"Listen to me. You just managed to release that seal. If they find out through these walls that you were a success from the experiment, you will be their next target. You hear me? Even if you can't be calm, you need to control your emotions. Your abilities are stronger than Zi Lan's and mines combined because you also absorbed my energy in my womb." Zi Yan squeezed her shoulders as Chen Mu knocked on the other side of the door.
He heard Susu's screams and tried to enter the room, but it was locked. Professor Luo Xia reassured him from the inside of the room that everything was fine and that they needed more time alone with her. He guaranteed that she was alright. She only needed to process some parts of the story.
Chen Mu really wanted to barge in on them, but he knew that this was their private matter. Hence, he went back to his seat and stared at the closed door with his fingers intertwined.
After several minutes of persuasion, Susu followed Zi Yan's instructions and controlled herself. The objects in the room settled back to where it came from. Finally, she took another deep breath and said, "I'm ready for the rest of the story."
"Are you sure? We can continue another day if you need some time to rest." Professor Luo Xia's heart ached as he witnessed her sweat filled forehead. It took her a lot of effort and energy to calm down.
She shook her head, "how could I be a weakling and stop here? I can continue from where we left off. What did those bastards do? What else have they hidden from me?"
They were impressed by her courageous strength. Many people would have gone on a massive killer mode or went in shock from learning about this. Susu mumbled, "I'll hunt each of them down."
Zi Yan sighed and said, "where were we up to? Ah, right. There was actually more to the experiment. I didn't know what happened between grandma and them except for the fact that Zi Lan and I were captured for the experiment. She couldn't escape their claws either and was held captive too. I only knew that these monsters grew hungrier for money as time passed. They used nasty methods to research and trick other people into their labs."
"Ariana and Chen Nan were the youngest in that lab. As for what happened to them, they never mentioned much about it. We also never asked. Other people either died or were killed by those scientists after they found out that they were useless material to the research."
"The original partners who came up with this damn idea already died, but their sons and daughters took over their spot. Tian Guo Min, Shen Wen, Lin Zin Leung, Liang Yu Qing and their parents were involved in the experiment. Lin Zin Leung was the worst beast who came up with the idea of injecting animal's DNA during the safe stage of the pregnancy."
"Animal's DNA?? What for? To make me look like a human with pig's head?" Susu shoved the blanket away from her and reacted impulsively as her feet reached the cold floor.
"He wanted his child to have psychic abilities and an animal's unique ability. For instance, if he uses Cheetah, then he would expect the child to have lightning speed running because that's the animal's innate skill." She shook her head and caressed Susu's cheeks to prevent her from doing anything reckless.
"Hah, that bastard doesn't want a child! He wants to make a damn monster human baby to brag about. What if the child ended up brainless with a leopard's head and human limbs? What will he do? Kill the child? Or display that body in a museum? Dissect me for more research?" Susu scoffed and hit her chest to ease the chest pain.
"Zi Lan sealed your abilities so that they wouldn't find out and use you as their subject. Only this way, it would be the safest for you. Thankfully, when they couldn't test your abilities, they decided to observe you as you grow older. Your grandmother helped me escape later on, and I managed to meet up with your grandfather. Then, Chen Nan and Ariana met up with us on another date. We couldn't bring you along because if we get caught then we would end up dead."
"Also, those people were already killing even before our escape plan pieced together." Zi Yan wanted to say some more words, but couldn't bring herself to say it in front of her father.
Susu asked, "then what about grandma? Didn't she go with you guys? Why didn't she escape as well?"
Professor Luo Xia looked at Zi Yan's sorry expression, "Don't worry about me. You can say it. No point in hiding anything or holding words in your throat."
Zi Yan nodded and wiped the corner of her eyes, "Your grandma helped me escape, but she also said that she couldn't go with me. She said that her days was almost up, and all she could do is help whoever she could while she still can. Her last words to me were to tell you, dad, that she loves you a lot."
"...did they kill her?" Susu squeezed her left hand to a tight fist when she asked this question.
"I don't know because that was the last time I've seen her. I also tried to ask Chen Nan and Ariana, but they said that they were brought halfway through a separately planned route before parting from her. We settled everything and have been planning since years ago to come back for you. Unfortunately, there were movements about the experiment and everything delayed."
"Then..what about the rose? Why did you tell me that as long as I kept the rose with me and not hand it over to them, I would be safe? What does this have anything to do with the rose? Was it to unseal my abilities?" She questioned and looked at the rose that had fallen from her hand to her bed.
"Partially because of that. Another reason is that when your mother sealed your abilities, she also told me to leave a chip with you. Those rich bastards wanted to find out about our family's weaknesses because we held the key to billions of underground connections to businesses. Those people didn't know much about it, so they've been looking for an object that they had no idea about." Zi Yan took out a small piece of chip that was sitting inside a small plastic container.
"What's this? The key?" Susu squinted at the small object while taking some deep breaths slowly.
"Other than the abilities that they wanted from our DNA cells and whatever cells they wanted to experiment with, they wanted these chips. Since the words spread saying these were keys, they assumed it would be in a key form. Zi Lan purposely said before she passed away to me just for them to hear that she would give everything that belonged to her to you. That's why as long as they fail to find the key, they wouldn't lay a finger on you. There is a total of two pieces. One of it is here, and the other is in this rose."
"In here?" Susu looked at the rose. Zi Yan took the rose and folded certain petals inwards and bent a few petals outwards. The center of the rose opened up and a chip was trapped inside of it.
"I was that close all along? How could I not have noticed?" she took the chip from the center of the rose and inspected the tiny piece sim card looking chip.
"Actually, you were quite close. Your grandpa already showed me the footage of your rose dress design. You only had the petals folded incorrectly or else you would've found out about it. I'm very proud of you." She gave Susu a quick hand squeeze and smiled.
"This all feels so weird." Susu mumbled lowly.
"Hmm?" Zi Yan stroked Susu's hair as she listened to her words. Professor Luo Xia also covered Susu with the blanket that she had previously shoved aside.
"For all these years, everyone that I thought of who were close to me were wolves trying to skin me alive. Once I held little to no value to them, they tossed me aside. The scariest thought of all wasn't that I was alone, but that I had family members who were in danger because of these bastards. My family was ruined, and my life was an experiment. I just found out about having a mother and grandfather. Now, I have some magic skills that I always thought reality shows faked about."
She said it all in one breath and inhaled deeply before continuing her thoughts. "Forget what I used to think about because that family existed through illusional fakers. My mothers suffered, and my entire ancestry line is basically separated. I'm feeling so overwhelmed that I could barely breath correctly."
They soothed her back as she let out her frustrations and concerns. "You two didn't hate me for being born and still came for me. You left this important chip looking thing with me and even put my safety as your top priorities. And now..I...I..."
She felt her cheeks heat up and her nose getting stuffy. She vented out her anger and all there's left were emotions that she didn't know how to settle. As her tears flowed, all she felt were comforting rubs on her back and warmth of a real family.
After she had calmed her emotions, she took Professor Luo Xia's hand and placed it on Zi Yan's hand. With a small smile, she patted both hands at once and said, "Nice to meet you two. Mom. Grandpa."