Tu Yu had just finished a mission and was still on the road back to the Special Zone.
The mission was completed, so everyone in the vehicle was relaxed. Beside him, Su Rumeng wrapped a healing bandage around him and couldn’t help asking,
“By the way, Sanqi has been in school for almost two months now, right? How is she? Can she adapt?”
Tu Yu grinned and directly pulled up Tu Sanqi’s evaluations for her to see.
Su Rumeng was astonished. “Outstanding in every category!”
“Let me see, let me see.” Another boy, Ling Yi, leaned over from the side. “Damn, your sister’s a top student! She’ll probably awaken an ability soon and get sent to the training camp.”
When the topic of abilities came up, Tu Yu remembered the earlier misunderstanding.
He pulled up another test report and sighed. “Probably still a while. Sanqi stayed outside for too long. Not long ago her eyes turned red, so Teacher Lu took her for a checkup… turns out it was just pink eye.”
Ling Yi frowned slightly. “Then her physical condition isn’t very good.”
“Yeah.” Tu Yu scrolled to the bottom and showed them. “Dr. Cheng’s examination. In the end he said it was severe malnutrition.”
Su Rumeng had been shocked by that earlier.
When she first met Tu Sanqi, she could already tell that Tu Sanqi’s physical condition wasn’t keeping up—it was definitely related to malnutrition. Yet Tu Sanqi could still achieve outstanding results in school!
“Sanqi really is fierce,” Su Rumeng said admiringly, then patted Tu Yu. “As her older brother, you should check in on her more often. Don’t let her push herself too hard—if she hurts her body, that wouldn’t be good.”
Tu Yu was about to respond when his communicator vibrated.
The three of them instinctively looked down and saw a short message:
[Hello, guardian of Tu Sanqi. Please come to the monitoring room as soon as possible.]
The three of them: “……”
Inside the monitoring room.
Two arsonists were standing against the wall reflecting on their mistakes. Including Lu Yan and Qiao Qin, three teachers were watching the surveillance footage. Beside them, three combat-dressed ability users were studying the rocket launcher and shell fragments the two had tinkered together.
Tu Sanqi, who had just decided to watch her words and actions carefully only to have her guardian summoned the very next second: “……”
Had fate not finished messing with her yet???
Well… to be fair, it was also her own carelessness.
At the time she was fully focused on the modification and never thought to ask what ability had been infused into the shell. Even after firing it, she was immersed in the joy of the successful modification and never thought about how much trouble that purple ability flame would cause.
By the time the two of them reacted and tried to put out the fire, they discovered that the ability flame simply couldn’t be extinguished.
Water didn’t work. Dirt didn’t work either.
Only then did Fei Yucheng realize they needed ability-infused water.
Tu Sanqi quickly tried to call someone for help—the only person she knew: Yan Shuang.
But before Yan Shuang could arrive, the Special Zone’s water-type ability users had already shown up.
Because after burning through the protective net, the fire had started spreading toward the Special Zone itself—and it was getting fiercer and fiercer.
When the alarm sounded in the Special Zone, everyone immediately went on high alert.
But when the surveillance footage revealed that the culprits were two students who hadn’t even awakened abilities yet… everyone fell silent.
Before long, the monitoring room door beeped open and two plainly dressed middle-aged men walked in.
Their gazes swept over the two dejected kids squatting in the corner. The men exchanged a glance, surprise flashing in their eyes.
Qiao Qin immediately went forward to greet them and brought them over to look at the shell and launcher.
Tu Sanqi couldn’t squat still anymore and turned to look at Fei Yucheng. He, however, looked completely calm.
“Will your guardian come?” Teacher Qiao had said the fire they caused was so big that it had alarmed higher authorities, so if no guardian came to take them away, they probably wouldn’t be allowed to leave.
Fei Yucheng nodded. “Yes.”
Tu Sanqi sighed. “I’m not even sure if my guardian will come.”
Just as she finished speaking, the metal door opened again and two figures walked in at the same time.
The school usually allowed students a lot of freedom and rarely summoned guardians—unless something very serious had happened.
Tu Yu had already prepared himself mentally on the way here. But when he entered and saw how many people were in the monitoring room, he still froze for a second.
Then he saw Tu Sanqi squatting near the door.
She was still wearing the school’s training uniform, but she looked dusty and disheveled. One of her shoes had even been burned halfway through…
Tu Yu’s eyelid twitched.
“The guardians have arrived,” Lu Yan spoke first.
Tu Yu withdrew his gaze. Beside him stood Fei Yucheng’s uncle, Mei Jun. The two of them greeted, “Teacher Lu.”
“It’s like this…” Lu Yan stepped aside and pulled up the surveillance footage for them.
From Saturday afternoon—after Tu Sanqi returned from the Special Zone hospital and was invited out by Fei Yucheng…
To the two of them entering the laboratory together…
To Monday morning, when they excitedly carried the launcher and shell toward the wasteland.
Then—
Boom.
Not long after, the screen was filled with purple flames, which passed through the protective net and burned straight toward the Special Zone.
The two men: “……”
No wonder guardians had to be summoned.
Before Lu Yan could say anything further, Tu Sanqi and Fei Yucheng were taken outside by Qiao Qin.
Now Tu Sanqi squatted by the door, staring at the metal door of the monitoring room, still feeling uneasy.
She hadn’t expected her brother to actually make it back in time.
But… the moment he returned he had to face so many teachers in the monitoring room. Tu Sanqi figured Tu Yu probably wasn’t in a good mood.
She felt a little depressed.
Half an hour later, the door opened again. Tu Yu and Mei Jun walked out one after another, nodded to each other slightly, and each took their own child away.
Along the way, Tu Sanqi carefully observed Tu Yu’s reaction.
But his face showed no emotion. She couldn’t tell if he was angry or not.
By now it was already eleven in the morning. Only after they entered the cafeteria did Tu Yu seem to snap out of his thoughts.
He ruffled Tu Sanqi’s hair.
“I’ll go buy you food. Go sit over there and wait for me.”
Tu Sanqi found a seat and sat down. She took out a potion from her pocket, looking a little conflicted.
Her brother didn’t seem angry…
So should she take the chance to tell him about the zombie thing…?
Tu Yu returned with the food and told her to eat quickly.
His sister had stayed in the lab for so long without eating or sleeping. She must be starving by now.
And Tu Sanqi really was starving. As soon as the food arrived, she temporarily forgot everything else and buried her head in eating.
Tu Yu finished eating quickly. When he saw that Tu Sanqi’s bowl was nearly empty and she still hadn’t slowed down, he went to buy another portion.
Watching her eat with complete focus, a few complicated emotions appeared in his otherwise gentle eyes.
—Actually, he and Mei Jun hadn’t been scolded. Teacher Lu had only reminded them to teach the two children more about safety.
After that, the two engineers had extended an invitation.
If possible, they were willing to make an exception and bring the two into the camp for training—but the prerequisite was that they might not have the energy to pursue awakening abilities anymore.
Although engineering training wasn’t as physically demanding as combat training, that was only in terms of physical effort.
Thinking about this, Tu Yu came back to his senses. Looking again at Tu Sanqi, who had finished another bowl cleanly, he cautiously spoke.
“Sanqi… your brother thinks that awakening abilities might actually be the wrong path for you.”
Tu Sanqi paused mid-bite and looked up, meeting Tu Yu’s hesitant gaze.
Tu Sanqi: “……”
She put down her chopsticks, her mood suddenly heavy.
“When did you find out?”