Chapter 489 - 430: Fu Tailan: The Father Who Abandoned His Child

Chapter 489: Chapter 430: Fu Tailan: The Father Who Abandoned His Child

Carter had gone to great lengths in his imprisonment of Fu Han, all to maintain his death grip on Fu Tailan.

Had he not traded the Mouth Puppet and the Blank Document to Chaisi for the power strip Illusion tonight, Fu Tailan likely wouldn’t have made it to the end of the hallway alive. The corridor ended before a massive room that took up an entire wall of the floor.

Fu Tailan gasped for breath and glanced back.

Remy and a few other Hunters had already carried Carter away, disappearing from the hallway. They had probably gone into a room to administer first aid. Just a few steps away, several Nest creatures were pressed against a glass display window, staring at him intently.

A pink, gelatinous substance taller than a man was plastered against the glass. It had opened two black holes that seemed to be watching Fu Tailan.

Beside it was a normal-looking human male, pacing anxiously. He would tap on the window for a moment, then twist the doorknob. His voice was faint through the glass. "Why isn’t it opening? Weren’t we told the lock would automatically open if an outsider showed up?"

He couldn’t get the doorknob to turn. When he spun around and walked deeper into the room, he revealed that the entire back half of his body had been sliced off.

Skeleton, organs, fat, and muscle... all of it was sheared away, leaving a perfectly clean, smooth cross-section. The blood glistened but didn’t drip.

’If only I could get some of that Nest creature’s blood for myself.’

Fu Tailan shut his eyes, fighting back waves of dizziness, and fired several shots into the door lock. By the time the lock finally buckled and broke away, the recoil had shaken him so badly he could no longer hold his weapon. He simply let the empty gun clatter to the floor.

"Who... Who is it?" Fu Han’s muffled voice asked from behind the door. "Carter?"

Fu Tailan took several deep breaths, grabbed the doorknob with a trembling hand, and injected the Vulture Particles into his right arm before finally shoving the door open.

Inside the spacious, sealed concrete room, rows of white lights burned with a blinding glare. Cameras on the ceiling left no angle unmonitored.

A single bed, surrounded by cameras, sat in the center of the room. Fu Han stood beside it, staring blankly as his eyes met his son’s.

"Tailan?"

His first reaction was to glance behind Fu Tailan. Upon realizing his son was alone, Fu Han’s face became a mixture of shock and suspicion, fear and joy. He stammered, his mouth agape, "W-What’s going on? How is it just you?"

Fu Tailan staggered into the room and managed to pull the door shut behind him before his legs gave out, and he collapsed to the floor.

"You’re hurt?"

Only then did Fu Han realize how ghastly Fu Tailan’s complexion was. He rushed over and gripped his son’s shoulders. "Where are you hurt? How did you get in? Where are the Morgan Family’s men?"

Fu Tailan’s eyelids drooped. After several seconds, he let out a faint laugh, his voice a mere thread.

"How else could I have gotten in?" he said, his voice a whisper. "I... I fought my way here. Carter will be a cripple for the rest of his life..."

Fu Han’s face went white as a sheet, and he immediately glanced toward the door.

"You came to save your dad? Good boy, but you shouldn’t have taken such a huge risk." He stared at the door, speaking quickly. "Can you get up? We need to go, now. This room is under constant surveillance. Even if you killed everyone outside, reinforcements will be here any minute—"

Fu Tailan slowly shook his head. "We’re not getting out."

Fu Han froze. "What do you mean?"

"I used an Illusion... It’s holding them back in the hallway for now, which is how I was able to get in here."

Fu Tailan lifted his head and looked at his father. "But the Illusion is about to expire. The moment it vanishes, the dozen or so Hunters and Nest creatures trapped outside will pour in. Carter said... he doesn’t care about anything else. He just wants you and me dead today."

Fu Han’s mouth hung open. For a second, Fu Tailan felt as if his father wanted to scramble back to the bed, pull the covers over his head, and pretend none of this was happening.

Fu Han knew his son was a gifted liar, but this was a vague, background sort of "knowledge." He could never actually tell when Fu Tailan was lying.

Of course, Fu Tailan rarely lied to him—mainly because there was no need.

"Th-Then what do we do?" Fu Han’s lips began to tremble. "How do we escape? You’ve seen this place. There isn’t even a window..."

Fu Tailan studied his father.

Carter hadn’t been cruel to Fu Han when it came to food and clothing. In the time they’d been apart, his father had even put on a little weight.

But while his body had grown heavier, his spirit was gaunt and worn. He looked as if his very soul had been repeatedly kneaded and wrung out, its fibers broken, leaving a lingering pain that made him shy away from the light. It was as if another Fu Han was cowering deep within those layers of fat, hands clamped tightly over his eyes.

’Not long ago, his father had still been so full of life.’

Back then, his son was an executive in one of the largest Hunter Family Factions, with a limitless future, and he had reaped the benefits of that respect. No, even before Fu Tailan became a Hunter, Fu Han had never been so worn down.

’His dad had always thought of himself as someone special, always talking about some big shot he’d just met or a huge deal he was about to close. Once he made his fortune, he promised, he’d buy Fu Tailan everything he ever wanted.’

’What surprised Fu Tailan was that, on one of those occasions, his dad had actually guessed several of the things he wanted, right down to the last detail.’

’He wondered if that mountain bike was still hanging on his bedroom wall. He should have ridden it more, but instead, he’d just left it there as a decoration.’

"Say something!" Fu Han shook Fu Tailan roughly, his tone a mix of pleading and coaxing. "What do we do? How do we escape? How much time do we have?"

Fu Tailan snapped out of his daze.

’His dad had raised him, but it was strange. Sometimes he felt as if, for all these years, he had been the one raising and protecting Fu Han.’

Fu Tailan had once sent men to a casino city to retrieve a penniless, detained Fu Han. He had also, after being pestered relentlessly, traded a house in the suburbs for a city apartment just because Fu Han preferred the hustle and bustle.

He couldn’t sever his ties to Fu Han, perhaps for the same reason a parent could never easily abandon their child.

"There’s no escaping from here," Fu Tailan said, his voice hoarse. "This entire floor is designed as a prison block... Walking out that door is a death sentence."

"Carter... Can we still plead with Carter?"

Fu Tailan almost laughed.

"He might not kill you, Dad," he said, watching a flicker of hope light up in Fu Han’s eyes. He continued, "He needs a scapegoat. As for me, he’ll tear me limb from limb."

Fu Han suddenly doubled over, letting out a long, mournful cry.

"Then what do we do? Just wait here to die? If I’d known, you shouldn’t have come! You’re so clever, how could you not have seen this coming? You’ve only made things worse! What now? What do we do now?"

Fu Tailan was silent for a few seconds.

"There is one way..." he said slowly. "Dad, do you remember when I visited you at the state prison? When I pressed a vacuum cleaner tube against you?"

Fu Han looked up. "I remember... You wouldn’t tell me what it was for at the time..."

"Because telling you then would have been pointless. You couldn’t have used it in the state prison," Fu Tailan said quietly. "I knew that after my visit, Carter wouldn’t feel safe keeping you there. He’d be afraid I’d break you out. I was betting he would move you somewhere else."

"What?" Fu Han said, bewildered. "I don’t understand."

"I gave you a Path back then." Fu Tailan watched him, not daring to blink, afraid he might miss the slightest change in expression. "The Path’s trigger is simple, but it couldn’t be activated in the prison."

Fu Han stared, mouth agape, as if Fu Tailan were speaking an alien language. He hadn’t understood a single word.

"’In an empty room, fall out of bed.’" Fu Tailan gestured toward the door with his chin. "I just have to step outside for a moment, and you’ll be able to open the Pa—"

"Wait, wait," Fu Han’s face grew paler and paler, a shade of white so unnatural it was baffling. "You said a Path... is it... Don’t tell me it’s a Path to a Nest?"

Fu Tailan watched his father in silence.

’He knew he shouldn’t get his hopes up, but he couldn’t help it.’

"To a Nest? You want me to go into a Nest?"

Fu Han’s voice almost cracked. He forced it down, pleading, "Tailan, you know what I’m like. I’m old, I get winded just from a light jog. I’m not young and strong like you. If I go into a Nest, I’m a dead man... I can’t go to a Nest. It’s just not possible."

The room fell silent for several seconds.

Fu Tailan said slowly, "This is a good Path. Trust me. There’s no shortage of rooms inside a Nest, and you can often find beds. Just look around inside. You’ll be back in Blackmoor City in less than an hour."

"I can’t,"

Fu Han shook his head frantically. "I can’t. If I go into a Nest, you’ll never see me again, I just know it. Your dad isn’t gifted like you are. I’m old, and I have high blood pressure. When I used to chat with the Household Hunters, the little things they told me were enough to kill me ten times over. You’re an executive in a major Family Faction, you have no idea how few of the small-time Hunters out there make it back alive. I can’t do it. I just can’t."

"But if you don’t go into the Nest, Carter will catch you and make you his scapegoat," Fu Tailan said gently.

The softer his voice became, the more resolute and unyielding Fu Han grew.

"Think of something else! Carter wouldn’t bear to kill you. You’re the best Hunter he’s ever seen—he told me so himself. We can work something out. As long as we keep negotiating with him, there has to be a way out of this! Think of something else. What other cards do you have up your sleeve?"

"Dad, my trump card *is* your Path."

Fu Tailan hadn’t intended it, but his voice had, without him realizing, become gentle and soft, almost cautious.

’So this is how it is.’

’It turns out, when you’re saying your final goodbye, there’s no room for resentment or anger.’

’There is only a heartbreaking, gut-wrenching tenderness.’

...But Fu Han refused to open the Path, no matter what.

He’d never had a Path of his own and had never seen a Nest with his own eyes, but through Fu Tailan, he had met countless Hunters. And almost every one of them who had been inside a Nest had endless tales of terror to tell.

Fear thrives on imagination. A Nest was terrifying enough on its own, but in his mind, it had become an inescapable abyss from which there was no return.

Besides, even Longzhen had seen a Nest just once and sworn never to go back. What hope was there for Fu Han?

Perhaps, from a certain point of view, it was more logical for Fu Han to seek survival at the hands of a fellow human like Carter Morgan.

...Fu Tailan could almost understand him.

Almost.

"I understand," Fu Tailan said quietly. "I’m going to check on the situation outside. Wait for me here."

Fu Han nodded eagerly, hope once again dawning on his tear- and snot-streaked face.

Fu Tailan got to his feet. He started to leave but then turned back. He pulled a tissue from the small table beside the bed and wiped Fu Han’s face.

"Don’t give them the satisfaction of seeing you like this," Fu Tailan said gently.

Fu Han stared blankly at his son, clutching the crumpled tissue.

Fu Tailan walked out and pulled the door closed.

He paused, then touched his own face. After wiping it dry, he pushed the door open again and glanced at Fu Han.

"...Even when facing a murder charge, you aren’t willing to go into a Nest," he said, his voice barely a whisper. "So how could you be willing to let me go in?"

"What?" Fu Han didn’t quite hear him. "Speak up."

"Nothing." Fu Tailan smiled and closed the door. That was the second time.

He pushed the door open a third time, then closed it again.