Family

Li Capital, Gu Yi Mai Community. In front of a three-story residential building.

Half the setting sun had already sunk below the horizon, and the last traces of crimson and gold lingering in the sky slowly faded away.

Night was approaching, yet the summer cicadas still sang tirelessly in the trees. Beneath the shade, Ji Minghuan stood motionless, his face devoid of expression.

The heat enveloped his entire body as he stared blankly at the door ahead. A bead of sweat rolled down from his forehead, slid across his pale cheek, and followed his jawline toward the collar of his school uniform.

It was too hot. He had taken off his school uniform jacket on the way home and draped it over his wrist.

He tugged at his damp collar and let out a breath.

At first, he had not understood why Gu Wenyu still wore a school uniform jacket to class in this awful weather, as if he were afraid people at school would not look at him enough. Anyone who did not know better might have thought he had caught a cold.

Now he understood. Gu Wenyu wore the jacket simply to make it easier to use his ability, hiding the Restraint Band beneath his long sleeves where it would be less likely to draw attention—say, if he got too worked up during PE and accidentally summoned the Restraint Band. Wearing a jacket still gave him room to hide it and recover, but in short sleeves, he would be exposed in an instant.

Standing outside the door, he lowered his head and checked his phone.

It was 5:30 PM on July 9, 2020. He turned off the screen, lifted his gaze from the dark display, and looked once more at the reddish-brown door before him.

The evening breeze swept in from above the city, lightly stirring his bangs and carrying a hint of nighttime coolness.

Family... What an unfamiliar word, Ji Minghuan thought.

The reason he was standing stupidly outside his own front door instead of sitting inside by a fan was entirely because he needed to carefully consider how to play this role in front of Gu Wenyu's family.

As an orphan abandoned by his Parents since childhood, Ji Minghuan had no experience living with a family.

At the Welfare Home, he had grown up alongside other children without fathers or mothers, negligent teachers who wore sour faces every day as they waited for class to end, irritating Nurses, and the old director, who alternated between warmth and coldness.

So he could only start from Gu Wenyu's memories, studying each family member's personality and logic one by one, memorizing Gu Wenyu's different attitudes toward every one of them, and then gradually figuring out how to interact naturally with these "family members" who should not have existed in the first place—without letting them notice anything strange.

Ji Minghuan lowered his hand and patted his pants, only then remembering that the key was in his jacket pocket.

As he rummaged through the school uniform draped over his arm, he reviewed Gu Wenyu's "background memories" once again.

Gu Wenyu's family relationships could be called complicated.

The family had originally consisted of five people: the father, Gu Zhuoan; the mother, Su Ying; the older brother, Gu Qiye; the Younger Sister, Su Zimai; and Gu Wenyu, caught in the middle.

At first, they could still be considered a perfectly standard happy family—the father was kind and the children dutiful, while the mother was not only gentle but intelligent. She patiently guided them in daily life and always cared for each child's feelings. Gu Wenyu and his siblings all depended on her deeply.

Everything changed five years ago.

On May 15, 2015, his mother was caught up in an accident. The official explanation was that Rainbow Wing, an elite organization of ability users under the United Nations, had been carrying out a mission when one of its members fought a powerful enemy. Unable to attend to the surrounding environment, they accidentally injured residents of Gu Yi Mai Community.

Their mother, Su Ying, had been one of the ordinary people accidentally harmed by a Rainbow Wing member. More accurately, she had not been accidentally injured...

She had been killed. Not even ashes remained.

In truth, such incidents were not rare. Similar things happened often in the world today. Ability users injured ordinary people during battle just as humans might accidentally step on an ant while shoving and roughhousing.

Who could spare the attention to notice an ant beneath their feet while fighting someone with all their might?

Afterward, their father repeatedly appealed to the government, but Rainbow Wing held an extremely high position. It was the world's universally recognized strongest organization of ability users, composed of the top ability users from various "member states," selected through strict processes and serving the highest ranks of the United Nations directly.

Rumor had it that every generation of Rainbow Wing contained exactly twelve members. Information on all members was kept strictly confidential from the public and could not be disclosed unless there was no other choice and it could no longer be concealed. This was especially true of their special abilities—the detailed effects of an ability being exposed was equivalent to handing enemies an opportunity to counter it.

For that reason, no matter how many times his father appealed to the government, he was never able to learn who exactly had accidentally killed his mother during that incident... No matter how hysterically he vented his anger, even organizing the families of other victims who had been accidentally harmed to protest together.

In the end, all they received was a cold lawyer's letter and a series of rigid official responses without the slightest flaw.

Before long, the matter was gradually suppressed. The people around him chose one after another to compromise and leave the protest, until only his father remained, standing alone on the street.

The only thing worth being thankful for was that his father had at least received several hundred thousand in compensation.

After their mother's funeral, their father fell into complete despair and no longer had the energy to care about his three children at home.

Later, because Su Zimai ran away from home, Gu Qiye and their father had a huge fight in the house. Their relationship completely broke down. Neither wanted to see the other, and at home they acted like two strangers forced to live under the same roof.

Now, their father worked out of town year-round. The only connection he seemed to have with the family was the living expenses he sent home each month and a few perfunctory greetings over the phone.

To Gu Wenyu and Su Zimai, their older brother, who had always cared for them in every possible way, was more like their "father."

Their actual father had long since existed in name only, becoming a money-making machine they could neither see nor touch, one that transferred funds home on schedule every month.

Their father had not returned home in two years.

As for Gu Qiye, he had been admitted to a local first-tier university in Li Jing City.

The school was not far from Gu Yi Mai Community. Taking the subway from the station beside the university, he could get home in half an hour. Thus, he could look after his Younger Brother and Younger Sister, who were still in high school, without delaying his studies.

Ji Minghuan yawned and stared blankly up at the sky. Thinking about it this way, it's not too bad. Since Gu Wenyu's father usually isn't around, the only people I need to deal with are his brother and sister. As long as I keep my interactions with them to a minimum, they shouldn't notice anything wrong.

Right, he seemed to remember something. Come to think of it, I remember the character background in the profile said, "Every member of Gu Wenyu's family is hiding an unknown secret."

But as far as I know, in Gu Wenyu's memories over the past decade or so, aside from Mom, who's already dead and impossible to verify, the remaining three family members—his Old Man, his brother, and his sister—have always presented themselves as ordinary people and never slipped up. So what, is this whole family actually made up of secret agents?

After thinking for a while, he finally felt a hard, long object in his jacket pocket. He pulled out the silver-plated key and inserted it into the lock on the doorknob.

Just as he was about to turn it, there was a click, and the door opened from inside.

Ji Minghuan raised his brows, pulled the key back out of the lock, and saw a bright, handsome face through the open crack of the door.

The person who had opened the door for him was Gu Qiye, Gu Wenyu's older brother.

He had a tall, sturdy build and shoulder-length black hair. His features were well-proportioned, his nose high, and the curve at the Corner of His Mouth sat somewhere between confidence and frivolity. He had never lacked admirers growing up, though Ji Minghuan thought he looked a little too punchable.

At that moment, Gu Qiye wore a silver cross necklace around his neck, a plain black T-shirt and jeans, and an ordinary pair of house slippers.

"I've been waiting for you for ages," Gu Qiye said with a smile.

He leaned crookedly against the doorframe and casually tossed his Younger Brother a chilled bottle of cola.

"Thanks, bro." Without even blinking, Ji Minghuan swiftly caught the cola. He thanked him while twisting off the cap.

With a click, a rush of cool air spilled from the bottle. He brought his face closer to cool himself down.

Gu Qiye held one arm across his chest while using his phone with the other. He lowered his head to glance at a newly arrived message, then casually asked, "Why are you back so late? Didn't you say Summer Vacation starts tomorrow, so school let out early today?"

Ji Minghuan took a sip of cola, raised the back of his hand to wipe away the sweat gathered along his jaw, and explained helplessly:

"Couldn't be helped. Our homeroom teacher talks too much. The students from the other classes had already left, but he just kept yammering away on the podium."

As he spoke, he looked Gu Qiye over again. At that exact moment, a rectangular text panel appeared directly in front of him.

Main Quest 1: Investigate what your "older brother"—Gu Qiye—is hiding.

Quest Reward: 1 Split Point (collect a certain number of Split Points to create an entirely new game character in the real world), 1 Skill Point (can be used to develop the Character Skill Tree), 1 Attribute Point (can be used to increase one attribute in the Character Panel)