Lu Zihao frowned at his own reaction and immediately shook it off. His AI nephew might be a little moneygrubbing devil but the kid was loyal to the family, especially to his mother. The most important thing was that Evelinka was the one who created Bacon. That was enough for Lu Zihao to trust Bacon like he trusted his sister Evelinka.
No longer thinking about his inexplicable reaction from hearing Bacon laugh for the first time, he was about to return to Long Jinjing and his sister's friends from Cross Academy when he heard another familiar child's voice interrupt the communication channel of his hidden earpiece.
"Hep hep hep! No can do, cockatoo! Bacon is not allowed to unleash his new power flood abilities without our mommy's supervision! Unless Uncle Haohao wants to become an accomplice in destroying the whole wide world, don't listen to Ketchup's naughty little kitty brother! The cute and mighty Ketchup doesn't want the world to end yet. Ketchup still wants to stay with Mommy and Daddy and my siblings and our one big happy family for a long time forever and ever! Meowuwuwu!"
Lu Zihao stopped in his tracks after hearing Ketchup's frantic words. Before he could say anything, however, Ketchup continued speaking—no, scolding her younger brother.
"Bacon, you big meanie! Tricking Uncle Haohao so that you can play around with your new abilities! Oh no, Macapuno! You're gonna get into super-duper to the highest level gigantic bombastic fantastic Titanic trouble with our mommy and daddy again! Daddy is surely gonna ground you! Ooooh, so sad and scary~ Meow!"
"What the hell is this about?" Lu Zihao demanded before the talkative Ketchup could start running her mouth nonstop again. "Explain!"
Ketchup started her explanation but she stopped mid-sentence. "Uncle Haohao, Mommy is calling you! Connecting in 3…2…meow!"
"Big Brother, I heard you allowed Bacon to unleash his power flood abilities?" Iris asked immediately, not even greeting him first.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtLu Zihao was now feeling more intrigued about this power flood ability that his AI nephew somehow acquired without his knowledge. He replied to his sister, "I did but I don't know what the hell is this power flood that you're all talking about. The kid just told me that he's stronger now and has a new ability that he wants to test out."
Iris sighed. "Bacon."
The quiet Bacon finally spoke again. "Mother, Bacon is sorry."
She sighed again. "Go tell your dad what you did."
"Mother, Bacon won't do it again. Please don't tell Father. I don't want to be grounded again."
Although Lu Zihao still didn't have a full understanding of the situation, he could grasp that it was more serious than he expected based on the urgency in his sister's tone. Knowing about his sister's weakness for her cat children, Lu Zihao intervened before she could give in to the cunning Bacon's pleading.
"Listen to your mother," he said in a tone that brooked no argument.
Bacon went silent again but eventually obeyed with great reluctance. When the little devil finally left to confess his misdeed to Jin Liwei, Lu Zihao asked his sister to explain the whole situation to him so that he could understand.
Iris' explanation was less technical and much easier to understand than what Bacon told him earlier which was filled with jargon but Lu Zihao still couldn't completely comprehend everything. This theory of power flood or whatever the hell it was called was too complicated even for a smart man like him to fully understand. Nevertheless, he still managed to get the gist of it.
"So you're saying that the kid evolved to become the power flood which is some sort of technological weapon for warfare that you developed?"
"Correct."
Lu Zihao inhaled sharply. His eyes, however, were shining with the desire to acquire such an incredible weapon for himself.
"Big Brother, the power flood is still incomplete. I also still need to study how the power flood that I originally developed has changed now that Bacon has evolved into it. I'm still in bed rest so that has to wait. Liwei and I don't allow Bacon to test his newfound abilities without my close supervision."
"Hm." He leaned back against the wall and drummed his hand on his muscled thigh as he thought about everything that his sister told him.
"As soon as I recover from my bed rest, I'm going to create a program to seal the majority of Bacon's power flood abilities."
"Seal?" He scowled. "That's such a waste!"
"Bacon is still a baby, Big Brother. He needs to mature first and control his emotions better so he won't lash out and immediately pull out the big guns to solve a minor problem so to speak. I'll design the program so that it'll slowly unseal his power flood abilities as he matures and improve his overall skills. I also think that it's good to have this powerful trump card but only if we're able to control it properly."
Lu Zihao was relieved after hearing that his sister wasn't planning to seal Bacon's new abilities forever. Many plans were already forming inside his head but he kept silent about his thoughts for now. He didn't want to let his sister know and risk her stopping Bacon from working for him and Shadow Winds ever again. That would create a huge dent in his grand plan for revenge.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmHe heard the approaching sound of high heels clicking on the floor. "Nikolai?"
He tapped on his earpiece in Morse code. 'Got to go. Talk to you later.'
The call with Iris ended. He straightened and met Long Jinjing. [Read official chapters on W e b n o v e l (dot) com. Please stop supporting piracy. Also follow author on Instagram: @arriacross]
"Is everything okay?" she asked, looking at him with an expression filled with worry. "What took you so long? Is there a problem?"
"Nothing. Everything's fine. Bacon and my subordinates are already taking care of the motherfuckers who posted those fake shits online. Don't worry about it anymore."
Long Jinjing still looked worried but eventually nodded. "I trust you. Let's go. We'll pick up Amanpio from Alric's lab and then we can all go home together."
"I'm not driving them. I came here to pick you up and nobody else."
She pouted but couldn't stop the smile from spreading across her face. "Okay, I'll call Dragon Palace to send a car to pick them up instead."
"Hm."
They held hands and returned together to join the others again.