(The Brood Mother is not the heroine! Not the heroine! Not the heroine! The important things must be said three times!)
After gaining a woman's flesh and blood, the Brood Mother began rolling back and forth in the nutrient fluid inside the box.
The clear nutrient fluid sloshed over the sides as the Brood Mother rolled, spilling onto the floor of the Splitter Chamber.
Under Tang Shizhe's gaze, the Brood Mother began to shrink little by little, until she finally took the shape of a woman's body.
Several minutes later, the red shell covering the Brood Mother's surface peeled away bit by bit like old skin, revealing a beautiful woman floating naked in the transparent box.
Suddenly, the woman opened her eyes. Since she was submerged in nutrient fluid, she couldn't make a sound even though her mouth was open.
Fortunately, thanks to the Brood Mother's special biological structure, she didn't need to breathe like a human.
Even with her entire body immersed in liquid, she didn't seem to feel uncomfortable at all.
With a splash, the Brood Mother rose to her feet, and the clear nutrient fluid ran down her smooth, firm skin and back into the box.
"Ma-Matriarch..." Seemingly having just learned to speak, the Brood Mother called Tang Shizhe by his title in a hoarse voice.
"Dry yourself off and take a shower." Tang Shizhe gestured to Tang Yi to hand her the towel he was holding.
"Mm." The Brood Mother obediently nodded, took the towel, and quickly wiped the liquid from her body. Then she climbed out of the box and walked toward the bathroom in the corner of the Splitter Chamber.
Watching the Brood Mother's slender figure disappear through the bathroom door, Tang Shizhe's heartbeat gradually calmed. That had been intense. The Brood Mother's body really was smoking hot, with a slim waist, full breasts, and a shapely rear. It was the first time he'd ever seen a woman's body in real life.
But when he remembered that the Brood Mother's mind was filled with memories he had selectively implanted, his excitement immediately died down. No normal person would fall for themselves, right? Probably.
Before long, the Brood Mother came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, fresh from her shower.
Besides, once she'd showered and dried her hair, the Brood Mother turned out to be surprisingly beautiful, every bit as attractive as Yin Qi and Yan Yanran.
Unfortunately, she was his own Splitter, and the girl whose body she'd taken was already dead.
"Show me how you create a new Splitter." Tang Shizhe sat down on a nearby sofa and ordered the Brood Mother.
"I need to eat," the Brood Mother replied haltingly.
"Tang Er, Tang San!" Tang Shizhe clapped his hands.
Tang Er and Tang San immediately carried over a box half as tall as a person and set it beside the Brood Mother. It was filled to the brim with nutrient fluid.
Without a word, the Brood Mother opened a bottle of nutrient fluid and gulped it down.
While Tang Shizhe was studying the Brood Mother, a white Porsche 911 pulled into an empty parking space outside the Thousand-Face Cuisine restaurant.
The moment Yan Yanran stepped out of the car, her legs in white stockings drew the eyes of every passerby.
She picked up her bag, straightened her gray turtleneck and white cashmere coat, then gracefully made her way to the entrance of Thousand-Face Cuisine.
Yin Qi had arrived at the restaurant before Yan Yanran. In a private room on the restaurant's third floor, a curved dining table surrounded a huge iron griddle, and Yin Qi sat with her legs crossed, fiddling with her phone.
Beside the griddle, the chef carefully wiped down his tools, then stood respectfully by, waiting for the guests to order.
"Why's Tang Shizhe here so early? He doesn't even kn—" Yan Yanran had just opened the door when she stopped mid-sentence. She'd spotted Yin Qi, who looked just as surprised as she did.
"Why are you here?"
"Why are you here?" they asked in low voices at the same time.
The chef standing nearby was instantly dumbfounded. What was going on? The people who'd come to eat didn't even know who else was coming with them? And weren't these two enemies?
"Tang Shizhe stole first place from me, so I made him invite me to dinner to make it up to me. Why are you here too?" Yin Qi asked first.
"Tang Shizhe tricked me last time, so I made him treat me to dinner to make amends. Did that guy actually invite both of us at once?" Yan Yanran had started out confidently, but then her quick mind put the pieces together.
"Looks like it. That guy probably invited us both to save money." Yin Qi felt a lump of frustration in her chest, with no way to vent it.
At that moment, neither of them found the other quite so unpleasant anymore. All their resentment had been redirected toward Tang Shizhe.
"Let's sit down and order first. We won't wait for him." Yin Qi gritted her teeth and snatched up the menu beside her.
"Two orders of lobster balls, two orders of abalone sashimi, and two orders of beef tongue..." Yin Qi jabbed at the menu with a vicious look. Even if she couldn't finish it all, she was going to make Tang Shizhe pay through the nose.
Yan Yanran, who had just sat down, began ordering too. You needed a full stomach to have the energy to get mad, after all.
But neither of them could have imagined that Tang Shizhe, who had picked up someone on the way, definitely wasn't going to make it.
"All right, that's it for now. We'll order more when the other person gets here." Yin Qi nodded and handed the menu to the waiter beside her.
The waiter entered the order on his phone and left. Before long, several waiters brought out the ingredients and set them beside the griddle.
The chef expertly spread a layer of oil over the griddle and placed two steaks on it. A few orders of sashimi and lobster balls were soon brought over and set in front of Yin Qi and Yan Yanran.
Neither of them said a word. They quietly ate the food in front of them, and even the chef cooking could feel the awkwardness in the air.
The longer they ate, the more awkward things became. Unable to stand it any longer, Yin Qi spoke first.
"What's your relationship with Tang Shizhe? Are you his girlfriend?" Yin Qi asked curiously, looking up.
"No, we just met by chance. I guess we're ordinary friends." Yan Yanran answered with wishful thinking. She didn't know that, in Tang Shizhe's eyes, she was little more than someone whose name and phone number he knew.
"What about you? Are you his classmate?" Yan Yanran asked in return.
"Yes." Yin Qi nodded slightly and swallowed the shrimp in her mouth.
"Then is Tang Shizhe usually especially hardworking at school?" Yan Yanran suddenly remembered that Tang Shizhe had taken first place from her, and asked curiously.
That might have been all right to ask anyone else, but the moment Yin Qi heard it, she felt her anger rising.
"All he does in class is play on his phone! Who knows how he got such a good score? He was even the first to hand in his exam!" Yin Qi said furiously, biting down on her fork.
"What does his family do? Do you know?" Yan Yanran continued curiously. After all, she'd never interacted with Tang Shizhe before, so she knew nothing about his background.
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