Chapter 133: Execution by Fire!

Lu Zhiyong placed a bottle of chilled champagne on the coffee table and said with a smile, "You two, father and daughter, should have a good chat. It's been so many years, and it's rare for you to have the chance to sit together, share a drink, and catch up."

Wait, why did these words sound so familiar?

Ah, he had said the exact same thing to Tang Fei earlier, but Tang Fei hadn't agreed.

Then Lu Zhiyong continued, "Today is a good day. I've dug out the Emperor champagne I've been hoarding for years. Champagne goes best with roasted mutton, and I'll even give you a few cloves of single-clove garlic I grew myself. Let me tell you, this combination is simply peerless—I wouldn't trade it for anything an immortal could offer. You two go ahead and drink; once the mutton is done, I'll go slice it for you."

With that, he turned around and bustled off to get to work.

Lu Siyu picked up the champagne bottle from the ice bucket, popped the cork with a loud *pop*, poured a glass for the old man, and then poured one for herself.

Before even setting the bottle down, she lifted the glass and gulped the champagne down in one breath.

Then, she poured herself another glass and tossed it back just as fast.

The old man sat beside her, watching quietly. He didn't pick up his glass, nor did he try to stop her.

He knew she needed to calm down.

Without another drink or two, she probably wouldn't be able to say many of the things weighing on her mind.

They were father and daughter—supposedly the closest people in the world to one another—yet now, sitting together, they felt like utter strangers.

He didn't really know Lu Siyu; all the information he had about her came from internet searches and what Lu Zhiyong had told him recently.

And what could a rough-hewn fellow like Lu Zhiyong possibly know? Whatever he saw was purely superficial.

What was running through her mind? What did she truly care about?

Lu Siyu didn't understand her father either. She resented him, she hated him, and yet she had yearned for him and missed him.

It was an extremely complex and contradictory state of mind—so contradictory that even now, sitting right in front of him, she was still questioning whether coming to see him was the right choice, and why she had even bothered to come at all.

It wasn't until Lu Siyu finished her third glass of wine that she paused slightly.

A flush spread across her cheeks, and her gaze lost its previous sharp coldness, replaced by a trace of grievance and a hazy mist as she looked at the old man and asked, "Why did you come back? Weren't you dead? Everyone said you were dead..."

Only then did the old man pick up his champagne glass. Looking at the tiny bubbles constantly rising within it, he said in a deep voice, "I was dead... I originally thought that if I let you all treat me as a dead person, it might make your lives a little easier."

"Ha, is that your explanation? Is that the reason you give to the people who waited for you for over a decade?"

"This isn't an explanation. The reasons why I left... even now, I can't explain them." The old man wore an expression of shame. He had long since considered himself a dead man, bearing no goodwill toward the world.

Yet, when facing his own flesh and blood, a trace of softness remained deep within him.

Just as she had said, she had waited for him for so many years and searched for him for so many years. Now that he had suddenly appeared before her eyes without any explanation, unable to even provide a reason for his departure...

How could anyone accept this willingly?

Wasn't this simply too cruel?

Surprisingly, Lu Siyu didn't fly into a rage. She picked up her glass once more and drained the remaining champagne in one go.

"I knew it," Lu Siyu said. "If there were an explanation you could give, you wouldn't have driven yourself to this extent. Saying nothing at all is far better than making up some random lie."

"I'm sorry," the old man said quietly.

"Sorry?" Lu Siyu let out a cold, mocking laugh. "Such a light word—what meaning does it hold?"

"Apart from that, there is nothing else I can do... I can't even let the outside world know I'm still alive."

Lu Siyu looked at the old man and asked, "I don't even care about that anymore. After surviving all these years, do you think I still harbor any expectations of you?"

"..."

"I just want to know, what is your relationship with Tang Fei?" Lu Siyu stared straight into the old man's eyes and demanded.

The old man picked up his champagne glass and took a small sip. It tasted tart and astringent, without a trace of sweetness.

He wondered if this was the taste of the wine, or the taste of life.

"You deliberately led him into the Luban Mountains, didn't you?" the old man asked.

"Yes. Otherwise, how could I have forced you to show your true self?" Lu Siyu didn't deny it. She glanced at the old man and said, "If I had tried to pressure Second Uncle all by myself, you would never have come out to see me, would you?"

"..."

The old man gave no answer.

Because Lu Siyu was speaking the truth. If Tang Fei hadn't followed her and entered the Luban Array, he would never have come out to meet Lu Siyu.

What good was meeting?

Since he had already let them despair, why bother offering a glimmer of false hope?

What he was doing was inherently something that could never see the light of day; why drag these innocent people down with him?

"When I discovered that an outsider knew how to use the 'Heart of Nothingness,' I began to suspect his identity..."

"Moreover, the things he creates share a very similar trait with your work—he likes to add a safety catch to his power mechanisms..."

"Aside from the Lu family, no one knows how to use the 'Heart of Nothingness' technology. And those who do know it don't have the habit of adding safety catches... So, the moment I saw that wooden bird, I knew you were back."

"The strange thing is, he was extremely curious about me too. I could tell he was trying every possible way to get close to me, hoping to pry information about you from my lips..."

"I can understand you deceiving me. I can even accept that you didn't want me to know you were back. But aren't you two on the same side? Weren't you together? What on earth is your relationship? What are you trying to accomplish?"

"Can you promise me one thing?" The old man looked at Lu Siyu and asked.

"Isn't that utterly ridiculous? You haven't given me any reasons, any explanations, any promises... and now you expect a single 'I'm sorry' to pay for me doing you a favor?" Lu Siyu was almost laughed to anger by him.

"Act as if you've never seen me, and act as if you've never seen Tang Fei," the old man pleaded with a deeply serious expression.

"Then answer me one question in return," Lu Siyu said. "Answer it, and I'll agree to your request."

"Go ahead."

"Is Tang Fei my younger brother?" Lu Siyu asked in a low, solemn voice.

When the old man disappeared, he had also taken her younger brother away with him.

Now, the old man was back, and Tang Fei had appeared. Wasn't his identity blindingly obvious?

"Yes," the old man answered cleanly and decisively.

"...You're lying. If he's my younger brother, why would you conceal the relationship between you two?"

"Because I am someone the imperial family despises," the old man said. "I don't want him to suffer this hardship and take such massive risks alongside me."

"No," Lu Siyu shook her head, "you want him to marry the princess... You want to exact revenge for the Tang family?"

The old man looked at Lu Siyu in astonishment and asked, "How did you know?"

"You've been skulking around Second Uncle's courtyard in secret, and Tang Fei is closely associated with Zhong Yu Xiuxue... You're trying to dismantle the imperial family from within, aren't you?"

"Yes," the old man nodded in admission, "something has to be done. Therefore, no matter what, you must keep this secret for me. You cannot let anyone know that he has any ties to our family."

"I understand," Lu Siyu nodded and said, "I will treat him and interact with him just like a normal classmate."

"Good. Let it be natural, just like usual."

"Have you ever thought about what happens if the mission fails? If the imperial family discovers his connection to our family... what will happen to him? How will you protect him?"

"Where there's a will, there's a way... We'll find a solution."

"No matter what," Lu Siyu gazed at the old man with a resolute look in her eyes, "no matter what methods or means you use, you must keep him alive. He is the only younger brother I have left."

"We will try our best," the old man said.

He would try, and he had to try.

Revenge was inherently a double-edged sword.

If you want to hurt others, how can you expect to remain unscathed yourself?

Lu Zhiyong walked over carrying a platter of sliced roasted meat. Seeing that the large bottle of champagne had already been emptied, he complained, "You two drank way too fast! I hadn't even finished slicing a single plate of meat, and you've already polished off a whole bottle? Didn't you save any for me?"

"You've hidden plenty of good wine. Go get a few more bottles; don't be so stingy," Lu Siyu said.

"That's right, bring a few more," the old man chimed in. "The meat has just been served; how can we eat without wine?"

Seeing his daughter and Lu Zhiyong bantering, a rare smile finally touched the corners of the old man's mouth.

This was the life he had dreamed of, yet unfortunately, he was forced to push it away with his own hands.

The farther away, the better.

"Fine, fine, I'll go get two more bottles. Tonight, there'll be all the meat and wine you can handle," Lu Zhiyong said with a hearty laugh.

Seeing his eldest brother sitting and drinking with his daughter, he was genuinely happy for both of them.

Who wouldn't want to live a happy, harmonious life with their family?

Pity that his eldest brother had chosen the hardest path of all.

---

When Tang Fei returned, Fatty was bustling about in the kitchen.

He was flustered and frantic, his face smeared with cooking oil and soot.

Tang Fei stood at the kitchen doorway, watching Fatty's clumsy attempts, and asked, "What are you doing?"

"Ah, Big Brother, you're back?" Fatty spun around, looking at Tang Fei, and said, "I was cooking... I figured Big Brother hadn't returned yet, so he must have been delayed by something, and I wanted to have the food ready so you could eat something hot the moment you got back..."

"It's burning," Tang Fei noted.

"What's burning?"

"The egg in the pan."

Only then did Fatty realize that the egg he had been frying in the skillet had been charred black.

"Yikes—" Fatty hurriedly lifted the pan off the stove and stammered, "It's fine, it's fine! I'll eat the burnt one, and I can fry a fresh one for you..."

"Let me," Tang Fei said.

He took the frying pan from Fatty's hands, tossed the ruined egg into the trash can, and asked, "Why didn't you just use the cooking robot?"

ln "Didn't you say that food made by robots lacks the warmth of human life? I thought it didn't taste as good either... so I wanted to try it myself. Seeing Big Brother make it look so easy, but when I tried doing it myself... I found out it's nothing like that at all."

"Professionals have their specialties," Tang Fei said. "How many years have I been cooking? How many meals have you actually made?"

With practiced, nimble movements, he fried a few eggs and then tossed a generous portion of noodles into a boiling pot. "We'll keep dinner simple tonight."

"It's fine, it's fine! Noodles and eggs—it's not simple at all!" Fatty said cheerfully.

He loved noodles and he loved fried eggs, so to him, this was far from simple.

Tang Fei and Fatty each had a bowl of noodles, dipping into a jar of Lao Gan Ma chili sauce, and slurped them down noisily.

Tang Fei didn't touch his fried egg. After finishing his bowl of noodles, he told Fatty, "I have some things to take care of. You wash the dishes."

"Got it..." Fatty was stuffing a fried egg into his mouth, speaking with a muffled voice, "Big Brother, aren't you eating anymore? You didn't even touch your egg?"

"I'm full," Tang Fei said.

How could he possibly have any appetite?

The only reason he forced himself to finish a bowl of noodles was because he knew that if he didn't eat anything at all, Fatty wouldn't be able to eat in peace either.

He didn't want to make Fatty worry.

With such monumental events happening and his own identity being so complicated, he had no idea how to even begin explaining things to Fatty.

"Oh. Then can I eat it?"

"Eat it all," Tang Fei said, turning and walking toward the stairs.

---

Fatty watched Tang Fei's retreating figure, stopped chewing for a moment, and wore a thoughtful expression on his face.

Once back in his room, Tang Fei locked the door behind him and pulled a smart resin optical disc from his pocket.

This was what the old man had given him, telling him to watch it when he had time—if he was willing.

For reasons unknown, ordinary people could no longer find the footage of the execution from back then anywhere on the Empire's Star-Net network.

Word had it that through special channels, one could find it on foreign servers or websites, but Tang Fei lacked that kind of technical know-how.

He knew what was stored on the disc, and his heart instinctively shrank from it.

He didn't want to look, and he was afraid to look.

Yet he knew he had to look—he had no choice.

This kind of emotional weight was simply not something human will could resist.

He inserted the disc into the computer port, and a multi-dimensional holographic projection flickered into life before him.

Beneath a sky as dark as ink, a colossal platform had been erected.

On top of the platform sat rows of metal cages.

Each cage held people—some small with just one occupant, others larger with three to five...

He saw Tang Li—the man the old man claimed was his father.

Tall and broad-shouldered, with a wide face, thick eyebrows sweeping into his temples, he looked like a man of upright and unyielding character.

*"He doesn't look like me at all,"* Tang Fei thought to himself.

His eyes were large, the whites clouded, and his pupils bloodshot.

His hands and feet were bound in heavy iron chains, and his gaze was fixed desperately on the woman beside him.

The woman looked haggard, yet nothing could conceal the striking beauty she once possessed. Cradled tightly in her arms was an infant, whom she held so fiercely it seemed as though she were pouring every ounce of her emotion and devotion into him...

It was a strange sensation. Tang Fei had never laid eyes on this woman before.

Previously, he had only been interested in Tang Li, curious to see what the general whom Phoenix regarded as an "idol" actually looked like.

Yet the moment he saw her, an inexplicable tremor shook his heart.

He felt a sense of intimacy and familiarity, as if every single cell in his body had been awakened.

Looking at her, looking at that pale, paper-white face consumed by heartbreaking grief...

His heart filled with a chaotic mix of sorrow, indignation, and aching pity.

*"Mom..."*

Tang Fei whispered the word.

It felt so unfamiliar, so alien, that speaking it aloud even brought a faint sense of shame.

Yet, the moment he uttered it, he realized he had suddenly stepped right into that role.

The flames leaped to life, and they struggled and screamed in the inferno, yet no sound could escape their lips...

The only one capable of crying out was the child.

*"Wah—"*

The baby wailed with a heart-rending cry.

The fire raged furiously, and their bodies desperately pressed toward one another, wanting to draw closer, ever closer...

*"This man is my father..."*

*"This woman is my mother..."*

*"And that child... that must be me..."*

---

If these were complete strangers, if this were merely someone else's story, Tang Fei would have watched it and moved on.

What did other people's suffering have to do with him?

After all, he had more than enough of his own hardships that he couldn't even digest.

How could true empathy exist so easily in this world?

However, once he learned his true identity, once he knew that the man was his father, the woman was his mother, and that child... the child who had taken his place to die in the flames...

He had watched with his own eyes as his parents and family were swallowed by the flames and ultimately reduced to ash.

They had been within arm's reach, seemingly close enough to touch.

The video ended.

Tang Fei played it a second time.

Then a third time.

After that, he simply sat there, his expression blank, his eyes hollow and devoid of light.

A single tear slowly welled up and traced its path down his cheek.

*"Dad..."*

*"Mom..."*