Number One's sudden words made Herta's heart skip a beat.
Something had happened to Lina!
What about Kafka and the others?
Herta's thoughts raced. She lowered her head, her expression grim.
Just then, Chu Mu gently patted the back of her hand, signaling her not to panic.
Chu Mu seemed to have known something had gone wrong all along.
More precisely, when Number One visited early that morning, the closely spaced footsteps he heard in the corridor outside had told him something unexpected had happened.
Number One had come to demand answers!
What could have warranted such an elaborate show of force?
Chu Mu thought of Lina. Right now, the only thing he and Herta had been doing behind Number One's back involved the kitchen downstairs.
There had to be a spy Number One had planted in the kitchen. If Lina had let something slip and been discovered, there was no hiding it from Number One.
Chu Mu had already prepared a contingency plan: do everything he could to keep Herta out of this.
As Chu Mu saw it, he was currently a member of Number One's family. She had raised him for so many years without killing him, so she was unlikely to kill him over this.
At most, she would use it to put him in his place and make him abandon his little escape schemes.
But if Number One knew Herta had been involved too, Herta would be in danger.
Number One would show mercy to her family, but that did not mean she would be kind to outsiders.
That was why Chu Mu had deliberately provoked Number One earlier, drawing all her attention onto himself.
He had even deliberately exploited Number One's misunderstanding of him to make her see Herta as pitiful and harmless.
*How could