XG 159 - I also carried lots of dead bodies before

"You won't be able to rest properly here. Father, can you help me carry Yibo to his room? I will need to carry the food instead."

After glancing at his father's slender frame, Chen YiWen changed his mind. "On second thought, I remember seeing Xue Guo's bodyguard around just now. I will get him to help."

It would be bad if their father accidentally sprained his back. Even if Chen Yibo had lost a lot of his fat, he was still heavy for a researcher that does not do heavy lifting normally. He was also afraid that his father's clumsy lifting might actually break something inside the currently fragile-looking Chen Yibo.

Director Chen grunted. "What's with the hassle? Isn't it good that he is resting here? No one will interrupt him here without permission."

His mind was completely focused on his job now that his youngest son woken up. Thus, he failed to catch the hints.

"Familiar environment is still an important factor to ease his mind to recover his body well. Father, please help me feed Yibo while I ask for help."

"YiWen-"

Chen YiWen passed the spoon to his father. "Hurry, father. Both of us are busy."

It was awkward, as Chen Yibo never had the memory of his father feeding him. Before Director Chen possibly feed his youngest son, Chen YiWen had already returned with Mocking.

With dirty-looking attire, Mocking arched an eyebrow upon seeing Chen Yibo's white hair. "Ah? Are you the reason why the little girl- ... miss is looking for hair dye? You look quite cool in white too."

"I think you misunderstood..." Chen Yibo helplessly said, but also worried about why Wong Xue Guo would want hair dye for. The last time he saw her, she had a head full of black, glossy hair.

He had asked her not to test his ability without him, but that was before the confession. She might have ignored his request and proceeded to continue her shadow experimentation. Kang Xunsu should be overseeing her, so whatever happened should not be out of hand.

"Mocking, we will need your help to carry Yibo to his room, please," Chen YiWen requested.

"No problem. I'd been moving heavy things around since I got here anyway. I also carried lots of dead bodies before."

Chen YiWen gave Mocking a suspicious glance from his last comment. He remembered seeing Mocking lifting a black bag when he called him earlier. His heavy-duty glove had a very suspicious stain and that black bag does resemble a human figure...

No way, right?

Chen YiWen firmly told himself it was just a zombie body that the corpse department experimented with!

Unlike his elder brother, Chen Yibo was not outright shocked, because he had heard some of his history from Kang Xunsu.

Mocking was an ex-prisoner that started afresh after fifteen years of jail time for murdering a drug dealer. With a good lawyer and justice as his reason for committing the crime to lighten his punishment, Mocking was not granted the death penalty.

When Chen Yibo first heard of that, he was worried for Wong Xue Guo's safety. But Aunt Suzie already knew about it and still accept Mocking under her employment. The main reason was that Mocking was a 'family friend', and they never blamed him for killing the drug dealer.

The young Chen Yibo was very uncomfortable with the issue of murder and never got close to Mocking, or even attempt to have a conversation with him. As a child, it was not appropriate to question the adult's judgement on things that he was not sure of. But as he grew older and discover that the world did not only consist of black and white colour, he learned to put down his personal opinion toward Mocking when he does not know the entire truth of the incident.

Chen YiWen had firmly rejected it when Mocking wanted to carry his brother like a sack of potatoes. So princess carry was it, much to Chen Yibo's embarrassment. As a grown-up man, to be carried in this pose was quite hard to accept, even if he was a patient.

As soon as they reached Chen's apartment without any other peeping eye on them, Mocking did not linger around. "Don't get angry with the little miss for long. She could be pretentious and haughty at times, but she is a good girl... deep down."

"I'm not angry with her," Chen Yibo protested, flustered.

"Ah, really?"

For the first time, he heard Mocking's inner voice. ["She was acting like it was her fault for their argument."]

A pang of guilt shot straight to Chen Yibo's heart. He had apologized but it did nothing to make her feel better.

"Did you really argue with Xue Guo?" Chen YiWen sounded a little disapprovingly. "A gentleman should be more courteous towards a lady."

If it was someone else that was being told of that, that would have started an argument. But it was Chen Yibo, who agreed with his elder brother's view.

"I did not handle it properly."

"Sometimes, just an apology is not enough." Chen YiWen's disapproval eased, seeing that Chen Yibo mean it.

"I will look for her later."

Chen YiWen nodded approvingly. "Yibo, can you tell me your ability now?"

Chen Yibo wanted to sigh for a long time but resisted his immature desire. "I'm pretty sure my ability is mind reading."

['Fuck?"] This was quite a rare occasion to have Chen YiWen mouth a cuss word. Or thought of a cuss word.

In contrast to Chen YiWen, Father Chen's mind which was previously full of research was abnormally silent now.

It was so silent that it unnerved Chen Yibo and had him check if his father was still conscious.

"Five." ["What am I thinking now?"]

Chen YiWen realized he mixed up the sequence and very calmly admitted it. "My mistake. What am I thinking now?"

["Chen Yibo."]

"My name." Chen Yibo's mouth curved into a smile.

"What about now?" ["Eat your curry rice."]

"I think I can eat the curry rice by myself now." Chen Yibo lifted a hand, an inch away from his lap, still trembling slightly.

Both father and son handled Chen Yibo's ability reveal rather acceptingly and started discussing what they should do about his ability.

"We can discuss that later," Chen Yibo interrupted. "It's more important to settle Ms Miu's matters, right?"

"... Originally, we also thought Miu was a goner when she suddenly went into hysterics. We had to knock her out. She had come about in a calmer state and told us what happened to her. She had trouble seeing the future as she constantly got different results."

["From intact objects to smashed ones, going back and forth nearly drives her crazy."]

"Does that mean this place will be attacked in the future?" Or else how would they explain smashed items? Unless there was an accident, none of them had the luxury to carelessly break things.

Chen YiWen rubbed his chin, with a slight stumble he had not had the chance to shave with the piling up work.

Apocalypse makes him even busier compared to normal working days.

"Chin Chun did mention our information had been leaked out recently. Yibo's ability would be able to be put to good use for this."

Director Chen eyed Chen Yibo. "Don't speak of your ability to anyone."

"We will need to give you a good cover and allow you to prove it seamlessly." ["This will be difficult."]

"I'm sorry."

Chen YiWen looked surprised when his younger brother suddenly apologized, and then realized he was answering his thoughts. "It would take a while for me to get used to it."

["I don't mind Yibo knowing my secrets. Good brothers do not need secrets between them."]

That thought and Chen YiWen's reassuring smile eased the worry in Chen Yibo's heart. He was truly afraid that his intruding ability would have him disliked by his only sibling. His ability was rather invasive of a person's privacy after all.

Just look at his father, for example. He had occasionally thought about his research, but now it was as if the connection was completely cut off. He was struggling not to think of anything so that his youngest son would be able to peep at his private thoughts.

For his father's sake, Chen Yibo strove to ignore his thoughts and focused on his brother instead, who does not mind having his thoughts known.