ci blew gently at the noodles, completely absorbed in the moment, utterly unaware that he had been caught staring.
Jian Rui glanced back at his brother, half expecting him to be doing some dramatic gesture or doing something interesting that drew Yu Xi's attention. But Jian Ci was just… eating. Nothing special. Yet Yu Xi's eyes lingered, quiet and unreadable.
"You, be it unintentional, messed up our plans," Jian Rui said, voice low.
Yu Xi opened his mouth to respond, but Jian Ci interrupted, stabbing his fork into the noodles. "You should have killed him earlier," he said, glancing at Yu Xi.
Yu Xi looked away, something flickering in his eyes.
Jian Wei rolled his eyes and smacked Jian Ci upside the head. "Eat."
Jian Ci grumbled but obeyed.
Jian Rui turned back to Yu Xi. "We needed information on Gander's research. Now that he's dead, it puts us in an awkward position."
Yu Xi looked down, his posture heavy with something that resembled shame. But it wasn't shame. It was regret. He regretted kill Gander so soon. If he had known Jian Ci would need him alive he could have. Maybe Jian Ci could have gotten what he came for.
"He recorded all his research," Yu Xi said suddenly, voice quiet but clear. "Maybe that can help."
Jian Wei frowned. "I scanned the entire building. There is no sign of his servers."
Yu Xi lifted his hand and pointed. "Behind you." All three turned. A glass cabinet stood against the wall, filled with vials and chemicals. It was ordinary at first glance.
"There's a panel on the side," Yu Xi explained. "You need a drop of his blood. It will unlock."
Jian Ci glanced at Yu Xi, a smirk tugging at his lips. There was something in his eyes... approval, maybe even admiration.
Yu Xi looked away, his expression unreadable, the flicker of emotion buried beneath practiced stillness.
Neither of them noticed Jian Rui watching them both, his gaze lingering. He didn't speak, but something in his silence suggested he was trying to figure out what was going on between them.
Soon, Jian Wei returned with a vial of Gander's blood, handed to him by the mercenary Jian Rui had dispatched. He didn't speak as he approached the glass cabinet, he only tapped the side with practiced precision. A floating screen shimmered into existence, its interface pulsing faintly.
He placed a single drop of blood onto the protruding glass slate.
The slate slid back in with a soft hiss, followed by a mechanical click. The cabinet groaned, then rotated slowly, revealing what lay hidden behind the facade. It was a high-grade server, sleek and humming, the same kind as the ones reserved for the empire's most classified research.
Jian Wei didn't flinch. He had expected this. Gander could neglect everything else but never his work. This server was his true legacy. To steal it was to kill him twice.
Jian Wei's fingers danced across the screen, unlocking layer after layer of encrypted files. His eyes widened with each revelation.
There were specimen logs, genetic trials, psychic augmentation failures and Incineration records. Dozens upon dozens were dead. Most of them children. All of them his own blood.
Jian Wei's stomach turned. The sheer volume of suffering cataloged with clinical detachment made his skin crawl.
Jian Ci caught the shift in his brother's expression and asked, "How bad is it?"
Jian Wei didn't answer immediately. He just stared at the screen, jaw clenched.
"Bad," he finally said. "Worse than we thought. He built his entire research on corpses."
Jian Ci had expected they would uncover sinister, malicious things. The captives alone had told a story of cruelty, but he knew the worst was always hidden, buried in files, sealed behind passwords and masked by clinical language.
Jian Wei didn't speak. He opened a file. A video began to play. A young boy screamed, his voice raw and panicked, as a thick serum was injected directly into his joints. The camera didn't flinch. It recorded everything from the restraints, the trembling limbs and the agony.
Jian Wei froze, eyes locked on the screen. It took him a moment to react.
Jian Ci turned his head and saw Yu Xi gripping the snack packet, knuckles white, head bowed. Without hesitation, he stood up and shut the screen off.
Jian Wei exhaled, his eyes red. "Sorry," he murmured, voice hoarse.
Jian Ci had seen the boy's face. They were young and small but that was unmistakably Yu Xi.
Jian Rui felt the tension thicken thus he cleared his throat and asked, "Can we take this entire system with us?"
Jian Wei nodded. "Yeah. But we will need to be careful during transport. It's sensitive."
Jian Ci sat back down, picked up his ramen, and blew on it absently.
He took a bite but it tasted like nothing. The sweetness of earlier had vanished, drowned by the bitterness of that video.
Jian Rui turned to Yu Xi, his voice calm but firm. "Your information is helpful."
Yu Xi's fingers, once clenched around the snack packet, had relaxed. But his body remained taut, like he was suspended in a trance.
Jian Rui glanced at his brothers. "Leave us for a moment."
Jian Wei nodded. "Sure."
Jian Ci, however, hesitated. His eyes narrowed slightly, silently asking him why. Jian Rui gave a subtle nudge of his head, and Jian Ci bit his lower lip before turning and walking out, the door closing softly behind him.
Yu Xi didn't look up. "What do you want his work for?"
Jian Rui folded his hands. "It doesn't really concern you," he said, then paused. "But I understand why you're asking."
He leaned forward slightly. "You're afraid what happened here will be repeated. That someone will use this research to hurt more innocent people."
Yu Xi's head remained bowed, long hair veiling his face. His eyes, once dark, now shimmered faintly green, his psychic energy leaking through the cracks of his composure.
"I don't need it for that," Jian Rui said. "And I won't let anyone outside the three of us access it. I'm trying to find a cure for Jian Ci."
Yu Xi's head lifted sharply. His gaze met Jian Rui's, the emerald glow fading from his pupils.
"He's sick?" Yu Xi asked, voice barely above a whisper.
Jian Rui nodded once, solemn. "Yes." His muscles tensed the moment Yu Xi's demeanor shifted. There was something in the way his posture straightened, the way his gaze sharpened beneath the curtain of hair that made him uncomfortable. Jian Rui swallowed the unease that crept up his spine.