Business as Usual for the Americans

Edgar watched his reflection in the elevator doors, his gaze growing somber.

Tomorrow, he would get the answer himself.

Lin Mo got up early the next morning. He liked to sleep in, but it was Joanna who had come looking for him.

That girl seemed to have boundless energy. Every day, she was up to something new.

Today, she had come straight to Lin Mo's room without asking the researchers.

A year ago, one of them had tried to stop her.

Joanna's eyes had flashed red, and she'd shown the researcher what it felt like to have her head cooked. Since then, no one had interfered with Joanna's movements around the Bunker.

Lin Mo hadn't known about it at the time, but Joanna had told him herself. He'd been speechless, though in the end he hadn't said anything. The woman was already dead, so what was there to say? Besides, he'd disliked Vought for ages.

He'd once hoped he could teach Joanna not to hurt people recklessly, but that had clearly been too idealistic. Changing someone in a place like Vought's Bunker was too difficult.

Besides, Vought's people hardly counted as people. After studying Joanna and him for so long, they owed them a little interest.

That day, Joanna had seemed to discover a whole new world. Neither Lin Mo nor the researchers had scolded her, so she'd mistakenly assumed she could leave. She'd wanted to take Lin Mo straight out of the Bunker. She had the power to do it, but he'd refused.

His reason was simple: neither of them was an adult yet.

That had baffled Joanna, but she could accept it. She'd already waited more than ten years. A few more wouldn't make much difference.

And today, she wanted to do something with Lin Mo that only a man and a woman would do.

She'd learned about it from a romance movie yesterday.

Unfortunately for her, Lin Mo had refused without a moment's hesitation.

Was she kidding?

Joanna was almost an adult, but there was still a difference between almost and already.

Besides, for all he knew, her understanding of such things stopped at the part where the leads kissed and the movie cut straight to the next morning.

If Lin Mo went along with her, who knew whether she'd decide she could pin down anyone she liked?

With her strength, that kind of misconception was dangerous.

If an ordinary person crossed her path, forget resisting—there might not be enough left of them to recognize as human.

"Why not?"

Joanna was sitting at the edge of Lin Mo's bed.

She wore only a loose white nightgown. Her silky blond hair fell messily over her shoulders, with a few strands sticking up beside her ears. She had plainly just gotten out of bed and hadn't bothered with the carefully groomed look she wore for training.

Over the past few years, the little girl who'd still looked so young had gradually grown up.

Her long golden hair gleamed softly under the light, and her fair skin seemed almost flawless. Her brow and nose were more defined than they'd been when she was younger. Her features were delicate and striking, though they still held some of the softness of a girl not quite grown.

Her pale eyes stood out most of all.

Clear and bright, they seemed to command attention without her even trying.

Around the researchers, Joanna needed only to still her expression a little to become intimidating and unapproachable.

With Lin Mo, that distance almost never existed.

Right now, her hair was a mess, her face held none of the practiced smiles Vought had trained into her, and she was even puffing out her cheeks because he'd turned her down.

She looked nothing like the future leader of The Super Seven. Yet it was precisely this unguarded side of her that made her seem more real.

Unlike the bleary-eyed Lin Mo, though, her eyes were startlingly bright. She stared straight at him, puzzled and unconvinced.

She didn't look the least bit sleepy.

But who would have guessed she'd come to see Lin Mo this early because she wanted to sleep with him?

"In the movie yesterday, they could do it."

"A movie is a movie."

Lin Mo leaned against the headboard and pushed her approaching head a little farther away.

"Do you know why they did it?"

"Because they liked each other."

Joanna answered without hesitation.

"What else?"

"Because they wanted to stay together forever."

"What else?"

Lin Mo had only asked offhandedly.

To his surprise, Joanna gave it serious thought.

She frowned slightly, apparently trying to remember what she'd watched yesterday.

A moment later, understanding lit up her face.

"And the boy and girl took off their clothes first, then—"

"Stop."

Lin Mo's eyelid twitched.

Joanna looked at him in confusion after he cut her off.

"What's wrong?"

"You don't need to tell me the rest."

"Why?"

"I don't want to hear it."

"But you asked if I knew."

"Now I know you do."

Lin Mo kept his face blank. Joanna knew, and apparently she knew quite a lot. Something was off.

He'd always assumed the "romance movies" Vought showed Joanna were no more than old-fashioned love stories.

The leads would hug, kiss, and then the camera would turn toward the window before cutting to sunrise the next day.

The end.

Apparently, it wasn't that simple.

Lin Mo suddenly had a bad feeling.

"Wait."

He looked at Joanna.

"What version did you watch yesterday?"

"What version?"

Joanna tilted her head, visibly confused.

"I mean, was anything cut out?"

"What does 'cut out' mean?"

"..."

Lin Mo fell silent.

Well, then.

No need to ask. It probably hadn't been edited.

Anger flared in him.

What the hell were those Vought bastards teaching her? An unedited movie—that was practically porn!

First they'd taught her how to lie to a camera.

Now they were putting this in her study materials too?

Lin Mo suddenly felt he'd given Vought's researchers far too much credit.

It wasn't that their standards were low. They didn't have any. Then again, that was business as usual for the Americans.

"So I do know."

Joanna was still earnestly explaining.

"The video was very detailed. If a boy and a girl like each other, they—"

"Shut up."

Lin Mo clapped a hand over her mouth.

"Mmph?"

"Don't go on."

"Mmmph."

"No."

Joanna blinked, pulled his hand away, and hugged it to her chest.

A soft sensation pressed against his hand. His eyelid twitched, and he stole a glance out of the corner of his eye. Joanna really had grown up a lot.

"But I wasn't finished."

"I don't want to know what comes next."

"Why?"

"Because you already know more than I'm comfortable with."

Lin Mo rubbed his brow with his free hand.

And to think he'd just been assuming her understanding stopped at a kiss followed by a cut to the next morning.

He was the naive one.

Joanna, on the other hand, looked puzzled. She hugged his hand tighter and leaned closer.

"Isn't that normal stuff to know?"

"There's nothing wrong with knowing it."

"Then why won't you let me talk about it?"

"Because knowing something doesn't mean you need to sit on my bed first thing in the morning and recite it to me."

Lin Mo's face darkened, especially when Joanna sounded as earnest as if she were giving a report on what she'd learned.

Anyone listening might have thought Vought had given her a course on adult social behavior yesterday, not a movie.

And now she'd come to him specifically to try it out.