The one whose hand Sakura found herself holding behind her was none other than the father of the twin brothers, her father-in-law, Li Taizheng.

Li Taizheng released her hand and said mildly, “Every family has its friction; we are no exception. My only hope is that you maintain silence. Those two brothers are, after all, connected by blood. They’ll quarrel for a bit, fight a bit, but they will eventually return to how things were. Because blood is a tie that can never be severed…”

Before he could finish speaking, another voice materialized behind Sakura, “Just like the two of us, right?”

This sudden remark startled Sakura, causing her to whip around. The speaker was a man in his late fifties, about the same age as Li Taizheng, with hair long enough to cover his neck. He wore gold-rimmed spectacles and possessed an air of scholarly refinement. Trailing him like a shadow was a woman clad in black. It was Li Taiming and Li Bingyu. Sakura didn't recognize them then, but she sensed a hidden meaning in his words, a strange implication. Turning back toward Li Taizheng with a questioning look, she waited.

“Why are you here? Long time no see.” Li Taizheng feigned enthusiasm, extending his right hand for a friendly greeting. However, Li Taiming glanced dismissively at the offered hand, crossed his arms over his chest, and coldly stated, “Ten years ago, I would have seized this opportunity to grab that hand and twist it until it broke.”

“Heh, your temperament hasn't changed a bit over the years,” Li Taizheng retracted his hand, chuckling self-deprecatingly.

Li Taiming remained unimpressed, his arms crossed, adopting an air of untouchable superiority. “Enough with the pleasantries. I’m here to collect someone. If you harm even a hair on his head, understand this: I will flatten your Zombie Town.”

Zombie Town? Sakura looked left, then right, a bewildered, unreadable expression clouding her features. She had no idea what the two men were talking about.

“Very well, I will return him to you completely unharmed. Whether he listens to you, though, is another matter entirely,” Li Taizheng sneered, shaking his head. He turned to Sakura, “You had best not show your face while the brothers are together. Go back inside for now.” Sakura obeyed and descended the stairs, yet an unquenchable curiosity burned within her about everything unfolding. Thus, by the time the three emerged from the stairwell to rejoin the brothers outside the operating theater, she had quietly slipped back, concealing herself once more in the corner of the landing.

The three approached Li Xiaohao and Li Xiaoshu, where the two fiercely antagonistic brothers were finally separated, allowing everyone to sit down, albeit stiffly. Li Xiaohao sat on the same bench as Li Taizheng, while Li Xiaoshu shared a bench with Li Taiming and Li Bingyu. The atmosphere in the room was so frigid that it felt as if breathing itself might freeze over.

Several hours later, the light in the operating room finally extinguished. Doctors first wheeled out two hospital beds. Sakura’s legs were numb from standing in the stairwell. Just as she prepared to leave, she heard Shushu calling out a name while following the bed into the observation room: “Hua Gu, Hua Gu… Are you feeling any better?”

That single utterance struck Sakura like a volley of arrows piercing her heart. Tears instantly flooded her eyes, and breathing became agonizingly difficult. Unable to wait for Xing’er to appear, she fled down the stairs, vanishing into the rainbow that followed the clearing rain.

Shushu followed the doctor in wheeling Hua Gu into the observation room. Seeing that the gauze covering Hua Gu’s eyes appeared slightly puffed up rather than sunken, the knot of anxiety in her throat finally eased. Li Taizheng then entered the observation room, his voice retaining that tone of a benevolent father as he spoke to the patient, “No one in our family ever engages in fratricide. Even though Ming Xiaoyu's eyes were not successfully transplanted to her, your brother must offer you some form of recompense. The doctors tell me the surgery was a success, though recovery will require some time.”