Sensing that the seismic tremors had entirely subsided, Thien Anh looked down at Alisa, who was still nestled comfortably on his lap. He asked softly, "Don't you plan on standing up, Lam? How much longer do you intend to sit there?"
Rather than moving, Alisa placed both hands firmly on Thien Anh's shoulders. She looked directly into his eyes, replying with a touch of stubbornness:
"I'm a woman and I'm not even embarrassed; why are you? By the way, earlier you mentioned you'd been to prison. What was that about? Why were you in there?"
Thien Anh offered a slight nod, a faint, cynical smile playing on his lips.
"I was a street urchin, after all. Eating prison rations and sleeping in refugee camps was just a Tuesday for me. There wasn't a single detention center along the 'Belt of Crime' that I didn't pass through."
He paused for a moment, his gaze drifting as if looking into a distant, dusty memory.
"The reason for prison? Mostly theft just to put something in my mouth. Occasionally a brawl or a killing… nothing too grand. We're all human; everyone wants to survive. Circumstances just pushed me that way."
Hearing him recount it in a voice as calm as if he were talking about someone else, Alisa understood that the reality back then was far more brutal. She had tasted the sting of starvation—the kind that makes women sell their bodies and men pick up knives. Those who haven't walked through the gates of death could never truly understand.
Seeing Thien Anh smiling while his eyes held a deep, profound sorrow, Alisa felt a pang in her heart. She asked curiously, "Was it… was it very hard in there?"
Thien Anh's smile widened slightly as the frames of his past slowed down in his mind. After a long silence, he finally spoke:
"Exhausting, of course. Aside from backbreaking labor all day, the food was no better than livestock feed. But back then, just having rice to eat was a grand blessing."
He wiped his face, pushing his hair back, and added:
"However, eating plain gruel was sometimes better than being given meat. Those favored with meat were usually the ones being 'fattened.' The guards were harvesting organs. If an order came in from the outside, they'd kill a prisoner and slap on a label like 'attempted escape' or 'resisting an officer.' Just like that, a life was gone."
Despite Thien Anh telling a story soaked in blood and cruelty, his ironic choice of words made Alisa let out a small, unintended laugh.
"Then why didn't they fatten you up and slaughter you like a pig? Wouldn't you have fetched a higher price that way?"
Thien Anh burst into laughter.
"That? Probably because I'm the type who never gains weight no matter how much I eat—I wouldn't have been profitable. Jokes aside, I was lucky enough to be under the wing of an 'Eagle' in there. He protected me, which is why I'm still alive to sit here and talk to you."
Alisa blinked, her face full of curiosity.
"An 'Eagle'? That sounds like something out of a movie. Prison sounds like it had its share of interesting stories."
Thien Anh reached out and pinched both her cheeks firmly, deflating her romanticism.
"Interesting, my foot! Go in there and see for yourself. The place they locked us in back then was so small you couldn't stretch your legs while lying down or lift your head while sitting. It was as dark as a sealed jar. They only gave us one bowl of saltwater per shift. If you didn't drink, you died of thirst; if you did, you became even thirstier. Any idiot who gulped it all down at once would spend the night moaning until they died of dehydration."
He stopped, released his hold on her face, and dusted off his shirt. "Anyway, I'll tell you more some other time. Stand up now, Lam. I have work to do."
Alisa truly wanted to punch him. She felt that Thien Anh's romantic nerves had been completely severed. They were in the middle of such a mood, and he just cut it off mid-sentence.
Thien Anh saw Alisa's dissatisfied pout and merely chuckled. He used both hands to lift her bodily and set her in the adjacent chair. "Go back to studying the data. I'll tell you more when I'm free; if I tell you everything at once, we'll have nothing left to talk about later."
Alisa huffed, but she didn't throw a tantrum. She obediently turned on her laptop to study the mutation strains. Thien Anh smiled at her back. Alisa was a unique woman; usually a bit childlike, but the moment she touched her work, she became a different person entirely—sharp and professional.
Thien Anh returned to the secret network and messaged the group: "An earthquake just hit. How are you guys congregating so easily? Do you have new gear for evading the mutated beasts?"
Shadow Devotee replied: "Funny you should ask. We just had a tremor here too. And out of nowhere, a 'Relic' rose from the ground."
Thien Anh was stunned, his fingers flying faster: "A Relic? What the hell is that? Do you have a photo?"
Immediately, Child of Sin sent an image. Thien Anh stared at the screen and held his breath. In the photo was a palace that carried a primordial breath, yet its structure was hauntingly modernist. Sections of the walls were moss-covered and decayed by time, but in other spots, the surfaces were as polished and gleaming as if new, untouched by the ages.
Thien Anh messaged back: "Why does it look so… eerie? It feels more advanced than ancient. Did it really just grow out of the ground?"
Child of Sin: "Only God knows. No one noticed during the quake; by the time we looked, it was just sitting there. This world has gone mad; anything can happen now."
Thien Anh nodded inwardly. He felt that reality was gradually slipping beyond the laws of physics. From cataclysms and biological mutations to structures of unknown origin… he wouldn't be surprised if magic started appearing next.
Pushing aside these flighty thoughts, Thien Anh messaged Shadow Devotee: "Just bring Tomy back to your place for now. I'll contact you in three days. I have some personal matters to attend to."
Shadow Devotee: "You're sounding remarkably decent lately. Fine, the kid stays with me. 8:00 PM Organization Time, three days from now. Don't be late."
"No problem. I'll be there as long as nothing catastrophic happens."
Thien Anh logged out and shut down the computer. Alisa, sitting nearby, looked up. "Where are you going?"
Thien Anh stood up, dropping a rare joke: "To settle some business with nature. Want to come along?"
Alisa huffed and turned away. "Get lost! You're so annoying!"
"Yeah, I'm getting lost." Thien Anh smiled and walked out.
Alisa watched his retreating back, subconsciously closing her laptop and quietly following him. Thien Anh heard her soft footsteps behind him but didn't turn around; the corners of his mouth quirked upward.
As Alisa walked behind Thien Anh, her heart skipped a beat. She suddenly realized that this annoying assassin was starting to look… quite pleasing to the eye.
Previously, every time she looked into those eyes—cold as knives—she felt her limbs turn to jelly from fear. But now, that feeling had vanished completely, replaced by an inexplicable, fluttering sensation.