Leon swallowed hard as Hu Qing walked past him toward the already open door. As if pulled by an invisible string, all eight mbers of the family—the four brothers, the three sisters, and their mother—stood and followed Hu the mont he exited the room.
Zoe paused a step into the hallway, turned, and gestured sharply for Leon to follow. Then, without waiting, she turned back and followed the direction everyone was heading.
’Why are they behaving strangely? First, they bowed to as if I were a king. And now, they’re behaving as if I’m a threat. How?’
Thoughts reeled in Leon’s mind as he followed casually, the black book still clenched in his right hand.
The hot rays of the late afternoon sun shimred on their heads, painting the gravel path with a harsh, golden light.
Leon glanced down at his simple black outfit, then scanned the others. He marveled at the elegant, dark travel clothes—tailored trousers, fine jackets, and boots that looked both expensive.
’Did they know they’d be going sowhere this urgently?’ Another set of thoughts tangled in Leon’s head.
"What are you waiting for, Storm?" Darian, Zoe’s brother, who seed to be a little bit older than Zoe, called out in a flat tone.
Leon walked from the mansion’s entrance to the right, where the long shadows of the parked vehicles seed to swallow him whole.
"Is it your first ti seeing such a number of vehicles?" Darian asked, stepping in his path after Leon bumped into him and apologized.
"Hmm..." Leon tried to speak, but was interrupted.
From the left side, where a white Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail was parked right behind the black car of the sa model, Darian stood beside, Kira’s voice cut through the air.
"Can soone born in Dusthollow ever experience this?" She giggled, then continued, "He’s just privileged to be the son of Mr. Andrew." She flashed a mocking grin directly at Leon, then opened the back seat door of the car she stood by and slid inside.
At Leon’s left side, Zoe stood by a sleek silver Ferrari 250 GTO, her face reddened. A sharp, angry gasp burst from her nose as she shifted her gaze from Leon to the car Kira had entered.
"This girl!" she hissed in a soft tone ant only for herself. Yet Leon turned toward her as if he’d heard her.
Leon saw frustration blazing in her eyes, but had no idea why.
"You’ll get used to her behavior. Get in," Darian said. He walked to the passenger seat at the driver’s side of his black Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail for Leon as if he were a personal driver assigned to him.
Leon sat down, the leather seat cool and flexible against his back. Darian closed the door and walked around the front of the car.
His eyes locked briefly with Kira’s through the windshield. Although his expression was unreadable, a muscle in his jaw tightened. He slid into the driver’s seat and closed the door softly.
Within minutes, each mber of the Qing family—Hu, Elara, Corin, Kira, Zoe, Ewan, Finn, and Liana—settled into a personal vehicle.
Hu Qing’s was a Rolls-Royce Boat Tail, Elara’s a low-slung Pagani Zonda HP Barchetta. Ewan, Finn, and Liana had drivers waiting for them, n in dark suits.
Zoe and Darian personally sat behind their own wheels.
A harmonious chorus of power burst as the engines humd to life.
The cars moved slowly as they processed through the vast estate grounds and exited the massive gate, where the wrought-iron archway with Qing Clan inscribed on it was.
The mont the tires t the main paved road beyond their land, the vehicles accelerated as one.
Trees and blurred landscape reeled past Leon’s window like shooting stars. A deadly gust of wind buffeted the car, followed by a roaring sound, like ten thousand volts of electricity humming just outside the glass.
They flashed past other vehicles on the road, leaving them behind as if they were standing still.
After an hour, the convoy’s speed bled away as they slowed the mont they approached the high-arching bridge that separated the bleak sprawl of Dusthollow from the glittering, flourishing cities.
Inside Darian’s car, Leon’s face saddened, while his breath fogged the window slightly as he stared down at his ho.
He turned to Darian, blinked as if clearing sothing from his eyes, then tilted his gaze back to the view.
"Can I drop by and go check on my family?" Leon asked in a rough voice when they reached a few ters from the junction that led into Dusthollow.
Darian glanced at him and offered a thin, commiserating smile that didn’t reach his eyes. "You will. Once everything is completely settled."
’Everything is settled? What or who?’ Leon scread in his mind but kept a steady expression.
As soon as Darian’s smile faded, the screen embedded in his dashboard chid. Ding-ding-ting.
Kira’s face appeared on the display. She carried an expression of amused disdain.
Darian cursed softly under his breath, then tapped the screen to accept the call.
"Did you see the junction to his place?" Kira’s voice echoed crisply from the car’s speakers. "Gosh, it’s like a shit stain on the map. Hehehe." Her laughter lingered deep in Leon’s skull.
Darian’s jaw tightened as he ended the call without a word.
Seventy ters past the Dusthollow turnoff, the entire convoy of nine vehicles glided to a simultaneous halt before a colossal structure.
The building soared upward, a gleaming white stone and dark glass that had its pinnacles lost in the low-hanging evening clouds.
With its impossibly tall and severe form, Leon rembered it to be like that of the Tower of Babel in his history books.
Darian killed the engine, then turned to Leon with a grave expression. "Don’t look them in the eye," he instructed in a low voice.
"Just lower your head once you get down." He offered another aningless smile, then stretched his hand forward and grabbed the Chapeau d’Amour and placed it carefully on his head.
He alighted from the car and stood there, leaving the night wind to rush into the interior.
Leon took a steadying breath, then pushed his own door open. A cool air flashed by his face as he placed his first step on the pure white tiled ground.
His shadow stretched long and thinned in the light from the building’s entrance.
From his sides, the sound of other engines left on struck his ear as they vibrated through his teeth.
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