With that spoken, I grabbed the Silver Fish Dagger from the drawer, ready to rush out and fight those men head-on.

My cousin stopped me, saying, "Brother, don't be impulsive. There are too many of them; you can't win..."

"Then what? Just let them keep watching us? I can't stand that humiliation..." I pulled my hand free from my cousin's grasp.

Seeing that I was still moving toward the door, my cousin grabbed me again, saying, "Let's wait until Dad gets back. He will surely have a solution."

Hearing her say that, I felt there was some sense to it. Perhaps it was because in the subterranean ruins, we had solved so many issues with brute force, making me quick to reach for weapons now, and my temper had grown much more volatile.

A Zongzi gone rogue could be dealt with by blasting its head, but disputes between people often couldn't be settled by responding to violence with more violence.

Since my Second Uncle usually didn't return until six or seven, we could only sit down for the time being.

Afterward, my cousin began doing her homework in my room.

As for me, I paced anxiously back and forth by the window, watching the SUVs parked by the courtyard gate.

"Right!" Seeing the flame insignia on those vehicles, I suddenly remembered that I had found the exact same flame mark on Feng Ze in the underground cavern.

And since Da Xiong later told me that Feng Ze was the advance team Grandpa had sent into the cavern, it meant that the group possessing this mark was orchestrated by Grandpa.

Thinking this, I resolved that even if Grandpa ignored me, I had to go and ask him what exactly was going on.

With that thought, I hurried down the stairs and stopped outside Grandpa's room on the first floor.

"Knock, knock, knock!" I tapped the door lightly and called out from outside, "Grandpa, I need to ask you something."

But after waiting for more than ten seconds, there was no response from inside.

Just as I was about to knock again, the door suddenly opened.

Grandpa, holding a book in one hand and his blue-screen senior phone in the other, peered out through the crack in the door at me and asked, "What is it?"

I paused for a second, organizing my words, and said, "Grandpa, you have to tell me this time. Who exactly are those people with the flame totem on their vehicles, and who is Feng Ze? They monitored me for a whole month before, and now they've bullied their way right to our doorstep."

Grandpa frowned slightly, recalled for a moment, then shook his head and said, "I don't know."

I also frowned and said, "Grandpa, please don't be like this. Feng Ze and his group were clearly the advance team you sent to Xinjiang. How can you not know?"

Grandpa shook his head again and stated, "I truly don't know. There's no need to lie to you. I've been troubled recently, too, because I've discovered that I've lost all my memories before entering the Xinjiang cavern."

"What?" I looked at Grandpa with disbelief, thinking he must be using this excuse to brush me off. Things were fine before, and he could recognize every single descendant when he returned home; suddenly claiming amnesia now was too unbelievable.

Seeing my incredulous look, Grandpa said, "You don't believe me? Fine. Where are those people now? Take me to confront them directly."

I thought this was a rare opportunity, so I supported Grandpa and said, "Alright, I'll take you over to see them."

Grandpa took off his glasses and tucked them into the front pocket of his shirt, then allowed me to help him walk toward the main gate.

I opened the door for Grandpa and let him step out first.

The moment Grandpa stepped outside, he asked me, "What SUVs? Where are they?"

I rushed out quickly too, and looked—sure enough, those SUVs had vanished without a trace at some point.

However, where the vehicles had been parked, I found two cigarette butts still emitting smoke.

"They left..." I said to Grandpa.

Grandpa shrugged and replied, "Then it's none of my business..."

With that, Grandpa walked back into the courtyard alone and headed toward his room.

I recalled the phone Grandpa was holding when he opened the door and wondered if he might have called them just now?

The more I thought about it, the more plausible it seemed, because Grandpa rarely used his phone; it was unusual to see him holding it in his hand.

Although I suspected this, I had no concrete proof, so I returned to the courtyard and closed the main gate.

After returning to his room, Grandpa shut the door again.

I peered through the window and saw him pacing inside, tidying up his various books.

I found this odd because Grandpa usually never organized his books. The last time Second Aunt cleaned his room, she neatly arranged all his books, but he came back, saw it, and scolded her, because once his books were organized, many would go missing.

The last time I saw Grandpa tidy up his books was ten years ago when our whole family vacationed in Hainan. Since we were staying there for two months, Grandpa had pulled out the books he wanted to read and organized the rest.

Could it be that Grandpa was planning another long trip this time?

It seemed I needed to keep a closer eye on Grandpa these next few days, or him disappearing again would be a huge problem.

After watching him in the room for a while until I saw Grandpa sit down after putting away his books, I went back upstairs.

As soon as I opened my room door, my cousin rushed to tell me, "Brother, why did those people leave? When did they go?"

I shook my head, said I didn't know, and told the little kid to mind her own business and focus on her homework.

My cousin pouted and said, "The homework is too easy; I finished it already. I want to use your computer."

I managed a helpless smile. At first, I hadn't considered why this girl insisted on doing homework in my room. I thought she was just close to me, but it turned out to be for the computer.

I couldn't help it; I spoiled her. Even though Second Uncle and Second Aunt had repeatedly instructed her not to use the computer, I had no choice but to turn it on for her now.

Seeing me turn on the computer for her, my cousin pulled a sandwich cookie out of her backpack and beamed like a flower, saying, "Brother, you behaved very well today. This is your reward."

Taking the cookie, I was left speechless for a moment.

As she opened a game, my cousin said to me, "Brother, who do you think those people monitoring you were?"

I shook my head and replied, "I don't know. If I knew, I wouldn't be so troubled. Why are you, a child, concerned with so many things?"

My cousin huffed, saying, "I've made great progress learning Gu Arts with Mom recently. If they come back, should I use my Gu worms to mess with them?"

I thought this wasn't a bad idea, but as far as I knew, to plant a Gu on someone, one needed to obtain something from them, like hair, or make them ingest something that contained the Gu.

So I asked my cousin, "How would you put Gu on them?"

"Hmm?" My cousin responded with a lazy sound, still glued to the computer screen.

I looked at her back, seeing her eyes fixed on the monitor. I thought this girl had a serious internet addiction, no wonder Second Uncle and Second Aunt wouldn't let her go online.

But as I glanced closely at the computer screen, I felt a strange sensation.

Because the browser game interface my cousin had opened was stuck on the login screen.

Then my cousin started inputting her username and password laboriously, as if she were trying different combinations.

I started laughing, saying, "Oh, my silly little sister, you can't even remember your username and password, and you were so eager to play. How embarrassing."

After I said that, based on her usual reaction, my cousin should have retorted angrily.

But I saw my cousin's hand suddenly stop, and her neck froze in place, as if time had stood still.

For some reason, I felt a sense of dissonance in the scene before me.

"Lanlan... Lanlan, what's wrong?" I asked urgently.

But my cousin still didn't react; her body remained stiff.

I started to panic, thinking she might be suffering from a sudden illness, and quickly rushed over in two strides to turn her chair around.

The face I saw looking back at me was the usual cheerful, lively expression of my cousin.

"You scared me to death! What's wrong with you, little thing?" I let out a sigh of relief.

My cousin stuck out her tongue and said, "I forgot the password; I was thinking..."

I sighed and said, "Can you use your QQ number? You can use mine."

My cousin shook her head and replied, "No, I'll go to Dad's room to watch TV."

With that, she bounced out of the room.

I watched her go, and then my brow furrowed deeply.

Because I couldn't shake the feeling that something about my cousin's behavior was off.

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