Si Chengyou had come to the Shen's house before to present a banner to Shen Shuangchen. Shen Shuangchen was one of the best warriors in the Suicide Squad, and many missions needed him to participate in order to increase the success rate.
Much of the information Si Chengyou had collected from different timelines was obtained thanks to Shen Shuangchen's life-risking investigations. He had always been very grateful to Shen Shuangchen, but...
Shen Hui was Shen Shuangchen's younger sister?
The final boss behind the plan to destroy the world was the younger sister of his capable assistant?
Sitting in the car heading to the Shen's house, Si Chengyou silently digested this shocking piece of news.
What kind of screwed up plot was the World Creator thinking up.
But if Shen Hui really was Shen Shuangchen's younger sister, why had he never collected this piece of information before?
What was the cause behind this variable?
Was it because he had sent Shen Shuangchen on that mission this time?
It seemed that way, but he still felt that things were not as simple as they appeared on the surface. He had to investigate this carefully.
Si Chengyou had arrived in a hurry. Shen Yichen had not returned home yet when he got there.
But the gatekeeper had already notified the Shen family, so Si Chengyou's car drove directly into the Shen family's yard.
Seeing the unfamiliar car outside, Shen Yue's eyes darkened slightly in the lab.
He's here.
Shen Shuangchen was still sitting in a wheelchair. With his current rate of recovery, it would take some time before he could stand up again.
Si Chengyou was not the kind of person who cared about unimportant etiquette. After seeing Shen Shuangchen, he took over his wheelchair from Shen Shuangyi and the two men headed towards the house while chatting.
The matters Shen Shuangchen had to report were classified as confidential, so Shen Shuangyi tactfully took his leave to give the two men ample privacy to talk.
While the two men were talking, Shen Yue started coaxing Shen Hui, "Huihui, it looks like third brother has started dealing with your matters. An unfamiliar car just arrived outside."
Shen Hui murmured in agreement but continued fiddling with her machine, clearly more interested in the object in her hands than the unfamiliar car outside.
After accompanying Shen Hui for a while, Shen Yue estimated that enough time had passed and prepared to take a look.
"Huihui, I'm going to make tea. What would you like?"
Without even lifting her head, Shen Hui replied, "Anything is fine."
"How about Iron Goddess tea then?"
"That works."
The Shen family had a special set of tea brewing equipment, but apart from Shen Yichen, almost no one used it.
Shen Yichen didn't use it much either. He was very busy, and when he occasionally had some time at home, he had to deal with matters regarding the troublesome children in the family. Slowly, he didn't even brew tea to relax anymore.
He just couldn't calm down, he really couldn't calm down.
And if he couldn't calm down, then he might as well give up.
That set of expensive white jade tea set was left to gather dust in Shen Yichen's study.
Shen Yue went to the study to dig out the tea set and randomly grabbed a box of Shen Yichen's lucky tea leaves to start brewing tea.
In the reception room, Si Chengyou and Shen Shuangchen were talking, or rather, Shen Shuangchen was reporting the situation.
After Shen Shuangchen finished recounting how he met Shen Hui, was saved by her, left a signal to bring Shen Hui back to the inland, and finally discovered she was his sister, nearly an hour had passed.
Around this time, Shen Yue slipped out of Shen Hui's research lab after having finished brewing tea.
Si Chengyou and Shen Shuangchen also happened to exit the reception room then.
As soon as Si Chengyou came out, he saw Shen Yue pouring the freshly brewed tea into teacups, filling two cups.
Shen Yue first nodded at Si Chengyou, then excitedly ran to Shen Shuangchen's side with one cup of tea, handing it over to him.
"Third brother, try the tea I brewed. I followed a video tutorial!"
Shen Shuangchen accepted Shen Yue's tea but did not hurry to drink it. Instead, he first introduced Shen Yue to Si Chengyou, "This is my superior officer. Sir, this is my younger sister at home."
Si Chengyou smiled at Shen Yue, "Just call me Big Brother Si."
Despite being two years younger than Shen Shuangchen, Si Chengyou did not stand on ceremony outside of assigning work tasks.
Having just heard Shen Shuangchen's report, the two men were now interacting as comrades-in-arms.
Moreover, he felt that Shen Yue calling him Big Brother Si could help shorten the distance between them.
From Shen Shuangchen's report, he now understood that the variable had occurred with Shen Yue. Before embarking on his mission, Shen Shuangchen had made a promise to his sister at home, which led him to desperately call for help when on the verge of death.
Shen Hui was then brought back to the Shen family and became their true daughter, while the original Shen Yue became an outsider. Yet this outsider was still in the Shen household and seemed to have a good relationship with Shen Hui based on what Shen Shuangchen said.
This was abnormal.
In his current 11 layers of memories, he had never seen anyone by Shen Hui's side.
Shen Hui had no family or friends. She had always been alone, handling all the assassinations he assigned alone, contacting foreign powers alone, and fueling the world's greed alone.
Yet even alone, he had never defeated her.
But things had changed now.
Shen Hui was surrounded by many ties he had never seen before.
He had to figure out where these ties came from - whether they had always existed or were a random occurrence.
And Shen Yue was the breakthrough point. He had to get close to her.
Although this was Shen Yue's first time meeting Si Chengyou, she had interacted with him for a long time in her memories and could almost guess what Si Chengyou was thinking upon seeing him.
Especially that line about calling him Big Brother Si - his intentions were as clear as beads bouncing off her face.
Si Chengyou must be trying to get close to her now so he could analyze Shen Hui through her.
And if Si Chengyou had this idea, one could draw the reverse conclusion that Si Chengyou possessed memories.
Combining this with the timeline theory Shen Hui had told her about before, Shen Yue roughly judged that the current Si Chengyou had memories from around 11 timelines. As time passed, Si Chengyou would slowly obtain memories from the remaining timelines. By then, he would naturally know that she herself was the variable.
She had to make Si Chengyou realize, before he received memories from other timelines, that Shen Hui was actually not dangerous. Otherwise, Shen Hui would suffer again.
Thinking this, Shen Yue went back to the table to grab the other teacup and handed it to Si Chengyou. "Big Brother Si, have some tea."
Of course Si Chengyou would not refuse. He had to get on good terms with Shen Yue. So he accepted the tea and took a sip.
His expression changed ever so slightly in an instant.
Shen Yue deliberately asked, "Big Brother Si, how's the tea I made?"
Si Chengyou fell silent for a moment before evading the question. "If you're interested in brewing tea, I can teach you. I'll be coming over these next few days."
Shen Yue was already used to Si Chengyou's Tai Chi ways. She did not take the bait and directly poked a hole in his facade instead. "The tea I made is pretty bad, right? ...This was my first time brewing tea..."
As soon as Shen Shuangchen heard that, he immediately took a huge gulp without hesitation. He reassured Shen Yue, "It's not bad at all, I finished it."
Shen Yue giggled and gave the tea she diluted for her third brother. It wouldn't be too bitter. But the cup she made for Si Chengyou was brewed according to the method in her memories. Si Chengyou would definitely "enjoy" it.
Seeing Shen Shuangchen take such a huge gulp, Si Chengyou had no choice but to drink as well lest he seem impolite.
So Si Chengyou looked at the tea in his cup, closed his eyes, and took another sip before forcing out, "It's not bad at all for your first try."
Shen Yue deliberately asked, "Want another cup?"
Si Chengyou paused. The current tea was already so bitter he could hardly stand it. Another cup would only make things worse. So he said, "I still have matters to attend to today and have to get going first. We can save that second cup for tomorrow, alright?"
Shen Yue figured she couldn't bully him too much on their first meeting, so she nodded.
I'll let you off for today.
Shen Yue was pushing Shen Shuangchen's wheelchair to send Si Chengyou off. They hadn't even reached the main gate when Shen Shuangyi came rushing over in a fluster.
He first greeted Si Chengyou, then looked towards Shen Yue. "Yueyue, Shen Hui mercy killed big brother's precious frog. Big brother is about to go crazy. Go appease him quickly!"
Shen Shuangchen, who could deeply relate: !!!
A dumbfounded Si Chengyou: ???
