The child’s figure disappeared among the crowd of medical staff and peacekeeping forces, the soldiers inquiring about Wei Tianyang’s whereabouts.
He shook his head and immediately ran toward the sedan parked by the roadside.
Behind him, the female doctor called out, asking him to wait, but he didn’t look back.
Once in the car, the driver started the engine, and his heartbeat was still as intense as ever. Kacha nudged him with his elbow and said, "How did you know there were survivors there?"
Wei Tianyang glanced at Kacha and then bowed his head, frowning in silence.
Sitting in the passenger seat, Starbucks cradled a backpack in his arms, the bomb still in their possession.
"We’d better think carefully about how to explain this to Yaha," added Kacha.
"I’ll go talk to him," Wei Tianyang said.
The car made its way back to the Pei Guode Hotel, and the three of them arrived outside room 707, hearing Yaha inside, talking to someone.
Kacha hesitated about whether to knock on the door, but Wei Tianyang directly turned the doorknob and entered.
Yaha was standing by the window in his white coat, on the phone. His brows furrowed in irritation at the sound of the door opening.
But seeing that it was Wei Tianyang and his companions, his frown eased, and a smile spread across his face.
"... I will arrive as promised tomorrow, yes... Goodbye."
He hung up the phone and opened his arms to the three men, saying, "Tell me that the factory has vanished into smoke and dust."
He keenly noticed the backpack in Starbucks’s hands and his tone darkened slightly, "Oh... I mean how could you manage to return before dinner, it couldn’t be that..."
"The factory is gone," Wei Tianyang stated.
A look of surprise crossed Yaha’s face, "Then... what’s in the bag? A gift for me?"
Starbucks spoke cautiously, "It wasn’t us... We hadn’t made our move yet when a fighter jet came and dropped four thermobaric bombs."
Yaha’s pupils darted around in their sockets as he looked away, contemplative for a moment. Just under two seconds later, he turned his gaze back to the three men in front of him.
He walked quickly around the table to approach them, saying, "Come here."
Starbucks and Kacha moved closer to Wei Tianyang, and then Yaha embraced them.
"If you had been in the factory this morning, it would have been the last time I saw you..." Yaha spoke softly.
"I’m so glad you’re back..." He held the three of them tight, his eyes closed, repeating the words.
After the brief moment of warmth, he quickly returned to the table, picked up his phone as if to dial a number, but after a moment’s hesitation, he put the phone back down.
"You guys go get some rest. I’ll figure out what’s really going on here," Yaha said.
Starbucks and Kacha nodded and were about to leave the room, but Wei Tianyang remained standing there.
"Hey..." Starbucks urged softly.
Wei Tianyang suddenly spoke, "Yaha, I have a question for you."
Yaha nodded, "Go ahead."
"After the factory was bombed, we saved a little girl who was badly burned and on the brink of death," Wei Tianyang said.
Yaha was taken aback, "You brought her back here?"
"No... I was going to, but then we decided to send her to the refugee camp," Wei Tianyang responded.
Yaha nodded, but Wei Tianyang could tell he was surely relieved on the inside.
"That was the right decision, so?" Yaha asked.
"I think I should have brought her here, at least you could have saved her life," Wei Tianyang said.
"Well, I hope she can afford the medical fees; my rates are very high," Yaha said with a laugh.
"She has nothing," Wei Tianyang replied.
Yaha shook his head, "Ishmael, we don’t have the spare capacity to play the good Samaritan."
He walked to the table and looked up at the mice in a cage.
"Look, we’re not much different from these mice. Do you think we are superheroes from comic books? When Superman flies in the sky, he doesn’t need to inject a neutralizer into his neck."
"Give me a whole box of neutralizer, and I could cure all the patients and wounded in Kongse. But what difference would that make? Billions of people in the world, and every day, poor people die because they can’t afford healthcare, but there’s only one me."
"There are too many people in need of help, plus, you underestimate the vile nature of humanity. If your kindness is not priced, it becomes your duty."
"We are cursed, Ishmael, and these abilities don’t come without a cost... We’re not superheroes; didn’t you say we were the walking dead from Hell?"
"Once we’re out of neutralizer, our own spinal toxins will kill us, no one will come to save us, no one will feel sorry for us."
"So..." Yaha said, his face showing annoyance with Wei Tianyang for the first time, "Put away your kindness. I only need your anger, not your compassion."
Wei Tianyang’s heart beat a little faster, his right hand’s fingers trembling, the tips sharpening into the form of Bone Knife blades.
His eyes flashed dangerously, aiming at Yaha’s neck and then sliding downward to his throat, collarbone, chest, abdomen... all vulnerabilities...
In less than two seconds, Wei Tianyang could make Yaha painfully collapse on the ground, in a pool of blood, among his own intestines...
Yaha was also nervous, his hands clutching the edge of the table, fingertips turning white, palms sweating.
Wei Tianyang took a deep breath, suppressed his rage—Yaha was right, kindness should not be without cost.
"Since you value the neutralizer so highly, you shouldn’t be playing with your own body every night."
Wei Tianyang’s eyes shimmered with a red hue as he spoke coldly.
Yaha’s face turned bright red, filled with shame, anger, and helplessness in every corner of his heart. He looked at Wei Tianyang in disbelief, lips parted but unable to speak.
"Yaha... I see not vengeance in your eyes, but calculation and ambition. What are you truly after?"
With those words, Wei Tianyang turned and left.
Watching his retreating back, Kacha and Starbucks’s expressions turned awkward, but Yaha said nothing, merely waving them away.
Once all three had left, Yaha’s previously tense body finally relaxed.
He sank to the ground against the table, breathing heavily, recalling the murderous gaze in Wei Tianyang’s eyes.
He knew very well he had no chance of winning in a fight against him.
But he had never thought of resisting.
Like a cat testing its owner’s limits, he closed his eyes, a slight smirk curling his lips.
"Ha ha ha... ha ha ha ha..." Yaha began to laugh, covering his forehead, pushing back the sweat-drenched white hair.
"Starting from the neck, huh?"
He licked his lips, his tongue flicking out as he said so.