"I, Hu Hansan, am back!"
Standing in the doorway, Qin Ze spread his arms.
He had expected a welcoming hug from his older sister and concerned greetings from his parents.
But reality was...
No one was there.
A layer of dust had even settled on the cabinet by the door.
Qin Ze walked into the bedroom with a long face, found his charger, and plugged in his phone.
He turned it on and dialed.
"Qin Yu, where are you? You weren't waiting for me outside the hospital at all!" Qin Ze raged helplessly.
A pleasant female voice came from the other end of the line.
"Huh?"
"Qin Ze?"
"Why are you calling me instead of staying put in the hospital?"
Qin Ze's face darkened. "I was discharged today. What happened to the welcome-home feast you promised?"
Qin Yu was silent for ten seconds. "Damn, I got the date wrong. I thought it was next month."
Qin Ze gave up and flopped onto the bed. "Where did you go? Mom and Dad aren't home either."
So boring.
I want a Manchu-Han imperial feast.
Qin Ze rolled around like a salted fish.
One moment he rolled to the left, and the next he rolled to the left again.
"Qin Ze, I have a secret to tell you."
Qin Yu's voice suddenly turned serious.
"You found a boyfriend?" The flames of Qin Ze's love of gossip burned fiercely. "So you're at a hotel. Congratulations on finally getting married off."
"When are you bringing him home? I want to see which blind pig would root up a rotten cabbage like you."
Qin Yu gnashed her teeth. "Root your sister! That's not what I wanted to tell you."
Qin Ze rolled to the left. "My sister is your sister, so Mom's pregnant again!"
"Shut up and listen to me!" Qin Yu cut off her brother's wandering train of thought.
"The truth is, Mom, Dad, and I are all powerful, mysterious martial artists. We're carrying out a classified mission right now."
"Just stay home and prepare for the college entrance exam in a few months. We'll come back once the mission is finished."
Qin Ze sat up in bed, his brows knitted tightly.
Did my family's identities change too when I transmigrated?
So I'm a second-generation heir now?
At that thought, Qin Ze's imperial countenance lit up with joy.
From now on, he could take his bird for walks, admire flowers, and flirt with pretty girls on the street.
Do the things a second-generation heir ought to do.
Not bad at all.
He was starting to like this world.
Just then, his mother's voice on the phone interrupted Qin Ze's thoughts.
"Sweetie, come help me bargain."
"He wants a hundred yuan for this lousy piece of cloth. Why doesn't he just rob people?!"
Qin Ze: ???
"Damn you, Qin Yu!"
"So your secret mission is a vacation!"
And you didn't even take me.
"The signal's a little bad here. The foreign-race martial artists are attacking, so I have to hang up."
"Bye-bye~"
Beep, beep, beep-
Qin Ze was going crazy.
Sure enough, even after he transmigrated, his sister was as unreliable as ever.
With nothing else to do, Qin Ze took out the black bead to study it again.
"In novels, things like this can usually be absorbed."
After knocking it around for a while, Qin Ze discovered that the thing was extremely hard.
"You eat it."
Qin Ze summoned a clone.
Clone Qin Ze wore a miserable expression.
"It's so big. There's no way I can swallow it."
"I told you to eat it, so eat it. Cut the crap."
Qin Ze forced the bead into the clone's mouth, then shared the sensation of nearly choking to death.
"Any changes?" Qin Ze asked.
The clone's face grew redder and redder, and his voice trembled. "It's coming! The big one's coming!"
Qin Ze's eyes lit up.
Something's happening!
Pfft-
The clone let out a long fart and ran into the bathroom.
Qin Ze: "..."
He really is my clone.
Whoosh-
A moment later, the toilet flushed, and the clone walked out, looking relieved.
"Don't tell me you pooped it out?"
The clone shook his head. "I got stronger."
"How so?"
"I gained the ability the exotic beast had when it was alive: Devouring."
"Please begin your performance."
The clone scratched his head. "I have to devour something alive, and it's just the two of us here."
Qin Ze snapped his fingers. "Coming right up."
Another clone stepped out.
"Come on, let me see what you're made o-"
Before the newly summoned clone could finish speaking, he fell flat on his back and became a corpse.
"I'm a little full." The clone burped after devouring him.
"At this rate of digestion, it'll be at least a week before I can use Devouring again."
"I gained his qi and blood. My cultivation is a little stronger now."
Hearing this, Qin Ze suddenly felt a ball of fire burning in his lower abdomen.
He summoned another clone and placed a hand on top of his head.
He silently invoked Devouring, and the clone fell as a warm current surged into Qin Ze's body.
"So that's how it works!"
"My clones can share their innate abilities with me, and I get an enhanced version!"
Qin Ze felt he wasn't full yet, so he devoured another clone.
Now he was finally so full he was nearly overflowing.
At that moment, Qin Ze felt his whole body brimming with power.
He wanted to shout, "I'll take on ten!"
Qin Ze noticed that his qi and blood had also increased a little. Brother Devour had shared that with him too, about a third of it.
Presumably, the other clones could share with him as well, but they were all blank slates. They shared so little that Qin Ze couldn't feel it at all.
"Alas, three more of our good brothers have passed away."
"Let us observe three seconds of silence."
"First bow."
"Qin Ze, you're no son of man!"
"I'm so angry I'm shaking and freezing. When will clones finally be able to stand up for themselves?"
Ignoring the clones' incessant griping, Qin Ze rolled his eyes. "Get rid of the bodies."
Luckily, no one else was home.
If his parents and sister saw this scene in the bedroom, they'd be scared to death.
Several clones gathered around the three Qin Ze corpses, scratching their heads and ears.
"Just dump the bodies?"
"You really aren't afraid of the police finding out."
"Sink them in the river."
"Chop them up and feed them to dogs?"
"Where are we going to find that many dogs?"
"The sewer?"
"Good idea."
"Plus one."
They got straight to work.
The clones carried the unlucky fellows into the bathroom and fetched two cleavers from the kitchen.
Although Qin Ze was a bottom-tier martial artist, he was still a martial artist, after all, and stronger than an ordinary person. The clones, who had inherited half the original's attributes, had a relatively easy time with the cleanup.
With Brother Devour helping out, the process went very smoothly.
Qin Ze sat in the living room, leisurely sipping tea.
Bang, bang, bang!
Someone suddenly knocked on the door.
The bathroom immediately fell silent.
"Auntie Wang, what brings you here so late?"
Qin Ze opened the door. It was Auntie Wang, their downstairs neighbor.
"A-Ze, you're out of the hospital? I thought your mom and the others had come back."
"Yeah, I was just discharged today."
"What are you doing? You're making such a racket."
"Making dumplings."
"Are you putting a whole pig in them? You've been at it forever and still aren't done."
Qin Ze laughed it off. "We'll be done soon, Auntie Wang. Please bear with us a little longer."
"Don't get it everywhere. It'll be hard to clean up." Auntie Wang reminded him several times before turning to leave.
Qin Ze closed the door and called toward the bathroom, "Are you done yet?"
A clone answered, "Almost, almost. There's still half a carcass left."
"Hurry up."
Blood seeped out through the gap beneath the bathroom door.
A clone wearing a red apron immediately came out with a mop to clean it up.
Watching the clones bustling about, Qin Ze nodded in satisfaction.
If he'd had this ability before he transmigrated, he could have sent all his clones to tighten screws at an electronics factory and made a fortune.
Knock, knock, knock-
Someone knocked again.
"Auntie Wang, I said please bear with us a little longer. We'll be done soon."
"Once the dumplings are ready, I'll bring you some to try..."
The door opened, and a young man in a blue-and-white uniform stood outside.
The broken hallway light flickered from time to time, casting one side of the man's face in alternating light and shadow.