Chapter 3224: Saving Zero Egg Bai Ze's Love Story 25

Yi Qi returned to Jin Manor in a huff.

The dining room was set with a full table of morning tea and snacks, steaming hot, with white vapor still rising from the baskets.

Yi Qi plopped down, grabbed his chopsticks, snatched an egg pancake, and took a big fierce bite; the pancake was fried golden and crisp, tasting good, but he chewed with such ferocity, cheeks bulging, looking less like he was having breakfast and more like he was fighting it.

The servant cautiously handed him a cup of soy milk; Yi Qi took it and drank, his expression still grim, as if that cup of soy milk owed him eight hundred thousand.

Servant: "……"

Footsteps came from the spiral staircase.

Yi Qi lifted his head and stared unblinkingly as Jin Chen came down from upstairs. Jin Chen entered the dining room, saw Yi Qi's tiger-like glare, and raised an eyebrow.

He sat down beside Yi Qi, casually ruffling his hair, and said, "What's up? You're acting like a firecracker first thing in the morning."

A servant promptly brought him his usual coffee and a few baskets of dim sum. Jin Chen picked up his chopsticks, took a shrimp dumpling, and ate it slowly, still thinking that he had specially asked the kitchen to make more tasty food. Now that he's become human, it's different—no amount of delicious food can heal this kid's mood.

Yi Qi swallowed the egg pancake in his mouth, spoke bluntly, "You also know I have the X reagent, what do you think?"

Jin Chen commented concisely, "It's an explosive; hide it well."

Yi Qi continued staring at him, deliberately asking, "You don't want it?"

Jin Chen warily put down his chopsticks, "What do I need that thing for? Don't think you can dump this hot potato on me."

Yi Qi froze for a moment; he wanted to see Jin Chen's attitude toward the X reagent. Although the cheap older brother usually seemed unreliable, he was ultimately the next head of the Jin Consortium, who could summon wind and rain on this continent. If Jin Chen, like those from the Nine Districts, also coveted what he held, he at least wanted to know where he stood.

Yi Qi immediately gave his older brother a tiny parenthetical smile, then continued lowering his head to fiercely tear at the egg pancake.

Jin Chen looked at his overly childish demeanor, waited until Yi Qi had almost finished his egg pancake, then finally pulled out a few printed sheets from the file bag beside him, "This concerns Bai Ze in that organization in the Nine Districts. I used military connections to find out a bit—do you want to hear it?"

"I don't want to hear it." Yi Qi turned his head away.

Jin Chen didn't indulge him, smiling, said, "Fine, go on eating."

As he said that, he started to stand up, really having no intention of continuing to eat.

Yi Qi: "?" He just reflexively put on a tough front; actually he was dying to hear about Bai Ze, but this cheap older brother didn't even bother to coax him.

"Hey!"

Yi Qi stared at him, mouth agape, "Don't you dare leave."

Jin Chen was pressed down by him, so he sat down anyway, calm and composed, looking at him, "Do you want to hear it or not? I'm not Bai Ze, I won't indulge you."

Yi Qi: "……"

"... I want to hear." He forced out two words with a huff, the older brother really is impossible to provoke, annoying.

Jin Chen then continued, satisfied.

He spread the documents on the dining table; there were several printed pages and a few blurry photos.

"Bai Ze comes from the Mamen Institute in the Nine Districts. This organization is notorious in the Nine Districts, its influence deep enough that even the military monitors it. Its trait is extreme greed; it likes to seize any resource that looks valuable, and once it bites down, it never lets go, like a hyena."

Yi Qi picked up the documents on the table, flipped through them, pointed at the blurry silhouette photo, and asked, "Is this him?"

Jin Chen glanced at it: "The one holding the umbrella—after comparing facial features, the similarity is ninety-eight percent."

Yi Qi's fingers traced the outline of that figure on the photo, his heart feeling something indescribable.

He put the photo down and asked again, "Then... why did he join such an organization?"

Jin Chen leaned back in his chair, tapped his fingers twice on the table, and said, "As for that, I'm still looking into it."

"His file at the Mamen Institute has been scrubbed clean; aside from the codename Qie Bu Man, there's hardly any trace of him before he joined."

"But perhaps it would be better for you to find out yourself. If he's willing to talk."

Yi Qi stared thoughtfully at those words on the documents, his mind turning over several ideas, then finally slammed his hand on the table and lifted his head.

"I want to install a tracker on Bai Ze."

Jin Chen: "……Huh?"

No wonder there would be such an ending later.

When he previously took Zero Egg on missions, he never taught it like this! How is chasing someone done this way!

Jin Chen finally couldn't hold back, reached out and tapped Yi Qi's head, saying, "Can't you just exchange your secret for his secret?"

"You're not exactly few in hiding things from him either. Bai Ze might actually want to know— isn't putting a tracker on someone worse than that?"

Yi Qi stared for two seconds, then realized and nodded, "You can do it that way too."

Jin Chen's temples twitched slightly; he swallowed the rest of what he was going to say, too lazy to lecture him further.

He took a breath before continuing, "There's another matter."

Yi Qi lifted his head to look at him.

"You've never met Bai Ze's uncle and aunt before." Jin Chen's tone eased a little.

Yi Qi said, "Bai Ze said they're all doing business overseas and don't come back much."

Jin Chen fell silent for two seconds, making Yi Qi inexplicably feel a hint of unease, "What's wrong?"

"My people found out that Bai Ze's parents died in an accident abroad five years ago; the exact city is unknown, the location is overseas near the border region, that line has always been unstable—any kind of accident could happen there."

"Perhaps this is related to Bai Ze joining the Mamen Institute." Jin Chen stopped there, not going further with speculation.

"The information he has is also limited; many details are still incomplete, leaving the rest for Yi Qi and Bai Ze to handle themselves."

Yi Qi's brows slightly furrowed, "Could it be for revenge…?"

Jin Chen picked up the communal chopsticks and added a few crystal dumplings to Yi Qi's plate, then, unusually gentle, asked, "What are you going to do? How long will this anger last this time, and will you forgive him?"

Yi Qi lowered his eyes, "If he chooses me…"

He quietly lowered his head, eyes a bit red, not wanting Jin Chen to see, so he pressed his head down further, almost burying it in the bowl.

Jin Chen saw that, then reached out and ruffled his hair again.

Becoming human requires experiencing the seven emotions and six desires; it's impossible to go back to just silly joy and eating all day—if you taste the good flavors, you must also taste the bitter ones; no one can have only the sweet half.

He isn't some dictatorial parent either; he needs to let Zero Egg go find what he feels is a worthwhile answer.