Capítulo 22: Sensitive topics
"Ah wait wait wait don't..... ma!" yelled Zi Han as he struggled out of her arms but after being pinched a couple of times he wilted like a wet puppy at the groomers as she pinched him to her heart's content. By the time the hovercar drove into a fenced compound with a starship docked in the middle of the property Zi Han's cheeks have been pinched red.
As soon as they stepped out secretary K bowed before her saying, "Boss.... Young si-," when his voice abruptly paused. That's because the redness on Zi Han's left cheek was especially eye-catching and the culprit was standing there with a nonchalant expression like she had nothing to do with it.
Zi Han politely greeted the man in front of him with a vague sense of familiarity. He had definitely seen this face before but no matter how he scrutinised this face he couldn't tell where he had seen him. While Zi Han was observing secretary K, the subject of his interest was giving Zi Xingxi an update.
As the three people walked towards the starship a myriad of hovercars drove into the cargo bay of Rivera. Zi Han followed the frame of the vehicle they came in as it drove into the cargo bay and his eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
It was guns, luxurious cars and now a freaking corvette starship. What sort of business was his mother involved in?
Zi Xingxi glanced in her son's direction only to find him standing there stupidly drooling over the starship. At this rate, he would pass out after seeing her Imperial-class warship renamed after him.
"Aiya tsk.... this child. Don't go stupid on me. Your grandfather will kill me if anything happens to you," she said draping her arms around Zi Han's shoulder and dragging him along.
The three people walked into the cargo hold and echoes of respectful greetings came one after the other. A few crew members were busying about. With the addition of eight to ten more men and three women emerging from the hovercars, the cargo hold became very lively.
Who didn't want to see the young sir they had been watching from a distance ever since he was a little dumpling? Zi Xingxi proudly held on to her son like a doll as though afraid he would get robbed while showing off at the same time. If she didn't shut it down they would be here for hours on end. Zi Xingxi dragged him to the stealth cruiser with its engine running already.
The inside was as dazzling as the outside and extremely comfortable. Zi Han sat down with his fingers on his temples rubbing them like he had a headache. His brain was about to explode from an information overload.
Zi Xingxi glanced over in his direction as she received a tablet-like device from secretary K. "You can ask me anything, I will answer truthfully," she said while playing the footage of Marshal Yi and Yi Chen when they visited her father.
"Wha-..... *sigh," he said as he sat up
straight dropping his hand from his forehead, "what sort of business are you involved in?"
Zi Xingxi, "..."
"Why are you making me look like I am a mafia boss or something?" she said feeling a little aggrieved. She was far worse than the Mafia, okay.
Zi Han's brows arched upwards waiting for the answer. "... Well, are you?"
Zi Xingxi snorted before saying, "No but I am way worse than that."
Secretary K, "???"
Why was she scaring the young sir like that? "Tsk, look at your face so ghastly white like a ghost. I am a law-abiding citizen..... mostly. For thousands of years, our family protected the imperial family which explains all this.... well, some of it. It's an organization known as the Bloodgarde. As for the family fortune that's from our itrium mining rights," she explained in a cool and calm tone.
Zi Han was a little surprised. Itrium was on the top three energy sources powering something as simple as hovercars to more complex heavy vessels like the Federation Cradle which could carry half a planet's population in an exodus mission.
He didn't think that such a powerful resource people went to war over belonged to his family. But that's not what he was curious about. It was the term Bloodgarde that attracted his attention. He also knew that the royal family had long perished but he thought they were disbanded soon after that.
"I thought the Bloodgarde was disbanded after the incident," he said recalling the video reporting the breaking news when the prince died which was still so popular on Onyx Federation Starnet. It happened ages ago before he was born but the impact of that incident was still so strong that the video was still trending in the entire federation.
Secretary K's emotionless eyes rippled as he stiffly stared straight into the distance struggling to not look in Zi Xingxi's direction so as not to expose anything. The young sir hadn't been informed yet on who his father was and based on the way Zi Xingxi was behaving it seemed like she didn't plan on telling him the truth.
Zi Xingxi recovered her calm appearance and said, "Never mention that incident in front of me or your grandfather..... It's our sore spot. That was the first time we failed and it haunts us till this day."
Zi Han pressed his lips into a thin line as he lowered his head in understanding. He vowed not to mention this again as he sat there quietly like an obedient child. It seemed like this question was as sensitive as the question he asked about his father.
When he was younger he was curious especially when he saw other kids getting picked up from school by their dads.
At first, when asked the question his mother would brush him off either cursing at his father or saying you ask too many questions. No matter how hard he tried she wouldn't give him an answer.
One time he drew a picture of him and his dad holding hands as he picked him up from school. At that time he was just trying to probe his mum and find out where his father was.
That day Zi Xingxi was already in a terrible mood. She was drinking in the sitting room with a stick of incense lit in the middle of the table.
At that age, he couldn't read the atmosphere fast enough so he gave her the drawing with a beaming smile and said, "I drew this for dad. May you send it to him."
Zi Xingxi stared at the drawing for a long time clutching it tightly like she was going to tear it apart. Her eyes reddened as drops of tears wet the drawing staining the paper.
This was the first time Zi Han had seen his mother cry. She wept silently as she held on to that drawing. Normally she wouldn't react this way but this was the anniversary of her husband's death. She was already fragile at this point and Zi Han's messy drawing was the last straw that broke the camel's back.
Zi Han's little heart was shattered to pieces thus he vowed never to ask that question again. He didn't want to make his mum sad. He just didn't know that other than asking about his father his mother also had another topic she was so sensitive about and didn't want to talk about.
Zi Xingxi ruffled his hair in comfort as the dark cloud over her head simmered down.
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