Chapter 3

The operation lasted around ten hours, and the anesthetic wore off several times during it. The man felt no pain, but his nervous reflexes remained intact.

He unleashed terrifying strength inside the ring-shaped chamber, instinctively breaking free of his restraints and inflicting a number of gruesome wounds on himself in the process.

As a result, Chu Zu had to spend a little longer in the treatment pod.

By the time he left the operating room, it was already the following afternoon.

Chu Zu was in no hurry to work for Luciano. He first went to the Esposito Medical Department to pick up Dai Xian.

Dai Xian's injuries were severe. All her teeth had been pulled out, her broken ribs had pierced her internal organs, and the tibias in both legs had been fractured clean through.

Until it obtained the password from Tangqi, Esposito would not use cyborg technology. The treatment could originally have been completed by replacing her organs with mechanical ones, but using only a treatment pod and nanobots took no less time than Chu Zu's operation.

It was also excruciating, enough to qualify as torture.

When Chu Zu picked her up, Dai Xian was physically whole and unharmed, but she could not stand up from her wheelchair.

Dressed only in a loose white dress, with no makeup on, Dai Xian stared blankly ahead, trembling all over. She looked much younger than the age on her ID.

Chu Zu walked around behind her and took the wheelchair handles from the caregiver.

"Let's go home."

"You don't have a home," the system reminded him again. "Are you taking Dai Xian to the Esposito ancestral home?"

Chu Zu took it in stride. "Does Dai Xian own a place in the Upper District?"

The system said, "Several."

"They're mine now." Chu Zu had the system choose the one with the best surroundings and pull up its location. Rather than take a vehicle, he pushed the wheelchair along the sidewalk.

It was nearly dusk by the time they reached the address. The towering buildings had swallowed the sun early, and only at this hour could the neon lights not pollute the golden glow.

The system had picked a very ordinary residence with a full range of amenities. A member of the Upper District's middle class could spend a few decades saving for the down payment, then work for a few more decades to pay off the loan.

Since ownership lasted for around a hundred years, it could perhaps be called a good deal.

It was the busiest time of day. Tear tracks still marked Dai Xian's face as she stared blankly through the crowd toward the setting sun.

An android provided by the residential complex came over attentively and asked with concern, "Ma'am, do you need help?"

"No." Using the system's low-level password, Chu Zu opened the door in a few quick moves and pushed Dai Xian inside.

His ear bone vibrated twice. The messages were from the butler Jeeves: Luciano had dumped around a dozen tasks on him.

Chu Zu ignored them. He turned on the lights, carried Dai Xian to the sofa, then rummaged through the study until he found a notebook and pen and sat down in front of her.

"You can go find Tangqi." The device implanted in Chu Zu had a listening function, so he wrote the words on the paper.

Dai Xian clutched the notebook, then held it to her chest. Her lips moved, and she finally spoke.

"You'll die."

"Everyone dies."

"What do you want?"

"What Luci promised me."

Trembling, Dai Xian took the pen from Chu Zu and wrote a crooked line in the notebook.

"Do you want to become Luciano?"

The man sat upright, his fingers naturally relaxed, though they occasionally curled and twitched involuntarily because of the earlier operation. Dai Xian did not know what expression he wore when facing Luciano, but it certainly was not like the one he wore now.

His eyes were not focused at all. He was not looking at the line in the notebook or at Dai Xian. Those things, insignificant to him, were not in his eyes.

Under Dai Xian's gaze, the corners of Chu Zu's mouth suddenly curved upward.

In that instant, the man underwent a transformation.

The person before Dai Xian was someone else entirely. A faint smile ruled his face, and the elusive scarlet deep in his pupils held a breathtaking brilliance. No one could look away from his gaze, as though their very soul were about to be swallowed up.

Dai Xian could not connect his expression with the word "smile" at all. She saw no joy, nor the mockery Luciano so often displayed.

He did not even understand what a "smile" was. He merely thought he should smile now, so he did, using it to answer the question on the paper.

Whether the answer was yes or no no longer mattered. He had made his position clear.

Dai Xian drifted into a daze again, her pale face frozen like a sculpture. The room was kept at a comfortable temperature, but all she felt was cold.

Should I go find Tangqi?

Luciano would not allow an information broker to side with anyone but him, but Chu Zu kept his word. He had fulfilled the promise he had just made in an instant, even though he himself was walking a tightrope.

He had said she could go find Tangqi, so she would certainly reach the Lower District alive.

Dai Xian was convinced of it.

She still felt cold.

Dai Xian knew perfectly well what Luciano had promised Chu Zu.

Food, the sun, all the best things.

Damn it, does Luciano really know what he promised?

What Luciano wanted, Tangqi wanted too. They fought over it for their own narrow ambitions or noble banners.

But in the ever-shifting arena of power, only one person could wear the crown and pass into immortality.

Wouldn't that count as the best thing?

What chilled Dai Xian to the bone was not Chu Zu's desire, hidden so completely from view, nor the terror of having that desire willingly revealed to her several times.

It was the genuine purity Chu Zu showed.

Chu Zu knew what Luciano was doing and understood what Tangqi wanted. He could judge right and wrong in the worldly sense, but none of it had anything to do with him.

Ever since he was twelve, Chu Zu had been promised the best things. That was all he had to remember.

And recently, Chu Zu had finally realized that Luciano would never be able to keep his promise and give him "the best things."

Then he would take them himself.

The buzzing that had been in her head since treatment began suddenly grew louder. Dai Xian knew it was merely an aftereffect of her strained nerves, something even the treatment device could not improve.

She nearly fell off the sofa, but Chu Zu caught her.

Dai Xian shoved him away in terror, as though the man were more frightening than Luciano, who brought despair and pain.

As the hand on her shoulder withdrew, the warmth remaining in Dai Xian's body gradually dissipated into the air.

"I still have work to do." Chu Zu rose and looked down at Dai Xian as though he were the owner of the house. "See you later."

Dai Xian sat on the sofa all night.

At seven thirty the next morning, the residential complex began playing soothing music. The sound slipped in through the opening door, then faded as it closed.

The man returned wearing the same clothes he had gone out in, a little dust on his cuffs and the ends of his hair slightly damp.

He paid no attention to Dai Xian on the sofa and went straight to the bathroom. The sound of running water started and stopped again shortly afterward, and the previously faint smell of iron became hard to conceal.

Chu Zu came out of the bathroom and pulled on a newly purchased shirt.

Dai Xian studied him. He still looked no different from usual, though she caught an occasional glimpse of seven or eight strips of special medical tape on his upper body beneath the shirt.

Chu Zu tucked his shirt into his trousers, completely covering the wounds.

"Have you made up your mind?" Chu Zu asked.

"You'll die." Dai Xian's voice was hoarse.

"Everyone dies," Chu Zu said again.

"I don't want to die." Dai Xian dug her fingertips into her palm.

The woman wore no makeup, and her face was so pale it was translucent. A close look finally revealed the fine wrinkles at the corners of her eyes.

As far as she could remember, she had never said those words to anyone. People from the lower strata would only find them laughable, while people from the upper strata would offer her a show of comfort, leaving Dai Xian with nothing but embarrassment and humiliation.

"Luci wants the password." Chu Zu pulled up the house's smart butler service and ordered two breakfasts. "Get the password from Tangqi, and you won't die."

"You've already helped him get Mitoli's technology. If you let him get the Tang Family's password too, the entire upper strata will become his toys. Neither you nor I will be of any use anymore."

"At least you can live until then."

"What about you?"

"That's none of your concern."

Dai Xian felt there was really nothing to discuss with Chu Zu.

He truly was a block of foul, cold black iron. He gave no thought to people's feelings, spoke briefly and went straight to the heart of the matter. Once he had expressed his view, he paid it no further attention, too lazy to say another word.

Dai Xian suddenly wanted to stop caring about everything, stop caring whether Luciano was listening, and say it outright: Didn't you save me because you wanted me on your side?

You showed me your desire. Wasn't that because you wanted another departed soul on your lonely, perilous road ahead?

Then why are you giving me that nasty look?

"I can't get the password," Dai Xian said. "Tangqi is a pathological idealist. He can go to his death for his ideals without blinking, and for those same ideals he can watch other people die. Even if Luciano threatened him with the entire Lower District, he still wouldn't hand over the password. He'd simply make sure both sides went down together. Whoever shattered his ideals, he'd make them pay."

Chu Zu gave her another look. "You don't think much of Tangqi."

"I think even less of Luciano." Dai Xian smiled bitterly. "I'm neither from the upper strata nor the lower strata. I sold out the teacher who set me on this path, and I killed someone who saved me. When you said we were going home, I couldn't think of a single home I could return to. There's no one in this world more marginal than an information broker."

"There is." Chu Zu thought for a moment. "Do you think I'm from the upper strata or the lower strata?"

Dai Xian said, "..."

"And I don't care," Chu Zu said quietly. "Other than what Luci promised me, I don't care about anything."

"He... might not be willing."

"I know." Chu Zu nodded calmly. "I had the operation and became one of his toys. Luci doesn't need to give a toy anything, but I hope he'll keep our agreement."

"You frighten me," Dai Xian said softly.

Only after the words left her mouth did she remember that she should not have voiced her thoughts. Chu Zu's lack of a temper did not mean he was good-tempered, and they were talking under Luciano's surveillance. She should not say anything that might arouse suspicion.

Chu Zu had left no openings, but she could not do the same.

The moment she realized that Chu Zu's way of doing things was to give first and then demand repayment by force, she remembered their conversation on the train. It struck her then that she had been placed in the same position as Luciano.

What had she done to deserve that?

Chu Zu had been even more lenient with her than with Luciano, giving her another option: did she want to go to Tangqi?

Dai Xian fell silent and turned to look out the window.

The morning light cast a warm glow over the Upper District. The residential complex released artificial birds to create what people imagined a morning should be, hovercars stopped at designated stations, and the teachers responsible for taking children to and from school were all androids.

In fact, a few of the children lining up to board were androids too. Parents without children could pay to have one custom-made, with specifications detailed enough to determine the angle of the child's smile when acting affectionately toward them.

Android children did not grow up. When they reached the age at which they ought to have grown up, their parents had to consider ordering another child.

How dull, Dai Xian thought. What difference is there between marginal people like us and androids?

Functional roles, appearing when they were useful and waiting to be disposed of when they were not.

She thought again of herself, all smiles and easy conversation as she moved between both sides.

After Luciano's people caught her, she was held down in front of a mirror and made to watch herself being tortured. In the mirror, the woman's teeth were pulled out one by one, her head floating in a stinking gutter.

At the time, she had thought that if she died, then she died, just like the teacher she had betrayed and those scrapped androids. She had done her best. If she could not stay alive, there was no shame in it.

But Chu Zu's damned promise was troubling her thoughts again.

I don't want to die.

If Chu Zu could make that thought suddenly occur to Dai Xian, wasn't he frightening?

Dai Xian stared steadily at the man. After a long time, she heard herself speak, her voice distant and unfamiliar. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Mm," Chu Zu said.

The fully automated kitchen appliances announced that breakfast was ready: highly concentrated nutrient solution, 3D-printed bread, and synthetic protein bars.

Chu Zu went to the kitchen to bring out the trays, while Dai Xian went to the bathroom to wash up.

She saw the trash can beside her, piled with bloodied tissues and disposable syringes. After a moment's thought, she went to the living room and found the notebook.

Chu Zu handed Dai Xian her utensils, and Dai Xian handed him what she had written:

[Lower Eighteenth District, Sydney, Luciano's illegitimate son.]

Luciano himself could not count how many people he had slept with, and he had always taken proper precautions.

He was an Esposito who hated the very idea of an heir more than anyone. The cold, two-headed snake needed no other bloodline to share power with him, not even his own flesh and blood.

Chu Zu read it without a change of expression, silently tore up the page, and dropped the pieces into the nutrient solution in front of him.

Dai Xian also gently tore up the sentence she had written earlier and dropped it into her cup.

They clinked their cups in unspoken understanding.

The secrets were swallowed down their esophagi and into their stomachs, waiting to be completely dissolved by stomach acid.

"I'm going out to work at four this afternoon," Chu Zu said. "Is there anything you need me to bring back?"

Dai Xian shook her head. "You've already given me enough."