Schedule Update
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From now on, the release schedule here will be daily.
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Ren woke up slowly, which was unusual.
Normally he surfaced from sleep alert and cataloguing. But the guest bedroom was quiet, the mattress was good, and the pillow had clearly been selected by someone who took pillows seriously. He lay there for a full minute doing nothing before he acknowledged he was conscious.
I haven't slept that well in months, he thought.
He stared at the ceiling. Through the window, morning light was coming in at a low angle, the capital's early traffic a distant hum. He could smell something from the direction of the kitchen.
Bacon.
He got up, found the guest bathroom, showered, then stood in front of the wardrobe. His own clothes were yesterday's and he had not thought to bring anything else through the nineteenth-floor window. The wardrobe had Lu Changcheng's clothes in it, clearly, given the size. They were folded and present.
He selected a black dress shirt and a pair of dark slacks. The fabric was good, noticeably better than what he had been wearing on the road for the past several weeks. He put them on and looked down at himself.
"I'm borrowing these permanently," he said to no one.
He went out to the living room.
Lu Changcheng was standing at the stove in a white pajama set with a full apron over it, cooking. He had his hair down. He was humming something.
Ren stopped in the doorway.
This man, he thought. This is the strongest hunter in Qintara. Legendary rank. Immortal Lu Changcheng. He is wearing an apron and humming.
He felt an observation forming in his head that he was not going to finish. He walked into the kitchen.
"What's for breakfast," he said.
Lu Changcheng did not turn around. "Sunny side up, bacon, mushrooms. Sit down, I'll do toast as well."
"You're wearing an apron."
"I am aware."
"Over pajamas."
"If you have a comment to make, make it."
Ren sat down at the counter. "No comment."
"Good."
"I'm just saying. The apron has a pattern on it."
Lu Changcheng turned around briefly to look at him, then turned back to the stove. "My housekeeper bought it. I did not select it."
"The little ducks are a nice touch."
"Sit down and stop talking."
Ren sat down and looked at his phone, smiling at the counter. He had bought the phone two days ago at a transit hub shop, new number, new account, nothing linked to any previous identity. He was setting up basic applications when a plate appeared in front of him.
"Thank you," he said.
"You're wearing my shirt," Lu Changcheng said.
"I was cold."
"It is summer."
"I was emotionally cold." Ren picked up a fork. "Good fabric. I'm borrowing it permanently."
"You cannot borrow something permanently."
"I prefer to think of it as an indefinite loan."
"I've already decided."
Lu Changcheng sat down on the other side of the counter with his own plate and looked at Ren wearing his shirt, sitting at his counter, eating food he had cooked, and appeared to be calculating whether this was worth the argument.
"You came through my window," he said. "You sat on my bed while I was undressed. You refused my help and then asked for it the next morning. You are now wearing my clothes and telling me you are borrowing them permanently."
"That's an accurate summary."
"Are you sure you're not in love with me."
Ren pointed at him with the fork. "I was going to make that joke."
"I made it first."
"I thought of it first."
"That is not how jokes work." Lu Changcheng drank his coffee. "Eat your breakfast."
They ate in the quiet of a kitchen being used at the right time of day for the right purpose. Outside, the city was getting on with its morning. Inside there was bacon and coffee and the easy silence of two people who had known each other long enough to not need to fill it.
"Brother Lu," Ren said.
"Mm."
"I think I'm going to need some help after all."
Lu Changcheng's mouth twitched. He set down his fork. "You said yesterday that you didn't need help."
"I don't need help with the plan. I need help with something separate." Ren cut into his egg. "I want to open a clinic. Inside the Dao Guild."
Lu Changcheng put his fork down. "Inside the guild."
"Yes. Guild members, their families, anyone you refer in. Real patients with real conditions. I need the work to be genuine."
"That I can arrange easily enough." Lu Changcheng picked his fork back up. "The guild has a medical wing that has been understaffed for two years. I've been trying to hire a proper physician." He looked at Ren. "Why didn't you offer this earlier."
"I was figuring things out."
"You have been figuring things out for a very long time."
"The guild setting actually works better," Ren said. "It keeps the work visible to people I can trust without exposing it to institutional scrutiny from outside."
"It also means I can monitor what you're doing," Lu Changcheng said.
"I know. That's acceptable."
Lu Changcheng looked at him. "You are agreeing to oversight."
"I'm agreeing to work inside your house. That comes with the territory." Ren ate a piece of toast. "I need real patients to develop properly. Guild members have real injuries, real conditions from gate work. It's exactly what I need."
Ren set down his fork. "My leveling ability. You know what it does in broad terms, you've seen what I can do to hunter advancement. But the base of it requires genuine healing work. Operating on criminals and testing cases is less effective. I need real patients with real conditions."
"Because the intent matters," Lu Changcheng said.
"Because the output matters. Results-based. The more genuine the work, the better the return." Ren paused. "And there's something else I should have told you earlier. Probably much earlier."
"What."
"I have another ability you should know about. One I've had for a while." Ren turned slightly on the stool. "It's called Grafting. I can take material from a high-rank monster or a high-grade item and graft it directly into a person. The recipient gains skills or attributes based on the rank of the material."
Lu Changcheng was still.
"The rank gap determines the risk," Ren continued. "Close in rank, near perfect success rate. Equal rank is one hundred percent. But push the gap wider and failure climbs fast. Two ranks above the recipient, forty to sixty percent. Three ranks, five to ten. Four ranks above and you're looking at less than one percent survival."
"You've done this before," Lu Changcheng said.
"That's what the Hector Clinic was actually for. Colonel Steven Bright was the first patient. He came in with a missing eye. I grafted the Eye of the Skinless King into his socket and he came out with an S-rank skill." Ren picked up his fork. "The unexplained evolution that went through your bureau channels. That was this."
Lu Changcheng was quiet for a moment. "The Azareth military filed an inquiry on that evolution."
"I know. That's part of why things escalated." Ren ate a piece of toast. "Malvick Siven started paying attention to the clinic not long after."
Lu Changcheng set his coffee down.
"I can also synthesize," Ren added. "Two compatible materials or abilities combined produce something new. Usually stronger than either source. Same underlying mechanism, different application."
Lu Changcheng stared at him.
The kitchen was quiet. Outside, a transit line hummed past on its morning run.
"How long," Lu Changcheng said.
"Since fairly early on. I didn't fully understand it at first."
"You ran a clinic in the Azareth Empire," Lu Changcheng said.
"You used this ability on their military officers. You caused the escalation that nearly killed you. And you did not think to tell me what you were actually doing there." His voice stayed level, which did more work than volume would have.
"Not once."
"I was being cautious."
"You don't trust me."
"That's different."
"How is that different."
Ren opened his mouth. Closed it.
"What the—" Lu Changcheng stopped himself. He pressed two fingers to his temple, breathed for a moment, and when he looked up his expression had returned to its usual measured quality, but with visible effort.
"Why didn't you tell me this sooner."
"I've been telling you now."
"Ren."
"Brother Lu."
"What else," Lu Changcheng said, very carefully, "are you not telling me."
Ren thought about the Abominations. About Wei Liang currently embedded in Victoria's civil service. About Viktor Qin two blocks away in a hotel with a colon-based mark on his chest.
"Nothing relevant at this exact moment," he said.
Lu Changcheng looked at him for a long time.
"You know," Lu Changcheng said, "I keep finding out new things about you and every single one of them is significant."
"That's a good quality in a person."
"It is extremely inconvenient in a sworn brother." He picked up his fork again. "At this rate, the next thing you tell me will be that you have a secret family somewhere."
"I have two children," Ren said.
Lu Changcheng set his fork down again.
"They're orphans," Ren said. "I pulled them out of a trafficking situation. They're staying at a hotel two blocks east."
"You have children."
"They call me big brother."
"That is still children, Ren."
"They're not mine. I'm responsible for them temporarily."
"You not even a good brother. How are you going to be a good father" Lu Changcheng said.
Ren opened his mouth. Closed it.
"We are going to have a very long conversation after breakfast," Lu Changcheng said.
"I know," Ren said.
"And you are going to tell me everything."
"Most things," Ren said.
Lu Changcheng pointed the fork at him. "Everything."
Ren picked up his coffee. "The bacon is excellent, by the way."
"Do not change the subject."
"I'm not. I'm appreciating breakfast. These are not mutually exclusive." He drank the coffee. "Everything. I'll tell you everything after breakfast. I promise."
Lu Changcheng looked at him for another moment.
"You are the most exhausting person I know," he said, and went back to eating.
Ren smiled and did the same.