Bursting Tomato 6

With the plan settled, they agreed to meet here at nine that evening.

The time in between was for preparations.

Yan Xianchuan was completely idle the whole time—she wasn't needed for planning, nor for preparing weapons or tools. All she had to do was stay put and follow orders.

If the two of them were ordinary close friends planning a trip together, Lu Mingqiu would definitely be the all-around expert who booked the flights and hotels, mapped out the itinerary, and memorized all the attraction introductions, while Yan Xianchuan would be the fool who did nothing but obediently pay and tag along.

They didn't prepare many weapons, since as a "client," one shouldn't carry firearms on their person.

And if the plan went smoothly, there wouldn't be any intense confrontation anyway.

At the appointed time, the four met up and drove together to Warren Tower.

At the entrance of the building's ground floor, four security guards stood right there, stun batons at their waists. Seeing a vehicle stop, they immediately cast their gazes over.

Atmore stayed in the car while the remaining three got out. Harper walked in the middle, and the two split to walk on either side, following behind her like loyal attendants.

After passing through a security checkpoint, they arrived at the front desk, where a young man seated there called out, "Please register here."

Harper extended her hand, letting him scan the light-brain device on her wrist, and said casually, "These two are my guests."

The front desk clerk glanced at them and teased, "Two at once?"

Harper let out a haughty laugh, full of queenly pride and ease. She lightly placed her hand on the clerk's, slowly stroking it with her fingertips. "You can give it a try too."

Her gaze was more alluring than the most passionate rose; the clerk's face flushed, and he withdrew his hand as if burned, shaking his head. "No thanks, I can't handle that excitement."

Yan Xianchuan and Lu Mingqiu each came up to scan, and the machine showed they were two respectable third-class citizens. Neither spoke, but they followed Harper with a fervent gaze tinged with both fear and anticipation, like animals already tamed.

The clerk inwardly clicked his tongue, once again feeling the depth of Harper's status and charm in this circle.

The elevator went straight up to the forty-second floor, where Harper led the two to her residence. It was a space dominated by black and red tones, filled with arrogance and pressure.

Harper pointed to the lower-left corner of the living room ceiling. "The vent's there."

Lu Mingqiu took two silver circular buttons from her pocket, tapped them, and suddenly eight thin legs extended from the edges, propping them up like spiders.

She manipulated the two small robots to crawl rapidly along the vent, arriving at the surveillance room on the fifth floor. It was a small room that contained four people.

One of the button-spiders sprayed a colorless, odorless transparent gas, and within two minutes, all four people collapsed at their workstations one after another.

The button-spider jumped down from the vent, its eight legs tapping the floor as it crawled to the computer mainframe, lifted its two front legs to unscrew the bolts, pried open a small crack in the casing, and slipped inside. The next moment, Hei Ge's voice sounded in their minds.

"Connected. Overlaying the footage now. Takes about five minutes."

"Where's Dr. Sera?" Lu Mingqiu asked.

"Sixty-ninth floor. Dongye Zhengqi cleared that entire floor, only Sera lives there, and the rest of the rooms are for her bodyguards."

"No surveillance in her room. Wait, I'm hacking the TV." After a moment, Hei Ge continued, "Okay, got it. She's in the living room on the phone with someone. He's got his back to us... he's turning around. It's Dongye He."

"You'd better hear this."

As soon as he said that, their conversation came through.

Dongye He's voice sounded laced with suppressed anger: "What do you mean, wait? He looks like he could live another twenty years. Am I supposed to wait another twenty?"

"I've told you many times, it's absolutely fine. You just need to do as I say. It's a win-win for both of us, isn't it?" A female voice, obviously aged, responded. "The small family we're using as a shield hasn't been chosen yet. Why rush for a day or two? Once the contracts are signed this weekend, I'll have Dongye Zhengqi come to the lab and give him the injection. Then the whole family will be under your control."

"You're right." Dongye He took a deep breath. "I got too excited. Sorry, Doctor. My tone was off earlier."

"It's no big deal. As long as the lab is properly set up, that's all that matters. After all, it's a win-win, as you said."

The audio ended with a burst of laughter.

Yan Xianchuan: "Mm... sounds like a real devoted son and loving father scenario."

Lu Mingqiu: "It's only natural. Look through the power transition histories of any of the financial clans, and you'll find that nearly every generation of patriarch first kills off their siblings, and finally deals with the one sitting above them."

"Dongye He is already forty-six. In a few more years, in other regions, he'd be directly categorized as middle-aged or elderly. His peers have long since taken the patriarch's seat, and only he remains a second-in-command. It's no surprise he'd think this way."

His partnership with Dr. Sera, though, is quite surprising.

The Dongye Family has always been in the pharmaceutical industry, which ties back to Dongye Zhengqi's own experiences. In his youth, he too fought his way through many competitors of his generation, was poisoned once, had to get a mechanical liver, and the older he gets, the more problems his organs have. It's unavoidable—people age, and age-related illnesses are something everyone goes through.

No medical skill can grant immortality.

Dongye Zhengqi's dream was precisely that. If the flesh ages, why not replace it with machinery? Metal's lifespan far exceeds that of a human body. It must be said, this coincides perfectly with the goals of the Mechanical Pure Land.

But replacing parts with prosthetics brings another problem: consciousness disorder. So he needed the finalized version of the Consciousness-Separation Serum more urgently than anyone else. It was with his strong support that Dr. Sera succeeded in developing the Consciousness-Separation Serum.

Having tasted the days of standing at the pinnacle of the world and having his word be law, he fell in love with it all and refused to hand it over to anyone, even his own flesh and blood son.

And Dongye He? He'd watched his father call all the shots while he himself stood just below the throne, only one step away. That one step—he had waited countless years, and it seemed he'd have to keep waiting.

He had snatched financial channels from other heirs, not to watch someone else issue orders from above his head.

Even if that someone was his own father.

This was an opportunity. Lu Mingqiu suddenly seized the fleeting spark of insight.

If Dongye Zhengqi fell and Dongye He rose to power, the regime change would inevitably cause turmoil throughout the family. The cronies loyal to Dongye Zhengqi—the son would surely leave not one alive.

Lu Mingqiu took a soft breath, then slowly exhaled, suppressing her stirring thoughts. She'd think about that later; action was imminent. She couldn't afford to be distracted.

"There's only one bodyguard in Dr. Sera's room, and six guarding the door outside," Hei Ge said, transmitting a real-time image.

"Can you tell who's an esper?" Lu Mingqiu asked.

"Can't tell," Hei Ge said. "Surveillance coverage is complete."

"Good," Lu Mingqiu said. "Move out."

Even with the people in the surveillance room already anesthetized and unconscious, they still overwrote the footage to prevent pursuers from tracing their tracks.

As for why they didn't use the same method to knock out the guards in the corridor—it was because the space was too large, and the anesthetic gas would dissipate too quickly, losing its potency.

The two took the elevator to the sixty-ninth floor. The moment the doors slid open, before the people inside could react, Lu Mingqiu's esper power shot out like invisible lightning, leaping from person to person along her line of sight.

With a single syllable uttered, the guards stationed outside the door all collapsed at once. Yan Xianchuan, in the same breath, dashed forward, catching their falling bodies, lowering them to the ground as quietly as possible rather than letting them crash down and make noise that would alert those inside.

Lu Mingqiu shook her head, meaning there were no espers here.

Then that meant the one inside was.

Yan Xianchuan received the signal from her eyes, kicked the door open, and Lu Mingqiu followed closely behind, ready to use her power to knock out the two inside.

The esper bodyguard reacted swiftly, immediately stepping in front of Dr. Sera, opening his mouth, and a silent shriek swept out like ripples in water. As the two powers clashed, aside from Dr. Sera, the other three present all coughed up blood.

"It's ultrasonic waves," Lu Mingqiu managed, enduring the roaring in her skull and the unnatural high-frequency trembling of her internal organs.

The esper bodyguard was also dizzy and disoriented, barely able to stand by gripping the back of the sofa.

Dr. Sera's face drastically changed, and with agility she'd never shown before, she ran toward the bedroom, sending out an alarm as she went.

Yan Xianchuan was in much better shape than Lu Mingqiu; her physical constitution far surpassed the other's. While Lu was spitting up blood, her face flushed red, Yan Xianchuan acted like nothing was wrong, wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, pulled out several small knives from her waist, and hurled them at the bodyguard's head.

Seeing this, the bodyguard quickly bent down, flat on the ground, rolled behind the sofa. Yan Xianchuan released her hold on Lu Mingqiu, snatched up the knives, and gave chase with long, fast strides.

She didn't have a gun, but that didn't mean others didn't. The bodyguard, recovering his senses, fumbled to pull a gun from its holster, but before he could squeeze the trigger, a searing pain shot through his leg, blacking out his vision and ruining his aim.

He cried out in agony, looking down to see Yan Xianchuan's foot pressing down on it. With a twist of her toe, a crisp sound of bone breaking rang out again.

The bodyguard broke into a cold sweat from pain, his eyes burning red with fury. He opened his mouth again, unleashing another silent shriek.

Yan Xianchuan, unbothered, lunged at him, using the weight of her body to slam her elbow into his abdomen, then drove the small knife in her hand deep into the wrist holding the gun, and flicked upward—blood sprayed instantly.

The bodyguard's hand went limp, blood gushing out and dripping down to the floor. Having severed the tendons, she didn't stop her momentum; reversing the blade, she stabbed at his neck and twisted counterclockwise.

Too close, the choking sounds of blocked airways, blood spurted from his throat like a severed water pipe, drenching her face and head entirely, like a red shower.

Yan Xianchuan wiped her face, momentarily unable to tell whose blood on her was his or vomited out from herself.

Just as she was about to get up and go after Dr. Sera, a gunshot rang out, a bullet whizzing past her. She whirled around to see Dr. Sera slowly collapsing to the ground, still clutching a handgun.

Lu Mingqiu, leaning against the wall, her face a dark red, asked, "Are you all right?"

Yan Xianchuan tore off a piece of the sofa cover and roughly wiped her face, ignoring the dull ache in her chest and the stabbing pain in her head. "Fine."

She walked over, grabbed Dr. Sera by one arm, and dragged her to Lu Mingqiu. "You okay?"

"I can still move. I'll read her memories—three minutes," Lu Mingqiu said, crouching down and lightly placing her hand on Dr. Sera's forehead.

Dr. Sera's memories flashed by rapidly.

Her parents were fourth-class citizens, and she had been labeled as such since birth. But Sera had always been extremely ambitious. She was intelligent, and her family supported her education, paying the hefty tuition fees. Sera lived up to their hopes, often ranking first in her major.

The Consciousness-Separation Serum was one of her ideas from a final design project. Her presentation was impressive, catching the eye of Dongye Zhengqi, who then began funding her research.

With financial backing, she could get her hands on equipment and materials that were previously unobtainable—that was the advantage of money.

Sera would occasionally resent her parents, resent being born into such a family, because without status or money, and with excellent grades, she was seen as a thorn in the side of the rich young masters.

She was ostracized by her classmates at school.

These fools' self-righteous tactics never bothered Sera, but when opportunities to enter the lab were repeatedly taken away by others, she couldn't help but feel resentful.

Though she knew her parents had done everything in their power to support her, and she was grateful, the exorbitant tuition had nearly bankrupted the family, yet they never complained—they only wished for her to rise above.

So Sera wanted to climb even higher. As long as she had money, she'd have everything: others' respect, social status, everything she desired.

The Consciousness-Separation Serum was money.

Dongye Zhengqi paid generously, but he talked too much and demanded too much. He rushed her, flew into rages at her, and piled on endless pressure, which made Sera utterly fed up.

He was an opinionated man who brooked no defiance, and he never showed his heir, Dongye He, any kindness, either.

In his eyes, Dongye He's very existence was a thorn in his side. Only with his death would an heir take over—this son was just there to hasten his end.

So Dongye Zhengqi often berated him, showing no respect in front of his subordinates, humiliating Dongye He.

What a perfect partner he was—he wanted Dongye Zhengqi dead even more than she did.

Sera needed a patron who wouldn't interfere, and Dongye He needed a money tree that could lay golden eggs. The two hit it off and began plotting to end Dongye Zhengqi's life.

The memory reading ended. Lu Mingqiu's face was ghastly. "What a beast—she's been doing illegal human experiments."

Yan Xianchuan was just lifting her foot to kick the body aside when she suddenly noticed the skin behind the woman's ear swelling up, a sinister red light pulsing beneath. "Look at this..."

Lu Mingqiu turned her gaze, her pupils instantly constricting. She yanked Yan Xianchuan hard. "Get down!"

The moment the words left her mouth, there was a bang—Dr. Sera's head burst like a watermelon dropped from a great height, splattering everywhere. Some chunks of flesh even stuck to the ceiling before raining back down.

Yan Xianchuan: "...My clothes."

She'd only had time to turn around and shield herself. Her front was already ruined; now her back was a mess too. Lu Mingqiu, however, was shielded behind her and hadn't gotten anything on her.

Lu Mingqiu's face had gone beyond pale—it was grim. A scene all too familiar had occurred not long ago, on that traitor Stinger.

This was the Holy Healing Church's doing. She should have been on guard for this. The financial clans had tangled ties with the Church, and there was no way Dongye Zhengqi hadn't put some kind of insurance on Sera.

"Let's go!" she barked. "Retreat now!"

And indeed, with Dr. Sera's death, an alarm blared loudly. Hei Ge's voice came rapidly through the comms: "Search teams have received the alarm and are heading this way. The building's security is mobilizing."

Harper's comm immediately connected, her voice filled with urgency. "Get out now! We're waiting downstairs!"

Yan Xianchuan grabbed the guns from the two people on the floor and handed one to Lu Mingqiu.

Hei Ge continued to relay the security's movements in real time. Yan Xianchuan thought for a moment and said, "We could just jump out the window."

At this height, she wouldn't die.

Lu Mingqiu shot her a look that said, "Have you lost your mind?" They weren't wearing any protective gear.

"I'm feeling much better now," Yan Xianchuan said. "If they want to get here fast, they won't cut the power. We'll take out the enemies coming up the elevator and just ride it down."

"My power requires me to see the target to use it," Lu Mingqiu said. "You cover me and take care of any stragglers."

After being glared at, Yan Xianchuan swallowed her suggestion but still muttered under her breath about how jumping really was faster, until a warning look from Lu Mingqiu shut her up.

She looked like she'd taken a dip in a pool of blood and been hauled ashore—her hair was plastered wetly to her forehead, which she slicked back with her hand. Blood soaked her clothes, sticky and damp, and her back was an unsightly mess of reds and whites with bits of flesh clinging to the fabric. The stench of blood was stronger than a slaughterhouse.

She blinked, and a drop of blood trembled off her lashes.

"Oh dear..." she said. "I want a shower."

Lu Mingqiu decided to pretend she hadn't heard.

The three elevators went up almost simultaneously. Because Sera lived here, the Dongye family had sent quite a few extra hands. As the elevator doors opened, over a dozen people rushed out, all holding guns aimed forward.

Yan Xianchuan balled up the sofa cover and hurled it down the corridor. A hail of gunfire erupted, and Lu Mingqiu took advantage of the moment, crouched low, to peek out. Her mental power spread along the airwaves, and the guards fell like dominoes, one after another.

"Done. Let's go."

Yan Xianchuan swiftly stripped the body armor off them, tossed a piece to Lu Mingqiu, and grabbed a few grenades for good measure.

The elevator stopped at the second floor. They ran out, and Yan Xianchuan tossed the grenade with the pin pulled down the stairwell. An explosion boomed, and the two dashed for the corridor window. Yan Xianchuan went through first, breaking the glass, with Lu Mingqiu right behind.

Below was a flower bed, and the bushes cushioned their fall. Based on her training, a two-story height shouldn't harm Lu Mingqiu, but she'd taken a hit from that esper bodyguard, her internal organs were damaged, and the impact made her cough up more blood.

Lu Mingqiu staggered a few steps, nearly collapsing.

Yan Xianchuan caught her arm, preventing her from pitching forward.

Atmore was on the street, honking the horn. Yan Xianchuan swung Lu Mingqiu onto her back and sprinted for the roadside, still having enough breath to complain. "Your legs are too long. See, we're about the same height, and this is really inconvenient."

"I've got a bunch of gross stuff on my back, and now it's all smearing on your clothes. Do you have mysophobia? Guess not, but it's so dirty. I want a shower. Her brain was disgusting, I don't want it on me—what if it infects me?"

Lu Mingqiu's head was buzzing, and for a moment she couldn't decide who to blame for this mess. She closed her eyes. "...Just hold on a bit longer. You can wash when we get back, okay?"

At that moment, she missed the Yan Xianchuan who'd gone quiet during episodes, not this gradually excited motor-mouth version.

Carrying someone on her back, Yan Xianchuan didn't slow down at all—if anything, she was faster than when they'd been running separately. The car door was already open. She tossed Lu Mingqiu into the back seat and climbed in herself. She'd barely sat down when Atmore floored the gas pedal, tires screeching loudly as they spun.

The escort team, seeing this, quickly jumped into their cars and gave chase, a line of vehicles tearing recklessly through the streets, completely ignoring traffic laws.

"They're not shaking! Can you even drive?!" Harper snapped at the driver, staring at the black car in the rearview mirror.

"I've got the pedal to the metal, but their car's better than mine. No helping it," Atmore protested.

"Got any guns in the car?" Yan Xianchuan asked.

"Yeah, under the back seat," Atmore said. "Don't tell me you're gonna shoot back? I didn't bring that many bullets!"

Yan Xianchuan bent down, fumbled underneath, and pulled out a rifle. She propped it on the back of the seat and took aim at the cars behind. Her gaze was focused, her expression serious, the epitome of a top-notch sniper. The two in the front seats fell silent in unison.

Bang!

One shot, just one, and Harper stared intently at the mirror, afraid of missing a spectacular shot, but nothing happened.

The pursuing cars kept coming, not even a window cracked.

Harper: ?

Yan Xianchuan nudged Lu Mingqiu. "Your turn."

Both she and the target were moving, and other vehicles blocked the way—this kind of high-difficulty sniping was a bit beyond her skill set.

She did aim, but the car swayed, and the bullet went who knows where. And with limited ammo, she couldn't just spray. In this situation, it had to be Lu Mingqiu, who was properly trained.

Lu Mingqiu was in rough shape—her jacket was stained dark red with her own blood, and she was slumped in the seat, drenched in cold sweat.

Ever since she'd removed her own gland, her health had been poor. She should have been resting, but circumstances had changed. In the meantime, she'd gone on missions and used her powers intensively, which was like adding insult to injury. Even with the special medicine from headquarters, she still hadn't fully recovered.

The esper's ultrasonic attack had been like ripping off the freshly formed scabs on a wound, undoing all her previous recovery.

Lu Mingqiu took a couple of deep breaths, steeled herself, gripped the gun, and said quietly, "I don't have much strength left. Steady me."

Her hands and feet were weak, but the hand on the trigger didn't tremble. Her gaze was calm as a deep abyss.

Yan Xianchuan wrapped her arms around her from behind, acting as if her little aversion to physical contact had vanished.

*Her lashes are so curly*, she suddenly noticed.

They'd exchanged many glances, and they'd lived together for a while now, but Yan Xianchuan had never paid attention to details like this before.

She did often stare at Lu Mingqiu's face during the variety show shoot, but the image had only registered in her eyes, never reaching her brain.

She found Lu Mingqiu very interesting—contradictory, with depths worth exploring. More than her looks, Yan Xianchuan cared about her inner self. She also knew Lu Mingqiu was beautiful, but it was only in this moment that she truly realized where that beauty lay.

Both of them were wearing disguises. Lu Mingqiu's bright blue eyes had turned brown, but her curled lashes lay quietly on her face like unfurled petals.

Lu Mingqiu squeezed the trigger, and the recoil pushed her body back into Yan Xianchuan's embrace.

Amid the chaos of a car swerving, she adjusted her position again, resuming her aiming stance.

Another shot, and the bullet passed cleanly through the driver's head. The car skidded sideways, blocking the road and holding off the forces behind.

"Nice shot!" Harper laughed loudly.

Lu Mingqiu lowered the gun and sank back into her seat. "The search teams are still coming. We need to avoid the traffic cameras."

"No problem." Atmore whistled. "Your marksmanship's incredible!"

"It's fine," Lu Mingqiu said, her brow furrowing in pain.

She turned her head and met Yan Xianchuan's gaze, if only because the intensity of that look was too strong to ignore.

Her eyes were growing brighter and brighter, her lips parting.

*Uh-oh*, Lu Mingqiu thought, and the next moment, Yan Xianchuan recited with profound emotion: "It waits for the day of frost; when the north wind blows, it dons the glorious Tyrian purple."

"O Creator! May I bloom?"

Lu Mingqiu closed her eyes deeply and leaned back in her seat.

The two in the front exchanged glances, expressions strange, wanting to ask something but unsure what to say, radiating an air of monumental awkwardness.

*I shouldn't have given up, just let it slide.* That was what Lu Mingqiu thought as she reopened her eyes. Seeing the other about to speak again, she quickly cut in: "Want some pudding when we get back?"

Yan Xianchuan's imminent poem died on her lips, replaced by, "Yes!"

The effect was immediate. Yan Xianchuan stopped reciting poetry and started rattling off a list of desserts instead—pudding, egg tarts, scones, mousse cake...

Finally, she looked at Lu Mingqiu with a triumphant, expectant gaze that clearly awaited praise. Lu Mingqiu, catching on, said, "Thanks to you, this operation went so smoothly. You can have whatever you want—my treat."

Yan Xianchuan happily settled back into her seat, no longer staring at her with that unnerving, feverish intensity.

Feedback. Lu Mingqiu had found another trick to dealing with this person.

She needed positive reinforcement—praise and compliments. It effectively stabilized her mood. Like an anchor, it kept her grounded in normalcy.

From her past observations, Yan Xianchuan was someone who didn't care about others' opinions. If she did, she wouldn't blatantly recite poetry or spout nonsense at any time or place, which also fit her condition.

This was a deeply self-centered person.

So why did she seek positive feedback?

The more Lu Mingqiu looked at her, the more she felt Yan Xianchuan was shrouded in mystery—one that couldn't be explained away with a simple case of amnesia and psychopathy.