The Mechanic [BL]

[121]

Chapter 121 – Descendant (5)

Zhang Xun stopped outside the door of the tent, as if lead had been poured into his legs, his eyes fixed on the sealed plastic door.

He had been wanting to see his father again, hadn't he? Why was he so scared now?

Adam was at his side holding his hand gently, as if to give him strength.

He didn't know when Adam had become so good at performing extremely human acts at just the right time. It raised a faint note of sadness in Zhang Xun's parched soul.

Natalie smiled at them and pressed the button to open the door. The sealed door retracted to either side and a warm gust of air blew out of the tent.

Several people were waiting inside and looked up at the same time.

Zhang Shuo looked noticeably older than Zhang Xun remembered; his originally straight back was slightly stooped, his eyes, always stern and robust, were suffused with fatigue and his hair was tinged with frost at the temples. The moment he saw Zhang Xun, a certain suppressed emotion flashed in his eyes and he unconsciously rose to his feet.

Zhang Xun felt a slight tingling somewhere in his chest, but all the emotions he thought he should feel were pale and lacking.

His eyes swept around him and he was slightly startled to see Todd's sister, Anya and...... Diego?

What was Diego doing here? When had he escaped from the Feathered Serpent City? How had he met his father? And why was Anya here too? Shouldn't they and the Edenites that Natalie represented be mortal enemies?

And Zhang Shuo looked at his only son, at the slight change of expression on Zhang Xun's face and he realised that something was wrong.

Something was missing from Zhang Xun..... but for a moment he couldn't say exactly what was wrong. He walked towards Zhang Xun and it didn't take long for him to gradually realise where the problem was.

The way Zhang Xun looked at him, there was no waves.

Zhang Shuo had always known that his son worshipped him, that he always wanted his approval. Since he was a child, Zhang Xun had always looked at him with a starry look in his eyes that was half admiration and half fear, he himself didn't know but Zhang Shuo could see it clearly.

But Zhang Shuo was still too stingy to give even a single word of recognition, a single word of praise.

And now that glow was gone. Zhang Xun looked at his father plaintively, as if he were merely looking at an old man with whom he had little relation.

A dull pain, a pain that Zhang Shuo thought he would never have, began to spread through his chest.

"What have you done to him?" Zhang Shuo's cold voice rang out, his still-sharp gaze suddenly locking onto Adam at Zhang Xun's side.

Guilt arose like a quietly growing mould that was eating away at Adam's mind. Zhang Shuo's anger made him wince slightly.

He hadn't been afraid of Zhang Shuo at all before, but now, the thought of Zhang Shuo being Zhang Xun's father made him..... inexplicably weak.

"He injected himself with nanobots." Adam spoke in a matter-of-fact tone, as if he was reporting to his superiors, "I'm still trying to figure out the antidote, so I need......"

"Why would he do such a thing? Did you force him to do it?" Zhang Shuo said, his hand already touching the gun at his waist.

"Dad." Zhang Xun finally spoke up. That one word silenced Zhang Shuo and he looked at Zhang Xun with a worried but barely maintained calm expression.