Chapter 7

On the way back after the negotiations, the system was still worried that Luciano was plotting something, but Chu Zu said, "Do you know about Cognitive Dissonance Theory and self-interest motivation?"

The system didn't, but it could look them up.

"Cognitive dissonance" referred to the psychological discomfort a person felt when holding two contradictory beliefs or attitudes. This discomfort prompted the person to adjust their beliefs or behavior to reduce the conflict.

"Self-interest motivation" referred to the self-interest driving a person's actions, even when those actions appeared to be for the benefit of others or society.

"Little Lu sneers at morality, but he has always followed the principle of exchange to maintain the arrogance his identity and status give him in front of you. When he realized that his actions didn't match what he'd consistently promised you, he developed a condescending sort of 'guilt.'"

The system applied the theory to the situation as soon as it had learned it. "But he doesn't actually care about your feelings. He's just reassuring himself and making a superficial effort to reduce his cognitive dissonance."

"And now Sydney counts as a hostage too. For the child's sake, your 'rebellion and depravity' will have to stop for a while."

System: "Wow, now I get it."

Chu Zu arrived at his front door. Since Sydney had come, the house was no longer as stark and bare as before. The walls had been repainted, and a video intercom with a cartoon frame had been installed beside the door.

Before, once the intercom detected someone stopping outside, it would connect automatically, and the door would open. Sydney would come rushing out, jump into the man's arms, and call him Dad in an exaggerated manner.

But not today. Chu Zu unlocked the door with the code, and as soon as he pulled it open a crack, he smelled a strong burning odor.

Smoke filled the house, and the child's coughing mingled with the woman's sighs.

Sydney stood on a little stool, holding a plate of something pitch-black and looking as if he wanted to cry but had no tears. When he saw Chu Zu, he immediately tried to destroy the evidence in his hands.

"What did he set on fire?" Chu Zu asked Dai Xian.

Dai Xian lifted Sydney down from the chair. "Tell him yourself."

Sydney squirmed for a long moment. "I wanted to make mango pie with mango-flavored protein bars, but something went wrong with the machine, so..."

Dai Xian said, "There's nothing wrong with the machine."

Sydney choked out, "Sorry, Dad, I blew up the kitchen."

Chu Zu stepped forward and crouched down. "Are you hurt?"

"...I don't think so."

"Mm." The man took the plate from him. "Come out with me tomorrow."

"Huh?"

"We'll buy mango pie."

Sydney's eyes lit up, and he nodded vigorously. "Thanks, Dad!"

With a quiet click, the system secretly took a picture of the heartwarming moment between its host and the child he had saved. It named the photo "HolyFatherandChild" and planned to use it as its standby wallpaper.

This is wonderful, it thought happily. Chu Zu was kindhearted and highly capable at his job. It was wonderful to have been assigned to the same team as him!

The days spent raising a child flew by. If Chu Zu hadn't asked every so often how far the plot had progressed, the system could easily have forgotten that it was still on a mission in Crown of Neon Light.

Apart from Esposito's "daily work," Chu Zu usually came home and stayed with Sydney.

Just as Dai Xian had said, he had no idea how to care for a child, and he wasn't very conscious of being a father. Chu Zu took a completely hands-off approach to Sydney, never interfering with whatever the child wanted to do.

Sydney was full of little tricks. He played dumb when it came to important matters, but the curiosity natural to a normal twelve-year-old was always stirring.

Blowing up the kitchen was only the beginning.

When Chu Zu was away, he would sneak into the secret room and rummage through all of Dai Xian's intelligence. When caught, he would start playing the victim.

Chu Zu didn't mind and told Sydney to put everything he had messed up back in order, but Dai Xian had had enough.

The woman stood outside the secret room with her arms crossed, sneering at the guilty-looking Sydney. "Where did you pick up that bad habit?"

Sydney scrunched up his nose and hid behind Chu Zu, leaving only a small tuft of black hair showing as he tried to find someone to back him up. "Dad..."

Chu Zu was just about to speak when Dai Xian added coolly, "That's right, you spoiled him."

Chu Zu: "..."

That day, Chu Zu spoke to Sydney earnestly. "Don't provoke Dai Xian."

Still shaken, Sydney said, "I understand, Dad. I understand."

"I told you, you have to take responsibility for your own choices," Chu Zu said. "No matter how Dai Xian makes you suffer over the next few days, don't come to me."

Sydney: "..."

Sydney: "Dad—!"

When Chu Zu took Sydney out to eat, he also ran into a little girl.

He didn't remember her, but the girl remembered him quite well. When they ran into each other in the neighborhood, she backed away three steps. Then she saw Sydney holding his hand, and the terror in her eyes gradually turned to faint pity.

It made no sense.

The system reminded him, "She's the little girl who bumped into you in the rain, and you forced an umbrella on her."

Chu Zu: "..."

The Upper District really was small.

The girl actually lived next door. Because her fear of Chu Zu was so obvious, she ended up gaining Sydney's precious "friendship." He would go over to visit whenever he had time and wouldn't come home unless someone picked him up.

Dai Xian's assessment was cutting. "He's been full of schemes since he was little. I wonder who he takes after."

Chu Zu: "..."

Not him, anyway.

Work, watch the child cause trouble.

Work, watch the child get lectured.

Work, pick the child up from the little neighbor girl's house.

Work, watch the child wail and play the victim.

Somehow, Chu Zu's life settled into a routine just like that.

One evening, Sydney was touching up his hair in the bathroom. Funnily enough, despite the comfortable life in the Upper District, with Jeeves watching, Chu Zu could still only get cheap hair dye from the Lower District, and Sydney's colored contact lenses were still terribly poor quality.

The child usually cried over the slightest grievance to win the adults' sympathy, but when he really suffered, he didn't make a sound.

He skillfully dyed his own hair and wiped his burned skin with Soothing Agent. Only after taking care of everything did he come out of the bathroom.

"Bulei says I've gotten taller. Have I, Dad?" Sydney asked Chu Zu.

Bulei was the little girl next door.

Chu Zu glanced at him. "No."

"I think I can grow taller than you."

Chu Zu thought about the heights of the successive Espositos and said fairly, "Not necessarily."

Sydney huffed twice and played by himself for a while. Then he remembered something and said to Chu Zu, "It's Bulei's birthday tomorrow. She invited us to dinner at her house. Are you free, Dad?"

Perhaps he was really looking forward to it, because Sydney had even worked out the time in advance. "It's around seven in the evening. If you're not busy, you should be home by then!"

Chu Zu recalled his schedule and nodded. "I can make it."

Sydney visibly brightened and ran off to find Dai Xian, asking her to use her fashion sense, which trounced Dad's, to help him pick out what to wear tomorrow.

But Chu Zu broke his promise.

Sydney and Dai Xian had dinner at Bulei's house. It was an entirely handmade meal, a great luxury for the upper middle class. It wasn't particularly delicious, but anyone could taste Bulei's parents' love for their daughter in it.

Bulei's parents asked, "Is it to your liking?"

Sydney's answer was puzzling. "It's as good as mango pie!"

After dinner, Sydney stayed and played at Bulei's house for a long time. Dai Xian could tell that he was learning how a normal Upper District child behaved, but she didn't interfere and chatted with the girl's parents.

Sydney learned well, but the way he kept glancing at the door was too obvious. In the end, even Bulei comforted him, saying that perhaps something had held Mr. Chu Zu up.

Nothing showed on Sydney's face. There wasn't a trace of gloom as he smiled, showing two little canine teeth. "Yeah, I know Dad's busy!"

Bulei said, "At first, I thought Mr. Chu Zu was really scary, but I don't think so anymore!"

Sydney glanced at Dai Xian and whispered to the girl, "Dad isn't as scary as Dai Xian, really."

Bulei blushed and giggled.

The two children snuggled together to watch cartoons again. The girl was more tenderhearted, secretly wiping away tears when a cartoon puppy ended up on the streets.

After returning home, Sydney waited until past midnight.

The moment the video intercom rang, the sleepy child sprang up from the sofa and ran to open the door.

The door opened, and the man he had waited all evening for appeared before him.

"Da..."

Before Sydney could finish, the man shoved him hard. The child stumbled and fell onto the carpet, too startled to react.

He couldn't complain. First, he had no standing to, and sec—

Chu Zu gripped the doorframe tightly, the veins on his forehead throbbing. His whole body was convulsing unnaturally, and even standing took great effort.

Dai Xian hurried over and screamed when she saw what was happening. "Luciano activated the device in your body?!"

Sydney didn't know what device she meant. Bewildered, he watched Dai Xian rush forward and support the unsteady Chu Zu, only for the man to push her away before they had taken two steps into the house.

"Stay away from me." Chu Zu pressed a hand to his forehead. "Tangqi went to District Thirteen and District Thirty-Two. I'm leaving at six. Keep an eye on Sydney."

"What about District Thirteen and District Thirty-Two..." Dai Xian quickly recovered from her anxiety, and her expression filled with shock as she looked at Chu Zu.

She bit her lower lip, holding back what she wanted to say, and finally made a point of adding, "They're only two districts. That's no reason to activate the device... Is it because of Sydney?"

Sydney's hands and feet went cold.

Was it because of him?

Cold sweat kept beading on Chu Zu's forehead. He didn't spare Sydney so much as a glance. "It has nothing to do with him. Luci wouldn't do anything to my child."

After calming down, Dai Xian still didn't dare approach rashly. She pulled Sydney along and returned to the bedroom.

In the middle of the night, Sydney slipped out of the bedroom.

The house was silent except for faint sounds coming from the bathroom.

The bathroom wasn't locked. Sydney eased the door open, and Chu Zu, who had been looking at the narrow window, slowly turned his head at the sound and met his eyes.

The boy froze where he stood, neither entering nor retreating.

"Is it because of me?" Sydney asked.

"Don't think so highly of yourself."

The man reclined in a bathtub of ice water, his normally deep voice hoarse.

Like a bedraggled dog that's fallen into the water. Sydney could only think of the cartoon he had watched with Bulei: soaking wet and utterly bedraggled.

He hadn't actually thought the puppy was all that pitiful, so he couldn't quite understand why Bulei had cried.

Sydney only made objective assessments.

A dog that had fallen into the water would whimper and look pitifully at kindhearted passersby, betting that someone would lend a hand, because that was how it could live without effort.

That was what he did.

Chu Zu lived with great effort, because he didn't want to make himself look like a puppy.

Even though he was in a terrible state, he remained indifferent to the point of cruelty. Only the depths of his scarlet eyes were unfathomable, making it impossible to see what he was thinking.

Sydney looked out the window. A clear moon hung in the night.

Because the window was narrow and the moon was far away, it looked just like a light suspended against a black curtain, with no beauty to speak of.

What is Chu Zu looking at? Sydney's gaze moved back and forth between the man and the moon several times, and for some reason, he suddenly remembered himself a long time ago.

He had forgotten why, but Dai Xian hadn't come, and he had been without food or water for almost a week. Back then, he too had huddled among cold steel and concrete, looking through a gap at a light in the distance.

He had curled up, trembling, and thought, Why are some people born having to go through this?

But everyone was like that, so he could accept it.

Did Chu Zu count as "everyone"?

Sydney remembered a question that had crossed his mind when he first came to this home.

What is Chu Zu made of?

A distinguished position in the Upper District, absolute power to trample on others' lives, and the arrogance to believe he could take care of him.

What else?

The Upper District was so complicated. Sydney had thought that someone as powerful as Chu Zu could never be described as miserable. But his current state could only be described as "miserable."

"Stay away from me, Sydney," the man said. "If you want a bedtime story, go to Dai Xian."

Sydney didn't know what he was thinking either. In any case, he was a child, so it was understandable if he acted without thinking.

He went straight to the bathtub and slowly climbed into the ice water.

Normally, Chu Zu would have thrown him out immediately, but the man clearly didn't have much strength at the moment. He merely stared into those bright blue eyes, now that the red contact lenses had been removed, and watched as the child, soaked through, half lay on top of him and hugged him.

Sydney held him tightly, his face pressed against the soaked shirt on his chest. In his ears, he could hear the man's heartbeat, abnormally fast from the stimulation of his nerves.

Sydney shivered with cold, but he thought this could make Chu Zu a little warmer.

"You don't have any wounds, but you smell like blood, Dad," he said. "Don't get sick. What am I supposed to do if you die?"