Eclipse Vine

When Raina heard that, she felt a bit bad and quickly volunteered, “Uh, well... how about I... help you out in the kitchen?”

Rael put a hand to his forehead and groaned hoarsely, “No way, seriously, you better stay out of the kitchen!”

Raina: “...”

(Felt kind of insulted.)

But Leif just said, “Alright.”

Then he turned to Rael with a pretty obvious fake smile and said, “Rael, why don’t you go catch a couple of fish from the pond? We’ll make a fish soup for everyone later.”

As long as he didn’t have to eat that disgusting, god-knows-what-it-was pot again, he’d do anything.

…

Half an hour later.

Rael looked at the four dishes and one soup on the table. Sure, they all had some chili peppers in them, but compared to that awful mess from before, this was gourmet-level stuff. He was so touched he almost cried.

Rael sighed, “Now this is what normal food is supposed to taste like!” 

If someone else heard that, they might be embarrassed enough to dig a hole and hide forever, but Raina? She’d heard way worse complaints before — she was basically immune.

After all the fuss, everyone was starving, and in no time they devoured the meal.

Leif cleared the dishes, and Raina eagerly helped out. Gale wanted to help too, but they told him the kitchen was too small for a third person, so he was politely sent away.

Rael’s eyebrow twitched. ‘Man, your kitchen’s big enough to play basketball in—can you at least come up with a better excuse?’ He just shook his head and took Gale to the living room.

The big guy and the little guy sat side by side on the couch, staring at each other — one speechless, the other unsure how or where to start.

After a while, Rael ran his hand through his hair and quietly asked, “Gale... do you really like Miss Carrington?”

There was no way to talk some sense into the older guy, but maybe the little one could be reasoned with.

Gale nodded hard, answering without hesitation.

Rael choked up a bit. He’d watched Gale grow up, but this was the first time he’d gotten a clear ‘yes’ about liking someone.

After a pause, he said seriously, “Listen, Gale, you’re still little, so you don’t really have a mature understanding of what’s good or bad, and you don’t know how harsh the world can be. These days, there are a lot of scammers... Hey, why are you staring at me like that? I’m not wrong, am I?”

As he spoke, his eyes casually flicked toward the kitchen. The soft light fell on Leif and Raina, standing together, and somehow, they looked perfectly natural together.

Suddenly, Rael didn’t want to say anything else.

He flopped back on the couch and sighed, lost in thought. After a long pause, he rubbed his temples hard and said, “Forget it, forget it. If you like each other, that’s all that matters. I won’t say another word.”

Soon after, Leif and Raina finished cleaning up and came out of the kitchen.

The moment they appeared, the whole vibe in the living room changed. Rael suddenly felt out of place, like he was just in the way. After sitting uncomfortably for a bit, he got a sudden urgent call and hurriedly left.

It was getting late. Gale went upstairs to rest, leaving just Raina and Leif in the living room.

Raina noticed Leif was still drinking water and thought, ‘Could it be that pot of awful food hasn’t settled with him yet? He barely touched his food earlier...’

The more she thought about it, the more she felt guilty and hesitated before saying, “Mr. Vexley, are you... okay? Do you want me to check on you?”

Leif said, “I’m fine. It’s late, you should get some rest too.”

Raina wasn’t totally convinced. “Really? You sure?”

He nodded. “Yeah, really.”

Seeing he seemed stable and alert, she didn’t push further and went upstairs to rest.

After washing up, even though Raina was exhausted, she couldn’t fall asleep. Tossing and turning, she finally sat up, pulled out her phone, and looked at the photos from last night’s shoot at the lab base.

She had taken a ton — pictures of the writing on the wall, the underground lab setup, and especially the scratches of varying depths on the floor. Those scratches really bothered her.

Could those scratches have been left by her mother?

Staring at the photos, she suddenly felt like she’d never really understood her mother at all.

Ding—

Snapped out of her thoughts by a phone call.

Raina glanced at the caller ID — it was Briar.

She didn’t hesitate and answered, coolly saying, “Senior, it’s late. Is everything okay?”

Briar said, “Just a small thing. You left in a rush yesterday and forgot to tell you.”

Raina rubbed her forehead. “Okay, go ahead.”

Briar continued, “Tomorrow night, the Medica Society is having a small auction. This time, only VIPs are invited. Grandpa will be there to oversee it. He asked if you’re interested in coming.”

The Medica Society’s auctions usually deal in rare miracle medicines you can’t find anywhere else. Besides the regular big auctions, these smaller, irregular ones often have even rarer items and sky-high bids.

Briar added, “Oh, and there’s a rare herb this time — the Eclipse Vine.”

Eclipse Vine?

It’s a very rare and deadly poison — but also a powerful cure. A super special herb that hasn’t appeared on the market for years.

Most importantly, it’s especially effective against the 'Velvet Mercy' poison.

Raina said, “Got it. I’ll come tomorrow night. But…”

Briar asked, “But what?”

She said, “Can you send me the auction info? Especially about the Eclipse Vine — do you have any info on the seller?”

Briar hesitated. “The auction info is no problem. But the seller of the Eclipse Vine... it’s not that I don’t want to tell you, but the auction doesn’t have any info either. I already sent people to check, but the seller is unknown.”

Since the Eclipse Vine is so rare, the auction has strict privacy rules. If the seller wants to stay anonymous, the auction won’t force it.

Still, if even Briar can’t find them... who the heck are they?

***