Ye Muo quietened down. He had forgotten all about crying by now. His eyes widened as he scanned the people around.
Sylvia gently patted him on the back as she quietly told Ano, “Bring your big brother back, hurry.”
Ano nodded and quickly left.
Ye Muo tried his best to turn and look behind him when he couldn’t find the person he was looking for. Sylvia turned in the direction he was straining in, but Ye Muo didn’t see Norton even after she turned a full circle.
After confirming Norton really wasn’t in the room, Ye Muo slumped against Sylvia’s shoulder and started crying even harder. He wiped his face and incoherently blurted out, “Muomuo’s Daddy! Muomuo’s!”
The more he cried, the sadder he felt. “Daddy lied to Muomuo. How can Daddy lie to Muomuo…”
Sylvia held his wrists so he didn’t rub his eyes raw. “Don’t cry, Muomuo. Daddy will be right back. Let’s go look for him, alright?”
She took Ye Muo to the doorway and kept patting his back as she waited for Ano and Norton. “Be good, Muomuo. Let’s wait together.”
Ye Muo tried his best to calm down. He watched the other end of the corridor with Sylvia.
Ano and Norton soon returned. Norton headed over with large strides.
Ye Muo reached for him as soon as he noticed, straining his upper body forward as much as he could. Sylvia hurried forward a little, but it was unnecessary. Norton took Ye Muo into his arms.
Ye Muo immediately hugged his neck tightly. He was still hiccupping after crying too hard just now. “M-muomuo will b-e-e good. Muomuo won’t c-cry. D-don’t leave Muomuo, Daddy…”
Norton paused from patting Ye Muo on the back. He looked down at Ye Muo. “You’re my child. You are the son of Norton Grantz, and no one can change that fact.”
He quietly stated, “You’re my child even if you don’t admit it.”
“You are allowed to cry. You are allowed to be disobedient.”
He paused, “It was my fault.”
Ye Muo mulled on his words for a while before he figured out that he could cry. With that, the floodgates burst open.
He called Norton out while crying, “Daddy w-was gone when Muomuo was crying!”
Norton held him tight. “I thought you would be afraid of me.”
Ye Muo sniffled, “E-even if Muomuo’s scared, Daddy can’t, can’t leave.”
Norton made a sound of acknowledgement, “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”
Ye Muo recalled another of Norton’s crimes as he cried, “Daddy scared Muomuo! Bad Daddy!”
Norton made a sound of acknowledgement as he stopped Ye Muo from rubbing his eyes and carefully wiped his tears away with a fingertip. “I’m sorry.”
Ye Muo’s sobs slowly subsided entirely. “Then Daddy is, is still a good child.”
The Grantz knew the exact moment Ye Muo calmed down because the memory stopped playing on loop in their minds and the associated emotions being transmitted also faded.
Ye Muo sincerely stated, “Mommy said no scaring Muomuo.”
Lady Ye told Ye Yun he couldn’t scare Ye Muo.
Ye Muo stopped crying, but he stressed again, “Muomuo is a scaredy cat, so no scaring Muomuo.”
Norton pressed their foreheads together. “How can that be? You’re very brave.”
Ye Muo insisted, “No. Muomuo is a scaredy cat.”
When Ye Muo was a child, he didn’t dare to go downstairs by himself at night. Ye Yun, whose room was next to Ye Muo’s, was the first to discover this secret. He was just puzzled at first why Ye Muo would take so long to close his door after opening it. Later on, he found out that Ye Muo needed to mentally prepare himself for quite some time before he could step out of his room.
Ye Yun still saw Ye Muo as the enemy back then, so he unceremoniously laughed at Ye Muo and told him he would deign to escort him downstairs if Ye Muo admitted he was a scaredycat.
His expression grew complicated when Ye Muo admitted it right away. Ye Yun stood there speechless for quite a while before huffing and escorting Ye Muo downstairs and back with a sour expression.
For a long time after that, Ye Yun would impatiently storm out of his room not long after Ye Muo opened his door and started hesitating.
Ye Muo was exhausted and drowsy after crying for so long. He yawned before stressing one last time, “No scaring Muomuo or leaving Muomuo alone. Daddy has to stay with Muomuo.”
A while later, Ye Muo drifted off to sleep on Norton’s shoulder.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Norton tidied the hair on the child’s face that was wet with tears before checking his temperature. He recalled Ye Muo getting a fever the last time he cried.
Sylvia came over with a towel and lowered her voice, “Bring him inside. It’s cold out here.”
When Norton returned to his room, Sylvia gently wiped Ye Muo’s face clean by his shoulder.
She checked on Ye Muo in the glow of the nightlight nearby. “His eyes are swollen.”
Adlet handed over several containers of ointment and baby cream.
Sylvia quickly and gently applied the products to Ye Muo. She stroked his cheek afterwards. “Rest well. We’ll take some medicine tomorrow morning.”
She glanced around the room. Bert wisely led the other Grantz out.
Sylvia didn’t ask much on the way back. She could infer something unpleasant had happened when father and son first met or were getting to know each other.
Norton had a habit of shouldering everything by himself without confiding in anyone while Ye Muo was an overly sensitive child.
Sylvia sighed. Bert gently patted her shoulder beside her. “Norton has a sense of propriety.”
……
Arachnid HQ.
The conference room was still surrounded by censored holographic projections.
The other attendees began to speak after the meeting was called into session by the presiding officer.
This meeting was evidently more lively than prior ones.
Everyone basically threw propriety aside and fought to talk over one another.
[The Grantz have confirmed they will be attending the conference. They discovered our interference, but their name is on the list.]
[I’m more concerned by our new collaborators. Are they truly the other branch of humanity? How reliable is this intel?]
[As I have said many times already, yes, their identity is confirmed. They possess new technologies we cannot yet replicate. We were also able to establish contact with their higher-ups. Can you all move on now?]
[What do you mean ‘move on’? This is the one topic that must be confirmed! Are you aware how great the risks we took were? They made us fight for a place at the table! Now even the Arachnid hidden in the shadows has stepped out into the open. Do you think any of its eight legs will remain if the Grantz were to act?]
[Their perspective is valid, though. Many things will become more convenient if we were able to secure the right to speak openly. They also promised to supply us with weapons as long as we are willing to pay an insignificant price.]
[We still need to test how reliable they truly are. There’s no need to invite a fox into a chicken coop.]
[It’s too late for regrets. The cooperation has already begun. There’s no turning back.]
The individual at the head of the table raised their hand. A synthesized voice devoid of inflection sounded: [Silence.]
The conference table fell quiet.
[32 years ago, we had a brief exchange with the other branch of humanity but the connection was interrupted. We were only able to glean they had appropriate methods and technology to deal with the insect plague.]
[All of us are well aware that risks and rewards come hand in hand, which is why we abandoned the idea of cooperation despite having three chances to re-establish contact over the past 32 years.]
They paused for a few seconds before continuing.
[Yet in the face of the impending Plague, what can’t we risk to wager?]
The other attendees calmed down. If the Plague truly was imminent, everyone knew the Exile Sectors would be the first to fall. By then, even Arachnid would be devoured whole by the swarm.
Voices began trickling in.
[I agree to continue.]
[It’s too late for regrets, right?]
The synthesized voice was the last to speak.
[As long as their ability to provide the necessary technology is confirmed, we can cooperate with them. Even under the sunlight, Arachnid will not fall if we come bearing the solution to the insect plague.]
The room fell silent for some time before someone spoke: [Even if our enemy is the Grantz?]
[Even so.]
There was a prolonged pause before the synthesized voice continued.
[Grantz has confirmed their attendance at the conference. We will attend on behalf of the Exile Sectors. If there are no objections, this meeting is now dismissed.]
