Chapter 688: Eaten Raw

The cramped little parlor was dimly lit, the atmosphere suffocating.

Tan Junjie spoke first. "Let's not bring up the past. You should rest early—I'm going on patrol."

Tan Mu grabbed the protective suit her son had picked up, her voice trembling. "Ajie, just because of a few things the child said, you've grown distant from your own brother?"

In the inner room with the door tightly shut, Tan Qi lay on the bed, biting down on the edge of her quilt.

He hadn't expected his mother to still think his falling-out with Tan Junchao was Tan Qi's fault. Tan Junjie glanced at his wristwatch, set the protective suit down, and decided to lay everything out in one go.

"I heard that at some other base, people who input the blood of an evolver's close relative triggered an evolution ability."

Tan Mu jerked her head up. "Exactly! Just a little blood, and the family gets another evolver—how wonderful is that!"

A little blood? Tan Junjie's heart sank. "Junchao is thirty-one this year, still within the evolvable age range. How about I draw four hundred milliliters of blood and transfuse it into him, to help trigger his evolution ability?"

Tan Mu shook her head at once. "You work yourself to the bone here—how could your body take being drained of that much blood all at once?"

His mother's words made Tan Junjie's heart go even colder. "Before they made their move, you already knew?"

Tan Mu shook her head at once. "A-Chao and I didn't know anything…"

"You didn't know, but Tan Junchao did. What that husband and wife wanted wasn't just Qiqi's blood, but her flesh. Because the rumor says eating the meat works better than drinking the blood, so they planned to first 'accidentally' hack off a piece of Qiqi's meat to test the effect."

Tan Junjie stared at his mother, who showed no great shock, and knew she had already guessed it. "You've surely also heard how a blood relative's meat has to be eaten for the best effect."

Eaten raw!

Although four months had already passed since the incident, Tan Junjie still couldn't control his emotions when bringing it up—killing intent surged.

"No, this can't be, how could this be…" The bloody truth torn open before her face, Tan Mu still didn't want to—or rather, didn't dare to—believe it.

Tan Junjie's voice was spitting fire. "Drawing blood and transfusing it—is that done with a kitchen cleaver? If Qiqi hadn't been alert and dodged, once Tan Jiachao and his son ate Qiqi's meat, and if it really did trigger an evolution ability, do you think they'd stop? No! To obtain a higher-level ability, they'd swallow Qiqi alive!"

Thinking of the dozens of cases of missing evolver children reported in the safe zone, Tan Junjie's breathing grew heavy.

Tan Mu covered her face and burst into tears. "Impossible, this is impossible… Jiachao wouldn't eat her. These three years, no matter what good food or drink the family had, A-Chao wouldn't touch a single chopstick himself, wouldn't let Little He eat much either—he always gave Qiqi first…"

Red-eyed, Tan Junjie stated the facts. "Qiqi's food was always delivered back by me. No one needed to defer to her."

In the inner room, Tan Qi, biting her quilt, cried even harder.

Tan Mu lowered her withered hands from her face and gazed at her elder son with tearful eyes.

Before she could speak, Tan Junjie already knew what she was going to say. "Not just Qiqi's portion—I delivered yours too. I told you and Tan Jiachao long ago: your food is yours to do with as you please, but no one is allowed to touch Qiqi's food."

Tan Mu, as if the evolution bacteria had eaten away the last trace of energy in her body, slowly lowered her head and murmured, "This time it was those two who were wrong…"

"Seven years before the catastrophe, if Junchao and his wife hadn't still remembered family ties and given me a bite to eat, I'd have starved to death long ago…"

Seeing her elder son say nothing, Tan Mu thought he was listening, and went on. "You and Qiqi are lucky—you're both evolvers, so you don't know the suffering of ordinary people. These days, ordinary people live worse than dogs…"

Tan Junjie raised his hand to check his watch, picked up the protective suit again, making his stance clear. "If you're willing to stay here, live with Qiqi, and move into the territory once the house is built. If you want to go back to the safe zone, I'll give you 100 credits a month for your old-age support and half the rent from that apartment."

Tan Mu's expression went blank. "A-Chao always listened to you since he was little, chasing after you like a little shadow. The catastrophe—it's all the catastrophe's doing…"

Tan Junjie's voice was ice-cold. "Precisely because he's my own brother, I brought their family of three along when I came to fetch you. The apartment they live in at the safe zone was rented by me, the job was found through my connections. Now they have no worries about food or drink in the safe zone—isn't that enough?"

Seeing her elder son was iron-willed, Tan Mu stopped mentioning her younger son. "Even if those two really are what you say, what fault does Little He have? He's only six… He's your own nephew. Let him come live with me and Qiqi, eat more fresh, natural food. If he can trigger an evolution ability, then when we're all gone, he and Sister Qiqi can look out for each other. In these catastrophe years, being left alone—how could anyone get by?"

"After the state issued the territory policy, I brought up the territory matter with you and Tan Junchao—he was the one who missed the chance. Qiqi is the lord of Territory Fifteen. Any member of Tan Jiachao's family who sets foot in Territory Fifteen without her permission will be punished under the Lord Law." Tan Junjie pulled the door open and walked out, gently closing it behind him, and strode away.

In the catastrophe years there was no room for trial and error. For his daughter's safety, Tan Junjie would never allow that family of three to get close to her again.

Tan Mu stood dazed in the little parlor for over ten minutes, then suddenly turned and opened her granddaughter's door.

Before she could reach the bed, Tan Qi sprang up, dropping to one knee on the bed, gripping a dagger in both hands, assuming a defensive stance.

Tan Qi's little room had no windows; the dim light from the parlor filtered in, illuminating the dagger in her hands, and shining on her swollen eyes and the wariness that pervaded her whole body.

Frightened, Tan Mu frowned. "What kind of posture is that?"

In the past, Tan Qi would be scared whenever her grandmother frowned and glared. Once she knew her father wouldn't abandon her, she was no longer afraid.

Her father had gone out on patrol; she had to protect herself—the dagger absolutely could not be put away. Because Tan Qi remembered vividly that when she told her grandmother that her second aunt was going to hack at her, the look in her grandmother's eyes was more terrifying than the knife in her second aunt's hand—and that was why Tan Qi had run out of the house, all the way to the territory to find her father.

Her granddaughter's appearance was frightening; Tan Mu didn't dare step closer. She turned on the light and softened her tone. "Qiqi, speak from your conscience—in those three years in the safe zone, did your grandmother ever mistreat you? Didn't the family always give you the good things first?"

Tan Qi spoke. "That was from my father."

Tan Mu knew at once that she had overheard their conversation. Anything she said now would be useless—she'd have to take it slow.

Two days later, when Hearing Zhu Li came to deliver the credit card for the bamboo shoots to Xia Qing, she told her about the Tan family's business. "The old lady was sweet-talked by her younger son and went back to the safe zone this morning on the transport truck. That old lady's got real nerve—still daring to go back and live under the same roof as the couple who wanted to eat their own niece's flesh."

Yesterday, when Tan Qi had come over to practice swimming, Xia Qing had already heard her chatter about it. The reason Tan Junchao used to persuade Tan Mu to go back was crystal clear: he needed Tan Junjie to pay half the rent, and he also wanted the 100 credits a month Tan Junjie gave his mother for old-age support.

As for what the old lady was thinking, Xia Qing wasn't interested. She wanted to know where Hearing Zhu Li had gotten all this information.