Time is Running Out

After Qian Ling had tidied up his room, he laid like a lifeless corpse in bed. Being wrapped in thick bandages in addition to his unwillingness to change his current position made him look like a huge piece of rotting meat. If there was a zombie apocalypse, he would be the first to be volunteered to the front line.

It was a sleepless night for him as she felt a painful itch coming from his healing wound. The medicine that Qian Ling had applied on the thick layer of bandages soaked through into his wounds. It was a new formula she created to heal wounds seven times quicker than the usual human recovery pace.

"Argh! Can't sleep." He slowly sat up and got off his bed with great difficulty.

"If I knew how painful it would feel right now, I wouldn't have rushed back to argue with that old boney man. Sigh, the next person I have to speak to is grandpa. He's probably going to burst out at me again. Well, I'm used to it. Whatever comes will have to come."

Since he has to face his grandpa anyways, he might as well pay him a visit. Upon reaching his grandpa's room, he heard a loud smash sound coming from the inside of his room. He rushed in immediately, "Leader Rong! Are you alright?"

It was a habit for him to address his grandpa as Leader Rong under certain circumstances. When he entered, he saw Yin Zin Leung laying unconsciously on the floor with a pool of blood surrounding him.

Bending down, Alexander extended his hand to take his pulse. "No pulse. He's dead."

Leader Rong growled angrily and shoved items off his shelf, "Guards!!"

"Yes, Leader Rong!" Two guards hurriedly paced into the room. With an indifferent expression on their faces, they followed Leader Rong's command to drain the corpse into the bloody bath until the body becomes white and dry of liquid. After that, the body needs to be ground and cooked to meat balls for dogs.

A blood trial was left as Yin Zin Leung's body was dragged across the hall by the guards. In this place, killing was treated as a common routine. Everyone had gotten used to it.

"Why did you come to see me? Hurry and rest those wounds." Leader Rong said as he gestured Alexander to leave him alone.

"I want to join the Project investigation team. I've thought it through. Let me assist you with the progress of the experiment under one condition." He said while standing firmly and looking straight at Leader Rong's eyes.

"You? Hah! What condition?" Leader Rong smirked as his interest had been ignited by his grandson's proposal.

"You must not harm Ariana and her friends." His voice rung loud and clear to his grandpa's ears, but it didn't seem to have processed completely to his mind.

"What?" That calm smile was scarier than witnessing a parking lot filled with witchcraft crows. It was so chilling that Alexander wanted to dig up a hole to hide in.

"I said, I can join the team under one condition. You cannot hurt Ariana and people related to her." He repeated once again.

"Nonsense! You know she is very important to this Project! How could I not lay my fingers on her? I'm telling you right now. If I see her or hear her stepping into our territory, I won't hesitate to kill her. You shouldn't be having any feelings towards her either. You know very well yourself, and I don't think you need any types of reminder." Leader Rong felt blood rushing up his brain as anger boiled his bloodstreams.

"Grandfather, I don't need your reminder. I know she is important and the key to the Project. But how high are the chances for the Project to succeed? What if you are killing off innocent lives for the sake of something that won't exist?" He tried persuading his grandfather to absorb his opinion.

"No. Whatever conditions you set could be negotiated, but not anything related to her. I'm definitely going to find her and use her. You can't stop my decision. If it weren't for you, she would be dead already. And now you want her to escape from my wrath? No way." Leader Rong's voice raised by a tad.

"Like I said, you've slaughtered many over these years. You've murdered her entire family! Did you think I didn't know that it was you after I had investigated for years after her family's tragedy?Why can't you let her off?" He continued arguing with no signs of stopping.

"You know that I'm doing all this for you. Time is running out, and you won't last long." Leader Rong sighed deeply as he looked at Alexander with resentful eyes.

"And I never requested for any of this to happen. Aren't I safe? Am I not standing here talking to you? Why is it so hard for you to understand my point? Killing people for something so absurd. Is it worth it? No. If you dare to harm Ariana and her loved ones, then don't expect to see me anymore. Since you haven't taken the easy way in, I won't give you an easy way out either." Alexander stared at the restless man in front of him for a while before stomping out of his room.

"You! You!! I'm doing all this to keep you alive, yet you treat me like an outsider. You've learned well! Very well! I'll definitely get that girl! That vixen! Between life and death, I'll see what you choose by then." Leader Rong smashed everything in his room that could be broken and shredded.

Meanwhile, Alexander walked back to his room where he opened a hidden drawer from the wall. Inside the mini drawer was a fur ball accessory that he had kept since young. Closing his fingers on the fur ball, he closed his eyes and whispered, "Consider it as my final gift to you. I will fight everything alone. I won't let you get pulled into this anymore. Let everything come to an end soon."

As he sat down feeling extremely fatigue, he felt a heat rush up his throat; an iron stench filled the room as he wiped away the red liquid dripping from his mouth. He hurriedly checked using his clean hand to make sure the fur ball was untainted. Seeing the clean fur, he smiled, "Good."