After Ronnie and Alice returned to the City-state, the bearded man followed them back. The siblings even bumped into him on their way to work, and Ronnie exclaimed when he saw him, "How dare you come back?"
But the bearded man didn't answer his question, his eyes fixed on Alice and asked, "Are you okay?"
"Why did you come back at all?" Alice asked back.
"I failed in my mission and had to come back," the bearded man replied.
Ronnie couldn't help but say angrily, "What? you still want to hit on my sister?"
The bearded man was busy explaining, "Don't misunderstand me, I just want to live quietly in the City-state.”
Alice immediately lost interest in the conversation and said to Ronnie, "Let's go!"
Looking at the distant backs of the siblings, an imperceptible cold light flashed in the bearded man's eyes. Ronnie was on his way to the institute when he received a message from the Big Butler, "Master, Andre is looking for you, he is now waiting for you at the Northwest District Station.”
"Do you want to go with me to meet him?" Ronnie turned his head and asked Alice.
"Okay!"
The duo arrived at the Northwest District station and immediately saw Andre standing up straight, "Did something happen to Dad?" Ronnie asked worriedly.
But Andre ignored him, instead he went straight to Alice and smiled at her, "Anna Leta is still not as pretty as you, the original.”
Although he was also a reformed person, he was much more handsome than Ronnie. Hearing his compliment, Alice shyly lowered her head and said, "Thank you!"
Ronnie said sharply from the side, "Andre, you and my sister are siblings, don't think about courting her."
"Who told you that I'm siblings with you?" Andre asked back.
Ronnie was confused, "Aren't you my father's son?"
"I call the Doctor my father because he created me, not because he's my real father."
"Oh, then what do you want with me?"
"Father wants to see you and has asked you to meet him in the town of 'Bernal'," Andre said, ignoring Ronnie. He took Alice's hand and kissed the back of it and said, "I hope to see you again next time, my goddess."
Alice's face reddened up to her ears as her little hand was kissed, and Ronnie said angrily, "Get out of here, you big pervert!"
After Andre left, he looked at Alice and asked, "Are you falling in love with him? I see you blushing all the time."
"Not at all, don't be ridiculous, why doesn't he just use 'Big Butler' to tell you these things? he had to come here in person."
"We're in a City-state, it's not safe to use the 'Big Butler', maybe our calls will be tapped, it's better to use the most primitive and reliable method."
"Ronnie, I'll go with you to see Dad."
"Sis, I want to go alone this time, it's too dangerous out there."
"Then you go with Amandine's invisibility cloak," Alice offered.
When Ronnie offered to borrow the cape again from Amandine, he was met with strong objections: "It's never ending, borrowing it again and again, you didn't keep your promise from the last time.”
"Fine, I'll give you a ride as a horse and you'll lend it to me again," with that, Ronnie plopped down on the ground, pointed a finger at his back and said, "You get up! I'll give you a ride."
"Really!" Amandine was overjoyed to hear that, and with a flip he jumped up on Ronnie's back, grabbed his hair with both hands, and yelled, "Hyah! giddap! run, run!"
Ronnie felt his waist almost bend as Amandine jumped on his back, and then he was grabbed by his hair and it hurt so much that tears came to his eyes. He gritted his teeth and crawled forward, and from time to time Amandine slapped him on the butt to make him turn a corner, and after he had crawled around the hall twice, panting and sweating with exhaustion, he asked breathlessly, "Is that okay?”
Amandine was having a good time where he would not come down and yelled, "No, two more laps."
"What?" Ronnie squealed like a pig, regretting that he hadn't set the number of laps at the beginning, and now he could only go up. By the last lap his hands were shaking, he was climbing slower and slower, his face was pale and he felt like he was going to faint at any moment. Alice on the side looked heartbroken: "Amandine, come down, let your dad rest."
"I said two more rounds, not enough!"
"Come down," Alice said angrily.
As soon as she finished speaking, Ronnie was on the floor like a deflated balloon. "There's half a lap left, why are you falling?" Amandine tried to pull him up and keep climbing.
"You really need to practice more," Alice said as she pulled Amandine aside and knelt down to help Ronnie up.
"Half a lap to go, let me catch my breath."
"Half a lap or let me do it!" Alice said as she also got down on the floor and bowed her head to Amandine, "No jumping up."
"Don't worry, you're a mare, I won't be rude," Amandine did as he was told and gently climbed onto her back, giving her another pat on the ass and calling, "Giddyup, my new mount!"
Alice almost turned up her nose at the comment, but she knew it wasn't the time to worry about that and could only climb forward. Amandine summed up the experience: "Daddy's back is so hard, and Auntie's back is soft and comfortable."
It was hard to borrow the invisibility cloak, and Ronnie planned to leave the next day. Toward evening, Lily ran over to him again and said, "I heard Alice say you were going out again?"
"Yeah! what's going on?"
"If you're wearing a cloak of invisibility, don't take Cool Bear, you'll expose yourself instead."
"That's no good, who's going to protect me without him?"
"This is why I came to you!" Lily said, unfolding her hand and pointing at something the size of a baobab, "This is an anti-tracking product, it vibrates whenever a cloaked person appears within ten meters. of course, if someone is wearing the same cloak as Amandine's, it loses its effect."
"That's good, when did you make that?" Ronnie asked.
"Don't worry about it, take care and always be careful." After Lily left, Ronnie began to get ready, taking his small pistol with him, also taking off his "Big Butler" watch, and planning to leave immediately for the town of "Bernal". As soon as he left the Central District, he made his way carefully, following a fat woman into the station. Within an hour or so, he arrived in the town of Bernal. As promised, he left his mark in a shop and waited. Luckily, his father arrived as promised. Ronnie wondered, "Why is it that every time I meet my father, it's like I'm a thief?"
When father and son met, Ronnie spoke first and asked, "Are you a clone, or are you the father?"
Elliot smiled and said, "It seems Andre has told you all about it. unfortunately, the clone you last saw was murdered half a month ago, and now I am the original, your real father."
"It's the 'Crow' organization again, isn't it?" Ronnie asked through clenched teeth.
At this time, Elliot was full of gravity, "Don't get excited, be quiet and listen to me, my real enemy is not the 'Crow' but the City-state. According to my investigation, the back of 'The Crow' is the Grand Elder's Council of the City-state, they have always wanted to get rid of me and do not do it directly, but hide behind the scenes to support an organization to deal with me."
"Doesn't that mean I'm in danger in the City-state?" Ronnie said worriedly.
"The City-state didn't try to deal with you, the one who wanted to kill you was Don Stark of the Nine Stars United, he always thought that his whole family was killed by me, so he also wanted to take revenge on my family."
"Could it be that the City-state made a move and then planted it on you?" Ronnie analyzed.
"I don't have any proof of that yet, but it's very possible."
Elliot then added, "I'm looking for you this time to tell you that if I haven't contacted you by today after a year, it means I'm no longer alive, so take Alice and your family and leave the City-state, go to the address I gave you last time, it's an address I set up a long time ago and it hasn't been discovered by anyone yet, so it's absolutely safe."
"Dad, what are you going to do for a year?"
"Don't ask about that, just remember my words."
Elliot took out a piece of paper from his pocket, "This is the production method and recipe for the 'Telomere Rejuvenation Liquid', memorize it in your head, it might come in handy later."
"Good!" Ronnie looked at it for a few moments, "Got it."
"Reformers are just awesome, hundreds of recipes can be memorized in a short time," Elliot laughed.
"Dad, Andre and I are both Reformers, why isn't he your son?" Ronnie had always wanted to know.
"That's a long story, well I'll tell you today and if I don't I might not get a chance to tell you later," Elliot said in a deep voice.
Time went back to more than forty years ago, when Elliot was in the City-state, he had been obsessed with the research of reforming human beings, then his research was stopped by the City-state, he could only go underground to do it. In You City he had a student, Andre's father, who was very supportive of his research and took the initiative to provide all the support, including his own and his wife's cells, so that Andre was born, but he was only the second reformer, the first did not succeed. Andre was born at the age of two with exceptional intelligence and soon became the gifted child of the City-state. After Elliot learned that the experiment was successful, he used his own cells and those of Ronnie's mother, Ullian, to create the reformed man, but unfortunately he was discovered and reported, and eventually sentenced to prison.
Ronnie realized after listening, "So that's how it is, no wonder Andre called you father too."
"Well, what other questions do you have? ask them together," Elliot said.
Ronnie thought for a moment and asked, "Did you give him Amandine's cloak?"
"No, I haven't met him yet."
"Huh! then who could it be?" Ronnie was lost in thought for a moment, and after a long time he said, "Why haven't I heard anything from Michiko when I asked you to find her?"
"Ronnie, forget about her! I can't find her either."
"Fine!" Ronnie's eyes dimmed. Seeing that he had no more questions, Elliot stood up, "Well, we've talked enough for today, I should go," after saying that, he stood up and as he was about to walk out the door, he turned back, "Be careful of the people around you."
"The people around me?" Ronnie remembered slowly, counting them one by one as if everyone except the bearded man was okay. Then a name popped into his head, "Lily? isn't she a problem?"
Elliot laughed, "She's absolutely fine, she's the one I sent to follow you, think about it, you didn't have any reputation back then, why would she follow you?"
"So that's it, it must be the bearded man."
"I've only received word that someone is lurking around you, and it's up to you to find out exactly who it is."
After his father left, Ronnie became a little distracted and thought about it for half a day without a clue, "It seems that from now on only my sister and Lily can be trusted," he thought to himself.