He told you this was his latest research result, only lacking a test subject. And as a direct descendant of the Twelve Houses of Izumo, you were the best possible subject.
Your father seemed worried that you would not trust him, so he explained that he had already injected himself with the serum. Several months of monitoring had confirmed that it would not cause any harm to the human body. He wanted to experiment on you only to test how effective the serum now was at slowing erosion.
Naturally, you trusted your father without question. With him by your side, you received the serum injection and promised not to tell anyone before the experiment was over.
Over the next few months, you received the serum your father gave you on schedule.
At ten years old, after several months of serum injections as a test subject, you experienced no discomfort or rejection. Moreover, you truly felt subtle changes taking place in your body.
This state continued until you had completed injections of all twelve serum doses.
Until that day arrived.
That day, rain fell over Izumo as usual.
It was already late at night, and there were almost no pedestrians on the streets.
Only occasionally would a few oil-paper umbrellas pass through the rain beneath the thunderstorm, like boats rowing backward across the sky.
Because Beichen Kong preferred peace and quiet, there were no retainers or servants in the house.
And during this period, Beichen Kong often stayed at that desolate research institute until late at night.
Thus, all the household chores fell upon Beichen Heng alone.
As usual, Beichen Heng left dinner waiting and saved some room for himself, intending to eat a little with his old man after he finished at the institute, then rest.
So he lit a